| �Birth Of A Hero� Journal Entry #1 � April 28,2004 |
| On my way home from work was when it happened. I heard a dull humming from above. I ignored it at first, until it grew louder and deeper. The windows on the buildings along the street rattled, and finally, I craned my head skyward to investigate. An enormous flying saucer was hovering over the city! Little did I know at the time, that the alien attack was well under way in other portions of the city, and indeed, the world. |
| When Donny Chaps (aka The Yellow Bolt) asked me to write periodical journal as a feature of the Freedom Squad�s internet page, at first I was against it. As both the owner of the specialty store �Leftopia� in the Sandalwood Shopping Center in Skyway City, and also as the super hero Capt. Lefty, I have very little free time to occupy myself with such things. Still, I felt that perhaps it would begin to open a more honest dialogue amongst each other of what it is really to be a crime fighter here in Paragon City. Reluctantly, I accepted, if only to shut little Donny up about it. I spent many an evening on patrol pondering what I should write about on my first journal entry. Frankly, pretty much all of us (with the exception of Donny) are out there nearly every night, fighting crime and busting heads of evil-doers. As such, it seems silly for me to recant the sometimes-tedious job of busting thugs and smashing robots and zombies. It occurred to me then, that I might do well to talk about how I became the super hero called Capt. Lefty. |
| My alter ego name, as all of you know, is Nigel Fingers, prominent shopkeeper and pillar of the community. Nearly two years ago now, I was on my way to work one morning, and I stopped to pick up a paper at the local newsstand. I flipped through the main sections, as I always do, but then, a strange impulse compelled me to look at my horoscope. After all, today was my birthday. I flipped to that section and read the daily horoscope. It said, �you will find great pain and strength in transition.� Of course, I scoffed and muttered a vague epithet in regards to fortune cookies, and continued on to my store. Just before I arrived, I happened to see a pack of thugs in a dark alley, making a drug trade. I shook my head, and said �why don�t the heroes ever take care of punks like them?� I turned, and walked into the mall, where my trusty accountant, Veronica Lace, was waiting with a surprise birthday cake. It was May 23, 2002 � the day of the Rikti Invasion. |
| Soon, I found that I had an extraordinary level of control of the left side of my body, and my right brain functions were phenomenal, to the point of being psychic. When I encountered a group of Hellions near my apartment in King�s Row, I suddenly discovered that I had the ability to demoralize them, using only my mind. I found I could implant cripplingly depressing or upsetting thoughts in their minds, to the point where they would double over in agony. I then punched the heck out of them until they ran away. Except for their leader, a masked man with a machine gun. He shrugged off my mental attacks, and kept firing at me to hold me at bay and keep me from escaping. Then, instinctively, I focused all my internal radiation at him, effectively infecting him with medium levels of radiation by my very will. He grew very weak an nauseous, and fired wildly into the air as I approached. With one mighty blow from my left fist, he fell unconscious, and I dissipated the radioactive cloud around him. It was then that I realized that I was destined to be a super hero. After three embarrassing weeks wearing a sweatsuit, and patrolling the city as �The Human Microwave�, I finally settled on the moniker of Capt. Lefty, and carefully bought enough green spandex to create my suit. |
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| Then, the great spaceship began to fire onto the city with its enormous energy cannons. One of the first volleys struck only about a block away, completely leveling a parking garage. Buildings around me caught fire spontaneously, and I went flying to the pavement, unconscious. I received a massive dose of radiation from the energy blast, and fell into a coma for nearly two months. By the time I woke up, the invasion had been thwarted, but the city was decimated. After many more months of rehabilitation, I was finally allowed to leave the hospital, though they could still not figure out why I was reading such a high level of internal radiation, and yet was still alive. They called me the �Human Microwave�, and joked that I probably gained super powers from the encounter. Little did they realize that they were more accurate than they knew. |
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| All of us have our origins, the birth of our powers, the acquisition of the technology or magical items that make us super, or perhaps simply the moment that we realized that it is our responsibility to help those in need. For me, it all began on my birthday back in 2002, and an ominous horoscope which for once, got lucky. For you� well, maybe I�m not as interested in hearing it as I should be. |
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