For the first time since I left Point Garland, Alaska, I (better known as Winters Rage) finally feels like a real hero. When I first got my battlesuit from Longbow, all of those childhood fantasies of being a superhero finally seemed like they were about to come true. Except they didnt. Oh sure, I had done plenty of good for Paragon. Id saved a mechanic and his family from the Clockwork, Ive stopped the Vahzilok from poisoning the citys water supply, I had even worked with Positron to stop a three-way attack on the Overbrook dam. But the fantasies of saving the world hadnt been fulfilled. Working as a Longbow superhero seemed more like being a agent-with-superpowers, then a hero.
In the few weeks since the Rikti started their second invasion I (and all other Longbow super-agents) had been regulated to protecting the Longbow base from an attack that has yet to come. Until Marshall (my advisor and partner at Longbow) gave me my next assignment. He handed me a manila folder marked Task Force Vigilance and another marked Sylph Knight. Marshall explained that Sylph Knight was planning to try and take down one of the Rikti dropships.
I headed over to Steel Canyon and prepared to make history. The turnout was amazing, over seventy heroes preparing to strike back at the alien invaders. After three long hours, it happened, the War Walls went down and the dropships came surging through. When the first dropship exploded I felt like a hero for the first time, by the time the ninth one had gone down, I felt like a superhero.
Now Im sitting at my desk filling out form after form after form about the encounter. (Damn government paperwork) The Longbow technicians are doing the happy dance from the technology they could play with. Neither the paperwork nor the antisocial technicians bother me today though, because I truly am a superhero.
Ya'll rock. End of story, that is the coolest thing I've ever read.
I enjoyed this event very much! (Plus, I nearly fainted when I saw Back Alley Brawler in the bottum left corner of my screen. 
) You can also read about, and see pictures of the event here.
We also have a video of the event created by Dawthm. So, many thanks to him/her capturing that moment in history. 
-The new Proto Zone
Ive had my share of battles. And God knows Ive suffered losses. My childhood companion Tanya Tyler was among the first victims I failed to rescue in my newly-established career as a hero. I still have nightmares about her disfigured form, cursed by Hamidons ungodly microbes, looming over me with bestial vehemence. Nothing quite scars a woman like slamming her former best friend through concrete walls in a desperate struggle to stay alive
even if she is a monster. All these years I spent building ties with NASA so that I could finally touch the endless depths of outer space amounted to nothing after that. All that mattered was Tanyas well-being, and the search for a cure.
Thats why I joined the Vanguard.
It didnt take long for me to draw a connection between the activity of the group known as The Lost and the Riktis surging reinforcements, even before those
those things
started blotting out sun and sky. The Rikti had been warping our own people, bringing them into the fold of the Rikti Collective. How does this add up for me? A cure for the Rikti Mutation may well parallel a cure to the condition of Hamidons Devoured
and Tanya as well.
Vanguard employed me only a month before the Rikti began their brutal renaissance of war. I used my physics-warping Quantum Energy technology to help them shape the countless tons of Impervium they had fabricated seemingly out of nowhere into useful constructs. Every piece of Vanguard Armor has my scientific signature written all over it. If that werent payment enough for the services of their scientific staff, then perhaps my leadership within the staff of Vanguard Shield and civil duties towards my beloved Paragon City will rest any thoughts of my payment
I will go any lengths to protect Tanya. And, what she held most dear
Tanya was wild-eyed, an extremist of the highest value. I wasnt ever quite far behind her there. But the world doesnt much listen to ecologists anymore. I cant say I really blame Tanya for getting wound up with ecoterrorists, not with heartless jerks like Crey Industries leaving messes everywhere they go. Sadly, that lead her to Hamidon, and that cost her all the humanity she ever had. But she did it all in the name of the earth and the shining, azure skies
The sky is my domain. It lies between the starry heavens that I have sought to touch for so long and the emerald plains of the earth. The sky is the window to outer space and the marvelous sun which instills hope into countless lives each and every day. And now those skies are threatened once again. The Rikti buried me alive beneath the rubble of the Paragon University during the first Rikti War. I have tasted their destructive power, felt helplessness first-hand. I watched as that cycle unfolded again with those horrendous machinations. The Rikti didnt just rush back to us empty-handed
they came armed to the teeth. They had studied us, our physiology and technology. They had witnessed our power, tasted our wrath and ingenuity and sorely underestimated our will to survive. They would not so easily make that mistake twice. They had constructed a new type of weapon, one that would endanger the people we Heroes so bravely throw ourselves into harms way to protect in order to leave us open... and then they would destroy us, one by one, with that infernal beam cannon. If that wasnt suitable enough, they had plenty of ground troops to reinforce their efforts, driving us out and laying waste to us with numbers unprecedented.
