CAPE WARS (OOC)

[ScottishMongol]

The year is 2030

America lies in ruins

Now is the time of the superpowered warlord
​

It began with "the Empowerment". A global event, the causes and origins unexplained to this day, that imbued millions around the globe with superhuman abilities. For a time, America saw a proliferation of supercriminals and vigilantes. It looked like a golden age of superheroism, like that depicted in comic books and movies, would be realized. But the media, so caught up in tales of superheroism, failed to notice the deeper problems - the poverty, the riots, the political dysfunction.

Then came King Steel.

His plan to take over the country (and then...the WORLD) was doomed to fail, even if he did succeed in killing half the Senate and the Vice President on national tv. He was just one man. But King Steel showed other supervillains that it was possible, that the US was weaker than they imagined. The smarter ones realized that to succeed, you needed a militia, a government, support from the general population. What followed was the Year of the Supervillains, as warlords such as Nemesis and Captain Power rose to control swathes of the US. Other places saw mass uprisings led by the first of the "super-revolutionaries". The United States was reeling.

Minuteman was the killing blow.

The strongest super the United States had ever seen, even to this day his power has been surpassed by a single-digit number of supers worldwide. He led his militia on Washington, ready to cleanse this country of the rot and usher in a restoration of the true America envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The best supers of a generation laid down their lives to kill him, in a six-day battle that ruined most of the capital. The surviving government moved to Cheyenne Mountain, government authority collapsed, and a hundred superpowered warlords filled the vacuum. That was ten years ago.

The Cape Wars


thanks to @Kirook for the map​

Ten years after the Battle of DC, the country is shattered. There is still a United States - there were many supers loyal to the government - but many "loyalist" walords owe fealty to Cheyenne Mountain in name only - and much of the country is still in the hands of revolutionary movements, fascist insurgencies, supervillains, and warlords of every description. Chaos reigns.

Factions of the Cape Wars
​

The United States of America
("the Loyalists", officially the Emergency Council to Restore the Republic)
Based out of Cheyenne Mountain, the rump United States is governed by an executive council, imbued with special emergency powers after the Battle of DC. Helmed by President Arthur Mencken, the true power behind the throne is Captain Cosmos, the strongest super in the US. However, there are many loyalist warlords, some good, some bad - frequently, more and more of them are bad, as many have realized they can use the legitimacy of the US government to shore up their flagging warlord states. America is down, but not out - and while Captain Cosmos lives, there is always the hope for the future of the American way.

Captain Power
One of the two remaining warlords left over from the Year of the Supervillains, Captain Power rules Wisconsin and Michigan with a steady hand. He promotes the image of himself as protector and defender of the common man, "the supervillain you can have a beer with!" He rules through a deft mix of propaganda and actually efficient administration - his touch is not too light, not too heavy. So long as he keeps the people of his "Superior Republic" fed, housed, and safe, resistance is muted. Captain Power is one of the top three supers in the country.

Nemesis
She grew from a traumatized abuse victim to be the cold-blooded ruler of most of America's most populous state. Nemesis rules through a personal ideology that claims to respond to the failures of democracy and capitalism, but despite her superpower being lacking compared to heavy-hitters such as Red Hammer or Captain Cosmos, she is incredibly intelligent and relies on competent and trustworthy subordinates.

The Popular Front
Many "super-revolutionaries" got their start by accident, during the riots and intercommunal bloodshed that broke out as the US unravelled. They fought the police, defended their communities against fascist supervillains, and eventually formed the Popular Front - not a government, but a team of left-wing supers that defends a loose coalition of anarchists, communists, and even socdems.

Red Hammer
The micromanaging head of a local DSA chapter in Boston before he got his superpowers, Red Hammer led the Boston Revolution that grew to liberate most of New England. Since then, significant democratic and revolutionary backsliding has occurred, to the dissatisfaction of other leftist factions. Red Hammer promotes an incoherent mix of Stalinism, Marxist-Leninist-Maoism, and even Juche as he manages his authoritarian regime. Hated by many but seen by some as the vanguard of the revolution, Red Hammer straddles the line between supervillain and super-revolutionary.

Player Characters​

You are a superpowered individual. You may be a hero, a villain, a revolutionary, a warlord - you may have no allegiance, or you may defy definition. Submit your application with the following:

Name:
Pronouns:
Age:
Starting Location:
Powers:
Faction:
Bio:

Age
The Empowerment affected a random selection of humans between the ages of 20 and 40. That was in 2014, and it is now 2030 - the youngest possible persons to get their powers is now 37, and the oldest is 56. It is unclear if the Empowerment can ever reoccur, or if powers can be transferred, replicated, or inherited (some people have been around long enough to have kids - some of them have had a lot of kids).

Starting Location
If you choose to be a warlord, you may claim any territory on the map provided it is a contiguous part of the continental United States, not controlled by another faction (reference the map above), and limited to one whole US state.

Powers
Don't concern yourself with powerscaling or quantifying your power. Be warned that there are limits - no "magic" powers (Dr. Strange), no mind control, no "meta" powers (such as the ability to alter, enhance, or remove others' powers). Generally, you are mid-tier supers, not on the level of a Captain Power or a Minuteman, but perhaps strong enough to hold your own with them, provided you are clever and lucky.

Supers with super-intelligence, or "superints" exist, and are more than capable of bringing fantastic inventions into being - anti-gravity devices, directed energy weapons, jetpacks, suits of power armor, force fields, and many other strange and fantastical devices. However, in America's current wartorn state, with global supply chains shot to hell, obtaining the supplies to manufacture these devices en masse is quite impossible. A single supervillain can make single a death ray in his garage - to equip his army with them, he'll need to cut a deal with a supplier.

Faction
You may create your own faction or join an NPC faction (see above). If you choose to create your own faction, factors such as stability, efficiency, your military strength, and your industrial base will be judged by me. This will determine what is within your ability to achieve - a small, unstable warlord state with a ramshackle militia will have trouble projecting power, let alone taking on the United States government.

The deadline to submit is Friday, December 1st.

And join the Discord!

 

[Fancy Face]

Name: The Professor (formerly Professor Nightmare)
Pronouns: he/him
Age: 39
Starting Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Powers: Big brained inventor, with a particular focus on electrical power generation and equipment. Technology is usually blocky and robust, though also leans towards being slightly oversized/bulky and unnecessarily intimidating. The kind of guy who builds power armor for guards and makes them look like they're going to break down a wall.
Faction: United States of America (ECRR)
Background: The Professor is a new man. The Professor is a proud member of the National Reconstruction Committee. The Professor did not ever actually construct weapons of mass destruction, and he would like to stress that they were "purely hypothetical defensive emplacements". The Professor also would prefer not to discuss the question of how he came to power, and instead focus on the great strides taken in rebuilding the state. The Professor would also like input on new names for his all-volunteer defense force, as he believes "The Destroyers" is no longer compatible with the ideals of his-of the government.

Originally a 23 year old college student, the Professor found himself with a sudden spark of genius, able to construct immensely powerful devices out of scrap and what he could pilfer from his lab courses. Like many great men, he immediately attempted to use this power for personal gain by sealing himself away and carefully laboring over a suit of armor and an array of crude but effective weaponry. Professor Nightmare, as he was then known, brutally triumphed over his rivals primarily through sheer firepower and the ability to actually offer useful technology to prospective followers, seizing control of most of the city of Lexington and preparing his own ragged army, making heavy use of minions armed with electrical weaponry. Believing himself to genuinely be imbued with intelligence and vision beyond all others, he planned to usher in a new enlightenment under his all knowing aegis, sweeping through Kentucky and even launching wide-ranging forays into neighboring states for resources, funds, and intimidation. He began work on the grandly titled Project JUPITER, a weapon system that would render his domain inviolable and reduce even the strongest Supers nothing but fodder.

The brutality of the battle of DC and the resulting crackdown on Supervillains in the aftermath threw cold water on these grand plans, and he immediately began a sudden, panicked pivot as he realized the party was coming to an end with the Popular Front and a much more ruthless Federal remnant viciously working to consolidate power.

