Capeworld Comics

Aggressively Disruptive Syncopation

When someone or something crosses over into another universe through use of a world splinter, aeternum, worldtunnel, or Fox tuner, they keep their native Fox harmonic. This vibrational frequency operates within the harmony of a universe like a syncopation, thus the term “syncopation” has come to refer to anyone or anything within a non-native universe.

A universe connected to the multiverse will gradually acquire syncopations through naturally forming worldtunnels. These syncopations give connected universes a characteristic sound. ARGO explorers have long said that unconnected universes sound like clocks while connected universes sound like dances.

Usually, syncopations function the same in their host universe as they do their native universe. The foundation of the multiverse isn’t order or chaos but symmetry and similitude as Fox echoes prove. What structures work under one harmonic tend to work under another. But sometimes a syncopation is altered by its host universe. Superhumans may lose powers in some universes or find their powers altered. Dr. Hans Jugend, a history and economics teacher at Martin’s School, provides an example. His “window” portals operate differently in different universes. Sometimes they float in the air, sometimes they drift on the ground like spotlights, and sometimes they manifest as implosions to a singular point.

In the case of ADS, the chain of effect is reversed. These syncopations are not changed by the world around them, instead they change the world. A common example is the supervirus, an infectious force spreading throughout the multiverse using vectors acquired from countless worlds. The supervirus is the culmination, but unfortunately not the attenuation, of several zombie curses, nanite plagues, chaos magics, computer viruses, and other such nasty things all brought under the will of a vast disembodied quasi-intelligence that seeks only to reproduce and expand. The supervirus is cosmic cancer, a divine plague of locusts, and there are very few universes that can’t be infected by it in some way. It’s origins remain unknown. It’s likely that it doesn’t have a single origin but that several different vectors from different worlds combined together to strengthen their spread. It may simply be the natural end-result of a multiverse where reproduction and propagation are rewarded survival strategies.

First discovered in 1962, the supervirus is viral, bacterial, mystical, spiritual, memetic, cybernetic, telepathic, and several other things we don’t have names for. It infects computers, ghosts, thoughtforms, people, matter, and given enough time anything and everything until the world. It doesn’t matter what the rules of its host reality are, the supervirus will infect and spread through whatever vector is most conducive to its spread, and once it has spread enough, it will alter conditions in its host reality to allow for other vectors to enter. A computer virus will become a zombie plague. A mystic curse will become a telepathic disease.

After ARGO identified the supervirus, the Intercessors managed to protect our universe from the supervirus through several containment procedures, but found that while they could protect the universe from the virus, they could not protect the multiverse. It would just find more worlds to infect, and then come back stronger to try and infect our world. So they came up with a plan based on a fact of epidemiology–plagues tend to burn themselves out when a less deadly but more infectious mutant variant arises and outcompetes the more deadly variants. A virus with, for instance, a 100%, near-instantaneous fatality rate will never infect as many as the common cold. They copied the virus and made it faster, smarter, more powerful, but also toothless. It didn’t turn people into zombies or cyborgs or psychopaths. It didn’t do anything. It just spread, and because all it did was spread, it was the best spreader.

The disembodied intelligence that organized and controlled the supervirus saw the variant spread through a universe it tried unsuccessfully to infect and put its entirety behind it. It left the viruses and curses and mindplagues behind. What else could it have done? It existed only to spread. It went with the best spreader.

Every atom of our universe contains the benign form of the supervirus. By interacting with other universes, we spread the supervirus and inoculate them against harmful mutant strains of the supervirus that sometimes develop in corners of the multiverse. The Warp Authority has an entire division dealing with supervirus mutants and the best countermeasure has always been the benign strain.

Another example of an ADS would be “antihero” weapons. These weapons come from the Fictional Universe, whose Fox harmonic is Mu-Eta-Tau. The Fictional Universe gets its name from how its reality aggressively reduces other realities to fiction. What does not exist naturally to this universe does not exist at all for this universe.