Hero work is full of rescues, received and distributed like a weekly paycheck. But these things had made us into victims, and left us feeling like the ones needing to be rescued. I thought of this as I looked into the tear-filled eyes of a child I had just barely rescued as he trembled upon the sight of a charred skeleton lying next to our feet. From the tatters of cloth lying nearby, I had suspected that those remains had once been a proud defender of peace and justice. His hand was weakly fixated, outreaching towards the clouded skies which lay poisoned by the Drop Ships emissions, as though he were crying out for something. I could only take my hand into his and gently wrest it to the ground, accidentally knocking his unused Mediport Device away with a clatter. The poor soul never had a chance.
Weeks passed, and those devilish ships knocked out our War Walls and slinked through the various districts with their lethal payload uncontested. I had lead many groups of Heroes to battle them in the past, but our efforts were felled. While we did not suffer any losses, our efforts left us wounded and would have been better served trying to evacuate the civilians. The Rikti had us in the palm of their hand, they believed. Had they not counted on a simple fact, this might have been true. You see, the Rikti Ground Troops were numerous, but were suffering heavy captures. Our death toll and critical injury rate was much lower than theirs, thanks to our Mediport System
and, that the Rikti had not anticipated that we were, by far, more powerful than the first legion of Heroes whom they had faced some four years ago.
In the wreck of that first conflict, the Surviving Eight and others around the world sent out the call for a new generation of Heroes. The discord brought by the Rikti War seemed to fuel a Super-Powered resurgence in mankind, and many new Heroes rose to the challenge. But so did many enemies, new and ancient, grow in power and rise to stand in our path. These adversaries were better prepared than we were in the ruins of the Rikti War. They had surpassed their predecessors many times over, and in effect, we had to adapt as well. With training from some of the greatest heroes of the previous generation and a whole lot of luck, we conquered these fiends time and time again. We had become mighty indeed
mightier than what the Rikti had suspected. The fact that their Drop Ships were fervently seeking us out made this fact quite clear: They werent killing us as efficiently as they had suspected at all. In fact, aside from their dreaded Meta-Buster Drop Ships, they were having a pretty rough time managing against us. We were being pushed back, but we dug our toes in the gravel and resisted with more strength than they could ever realize. And, frankly, I felt
I KNEW
that we could push harder.
With the sunlight drenched in toxic clouds, a gloomy chill passed through the citizens of the city. Hope waned from their souls. Their laughter had become tears of despair. Those sickly skies were enough to drown the light from this world without the constant threat of annihilation breathing down our necks. And thus, to win
I knew. We all knew. Those skies must be made clear again. Those Drop Ships must FALL!!
We had little idea on how the Drop Ships actually worked, even given our past encounters with them. They were fast, but still had to slow down in order to deliver their payload. Their armor was made of an alloy as strong as Impervium, so they could take an incredible amount of punishment. I once struck one with Megaton Punches till my Hybuster Gauntlets burned out and hardly left a dent in the thing. Their cannons had a fairly low reload time, and could incinerate most Heroes in one shot though sometimes more if they were physiologically resilient or possessed some kind of energy-warping defense like I have. Overall, things looked quite grim.