He ceased construction on Project JUPITER, instead utilizing the power sources for civic means. He turned his minions into a defensive force that would begin a number of belated "hearts and minds" initiatives combined with attempting to rebuild the cities under his control. He completely dropped his previous styling of scrap metal power armor and instead began dressing business casual, and even started holding elections on local issues and offices. This mostly paid off-when the forces of the Federal Government under Paragon came to Kentucky, the Professor's immediate cooperation bought him a new lease on life as a now "reformed" loyalist, helped a great deal by his willingness to supply his new bosses with everything he can concoct to keep them off his back.

Since then the former Professor Nightmare has managed to become an integral part of the National Reconstruction Committee, to the deep irritation of some. Still, while many doubted his conviction, there really was no choice but to go the whole nine yards-he threw himself into his duties, producing, refining, and iterating on his particular "style" of invention for everything from reactors to modified versions of his old "sparky" electro-rifle. While he exaggerates when he sometimes claims to be the "arsenal of liberty", he has absolutely contributed a great deal to the ECRR's infrastructure and equipment, especially for its "common" members, something that has earned him genuine clout even if he sometimes squanders it by slipping back into rants about "showing them all" every now and then.

Yet the Professor is not quite happy-mostly secure, he's now steadily becoming more and more fixated on his magnum opus-Project JUPITER, now retooled into Project SHOCK AND AWE, a weapon capable of laying low the mightiest supers on the American continent, breaking the stalemate, and cementing his legacy forever! He just needs the funding and permission to get back to development on it-

 

[bookwyrm]

​

Name: Extinguisher (Jayden Foley)
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 40 (Empowered at 24)
Starting Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming
Powers: Energy drain and neutralization, dispersing heat, light, electricity, radiation, all into the void
Faction: Federal loyalist

Background:

Jayden was the oldest of four of a wonderbread upper-middle class family, still after that has passed, trying to achieve the American dream and get into the lower-upper class- or even the middle-upper class! From pretty much the word go this was the great responsibility to which Jayden was devoted, from managing and partially raising his younger siblings in the gaps in between two parents with full time careers, to running in track and field, civic-mindedly participating in student government, and becoming a literal boy scout, in order to bend his life around a good college application.

But after the Empowerment, it didn't matter that Jayden was an overachieving architecture grad student, volunteer firefighter, or even an amateur hiker and rockclimber. What mattered was that he got lucky, granted by the universe the power to take on anything thrown at him, heat, radiation, electromagnetic force, all energy consumed by the dark void in the center of his being. It's all anyone could talk about, the sensation of his hometown when he got back from his now fairly permanent break from Berkley, after the Council of Nine, and then Nemesis.

It seems like just like that, Jayden was made honorary fire marshal and auxiliary of the newly reformed state guard's emergency response and supervillain defense teams, with a badge and a uniform and everything, taking photo ops after every wildfire and arson attack, being coached into playing up being a real-life superhero for all the special elementary school assemblies. And likewise- just like that, Jayden's family was hob-nobbing with the families that owned Walmart and Mars chocolate, and all the politicians shaking hands and cutting ribbons down in the capital. He did it, pulled them all up so that they at last make it, and could bask in their position, and airily allow all the others to also follow in their footsteps.

And sure his already fragile sense of self-worth and constant need to make people happy and prove he's worth more than the crushing weight of privilege and expectation is absolutely redoubled by the fact that all anyone cares about was his ability to trap light itself in his eldritch clutches, bleeding all color and life from those unfortunate enough to be caught in his vampiric pull. And sure, on the whole a lot of the class he clawed his way into is suddenly far less relevant, and maybe it conveniently cost a lot less for the powers that be to grant them all the old elite markers now. And yes, his position has made a quiet part of Jayden's mind start to wonder how far he could have truly risen on the sweat of his own brow and not based on some cosmic fluke, and even how much his drive to do good and be a hero comes from anything truly worthy and selfless at all, and isn't just the neurotic humble-bragging of a spoiled fraud.

Buuuut- its all still worth it! Everything's pretty much great!! Self-worth doesn't matter when you're saving lives and being a superhero, and any quiet parts of Jayden's mind that get in the way are just distractions from Extinguisher doing his job and helping people! And so with the monomaniacal focus of running away from existential dread and running towards people in need, all while sleeping about two and a half nights a week, Extinguisher helped decommission scores of unrecoverable and nearly ancient nuclear silos, grew into the public face of a whole super team, and together with them stopped Geomaster and The Evil Adjunct from artificially triggering one last blow from Yellowstone. He even finally finished his masters with a correspondence course.

But, also, for some reason after the governor, and the secretary of state, and then the president of the state senate all died, the speaker of the state house and last acting governor had to "temporarily pull back to Cheyenne and reassess" with the state treasury? And left Extinguisher as "brevet commander of the state guard and the Wyoming military district" and "temporary emergency management executive"??​

 

[Cathari]

Name: Jestress (Rachel Hornby)
Pronouns: She/Her
Age: 38
Starting Location: Ohio
*Her capital/power base is centered in Cleveland, Ohio.
*Whether her gang controls all of Ohio is up to GM fiat and whatnot, though the gang has likely spread at least to Toledo and Columbus, with the southeast/Appalachian part of the state being more loosely controlled if at all.
Powers:
*Jestress's most well known powers are being able to stretch different parts of her body like rubber along with hardening her body to be akin to metal. Along with extending her reach, the former power also allows her to add springiness to her jumps or use tension to launch herself or her limbs in different directions with great force. With her hardening ability, she can also reshape and sharpen any part of her skin to have the edge of a knife or sword.
*While elasticity is her most well known power, Jestress can also alter the mass/density of any part of her body, allowing her to add more weight where she wants or more punch to her blows. This ability also enables her to float or drift in the air.
*Lastly, Jestress has a slight regeneration factor. It's not quick acting in the heat of battle, but she can potentially regrow her limbs over the course of days/weeks. Also, it's very easy for her to reattach her limbs if they've been chopped off or severed.
Faction: Is affiliated with the Popular Front (or Red Hammer), though otherwise her gang tends to be colloquially known as "The Circus' or "The Troupe"
Background:
At the time of the Empowerment, Rachel Hornby was a theater student at Cleveland State University. As supers began to spring up across the world, she would find herself endowed with powers of her own, the most obvious of which were the ability to stretch and enlarge herself like rubber, and to harden her own body like steel. With society becoming more and like comics and superhero movies, Rachel decided to take on the superhero mantle herself, initially calling herself "Elastigirl."

However, while a number of her colleagues shared her idea of justice - a sort of blend of anarchist and communist thought that saw the rich and privileged as parasites on society - this put her heavily at odds with the at-the-time lawful authorities. While at first she refrained from killing people out of the internalized ideal that heroes shouldn't do that, that restraint quickly gave way once she saw how eager companies and the government were willing to kill and subdue radicals like her just to maintain their own wealth and power. Confrontation after hopeless confrontation and arrest after arrest only served to harden her views of how deeply wrong and rotten America was at its core. Yet, for all Rachel's efforts, it began to dawn upon her that there was only so much she could do against the entrenched powers that be and the supers complicit in their injustice.

Someday, something just snapped. At some point, Rachel decided she just didn't give a fuck anymore. The world was beyond saving. One day she just decided, you know what, maybe I'll dress up like a clown. The whole world was just a farce anyway.

And so, she abandoned the moniker of "Elastigirl," and took on the new identity of "Jestress." No longer pretending to be a hero, she began to assemble a gang of like-minded individuals, centered in Cleveland, who were also sick of the society that abandoned and crushed their hopes.

It was not long after Jestress began establishing herself that the battle of DC took place, and in the span of a day the weakness of the federal government became manifest. While recognizing Minuteman was worse, she did not envision that society's ills would be washed away with a federal victory. But soon after, she learned of the communist uprisings that gripped New England. Seizing the momentum, Jestress rallied her gang and the disgruntled folks of Cleveland to seize the city before then extending their reach across Ohio. Her gang, often called "The Circus" or "The Troupe," would establish ties with the greater Popular Front and also with Red Hammer, although Rachel's vision did not quite match up with Red Hammer's.

