“You?” says Judy, a blank look on her
face.
“The Sentinel to be precise,” I reply,
“I sell all sorts of things to different people. Only some of them I let normal
people buy mind you, but I do sell things such as high-quality costumes,
communicators and other gadgets to fellow superheroes. There are a few so
called heroes that I refuse to sell to however. For example, Vengeance. That
said, they were still able to acquire of my tech and I do sell stuff to Shade
now. So I’ll be able get you equipment. For starters, you will need a cos-mat
costume, a communicator and utility belt at the very least. I can make other
stuff for you if you need it. Usually I would charge someone to cover the cost
of making it and a little extra to form a reserve of money to keep the League
of Heroes funded. But since we’re dating I’ll make them for you for free.”
“Thanks,” asks Judy, “What is cos-mat?”
“It is short for costume material,” I
answer, “Really useful stuff that my granddad, the original Sentinel, invented.
It’s flexible, but very tough. Cos-mat is resistant to lasers, energy blasts
and kinetic energy. It’s also hard to tear or rip. Unless you’re put into a
really bad spot, cos-mat will hold up against anything you’ll come across as a
superhero. ”
“Is it dangerous being a superhero?”
asks Judy, “I don’t know how I would explain it to my parents if I got hurt.”
“The main thing we have to worry about
these days is ordinary crime and foreign supervillains,” I reply, “All of the
native ones are currently locked up. Gravilord and Gaia’s Vengeance got taken
down by the League six weeks ago. Hall and Edison were caught by Accelerate and
I. You saw that on the news right? White Lord, Black Death and Redmund were
already in prison before granddad died. As for the foreign villains, they don’t
have a foothold here in the UK
“What about the gangs up in Birmingham
“The remnants of Black Storm’s army?” I
say, “Nothing to worry about. While a lot of them have powers, they’re still
weak versions like their parents’ and grandparents’ powers. They also become
very incompetent over the last few years. As I said, nothing to worry about.”
“What about the Birmingham
Vigilante?” asks Judy.
“Urban myth,” I state matter-of-factly,
“Doesn’t exist. A few mess ups and coincidences and they suddenly believe
there’s a dark and mysterious hero going after them. Granddad looked into it
and couldn’t find and an ounce of proof that the Birmingham Vigilante existed
beyond the constant failures of the gangs. I still haven’t found any evidence
since then. No one is that good enough to leave behind no trace of their
existence. Granddad, and I agree with him, believe that after a few mess ups, a
gangster or two decided to make up a story about some new superhero going after
them rather than get in trouble for their mistakes. So the gangs were on the lookout
for a non-existent hero. When they couldn’t find this make-believe hero and
when things went wrong, they blamed this hero. So now they expect this hero to
stop them so they blame them if they fail. And because they think they’re going
to fail, they do fail. It’s all in their heads.”
“I guess that makes senses and you are
the expert on this matter,” agrees Judy, “But how would I explain if I was
injured?”
“Each team has a healer. For example,
the Albion Defenders have Restorer and the League has Narszara,” I reply, “We
also have state of the art medical technology at our disposal and some of the
more ahead of the art tech as well. Plus you could probably use your powers to
undo the injury if it was recent.”
“That does make me feel better,” says
Judy, “Can I ask about Narszara? I tried to look her up on the internet after
hearing about her on the news, but there’s not much about her on it. Even then,
most of it is speculation.”
“Well, where to start,” I say before
trying to explain, “Narszara is human, one who their people have adapted to
their environment over the course of several thousand years, but isn’t from
Earth or even an alternate Earth. She comes from what was a fantasy world, but
has advanced its tech level over tens of thousands of years of civilisation for
her people to become a loosely connected benevolent interdimensional empire. As
for Narszara, she is one of the stronger members of her nation even if she is
no way near the most dangerous or powerful. A Class 6 by our standards when she
isn’t holding back. She specialises in fire and air and can shrug off injuries
that would be considered fatal to someone from our world. Narszara is also a
powerful magic user. I mean seriously powerful. As in the most powerful one I
have ever met and I know quite a few from helping my granddad. As for what her
personality is like, well, it is basically out-dated and old fashioned. While
by today’s standards it is barbaric and strange, up until a few centuries ago,
she would have been considered a paragon of virtue. Think honourable and
courageous knight. And unlike a few of those heroes who try and act like one,
she’s not acting. Narszara just does it naturally without even realising it.
What she does is hard to explain without a good understanding of how she
thinks, which, by the way, is quite different to someone in the modern western
world. Due to how her people’s culture works, she has sworn her loyalty to me
and does basically whatever I say. As long as I don’t cross certain lines that
is. I ought to introduce you two sometime. Just remember that if I do, she’s
very self-conscious about her extreme beauty. She acts like it is her fatal
flaw or something. Which doesn’t much sense as it isn’t.”
“Her extreme beauty,” repeats Judy dryly.
It occurs to me that I could have worded that better when talking to my girlfriend even if it is an accurate description.
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