I was then approached by a few another hero with a like-minded ambition. He called himself Heroic Judgement, and it wasnt long before the two of us agreed to organize a Task Force for the sole purpose of destroying one of those accursed Drop Ships. We figured that if we could salvage at least one, then perhaps the brains over at Vanguard might be able to come up with a better means to attack the Drop Ships as a whole. Not one to waste time, I quickly began to contact any Hero I happened to come across. I called in favors, sent out bulletins, and used the Vanguard and Longbow networks to amass anyone brave enough to face one of these monstrosities head-on. Radmofet, Dark Ether, Darkonne, Beta Sword, Night Protector, the Hyperkinetic Hippy, Aikao, Darkonne, Amalgamate, Supercold, Star Lancer, Bellflower, the list went on and on! I had scheduled the attack to be less than twenty-four hours since the first announcement so the Rikti would not catch on, and within that time frame we were able to amass over seventy of Paragons least-known champions. It was reasonable that none of the heavy-hitters would be able to assist: they had the luxury of being stationed at specific places throughout the city. Im pretty sure Positron laughed at me when I suggested the assault. After all, it would be suicide to attack a whole squad of the Riktis most powerful weapons and hope to come out successful, right?
While the word spread, I had pulled a few favors with NASA and took command of their satellite network. With a bit of help from various allies, we were able to predict part of the Riktis flight path. It was then that we found the perfect place for an ambush: the construction zone in northern Steel Canyon.
Steel Canyon was one of the luckier sections of the city. The attacks had barely grazed them thus far as the Rikti probably hadnt accounted for its value. As the financial district of our city, it was the lifeline to any sort of commerce we had. Steel Canyon meant the continued success of Paragon City as industrial center, and if it fell then we would have a serious crisis on our hands. The city would be nearly unsalvageable without its center of commerce. It was just our luck that the Rikti finally found that the only major section of the city without a neighborhood was a worthwhile target, and we would be waiting for them.
We waited. Oh yes. We waited so very, very long.
The hours whittled away as we head on the rooftops of skyscrapers, beneath the construction, inside buildings, and anywhere else that would prove sufficient shelter. It was a long wait, but spirits were high. The largest effort against the Drop Ships had been less than half our number in the past. This would be an overwhelming show of force. Only the battles against Hamidons gigantic single-celled mass had ever called for such an incredible count of powers against a single foe. Many felt victory was assured, though I remained skeptical. I tried to keep the tactics simple, for I knew something they did not: a sizable army of this mass would be extremely difficult to coordinate. I kept the tactics plain and simple in fear that anything more complicated would fall to ruin. And I prayed, to whatever nameless divinity would hear my plea
I prayed, for hope.
Someone asked: So, what did you call this little shindig again? I pondered a moment
I hadnt thought about a name for our Task Force. However, it seemed quite appropriate. I pointed to the Vanguard V on my helmet and inquired, Do you think this thing on my forehead stands for Longbow?! We Heroes have a vendetta to settle with the Rikti. Thus, we are
Task Force Vendetta!!
Hours passed
and suddenly, the War Walls snapped off! Everyone was on edge, but I desperately called for them to remain patient. We watched as the Drop Ships circled round and entered formation. Our time had come. We suddenly exploded from our hiding places! A swath of Heroes, like a swarm of bees, wrapped its mass upon itself and formed a massive, impenetrable wall of power! We had heroes of all types and all powers gathered, creating barriers of energy and fields of force, increasing vital functions and mystically charging one-another with primordial energies or with advanced technology. Ours was a hodge-podge of sheer, unmitigated power! The very fabric of space-time felt as though it waxed and waned (and in no small part due to the presence of a time-warping Hero in our presence).
I can only guess that the Rikti were unimpressed with our defiant entry because they darted right at us, one right behind the next.
