This chapter is a prologue, but the chapters will be labelled according to how many ‘parts’ are released.
Prologue: A New Age
Have you ever wondered just what makes each of us unique?
I have. I used to ask myself if it was memories, our experiences, or our pain. Perhaps it was a mistruth? After all, with so many of us, how could we all be truly unique?
We all used to ask that. We never had an answer to this question, besides smaller factors that made up a whole of a person, unique to themselves, and those close to them. It was never something we could perceive with our five senses alone, like the flickering lights and the heat from a warm campfire spreading across your palms, or the cool, wet sensation of water across your skin as you take a dip in a body of water.
That changed one day.
It was not a gradual shift, like the theory of evolution. It was a rapid, sudden change that sundered the very foundations of our societies and nations. One day, bright purple lights began to erupt from the earth, bathing everything in their eerie glow as they changed the fundamentals of our planet. This light covered the globe, and then lasted for an entire week. One week of no light, no rain, and no respite from the ominous, ever-present columns of purple, humans could do little more than take shelter and hope for the issue to resolve itself.
After that week passed, the pillars of purple light faded, and the entire globe rejoiced! We partied, drank, celebrated, and distracted our way through the next week. We had lost just as much time, after all, fearing what the light would do to us. We were right to have concerns about the consequences of what happened then, on the Dark Day.
I was fourteen when the world changed forever. I will never forget that fear when the sun was obscured by the curtain of light, the dread as we waited it out, and the relief as the sky’s covering disappeared as if it never existed, to begin with.
That was only the beginning. Soon, we started hearing reports of missing people, increased animal attacks, and what seemed like a satirical article published in the daily paper about a chipmunk liquifying a dog that had been barking at it. Crazy, I know. About three days later, animal control and the police finally managed to capture a single specimen of what we would later call a Psichotic.
It was a simple housecat, and it had killed two animal control handlers along with three police officers before it was subdued with tasers and tranquilizer ammunition. This small ginger tabby hissed and spat at anyone who got near it, and a needle-like ballistic would somehow be flung at lethal speeds towards the public servants, ending their lives. Tests done shortly afterward revealed these needles to be made of keratin, or more specifically, orange cat fur.
The cat was brought to a government laboratory in Germany, the same country the cat was discovered and captured in, and the researchers under the government’s employ began to study the feisty feline. Carelessness resulted in two more deaths on the first day, and it turned out that those men had died in vain.
We learned exactly what this new phenomenon was capable of soon enough, as humans began to exhibit unusual abilities that were downright impossible before. Feats of strength, speed, and what could only be described as magic threw the world into chaos, people beginning to fear each other even more than they did prior. After all, any one of us could have been a Psichotic.
The term was coined by a Canadian doctor named Arnold Psipher, a self-given name that he turned into his legal name, who discovered the first human being exhibiting these strange powers. The patient’s name is Dahlia Spring, a then twenty-seven-year-old construction worker living in Toronto. She came to Dr. Psipher’s clinic on April 3rd, 2014 via ambulance, with what was most certainly a lethal injury.
A steel pipe, a quarter of an inch thick, was embedded clean through her heart and out of the back of her torso. She was scared, though showing no signs of failing life signs. They got the pipe out of her, and they were amazed when she simply wasn’t bleeding. Her heart, with a gaping hole in it, was still pumping blood through her body. Shocked and amazed, Dr. Psipher proposed the theory that humans were developing similarly to the newfound terrors of the animal kingdom.
The Doctor was laughed out of the Board of Science’s meeting room, though he was called back as soon as a week later. Humans were indeed developing unusual powers. This continued for a while, until around until every single human among Earth’s population became a Psichotic. They wanted a solution at first, a way to halt and reverse these ‘mutations,’ as the governments called them. They tried everything but outright killing the test subjects.
They failed to stop the changes.
Within the span of two years, everyone had developed their own abilities, and it became commonplace, just like any other fact about humanity and our world. Things were not peaceful, though. Many people felt that they should be in charge now, or that they were a god, and dozens of new terrorist groups began to form. Militaries across the globe began to train these abilities and sought to utilize them to protect themselves from the world’s newest threats.
Governments began to amass the most talented and powerful individuals to serve in their armies, laboratories, any branch that could make use of a superhuman that can alter reality itself around them. Studying more about this phenomenon before it truly affected everyone on the planet, the scientists found that these Psichotics could have one or more powers housed within their bodies, and found no more than three core powers in an individual.
These powers soon earned classifications due to their unique and varying properties. Equipment Type, Transformation Type, Embodiment Type, Psy Type, Attribute Type, and Break Type became the earliest types of powers witnessed and discovered, with only one Break Type ever recorded at that point.
