“Your luck must suck!” Pinpoint said with a laugh as the SUV pulled back out onto the street from the office building. “I mean, you’re not the only person who’s taken the random name option, but I’ve never heard of a worse one!”
“Come on, it’s not that bad!” Erika protested, her cheeks flaming a bit at the teasing.
“The system named you Firefly! Even Thatcher suggested you think it over and try to come up with a different one!”
“It sounds good though!”
Pinpoint sighed as she stopped laughing, though her smile didn’t leave her face. “It’s also asking for trouble. Seriously, random names never end well, especially a name like that.”
“Never end well? What do you mean?”
“Most heroes only use an assigned name for a little bit before rebranding. Some hire an image consultant to come up with a better one, or companies sponsor them in exchange for naming rights. The only hero coming to mind that stuck with a random name is Creeping Vine, and… you don’t want what happened to him to happen to you.”
“Creeping Vine? I think I heard about him… Wait, didn’t he sign a big contract for movies or something?”
“Movies.. That’s one way of saying it!” Pinpoint said, grabbing her stomach as she started laughing again. “Haha! Yeah, Vine got the raw end of the random name generator, but he made it work by leaning in instead of trying to ignore or kill the memes about him. As for movies… yeah he signed a movie deal. With SpandeXXX.”
Erika blushed as she recognized the name. SpandeXXX. It was obvious when people were saying the other Xs. The world’s largest superhero porn company. They were known for producing specials with actual powers, not just cheap effects. Their videos were… impressive.
“I see you recognize the name. Vine’s powers have a particular niche. Plant matter manipulation apparently isn’t just useful for fighting villains and dealing with natural disasters,” Pinpoint chuckled. “Anyways, Vine might’ve signed a multimillion dollar deal, but his hero days are done and everyone knows it,” she said, her smile fading.
“What?!” Erika gasped. “It’s just a porn deal! Plenty of heroes have done that kind of stuff! Why’s he getting kicked out? Are those government assholes really that prude?”
Pinpoint shook her head. “No, he’s not getting kicked out. He’ll probably stay in the system as a registered hero forever. S Classers aren’t common enough that any government or corporation would stop working with them over something so dumb. The problem is the civvies.”
“Civvies?”
“Yeah. Civvies, baselines, the general public, whatever you wanna call them. Anyone not a superhero or a meta. They’re going to be the ones who have a problem with Creeping Vine being a hero. Sure he’ll always have his powers and be able to help people, but after this deal, people won’t see him as a hero. They’ll see him as a porn star, and there’s no coming back from that. As a hero, Creeping Vine was a powerful S Classer with an unfortunate name that inspired a lot of adult content. When he signed that deal, it all but ensured that people aren’t going to be thinking about him as a hero any longer. He’ll just be another meta model doing adult content. When people see him show up and use his powers to grab people, they won’t be thinking about how he’s there to help. They’ll be wondering who he’s stuck those tendrils he’s most famous for into last.”
Erika frowned as she thought about Pinpoint’s words. “So… basically once he starts doing porn, people are going to think about the porn first, nothing else?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s so… stupid!”
“Yes, but it’s reality. Your name and your branding define how people look at you, interpret your actions, and talk about you. Are they going to see you as a hero? A villain? A fool? Go with something like “Apocalypse” or another hard name and people are going to think you’re a new powerhouse. Some villains will take a swing just to make a name for themselves, other big timers might try to turn you, capture you, or kill you so that you’re not a future threat. Even other superheroes will compete with you. You might find your calls and bounties stolen, get frozen out by different factions, even in some cases have heroes gunning for you to keep their influence intact. Hard names are a challenge to everyone to take a swing at you because they set an expectation. One that directly challenges some peoples’ egos.”
“So is that why ‘Firefly’ is so bad? It doesn’t seem like a ‘hard’ name.”
“Do you know what a ‘firefly’ is in our world?”
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“Not really. I’ve seen a few jokes and memes, but they didn’t really make sense.”
“A ‘firefly’ is someone who does something stupid to show off and be ‘heroic’ and usually gets themselves and others killed. You can thank the first Firefly for that lasting legacy.”
“First Firefly?”
“Yes the first Firefly.” Pinpoint sighed. “How much do you know about the Omaha Breach?”
Omaha Breach… the name tickled at something in Erika’s brain. Something from her history classes in high school maybe? “I think I remember something about it. Some kind of bad portal break right? What’s that have to do with the first Firefly?”
“Firefly was at the Omaha Breach. In fact, he was the strongest hero to respond at first, and could’ve stopped it in its tracks. But he didn’t. A bunch of people died because of him.”