It’s hard to study the Fictional Universe. So much of ARGO’s technology simply stops working within it. All known superpowers fail. All connections to the Astral are sealed shut. The noosphere goes silent. Machinery falls into useless scrap. The most disturbing effect applies to people. Basics from our universe feel very strange in Mu-Eta-Tau. They feel a constant sense of unease which is their body’s way of telling them that any moment they may simply cease to exist. The effect is more pronounced for superhumans. The moment they enter Mu-Eta-Tau, they vanish.

Mu-Eta-Tau forces anything and anyone that does not comply with its physics to cease to exist–physically speaking. It’s very weird what actually happens. Originally, it was assumed that Mu-Eta-Tau completely destroyed syncopations. This was why John Cost lured several members of the Intercessors to Mu-Eta-Tau in 1963. The world feared they were lost, but the Crime Fighter and his Masked Agents believed that nothing could kill their friends and, being basics, went looking for them. They survived long enough to arrive at the location John Cost sent the Intercessors–a comic book stand featuring a lone title–Intercessors #1.

It seemed that Mu-Eta-Tau not only had Fox echoes, it created them.

Taking the comic book back to our world, Crime Fighter read it and the Intercessors reformed. The comic book remains one of the many peculiar objects in the Intercessors wing of the Turner Museum in Joyous Harbor, Rhode Island.

Mu-Eta-Tau’s syncopations are just as aggressive as their native universe. It is extremely difficult to bring things back from Mu-Eta-Tau, but with time and effort it is possible. These syncopations are highly dangerous weapons. Supertechnology and superpowers fail in their presence. Mu-Eta-Tau syncopations are forged into bullets known as “antiheroes” for their ability to kill even the most powerful superheroes. Antiheroes turn any cheap kinetic gun into weapons of cosmic import. Extremely few superheroes are unharmed by them. Most are–even the ones that can survive exploding universes. Antiheroes don’t care about intangibility or force fields or ultradense skin. Such things don’t exist in their world, and so don’t exist to them. 

One huge danger of antiheroes is that they look like normal bullets. A superhero can see the bullet slowly coming at his invincible chest, strike a pose, wait for it to hit him, and be shocked as he feels a sharp pain and something red running down his chest. Several superheroes have lost their lives to antiheroes, and due to the scarcity of Mu-Eta-Tau syncopations, bullets are often recollected to be fired again. Some bullets have killed more than one superhero like the infamous “RR” bullet, currently on display at the Piper Museum in Mainline City.

If one is struck by an antihero, the advice is to will the wound to not exist. Thoughts have a power in our universe, and though Mu-Eta-Tau syncopations are strong and aggressive, our universe is still not theirs. With concentration, it is possible to will reality to behave as it should, but that’s easier said than done, especially when the kinds of people wounded by antiheroes aren’t used to bruising let alone gaping wounds.

ADS are often thought of in a bad light. The two most common examples are a virus and a weapon. But note that these examples can and have been used for good. The supervirus in its benign form provides a way for the Warp Authority to quickly map out a universe. Antiheroes have been used to kill evil, universe-threatening supervillains. An object that changes reality is no more or less evil  than a reality that changes an object. Circumstance determines everything.

 

Apocalypse Shields

 

Apocalypse shields are a network of temporal-spatial buffers that deploy whenever a planet or star is threatened. They’re commonly deployed across the universe, and by the interstellar rules of war (when they’re followed) deploying an apocalypse shield is tantamount to raising the white flag. Besieging forces are to cease attacking and defending forces are to negotiate their surrender. This not only prevents the apocalyptic loss of life blowing up a star or planet would entail, but it prevents uninvolved civilizations from being affected. Shattering apocalypse shields creates an energy way well in excess of the largest supernova. Someone is going to have their civilization hit by a wave from several superclusters over, and they’re going to want to know why.

