Remember the Real Heroes

You know, there is little doubt that Paragon City is filled with lots of heroes. It takes a special breed to go out and fight for what is right, especially against the superpowered legions of evil that plague the city.

This Memorial Day, however, I want you to remember an even more special breed out there: the men and women who have no super powers yet still swear an oath to fight evil. These men and women are the men and women of the armed forces. They cannot shrug off bullets as if they are raindrops. They cannot pick up trucks and throw them casually at enemies who would do them harm. They cannot spin webs in opponents' minds by mere thought. They cannot shoot searing flames from their fingertips. Yet we depend on these men and women not just in Paragon City, but around the world, to keep us safe.

I also want you to remember the men and women who are my personal heroes, the paragons of courage in the days before heroes were common on the streets. These men and women refused to shirk the task of defending a country, a people, and a way of life, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds during wars the scale of which this generation has never seen. Many of these men and women even made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their very lives to protect the many more back at home. This is a debt that we can never repay except by keeping you in our most sacred thoughts and bestowing upon your memory our highest honors.

Every once in a while, especially on days such as Memorial Day, I get stopped by various citizens and thanked for my own service. Yet still, I am humbled by the courage and sacrifice made by men and women much greater than myself. To those men and women, especially the men and women who continue to defend our freedom and our homeland today, I salute you. Keep up the great work, and know that we all feel a gratitude so immense that mere words could never express it enough. Sometimes in a country that seems to have gone completely mad, your bravery is a beacon of hope and never fails to make me stand tall and proud to say that I am an American.

To those readers who have friends or relatives who have made this commitment in the past or the present, please take a moment to talk to them and convey your gratitude. Also, try not to confine these sentiments to a mere day or two each year; I assure you that their commitment was significantly longer. And while you are thanking them, please convey my appreciation as well. Even though I may not know your friend or relative personally, I do wish for them to know that the complete strangers whose lives they are fighting for are deeply thankful for their efforts.

Toño Vasquez

A Distant Deadly Threat

Wow, I certainly did not have much time to relax after last Sunday. Before dawn on Monday, I received a call from a contact I have at the government authorized extradimensional transportation company where Emperyl and I went just the day before. My first thought was that they found out what we did and that we were about to be in trouble up to our knees.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that my contact was actually calling to report a scoop on another alien attack coming from the very dimension we had just visited. Obviously, after the Rikti War, any prospect of an alien attack is unraveling, so I had to investigate.

Unfortunately, although I was ready to answer the call to action, I was ill-prepared to take on this mission. I called up King Skippus, who you may remember from my column a few weeks ago, and I outfitted him with an AV relay bug so that I could monitor the situation. Calin Blackrose, Miss Debutante, Nuadu, Kritikal Mass, The Fearless Feline; they all answered the call immediately. It was such a desperate situation, I even recruited some mercenaries that I normally try to avoid because of the nature of their personality, which tends to be somewhat--how shall I say it?--volatile. Still the team needed the help, so after some long negotiations, The Toxic Roach and Psycho Punk went along as well.

And so Team Heisenberg was formed, named both because of the principles used that enable extradimensional travel and because of the uncertain nature of what they might encounter.

What they did encounter was astounding. It seems that Crey has been testing dimensional travel and had inadvertently unleashed all sorts of trouble. What kind of trouble? The kind that makes Paragon City's toughest street thugs look like jaywalkers. The kind that could have multiplied the Rikti War many times over, devastating what is left of Paragon City and spreading throughout the world. The company (which I am not allowed to name here) that provides extradimensional transportation services for the government only discovered this when they received reports that scientists went missing, scientists of whom they had no account.

During the course of investigation into this mystery, Team Heisenberg discovered that Crey's secret experiments had gotten out of hand, enabling highly dangerous creatures from another dimension to travel back through their portals. These creatures had the goal of attacking Earth, and after the Rikti War, there might have been little to stop them from completely destroying humanity.