The first ship groaned like a malicious beast as it lunged towards us! It met with beams of energy, fields of force, fists of unbridled strength, and by some accounts even mere rocks! Our initial assault left gigantic craters in the pitch-black armor of the abhorrent thing, but despite our best efforts it was but a mere energy burst from the Drop Ship that forced us to scatter. Tear-ridden, I was flung aside and clawed at empty air until I caught my balance and resumed the chase. Like a living cannon-ball, I flung myself into the hull of the engines, beside myself with agony as several other Heroes struck the same position and presumably got mixed up in the crossfire.
Many of us were dazed, nearly all of us despaired. Where these behemoths truly indestructible?!
and then, the ship
it began to stagger to-and-fro
Several of the other Heroes had been trying to net the ship to slow it down with every bit of power they had. Our desperate attack on the engines reinforced this and we were now faced with the bewildering results. The beast was injured! Rejoicing sang through the air as cries of confusion and pain became those of valor! We struck again, and again! We latched onto that blasted ship like leeches and began to rip the armor plates off while our allies continued to humble it from behind with energy blasts and various other powers that left it weakened and powerless! It wasnt long before we breeched the bulkhead and the entire thing began to plummet towards the cemented earth!
Our hearts raced as we turned to the next approaching Drop Ship. It neither slowed nor changed its course
as though it doubted our power even though its occupants had witnessed our act with their very eyes. We threw ourselves upon it without hesitation, zealous and fit with resurgence after our initial victory. In short time, the ship was reduced to a smoldering ball of flame that crashed into the open highway, just like its predecessor.
Ship after ship, we charged forth. Seventy Heroes stood their ground that day, and not one lost their life. The Rikti lost nine of their most powerful weapons, reduced to so much rubble beneath our feet. The ground forces didnt fare much better. No, they were completely decimated by a revitalized force of Heroes who fell upon them like a flock of wrathful angels descending from the heavens! As though the very skies heard our cries, the sunlight chiseled through the gaseous cloud and shone to our backs, blinding our foes as we wrought destruction upon their evil hordes. Those seven minutes changed everything: The War was not hopeless. The Enemy was not invincible. The Skies were not lost.
When you read the news tomorrow, will it be of Statesman and the Freedom Phalanx? Nay, I say to you. It shall be of the Steel 70, the Heroes who brought the light of hope back to the city! Though we may not have won this war, we have proven that there is still a way. Though the skies may still suffer under the weight of the noxious clouds, the sun still shines and waits for those whose shoulders dare burden the first steps towards the return of humanitys bright future.
Tanya, I have not forgotten. The Emerald Plains and Azure Skies will never fade and be but a memory. The people of this city again know hope. Hope
perhaps that is the greatest gift a Hero can give.
Raid Leader of Task Force Vendetta "Steel 70", who defeated the first nine Drop Ships in the Second Rikti War.
70 Heroes, 9 Drop Ships, 7 Minutes. The Aliens never knew what hit them.
Now soloing: GM-Class enemy Adamaster, with a Tanker!
I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be doing this. A decade ago I wasn't even living in this world, much less so attached and devoted to one city in it that I'd be on the front lines defending it.
I've met good friends here, many dead, a few still alive. And now it was the city - and the world's - time of need, the world I had come to from the spirit world, that had accepted me, allowed me to live among them. I've tried as a registered hero to give back, but this, this was the moment I felt I would do the most to repay this debt.
That's when Sylph Knight's call to arms came. We wern't going to sit around and let these invaders bomb us at their leasure. She had already tried once, with a disorganized group. I looked at the Zio Technautica, a friend's robot suit that was in the first try, as it sat in the repair bay, damaged from energy blasts. Others were trying, and I had to try. I flew in the sky as fast, if not faster, than anyone else I knew. So next thing I knew there I was, on a building, next to others, with Amalgamate annoying me, and waiting. The waiting wasn't so bad, there were some cuties around, but they seemed to ignore me.
