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

[redhott]

[ DAMNIT! ]

I found different avenues helping first responders...

[ Sorry, he would REALLY like to not talk about his failures as a Hellspawn who wasn't wanted by any ExTeams. ]

[khajidont]

And the first responders -- they let you?

[redhott]

Well, I either got rid of the fire so they could go in and rescue trapped civilians, or they risked their lives and the lives they were trying to save. [ It seemed an obvious choice to make to Kyle. ] I can do it from far away, so it doesn't exactly put me in danger...

[khajidont]

Uh... huh. Look, I'm sorry if I'm prying. Is this something you don't wanna talk about, man?

[redhott]

Not really, no. My origin story isn't one of those heartwarming ones...

[khajidont]

Are any of our origin stories heartwarming? Because I haven't heard one yet.

[redhott]

Well, my friend's—Or at least one—

[ Oh shit, hang on... Going through his origin story Rolodex in his head... Searching... Searching... ]

Okay, you are totally right. But uhh... doesn't make it something I wanna talk about, even if people can relate. It's... personal.

[khajidont]

Hey, and I don't mean to press you on it! What's personal is personal, man, no way of getting around that. It's just something that I'm trying to understand -- getting into the business that young, I mean. There are so many people here who're in that kind of position, and I want to know how I can help them the best I can.

Maybe even convince them to wait a little longer.

[redhott]

I... don't really know. I guess a lot of us want to feel useful? Maybe it starts selfish at first.

[ It's hard to say really. Kyle knows his powers laid the foundations of a bad super villain story arc. But he chose not to go that route. What it took is for others to need him and depend on him for good rather than bad. ]

But uhh... [ Kyle can't help but laugh. ] Who knows if you can stop them. I don't think anyone could've stopped me. Maybe it's better to give 'em the condoms than tell 'em to stay abstinent? You know?

[khajidont]

Ooookay, not the metaphor I'd use for thirteen year olds, but I get your point.

[Gross, Kyle.]

But you realize I didn't make this saying shame on you, stop, right? I'd help people out with their powers, no matter how old they were. But even if you can't convince everyone to wait, you can at least convince a couple, right? And the ones you can't convince, you help.

I just don't wanna see any more dead kids.

[redhott]

[ Boys in Kyle's canon start early, bruh. DON'T SLUT SHAME! okay, but seriously that comment about dead kids is sooo not what Kyle expected to hear?? He hasn't had to deal with something so horrible in his line of work yet. ]

Ah—I... Yeah.

[ WELL THAT WAS A MOOD KILLER ]

[khajidont]

Sorry. I know it's a downer, but that's why I'm doing this. Saying this. Your analogy works, sure, but kids die doing what we do.

Not where you're from yet, huh?

[Yet.

He doesn't truly believe they can do something this dangerous and come out intact. Not all of them.]

[redhott]

Not in the line of duty, at least. [ Or at least nothing he remembers. It would have been on national news, but sometimes politics overshadow common decency. ] Minors are allowed to participate in natural disasters, search and rescue, but it's usually sideline duties until we qualify for an ExTeam when we're adults.

Are minors allowed to fight criminals where you're from?

[khajidont]

Yeah. I mean, if they have a secret ID. If they don't have one, their parents or officials might do something, but there's a lot of minors who fight crime, and nobody thinks twice about it. We don't really have any regulation back home. That leads to not having any training in the field, and people going out there without understanding how bad it can get.

Maybe one day there'll be something to help them out, but I started when I was a minor, and I was pretty much left on my own. Worked out okay for me, but it doesn't for everyone. I wasn't that much younger than a legal adult anyway.


[Jaime, you were fifteen.]

[redhott]

Wow, I... seriously can't imagine—Like really. If you don't have programs how does the government allow it?

[khajidont]

I don't know. It just does. This is the way it's always been, for us. I never heard of anything different until I got here.