Team Heisenberg, with a mere eight people, were miraculously able to stop this invasion by shutting down the rogue Crey portals. However, their efforts did not come without a cost. During one of the missions, The Fearless Feline fell through one of Crey's experimental portals and was lost to an unknown dimension. In the remote dimension (dubbed "The Shadow Shard" by scientists investigating the place), Kritikal Mass was severely injured when the new medical teleportation grid there failed. Psycho Punk got a call from one of his "employers" and had to leave the Shard. The Toxic Roach's arm was impaled on a spike hurled by one of the strange creatures and it had to be amputated. Even King Skippus suffered from a mental "blackening," as he put it, caused by one of the creatures, and has yet to regain some of his powers. The medical teleportation grid in Paragon City also worked overtime in the final battles. The only member of Team Heisenberg that made it through the entire ordeal without suffering major injuries was Miss Debutante, a remarkable woman who somehow managed to dispatch the creatures with a poise and grace that was unbelievable. I was initally worried that her reputation as socialite would make her soft in battle, but she clearly has skills that earn her a high place in society and among the city's most respected heroes.

After two days of intense investigation and raging battles, Team Heisenberg was able to effectively destroy Crey's extradimensional travel program and stop a second otherworldly invasion. One very bright spot in this story is that The Toxic Roach called me yesterday. He discovered that one of his powers appears to be regeneration, and his arm has started to grow back. He said that faced with the prospect of the entire Earth being destroyed, he now realizes the importance of the work that heroes do. He said that he will now work with other heroes and be more conscientious about the paid mercenary work he undertakes. I think that before long, he will have the reputation of being one of Paragon City's finest heroes.

As for Team Heisenberg, they said that they would probably keep in contact with each other, perhaps even working on more missions as a team. This is very promising to the city, which can certainly use powerful heroes of this caliber working together.

Updates: I have received some very recent updates since originally writing this article. Due to the pressing deadline, I have included them here instead of rewriting entire sections of this column.

First, the great news. Scientists tracked down The Fearless Feline to a previously unknown dimension and have verified that she has been lonely, but is otherwise unharmed. They assure me that she will be fighting crime again in Paragon City very soon.

Now, the bad news. Late yesterday afternoon, Crey finally responded to calls about their involvement in this debacle. They claim that the parties involved in the illegal extradimensional travel were actually employees of a parallel dimension's Crey, in which the company does not have the responsible and ethical standards of Crey here in Paragon City. Crey also claims that the equipment that was destroyed by Team Heisenberg was not dimensional gateway equipment, but was in fact equipment used in research of a cure for AIDS. Lawyers representing the company have filed a lawsuit against the members of Team Heisenberg seeking monetary damages. I still have to wonder, though: If the Crey of this dimension were not engaged in extradimensional travel research, how did these creatures end up in our dimension instead of the parallel dimension?

Toño "News Man" Vasquez

A Needed Release

After last week's column, I decided that I needed a release, a little R and R to go with the daily fight against evil. Even Batman gets to be the millionaire playboy sometimes, and he's only a comic book character!

It's funny, I've been in Paragon City since just after the Rikti War, and it just occurred to me this week that the only places with which I am familiar are the darkest, grungiest corners of the city. I can navigate the sewer system blindfolded and traverse the gnarled forest maze of Perez Park with ease, but I don't know where to get great authentic Mexican food, a good club to go to where I can dance and meet some interesting women, or the best place to watch a beautiful sunset. So this weekend, I set out on a simple mission: to forget about crimefighting and to find some fun. If I ran across some heroes in the process, then all the better.

So with an assignment as important as this one, I sought out the only contact I could think of to provide me with valuable clues: Sheryl Castor, the City Life editor of the Paragon Mirror. I told her that I trusted her implicitly and asked her to surprise me with some suggestions. She was very willing to help--a little scarily eager, actually--and by the end of the day, I had two full typewritten pages in my office mailbox from her, complete with directions, suggestions on what to wear, and the name of a hairstylist. (Did I mention scarily eager?)

So Friday afternoon, I headed out, first to pick up some new threads and get a haircut, then I was off to Atlas Park to catch Elena, the new show at the Morway. I thought it was very interesting, especially since I've never been into the whole fine arts scene, but I'll defer the reviews to our very capable editors at The Mirror. I had excellent seats, for which I am grateful to the management. Sometimes being in the press does have its perks!

