Merry Christmas!!!

Hoping everyone has a great Xmas. More posts to come! The plot thickens......

Mental

Part 4.2: Who do you trust?.....who can you trust? (My later days)

Terra Volta changed me. Not only did it improve my powers due to excess radioactive exposure, but it renewed my faith in other heroes. I made contacts in TV that still hold true today directly and indirectly. Fighting in a nuclear reactor is no easy task....obviously. Teamwork is a key to survival and lets just say the first few groups i went in with were a nightmare. I ended up in the hospital dozens of times and couldn't seem to stop the insurgence of Sky Raiders. (Sky Raiders are a weasly group of paramilitary mercenaries that plague the eastern seaboard.) Even through the many failures in T.V. I met a few heroes that I bonded with. The first that comes to mind is a big demon, Blue Lucifer. Huge and at first intimidating, he soon turned out to be a realy sweetheart with a wicked sense of humor. With him was Illyria Rx, an excellent illusionist and healer that I still see every now and then in Paragon City. Though we didn't completely save the reactor, heroes behind us helped cull the onslaught. Blue and his crew went on days later and saved the reactor from explosion while I was away. They went on teaming for a few days but I stayed in Independence Port because rumor had it the Raiders were planning a second assault. True enough they did and then I met BrainPain. Again we failed to completely stop the raid, but after we were sent to the hospital and revived the two of us talked for hours and found we had alot in common.

So there I was going from virtually no friends to many who then aquainted me with even more. Blue was very connected and introduced me to members of the Becoming, a mystical group of heroes. I met Nekro an energy blaster with some of the more devistating attacks I've seen even today. I then met two people that are still very important to me today: Medistar and Lil Debil. Medi, a quiet fellow and a bit shy showed to become a great empath and more importantly a loyal teammate. I teamed with him all the way to Security Level 50. He is someone I can trust. Lil Debil is the type of teammate that makes fighting crime almost enjoyable. Not only is she this little ball of energy but she can, when provoked, talk a blue streak with the best of sailors. They soon combined and formed a great super group known as Dark Justice. They of course offered me a spot but I declined due to my promise to Nicole. They had super group stuff to do alot so my teaming with them was sporadic for a few levels. I spent about the next 6 levels teaming mostly with BrainPain. For two "squishies" we made one hell of a team. The two of us put quite a hurting on the Circle of Thorns and especially the Devouring Earth. Occasionally this lower level blaster would tag along and side kick with Brain. His name was Tetsujin Kaga to this day one of my most trusted collegues. We teamed together in Brickstown and Founders Falls for months. About this time the Neo Nazi group the 5th Column was taken over by the fascist Council. And that was many days spent cleaning the streets of their infighting. At the same time the Winter Lord (Frosty on steroids) wreaked havoc across Paragon. We were busy and we were becoming great heroes. Then something strange happened to Brain. She became distant and began soloing. After level 34 I pretty much didn't see her again. Tet and I mished as much as we could but he was of lower security clearance and some problems were off limits to him. I then reconnected with Lil Debil and this crazy reformed Troll, Sam Stonehands. We fought the Winter Lord and his minions for what seemed weeks. We then turned out attention to the Rikti (alien invader) in Founders Falls and Crey's Folley. The three of us teamed regularly until one day Sam disappeared never to be seen again . Later I met his long lost twin sister ,Suzanne Stonehands. Apparently they were separated at birth and she was shipped off to an alternate dimension known as the Pinnacle Shard where she too reformed and fought under the name Suzi Fusion. She had no sooner come to this dimension and discovererd she had a brother when he vanished. Ever since she has been angry and fought blindly any evil forces in Paragon.

I became distracted with work at the University and watched as alot of my friends went on to more challenging tasks. Blue Lucifer, Illyria and Nekro all leveled up to 50 while I was stuck in my late thirties. I then learned that BrainPain too had gone missing. She had reached Security Level 50, she the top of her profession and was about to retire. Her husband killed her in her sleep. (I had always heard rumors he resented the time she devoted to hero work.) He was later killed in prison by an inmate Brain had once rescued from the Family mafia organization.

That left me and Lil Debil and she too had responsibilities outside of hero work. So once again I spent the next few levels mostly alone. Although I did enjoy the occasional team with Lil, Tet and Medi. Then at Level 41 I met a smart mouthed scrapper called Ronin Popiel. We were trying to do a task for the Woodsman in the environmental wasteland called Eden. True to form a great friendship came from a tragic failure. We started teaming together where he introduced me to Tellania, a extradimensional being that would prove to be the greatest tanker I would ever worked with. As I teamed with them and became even more powerful Lil returned to hero work again and took up with a great Katana scrapper, Hoard of Souls. We all soon began teaming with each other almost daily and little by little we all approached our late 40's. Lil then disappeared, not to be heard from for sometime. I hoped she hadn't met the same fate as some of my other close friends.