The gang Jestress now leads revels in violence and brutality. Public executions of the rich and perceived enemies of the Troupe are a common spectacle. Collateral damage is of little concern to them. To many, they are disorganized riffraff, mostly held together through Jestress's personal charisma. Yet their goal to destroy the vestiges of the old order unites them as they march into the uncertain future.

 

[Laplace]

DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK DIE BACK
ALLISON 'DIEBACKMAN' BECKMANN​

I've died a hundred times over. That's a low ball. I have died a total of twenty three thousand, three hundred, and fifty eight times. So when people say that they know war, don't listen to them. They're full of it. I know war, because I keep on dying in them.

My first death was when I was tied up by this middle manager guy, I think he was a bank manager, or he owned a car dealership, going nuts with superhuman euphoria. Well, I put a bullet in him after he cut my throat. I stared down at him with his revolver in my hand and found out that it was actually a quite thrilling experience. Both the murder and being sort of immortal. See, I remembered choking on blood and looking up at his fat face, and then my own. I also remember shooting him and looking down on my own body.

Both Allisons no longer exist. The second one died for three hundred dollars. A cartel guy paid me a measly three thousand dollars to walk into a police precinct with a bomb vest on. Now I know I shouldn't have done that. I should have held out for no less than ten grand, which is the going price of me helping your organization bomb something now.

I've died in stupid ways, in funny ways, in awesome ways, and it doesn't matter. I'll die back to myself in any case, and each one is both a learning opportunity and something for the highlight reels. So, you see, I am war. Without it, I wouldn't have my way of living. Put a sum of a working exchange currency in my bank account, and you'll have around five hundred Allison Diebackman Beckmans at your beck and call, more if you give us a month or so.

To quote the honorable Judge, war endures. You might ask men what they think of stone. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. It'll last forever and ever, amen, until the sun swells and turns red and disgorges atomic radiation and renders the entire sorry species to their demise. If that's the case, why not make a tidy killing off of it? War without end, war without cease, this way, not some other way, this I pray, Amen.

Notes on Powers

Alison Beckmann can split off a clone of herself once every month. The clone can split off another clone. This can go on to infinity, and it's only because of Allison's high danger lifestyle that there's only a couple hundred than ten gajillion right now. This isn't a biological process, she simply thinks about it and a clone pops to existence anywhere five meters away from her. Each clone has the personal items of the original Beckmann in any time within a day of the cloning. Allison furthermore has all memories of all her clones, although given the sheer amount of it it's hard for any Allison to remember anything correctly.

Each instance of Allison exhibits mild to moderate superhuman capacity. They're only a little bit stronger than they seem (combined Olympian stats in most areas), but they appear to have infinite stamina. They can sprint for hours on end and engage in strenuous activity such as combat patrols for days with little food. Furthermore, Allison exhibits some form of superintelligence related to small unit tactics, military strategy, infiltration, hacking, and larceny skills, weapons and explosives handling and technical skill, enhanced driving skills, and a constant state of battle readiness.

Further Notes

Allison Beckmann is 32. She starts in what was Houston, Texas. She is independant and works for whoever pays her. Given her predictivities, it is usually the cartels, but she has worked with independant villains and heroes, as well as contracting for the US Government at times.

 

[TheMaskedReader]

Name: Beautiful - That is my real name, darling! (Dayna Penderson)
Pronouns: She/Her - And don't you forget it.
Age: 45 (?) - A lady never tells.
Starting Location: The Greater Chicago Area - For now. This show is limited time only!
Powers: Self-Biokinesis, contingent on available biomass and energy - To transcend humanity in all its banality!
Faction: The Popular Front - The best of oh so many bad options.

Beautiful

The woman who would one day become Beautiful was an isolated person. She engaged with the world through fiction and online media, working at a dead-end desk job in a tech support center, slowly becoming burned out and disillusioned. She dreamt of a world - Not a better one, but a world where she simply became something more. She could feel it scratching at her back, at her skull, the shards in her spine begging to be allowed to flourish into wing and bone and chitin. She found refuge for these desires in online fantasy, because it was the only way she could ever even *dream* of something she knew deep in her guts to be what she truly was. When she got powers, it was the best day of her life.

She'd been so hungry that night, far hungrier than she'd ever been before. It was like a void in her stomach. She ate and ate and ate every piece of food in her apartment, not even bothering to cook it, shoving raw food and sheer *mass* down her throat, and her body flexed and rippled, black clawed arms ripping out of her back and her skull flowering into an open mass of bone and chitin, mandibles ripping through the former skin of her cheeks.

The first public sighting of Beautiful was when she engaged in a break-in of a fast food restaurant in the guise of a human-sized polypodic mantis-centipede hybrid, devouring their entire stock of food as she gorged upon more and more food to fuel her powers. This also led to her moniker, as she reportedly engaged multiple workers in conversation regarding the "elegant and sleek beauty of her form", as well as displaying a shocking amount of insecurity and paranoia surrounding any percieved flaws in her form. A trail of similar crimes followed her as she fled across the country, but she proved difficult to catch - Her size belying a surprising speed and adaptability, as well as an extreme willingness to run away whenever she believes herself to be even somewhat threatened or outmatched. It's suspected that Beautiful may have been misidentified as up to three different supervillains during her initial crime spree, with the common characteristics being insectoid features and significant size, though varying in level. Her current highest recorded size is around the level of a school bus, with significant caveats - According to witness reports, the interior was mostly hollow, and utilized for hauling stolen goods. Her smallest recorded size is slightly smaller than an average American woman, after her only recorded significant conflict with a minorly powered vigilante who attacked her from a position of surprise and refused to allow her to retreat, which also remains her only confirmed kill to date.

Following this initial spree and the death of the vigilante in question, she seems to have fled into seclusion, with only occasional sightings through reports of decreased wild animal population and looted food stores and depots. Following the Battle for DC, though, she seems to have repented of her initial criminal (and basically apolitical) ways, and has started collecting a troupe of fellow odd sorts, largely anarchists, transhumanists, a Chinese documentary crew, and a surprisingly high number of power-oriented scientists (of varying levels of skill and ability), aiming to both utilize her abilities to attempt to bring her (as she describes it) "beauty" to others, as well as to do…something worthwhile with her life.

 

[Etranger]

Name: Robert Jay "General Strike" Wyatt
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 47
Starting Location: The Great Lakes Republic

​

Powers: Medium-range telekinesis, force fields, 360-degree mind-based perception
Faction: Popular Front
Bio:

Duly elected President of the Great Lakes Republic, RJ Wyatt is better known nowadays by his super-moniker, "General Strike." Originally known as the working-class folk hero Strike, Wyatt is actually from a wealthy family but has spent most of his life around and is more comfortable with blue-collar people, to the dismay of his well-heeled relatives. A trained labor lawyer, he made his name regionally by fighting cops at protests and strikebreakers at picket lines, but he became truly famous when he was first elected Attorney General of Illinois in a huge upset (thereby being promoted to "General" Strike), and then again later when he answered the government's call to fight Minuteman in Washington DC.

While not remotely in Minuteman's personal weight class, his phenomenal telekinetic powers class him as a virtual "flying brick" in his own right, and he was able to make a solid contribution to the effort. He later parlayed his participation into a huge surge in popularity, and he was the natural choice of the Chicago Convention for their Commander-in-Chief when they voted to break away from the United States. In the subsequent general election for President, he ran away with a vote percentage more often seen in military regimes owned by fruit companies.

Owing to his personal power and leadership ability, he has been able to marshal the superheroes of the Greater Chicagoland area and the expanded National Guard to expand outward, securing the former state capital in Springfield, the Rock Island Arsenal, and cross-border areas in Indiana and Wisconsin. He has since instituted what he refers to as a "progressive, democratic socialist" agenda, including widespread public schooling and welfare programs, sweeping social and political rights, and an economic policy based around re-industrialization. In exchange, he has cracked down on right-wing political expression, reinstituted conscription, and militarized the borders of the Republic.