“What?!” Erika blurted out, interrupting Pinpoint as her words triggered a memory of from her high school history class. Omaha, Nebraska. Tens of thousands died in a day when a breach broke containment. The military had to basically invade Nebraska to stop it. “We learned about that in school! He did that?”
“Yeah, but what you probably learned was the sanitized version. A lot of what happened was classified, but as one of the people who’ll be responding to breaches now, you’re allowed to hear more. Firefly was a S-Class hero with light-based powers. He couldn’t generate light himself, but could manipulate what was already there, able to use ambient light to make hard light constructs. The brighter it was, the more power he had. He worked out of Omaha, responding to stuff all over the place, including closing portals and combating portal breaks. So, when one happened right in Omaha, it was almost perfect that he was among the first to respond.”
“Respond? Wait, how do portal breaks even happen?”
“That’s a complicated question that plenty of eggheads understand better than me. Easiest to understand is that monsters will keep spawning in portals over time. The stronger the portal, the faster they spawn, and if you don’t shut down its spawning mechanisms, it reaches a critical mass and ejects a bunch of monsters out. The Omaha Breach portal apparently spawned extremely fast, so it appeared and broke pretty much instantly. Back then, portal breaks and heroes were still pretty new too, so instead of evacuating, a lot of civilians went to watch instead. While the local heroes and police managed to contain things, Firefly decided to show off a bit by going straight for the boss to end the break without any support. Apparently he was a bit of a glory hound, and the audience only encouraged him to show off. He ended up killing the boss, but not before a second one was ejected and ended up killing him while he was celebrating. Containment broke with Firefly’s death, and a lot of civilians who were there to watch a show ended up dead.”
“So this guy Firefly wanted to show off for people, and ended up getting himself and a bunch of civilians killed? That’s… fucked up. Why would anyone want to watch that?”
“Human nature. People are curious and like to poke their noses into things, even when they shouldn’t. Especially when they shouldn’t. The Omaha Breach. The April Fools Tsunami. Disaster tourism. Car crashes. People like to stop and look, not thinking they might be getting in the way or causing other problems. Anyways, it's why you should rethink the name you’ve been assigned. The first Firefly might have died over a century ago, but he left a legacy. One you might inherit.”
“Anyways, think about your name. You have some time before that name becomes yours in truth, even after you start operating publicly. Why do you want to become a hero? What drives you? What do you want to represent? Sleep on it, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With a start, Erika realized they were already outside her building. Nodding absentmindedly, Erika let herself out, barely remembering to grab the folder with the letter and the check before she headed in.
***
A quick meal and shower later, Erika fell into her bed, exhausted but weirdly energized. Pinpoint’s words still echoed in her head. “Your name defines you.” Glancing at her nightstand, her eyes fell upon the folder Thatcher gave her, and her phone on top of it. Before she knew it, she had her phone in hand as she started to look up the Omaha Breach and the original Firefly.
What she found wasn’t pretty. Even though Pinpoint said the information was classified, the internet had plenty of information about the man, and what she’d found painted a picture. He wasn’t just an S-Class hero and a powerhouse of his time, he was one of the strongest in the world. His real name was Henry Richardson. He’d just been a farm boy from Nebraska, the youngest of seven, when the second World War broke out.
He apparently stole one of his brothers’ identities to enlist early and served as part of the 9th Infantry Division in Europe for a couple years before being transferred to a commando unit called the Fireflies.
I think I know where he got his name from, Erika thought to herself. Clicking on the page for the unit itself, Erika started reading about them too.
The Fireflies’ favorite tactic seemed to be sneaking into enemy fortifications at night to capture and kill enemy soldiers before signaling their success with lanterns.
Hours passed by as Erika wandered down a pedia rabbit hole before she finally put her phone down and plugged it in, the battery blinking red. Rubbing her eyes as she lay in her now dark apartment, she thought about everything she’d read, turning back to the man who’d ignited her curiosity. Firefly. His page was filled with pictures of him shaking hands with world leaders and celebrities, and the details of his life seemed crazy. Commando, superhero, movie star, politician, from what she’d read, he seemed like the biggest star of the time. And then his page just… ended. It mentioned the Omaha Breach and that he died during it, that was it. Nothing like what Pinpoint told her. Just, no information at all about what he did during the Omaha Breach. Still, everything she’d read about him before that made it seem like he loved the spotlight, so what Pinpoint told her happened didn’t seem too surprising.
Yawning, Erika checked the time. 9:37pm. Still early enough, but Pinpoint said she’d see her tomorrow. Closing her eyes, her mind started to drift to sleep, but one thought kept poking at her. Why do I want to do this? Why do I want to be a hero?