Ronin soon left angry with the politics of Paragon and became caught up in a controversial theory that some godlike entities known as the Developers were altering hero's powers. (As a side note: I did not start offbelieving this theory but lately am beginning to wonder) Tellania introduced me to what turned out to be a friend of Suzanne Stonehands (now known as the Troll Princess). Her name was Onceti May, a weather controlling mentalist with some powers similar to my own. We took her under our wings and showed her the world of crime fighting.

My late 40s were the best time I spent in Paragon fighting evil. Hoard was well connected and a natural leader, always able to throw together a team of heroes. Tellania was invulnerable and had super strength but was also very intelligent and knowledgable in all aspects of hero work, especially extradimensional worlds. Medistar was the consumate healer always there to save a teammate from possible death. Tetsujin was a powerful blaster with keen abilities in stealth and bombs. And our little Onceti May proved to be a quick learner and while she started off almost 20 levels behind us she quickly became quite powerful and by the end of the summer we were all level 50 heroes looking towards our futures in or out of hero work.

Then I ended up in a bunker with almost no powers and no memory of how it happened. These were the only people I could trust.

Part 4.1: Who do you trust?.....who can you trust? (My early days)

I received the official notice from CHII the next morning from Azuria personally. I had relocated to one of our family apartments in Steel Canyon not far from my old place. It was once used to house any family guests in town and hadn't been occupied in years. Festus McDonough, a third generation butler of our family and house steward at Pemiscot Hall, my family's four story penthouse in Founder's Falls, had some furniture and linens delivered from storage. As he always does he asked politely for me to move back to the Hall but as always I politely said, "Not yet Festus, I'm not ready." And he politely said it was there ready for me when I was.

I read the report when I was finally alone and was not too surprised by the decision. Having fought more Preatorians than I care to count, I was a big supporter of the Laws reguarding such issues. I had been in denial. My powers were somehow weakened....maybe disappearing. No one had answers and for the first time in my hero life I was scared. Oh and also annoyed. It seemed the council felt it important for me to seak therapy and they "highly recommended" that hack shrink Haverschmidt. Not a chance in hell.

A courier later brought me my med porter and comm unit discretely wrapped in brown paper. Nothing is worse than losing a comm unit and then having to input all your contacts back into it. Heroes are known for strange spellings of their aliases. Heck look at mine. That is its own strange story.

I had to find the keys to this mystery and I was beginning to feel the city had bigger problems. This is something I had to do myself, but I would need help and who could I trust? That is a more complicated question than it seems.

Its hard to trust others as a hero. One of the first intangible rules you learn as a hero is to put a barrier up when it comes to other heroes. The vocation of justice has its pitfalls. People get hurt and some unfortunately die in the line of duty. Some go mad with power and turn to the other side. And others just disappear. You build strong bonds with people you fight with. Warriors for ages have felt the brotherhood of war. While the bond is strong it is also delicate for one minute a friend is there then the next they are merely memory. It hurts everytime....first.....third.....thirtieth. It seems to happen every ten levels...don't ask me why.

It made me think of my early days in Paragon City as a hero. I didn't know anyone so I hit the streets alone; not easy for a defender of any level I might add. I gradually made friends and joined a Supergroup known as the Minutemen. We were a small group but grew tight. We fought into our mid teens but quickly members started to leave for other pursuits. Troy Saint, a very nice person, and powerful robotic scrapper left first: disappeared without a trace after a night of fighting the Circle of Thorns in Perez Park. Next to leave was Jennifer Govern, my first steady sidekick who I showed around Paragon, taught to use flight and fought bravely with especially in Skyway City. Lastly as numbers began dwindling the membership started to leave for other supergroups or other cities that needed help, the founder of the group Nicole Summers left of all things to pursue a career in music. (Gave up hero work to be a rockstar of all things.) I was left with leadership in the Minutemen but knew the group was done. Nicole promised she'd be back if the rock thing didn't work out and asked me to keep an eye on the team. I made a promise I would. For that reason I never left the Minutemen even though I had several tempting offers from some powerful supergroups.

So there I was a level 17 hero with noone left to team with and to be honest I was a little bitter over being left behind. I spent the next ten levels figuring out my place in random teams. This to some is a dangerous option considering some heroes can be irresponsible with their powers. But what was I to do? I wanted to make a difference and I had given up so much to pursue the life of crime fighting. I took on missions from many contacts throughout the city and even did work for some of the Freedom Phalanx: Positron ( a real taskmaster), Synapse (as quick a talker as he is a sprinter) and Sister Psyche (a former teacher of mine as a teenage). I really focused on my powers and defending other heroes during this time but didn't really establish any true friendships until the day the Skyraiders invaded Terra Volta. It was then I made some contacts that have lasted until today. And I needed some of their help. But who could I trust? Who can you really trust?