Cambria's Corner

Delivered at the United Nations Headquarters on July 12, 2031 in response to the public emergence of Heracles as the first hero and the fallout from the Switch. This speech announced the creation of Aegis and would become (in)famous as the start of the first Age of Heroes.

People of Earth,

I am sure that by now, many of you have seen the footage of the man called Heracles and his tremendous feats of strength . I can assure you that this footage is indeed real. The men and women you see before you now are superhuman. [screen shows scenes from hero bodycams of them battling villains and monsters] For decades, we have been watching the world from the shadows, working to prevent something terrible from happening to all of you from one of our own. 

[screen goes dark] Two weeks ago, we failed. 

I could try to comfort you all by telling you what we have done, what we have prevented, but those would be empty words to all of the families that were ruined on the night of June 29th because we failed. 

I could tell you that we did our best to fix what we failed to stop, but those would be empty words to the parents who will likely never see their own children again because we failed.

I could apologize to each and every one of you myself, prostrate myself before you and beg for your forgiveness, but those would be empty words to the families of the thousands of the dead that we could not save because we failed.

Instead, I come before you today to ask for your permission [screen shows the assembled heroes].

I do not expect that it will be easy. I know and I understand that many of you will forever despise us because we failed. But I come before you, as a fellow human and as a fellow parent who lost his child, to beg you to let us help. This event has made it clear that we can not remain in the shadows any longer. If we are to help, if we are to continue doing what needs to be done for your safety, we need you to let us help. 

My name is Gemini, and today, I am announcing the formation of Aegis [Aegis logo appears on screen], a UN-sponsored team consisting of the superhuman individuals before you. Aegis’s mission is to work to prevent an event like this from happening again. We are not police, and we are not soldiers. We are people like you, and we only wish to protect the people of Earth from superhuman threats. 

We will not always succeed. People who wish to do you harm will slip through the cracks eventually. We only hope that you will let us help when it is needed.

Thank you.