Streaming Through History

  “While it is true that culture affected how the early heroes dressed, in their so called ‘union suits’, costumes, or uniforms, there is a far more practical element to why Heroes attempt to be friendly to the media, from a visual standpoint if nothing else. That reason is Marketing.”

  “The income stream for heroes, as heroes, is limited. Governments can give grants but can not directly employ Enhanced in an official capacity for numerous legal reasons, and while there are bounties and standard rewards for capturing criminals or so called ‘supervillains’, a percentage of up to twenty five percent going to the heroes contribution to the International Super-Actions Insurance Fund, with another twenty or thirty percent that can be lost due to a ‘default’, or to pay for damage determined excessive by the awarding agencies, to be turned over to repair battle damage. Heroes rarely get away with more than forty percent of any award.”

  “However, merchandise sales are a very rich potential revenue stream, with just about all local heroes having at least a website with a couple of t-shirts and those of any repute having a contract with some toy manufacturer or another.”

  Sylvia Lang, “Marketing Realities for Independent Personalities”

  “Hello Capers. Welcome to the Cape Watch Podcast. We promised you an interview with Elizabeth Summers, AKA Solaris, and we have managed to overdeliver, and I won’t lie, we are still reeling from it ourselves!”

  James took over. “But then, could you really invite the Original Girl and not end up with a, let’s say opponent of hers turning up? Chancellor Killian von Volkard has crashed the party.” Killian smirked at the camera.

  The young woman spoke up once more. “But the most infamous, and perhaps original, gray cape in history has also graced us with her presence. Michuru Hakamari. Known by the allied intelligence services as Kitsune!” The asian woman bowed her head slightly, a mischievous smile.

  “So, obviously, welcome to the show.” James finished.

  “It is a pleasure." Solaris said the other two nodded their assent. “We were talking while getting everything set up, and as far as any of the three of us can remember this is the first time we've been interviewed, all together.”

  “For the record, Solaris has permitted us to record in her own, lovely home.” Bill said behind the camera.

  “That was something we were going to ask. All of you have had some significant interviews in the past. Kreigsmarine’s testimony against the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg, Kitsune speaking at the memorial service for Ronin after the attempted bombing of Nagasaki, and of course numerous wartime appearances by Solaris. You are three of history’s most significant Supers, on either side of the line.”

  “We were the leaders of our respective teams, and together we did our best to keep the use of enhanced individuals in war as...civilized as possible. Kriegsmarine said.

  Michuru nodded. Many of the rules of war that we worked out in secret meetings back then are still honored now, even when governments are displeased by them, and believe me some argued with us about where we could and should be deployed.”

  "Or what we would allow our teams to do when deployed. I admit I didn’t realize how nasty it was in the background." Kreigsmarine admitted. "But we realized how bad it could be almost immediately after the first time Enhanced forces met, shortly after the Allies Operation Torch. Thank god it was in the deserts of Africa and not a city, anyone's city."

  “We had orders to hit a submarine base and destroy the subs. It… was eye opening how little regular soldiers could do against a team of enhanced.” Solaris said.

  "And then your Breakneck was dispatched... I believe to rescue some downed pilots." Kreigsmarine said, nodding. "I think it was the fifth day of fighting after the initial attack. He met Calvario, my team’s speedster, and they spent the next several hours fighting. People forget how much damage speedsters can build up, it looked like something out of the First World war, a No-Man's land after weeks of bombardment and it took them less than a day to do."

  “It didn’t help that Breakneck was almost obsessed with explosives.” Solaris said dryly. “But the first of the secret conferences happened not long after that.”

  "Didn't he invent three new forms of explosives during the war?" Kitsune asked. "Impressive for a man trained in aeronautical engineering."

  "Speedsters, you can't keep up, you can only keep your head down." Kreigsmarine chuckled.

  "Oh god, that damn foam he developed." Kitsune moaned. "The Marines got a supply of that and were using it to demilitarize Japan after the surrender. They always used too much, and tanks flying into the air at random in the name of peace was unsettling for the recovering populace."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Yes, well Marines will be Marines.” Solaris said with a shake of her head. “And his love of explosions also led to a better smokeless camp stove for the men. Which was stolen almost as often as the sock wash.”

  "I won't lie. I snagged an air drop in midair once, just to get those." He smirked at the confused look on the podcaster’s face. "The sock wash was this sachet of cleanser that just needed boiling and drying to make a soldier’s socks softer and cleaner. Sounds like a silly thing, until you consider how many men ended up on the casualty list because of foot issues. And those stoves also meant those little dried soup packets. You can buy the St. Nick version in stores now; under I think it is the Northern Light brand? Not as compact as Campbells modern version, but better flavor."

