What if superheroes were real? How long do you think they could keep up such pristine appearances with the gossip obsessed media constantly following their exploits? With the celebrity obsessed culture today, how long do you think a superman would last before a sex tape emerged of him enjoying his bondage fetish? "You can die a hero or live long enough to see them turn you into a villain" is an old adage and we look to explore that ideology in this thread.<br/><br/>This is Metatropolis , it is a large city with all the trappings of the Big Apple combined with the Hollywood decadence. No matter how clean and civilly conscious the city appears with it's shiny new skyscrapers and well maintain transit system it is still a home of the criminal element. Thankfully for a all the citizens , the city employs a state of the are law enforcement department, unfortunately this isn't enough. Supervillians have started setting up entire criminal enterprises inside city limits, their superpowers and advanced gadgetry is more than the police force can handle, fortunately there are Superheroes to take on this malicious miscreants.<br/><br/>As with any hero worship though, the media views them with a jaded eye, 'how can something so omnipotently powerful ever be fully trusted'? They ask the question and maybe they're right.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">The Samaritan</span>'s tall, lean, heavily muscled frame floated several hundred yards above the highest skyscrapers of Metatropolis. He adorned his usual uniform, dark crimson unitard with black boots and gloves, accented by a gold belt and singular eagle shaped  pauldron on his right shoulder which kept his white with gold trimmed half cape secured. In the center of his chest of the black SS font 'S' that symbolized his code name. He wore no mask, and hadn't for several years, once he'd shucked off the antiquated secret identity that many superheroes live with and taken on his mantle full time he no longer felt the need to conceal whom he was.<br/><br/>He'd been born, James W. Stanton and developed his amazing powers when he was just 12 years old. He could fly short distances, had heightened strength and durability as well as acute senses.  it didn't take long before he'd foiled his first bank robbery and soon one of the Junior superteams had asked him to enlist. The Ultrayouths were a group of preteen, super powered individuals that had banded together in order to show that age wasn't a deciding factor on whether a difference could be made. They worked to show the adult superheroes they had the grit needed to do the job. Many of the Ultrayouth's ended up sidekicking with some of the big name Superheroes of the day, and some even went on to take up the mantle of their mentor when the elder finally retired.<br/><br/>Jim had called himself 'Kid Sammaritan' back in those days and was the group's powerhouse, his team consisted of:<br/>(*Warning, These are NPCs, do not select one as a character!)<br/><br/>' Blacky' :whom was the teams fearless leader and protege of the infamous Black Sentry, a feared detective whom stalked the shadows of the Metatropolis' ghetto sector.<br/><br/>'Blastor-Babe': an energy based teenage girl with a hot fashion sense and even hot energy blasts<br/><br/>'Methadrine': Fastest and most paranoid kid in Metatropolis<br/><br/>'Little Fang': Feral lycanthrope child of the infamous serial killer 'Silver Wolf', whom turned good and now fought against his father's notorious 'K9 shock troops'.<br/><br/>'Wicked Witch': A magical powered goth girl whom although had self harming issues, used her blood magic to fight for the forces of good.<br/><br/>This particular lineup was one remembered fondly by the press, they worked together to stop several large villains, and avert many large catastrophic events. But time moves on  and the core team dissolved, some went on to sidekick for the big names, others fell away into obscurity and one even killed themselves. Kid Samaritan did some time with a few adult superheroes but with his powers growing stronger every day, it didn't take long before he over shadowed the supposed big name he was paired with and superheroes egos are fairly delicate as we all know.<br/><br/>First was the Centurion, he was a flightless powerhouse that had originally taken Jim on as a sidekick but soon found that Kid Samaritan was quiet often more powerful than he was, and after several press photo's emerged showing Kid Samaritan shielding the Centurion from damage, the Roman based Superhero told Jim his services wouldn't be needed any longer.<br/><br/>Next was Power Princess, She was a late 30's icon that dressed provocatively and dealt beatings to criminals. The press made her out to be a 'cougar', taking in Kid Samaritan as her own personal pool boy, ironically they weren't' too far off. PP had not only showed Kid Samaritan the ways of whomping on criminals, but also more intimate & erotic tactics as well. By the time Jim left her service he no longer called himself 'Kid Samaritan', it was just 'The Samaritan' from that point forward.<br/><br/>His final pairing was a partnership, He teamed up with the Gorgon, a former supervillian turned hero that had the power to turn people to stone for periods of time. It turned out that he couldn't actually turn someone to stone, but instead reached into peoples minds and froze their muscles in place. The Gorgon's rehabilitation didn't end up lasting very long, as it had turned out. He in fact was only using the guise of hero to carry out crimes without suspicion. When the Samaritan found out, he confronted his partner and the Gorgon at first offered Jim the chance to join in on the criminal behavior. Although the Gorgon and he had grown close over the period of time it wasn't enough to sway the Samartian and the two titans did battle. It had been the closest the Samaritan had ever come to dying, the Gorgon had froze him in solid and dropped Jim into the ocean. Jim could still remember the feeling of sinking into the black depths unable to fight against it, when he finally awoke he was laying on a beach of a deserted island with no idea how he got there.<br/><br/>This event had marked a changing point in the Samaritan, he'd sworn off team-ups and gotten rid of the his Jim Stanton guise, now only appearing in his true form which was the Samaritan.  Coincidentally the remote island that he'd washed up on, served as the Samaritan's new HQ and with proceeds from his crime fighting endeavors he built himself a real fortress of solitude from which to conduct operations from.<br/><br/>For a while it was quiet nice, he'd fly into the city at supersonic speeds, foil some supercrime and then retreat to his HQ when he needed time alone. But more and more,  he found himself more comfortable removed from the presence of humanity. It seemed every time he tried to help humanity, he was only rewarded by bitching citizens, complaining about a hole in their building or a destroyed sports car. The press was no better, they looked to snap pictures and footage of him at his least flattering moments.<br/><br/>And so this is the lonely life the Samaritan finds himself in today, his powers are so potent that he barely feels any connection to the species he derived from. He is almost a hermit, leaving his secret HQ only in the most dire of disasters and then immediately returning to his solitude. People have almost forgotten this once great figure, as the new batch of young up and coming Superpeople soak in the spotlight. They new class it indubitably aware of how the press controls their public image, and most are more obsessed with posing for paparazzo than actually fighting supercrime. The Samaritan can only wonder what happened to the once great profession of super powered crime fighting.