Tuesday 28 April 2015

1.10 Ancient Warriors Part 3

“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 and if they tried, they have to deal with four teams of professional superheroes. That last time they tried was a few weeks ago and it failed miserably.”

“What about the gangs up in Birmingham?” inquires Judy.

“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.


“Narszara is the hottest girl I know,” I answer, “Don’t worry, I only got eyes for you.” 

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