His eyes surveyed the audience, and Taylor felt like he was looking right at her. "You had an early warning, and you all came here. You came to stand in the path of a monster straight out of mankind's primal nightmares, knowing full well that it was likely to kill you, knowing full well that it had never been truly defeated before. Faced with such bleak odds, you showed selfless courage. And what is heroism, if not courage married to nobility?
"I have seen too many displays of heroism today to count them as they deserve. I have seen it in those who fought Leviathan head-on. I have seen it in those who provided support and defense for them. I have seen it in those who rescued and healed their comrades. I have seen it in those who protected the civilians. I have seen it in the civilians who maintained their calm and kept others from panicking in the shelters. I have seen it in the powered and the unpowered alike.
"There is, in every sapient soul, a spark of glory. Male or female, black or white, organic or cybernetic, earthling or alien, any mind capable of conscious choice can choose to be great. To help, rather than to hinder. To acknowledge fear, and refuse to be its slave. To admit your flaws with humility, and work past them to the best of your ability. To stand up against injustice in all its forms. To choose the right and good over the convenient and easy. To treat everyone with the respect and generosity we wish were afforded to us. To give aid and kindness, not because you expect reciprocation, but because it is a better way to live, a better person to be.
"That spark of glory is in everyone, in all of you. Sometimes, you lose sight of it. Sometimes, you feel that it is out of reach. Circumstances place you in what feels like a lose-lose scenario, where doing the right thing looks like a losing proposition. At times, it's terrifyingly clouded what the right thing to do even is. Yet even in the murkiest of circumstances, it is always worth it to strive toward the most heroic self you can be. Even at the world's darkest, you are not truly alone; there are millions who would gladly reach out to you, help you ignite the spark within. I, for one, can think of few greater honors than standing by the side of someone trying to be better, even as the weight of the world seems determined to drag them down and extinguish their spark.
"Today, I have seen you all reaching for the spark within, and I salute you for it. I have known your world for mere hours, and already I love it - because, in the face of bleakness and horror, your world answers with that heroic marriage of courage and nobility. And because of that, I feel confidence as I make you a promise.
"I promise you this: It will get better. Yesterday, as I understand it, your world lived under the terror of three Endbringers. Today, two remain and a city lives. Tomorrow, with the spark of heroism within everyone, we will build an even better world! With the glory within everyone, powered and unpowered, rich and poor, saint and sinner, we will fight back the darkness and return hope to the world!"
He smiled at them all and concluded: "I don't know much about your world yet, but I know this much: I know that I want to serve it with the same kind of heroism I saw its natives displaying today."
