The following speech was given to the Paragon City Medical Forces, city-sponsored recruits graduating to full service in their supergroup.
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I'm a nurse. I tell myself this when the reality of my life gets to be too much. I'm a nurse, I claim. Just a nurse, who happens to have some spectacular technology. It's not even mine.
My identity is Combat Medico. Unlike a lot of superheroes in the city, my name isn't a secret. But it's not important, either. Because I'm not a superhero; anyone with my training and the same equipment could do my job, and they are. You will be. I'm one of dozens of the Paragon City Medical Forces, just like you. They asked me here to talk to you all today.
The first fifty of us graduated from the medical academy like you; hired by the city's federal task forces to help support the
superpowered individuals who, for better or worse, are like us: We want the pain and war in this city to end.
Out there is a battlefield. Most of you know this intimately; many of you came from Boomtown, or what is now Grendel's Gulch. We watched brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, fall in this ongoing, insane war. Family lost to drugs, disease, illness, crime. You've all come forth, and offered to to make the world a better place the best way you know how.
You've all been issued gloves and suits. You've all practiced with
them; healing, defending yourselves. You've spent the housands of hours in classrooms around the city, learning strategies suited for supporting this city's allies... and for learning how to deal with the unexpected.
So I'm here to tell you today to celebrate, and put to use, what
you've learned. And to caution you that instinct will be every bit as important as training. Your suit may be bulletproof, but you're not. Keep your head down. Keep your men and women alive. Trust in their abilities, trust in yours... and trust the instinct to run. A hero isn't much good to anyone dead.
Be ready for the first time you die. We're playing for keeps out
there. The bad guys don't get portals to hospitals, and they know it. They'll knock you down and try to finish you. Portals to the hospital aren't always there in time. Bear your scars with pride; they are your badge of service.
People are going to die under your watch. Some permanently. And even if you learn to forgive yourself, you will always live under that knowledge. Physician, heal thyself. If you couldn't save them, it's doubtful anyone could. We want to believe our superheroes are invincible, that they're too virtuous and strong to be brought down. We want to believe, but we know better.
This is a war. And it has it's sober horrors. And you will be
constantly assaulted by them, unrelentingly. It's your job to fix
those horrors that you can. One person doesn't seem like much. But one person can save a lot of lives. And when those lives saved are busy saving other lives, you discover, very quickly, just how powerful one person's effort can be.
Paragon City Medical Forces graduating class of 2005: I thank you, and this city thanks you. You're saving this city, one life at a time.
The following speech was given to the Paragon City Medical Forces, city-sponsored recruits graduating to full service in their supergroup.
---
I'm a nurse. I tell myself this when the reality of my life gets to be too much. I'm a nurse, I claim. Just a nurse, who happens to have some spectacular technology. It's not even mine.
My identity is Combat Medico. Unlike a lot of superheroes in the city, my name isn't a secret. But it's not important, either. Because I'm not a superhero; anyone with my training and the same equipment could do my job, and they are. You will be. I'm one of dozens of the Paragon City Medical Forces, just like you. They asked me here to talk to you all today.
The first fifty of us graduated from the medical academy like you; hired by the city's federal task forces to help support the
superpowered individuals who, for better or worse, are like us: We want the pain and war in this city to end.
Out there is a battlefield. Most of you know this intimately; many of you came from Boomtown, or what is now Grendel's Gulch. We watched brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, fall in this ongoing, insane war. Family lost to drugs, disease, illness, crime. You've all come forth, and offered to to make the world a better place the best way you know how.
You've all been issued gloves and suits. You've all practiced with
them; healing, defending yourselves. You've spent the housands of hours in classrooms around the city, learning strategies suited for supporting this city's allies... and for learning how to deal with the unexpected.
So I'm here to tell you today to celebrate, and put to use, what
you've learned. And to caution you that instinct will be every bit as important as training. Your suit may be bulletproof, but you're not. Keep your head down. Keep your men and women alive. Trust in their abilities, trust in yours... and trust the instinct to run. A hero isn't much good to anyone dead.
Be ready for the first time you die. We're playing for keeps out
there. The bad guys don't get portals to hospitals, and they know it. They'll knock you down and try to finish you. Portals to the hospital aren't always there in time. Bear your scars with pride; they are your badge of service.
People are going to die under your watch. Some permanently. And even if you learn to forgive yourself, you will always live under that knowledge. Physician, heal thyself. If you couldn't save them, it's doubtful anyone could. We want to believe our superheroes are invincible, that they're too virtuous and strong to be brought down. We want to believe, but we know better.
This is a war. And it has it's sober horrors. And you will be
constantly assaulted by them, unrelentingly. It's your job to fix
those horrors that you can. One person doesn't seem like much. But one person can save a lot of lives. And when those lives saved are busy saving other lives, you discover, very quickly, just how powerful one person's effort can be.
Paragon City Medical Forces graduating class of 2005: I thank you, and this city thanks you. You're saving this city, one life at a time.