Equipment Type consists of items that are either worn on the body or are part of the user’s body. This Type can vary wildly in abilities and forms, with weapons and armors being the most common shapes. These Psichotics use their abilities to give their power form and are most commonly seen within the world’s militaries in anywhere from frontline combat, to reconnaissance, to supporting their allies in non-combat roles. They are also the most common Psichotic, with 35% of the population falling into this category.
Transformation Type is the most unpredictable Psichotic typing since this classification doesn’t indicate whether the user can transform themselves, others, or matter of a certain kind. Animal hybrid transformations, werewolves, shape-shifters, and those that can alter the very matter of existence by transforming it fall into this category. If you ask me, they really need to add a new Type for the latter. Makes no sense to lump wolves and people who can drown you by turning the asphalt under your feet into water in the same category.
Embodiment Types are easily the most abnormal of the groups of Psichotics, since their abilities almost exclusively are based on their personality, and usually result in a being materializing from them. This Embodiment can take on any form, but is most commonly humanoid in shape and bipedal, though there are instances of animalistic, mechanical, and botanical Embodiments as well. Their powers vary wildly as well and are theorized to be the most versatile power type of the discovered powers so far, due to the unique abilities and form of each Embodiment. These Embodiments can almost always act independently of their user, though they will often choose to listen to their Psichotic and do as asked, they will always attempt to defend the Psichotic that formed them with their lives. If an Embodiment Type Psichotic dies, the Embodiment dies as well. It’s kind of sad, really.
Psy Type is pretty self-explanatory, but it involves Psichotics that can use their mind to alter the world around them. Levitation, psychic barriers, precognition, divination, anything that deals with Psychic powers as a concept. It’s theorized that Psy Types were the most common Psichotic Typing in the world for a full year since a sizable portion of humanity reported being able to do similar things with much less noticeable results before the Dark Day. I didn’t believe in psychics, until I saw one lift a truck with nothing but a wave of their hand, and sent it flying down the street at high speeds towards a villain that was attacking my hometown.
Attribute Types make everyone think of the superheroes from comic books, the stuff that used to just be fiction and fantasies. Super-speed, strength, durability, or any other ability that only affects the user’s personal abilities are in this category and are the second most common Typing. These Psichotics are spread out everywhere, found in anything from private business sectors, to police, to lifeguards, they fill mostly civilian and law enforcement positions, but can also be found as politicians or charismatic leaders. These are the ones that appear most human on the outside, but they can also be the most dangerous if you are not prepared for them.
Break Types are…terrifying. There is no other way to phrase it. Break Types are Psichotics with enough power or skill to alter existence and the laws of physics themselves. This might bring to mind images of wiping out an entire planet, or destruction of an entire country, but it is usually much less sinister in the application. This Type of Psichotic is considered dangerous to even approach unless registered and tagged by a government office. All Break Types must register themselves in their home nation, a law agreed upon by nearly every country in the world, since the damage that these people can cause is astronomical in scope. Common powers in this category are those who can break or bend physics, including gravity control, friction control, magic-like powers, and any ability that can alter existence beyond a certain point.
Dahlia Spring was deigned to be a Transformation Type, capable of altering her very cells themselves to prevent many dangerous conditions and making it impossible to bleed out. After a short recovery period, lasting only three days, she returned to her construction site and continued to build what is now the City Hall in her hometown.
Even though Dahlia made international news, and was a complete sweetheart to everyone the entire time, people were still terrified of Psychotics in the first year. After all, not everyone wanted to use these new powers for anything other than themselves. Riots and robberies skyrocketed, unusual murders and disappearances became a daily occurrence, and humanity itself changed again, this time culturally.
Attacks on Psichotics began to frequently occur, killing many and bringing innocents into the crossfire. All out of fear of being a victim of the very ones they were victimizing. Ordinary people, aside from the fact that they had gained powers, were being murdered for no other reason than having said powers.
Of course, not every victim would go down quietly.
The damage would always vary, but almost every time a Psichotic had time to defend themselves, someone else would die too. It was the flashy powers that drew attention, and a lot of those flashy powers were also deadly, leading to a lethal retaliation against the people who attacked them. This lead to many of the aggressors being killed if the Psichotic was powerful enough, and it became an international crisis. Fear of Psichotics rising up and simply wiping out the humans without powers grew in both governments and civilians, leading many countries to violently crack down on anti-Psichotic attacks.
After about six months, a year and a half after the Dark Day, those sentiments began to die down, and the fatal attacks lessened as well as people realized that the number of Psichotics was rapidly growing, and vastly outnumbered the non-powered population. The ones who did not accept the Psichotics at this point were few, as many of their opponents had become the very thing they claimed was evil, or a danger. This lead many of the anti-Psychotic groups to disband, especially since the number was still only rising, with no end in sight.