That's when the lights went out. The capacitors hummed out. The sky turned green, that sickening green I remember from the Fairy realm... and then the air raid sirens kicked in. The hair on my neck stood on end, and I started to fidgit nervously. I took to the air, readying my sword, nervous, and waiting. Soon the rest of the task force, which Sylph had called Vendetta, took to the air as well. I flew around, eyeing the horizon, and waited.
Then the ships came.
The first one flew through the open war wall, and without the charge order I and a few others pre-emptively struck at it. Its energy blasts shot out at others, and at me, but not enough to slow any of us down. Then the charge order was given, and the entire Steel 70 charged.
I admit I was swinging with one hand and started to snap some pictures with my camera phone when the first ship went down. It was a shock. A suprise. After previous attempts it went down shockingly fast! I stuffed the phone into a pocket and wielded my sword two handed and help slam into the second one! It went down as smoothly as the first!
And the third.
And the fourth.
Nine in total. Nine dropship bombers that the Rikti I hope couldn't afford to lose, now burning green cinders on the streets of Steel Canyon.
You know what Rikti? There are two kinds of extradimensional visiors here. There are the kind like you, like the Praetoreans, like the Red Caps, nasty, evil, vile buggers who have no place here, and should go home or die.
Then there are others like the refugees from the Shadow Shard, and others like myself - those that just want a happy life, to live with, in harmony, the people of this world. And they've given me that chance. Helping to defend it is the LEAST I can do.
Also any of the cuties from the fight if you want my phone number its 555-XXXX!
Editor's Notes: Remove last line before printing in the paper.
Find identity of owner of Zio Technautica for interview as well concerning first attempt.
The big names. You know who I mean. The Freedom Phalanx, the Vindicators, and maybe a few other lone heroes like Atlas and Talos who have made their names known throughout Paragon City's history. The big guns. The ones with all the merchandising, all the fans, all the glory. When the world goes to pieces, they're the ones they call on. Every other team -- even the big ones, like the Legion of Kitties or the Lethal Ladies -- they're small fry, barely worth the occasional talk radio interview. I mean... don't get me wrong. I'm not bitter. I mean, I've cleaned up my share of muggers, I've saved babies from burning buildings, I've taken down some big threats, and when it comes down to it, if I hung up the tights tonight, I'd sleep content because in my time as a heroine, I made the world a better place. But... sometimes, you want to make a real impact. Something that will help save the world.
Oh, if you don't know me, I'm Radmofet. I'd be just another girl going to PCU if it wasn't for these silly powers. Entirely by accident, actually. Now, I can control large amounts of energy and radiation naturally, and I can mutate fairly often if I can get to a lab. I'm not that strong or that fast or that tough, but I add in those little touches that make the front-liners sing. And, when worse comes to worse, I can make anyone who tries to take me on one-on-one regret it, although that's not my style.
I've done some fighting against the enemy. I've even done the unthinkable, and teamed up with some truly disgusting ne'er-do-wells for the sake of the fact that they had the will and the ability to stand up to our common foe. But here in Paragon City, though I've fought some of their ground assault teams -- pretty much everyone reading this has by now -- I haven't been too successful. Thank god the designers of the hospitals built those things for war; no matter how many times they bring down the walls, or how many heavy assault suits they pack around the place, the Mediport system stays powered up. Otherwise... I shudder to think of what might happen. In fact, it was there that I first saw the person who would lead this.
We spoke, and we thought it was a good idea. Her name's Sylph Knight, and she's a NASA quantum tech in a battlesuit. I had poked the word around, but she had a bit more organization and quite a bit more resources than me. Being a NASA girl, of course she had the ability to study schematics I don't. She eventually left a message, saying she had found a few like-minded heroes who were going to help. She didn't know how much there was to start. Steel Canyon, atop that big skyscraper by the contstruction zone, 8 PM. That's where their attack ships pass by, every day of this accursed war, according to her satellite images. That's where we were going to strike back.