Afterwards, I stopped by the Paragon Dance Party. I had heard of the place from some friends of mine that are heroes. At first, the place did not impress me very much. It was filled with junk and the requisite laser lights and blasting music. There were a lot of people inside. Most of them were heroes, because the club can be rather dangerous to get to, and if one gets a bit too tipsy and steps outside the wrong door, it can get very dangrous very quickly. Many of the heroes were hovering and flying about, so it really did not seem very crowded. The club had even hired a couple of waitresses who could hover to serve drinks to some heroes who were resting in the rafters of the place. At midnight, someone proposed a costume contest. It sounded like fun, but I didn't enter because I was wearing club clothes, and my normal "costume" is military fatigues. Besides, even if I were wearing a costume, I was having too much fun with my dance parter to be distracted, so we ignored the rest of the partiers and concentrated on each other, which was nice. I ended up getting a little too tipsy, but fortunately I didn't have to worry about the wrong door. I called a couple of taxibots to help me and my newfound date for the evening reach our respective destinations, and then I called it a night.

Saturday morning, I looked up the number of my dance partner the night before, and I realized that I had been tricked--it was the home phone number of Emperyl, my shapeshifter friend who I mentioned in my column a couple of weeks ago. I thought she seemed familiar somehow, but I didn't recognize her with red hair and about half a foot taller than she usually is. I called and asked her why she did not say anything. She said that it was the first time in a long time that she had seen me having fun. I guess she was right about that, and I did have a lot of fun, so I asked her if she was available to catch a movie. She said yes, so that afternoon we went to the Atlas CinemaPlex. Afterwards, she suggested that we then go to a new club that she heard about from one of her friends.

The club is called Zero G, a new place opened up for out-of-this-world explorers. I cannot describe exactly where it is, because only heroes with very high security level clearance can get there. Emperyl pulled some strings to get us clearance to the area. Okay, maybe technically we were not supposed to be there, but when you hang out with a shapeshifter, getting clearance from "approved personnel" does not present much of a problem, if you know what I mean. I can say that it is one of the coolest places that I have ever been in my life. The proprietor is a very powerful controller who counteracts gravity throughout most of the main areas of the club (but thankfully not the bathrooms!). It is entertaining for the guests, and he uses the evening crowd to hone his levitation skills. The club is a large sphere with a well-stocked bar that runs like the equator around the inside. The dance floor is a large ball hovering inside the middle of the place, and you can get back and forth between it and the tables on the outer shell by either a good running jump or by grabbing one of several poles that run in between. I managed to get a not-so-authorized picture from one of the exterior balconies. I hope that some day, this place is safe enough to be opened up to the public so that you can experience it for yourself!

And that brings us to this morning, Sunday. I do not know exactly what I will do today, but I am about to turn in this column, and I can assure you that the rest of the day will involve yet more resting and relaxing. I'm thinking of calling up Emperyl again to see if she's interested in a late lunch and to help me find that beautiful sunset.

So if this is not the most exciting edition of the Hero Beat, it is because sometimes, the life of a hero consists only of a weekend of vegetating and recharging the batteries. In that respect, heroes and normal people are a lot alike. So tomorrow, if you are attacked by Skulls or Hellions, I will be there to help. For today, though, I will relay your message to the Weekend Warriors, who are more than capable.

And by the way, try La Fiesta de los Toros at the corner of Center and Sutherland streets, the one with the big sign with the bull on it. You were right, Sheryl, it's almost like being back home!

Toño "News Man" Vasquez

The Rise of a New Evil

First of all, a brief update: The Paragon City Council has pushed back their vote on strengthening hero registration for another month. That's great news, and I like to think that it is because many people have written to the City Council expressing concerns echoed in my last column. At any rate, whatever the reason, I am still a little nervous. The City Council merely pushed back acting, not killed the idea altogether. Still, it is a step in the right direction, and I hope that my readers continue to contact the members at City Hall to keep the pressure on.

