Day 1

Across your desk rests three forms, each connected to a fallen hero, one that put it all on the line for their home.

The Return Of Contributions; a state funded payout program, created by the Ministry of Para-Entities for the families of those who fall in service of the city.

You know damn well that the payout is a cruel joke when confronted with that cold stasis that is mourning, but, it’s something, maybe enough to give them time to grieve.

Upon signing the forms, the payment will be sent out, and the bodies will be buried in the isle of heroes, thus is the fate of all registered heroes in this city, to lay, shoulder to shoulder with their predecessors.

One day you’ll lay there, you only hope there’s room near where he’s buried, one final, eternal embrace.

You look at the pictures attached to each file, the faces of former colleagues rest their, smiling at the camera, you almost feel bad that you couldn’t say you were ever their friend.

Sure you exchanged pleasantries, you don’t have a single bad thing to say about them, but you were never friends.

You never invited them over for a barbecue, never went fishing together, never even shared a beer after a honest days work.

They were just colleagues, and now you sign their **** certificates, as you lament what could have been.

Steadfast.

Dr. Faraday.

The Krush’ti.

It was meant to be a simple op, you received a call that a group of 8 masked men with fully automatic weapons and a large crate stormed the park, taking hostages to the botanical gardens located within.

Steadfast, naturally, was the first to arrive, And was ordered to scout the gardens and reported that three men were posted at the entrance, no hostages in sight.

Dr Faraday and Krush’ti arrive on scene, and rendezvous with Steadfast before moving on the entrance.

As per your orders, Krush’ti was first to approach the entrance, acting as a mobile shield for Dr Faraday to get in close as Steadfast speeds in, knocking one gunman off their feet and distracting the other two long enough for the good Dr to stun the others, by throwing a pair of small metal balls at each of their feet which then act as lightning rods for her electrode implants.

With the entrance clear Steadfast once again moves ahead, scouting the depths of the gardens, finding the gunman stationed at the core of the building where a large tree stands beneath a glass dome with the hostages chained around the bark.

A few feet away the crate lay, scans don’t indicate it to be a bomb but nevertheless you begin to suspect there’s something more at play here.

The others reach him and begin the ****, unfortunately the gunshots earlier warned the gunmen of the attack and were ready.

You ordered Steadfast to prioritize the hostages while the others dealt with the gunmen, it started well, Steadfast made good progress in escorting the hostages out before a stray bullet hit Faraday in the thigh who upon hitting the ground electrocuted a series of metal grates that surrounded the tree, presumably for water drainage.

Unfortunately Steadfast was not fast enough to avoid the lightning, the shock destabilized him and his momentum carried him to his **** shortly thereafter.

It was then that you ordered Krush’ti to carry faraday out in order to regroup, unfortunately, either due to an inter-species language barrier or heightened emotions, the order was ignored.

Vital signs from Faraday zeroed out presumably due to blood loss leaving only Krush’ti.

It was then that your suspicions were realized when one of the gunmen crack open the case, taking out a cryo cannon, not impossible to get your hands on but a strange choice in equipment.

Krush’ti is so surprised by the sight of it she’s several seconds too late to avoid the gout of arctic wind and snow generated by the cannon.

She’s dead even before they destroy her ice sculpture of a body, her species ill equipped to survive such brutal and sudden change in temperature.

As you watch her vitals zero out, you feel a queasy sensation in your core, just how did they know to bring a cryo cannon? Even if they knew that her species; Tri’elions couldn’t survive the cold, they can’t have known you’d send Krush’ti on that exact call but it was the only piece of nonstandard equipment they brought, they didn’t bring anything to counter other heroes, they can’t have simply guessed.

It’s then your thoughts turn to Sam, you’re quickly learning he’d do a lot to save his own skin and fatten his pockets but to aid in the **** of 3 heroes? Colleagues no less? That’s a stretch too far.

You sign your name on each form, before the day is through the documents will be delivered by Hannah to city hall for processing.

But for now, you set them aside, for now, you have a job to do.

Northside is largely comprised of factories, warehouses and the docks but that’s not to say there’s nothing else, there’s a small section of neighborhood on the outskirts of the industrial district; for folk who can afford to live in slightly better circumstances then those of the eastside and a school, the second worst in the city.

There’s also a strip of commercial buildings that straddles the line between the docks and the financial district that hosts most of the necessities those of the docks and industrial district need.

Though not glamorous, northside is integral to the health of the city, if the docks shut down, the stores go empty, the factories explode, trade with the outside world dies.

You settle into your chair preparing for your first day back, your deadline begins.

A call comes in; a commuter passed by the bank and spotted a scene through the large windows of the establishment.

It appears that a group of armed men and women are holding up the bank, standard op, though yet again, so was the last one.

So far 4 suspects have been made, all carrying small arms, it’s likely there’s a get away driver on standby, furthermore there’s hostages 12 in total.

Now comes the most important part of your job, deciding who to send, depending on who you send things can shake out very differently.

It’s also important to keep in mind that hero work is a lot more tiring than you’d like the public to believe.

Speedsters grow sore, psychics become debilitated by the backlash of their manipulations and mages run out of mana.

As a consequence a hero can only go out and fight to the best of their abilities about once a day, twice if you have a superstar on your hands but those are rare and take time to develop.

Sometimes it may be more beneficial to let a call go, false alarms and prank calls happen all the time and as long as no one dies, the mayor can’t say boo.

Immediately a few good picks come to mind for you, years on the **** have cultivated a strong intuition when matching units to calls.

Kricket; He knows the area better then anyone and he knows how to utilize his mutations to cover distance fast, if an escape vehicle makes a run for it, he’s most likely to catch it.

Kicks; She knows a thing or two about extracting civilians, her teleportation certain helps in that regards too unfortunately she’s not a great fighter.

Falchion; He’s far and away the best fighter on staff, he seems to be a master at any weapon he picks up.

Little Ms Fortune; Whenever she steps onto the field everything becomes a coin flip, she’s not particularly great in any single field however her ability often makes this irrelevant.

Rook; He’s far and away you’re most specialized hero, he can fight, that’s it, he’s no good in a chase, he can’t do crowd control or hostage rescue or negotiation, but when he fights, he’s well and truly in his element.

This is far from being you’re last call of the day, you’ll need to be careful with you’re choice even for a call as simple as this.