Disclaimer
: The following is a story from the perspective of one of my many characters in City of Heroes. All references made to Paragon City, City of Heroes, Official named Heroes, City Zones, etc. are the property of Paragon Studios and NCsoft and are only intended to be used for story telling purposes. Thank you.
I still remember that night.
I was living in Berkeley at the time, just north of the university. From my window I could see the Upper Hearst Parking Structure. I never said it was a 'great' view. But I could see the people coming and going to the campus. Next year I'd be going there. I had already been accepted, when I was age three. You see, Mother had some connections, and her contributions to the school ensured me that I would get in as soon as I was of age.
I could also see the bay. And if the night was clear enough, I could just make out the Golden Gate. See, this city ran into another city, and another. It felt that the Bay Area was nothing but one huge city. A metropolis they called it. I even heard of people wanting to call it the next megalopolis. It's strange though, in a metropolis this size, you always seem to know where the little places are at. It may be a huge city, but it was my city. My metropolis.
Mother was out of town on business so I had the house to myself. I decided to get ready for the weekly gaming session with my friends. Last week, we just finished some really crazy dungeon . While we didn't complete the dungeon, we sure had a blast playing through it. (My paladin didn't die. But she did have a traumatic experience in which she was turned into a man then stripped of her all possessions and thrown back out of the dungeon as a woman. Bryan and Jessica still couldn't stop laughing about that.) This week though, our game master Erica just picked up some new game about heroes and I was super excited to try it out. Why? Well you see, I'm a huge fan of heroes. I have a huge map on my wall with /every/ sighting of team Avalanche within the city. I have collected every comic book and graphic novel featuring my favorite hero, The Statesman. I even dated the nerdy guy at the local comic book store just because I knew he was going to go to Comic Con and he could get my Issue 1 of Statesman signed by the artists, writer and, on yeah, the hero HIMSELF! (That comic is now framed, on a wall in bullet proof glass.)
My love of heroes may also come from the fact that I could easily become one. You see, when I was born I had a strange mutation. Well, it wasn't that strange. In fact, there are eighty nine others in the world who have the same one that were born in the same year. I was born with a natural magnetic nuclear fusion reactor for a heart. Mother didn't like this, and tried to 'fix' me but after millions of dollars, they couldn't fine a 'cure' for me. So, I had to hide my abilities, and any time someone got wind that I was 'that' little girl from Washington, Mother and I had to pick up and leave town. Rumor has it that Mother would pay the family off to keep them quiet.
So there I was, flipping though the rule book for the game and I'm trying to figure out what type of hero I am. Armor clad? Martial artist? Maybe the psychic. None of them really suck out to me. Then, I saw him. The artist of the rule book used MY favorite hero as a basis for his work. The Exemplar. I knew I found my class. I quickly wrote down the stats, and even changed a few of the powers to better suit my understanding of the Statesman. Creating a character in a game system I didn't know, I looked up and realized that I had spent nearly three hours working on this. Now, all I needed was a name. I swear that was the hardest part and sometimes could take days. I could never make up a name on the spot.
I heard some glass breaking just outside my window that made me jump. I figured it was just some punks breaking bottles or something. But I looked outside anyway. The night sky was dark, and the only lights were from the various streetlights scattered. I heard a scream and then footsteps running down the street. Scanning the street I saw a woman trying to run from to men but she had been stopped in a parking lot. One of the men had a knife and the other a baseball bat. I heard her begging for her to just let her go. She even threw her purse at them. But these guys weren't out for money. I looked around the city. Aside from the shouting, the metropolis was quiet. Off in the distance, I saw a building on fire. If any heroes were out tonight, they would be most likely to be there.
I knew I had to make a choice. I grabbed my Ms. Liberty mask and thew on my white trench coat. I tossed off my glasses (I never really needed them. I only used them for show.) and slipped on the mask. I opened the large window in my bedroom and looked down at the four story drop below and took a step forward.
I had been able to fly since I was about eight years old. My heart allowed me to use the energy from it for a variety of super powers. It took some work but I was able to fly, lift up heavy oak furniture and even get hit with a brick and not feel a thing. See, I told you I /really/ liked the Statesman. While my flying wasn't the most graceful, I was able to find the men and their hostage. I saw them pulling her into some abandoned building and I knew it was my time to strike. I flew above the sidewalk and landed, well more like fell from the sky. The landing hurt but I was fine. The shock of me realizing I had no shoes on when my feet touched the cool sidewalk was more of a surprise then the landing.
The man with the knife looked shocked, like he had seen a ghost. Here I was, a sixteen year old girl in a Ms. Liberty mask and a trench coat and I'm supposed to stand up to two fully grown men with weapons. Oh Rebecca, what did you get yourself into?
--To Be Continued--
