VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

[khajidont]

[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!

Comments

[khajidont]

But you hung out with the JLI, didn't you? Didn't a lot of them, well... not do a lot before the JLI? That must have made stuff difficult.

[snarkbot]

True, sir, I was acquainted with the JLI. But you may be surprised to hear I was not as familiar with them as Booster himself was. Booster felt I was superfluous in a team setting and I spent most of that era in storage. [ Booster... ]

Perhaps that is overly pedantic. I have met quite a few new or rookie heroes since travelling to the present.

[khajidont]

Oh... well that sucks. I'll have to talk to Booster when he gets back.

[How To Take Care Of Your AI Buddies 101]

But no, you're right! If you didn't get to spend much time with them, then you couldn't really get to know them all that well. Did Booster have that much trouble when he first started out? I mean, he chose this life, it didn't choose him.

[snarkbot]

[ The idea of Jaime Reyes giving Booster a talk on his behalf amuses Skeets, and if he could smile he would. ]

In some ways it was much easier for Mr. Gold, since he had me. [ Humility is for other robots. ] In other ways, well… to paraphrase his own words, Superman told him he couldn't wear a cape.

[khajidont]

...well, Superman probably shouldn't have said that he can't. But isn't that usually good advice? It's just one more handle for bad guys to hang onto. I'm not really sure why Robin bothers.

[MISSING THE POINT.]

[snarkbot]

It was very practical advice, and I don't think the cape suits his image regardless. But I believe Booster took it a bit personally.

More to the point, I believe in the beginning Booster felt the need to prove himself. [ Skeets pauses. ] A need he continues to have.

[ He'll keep using present tense for Booster, here or not. It'd feel... wrong otherwise. ]

[khajidont]

He shouldn't need to. I mean, I know he does. He's said as much.

But he's done so much good, back home and here. Anyone he still needs to prove himself to isn't worth his time.

[LOYALTY!!!]

[snarkbot]

I agree, sir. While he has his flaws, he had time and time again shown what he's made of. I only wish I could get him to believe me. [ Pause. ] Correction, us.

[khajidont]

I did talk to him about it, you know. I think I might've even been getting through to him, just a little bit.

But then he left, and if we ever get back home, it'll be back to square one.

[snarkbot]

But he'll remember when he returns.

[ Spoken with the same matter-of-fact robotic confidence he says about everything else, even though he's definitely done his research on how port-ins and port-outs work by now. ]

That counts for something, sir.

[khajidont]

You really think he will, huh?

[If Booster was dead, Jaime would say that he will with certainty. But because he's not, that means he's free to discuss his doubts.]

I don't know, Skeets. It's been so long. After this long, nobody's ever...

[They don't come back. And if they do, it's without their memories, and Booster will go back to looking at him like that kid who took over Ted's job, not a friend in his own right.]

[snarkbot]

[ There's a pause. Skeets is a being of logic. He knows when he's being unreasonable.

So he also knows when he's choosing to be unreasonable. ]

There is always the possibility, sir.

[khajidont]

Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just being pessimistic.

[They both know that that's a lie, he thinks, but they can't say it out loud. He certainly can't say it to poor Skeets, who's here without Booster and might always be.]