She had the place right; the dropships came, just like she said she would. But she got the time wrong: 7:50. At that time, we had barely a half-dozen people, some of which only had the idea of 'counterattack' and not the 'gather' point. But darn it, giving up was unacceptable. It... was a rout. The same ship managed to knock me out *twice*, as after I hit the mediport the first time, I didn't have the sense to make sure I was prepared for the next battle. The ships recovered from every little burn I gave it, and I swore I could see the Rikti pilot laughing in my face. I wasn't about to give up, though.
My nightmare was that the war would be won, but not by us. What if the Circle of Thorns was able to ensorcell one of these things down? What if the Sky Raider's hard-earned knowledge of the Paragon City airspace, or the Freakshow's horrific weaponry, or the Troll's drug-fueled rage, was able to turn the tide in this war? Even some of the "good guys" I fear taking over; the fascist Longbow, or the Crey conglomerate. Giving up was unacceptable. So we gathered. She checked her charts, and saw the pattern to the attacks. She predicted 3 hours, tops.
Those three hours were a waiting game. We didn't know when they were coming back, or even if. However, we all had connections, and we began to call friends, leave messages, post messages up. This was not just a random fight: We were going to ambush these things. We have a few hours. We have some data to crunch, some number to analyze. Get ready.
I spent a little time and went to my lab, to tweak my powers for optimal efficiency. For example, I decided I would be best served learning how to fly if I wanted to take down a spaceship, and that my part would be best played in weakening it and not trying to do as much damage as my ... more offence-minded allies might be doing. I made a bet that I would have allies, alllies I could count on.
When I came back, now flying under my own power... I was shocked. There was much more than a team or two up there: There were dozens (a quick head count showed 40 at this point). There were all sorts of heroes. Strong, fast, smart, armed, unarmed. Paragons of virtue and the barely redeemed. Mutants, mages, geniuses, robots, and experts, all ready to defend their world. Heck, there were even a few aliens there, who thought our world was worth saving. We spent three hours up there, waiting, joking, planning strategies, swapping stories, trading bad jokes and worn-out but appropriate one-liners from pop culture. All the waiting did get on our nerves, and a few people left early, due to need or impatience. However, we soon had a goodly sized group, enough for nine or ten task forces, both in teams and in solo heroes. That's how we got the name 'Steel 70', I guess. The reports of attacks in other areas were damning: Founder's Falls! Peregine Island! Talos Island! Atlas Park! Some left, but others stayed, stayed by the advice that by the time it took to get there, the attack runs would be mostly finished. We waited, nervous, wanting to do *something*...
And then the war walls came down.
We waited just inside the perimeter -- the symbol clear. We were a cloud, fourty feet wide, the target for the ship to fly into. And it didn't even deviate course at all. Not an inch. And when the ship passed that line, and violated our air space... we burst.
At first, it looked like we had failed. All our defenses, all our plans, all had failed. I was expecting at least a 40-tesla shield around all of us, with at least fifteen greys per minute of impromptu area-of-effect chemotherapy providing us with the energy we needed to keep on, but I barely felt six tesla, and the fifteen greys fell to a single feeble grey per minute -- what I was extruding. The results everyone else had got were that those ships were invincible monsters, and that it was better to outrace them in the war of attrition on the ground than to try to take them down. When our defences fell through, I thought that this was it: another failed counterattack, another trip away from the battle thanks to Mediport, another swarm of Rikti wreaking havoc on the people ... on my home.
But still, we kept at it, defenses or not. We flew at it, magical spells thrown at it, experimental Crey pistols firing at it, assault rifles blaring, lasers and phasers blasting, trick arrows and missles launching, summoned imps claying and a few just flying in to punch at it or swing swords. Heck, one all-American paragon of patriotism just threw rocks at it -- how he got rocks, I'll never know. And then, despite our lack of coordination (we expected to destroy it in one salvo if we destroyed it at all, but wound up having to chase after it), something amazing happened: It slowed down.