Though the recipient of loyalty in his own territory, his bombastic and confrontational personality has won him few friends among his fellow warlords, and his left-wing politics make him less than popular in some of the rural areas of the Republic. Despite these handicaps, he clearly has an expansionist streak, and his particular enmity with Captain Power seems poised to blow up in the near future.

 

[Theaxofwar]

​

Name: Justice (Nicolas Castellanos)
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 42
Starting Location: Buffalo, New York
Faction: Upstate
Bio:
Prior to gaining powers, Justice was Nicolas Castellanos, PhD student in Political Science attending the University of Michigan. He was directionless, the kind of person who continued in academia because he wouldn't know what to do with himself outside of it. That didn't mean he didn't see problems in the world he wanted to fix, Nick just didn't have any confidence in his ability to fix then. That lack of confidence was itself somewhat remarkable, for when he gained powers he did nothing with them. Sam justified it as his powers (super strength, toughness, and flight) being worthless for actually helping people, but he knew he was just making excuses.

When Captain Power took over Michigan, Nicolas fled. He took refuge in New York, one of many internal refugees. He didn't even know DC was happening until after it was over, so caught up in lamenting his own life. After that, he resolved to fight. Unfortunately, the next experience he had was encountering a Popular Front revolution. He might have agreed with them, but there wasn't time to debate ideology, and he threw himself into the fight before he had time to reconsider.

He lost.

Fleeing upstate, Nick set himself up in Buffalo, angry at himself and the world. But he didn't want to let himself stop fighting. Even then, he didn't truly have a plan. He fought off any attempts from greater players to expand when he could, and defeated any super using powers to oppress others. But even his name, Justice, wasn't one he chose, just something a journalist gave him after a misheard quote. Yet, he didn't stay unnoticed. More and more, upstate New York became "Justice's Territory." Imitators and followers began to rally around him. Forced to take some amount of responsibility, Justice renounced any desire for leadership and supported elections in the region. Yet in the same breath, he promised to fight the rise of any oppressive political ideology.

As the guardian of the Republic of New York, colloquially known as Upstate, Justice has reigned but not ruled. His only requirement have been steady elections and the banning of any political parties aligned to another major warlord state (including the U.S. government). In the years since the republic's establishment, however, radicalization has only gotten worse, and Justice's popularity has grown far beyond what he ever would have wanted. Justice himself may not know what he thinks the best way to run a government is, but he is certain that power alone is no qualification for governance. Yet, Justice must now grapple with a question he never wanted to seriously consider: what will he do if the Republic elects someone he truly cannot abide with?

Power: Justice is a classic flying brick, strong, tough, and able to fly under his own power. The only thing of note beyond his level of durability, which is enough to survive a punch even from heavy hitters like Red Hammer, is the nature of his toughness. Not only is he extremely durable, but he hasn't aged since he gained his powers. Furthermore, when he is injured, he quickly heals back to that state. Thus, he is perhaps one of the few supers that have not had to deal with back pain as they've aged. Truly, Justice is in the top percent of supers.

 

[Aedan777]

Name: [REDACTED] "Agent Glass"
Pronouns: he/him
Age: [REDACTED] Appears 40ish
Starting Location: [REDACTED]
Powers: Can open portals between two locations
Faction: Loyalists
Bio: Once an unassuming CIA functionary, gaining the power to open portals between two locations changed his direction incalculably. His old identity is gone, displaced to leave only the Agency's most capable scalpel. Untraceable access was an incredible boon for work, from information gathering to assassination. As the world was deafened by the thunder of superheroes and supervillains, Glass quietly altered the flow of countries and peoples.

Until the United States collapsed from within. The empowered costumes got too big for their britches and blew up the capital. Glass didn't fight Minuteman, too public, but he was crucial in evacuating America's leadership. The real leadership, not the politicians. The people who would be needed to pull the country back from the brink and put the traitors in line. Those who knew how to wield power, not simply rampage around with it. His bosses.

And perhaps himself as well.

 

[veteranMortal]

Snowfall​

Name: Vanessa Sinclair
Age: 20 at Empowerment, 37 now.
Pronouns: She/Her
Location: The Bronx, New York City.
Bio: The younger of two sisters who both received powers - a startlingly rare coincidence - Vanessa lived in New York at the time, in the Bronx with her older sister Angelica. She was never allowed to do a great deal - she iced up cop cars before protests, made ice rinks for kids in the winter, but her sister kept her away from any serious heat even as the city increasingly took on an edge during the Year of the Supervillains.

They saw on the news as Minuteman advanced on DC. Whilst Alabaster stood alone against the walking apocalypse and the call went out to converge on DC, Vanessa was watching her sister talk on the phone to a friend with a car, organising a car pool of supers from New York.

For six days, Vanessa watched legends throw themselves against Minuteman and break, and she tried not to worry - her sister promised she would just be doing Search and Rescue, she'd keep way out of the path of the storm, she promised - what could she do against him anyway? Just a girl from the Bronx.

She promised.

People say not to judge capes who didn't attend. Black Magnolia wasn't aware the fight was even going on until it was over. Paragon had to hold the Ohio frontier against some neo-nazi fuck that no one remembers any more. Red Hammer…

His people say he wouldn't have made a difference. What's one more Flying Brick against a monster like that? If he'd gone, they say, the feds would've crushed his people. He would've been left out to die like Liberty was, they'd claim the extraction team wasn't quick enough.

Maybe.

She's pretty sure he could've taken that last hit and walked away where Stonewall didn't, though. And then she'd still have her older sister.

She will kill him for this.

Powers: She can alter temperatures around her, dropping them to substantially below freezing. She is also able to create and control ice and snow within her range, with significant fine control.

In all other ways, baseline human.

 

[triumph8w]

Name: Venom Commander (Arnold Rolt)
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 40
Starting Location: Florida
Powers: Venom Commander is a 'supergenius,' as those supers who produce fanciful and strange technology have come to be known, and is capable of creating technology that seems to have leaped straight from the pages of a science fiction book. From cybernetics to anti-grav vehicles. Theoretically he is only limited by supply chains and his imagination, and has indeed created several quality of life inventions, the greatest and easiest to make of his inventions always seems to be weapons. It is perhaps indicative of the mindset of the man himself—that underneath pretty words and actions, it is ultimately force that rules the day.
Faction: V.E.N.O.M, also referred to as the Southern Security Zone
Bio:

Venom Commander is the cockroach of the superhuman community.

One of the first supervillains to arise after the Empowerment, Venom Commander started off as a petty crook, first appearing in New York city in a series of robberies, before eventually being taken down by a local superhero after he had accidentally shot a loved one in the shoulder in a panicked robbery gone wrong. While he managed to escape custody, the beat down he received was eye opening, and the man who would come to be known as Venom Commander planned his next moves carefully, graduating from robbing convenience stores to breaking open bank vaults. He often hired local supervillains to cause distractions during said robberies. During this period of his life he was labeled 'Laser Lord' for his use of laser weaponry by a disgruntled opponent, which stuck, much to his consternation.

Inspired by King Steel's storming of the capital, he rebranded himself as Venom Commander and gathered up his assets before moving to DC. During the Year of the Supervilian, he quietly acquired chunks of the capital for himself, taking advantage of the rebuilding process and the general chaos of not only the growing pains of superpowers in society, and the aftermath of King Steel's failed coup in an attempt to become shadow ruler of DC. This all came falling apart when Minuteman and his supporters marched on the capital. As Minuteman and those who opposed him practically leveled the city Venom Commander at first simply attempted to defend what he had built, but as the fight dragged on he transferred over to simple survival—even getting too close to the fight and taking a few pot shots at Minuteman, before eventually managing to gather enough from his ruined assets to flee the city. He moved around the southern states for a few years, funding the construction of a hidden fortress in the swamps of the deep south in Florida, where he has since settled into as his headquarters.

Venom Commander operates using technology many would describe as 'sci-fi,' and utilizes a mix of loyal subordinates and battle robots for his forces. Venom Commander rules through a mix of pragmatic dictatorship, and egotistical flair. From petty robber to ice cold warlord, he has always acted in a particularly theatrical manner. If anyone knows his true name or face, none have shared it, for Venom Commander keeps his entire body covered, and his voice modulated, doubly so after his injury during the Battle of DC.

