“So her main power is her toughness?”
asks Adalbern.
“I would say that her main power is more
her inability to go down,” I reply, “Even then, if you do take her down, she
doesn’t stay down for long short of being killed. And that is just the power
she uses the most. At her best, she is a Class 6. I first got my suspicions I
saw her in battle with Vengeance and confirmed it when testing her limits back
at the base.”
“But enough about Narszara for now,”
says Adalbern, “How is the rest of the League of Heroes? I would like to find
out before I have to enduring the boring side of this state visit. Nothing
exciting actually happens in modern politics. It’s all talk and no action.”
“We’re doing well,” I reply, “Of the
originals, only Bolt, Vibration and Psychic are still alive and only Bolt is
still active, through that is just public relations with no fighting. The first
Bulk is still helping out with some the equipment and is willing to go out into
the field if it gets bad enough. As for the rest of us, we been keeping active
helping out the police. With every native supervillain in prison, we only
really have been dealing with petty crime with something more serious coming up
now and again. I will admit I have been dabbling with white collar crime
recently. It costs people a lot more than blue collar crime by the way and
nobody apart from me is a position to deal with it.”
“Commando, Storm Knight and I have also
been looking at dealing with organised crime,” says Sam, “Taking out drug
dealers and drug farms that the police can’t touch.”
“Vigilantism,” muses Adalbern, “Can’t
say I’m surprised that the League of Heroes is prepared to casually break the
letter of the law to up hold the spirit of the law. Your grandfathers always
had that noble side to them and I expected them to pass it on to their heirs.
Did I ever tell you about that time I fought them in Rouen? Back in the Second
World War, shortly after D-Day, back when they were still called Lion Squad. I
was leading a company of soldiers when we clashed. Lantern and I battled while
Commando and Sentinel fought my men alongside your own soldiers. The rest of
them were scattered around the rest of the town at the time. I slightly
out-matched the original Lantern to be honest. He lacked my experience, but he
was good enough that he was able to fight me to a standstill with those
magnificent powers of his. It helped him I hadn’t faced a real threat in a long
time and wasn’t expecting any real challenges. Even Supersoldier, Captain
Magnificent and Strongman hadn’t been able to best me when they combined their
might at Dunkirk. To be bested by a relatively new fighter was humbling to say
the least. In my desire to break our stalemate especially as the rest of Lion
Squad was effectively on the verge of winning the battle for the town as a
whole, I destroyed the support for a nearby building. One containing French
civilians and German soldiers. If I had known it contained my own men, I
wouldn’t have done as I did.”
That was definitely true. Adalbern was a
patriot, a determined one even if he wasn’t one of those fanatics that springs
to mind when patriots are mentioned. Instead of short, visible bursts of
enthusiasm, he was always there for his people, protecting them and fighting
for them. He had literally always been there for them as he was already
defending his people and conquering their enemies when they started recording
history. He was several centuries old when his compatriot Sir Gawain for born.
Actually, now I think about it, I’m
certain that Adalbern once mentioned something about being over seven thousand
years old...
“But I did and I took that opportunity
to get away,” continues Adalbern, “Lantern however moved to hold the building
up and saved those inside. The rest of Lion Squad had rallied nearby to help
Lantern stop me and I had to fend them off as Lantern saved those within the
building. A noble deed that one could have easily excused him for not
performing. Yet he did it anyway, without a moment’s hesitation. I also
respected him for that. But at least he died a good death in the end,
sacrificing himself against the greatest threat our world has ever faced.”
The Sektain Invasion. The one that the
first Lantern died stopping. Not many
today still believe it was that great of a threat, but Adalbern is one of the
few to fully understand what the Invasion meant especially as he played a key
part in it.
“The American Government wishes for me join
their Defender Initiative,” says Adalbern, changing the subject abruptly, “Not
so much myself due to my history and politics, but the Gardisten. Both Wald
Ritter and I refused their offers.”
“It isn’t so bad,” says Britannia, “All
of the government teams in the Isles are part of it. So are most in the world.
It is just you Germans, Russians and Chinese who resist the most.”
“Don’t forget the League,” cuts in Aunt
Mary.
“We don’t resist them,” I protest, “I
even help fund them and most of their equipment is Sentinel Tech. I suppose
that technically makes the League part of the Initiative.”
“But as an established private
organisation with lots of ties and connections already, you don’t need the help
of the Defender Initiative as much as everybody else,” says Aunt Mary, “I think
that is one of the reasons that the Initiative officials seem to avoid
involving me. I have too many close ties to the League of Heroes for their
taste and not as dependent on them.”
“Makes sense,” mutters Adalbern, “It
also seemed like an attempted by the Americans to dominate the superhuman world
even further.”
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