It never completely stopped. But somehow, along the line, we got its engines so fouled up that it just wasn't pushing along as fast as it was. That was when we swarmed the thing: almost everybody got in close, pounding it, firing our best weapons at point-blank range, helping each other. And suddenly, just like that, there was a loud CRACK -- and the rikti dropship broke open. I never saw anyone inside as it fell to earth -- apparently, they have a mediport too. However, the greatest projection of Rikti military might (that wasn't stuck in a crater outside Paragon city) fell to the streets of Steel Canyon, useless. But we weren't done... for the Rikti attack in packs.
This one was easier to coordinate, as the dropship came right through us... again. Apparently, all the dropships in that squadron had the same flight plan. Maybe they thought that that was a fluke, or an alpha strike, or that increasing numbers would prevail. But no. First, we attacked sooner; second, we were caught less off guard, and targeted it with slowing and debilitating effects quicker; third, we swarmed on it more readily, now that we knew it was an effective tactic, which let our defenses grow; and four, we were just riding the pure adrenaline rush. We took out a drop ship!
The second one fell, too, with only a single fallen on our side (someone who had been knocked out of the sky and who was taken out by a ground assault). And then the third came. With each, we pressed our advantage more; with each, we lost less ground. With all of us working together, we slowed the movement each Rikti ship to a crawl, and swarmed on it like ants in tights. Eventually, the ships stopped coming... we beat them all. Not a single ship got past us. We weren't just damage control: We stoped an entire Rikti dropship squadron. When we landed on the ground and swept through the few Rikti that had teleported down, that was just sweet sweet gravy to add to our victory.
I'm sure the people at Freedom Corps are already taking the ship salvage into custody to study them. I'm almost positive Longbow and the Vanguard got some, as well. But the most important thing we got is knowledge. Yes, we know a few abilities are more potent than others, but in the end, the secret was synergy. We manged to get lots of people in the air, lots of people with all sorts of abilities. I only knew one of them beforehand -- all the rest were total strangers -- but our differences and our variety made us powerful, the sum so much stronger than the parts. Yes, natural leaders will evolve, and the efficiency will go up with smaller groups (two or three task forces worth, perhaps) assembling in known successful strategies as we discover the secrets of their attack patterns. But we did it together. The Rikti have attacked us as a planet, and as a planet -- not as individuals, not as a nation, not as a culture, not even as a species, but as a planet -- we must strike back against those who would destroy us.
Oh, but here was the best part: After the raid, as we did a dance around the statue in the middle of Steel Canyon, getting a picture with ol' chrome-dome as members of Steel 70. (The name that was given to us by our leader, Sylph Knight -- Task Force Vendetta -- really annoys me since I can't stand that movie associated with it; I much prefer the "Steel 70.") I was going to dump my hero duds down in my PCU dorm in southside Steel Canyon and spend the rest of the evening with my girlfriends in Pocket D... when Back Alley Brawler showed up. The big master of fisticuffs and fancy footwork himself. He looks at us, at our battle-weary but otherwise none the worse for wear forms... and then, he sees the crashed, disabled, smoking ruins of ships stretching out down the street behind us. I'll never forget the look on the face of that 'unfazable' master of the military arts as his jaw slowly fell open. He looked to us, and he gave us one word:
"Grats."
We left a core member of the Freedom Phlanax, an old veteran of the Rikti War, speechless. Some of us even studied under him for a short time in the beginning of our careers... and now, we had left him in our tracks, and he was giving homage to us. We took the dramatic first step forwards in discovering a way to destroy these dropships -- perhaps once and for all. We created what they will be using. We laid out the path that the big names, the epic archetypes of what it means to be a hero, will follow in.
Man, it's good to be a heroine.
And Rikti, you better watch out. We are the Steel 70, and if you think that we are the key to Earth's defenses, then tough luck, for the knowledge is already out. Where us 70 have gone before, another 70,000 will follow in our footsteps, and everywhere in Paragon City and on Earth you go, we will follow. This will be no war of attrition!
Proud member of the Steel 70! | Global @Radmofet ; usually on Pinnacle, sometimes on Virtue.