Two years after the Dark Day and every single known human being was confirmed to be a Psychotic. No one was without power, and this lead to stability for a time. People began to get along more often, powers were used for productive and helpful reasons, and many petty villains were unable to do much in the wake of every potential victim becoming a super-powered combatant. Eventually, this led to a global that lasted for only a few years, as countries prioritized documenting and capitalizing on these abilities. Who wouldn’t want someone who could carry several tonnes to work in their warehouse? Who wouldn’t want to have an employee who could do the task better than someone who didn’t have a relevant power?
This meant that countries that prioritized industry, such as China, The United States, and several other European countries, had a surge in production and every other facet of life. The others also saw an explosion of growth, though not as large as the industry-centric countries. Canada became a popular tourist destination after Dr. Psipher opened a museum in honor of the Psichotics who lost their lives, and to the history of Psichotics, so that ‘No man, woman, or child shall ever have to suffer the same horrible fate as those killed by anti-Psychotic supporters. We are all human, no matter if we have powers or not. These attacks are a reminder that if we let fear and prejudice take hold, we will fall, and fall divided. Let this museum be both a place of learning and remembrance, for no one deserves to die for being who they are. No one.’
Germany became the leading country in Hero agencies and training programs for Psichotics and saw an explosion in immigration, and the UK remained firmly neutral in the face of this new development. In the end, the world over changed as Psichotic numbers grew until no non-powered humans remained. It was not a time of seamless transition, and the industrial boom brought a thought to mind that many had previously considered as unlikely at first.
“What if war were to break out?”
This question made everyone realized that even though the motives behind war had not changed, the methods were bound to after every person became a Psichotic. Who really knew just what kind of power each country truly had now, since individual strength varied as wildly as the powers that people had. As soon as the general public became aware of this, that fear only grew, as the new industries’ competitiveness was causing financial strain on many of the countries who had not benefited as the larger nations had.
Skirmishes broke out between many countries, and less than reputable people were taking advantage of that. Villains began to rise in these conflict-heavy nations, and they grew in number as people’s suffering grew. Entire organizations and sects began to crop up, and they eventually became international news after killing a politician in the middle of a press conference. That incident shocked the world, and inspired the people who enjoyed hurting others and taking advantage of people to follow suit, similar groups began to appear around the world as a consequence.
Militaries were unable to keep up with the sheer flood of problems that were induced by Psichotics, as nothing in history before these events could have prepared them for this. Terror attacks became more numerous, and governments began to prioritize funding Hero agencies, companies that screened and hired heroes, providing licenses to allow them the ability to combat these Villains.
It’s illegal to use your powers on someone else unless you’re defending yourself or someone else from a Psichotic power attack, but Heroes are trained to fight Villains and prefer that civilians stay out of the way. These Heroes became celebrities of a sort over the next year, and the third anniversary of the Dark Day came and went as we began to put Heroes on pedestals. Even before that, Heroes could get good-paying jobs in any military they wanted or worked for a company that required their abilities for an even more sizable sum, but we had an entirely new class of Psichotics now.
Becoming a Hero was everyone’s dream at the time, myself included. They were famous, popular, made loads of money, and were able to save as many people as they could! All I wanted was to be able to meet my idols, and join their ranks as a mighty Hero that protects the innocent!
However…life is often unpleasant. I was nearly classified as a Break Type because I’m a Hybrid Type, someone with more than one Type of Psichotic power. I can make my skin really tough and can hit harder than most people because of it as well. That earned me the Attribute Type, and my Embodiment, named Architect, can create matter in a small radius. Less than a cubic foot, but it was still enough of a physics breaker for me to risk being classified as a danger.
Thankfully, the testers did not believe that my Embodiment’s power was sufficient to classify as a Break Type power, and was glossed over in favor of an Embodiment-Attribute Hybrid Type label, which was put on my identification, as everyone now had to. The tests weren’t bad, but it was a nerve-wracking experience to be judged and watched as I created a small rock out of thin air. I was terrified that I would be labeled a threat and watched like every other Break Type Psichotic.
Narrowly having avoided that problem in my seventeenth year of life, I spent the rest of high school doing what every other student did, along with a bit of extra training. Life was good since I could feed myself at any point, and could make some basic tools that I needed for some projects, which saved me some money as well. I could have made currency, but that was outlawed a year prior, and doing so is a felony offense. The temptation was there, but I wanted to be a hero too badly to risk losing the chance over a bit of money, so all I made was some necessities that I could get for a few dollars or less.
I graduated high school with decent marks, and then set off into the world at the age of eighteen. The conflicts and skirmishes were still ongoing, though the fear of mass casualties and more Villain groups appearing has dissuaded many from outright war. This planet is still in a state of conflict, and Villains still terrorize the streets, all across the globe.
My name is Anthony Adams, and tomorrow, I set out to join the Ashwood Hero’s Academy, an esteemed academy that has produced some of the USA’s best Heroes.