Speaking of the City Council and its members, I had a chance to talk with Hayley Christian, the representative from Steel Canyon, today. He had some good news and some bad news, both of which have been apparent to the people who live and work in Steel Canyon for some time. The good news is that the presence of the Fifth Column has been extremely curtailed in Paragon City. The bad news is that the presence of a new organization known as the Council has been growing. (Not to be confused with the City Council which, of course, manages the government of Paragon City.)

Personally, I think that the bad news is very bad indeed. The Council seems to be just a retooled version of the Fifth Column without all of the Nazi trappings. This is a lot more dangerous; when the bad guys are wearing swastikas on their shirt sleeves, its pretty easy to tell who they are. The Council manages to keep a somewhat lower profile. Do not be fooled, however; word on the street is that most of the former members of the Fifth Column have now joined the Council, and many of their activities remain the same, including their horrific experimentations and, most importantly, their attempts to supplant our way of life with one of absolute rule at their hands.

The persistence of evil in Paragon City never ceases to amaze me. I'm not talking about the so-called "normal" evil, such as street thugs stealing purses and the like, I mean the way that following battle after battle, it seems that the heroes hardly make a dent in the crime committed by super-powered villains. A couple of months ago, I was on a task force assigned the difficult mission of defeating Dr. Vahzilok once and for all. It was a very difficult mission. We planned on encountering many enemies, but we had not planned on the incredible regenerative abilities with which Dr. Vahzilok had imbued himself. The final battle was fought for over half an hour in the sewers, and three of Paragon City's finest were forced to make emergency medical evacuations. When all was said and done, I was completely out of ammunition and forced to use the butt of my assault rifle to fend off cadavers from a couple of hand-to-hand combat experts taking on Dr. Vahzilok. We only barely survived thanks to the good grace of our two empaths, one of which avoided evacuation but still ended up at Cygnus Medical Center after the battle.

But it was worth it, right? We saved the day, and the citizens of Paragon City will no longer have to worry about being stalked by horrific reapers to which the adjective "grim" simply does not do justice. Or so we thought.

Earlier this week, I stopped by Cygnus, where we took the remains of Dr. Vahzilok for analysis and study. Dr. Jaren, the chief specialist on the Vahzilok there, told me that some parts of the body that we brought in were old and dead, some parts were new as if freshly grown, and some parts were missing altogether. I asked how that was possible, and he said that it seems that another group of heroes found out that Vahzilok has been working on creating another body for himself. Could it be possible that he has found some way of psychically transferring his consciousness from one husk to another, thereby allowing the world to think him dead while he in fact lives? In studying a few corpses that Statesman brought in while cleaning up the remnants of the Vahzilok in Kings Row, Dr. Jaren discovered some of Dr. Vahzilok's primary DNA sequences in cells less than three days old.

It gets worse, too. Dr. Jaren told me that there were bits and pieces of DNA from many sources contained in the cells of the corpse we brought in. This DNA gives Dr. Vahzilok a high degree of resistance to the powers of heroes he has fought in the past. He asked me if we left any traces of our own DNA at the site of the battle. Traces such as the gash of skin from my leg? Such as the blood seeping from The Catalyst's arm when it partially dissolved in the acid vomit of one of Vahzilok's enbalmed minions? Such as the three teeth that Catharsis lost when she caught one of Vahzilok's haymakers on the chin?

Dr. Jaren strongly warned me that we cannot face Dr. Vahzilok again. In fact, now that the new DNA has been propagated to Vahzilok on the streets, we would do well to avoid this enemy altogether. To face Dr. Vahzilok again would mean certain death to us, and would surely jeopardize the efforts of other heroes who can hopefully take him out one last time.

I guess the reason I am writing about this today is that fighting the forces of evil seems like an uphill, sometimes even losing, battle. The heroes of Paragon City cannot give up and admit final defeat, but every once in a while, it would be nice to have some sort of reassurance that what we are doing matters, to see some sign that our efforts against the forces of evil are doing more than merely balancing a scale of destruction.

Until that sign arrives, I call out for other heroes to seek out Dr. Vahzilok and put an end to his reign of terror forever. I implore that my readers avoid these abominations at all costs. And I hope with all my heart that everyone can find their own source of encouragement in these trying times.

Toño "News Man" Vasquez