 

[Furrybacon]

KNIGHTMARE / STARKNIGHT
​

Name: Knightmare (Starknigt fake hero persona) / Johnny Dough

Pronouns: He Him

Age: 42

Starting Location: Florida Swamps

Powers:
Knightmare is an Illusionist Psychic. Possessed of no greater physical strength or ability than the average person, Knightmare has the power to project images, sounds, perceptions -illusions- into the minds of those around him. There are combat applications for thus, if you are clever enough, but that all depends on the illusions working. Focusing on a single or small group of Individuals, Knightmare could make his illusions "real", as in that they trigger the right sensory inputs that someone might accept its reality, provided it isn't interrogated too heavily. Generally used to confuse and bewilder civilians, it can also be used to confuse enemy supers that Knightmare might gain the upper hand -or usually, escape.

Knightmare generally avoids combat but is proficient with the laser weapons his employment with Venom Commander allows.

Generally, Knightmare tries to hide what his powers actually are, as knowing you're fighting an Illusionist goes a long way to beating one. This is a key part of the StarKnight persona, whose legends have him with half a dozen powers - all fictional - that change from place to place. The actual consistency is meaningless, so long as no one connects Starknight the hero to Knightmare the Illusionist.

The greatest weakness to Knightmare's illusions are cameras. Its how he was caught in the early days. If he knows who or roughly where those operating the Camera's are, he can try and influence them directly, but his illusions, as reliant on Sensory manipulation, won't appear on any screen.

Faction: VENOM (@triumph8w )


Bio:
A Conman and Felon who'd been kicked out of the Marine Corps for theft, when the Empowerment happened, and the illusions began, the man who became Knightmare was quick to shed his previous identity and ply his newfound trade. At first, the man who became Knightmare didn't try to hide his powers, but this led to him getting caught, beaten up, and locked in jail. After this, he quickly widened up, broke out, and began to sell his services as a Cape for Hire while working to hide his powers. This is about the time he fully adopts the "Knightmare" moniker.

His work as a mercenary Cape brought him into the orbit of Venom Commander. A consistent and, dare one say, trusted employee, Knightmare would follow the Commander first to DC, where he would run away from a fight Knightmare was frankly not built for in any capacity, and then to Florida, where the relationship was rekindled and work resumed. Starknight as a persona would start here, a fake vigilante made to edify Knightmare's ego through popular acclaim and truck people into tributary status. Using his illusions, he'd convince towns that he'd actually saved them from threats he'd secretly created, growing his "legend" while operating on Venom's behalf to steal resources or retrieve information.

Knightmare currently goes by "Johnny Dough" when out of costume, a fairly obvious pseudonym. This is part of a largely neurotic attempt to obscure his identity, and most of all, power, from wider knowledge. Johnny Dough enjoys living a decadent and luxurious life, paid for by his scams and employment with Venom Commander.

On patrol as Starknight, Johnny Dough creates a strange "road knight" costume with a biker jacket and helmet stolen from a local museum. Knightmare used to wear practical clothes that hide his identity, but Dough's ego and desire for recognition have led to him adopting a similar suit of flashy stolen knight armor mixed with modern clothes.

 

[Teen Spirit]

Name: Multi-Max
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 37
Starting Location: Palm Springs, California.
Powers: Can create two copies of any item, once. The copies are better than the original (for example: copied guns hit harder, copied computers are faster and more powerful, etc). Also created two copies of himself
Faction: Nemesis.
Bio:

Maxwell Walsh had been at a crossroads in his life when the Empowerment happened, having recently graduated from college with the degree in Architecture his dad always wanted for him and had just moved in with his boyfriend, but the sudden death of his parents in a car accident had left him adrift, uncertain of if should follow his father's wishes still or finally pursue his own dreams, once he figured out what those even where. To this day he's not sure what he would have done had he not gained his powers.

At first Max thought the Empowerment had skipped him like so many other Americans, then he found himself with three copies of his favorite book in his hands. He had the power to duplicate objects, more than just that, improve them. A .22 pistol copied by Max now hit with the force of a 50 cal, a cheap ax could cut through a car with enough force, a computer would become faster and stronger, etc. He couldn't copy an individual item more than once and he couldn't make copies of the copies. For a time he kept things low key, copying stuff like jewelry and electronics to make a quick buck, copying his computer to get a better one, small stuff like that.

Then he asked himself a question, what if he copied something living, what if he copied himself? His boyfriend would come home that night to find three Maxs in their kitchen. The two copies, Maxwell and Maxim, had all of Max's memories and emotions, though lacked his copying ability for reasons unknown, but they were smarter and stronger than him, each being at near peak human strength.

None of the three wanted to give up the life they had but they didn't want to fight over it either, so they agreed to share their life and boyfriend. The three were distinct individuals, but they were all Max.

Curiously, Max's efforts to copy other people and even animals have all ended in failure and dead clones. For now the only living thing he was able to copy was himself.

While initially against doing any sort of Superhero work, Maxwell and Maxim's clear strength and wits made the idea more and more appealing, there were far stronger heroes and villains out there but the two's strength combined with Max's copied weapons could make them a potent force. And Southern Arizona was rather lacking in heroes as it were.

The three had finally agreed upon a name and costume when Minuteman's attack on DC happened and everything began to fall apart.

As chaos engulfed the region, the Maxs and their now husband, Alex, found themselves drifting from place to place. Max's powers made him popular with many a warlord, 100 guns could become 300 guns, a death ray became 3 death rays, two of which were even deadlier than the original. But the four never felt any real safety, until they met Nemesis.

Nemesis quickly saw potential in the group and offered them jobs. Max was quickly put to work copying everything from weapons to tractors while Maxwell and Maxim were put to work dealing with the numerous lower powered heroes and villains. Over the years, Nemesis has rewarded Multi-Max with power, acceptance, and a sense of purpose all three Maxs had been missing from their lives. While Multi-Max has occasionally balked at Nemesis's more coldblooded and ruthless acts, their loyalty to her has never wavered once since signing up.

 

[Graf Tzarogy]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkJVQN9pK1k​

Name: The Reverend Doctor Daniel Lamb
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 37
Starting Location: Redding and surrounds.
Powers: Psycho-empathetic touch (can "see" thoughts, memories, past of any individual or object he is in physical contact with focus), a degree of superintelligence.
Faction: Sevenfold Ministries
Bio: Though the seals have begun to open, and the white and the red horse have ridden, God forgets not his children. The Reverend Lamb came into Redding no less than a decade ago and has taken the city in a tempest of revival and revelation. From whence he came, none know – when asked, Dr. Lamb grins and says just "Sin".

His Sevenfold Ministry preaches a heady mix of neo-charisma, theosophy, and millenarianism. The Revelation is here, who can deny its signs and wonders! The Seven Angels of Armageddon, also called the Ascended Masters, have come to grant gifts of the Spirit once again to the worthy, to protect the pure through this end of days, and herald the dawning of the Aquarian Age.

The Reverend personally gives a sermon every day at the seven-gabled cathedral in downtown Redding. He preaches fire and brimstone, the sin of the communist and capitalist power elite, and the darkness that covers the world. But the solution, always, is love – for oneself, for one's fellow man, for God. Tithe to the Church – its soup kitchens, community housing, gardens – and save the world. The offering plates fill up. But the end of the service is why most come. A line approaches Lamb (all paying a fee to be there, of course), to be touched and receive wisdom. He knows their deepest fears, their most shameful secrets – and he forgives, and for that, they are grateful and faithful forever, amen.

That he sees other things – financial details, a secret split by their boss that they don't consciously remember – well, that's just an extra bonus the Spirit gives. He's not selfish with it, after all – he tells his clerks, his assistants, his boys, the Martyrs of the Last Days. And they go out, and make sure Redding is a city ready for God, clean of wickedness.

For it is End of Days, and Daniel Lamb intends to see the Apocalypse through.

 

[Zioneer]

​

Name: Eden Gardener
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 36
Starting Location: Salt Lake County, Utah.
Powers: Nature manipulation. Eden can telekinetically control plants and guide their growth, accelerating it immensely if she so chooses. Also, her head hair is green plant-like vines, which have a limited amount of prehensile movement.
Faction: Nominally independent (Garden of Eden), allied with Nemesis.