 

It’s a fortunate fact of nature that the creative potential of superpowers tends to run hand-and-hand with destructive potential. While it is true that it’s easier to use power to destroy than it is to create–a lesson taught to every student at Martin’s School, especially the ones that take power control with Steel Dolly–at a certain level, creation and destruction start to become part of the same coin. Gold Star provides a good example. He’s capable of exerting enough force and energy to reduce matter to quark-glucon plasma and less, but this also means he can reconstruct matter by taking it apart and putting it back together with his bare hands. In the 1930’s, he was able to use this power to create stellarium, a substance as durable as perkunite that only he could create and only he could uncreate. Many homes and workplaces were built from stellarium in the 1930’s, but also many prison cells within the NRA’s Federal Superhuman Prison 1, the “Grindhouse.” The power to destroy is also the power to create–and in the case of our apocalypse shields, preserve.

 

Like many races, we developed our apocalypse shields independently. We knew by the early 1930’s that it was possible for a single being to, in a single action, destroy the world. But the very beings that could destroy the world took action to protect it. The Circled Square, Gold Star, the Space Savage, the Astral King, and others pulled their powers together to blanket the world in a responsive energy field, not to protect our world, their world, from themselves, but to protect it from beings as powerful as they are. For they knew that in our universe, cosmic threats exist that can snuff out our solar system like a lamp. Galaxy leviathans are naturally occurring macrofauna, their feasting on stars the cosmic equivalent of a storm or earthquake. Such things have to be prepared for.

 

During the Worlds War, the apocalypse shields allowed for truly mythological amounts of power to crash like waves against each other in-between Vril walls. Never before in history did so much power fight for such little gain–a few yards of land on the crust of a speck that orbited a small light.

 

Our modern apocalypse shields stretch to the Kinnison Castle at Alpha Centauri. It protects Earth with her humans, Luna with her Aesir, Mars with her Barsoomians, and all that share our lifestar. When they activate, the world is covered in a black shell. Light and color is absorbed by the forcefield just as force is. The planet stops moving, Time stands still. Civilians under apocalypse shields don’t remember a thing. One moment they’re walking down the street, and the next its five hours later and they’re surrounded by superheroes and bits of alien starfish.

 

There are devices that prevent one from being engulfed by the apocalypse shields. These devices are not handed out to just anyone–imagine what trouble the planet would be in if our enemies figured out how to mass produce these devices–but are given to low-powered superhero tacticians and scientist so that they might assist our mightiest superheroes, who are too powerful to be affected by the apocalypse shields and thus have no need for such devices, in defending our planet. Controversially, a handful of reporters and historians also have access to these devices so they may document the mythological struggles of our superheroes while the world is on pause. Some superheroes see these apocalypse reporters as nuisances, as thrill seekers that add just one more thing to look out for during a hellish situation, but others appreciate their dedication to their craft. It takes guts to see the planet bunker up and decide to take one’s chances with the hungry Star Demons.

 

Apocalypse shields sound frightening, but they’re a pillar of mankind’s hope for tomorrow. They keep our home safe and give our superheroes the chance to counterattack against forces that would seek to destroy us all, no matter how mighty those forces might be.

 

Avavox

 

Avavox is a valuable substance found throughout the universe used for trading.

 

It’s a common scenario across the universe–an advanced space-faring race parks a starship on a primitive planet (they could easily teleport in, but it always makes more of an impact on the locals to have a ship land). They come out of their ships in their finest armors and dresses (or in the case of some cultures where nudity is seen as a sign of confidence and strength, without their finest armors and dresses). They give a speech in the language of the primitives (rule one of space exploration–always look before you leap) about coming in peace and wanting mutually beneficial trade. They bring out the goods–rejuvenation treatments, noosphere connections, worldsplinters, secondary hyperstasis inducers, force projectors, perkunite, photite–all the good stuff. They’re willing to do for the primitive culture in a day what it took them to achieve on their own in eons. What they want in exchange…is something no primitive culture has ever understood.

 

They bring out the scanners–giant eyes in the sky that probe the planet down to their core. And then they start asking for the most random things. That rock. That tree. That flower. That entire island. That shoe–no wait, the other shoe.

 

They don’t want water. They don’t want fuel. They don’t want art. They don’t want anything that seems valuable. What they want is a list of items that don’t seem to go together.

