The setting is 2021 in a world much like our own. The same countries exists, history is much the same, with a notable exception. Throughout the ages there have been special individuals, heroes and legendary figures. The men and women of legend in our world were real, in some sense in this one. In short, it is not such a ludicrous an idea that one or a few can make a difference. Or save the world. Some of these heroes were thought to have special powers, incredible skills or abilies but true super human powers were not known. That is until 1997.

That year the Earth fell under attack by the Tyranthrax, a inscrutable race of insect like aliens bent on conquering mankind and stripping the planet of its resources. Master of biotechnology armed with natural psionic powers, the alien were nearly unstoppable and seemed near their goal of world conquest. That is until a small group of captured humans escaped. They had been victims of alien experimentation that had given them each new and bizarre abilities. Uniting to fight the invaders, they became in effect, the first super human hero team.

But even their combined powers were not enough to turn the tide. The true turning point in the war occurred in a hidden research base. It was a day that changed the fate of the world from then on. For several weeks a team of physicists lead be boy genius Karl Marcuss, had been working on developing a weapon capable of penetrating the defensive shields around the Tyranthranx mothership/base. They succeeded but the devise could have had a devastating effect on the planetary environment. The military decided to go through with the testing against the advise of the team. There was a leak and the transport carrying the bomb was attacked. In the ensuing battle the bomb accidentally detonated. The ensuing blast creating a vast radioactive area in Nevada, called the Dead Zone. It exists still, visible as a faint green glow on the horizon from California. Even more profound than the initial destruction was the bizarre energies the bathed the Earth, mutating some and activating latent abilities in the human genetic structure. The age of superhumans began in that instant.

Two of the first were a being of nearly mindless rage and vast physical power, dubbed the Abomination by those who first encountered it, the beast rampaged out of control until subdued by the second being, a female entity that called herself The One. Gifted with incredible mental abilities, she managed to gain control of Abomination and summon several other powered beings. Using the Abomination as a host, she lead the assault on the Tyranthrax with her allies, bolstering their powers with her own. The One engaged in mental combat with the Queen Mind, the central intellect of the Tyranthrax, weakening it enough to bring down its force shields. Now vulnerable to more conventional assault the base was obliterated in a nuclear assault. The One seemingly sacrificed herself to hold the Queen Mind’s power in check long enough for it to be destroyed. Her last act was to transport her companions to safety including the Abomination.

The world was saved and changed. Newly empowered beings now walked the earth. Still reeling from the war, Earth’s nations were unprepared to deal with this emerging threat. If not for the efforts of th fledging superhuman teams nothing would have been able to stem the impending charos. Slowly, things settled into something resembling normal. The new superhumans fell into a niche, hero and villain alike, opening the new millennium.....

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World description: Near Future, examination of alien technology and super human inventors has pushed common technology, particularly in the field of biotechnology. Corporations hold more power, particularly multinationals, as they stepped into vacuum left by weakened governments in the 3rd world areas.

Superhuman status: Superhumans occupy a curious area. Praised and reviled, feared and loved they are always the center of public attention. Recent political incidents have cast a certain class in a negative light. “Mutants” those born with powers are often the targets of more discrimination, stemming from fear, jealous and bigotry. Many mutants display non human characteristics, even if they have no true powers, some 1 percent of the world’s populations are mutants but the number of those with true super powers is a much smaller percentage.