[Video]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

[Kit looks tired and pale. She's been working on recovering from her pounding at the hands of the local thugs, but she still has a ways to go. And she has a problem.]

Okay, cards on the table. I give up on my secret identity. Can't do it.

[Oh, for a city of a million people and a hypnotist for a partner. We never know what we've got until it's gone.]

Anyway. I understand there are some decent scientists around. I got caught in a nasty ambush and my suit took a real beating. My gliding membranes are torn, I blew something in one of my static shoes... Heck, there are just some bullet holes that need dealing with. I also could use help getting my grapple gun back into usable condition, though I might be able to figure that one out on my own. And I have one knockout gas grenade left, so if anyone could work backwards from there...

Right. Fact is, I'm the danger and daring-do half of the equation. Left my mad professor back home, y'see. Can anybody lend a hand?

Comments

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

I guess it doesn't work this way everywhere, but where I come from, if you spend your nights fightin' criminals, would-be-conquerors, magical shenanigans, and goofy science monsters, you need somebody to be during the day. When your real identity gets rumbled, the bad guys can go after not just you, but your family, your friends, your networks...

[girlworthfighting]

I guess that does make sense.

Bad things can and do happen to heroes' loved ones, in my world. But no one ever tries to hide their identity -- unless maybe they're some kind of criminal. And even then...well, Snow White never pretended to be anybody else!

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

[Snow White? And she thought her buddies had silly names.]

Maybe you should try it sometime. It's pretty nice not to have to worry that my mom or my son is going to be kidnapped by a supervillain. Why, one of our old enemies crashed our wedding, and he just thought he was robbing a couple of ordinary pigeons! And on the other hand, when the Home Team identity records got leaked, almost everybody was taken down in their everyday identities.

[girlworthfighting]

[Oh if only you knew Kit.]

It's probably too late to do anything like that here. And back home, I don't have any loved ones left to worry over.

Besides, I am a warrior. A soldier. Even when I do not always take pride in my actions I do not try to divorce myself from them.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Honestly, you sound like my husband. We know who we are. The glory hounds who worry about people knowing always come to bad ends.

[No one left to worry over, though, she's familiar with. That's never a good thing for a hero. Messes with your head something awful.]

[girlworthfighting]

What sort of bad ends?

[It's threatened to get to her, at times. Right now it's just lucky she has a code, or at least a semblance of one, to keep her going. And the new allies she's made her certainly help too.]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Leaving aside the time a certain masked mystery man decided that he couldn't stand his then-unborn children thinking his secret identity was a coward after the war, joined the army, and wound up behind enemy lines for over a year?

[She might forgive him for that incident someday.]

Heroes who pose for pictures and make a point of public vendettas get a lot less done and lose in nasty ways a lot more often. Captain Owl lost a hand and had to retire, Mr. Amazing wound up half out of his gourd, Doc Rocket is probably the most targeted man in Canada, and Tom Tomorrow... Well, I'll never believe there was no other way to stop that invasion force.

[girlworthfighting]

[There is a lot of information there for her to sort through.]

Leaving aside the fact I don't get all your references, I can see your point.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Heh, sorry. Been in the business since I was twenty-one, y'see. Prolly even someone who did come from my world would have been a little confused by all that.

[girlworthfighting]

I thank you for giving such a thorough answer to my query.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Why, was that a smile? We might get along after all, sister.

[She's had an awful lot of experience wrangling the stoic, serious type, after all.]

[girlworthfighting]

I have been known to be capable of it from time to time, yes.

[Even warriors have to have their downtime.]

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Oh, good, I was a little worried you might be a robot. ...Not that I don't know a couple robots who're kinda funny.

[girlworthfighting]

I think the only robot I've met so far was Wing...but he was a kindly fellow. I presume he had a sense of humor.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

We have a few kicking around the hero scene. White Knight, Red Ensign, I think the Justice Union has somebody... Always handy to have on the team, but a little joke-impaired.

[girlworthfighting]

I can't think of why that would be. Then again, I'm not in much position to know anything about these 'robots'. Yet another development a far cry from what we had in my world.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

That was true of me not so long ago, but we got more than a couple of geniuses in the hero beat and on the villain side. Actually, Red Ensign was built by Captain Clockwork. He just went rogue and decided to do the good guy thing.

[girlworthfighting]

It seems that machines who can think for themselves are just as likely to turn on their masters regardless of affiliation.

[girlinasquirrelsuit]

Oh, once they get to that point they do seem to pretty much do what they want.

[girlworthfighting]

Not unlike most children, once they start to grow.

It seems what they say really is true. The more things change, the more they stay the same.