 

But its not the objects they want–its a certain vibrational pulse contained within those objects. That’s Avavox.

 

In any universe connected to the multiverse, syncopations naturally accumulate within the Fox harmonic. The Fox harmonics of connected worlds create off-beat notes in the music of the spheres. These syncopations are typically background noise–they’re interesting, and make the heartbeat of the universe sound like dance music, but they’re really nothing worth getting excited over.

 

Or so that’s what the primitives think.

 

There is a kind of syncopation that fixes itself to given amounts of matter and energy at the quantum level and interacts with the Fox harmonic to produce a pleasing, symmetrical oscillation of its energy structure.

 

It’s a syncopated quantum gem. It’s Avavox. It’s very valuable for races that get it. For everyone else…it’s just random stuff with a quality you have to break out machines to analyze and mathematical formulas to understand.

 

Interstellar traders will say that Avavox is valuable because it’s mathematically pleasing. If one understands why Avavox is valuable, then it shows they understand math well enough to travel the stars. That’s an exaggeration to hide the fact that Avavox is valuable for simple reasons any simple culture can understand. Avavox is rare, indestructible in the sense that no matter the form the matter it’s bound to takes, it remains attached at the quantum level, and cannot be manufactured. Races have tried to manufacture Avavox for aeons only to fail. Avavox can only be acquired by searching the universe for it.

 

It is interesting to note that in Universal Enochian, Avavox does not mean money, or valuable, or treasure. It means pomp. This meaning has caused many to look on Avavox as a trick advanced races play on themselves. “Look at them running around the universe collecting garbage, and for what? Just to have a bunch of things that ping under a scanner?” But the advanced races are well aware that what they’re acquiring is pomp–and they don’t mind at all. They know the big truth of Avavox–It’s impossible to acquire Avavox to use it, and only the foolish acquire Avavox to trade it. You acquire it to have more than other people and to make that fact known.

Aviny

 

Aviny is a Thule dish made from kraken eye on a bed of scylla lung and city-mouth leviathan heart muscle. Served frozen, aviny is often sold on the Joyous Harbor boardwalk as “Thule ice cream.” Aviny is a much-beloved part of Thule culture and many Thule and half-Thule look at it as comfort food, the Thule equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich. Aviny also demonstrates Thule culinary philosophy, which centers on the isolation and controlled blending of flavors. The kraken eye has a light citrus flavor and the heart muscle a salty flavor. The lettuce-like scylla lung absorbs the flavors of both and ends up tasting like “delicious margarita lettuce” according to famed chef Johnny Winters.

 

Brainheart

 

A brainheart is the seat of conscious and control center for an artificial’s body and can be thought of as their brain or heart, hence the name. The earliest brainhearts were gaeite cores that bound and concentrated a ghost onto a physical object forming somatic manes, early examples including the brazen head of Boethius from 520 AD. After the Climacteric in 1860, ghost activity increased and somatic manes became far more common with the first modern somatic manes being manufactured by the Carnacki Foundation in 1878. It was by observing somatic manes that Herbert Rossum was able to create artificials known as “robots” out of a plastic based “protoplasm” compound in 1908. These robots didn’t use brainhearts but a distributed nervous system based on that of humans. The artificials of the early 20th century Kokomaht project such as the Vajra and Aesir were also created from protoplasm mimicking the human form and human nervous system. It was robots themselves, not their creators, that decided to create artificials with brainhearts.

 

Following the Primus Rebellion in 1912 and the ratification of the Primus accords by the League of Nations, Rossum’s robots looked to create life that was a culmination, not attenuation, of human and artificial life. They decided to create life in the model of gaeite cores. “Mankind chose biology as the model for their creations, particularly their own biology.” Primus once said. “We choose the soul for ours. We will not create bodies to toil and work. We will create souls to soar above the burdens of the flesh.” Working with the Kokomaht project, the robots created the first electronic brainhearts and called them psyches after the Greek name for the soul. Psyches were able to be “plugged” into different kinds of bodies or even control several remotely. In their electronic communication, “psyche space” was created, which served as a precursor to the modern noosphere along with the Vajra’s lightning mind.

