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