The Story Thus Far

[Keehnelf]

Links to Issues, with brief synopses.

[Keehnelf]

Setting the Stage:

It's the future! Not the far future, with flying cars and space colonies and aliens among us (that we know of), but the future with ubiquitous touch-screen and voice-activated technology, with cleaner cities (in some parts) and real overpopulation problems. New York City remains the shining, bustling metropolis it has been for over a century, the financial hub of the west and at least arguably one of the main cultural centers of the western hemisphere.

It also is the locus of the newest wave of change in human society, as super-powered humans made their first splash there in the year 2025. A previously-unknown gang called the Diamond Circle managed a series of high-profile bank robberies and cyber-crimes that shocked the world in their scale and scope and were virtually unsolvable. The US government, of course, was aware of the group but had declined to publicize either its existence or their slowly-escalating preparations for dealing with them previously.

Instead, after the public fear of a virtual economic collapse at the hands of the group had grown strong enough that they could wait no longer, though those in charge of the Vanguard Program knew they were not yet ready. Vanguard, a carefully-selected and heavily-screened trio of super-powered humans acting on behalf of the government to combat super-human (and eventually extra-human) threats, was released "into the wild" to take down the Diamond Circle, a cartel of super-powered beings who had planned their activities in secret for some time, engaging in crimes well-suited to their unusual abilities.

The Vanguard was successful in bringing the Diamond Circle to justice and halting the crime spree, restoring the confidence of the population. This, however, had a cascade effect, as more and more super-powered humans came out of the shadows to make their mark, for good or for ill. There are not a large number, but there are enough for things to change significantly.

The Vanguard Project is now an official arm of law enforcement within the US, with supers as their primary field agents, ready to celebrate its tenth anniversary since inception next August. It is the official "government authorized" date of recognition of the new era, but the citizens of New York always remember the April 1 preceding that, when the Diamond Circle nearly brought the industrialized world to its knees, as when things truly changed.

It is November, 2034. It is time for your story to begin.