Like a good little vampire, I showed up at the CNN building at 10 PM for hair and makeup for my interview. Why I showed up for hair and makeup when my hair was hidden under my hood and half my face was hidden by a mask, I honestly don’t know, but Temptress was most insistent that I play along, and so I was there. I did get to enjoy a few moments of the makeup people struggling to come to terms with the fact that my lips were naturally blood red, my flawless black skin didn’t really need much work other than something to deaden the glare from the lights, and they weren’t getting my hood and mask off to do anything with my eyes or hair. Oh, and the fact that their mirrors were absolutely useless in showing my reflection, leaving the stunned workers looking at the reflection of an empty chair.
Anyways, after half an hour of that farce, which only ended once someone thought to pull out a cell phone and confirm that I could be seen on cameras, I was released from the makeup department to a green room, where they apologized, but since I didn’t spend as long in Makeup as they expected and blah blah blah. The intern they had checking in on me finally stopped apologizing, and asked if there was anything I wanted while I was waiting for the interview. I gave him my sweetest smile, and said, “Oh, dear, I was hoping you’d ask that! You see, I haven’t had dinner yet tonight, and I would love to have a bit of a snack before the interview.” I may have showed off my fangs a bit. OK, I totally showed off the fangs.
The intern, who had to have been still a college student or just recently graduated by the look of him, was this pale, geeky white guy. Not usually my type, but then I usually did my ‘hunting’ at the strip club. This boy had apparently seen too many episodes of vampire shows on TV, because his khakis were noticeably tented by the time I had him backed against the wall, eagerly baring his neck to me. Well, it was so rare to have a truly willing donor, I indulged myself just a bit.
When one of the techs came to get me about ten minutes before the show, I simply smiled, and told him to leave the boy, and to have someone make sure he got more iron in his diet. I’m fairly certain the tech was about to piss himself by the time he got me to the stage, since he damn near teleported away from me once his job as a guide was done. Oh, sure, he could have had important work to do or something like that, but I like my version better.
“…And we’re back. Tonight, we’ve got a special guest on the program. Here to talk to us about the role of superheroes in the aftermath of the Battle for Atlanta is one of Atlanta’s own masked vigilantes, Vampyra!”
I smiled into the camera as I was introduced. I’d worn my ‘good’ costume for this. Before, I just wore leather pants, a tight shirt, a mask to cover my eyes, and a long leather coat. It worked, so why mess with it? Of course, I was mainly concerned with practicality, which is why Temptress and Pyramaniac practically had to strongarm me and force me to sit down with Web Mistress as they worked to design an actual superhero costume for me. Fortunately, I actually had some say in the process, so the leotard with the thong back as the main part of it was out. If I showed off that much of my ass on a regular basis, SOMEONE was going to recognize me at the club! No, it was pretty much like my old outfit, but everything tailored to fit, and the top being made of something stretchy and durable, to stand up to super fights. The big change was the hooded cloak I wore now, all black, like something out of a fantasy novel, and a belt that had several red circles connected with a chain, that concealed some gizmos. Like comic book mystic meets biker girl. I liked it.
“Thank you, Andrea. I’m happy to be here.” I lied.
“For those of our viewers who aren’t familiar with Atlanta heroes, you are a nonregistered super correct?”
“Yes, when I began my ‘career’, Southern Pride was still in charge of the local hero registry, and had gotten the state to walk lockstep with their racist policies. I believe I was actually classified as a villain for a while because I stopped Southern Pride from carrying out some of their abuses. Black Thunder already testified about the time when the Misfits rescued him and other supers of color, where the enemies had come specifically geared to take them down, using the information in the registry.” I paused, and then laughed. “It is a funny story, but that event was actually where we all met.”
“Really? According to Black Thunder’s testimony, you worked together quite well for that to have been your first meeting.”
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“Oh, yes! We actually met when Temptress was getting some skinheads to chase her through the park. The Reptilian and I spotted that and came in from different directions to handle the skinheads. Turns out Temptress had overheard them talking about some rally, and was trying to draw off at least some of the goons. Remember, we were all independents at the time, so there was a limit on how much any one person can do. We decided that this rally was something we needed to check out, and put a stop to if things looked like they were going to get ugly.”
“You weren’t going to just go in, guns blazing and wipe them all out?”
“Hah! That’s some lovely villain talk you got going on there, Andrea. No, while a Vampire, Dragon, and a Demon can be counted as ‘monsters’ depending on who you ask, we weren’t the real monsters out that night. We were going to make sure things didn’t get ugly. Of course, we expected things to get ugly, but we were going to make sure they started it.”
