The Secret Life

Wow, what a week it has been here in Paragon City. First, there were the stories about the continued heightened tensions between many of the city's heroes and the Crey security forces, and then the story about the kidnapping of The Blue Eagle's fiance by the Vahzilok and the horrible things that they did to her. My sentiments go out to the Eagle and to Sharon's family, and I know that he appreciates all of the sorrow that readers and the rest of the city have expressed.

That brings me to the subject of secret identities. Several people have mentioned to me over the years how odd it is that so many heroes fight crime under sometimes silly names. Some have actually suggested that it shouldn't be done, that these heroes for some reason or another must have something to hide.

The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of reasons why heroes use a different name when they're fighting crime. Most of the time, it is pretty simple: they are facing powerful enemies, and some degree of anonymity is needed to protect one's family and friends. It is the same reason that many police officers work under cover, a practice that is readily endorsed and easily understood.

Sometimes a secret identity is not really secret at all. I am a good example: The News Man is a nickname I picked up in high school because of my dedication to the school paper and my desire to become a journalist, and it has stuck ever since. I do not hide my real name, however, because it used to be rather difficult to get clearance into press conferences while using an alias.

Sometimes there are other reasons to use an identity other than one's real name. For example, not too long ago, I was working on some missions with a demon girl called the Plasma Imp. Over the comm channel, we just called her Imp, short and simple. It would have been a lot harder if we had to use her actual name because there are a couple of sounds in it that the human voice is incapable of reproducing. It cannot be written because there are no letters for that sound, and in fact, she said that it cannot even be written here in her native language because the script is three-dimensional. And I thought that English was tough to learn when I was a kid!

Now I know that you have probably at some time wondered what some handsome or beautiful hero's real name is, and you are not alone. There have been recent movements in the City Council to try to require all heroes to register with the city, including divulging personal information and secret identities. I think this is a horrible mistake because, as recent events have shown, there is a lot of risk associated with some heroes' identities being publicized, and the city would have a very difficult time guaranteeing the security of the registration information. It is a little known fact that all of the city government's computer systems are provided by Crey Industries, and given the sometimes high-profile political battles fought between Crey and some of the city's reputable heroes, I am very hesitant to trust these heroes' secret identities to these computers. Even if we give Crey the benefit of a doubt and assume that everything the company does is honest and above-board, there have been too many instances of rogue groups within the corporation to trust such sensitive information to them. If we truly want to continue trusting our heroes to protect the city, we should at least trust them to protect their name. I would rather have a city full of anonymous heroes than risk having one more incident such as The Blue Eagle has recently experienced happen again.

If the City Council succeeds in passing their resolution, it would have the affect of either discouraging the good heroes in our city from fighting crime or encouraging heroes to freelance under different identities. As an extreme example, a really good friend of mine is a heroine named Emperyl. She is a shapechanger and has fought crime as about every variation of girl there is. Once, she even snuck into a freakshow hideout as none other than Clamor herself. Anyway, she tells me that if the City Council presses on with this registration effort, she will simply do her best Lynda Carter impersonation for the official files and change into someone else whenever she hits the streets. Although most heroes do not have the luxury of being able to completely change their appearance, they can do almost the same thing by using masks, wigs, and different costumes.

So although I do try to stay out of politics in this column, if you have a few extra minutes in your busy day and appreciate the efforts of Paragon City's finest, please take a moment and contact your local zone's councilmember and tell him or her to oppose the new registration bill being considered.

That's all for this week. Until next time, stay safe, and keep The Blue Eagle in your thoughts in prayers.

Toño "No Name For Today" Vasquez

The Force that Drives

Welcome back to The Hero Beat. This week, I wanted to scratch the surface of one of the more common questions I get asked: What compels some heroes with extraordinary powers to fight for good causes? The answers to this question run deeply. Rarely are there simple answers to why anyone does the things that they do. Because the subject is far too deep to cover in just one column, I will probably revisit it from time to time.

When I ask this question to heroes, some have what have become stock responses. Revenge to right some wrong, guilt over some past evil, the thrill of battle, a religious calling to fulfill the grand design, and so on. Many heroes, however, have motivations that run much deeper.