  "Battles are won by soldiers and weapons. Wars are won by food and medicine." Kitsune added.

  Solaris nodded. “Most units just boiled all their uniforms, it really cut down on foot rot, and jock itch. It was the first product I developed with St. Nicks; it came before the soup…and then the Canadians using the soup to bait Germans.

  Kriegsmarine huffed frowning "Fucking Canadians."

  "So, the rumors were true, you really all did get together and make a... I guess a kind of Geneva Convention for supers, or maybe Stockholm Convention based on where the original Elysium is."

  “Yes, we felt it was necessary, before militaries decided to use us to forge new atrocities “Kitsune said, sipping her tea. “Our generals were as bad as the Canadians, if not worse, it was important for my team and I to have rules of honor set, even if the rest of the Army did not.

  Solaris nodded “The first Elysium came later. I purchased a Chateau in Switzerland after the Black Hand tried to assassinate the royal family, it became the first club and is still the headquarters for the rest of the clubs.”

  "Right. Though, I mean, no offense but atrocities..." Jessie started

  "The Holocaust, and Nanking." Kreigsmarine growled. "I can't speak to the Japanese side of that, and the actions the Allied took, such as the Japanese internment camps, are more Solaris's point, but I will address the Holocaust." He sighed.

  "We didn't understand what was happening, not most of the German people. I'm not going to lie, and claim we didn't know something was happening, and that it was wrong, but the actual events. The death camps, and the purge, most of us had no idea. I wasn't even a Nazi, politically, thus not trusted with many things."

  "Wait, but you were one of the first of their super soldiers?" James’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and confusion. “How were you not a Nazi?”

  "The subjects the Nazi party chose failed to express enhancements, or had other issues. The two that did develop any powers were shifted into the SS and they were at best C class by modern standards." He explained. "It was a political choice to try and Enhance me, to calm the commanders of the Navy, who weren't the most trusted of the armed forces by Hitler’s government. Germinatrix was also political, her family was supportive of the party, but she was barely sixteen when she was recruited. She parroted her father, unaware of the fact that he was playing the long game and cared nothing for Hitler’s ideals."

  “She was the youngest of all of us, she should never have been sent to the front.” Solaris said her voice was grim and regretful.

  Kriegsmarine nodded "By the time I knew how bad things were, the Soviets were in Germany on one side and the Allies on the other. At that point I sent Germinatrix to Switzerland to wait for me, sent the other team members into the meatgrinder of combat, and began reaching out to Allied commanders regarding assisting the end of the war, and to be fair partially hoping to avoid prosecution for the things I'd just discovered." He sneered. “I am not proud of some craven fear seeping into my blood, but covering one’s own ass has never been unwise.”

  "I was aware of how bad Nanking was, and it was horrible." Kitsune admitted. "But it was controlled by the Army, and I had no influence with them. I wasn't as high ranking or influential outside of the emperor’s court as I would have liked, and there was enough poison whispered into important ears that I couldn't tell you what the emperor himself thought at the time."

  Solaris nodded. “Kitsune was more of an intelligence asset than a front liner like us. And politically was in a weaker position than either of us because of the schism between the Imperial court and the military.” Solaris agreed, then nodded her head to the German.

  “I had more connections to the intelligence community than Killian did, I knew more about the concentration camps than he did, though even my reports didn’t give a full scope of what was going on. I thought Killian knew more than he did, andI found out later how the Nazi government kept him insulated from the darker sides of their policies.”

  “I won’t claim to be innocent, or lacking any culpability in what my nation did.” Killian nodded. "However, she's right. The Party, and SS, loved to conceal things from me. It led to... at least, seven Guardian Team operations going completely unopposed, because they didn't bother to share information."

  He sighed. "Lord above, do you remember that submarine base you were sent into, shortly before Normandy was invaded? I had that on a short list of sites to be informed on, and a fucking political appointed SS lieutenant overruled the request. A man who, if he was in my detachment, would have been getting sent to fetch my meals!"

  "Winter had it just as bad. General Winter that is." Kitsune added. "I don't know what he said to Stalin in forty-eight, but I know it was because of Stalin's government cleansings in the Soviet Union General Winter didn't go to Moscow for the next several years, before leaving during the Enhanced Purge in the Soviet Union."

  Solaris shook her head “I remember that, what a mess. He and his family spent a couple years in the Swiss chateau while we found him and other enhanced new homes. He helped get a lot of people out to safety from East Berlin as well.”

  "Bah." Killian snarled, never a fan of the German split, for obvious reasons.

  Solaris chuckled. “I remember you directing the west German air crews with Germinatrix during the airlift.”