 

Throughout the decades, the electronic model of brainheart was improved upon allowing for greater processing power and reaction speeds. The photon brainheart was developed in the 1930’s, and the photite brainheart was developed in the 1940’s with the very first being Hera, the city of disembodied intellects known as the Hesperides, built near Mount Argus in Palmer Land, Antarctica.

 

During the modular systems revolution of the 1980’s, it was discovered that distributed nanite systems based on quasimorph physiology allowed an artificial to shapeshift their bodies to meet whatever task they were presented with. “Plugging in and plugging out” became old fashioned. Why switch bodies when your body could be all-in-one? MS robots without brainhearts became ideal, especially for hostile environments. Why exist inside a core which could irreparably destroy the artificial if damaged? Distributed nanite systems allowed artificials to sustain physical damage with little permanent damage to their personality, especially if they backed up their memories to a “master copy” storage system based on Hera. Still, many artificials prefer brainhearts over distributed systems. “My brainheart is my soul.” famous artificial superhero Eando Glass once said, “It’s not my brain, it’s not my heart, its my soul, and I want it to be as atomic and centralized as possible.” A religion has even emerged based on deification of the brainheart. Centralists, as they’re called, believe that becoming as detached from a body and system as possible leads to enlightenment. These artificials isolate themselves within unconnected brainhearts and think in total solitude without stimulus of any kind. In this isolation, they believe they closer to understanding what humans call God or Nirvana.

 

CRS

 

CRS stands for “controlled reality simulations.” Controlled reality simulations use a combination of telepathy, photite holograms, stage magic misdirection, and in some cases moderate amounts of legitimate reality warping to create environments for educational and instructive purposes. CRS was pioneered in the late 1950’s as a way to train superhumans without pushing their powers to dangerous levels but is now used to provide hands-on education like never before. There’s studying chemistry by looking at a diagram of a molecule and then there’s studying chemistry by moving in and out of the atomic processes of a chemical reaction as it happens. There’s reading about the Borderland War, and then there’s being in the court of Alexander the Great’s ghost as he discusses invading the living world with Oda Nobunaga.

 

CRS have two antecedents, and they couldn’t be more unlike eachother. The first antecedent is the act of dreamworld creation members of the followers of the Abramelin Operation undertake in order to ascend to the rank of Magus. Followers of A:O call these dreamworlds Temples, and in creating them become Masters of the Temples, or Magus. These Temples, though far larger in scale than CRS, taught humanity how to create and maintain a reality–false, real, or a combination of the two as is the case for CRS. The second antecedent is the strategy of training in “dummy houses” used by the Masked Mystery Men of the 1930’s. In abandoned warehouses across the country, superheroes trained to fight supervillains using whatever was available to them–department store mannequins, farmer scarecrows, or each other.

 

CRS use a resource pool from which the reality simulation is generated and an administrator to shape the simulation. To use Martin’s Schools CRS as an example, its resource pool consists of Form Master Gora, several telepaths led by the Vajran Dr. Ipswitch, and complex photite emitters designed and managed by Ray Winston, better known as the Hollywood Phantom. These resources are directed by Thespian, a disembodied artificial housed in Martin’s computer systems.

 

Darklight

 

Darklight was one of the many discoveries made by the doomed ARGO Nevada site. Darklight was an unintentional discovery made by Dr. Archie Masters and Dr. Tom Standish. They were attempting to see if they could use photite as a multiverse probe. It was known at the time that the Marvel family could travel to other universes by exceeding the speed of light, and photite could exceed the speed of light, so the theory went that photite could be used to make portals to other universes. But while sprinkling photite into worldtunnels and aeternums to see what would happen, Masters and Standish found that they transformed photite into something very different. It was a dark substance, blacker than night. Scientifically speaking, it absorbed 100% of electromagnetic radiation from radio to gamma. It should have been an incredibly hot material, and yet it wasn’t. It consumed energy and somehow grew cold, not warm. It took light and gave darkness, it took warmth and gave cold, it was a fascinating phenomena.

