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?