Bio:

When the Empowerment hit, Eden was a self-loathing, closeted Mormon "male" missionary, kept in Salt Lake rather than sent out to convert the world for reasons known only to temple square. As Elder ??? (her old surname has been deleted from the records of all relevant governments) she was in the home stretch, counting the hours when she'd never have to wear a suit anymore, pleading into the night for God to make her a girl, entertaining darker thoughts sometimes.

But then her powers emerged. At first almost unoticeable, her pet cactus grew a few inches there, the lawn outside her missionary apartment grew shaggy and long. But as the days went by her power grew, and an idea began to formulate in her head. A head upon which thorns grew, which did not go unnoticed by her religious leaders. They counseled her, told her that she could do so much good for the church with her new powers... but after one too many "Elder ???"s, she snapped. The potted plants in the Church Office Building restrained, and in the chaos she fled into the queerer and poorer neighborhoods of Salt Lake.

By the time they found her a year later, "Elder ???" had rejected her old name, started to transition, and taken over multiple neighborhoods. By the time they mobilized their actual Church-endorsed ™️ heroes, she had already formed a loyal following, her so-called "cult". Queer Utahns of all kinds, and all of the marginalized she could muster flocked to her banner, and in the end, Church leadership fled to Provo, and the Garden of Eden began in Salt Lake.

Now, Eden rules as a would-be goddess, fusing together Mormon theology, green socialism, vague neo-paganism, and even a bit of girlboss rhetoric. Salt Lake is loyal to her, though she rules with a relatively light hand. She is allied with Nemesis, albeit it is a tenous alliance, intended to keep other factions from toppling her (and in turn serving as a knowing "meat shield" to slow down the Feds or other factions from reaching Nemesis).

 

[Red Robyn]

THE HELLHOUND
Or: Bernard Burns
"THERE IS NO CRIME I WOULD NOT COMMIT TO SEE THIS COUNTRY UNITED AGAIN. NO VIOLATION, NO SACRIFICE I WOULD NOT MAKE. ANY AND ALL ATROCITIES COMMITTED FOR THE SAKE OF OUR GREAT CAUSE ARE JUSTIFIED... BECAUSE OUR CAUSE IS JUSTICE ITSELF."

Age: 40 (during the empowerment)
Starling Location: Atlanta, Georgia.
Warlord Domains: Georgia and the bits of South Carolina that are not occupied by the Popular Front.
Affiliation: Loyalist
Powers:
Heat Absorption
-By absorbing heat through touch, Bernard can boost his strength, durability and speed. He can also consume absorbed heat to regenerate his body, which has resulted in significantly slower natural aging.
-He can manipulate absorbed heat and release it in the form of either magma or flames. After years of practice, Burns has learned to uses his flames to fly through fire jets. He can also make several "constructs" using them.
-His fine control is such that Burns can choose whom his flames hurt or not.



BIO:
Pre-Empowerment Bernard Burns was a US Marine, enlisted at 18. Burning with patriotism and loyalty to his beloved country, he fought tooth and nail in almost every war the United States took part in in the early 21st century. Even as the injustice of these wars was revealed to the public, never once did his staunch belief in the righteousness of his cause ever faltered.

The Empowerment did not change that. Burns was deployed overseas when it happened but not even the massive chaos caused by the strange phenomenon stopped him from returning to his country when it needed him. When he returned, he found his hometown of Atlanta taken by godless communists and other traitorous trash--which he was quick to take down. Ever since, The Hellhound is still the main "hero" of Atlant and one of the foremost warlords (even though he refuses to allow anyone to call him like that) still loyal to the US Government.

Burns's forces are known as the Burning Legion. Despite being one of the most combat-efficient forces under the thumb of the US Government remnants, they are widely seem as a loose canon--influenced by the extreme zealotry of their commander. Sandwiched between two Popular Front holdings, it is not uncommon for them to skirmish against the socialist forces. Hellhound does little to rein in his men, judging any atrocity committed against the socialists to be "utterly and completely justified"--even though he does not officially endorse their predations.

 

[Thiccroy]

"This is the Weapon of God! This is the Hand of God! This is the Will of God!"
METHUSELAH
[ He/Him | 50 | Salt Lake City ]

+ Healing +
~ The power of the Miracles of God, with a prayer and a touch, Methuselah can cure and heal any wound, regrow the limbs of anyone and with a light touch, fix the greatest of migraines- though to a lesser extent for Supers. But not his own body. ~

< The Banner of the Father >
~ A collection of families, nomadic groups and various other refugees that have come to Salt Lake City to seek the powers of the Father Methuselah. His flock. His force. His Heavenly host. ~
​

• Methuselah was once known as Phillip Duke, a former Mormon who escaped the isolated ways of his family to work in Salt Lake City. Still a devout Christian, though church-less, the excommunicated young man soon joined the police force, and in turn, began to serve the people by doing the good deeds he taught himself of. However, when the Empowerment was happening, Methuselah was aiding Firefighters with a torrent of hellfire wreaking havoc across an apartment complex. Risking his life, Methuselah had his skin burned badly whilst using his body to protect the life of a woman who had lost the use of her leg. However, soon enough, whilst giving her CPR in his delirious, pained state, he suddenly prayed to the Lord. And what a miracle it was. Not only had she come back from the dead, but she stood- as if nothing had happened to her.​
• Luckily for Phillip, his own stay at the Hospital was short lived due to a miraculous turn around over the damage done to his skin. Soon enough, as the chaos of Super Villains and heroes gripped the US, Phillip went to a Sunday mass and was lauded as a hero- despite his horrific gaze behind a bandaged body. As the Father blessed him, have him the bread and blood of Christ, Phillip understood what he had to do. More and more, he went to work in the Hospital on his free time. Healing the sick. The wounded. The near-dead, even. Alongside this, he continued to protect the people from the horrors of his modern, wretched America. As the Battle in DC came and went, Phillip then came to Salt Lake as Methuselah- baptizing himself in the near by Lake and promising to protect any and all people who believe in the word of God. His word. His gospel. A gospel of love. Forgiveness. But rather than turning the other cheek...​

He will give the Sinner fire.
​

 

[Frostbyght]

Name: Howard Kellar

AKA: Impact

"Please for the love of god stop trying to blow up the city and Fuck Off. Christ, I need a vacation."
- Impact, every few days.
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 39
Starting Location: St. Louis, Missouri.
Powers: Long Range Telekinesis, along with a suite of minor Psychic powers (Short-Range Telepathy, Limited Precog, ect.)
Faction: Government Loyalist
Bio:

Spoiler: Impact Bio

Howard Kellar never thought of himself a patriot.

Before everything, ya know, started, he had been content to go to school, go on vacation a few times a year, and prepare himself for what was sure to be a fulfilling, mundane life in Middle-Class America. He was a college student in New England, studying engineering in the months before the Empowerment. When he awoke one day with the ability to lift cars over his head with a thought, his first instinct was that this sort of thing would really screw with his study time. Howard generally tried to keep his head down until the Cape Wars really kicked off and he could no longer ignore the situation.

His first, faltering efforts to be a superhero as "Impact" were pathetic in retrospect. He tried to be the "All American" good-boy superhero, but found that he had neither the patience nor the saintlike empathy needed to forgive and forget. After witnessing the results of escalating Superhero battles he quickly found he was majorly out of his depth. When King Steel snapped the neck of the VP on live Television, Howard made the decision to ally himself with the US Government in a desperate attempt to keep things from spiraling further. He encouraged super-powered friends and allies to do the same, believing that if they could just work together long enough, the slide into chaos could be stopped.

Howard took the year of Supervillains hard, and slowly began doubling down on his allegiance to the Government as a coping mechanism even as things started to slip. Patriotism became a refuge. He was one of the many second-tier Supers in DC for the fight against Minuteman, working primarily to keep Minuteman's lesser-super allies contained. Exchanged exactly 15 seconds of combat with Minuteman and nearly died because of it on day 4.

