maskormenace | VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

[Hello, everyone, and welcome to what may well be the Blue Beetle's first - and possibly last - ever video post! He's clearly in uniform, and frankly looks a little inhuman; his red-yellow lenses glow faintly, even though he's posting from a rooftop out in the sunshine, he's conspicuously noseless, and he's covered from head to toe in a blue and black carapace armour. When he speaks, his voice is calm and measured; he's clearly been thinking about this for a long time, and it's something he wants to get out right, even if his speech is a little marred by the fact that he's speaking through a faintly robotic filter.]

Hi, everyone. Um, some of you might know me, even if I don't talk here a whole lot, but just in case -- I'm the Blue Beetle. Not my real name, for the record, but plenty of us superheroes still do the codename thing, even here. But that's not what I'm here to talk about! I wanna talk about powers.

See, as far as I can tell, we all get powers when we get here, unless we already had some back home, and now? Even the people who were born here have them. It's especially hard for people who got dangerous powers. Some people try and use them for good, and other people just try to ignore them, and others try to master them by themselves, but this kind of thing isn't something you should have to tackle by yourself.

Where I'm from, there are a lot of people with powers. We call them metahumans. And sometimes when they try to tackle these things by themselves, it works out just fine! A lot of the time, though? It doesn't. Especially when they go out and use them to try and do a lot of good, and I know that's what people here are doing too. Maybe it seems like it's not a big deal from the outside, but it is. That's how a lot of people wind up dead. [He pauses, just for a moment, and inhales quickly before continuing.] It's how a lot of people I know wound up dead. It's not something to take lightly. I know I didn't have a lot of help - I didn't ask for a lot of help - when I started out, and if I did? Things would have gone a lot smoother.

But I'm not trying to lecture anyone! I know a lot of people here have been doing this for a lot longer than me, [he admits, flashing a quick smile at the screen, teeth white and human behind his mask.] This is just me making an offer. If you're trying to break into what people like me do, or if you're trying to figure out your powers, don't do it alone. If you're not worried about yourself, at least think of other people -- if you've got some strong powers going on, without training, it's really, really easy to hurt other people accidentally. If you guys want help, I'll do that, the best I can. And if I can't, I have a feeling there's a lot of others who'd be willing to help too.

So, um... yeah. I guess that's it! Didn't... really think about how I was going to end this.

[He blinks at the communicator, suddenly awkward before clearing his throat and saying:] Bye!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was a good idea, Blue Beetle. Thanks for making the offer.

I've been running into more and more of the new Extremis natives. The ones that got Stark's 'upgrade.' They could definitely use some teaching. Can I send them your way?

No problem. It's the least I can do. And yeah, absolutely send them my way! I was thinking about them too, but making an open offer on the Internet would probably be a pretty bad idea.

[He knows where that would go.]

I've been trying to talk a few of them into getting lessons, but they haven't wanted to so far. But to be fair, most of the guys I've been trying to convince were trying to burn my head off.

[It didn't work.]

Maybe they'll calm down some now that Stark's "app" isn't messing with their heads. They can make their own choices now. Let's hope more of them make the right ones. I prefer fighting criminals that can't fly.

That depends on what you qualify as the right choices, right? I mean... people are mad at us. Even angrier now that they know one of us did this to them. Back home, people with superpowers try and hurt people too, so it makes sense that some of them are trying to do the same here. All we can do is try to help them out with it, so they don't feel so alone.

Sure. That and stop the ones who are trying to rob banks... Or who want to punish all imPorts for what Stark did. If they want to be heroes or just try to live a normal life, I don't have a problem with that. They'll just need some help learning to not set the curtains on fire, like you said.

And they need to be warned, too. Because...

Have you noticed how we don't tend to die that much, even if what we're taking on is really dangerous?

[Jacob blinks. He hadn't actually thought of it, but...]

Now that you mention it, you're right. We've got a really low casualty rate, even if you account for the nanites. Considering the kinds of odds we keep facing, you'd expect us to take more losses.

Not that I'm complaining, obviously. But I get that the new heroes might not be so lucky.

It is weird, right? It must be because we outpower basically everything that comes our way. No matter what, the most dangerous thing we'll face is always going to be other imPorts. Plus, most of us come from worlds that are, um... kind of violent. It's a trend. We have the experience to tackle this stuff.

Where I'm from, where there's more people without so much experience, where the threats we face down are as powerful as we are... people aren't so lucky. I assume it's the same for you too.

[And by assume, he means that he knows. Shep and Kaidan have faced losses in the past, some bigger than others. Jacob must have too.]

Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.

[Eden Prime was a bad, bad day.]

So we're the veterans, and they're the new recruits. Maybe if we give them the right help, they'll make it long enough to become veterans themselves. It's always nice to have a few more allies you can count on.

Exactly. And I'm not trying to scare anyone, or anything, but they need to know that the rate at which we seem to survive isn't a given. They gotta know that this is dangerous, and that if they really wanna go all out with this, there are consequences.

That way, they'll be more careful.

Too bad that they don't have their own Network. We don't really have a way to reach them all, do we? As far as I know, nobody's got a list of who was affected, either.

Maybe we should put an ad in the news. "Careful being a hero: you might get killed. Talk to Blue Beetle for training."

[Only partly joking.]

Hey, that's not such a bad idea. I mean, I'd probably get a ton of prank calls, but it'd totally be worth it.

Well, if you're sure you're up for it, I say go for it. Get the word out that you're available to help. I can lend a hand too, if you need it.

I know Kotetsu already has those flyers up for the Institute. Maybe you could do something like that.

Oh! Yeah, maybe I should. [He pauses.] Though maybe I should just let the Institute handle it.

[He's got experience, but he's still insecure about his lack thereof.]

Wouldn't it be better for them to get help from a formal trainer...?

I think it would be better for them to get help from a real superhero. Someone who has been in the field, and who knows what it's like.

I know that's you, Blue Beetle. You've been saving people a long time. And you know the risks- this post proves it.

[Kotetsu is a real superhero, he thinks, but doesn't say; nobody knows that, after all. He wonders how much luck Kotetsu's gonna get with that when people just think he's just another civilian.

But Jaime's powers are bigger and better, without a doubt, and he has more experience in this sort of thing than Kotetsu. Maybe there's something new he can bring to the table too.]

I appreciate the vote of confidence. Really, I do. I just wanna make sure that we do what's best for them, not what's most satisfying for us. If we both offer... well, we can leave it up to the people themselves to pick and choose what they want outta this whole experience.

Sure. It's probably better that way. There's hundreds of these new powers out there, right? It's not like either you or the Institute can train them all yourselves.

Nah. We can give it our best shot, though. Of the people who even agree to training, that is; I bet there's gonna be more people who just wanna ignore it, carry on like stuff's normal. Give them a few months and they might warm up to the idea.

VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

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