 

Masters and Standish called their discovery darklight and planned to explore the physics of darklight further, but the ARGO Nevada site was compromised, infiltrated, and destroyed during the 1940 Vril blitz. During the surprise attack, Masters and Standish were studying a chamber of darklight when a battle between kitsune ninja and security forces spilled into their lab. The chamber was breached and the temperature of everyone present plummeted to absolute zero in an instant.

 

But Masters and Standish did not die. They underwent hyperstasis and emerged from the explosion with superhuman bodies that generated and controlled darklight. Calling themselves American Crusader and American Eagle, Masters and Standish worked to recover what ARGO lost in the Nevada site raid while assisting America’s superhumans in the war. They became the superhero community’s go-tos for superscience problems and were affectionately called “the ARGO brothers.”

 

American Crusader’s ability to generate darklight came in use when he lost his arms to a Vril energy dragon. American Eagle created solid perkunite arms for his friend. Perkunite, once formed out of gaeite, cannot flex or warp–not unless it’s exposed to extreme cold like that which American Crusader could produce through darklight. American Crusader was able to move his arms as if they were made of rhecite. For an instant he would cool the joints of his arm to allow for movement, and in the next they would be solid and powerful.

 

Throughout the 1940’s, several superheroes made use of darklight powers and weaponry. The ARGO brothers gave the Phantom Lady an experimental handheld darklight projector in 1941 to aid her in her espionage work. A device that absorbed light, blocked radio communications, and was proof against UV and infra-red scanning was the ultimate spy tool During the same year, radio engineer Bruce King discovered that with modifications, darklight could demonstrate antrigravity properties, meaning darklight could make a spy not only completely invisible, but completely silent. Apparently, just as darklight could replace light with darkness and heat with cold, it could replace gravity with a strange sort of “floating” orientation.

 

Bruce King used his invention to become the King of Darkness and upgraded the Phantom Lady’s darklight projector. Together, the two became a highly capable pair behind enemy lines. Bruce was one of the few people on Earth to know that Phantom Lady faked her death in 1945 to go deeper undercover.

 

Darklight was never widely used throughout the Worlds War. While a source of powerful superhumans and skillful superspies, it was expensive and time-consuming to convert photite to darklight. It still remains a notable invention with a substantial contribution to the war effort, and today several superhero gadgetools make use of darklight. Urban Ranger carries a darklight projector among his many firearms.

 

ARGO scientists have noted similarities between how photite is modified to create darklight and how certain Cerbereans of the Kingdom alter sleg, which is naturally an incandescent material, into shadow sleg, a material that grants invisibility and silence. It’s an interesting connection, but photite and sleg doesn’t seem to have any link besides this superficial connection, at least not at this point.

 

Fishermen Communicator Badge

 

While seen as quaint nowadays in light of the noosphere, the Fishermen continue to manufacture their signature communicator badges as part of tradition, and in their line of work, their badges are more useful than you might think…

 

The Fishermen are one of the oldest superhero legacies in America. They began in the 1920’s as a group of fishermen, sailors, and longshoremen that banded together under the shared identity of the mysterious “Fisherman” to protect New England from smuggler gangs. It’s from their 1920’s period that they developed the high-tech (in its day) communicator badge.

 

The Fishermen were an eclectic group. The unique skills one member had he passed on to the rest. The Fishermen learned how to shoot from old soldiers of the Great War in the Air, how to make illusions from stage magicians, how to pick locks from reformed thieves, and inventor Harry Lane, brother of the famous Brad Lane, taught them how to make tiny radios disguised as badges. These badges depicted the crest of the Fishermen–a fish hook, a symbol harkening back to their earliest days where fish hooks served as a way to leave surreptitious messages.

 

With just a touch, the badge became a radio tuned to a secret Fishermen frequency. Depending on which side of the badge was touched, it would broadcast sound and receive sound, broadcast sound without receiving sound (which made the badge useful as a bug), or send a silent morse code every time it was tapped.