With DC gone and what was left of his family evacuated westward, Howard followed the Government to Cheyenne, and has slowly been ground down both physically and mentally over the last few years due to incessant combat against various anti-government groups. Still loyal, but hates the people he works with and greatly dislikes where the government has had to go to keep things together. Howard HATES Red Hammer with a burning passion, both for not joining the fight in DC and for taking over his home state.

Howard was "assigned" to protect and manage a small segment of Government controlled territory, being college educated and not unintelligent. This has basically turned him into a government-backed warlord, though he refuses to acknowledge it. His loyalty to the Cheyenne regime is slowly slipping as he sees the caliber of people they work with, but he refuses to consider abandoning what's left of the legitimate government. It helps that an uncle of his, a former college professor from Brown, has been "elected" the Governor-In-Exile of Massachusetts, and makes regular visits to Howard's territory.

Has not had a good night's sleep since DC. Smokes frequently. Thin, twitchy, and always in a dour mood.

---

Name: NEO-MAN (Previously, Cedric Derron)

"Remember! Wherever injustice can be found, wherever criminals make their mark, and wherever evil hides, there will always be a light shining against the darkness! NEO-MAN, AWAY!"
- Neo-Man, after the 3rd Battle of Boise.

Pronouns: He/Him, but you can call him Chum!
Age: 43
Starting Location: Boise, Idaho.
Powers: Your classic Flying Brick: Flight, Super Strength, Super Speed, Super Durability, Excellent Senses, the works.
Faction: The Justice Squad Independent Wanderer.
Bio:

Spoiler: Neo-Man Bio

Born in the Empowerment! Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Liberty across America!

The One, the Only, the Astounding: NEO-MAN.

Once, Cedric Derron was an ordinary civilian. Working as a Librarian in small-town Ohio, he often wished he could do more to change the world. Large in stature, but weak in body, the strongest thing about young Cedric was his heart! For it was as pure as the spirit of America!

Then, the Empowerment came! Cedric was gifted superhuman abilities far beyond his wildest dream! Faster than an airplane, stronger than a diesel locomotive, with the power of flight and untouchable by blade or bullet!

Donning a homemade mask and cape, he embroiled himself in the opening stages of the Cape Wars as a vigilante. Shrouding his identity in the name Neo-Man! A new man, for a new age. Allied with forces of justice and good, he formed a coterie of close friends and comrades. These Superheroes of the Midwest would come to be known as…

The Justice Squad!

For years after the Empowerment, these chums of camaraderie fought the good fight. Not always on the side of the law, but always on the side of good. Names that came to be synonymous with Truth and Compassion: Captain Union, Grand Slam, Pink Specter, and Lady Wolf.

They battled supervillains aplenty, saved cats from trees and children from burning buildings. However, they would soon realize this was not enough. As the years passed and the situation in America grew darker, they started to expand their range of operations. Often teaming up with other Super-Groups, they would do whatever possible to save lives and prevent suffering. Soon after the King Steel incident, the Justice Squad reached out to other Superheros. Knowing that with things growing more difficult by the day they couldn't do it along, they attempted to form larger networks of allied super-folks, hoping to one day bring about some kind of National League for Justice.

Then came the darkest day, Minuteman and his army of traitorous goons marched on the Capital and planned to take DC for their own nefarious ends. Responding to the call, the Justice Squad leapt into action! Though not as tough as the great powers like Captain Cosmos or Starman, the Justice Squad delved into the heart of darkness.

Only one of them made it out.

Neo-Man emerged from the wreckage of DC broken in more ways than one. His friends, gone. His body, a wreck of bone and blood. Something snapped in him that day, and he left a part of himself in DC that will likely never come back.

Those who encounter Neo-Man now will see him with a grin plastered across his face and hear a boastfulness in his voice that will never vanish. He roams across America, bending knee to no power or clique. He fights for Truth, Justice, and Liberty no matter where he is needed, and no matter the reality of the situation. "America," he says, "may be bruised, but all she needs is a little love and compassion, and everything will be just fine and dandy."

If you ask him about DC, he'll get a wistful look in his eye and describe the desperate fight against nefarious evil. How he and his friends gave their all to stop Minuteman and his army of minions from taking over the greatest country on Earth. He'll say he misses his Chums, but he's sure they'll be back any day now.

After all, They were Heroes. And heroes never die.

 

[Namaroff]

Name: Lawless / Miguel Ancira, Chairman of the Free-State of Roanoke

​

Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 45
Starting Location: Roanoke Free-State - The Free-State is a mafia state in parts of North Carolina and parts of Virginia. The Lawless syndicate is horizontally federated with other crime syndicates, whose heads all sit on a board with Lawless as chairman. What areas aren't governed by gangs pay tribute without direct representation in the State government. Some sizable city councils are left but only the most corrupt or feckless police or courts remain active, forcing city councils to become judge and jury with individuals always having the syndicates to appeal to.
Powers: "Teflon Coating", a monomolecular sheath that enhances or diminishes friction with all it comes into contact with. The sheath extends over Lawless' body and to objects he wears or holds. Friction modulation allows for such feats as bullets and punches sliding off his body, being thrown great distances instead of absorbing fatal impacts, sliding across the landscape at high speeds like some kind of superhuman figureskater, and slicing through dense materials like a teflon bullet through a ballistic vest.
Faction: Independent
Bio: Liberteam was the largest libertarian superteam in the South before the Year of Villains, bringing together the vast and colorful spectrum of right market libertarians. The two top tier types at the top of the org, paleolibertarian Gold Standard and minarchist Almighty Dollar, died on opposite sides of the Battle of DC attacking and defending the Federal Reserve respectively. What was left of the league turned to infighting, with the agorist smuggler Lawless killing the propertarian vigilante Night Watchman in self-defense and taking control of what was left and turning it into a crime syndicate. The two surviving midtiers, superhearing autarchist Moon Mistress and superseeing objectivist Fountainhead became his captains, the handful of remaining low-tier "batmen" the lieutenants, and his mundane associates from the arms and drugs smuggling trades his rank and file.

Caught in the battle between Paragon and Neo-Confederate shit-heads across the South, Ft. Bragg and the North Carolina National Guard emptied out of equipment and personnel. Paragon was good at the burning part of Sherman but not the military occupation and reconstruction part. Into this lawless vacuum, other criminal enterprises and underground groups allied together under Lawless' gang to keep their neighborhoods safe from next week's fascist asshole. When Lady Blue defected from the Feds to the Popular Front, the influx of refugees (and all the valuables they could take with them before the socialists seized it) flooded into the nascent narco-state, providing it with a solid foundation.

 

[Revan4221X]

​

---

Morning Gathering or Evening Prayer
We still battle for a season fair
We still huddle in the freezing air
For a summer that's not even there
If that sun won't rise on our horizon
We'll march on to spite the skies
And find that wheel of progress so well worn
Brought us no shelter from the storm​

---

Name: Dansin Kendal "Niflheim"
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 36
Starting Location: Reno, Nevada
Faction: T.O.W.E.R.
Powers: Dansin Kendal's power is to freely create and control the weather. To be more specific however, the Lord of the Mojave is able to precisely manipulate the constituent parts of all weather phenomenon. He can control the temperature, manipulate water and ice, bring lightning down from the skies or from miniature clouds around him, even light in the form of auroras and rainbows. If it has happened in the weather, Dansin can make it and manipulate it. And while not particularly superhuman, it has been noted that Dansin is seemingly immune, or at-least resistant to, changes in temperature. Considering he never accidentally killed himself.

---

Who Dansin Kendal was before the Empowerment is a mystery. What US records remain state that he was definitely an American citizen. An immigrant from the British Isles in the early 2000s. But besides that the specifics of who he was before and immediately after the Empowerment are a complete unknown. Believed to be because, like a few Empowered individuals, he was utterly unaware of his own capabilities. Which lines up with his first and most infamous appearance in South Carolina.

