New Virterra. The grandest City in the world, home of every type of person imaginable. Civilians, petty criminals, regular heroes, white collar criminals, super heroes and the super villains that challenge them. The city’s name means ‘Hero Land’ which is quite fitting considering the number of heroes that flood the streets of this great city. The ‘New’ part of its name is a bit of an enigma; As much as I’ve looked I can’t figure out where the old Virterra was. I honestly think that they named it New because it was the popular thing to do when they were establishing great cities.
This grand city is known far and wide for its super hero population and yet we still have a relatively high crime rate. The only explanation for which is that people are stupid. I’ve lived here my whole life and as many super heroes as I have seen I’ve never seen a decline in crime. It’s one of the reasons I became a hero. Admittedly Doctor Darkness’ something gun exploding in my face while I was out shopping scrambling my brain and turning me into a technopath certainly pushed me in the hero direction.
To be honest I’m not exactly an A-list super Hero. I’m not even B-list. On a good day I am a C-list super hero with my big toe in the door the of B-list world, on a bad day I’m just a civilian and on a really bad day I’m an accidental super villain. It’s not so bad though. There are so many people here flying around with technopathy that when I do something bad enough all I have to do to get away with it is change my outfit. I’m on my fifth identity now. I started out as ‘Lady-Bot’… bad name I didn’t mind getting rid of, though I would have proffered to lose it without blowing up that bank volt and letting Void get away with the money. Then I was ‘Silva’, I liked that name… lost it to a group of soldiers I mistook for Captain Evil’s henchmen. After that I was ‘Power-Main’, I used to dress up in wires and fire electricity, which was kinda lame, especially when I sent a bolt of electricity soaring into the lake while Mayor Wao was swimming, don’t worry, he was corrupt and didn’t die. Last time I changed I was ‘Raine’ I was going for a more normal looking hero, which worked better than the others… until a cop mistook my skin tight outfit for a prostitutes and I beat him senseless for calling me a whore… he was in plain clothes, how was I supposed to know?
Well, it doesn’t matter… the past is the past, I am now ‘Firefly’ and my mission is… to go a year without having to change my identity!
To be honest right now I am Lucy Young, nineteen year old college student, about to flunk Philosophy, and not for the clichéd reason that I save too many people to go to class, I’m just really bad at it. Apparently I’m the only student that Professor Chaston has ever had that thought Descartes was the cart people in the olden days used during the day. Until the laughter started I was going to ask if there used to be a night cart.
But that’s really not what this story is about, I hope. I am Firefly, and I have aspirations of A-List Super Hero Status. You may have gathered by now that there are degrees of Heroics, from E-list to S-List. S-list you’re the one of the first super heroes people think of, you saved the universe on multiple occasions and people don’t call you for anything less than a continent, that’s not to say that they wont save an old lady stuck up a tree, but people consider the hero above it. An A-lister might have not have saved a universe but they will have gone on a world saving binge or two. B-listers have super villains, but, while some may intend to destry countries or at least cities they mostly justget greedy ones. C-listers like myself deal with bank robbers, drug dealers and other white collar criminals. We sometimes get enemies in crazy get ups but mostly only when we mistake each other for villains. D-list supers will get the petty crime while the E-listers deal with kittens stuck in trees.
By day I am Lucy Young, college student who often wears jeans, light weight shirts and red converse all stars, can’t forget about the all stars. By night I’m Firefly, a C list super hero with aspirations of A-List hero-dom, who goes around in a black and crimson metal plated battle suit with so many features that I had to build a fairly nifty Heads up display into the visor to keep reminding me what features I have. I call myself Firefly partly because of the booster jets on my back that look like wings when they power up, and partly because I was watching the cult hit TV show when I thought up the name.