Take a moment to think about why you, the reader, are the way that you are. Is there one defining moment in your life that set you on your way to your inevitable destination, or are you a collage of your experiences, slowly evolving every day, molded by everything you feel and learn?

The other day, I was on a mission with a hero named Skippus. He is the reigning monarch of a nation of seven planets in another dimension and has mental powers that surpass most psi heroes that I know. He came to Earth to rescue his daughter, Reyla, from a sorcerer from his home planet of Kore. I certainly understand why he came to Earth, but I asked him why he fights evil here instead of simply seeking his daughter without interfering. He gave me a particularly insightful answer.

"On Kore," he started, "All citizens are taught from the time that they are children that it is every person's responsibility to keep vigil over the peace of our society. We believe that evil cannot survive unless the people in a civilization allow it. As the Koric King, I take this responsibility very seriously and very personally. Many of our people look to us to be role models, to set examples for them to live by. If I do not do my part to fight evil, how can I expect others to?"

A noble answer, but it still sounded suspiciously like one written by a public relations agent to sell King Skippus t-shirts. I had to dig deeper. I told him that here on Earth, he is not serving as an example to his people. They do not know of his battles here, and if he manages to get back to Kore, he could tell them anything they wanted to hear.

"Many people here on Earth live with that philosophy, and it saddens me," he continued. "I have heard some here mention something they call the Golden Rule, about treating people as they want to be treated. This is remarkably similar to what we call the Citizen's Code. A rough translation is, 'Act as a teacher of actions, feel as a teacher of feelings, and live as a teacher of life.' Rarely do Earth's citizens actually abide by their Golden Rule. I may not have much of a chance of changing the planet in the short time I live here on Earth, but if I do not live by the Citizen's Code or your Golden Rule, then I have no chance at all."

But why does he try to change the planet? It is, after all, not his planet.

"Because I am not just a citizen of Kore, of course. I am also a citizen of the spirit that bind us all together. So are you, your readers, my daughter Reyla, the heroes of Paragon City--everyone. The Citizen's Code is not just to teach our citizens, the Heart of Kore, it is to teach everyone we meet."

I suppose that his explanation can be neatly filed under M for Making the world a better place, but it still strikes me as powerful.

On a slightly different note, I dropped by the Arcane Arts store on Waters Street in Atlas Park to talk to The Amazing Archos, the owner of the store. Archos is a renowned stage performer with real mentalist powers. He has wowed audiences worldwide with his amazing displays of psychic skill, but other than a street thug or two who has tried to rob his store, he has never taken to battling the villains that plague Paragon City. I wanted to ask him why, so that maybe I could get some insight into what makes a would-be hero not take up the cause of fighting for good.

When I asked him why he did not go on missions and task forces like other heroes, he answered, "First of all, I have a store to run. Crime fighting is noble, but it can't support my wife and kids. Second, speaking of Sharon and kids, I feel like risking my life daily like a lot of the other heroes do wouldn't be fair to them. My most important job is husband and father. Third, sure there's a lot of crime around here, but the Freedom Phalanx and other heroes pretty much keep in it check. If big stuff comes up, they can always hire the Hero Corps to work on it. They may be expensive, but they've always gotten the job done.

I pressed on with the hard question: Does he feel guilty at all about others putting their lives on the line while he performs tricks at the Paragon Metropolitan Center?

"Look, I know it may sound kind of harsh, and it's not that I don't care at all. I have a lot of respect for heroes. But a lot of folks just assume that people with powers should fight crime. I wish they would all ask themselves what they would do if suddenly they woke up with powers. Would they risk dying every day? Maybe some would, but not that many, I think. Almost every day I see people on the street getting robbed by some two-bit street hoodlums. How many risk their lives to fight back for what's right? Most just stand there cowering in fear. The ones that run usually don't even run that far. They just get out of the way and wait for a hero to step in and do the dirty work. And how many of their fellow Paragonians help them? Hell, they just throw up their hands and run away! Like I said, I've got a wife and three kids to take care of and they need me, I can't do the sort of stuff that other heroes do."

He does have a point. I actually know several people with powers who live average, normal lives. They are our accountants, engineers, chefs, and our janitors. They are not bad people, they just have different priorities from the heroes you see on the front page and the nightly news. And let us not forget that some people who have powers use them selfishly for personal gain, usually at the expense of others. Some even become supervillains who terrorize the city.