It was after the battle of DC. Many so-called "Supervillians" we're coming out of the woodwork after Minuteman destroyed DC and decimated the US supers. Would be Warlords coming out all across the United States and one General Titan had just decided to put his plan into action. Titan was almost top-tier in his own right. Able to freely alter his size and strength accordingly. And his collection of subordinates and small-militia force we're in no small part why General Titan looked prime to sweep up across the Eastern Seaboard after he spring boarded from Columbia, South Carolina. The state capital.

But during the coup, something went wrong. People were hurt, buildings were destroyed enmass, and then the temperature started to drop. Thermometers plummeted rapidly to below freezing. Winds began to pick up and snow fell. Within minutes a blizzard covered the entire city of Columbia, it broke -65 degrees celsius. Without wind chill. It was unnatural and before long General Titan, his army, and almost the entire city of Columbia was frozen.

Dansin was there that day. He got hurt in the crossfire and acted out with powers he did not know he had. The blizzard raged for days before Dansin figured out how to make his powers stop. And in that time the storm was given the name Niflheim a name that was plastered onto him soon after the world learned he was the one responsible. Dansin never recovered from that day. Killing all those people. The months and years to come after we're not good on him either. On the run and forced to rely on his powers more and more. He got good at using them to defend himself. Very good.

And so he wandered. From coast to coast he walked, and more often then not a blizzard following in his wake. Until he finally settled down on a path for himself. The world has gone mad, what government there was has branded him a warlord for a crime he never desired to commit, and carrions offer him fortunes to be their weapon of mass destruction.

Perhaps he's just grown cold, but he'll do what is needed to survive. Even if he despises what some may want him to do.

 

[SitzKrieg]

Pavlov Volkanovski
Age: 42
He, Him, Bro, Dude.
Starting Location: Reno NV
Powers: Fundamental Force Gravity Control
- Pavlov can control the effect gravity has on himself and everything around him within a specific radius.
- The stronger the effort he puts into his manipulation of gravity the more his facade
collapses his skin slogging off revealing an unfathomable void beneath. The more effort he puts into using his powers he loses eyesight, touch, and smell, and the more he is forced to use his powers to perceive the world.
Faction:
T.O.W.E.R.

T.he
O.rganization
W.ithstanding
E.earths
R.uin
Bio:
​

Wind howling across the Russian steppes, Pavlov to this day can remember the smell of the cold wind, the roar of the bus engine, and the look of worry and anxiety on the faces of his family. Crossing into Kazakhstan Pavlov and his family fled the Russian Federation fleeing the hounding of the FSB the nighttime interrogations the threat of imprisonment and worse against his parents and older siblings. from Kazakhstan to the streets of Mexico Pavlov and his family waited months to cross the border seeking asylum within the USA.

Pavlov found it hard to communicate with others, his native tongue culture, and beliefs created a barrier as insurmountable as any mountain. Empowerment brought along a new host of tribulations, heroes, and villains. The great tide of humanity rose up to crush what it had built up.

Pavlov soon found himself in an internal war as a very real war waged around him. What was he willing to compromise in himself to save those he loved to ensure a semblance of normality? A gun pointed at his father was his first compromise, the shot ringing out as the bullet impacted his shoulder as he threw himself over his father. The gunman had turned towards his sister and girlfriend. He made his split-second decision shattering the man's arms and legs under 5,000 newtons of force. Compromise after compromise, what would he do to save his family to save others, would he allow himself to choose between the bloodguilt of his family or the bloodguilt of those who would harm them?

or could potentially harm them?

As the functions of state collapsed Pavlov found himself increasingly responsible for others, threatened communities, the disenfranchised, the angry, and the afraid. Then DC fell and the United States of America was no more. In its death throes arose the horrors of Pavlov's past, despotic dictators, men and women of war, of power. Those who would put their foot on the necks of others in the name of whatever they chose.

In California, in his adopted home, A succession of tyrants ending in Nemesis brought the horrors of his past to life, political police, overt state surveillance, and informants to life. T.O.W.E.R. first came about as a means of escape a refuge from the sins of the past brought to the present. To withstand the ruining of the earth, to withstand those ruining the earth. Yet it grew into something more something that could become an ugly thing yet offered hope to many. A compromise, Pavlov in his heart loathed the idea of even entertaining the idea of becoming an "alternative" to nemesis, yet his conscious could not bear the weight of doing nothing to ease the pain of others.

He endured many tribulations on this earth he would do all in his power to ensure others did not have to feel the same fear he did fleeing across the steppes.

 

[Taricus]

Name: Slip
Pronouns: He/Him (He's not fussed if you don't remember though)
Age: Early 40s
Starting Location: TBD
Powers:
-Anonymity: Slips one and only power, the ability to slip and fade from the notice of others and otherwise just be another "Face in the crowd". Hard to pick out and impossible to remember in any detail, and a pain to even focus on in the first place.
Faction: Independent
Bio:
Anonymity, a power that is both a blessing and curse. For Slip, who has... long eschewed a birth name that has been forgotten in living memory since the emergence, the trip from Australia to the wartorn, splintered US was not one that was easy to make, but one that Slip made heedless of the difficulty. Why he made the trip, no-one knows. Yet Slip travels around the country, working for the various warlord factions as a freelancer, often switching employers as he's accosted by militia for various reasons, and otherwise working as much as someone physically untraceable can be.

 

[Theaxofwar]

Morning Gathering or Evening Prayer
We still battle for a season fair
We still huddle in the freezing air
For a summer that's not even there
If that sun won't rise on our horizon
We'll march on to spite the skies
And find that wheel of progress so well worn
Brought us no shelter from the storm

Click to shrink...

You've got good taste in music

 

[TenfoldShields]

God ok, at work so it'll probably have to wait a day or so before I get a full write up in but I've got the idea for a power parasite type hero who works with the Popular Front. He works a bit on Rogue rules, can't remove people's powers without killing them but can temporarily dampen them, collect shitty knock off versions with a Resident Evil/Prototype bent if he can get his hands on them, with the relevant ability being stronger the worse shape he leaves them in.

And he's not, y'know, a serial killer or a monster so what he's mostly got is a combinable grab bag of store-brand powers lifted from Popular Front aligned capes who were willing to put up with real shitty flu symptoms for a week or so.

He's self consciously calling himself Solidarity as part of an ongoing rebrand, used to be in the same DSA chapter and most interpersonally disastrous and politically significant polycule of the 21st century as Red Hammer. Was briefly with the nucleus of his new regime before he publicly broke (up) with him once he realized the "look we just kill all the dissidents" thing was deadly serious. Is like 90% imposter syndrome and guilt by volume. Not helped by his discord DM's now being public knowledge and a matter of historical significance.

Figure he's starting out in Oregon/Washington with the anarchists (he's still kind of a SocDem but tries not to be too vocal about it, but is one od the PF capes most willing to work with the feds).

 

[RobespierreLives]

Name: Horizon
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 37
Starting Location: The Great Lakes Republic

Powers: Gravity manipulation - The ability to alter the gravity surrounding himself and other objects or persons, examples being the power to attract, and the power to repel.
Faction: Popular Front

Bio: Growing up in a broken home in Fredericksburg, Virginia his father was murdered by a local gang when Horizon was young. While a few of the perpetrators did get caught after only a couple got charged and jailed - this would serve to be Horizon's first feeling of disillusion with the US, and instilled in him a strong urge for revenge.

Nevertheless when the empowerment came he begrudgingly stayed loyal to the country, and decided to delay his thirst for revenge. While he served reluctantly, taking on few jobs and was seen as a lazy good-for-nothing super in NOVA, mainly using his time caring for his sick mother and visiting the grave of his father. However when Minuteman attacked DC he answered the call when asked to on the second day. While he stayed clear of the dance of the big guns he performed admirably in the fight, and occasionally used his power to remove rubble to make extraction easier. When all was said and done he looked at the destroyed capitol, the numerous dead and wounded, feeling a sense of emptiness.

He felt his disillusion surge once again, and when he returned home he found that his mother had died two days prior. After arranging her funeral he handed in his badge, and went on a revenge trip on the people who killed his father. When he eventually found them he went feral and with rage used his powers to kill them, savaging the police squad sent after him, and then went on the run through a thoroughly broken US. Eventually he found his new home in Illinois and was later taken in as a protege of General Strike.