- Blue Beetle: I locked Jarvis in the can. Hope you don't have to go.
- [sitting down]
- Blue Beetle: Look, I'm sorry I got all hung up on the Beetle history lesson. I wanted so badly to have been chosen to be this hero instead of lucking into it. I guess I was kind of an idiot to fall for Kord's story about me being special.
- Batman: The scarab did choose. It let you access its powers. Not Ted. But being chosen doesn't make you a hero. What you choose does.
- Blue Beetle: I just wanna do the right thing. Like Ted would've done.
- Batman: [thinking] Spoken like a true hero.
- Blue Beetle: All that stuff about making a better world, and I fell for it.
- Jarvis Kord: Oh, no. I'm completely sincere about that. War, conflict, strife, they'll all vanish, with humanity under the absolute control of one single leader. Mankind will flourish as I eliminate any...
- Batman: Freedom.
- Jarvis Kord: It's a small price to pay. Now... if you'll excuse me.
- Blue Beetle: So the old Beetle turns out to be a crazy megalomaniac. Whoops.
- Batman: That man isn't Ted Kord. It's Jarvis Kord, Ted's uncle. Ted was a brilliant scientist who promised his mentor, Dan Garrett, to carry on the mantle of the Blue Beetle. But Ted couldn't get the scarab to work. Instead, he used guts and technical ingenuity to battle crime as the new Blue Beetle. His only mistake was trusting his uncle to unlock the mysteries of the blue scarab. Jarvis was... unhinged. He used the ancient alien technology of the scarab to create an army of super androids. An army that he planned to unleash on Hub City using a rocket ship. Ted didn't like that. Neither did I. We knew we had to get the scarab as far away from Jarvis as possible, and stop his invasion at the same time.
- [in flashback]
- Batman: Can't override the launch.
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: I have an idea. Just not sure it's a good one.
- Batman: [narrating] Ted made the ultimate sacrifice. And in doing so, made sure the scarab fell into the right hands. Your hands, Jaime.
- Blue Beetle: Ted didn't make it?
- Batman: I wasn't sure you were ready to know about this. Our work is dangerous. And not all hero stories have happy endings. Ted made his choice. But now you're the Blue Beetle. What will yours be?
- Blue Beetle: [learning Batman knew the previous Blue Beetle] So you've been holding out on me this whole time? Dude, come on!
- Batman: Now is not the time, Jaime.
- Blue Beetle: Give me the lowdown.
- Batman: [sternly] Leave it alone.
- Batman: [thinking] From now on, no more kid partners. Of course, I guess the adult variety got me into just as many jams.
- Jarvis Kord: These are my helpers. They will do the farming to feed the poor. The building to house the homeless. A vast, tireless workforce just waiting to be powered by the awesome energy of the blue scarab.
- Jaime Reyes: About the scarab.
- [activating his suit]
- Blue Beetle: Why me? Why did I get it?
- Jarvis Kord: I dream of a perfect world, but I can't do it alone. I sent out my scarab in search of an ally, programmed it to seek someone of great virtue. Someone worthy to inherit the mantle of the Blue Beetle. And it found you. Will you help me?
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: Looks like he had a contingency plan.
- Batman: Then it's a good thing we have our own.
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: Hit robots, make fall down?
- Batman: That's the one.
- Blue Beetle: [finding his predecessor's hideout] Trip log? These coordinates show the last place the Beetle flew the ship to. You think he's still there? What if he's stranded or injured or something?
- [his antennae warble]
- Blue Beetle: No, I'm not nuts. This could be the whole reason why I was chosen. May... maybe the Beetle's in danger and I'm supposed to save him.
- [his antennae warble again]
- Blue Beetle: Oh, yeah? Well, you know what? Who asked you?
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: I used to carry knockout pellets. They kept exploding on my belt.
- Batman: Tell me about it. Cost me a fortune to improve the casings.
- Blue Beetle: I wish Batman would've told me all this.
- Jarvis Kord: Batman. He's an old chum of mine. Don't take it personally; he's not much of a talker as I recall.
- Blue Beetle: Tell me about it. Mostly, he just grunts.
- Batman: Come in, Blue Beetle.
- Jaime Reyes: Bats, not the best time.
- Batman: Look, I know I was short with you earlier. But there are things I'm not sure you're ready to deal with.
- Jaime Reyes: What, you mean like the fact that there was a Blue Beetle before me named Ted Kord? Oh, yeah, and that's not all I found out. I'm on my way to his last known location. I'm going to find out why I became the Blue Beetle. It's... it's something I need to do.
- Batman: You have no idea what you're getting yourself into.
