Don’t get me wrong, the crew is great! If I were going to lead a group, I couldn’t ask for a nicer, more loyal bunch than the one currently at my disposal. Of course, there might be those who would argue the point with me. A trollop, a troll, two gangsters, a moll, and a Pervert . . . excuse me, Pervect … an overweight vamp, and a baby dragon might not seem like the ideal team to the average person. They didn’t to me when I first met them. Still, they’ve been unswerving in their support of me over the years, and together we’ve piled up an impressive track record. No, I’d rather stick with the rat-pack I know, however strange, than trust my fate to anyone else, no matter how qualified they might seem. If anything, from time to time I wonder what they think of me and wish I could peek inside their heads to learn their opinions. Whatever they think, they stick around . . . and that’s what counts.
It isn’t the crew that makes me edgy … it’s the title. You see, as long as I can remember, I’ve always thought that being a leader was the equivalent of walking around with a large bulls-eye painted on your back. Basically the job involves holding the bag for a lot of people instead of just for yourself. If anything goes wrong, you end up being to blame. Even if someone else perpetrated the foul-up, as the leader you’re responsible. On the off chance things go right, all you really feel is guilty for taking the credit for someone else’s work. All in all, it seems to me to be a no-win, thankless position, one that I would much rather delegate to someone else while I had fun in the field. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to have the same basic opinion, and as the least experienced member of the crew I was less adept at coming up with reasons to dodge the slot than the others. Consequently, I became the President of M.Y.T.H. Inc. (That’s Magical Young Trouble-shooting Heroes. Don’t blame me. I didn’t come up with the name), an association of magicians and trouble-shooters dedicated to simultaneously helping others and making money.