“When we got to the field, and saw they’d set up a gallows, with ten local supers bound and held at gunpoint waiting for their turn to swing, we decided that things had already started at ugly, and were getting worse. We weren’t going to just sit around and let them hang people, so we hatched a plan. We could already tell that the crowd was only like 1 in 5 real people, and the rest were duplicates, so the Reptilian went in, breathing fire like a proper dragon, while I covered Temptress as she set up a magic dome to keep any naughty children from running away. Pyramaniac had apparently slipped into the rally in disguise, because she announced herself with a column of flame as soon as she had support to deal with the enemies.”
I smiled, and said, “Things got a little violent after that. We managed to free the prisoners by hitting the platform while the crowd was more worried about trying not to be on fire, but Southern Pride showed up with suspicious timing and tried to arrest us. So, the rest of the team got everyone out while I played distraction. And it was during this time that Web Mistress announced her digital presence at the party, letting everyone know that the night’s events had been sent out to media outlets. That gave me the distraction I needed to slip away without revealing my tricks, and left Rebel Yell looking like a fool.”
A happy sigh escaped my lips. “Ah, good times. Anyways, we met up after that, and the five of us decided that we made a pretty solid team. Somehow they convinced me to be the leader, but I insisted that Temptress be our main media presence, since she enjoys that kind of thing far more than I do. And there’s the whole sunlight thing. Kindof limits my media presence, as you might imagine.”
Cooper nodded her head. “I admit that there’s been a lot of speculation about whether you are an actual vampire, or simply playing pretend.”
I smiled at her, and said, “I could give your viewers a live demonstration, if you like. I’ve heard that reporters are very tasty.” And then I laughed, making it sound like a joke.
“Eh-heh. No thanks, I’m fairly certain that isn’t covered in CNN’s health plan. So, that was how the Misfits met, but what about going forward? Are you going to register with the state now that the rules have been changed?”
“Well, at the moment the big stumbling block for us is that we’d need a physical location where people could actually reach us for that. We have our individual ‘lairs’, but having a building publicly connected to the team would require money which would either provide a trail back to one or more of us, or would have to be gained through illicit means, which isn’t something we want. At the moment, the closest we have to an ‘official’ base is our presence on the moon.”
“The moon base is real? Then did you really take those pictures at the moon landing sites?”
“Yep! Honestly, don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if you could. Don’t worry, I made sure not to leave any of my footprints next to the NASA ones. But anyways, it is kind of hard for the government to serve papers at a secret base on the moon, so they aren’t too willing to accept that location for us.”
“I see. So, as one of the primary figures who fought in the Battle for Atlanta, with the League of Heroes in disarray, or even being thrown out of some states, what do you see as the future of supers in law enforcement?”
“Well, you have to understand that I’m no political analyst, and I’m sure no policy wonk. I’m literally in this position because I was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, but decided to take a stand, rather than let bullies and thugs walk all over people. I’m not the one to look to if you’re trying to find the perfect solution where everyone lives happily ever after and sings kumbaya to each other and all that crap. Give me an enemy to fight, and I’ll find a way to put them down. Give me a policy question, and I’m nowhere near qualified to make those decisions.”
“But if you had a say in what the ‘new normal’ would be, what would you do?”
I sighed. “Well, whether the League can be saved or not isn’t my call. But I think some organization is needed, if only to coordinate emergency responses in natural disasters, like earthquakes or dealing with fires, and containing supervillains for long-term incarceration is not something that can be left to state or local governments. No disrespect to the APD, but they simply aren’t equipped to deal with supers. A pickup truck is a damn fine vehicle, and works very well for its intended purpose, but you can’t put it on a track with Formula 1 racers and expect it to be any kind of a match. Same in reverse. Supers can’t be expected to do the job of police, unless they get trained and sworn in as police. Stopping a crime in process and making a citizen’s arrest, leaving the perp tied up in a nice little bow is one thing. But going out and doing actual police work? That’s best left to the good men and women of the police departments, that actually know what they’re doing.”
“So you see heroes more as emergency responders than enforcement?”
“Basically, yes. Or taking a ‘consultant’ role with local law enforcement when something looks to be up their alley. Supers have specialized knowledge and abilities that allow us to do things that other people would not be able to imagine. So having supers consult on things possibly involving supers is only natural. A homicide detective might consult with a financial expert to run down some shady transactions in a victim’s accounts, right? So why not consult with a mystic expert when it looks like someone’s doing ritual magic?”
“I see. We have to take a break right now, but we’ll be back with more of our interview with Vampyra.”