- [Jaime ends the transmission]
- Batman: Teenagers.
- Jaime Reyes: The careening starship plummets through the Earth's atmosphere, pieces of its fuselage ripping off, before it finally crashes in a remote desert. With the life ebbing from his body, the alien orders his power ring to search the planet for a successor. The ring's energy searches the globe until it finds a man without fear. And a new hero is chosen.
- Paco: Wow, dude that's amazing... ly stupid. That's the best you could come up with for the secret origin of the Green Lantern? Give me a break.
- Jaime Reyes: What? What's wrong with my story?
- Paco: First of all, a dude without fear has a serious mental condition. And secondly, how does a ring choose someone?
- Jaime Reyes: I don't know. It just does.
- Paco: No. What happened was some ordinary guy just lucked into finding it. Everyone knows it's the ring that's special, not the person wearing it. I mean, I could be the Green Lantern with it.
- Jaime Reyes: No way, Paco. You know something? You're so wrong. People aren't handed out powers randomly, there's always a reason. Heroes are chosen because they're worthy to be heroes.
- Paco: [awkward pause] Okay, so, wanna make s'mores?
- Jaime Reyes: [hearing his anetennae warble] What, an internet search? It's not like the last Beetle's gonna have a fan page.
- [his suit pulls up an old newspaper front-page headline]
- Jaime Reyes: Huh. Who knew? Hero of Hub City. I wonder what the weather's like there this time of year.
- Blue Beetle: There it is. Kord Enterprises. Okay, smarty armor. If there were, say, a secret lair under here, what would be the quickest way you...
- [his suit's jetpack fires]
- Blue Beetle: Question: do you think heroes are chosen or is it just dumb luck?
- Batman: Blue, not the best time.
- Blue Beetle: Come on. I just flew 1,500 miles to ask it and the least you could...
- [his antennae warble in an alien language]
- Blue Beetle: Hi. Sorry, 1,442.
- Batman: I'm kind of in the middle of something here.
- Blue Beetle: Dr. Polaris? Come on. You can take care of this guy in two seconds. You're just exercising. And you know what? This is important. Now, do you think I was chosen to replace the Blue Beetle because we share the same heroic traits?
- Batman: There have been a lot of Blue Beetles, and you're nothing like the one I knew.
- Blue Beetle: You knew one?
- Jarvis Kord: What are you doing? Each one of these is a miracle of science. They're unique, beyond value. Who are you?
- Jaime Reyes: I'm Jaime Reyes, the new Blue Beetle. I came here to find the original.
- Jarvis Kord: So you're my replacement. I thought you'd be taller. Welcome to Science Island. I'm Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.
- Batman: Deuterium-fluoride laser. Don't you have problems with residual heat?
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: Got around it by adjusting its wavelength. Less powerful, but it gets the job done.
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: People just don't appreciate the time and expense that goes into this high-tech gear. They'd rather see fisticuffs.
- Batman: True. Uppercuts and bodyslams are no substitute for having the proper tools when it comes to crime-fighting.
- [the ground collapses beneath them, and they find themselves surrounded by another group of guards]
- Batman: But they are a whole lot more fun.
- Batman: We've got company, Blue Beetle.
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: [seeing a group of security guards, he takes a device out of his belt] Allow me.
- [firing it]
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: The BB gun fires...
- Batman: High-intensity pan-chromatic disorientation strobe. Nice. But what do you do about the...
- Silver Age Blue Beetle: [seeing the security guards trying not to vomit] Nausea? Haven't quite licked that.
- Dr. Polaris: [deflecting bullets fired at him] Fools. Your bullets are useless against my awesome power to repel.
- Batman: [landing behind him] You might try a new deodorant.
- Blue Beetle: [his antennae warble] Call Bats? Yeah, that's just what I was thinking.
- Jarvis Kord: Batman won't be taking any calls. Thanks to your timely warning, I was prepared for his arrival. The problem with being a beetle is that people are always pulling off your wings.
- Blue Beetle: There's another way. The armor can get me inside the computer. I can override the safeties on the reactor.
- Batman: Destroy the island before the launch. Not bad. Do it.
- Blue Beetle: One problem. Getting off the island before the big bang.
- Batman: How much time will we have?
- Blue Beetle: Yeah, we should run.
- Batman: Go. Don't wait for me.
- Blue Beetle: [sarcastic] Oh, sure, let me carry the megalomaniac. My hands are free.
- Jarvis Kord: Battle drones, initiate attack sequence.
- [his drones unveil their weapons]
- Jarvis Kord: No missiles in the lab, please.