There truly are all types of forces that drive people with super powers to do what they do, whether it is tearing at a warwolf's mind until it falls in submission, entertaining an audience by making a soccer mom cluck like a chicken, or cleaning the floors of the new Galaxy Arena.

Toño "News Man" Vasquez

A Day in the Life

Welcome, reader, to my new column, The Hero Beat. I truly enjoy working here at The Paragon Mirror, and look forward to bringing you news and stories about the efforts of the great heroes of Paragon City. I would like to start the column by introducing you to myself.

My name is Antonio Vazquez, but all my friends just call me Toño. I studied journalism in college for a while before I decided that I had to do more than just report on the news. For over eighteen years, I have studied and fought in various wars and conflicts. In Paragon City, I continue to take an active part in battles still being fought after the Rikti invasion, and I hope that this unique perspective helps bring a different insight into the life and times of being a hero.

I must warn you up front that I am not a hero worshipper. Sure, I respect their bravery and admire the service they provide to the city, but I am also not afraid of bringing you the real story of some of the things that go on behind the scenes. Sometimes it may even get downright ugly, but I want to be the kind of journalist that brings you the truth, no matter what it may be.

So with that said, I would like to tell you about a mission I was on just yesterday. I was talking to a contact of mine on the streets who told me about a clockwork plot in a warehouse in Galaxy City, so I hit the hero comm to see if I could round up a few capes to go with me and investigate. I managed to round up a good crew of five heroes that were not on active missions, and we set off. Now I suppose that you have probably already read about Mecha's plot to build up a force of Clocks and take over that section of the city and a team of heroes that foiled it, but I can tell you firsthand that this was no ordinary mission.

First of all, we had a couple of Kheldians in the group. Although I have met a few, I have never actually been on a mission with one before. It's no secret that they have acquired the nickname "squishies," and I have to admit that I use it myself. But in the heat of battle, they are as hardened as most veterans I have seen. So if any squishies are reading this, welcome to Earth, and I hope that together, our heroes and the Kheldians can make this a peaceful place once again.

Next, I will answer a one of my favorite questions that people ask me about heroes with a story from yesterday's mission. Most of the time, people want to know the usual information, such as, "What is it like to fly?" "How many bad guys have you put away?" and the like. These are not my favorite questions, though.

My favorite questions are the ones that show that although most heroes have extraordinary abilities, they are for the most part as human as the rest of us. They have hopes and dreams, strenghths and flaws, fear and courage. One of these questions is, "So what kinds of stuff happens on these missions that heroes probably don't want us to know about? Anything embarrassing?"

Of course, sometimes really stupid stuff happens. On the Clockwork mission that we took care of yesterday, one of my team was a cat girl named Mercat. We had just dispatched a group of assembler knights and their minions, and she starts coughing. Not a clear-her-throat kind of cough, but a hacking-up-her-guts kind. I swear, for a minute, I thought she was going to spit out a furball. I figured that in the battle, maybe a bunch of dust had been stirred up, but the warehouse was pretty clean. After a minute, she finally stops. Everyone awkwardly asked if she was okay, and she made a kind of hissing noise and spit out a piece of metal. It seems that when she sliced through the breastplate of the last sprocket, she bit it out of spite. Apparently she was so frustrated that she forgot that she wasn't fighting creatures of flesh and blood and got a mouthful of copper and aluminum instead. She spit most of it out but a small piece lodged in her throat, thus causing the fit.

Star of Luminae, one of our Kheldians, chuckled and asked her why she would bite a robot. Mercat frustratedly replied to her in a hoarse voice, "Why do you think? Because I was hungry!"

For the rest of the mission, we could not help but tease her now and then. Afterwards, we all pitched in to buy her dinner before calling it a night. I think the steak she put away more than made up for her slightly injured pride because after the meal, she proclaimed that she had brought dessert--and dumped two handfuls of nuts and bolts right in the center of the table!

So that's it for this week's column. Hopefully you will continue to read and enjoy it, because as long as there are heroes to write about, I will keep covering the Hero Beat. Until next time,

Toño "News Man" Vasquez