“Is Marauder Dead?”

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, media wise. During my recuperative sojourn in Vancouver, the local media have had a fucking field day with the whole Baron von Blitzkrieg attack. It’s kind of cool because for once, even if it’s only in the E.C., I’m a bigger story than the Storm Riders.

The Inquisitor has a huge color photo of the zeppelin hovering over town under a screaming headline: "HEROES STOP BANK BLITZ!" There’s a “special pull-out section!!!” that features more in-depth hyperbole and more pretty color pictures. There’s a blurry shot of Kestrel diving towards the blimp – it looks like a screen capture from a video camera or something. There’s an excellent action shot of Wombat leaping through a column of black smoke during his fight with the bank raiders. I wonder if he’s seen this, I should scan it and email it to him. And yes, there’s a quality color picture of me that I assume was taken with a telephoto lens. I’m clinging to the side of the Donar’s passenger cabin and I have my arm cocked back, ready to punch out a porthole. I have to say, I look pretty fucking cool.

An interesting and not unwelcome by-product of the Blitzkrieg incident has been public criticism of the way Mayor McChesney’s office and the ECPD handled the crisis. The argument goes: “We shouldn’t need the Velvet Marauder and Co. to defend us from threats like Baron von Blitzkrieg or the Jet Pack Mafia; our police should have the training and ability to deal with parahuman-level threats.” It’s been a big black eye on the new mayor’s administration and kind of makes our new hard-ass police chief look like an ineffectual pussy. I just don’t want this whole deal to reflect poorly on the E.C.’s cops in general, who I have a lot of respect for. Mad props to those guys.

There’s a little article in the Times about Leslie Milton, the KLUB reporter whose news chopper was shot down by Blitzkrieg. I feel really bad about that, I liked her. Plus, she was hot.

Oh, and this is amusing. There’s a rumor going around that I’m dead. Thursday’s Inquisitor runs a story with the headline: “Is Marauder Dead?” with the sub-header: “No sightings of city’s champion since blimp battle.” The last time I was publicly seen was when Kestrel fished my stabbed and shot ass out of the Bay, and there’s a lot of speculation that I bought the farm. For some reason, that amuses me.

“City’s champion.” I likes me the sound of that.