Chapter 4: Requiem for Warriors
THE WORLD
The fighting between heroes just kept getting worse and worse. In Gemini's town, they practically turned the city area to dust. This city fared worse, if possible. Streets filled with rubble, and the homeless overwhelmed those with proper housing.
These "heroes" had created untold destruction and displaced much of the public. In their quest to root out evildoers, they had destroyed businesses, they had uprooted residents from apartments. The city could not have been destroyed worse if liberal government had messed with it. A bomb would be more sparing to the town than either of these two.
Yet even now, they were too concerned about being right, and not concerned enough about doing right by the very people they pledged to protect. If one family worked for thirty years to own their own home, what good was the heroism of these heroes if one senseless battle could destroy all their earnings?
Sara wasn't the only one who had enough. Plenty of regular people, and even some smaller time superheroes had grown tired of this who thing. But the media kept feeding the frenzy. They even listed among villains those who had largely refused to fight. The smarter superheroes began to suspect at this point that the media was being bought, and the whole mindset that you're either on board with fighting other heroes or you must be a villain confirmed their deepest fears. But in many cases, staying out of the fight wasn't an option as those who cooperated with this hysteria brought the fight to them, coming to their homes, and even their places of work under their secret identities. Their privacy had been violated, and their safety was next. So in some towns, people arose to oppose these false heroes that cared nothing for the property of others. These anti-heroes, as they were called, had a much more realistic mindset with regard to their actions. They ignored the hype of other heroes, ignored all the media propaganda, and followed their own standards.
But beside anti-heroes, there was one person in particular that decided to act. During a particularly large brawl between fifty of the strongest heroes, the one known as Libra decided to act. "Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!!!" she said, holding her scales against this army of people convinced of their virtue. The scales tilted back and forth, and suddenly, all of them found that they couldn't use their powers. Superhero powers are rated on two tier systems. The first is effectiveness, rated F to S. The second is range, rated Minion, Hero, Adept, Half-Deity, or Deity tier. An F tier spell wouldn't affect anything it intended to, for instance a water spell not only couldn't hurt anyone, but couldn't even make paper wet. Most superheroes started at D tier, and gradually got stronger until they peaked at A or B tier. S tier was a rare talent that could overpower even professional heroes. As for ranges, Minions could only affect themselves, Heroes could affect up to what they could see, and you were considered an Adept if you could use you power beyond the range you could see, up to about 100 miles. Half-Deity status meant you could affect an entire continent, while a Deity tier hero could affect the entire world if they wanted. Libra was just a child when her power awakened to S tier, having become completely frustrated by a fight between heroes and villains. She also knew what it felt like to be controlled, as she almost let her power lead her down a murder spree. So she was not impressed by these so-called heroes who used rationalizations for fights that resulted in property damage.
"Look," she said, as they continued to fight even after the loss of their powers turned this into a street brawl, "Look around you! Haven't you caused enough damage already?!? The streets are no longer safe for children to play in!" Though to be honest, they never were safe for children to play in. If you kids play in the street, sooner or later, a car or truck will turn them into meat chunks.
The news media came to record this fight, and instead, online bloggers recorded her entire speech. She went on to explain, "Look, I've dealt with powers that are completely out of control. My powers came suddenly when I saw heroes and villains fight each other in my school. The school's roof had blown off and about twenty kids were injured, and some kid named David Rex got killed during the fight. I spent my childhood trying to stop fights between heroes and villains, and actually went crazy and started killing both of them. These fights are no different. You've got to make them listen. You've got to stop all of this!" The viral video effect gradually caused people to stop listening to the media's story about state-run heroes being super bad.
As for the rest of the problems, well... These Saints came and touched the zombies, and the intense radiant aura that surrounded them basically dusted them. Some of the real villains took a break from villainy as some were totally exhausted by all of this destruction, while others figured their work had been done for them. As for those who were falsely accused of being villains, Deep State was exposed as being in control of the media, so the newspapers had to print a retraction. It read, «Newspapers wrong about everything! There are no heroes working for the Deep State after all. Sorry about that, everyone.»