 

These badges allowed the Fishermen to coordinate quickly and efficiently. They allowed the Fishermen to “disappear and reappear” like the supernatural “Fisherman” they pretended to be. But it quickly became outdated in the 1950’s with the creation of the noosphere. Why fiddle with a badge when you can send messages with your mind while keeping your hands free? Still, the Fisherman have always been big on tradition, and they continued to make the badges and hand them to new recruits as part of a rite of passage. Amusingly, it turned out that in a way, the badges were ahead of their time. The modern Fishermen work as a security force for multiverse explorations, and in their line of work a handy radio communicator is very useful. The noosphere doesn’t work in every universe. But a simple radio always works provided its radio waves have a medium to pass through.

 

It goes to show that sometimes, things do come back in style.

 

Flurry Burger

 

The flurry burger is the most sold product of Johnny Winter’s, often packaged in a combo meal with a “coffee float” drink and a side of “chilly fries.” The flurry burger is one of Johnny Winter’s famed hot-and-cold options where trained temperature-controlling superhumans use their powers to keep the meat and cheese hot and the lettuce and onions cold. The flurry burger is an icon of American culture.

 

Johnny Winter’s has a great advertisement budget.

 

Force Projector

 

The term force projector refers to any number of directed energy weapons. The earliest force projectors were known as “radio guns” and were used during the Great War in the Air. It is a common misconception that these guns were called radio guns because their activation could be tuned into by radios, a fact which turned their use into a strategic game of feint-and-commit with some radio guns being activated just to lure out the enemy. These facts are true, but radio guns simply got their name from the same prefix as radios–radi, as in a ray or a beam.

 

Radio guns were incredibly destructive weapons for their time, not so much because of their power, though they could easily crater a battlefield, but because of the radiation they left. Between them and atomic bombs, mechanical armors like the Gabriel and Hercules armors quickly evolved from novelties to necessities.

 

Radio guns would be improved upon after the war, and the focus of their development would be in controllability and adaptability. Weapon designers hoped that the planet had seen its first and last world war and envisioned future radio guns to be used by policemen with increased precision and no radiation. This resulted in the creation of “gusters,” named such because they could project force like the wind. Gusters could project their force in different ways–as a sucking vortex to drag in fleeing suspects, as a heavy weight to incapacitate and tire rioters, and as a wall-like barrier to capture criminals of shield officers. Gusters could go “from breeze to tornado” as one advertisement went.

 

Unfortunately, the world would demand a militarized version of the guster for the Worlds War of the 1940’s. This militarized version was anticipated by science fiction writers who saw the next war as being fought between frequencies and counter-frequencies, between force projections as broad shields and force projections as tiny points of compressed power. The globe war that happens in the backstory of the famous 1930’s sci-fi series Sultans of Gold was fought using “rapid modulation weapons” that could boil a battlefield in seconds if not properly countered. These weapons were used by gigantic “robot fortresses,” the only beings with the reflexes necessary to do the rapid attack-and-counterattack that modulation weapons required. Sultans of Gold was mildly prophetic. Its robot fortresses anticipated Hera City and its rapid modulation weapons anticipated the force projectors of the Worlds War. While Sultans of Gold conceived of force projectors evolving to be like artillery, in reality they evolved to be infantry weapons often in the form of a paired force rifle for offensive and force belt for defense. Force projectors were often wielded by the supersoldier armies of the Allies, particularly the Black Terror Soldiers. While pressure guns could generate more force, force projectors were more versatile, didn’t tire their operators, and could be programmed to produce a standardized amount of force which helped in devising group tactics.

 

Modern force projectors focus on noosphere-linked intangible components. They typically don’t have physical components that can be damaged. They’re essentially devices that grant telekinesis while ghosting in the Astral or an adjacent Fox harmonic. The Warp Authority’s Warpmen make use of modern force projectors to move galaxies and manage worldtunnels, but ARGO explorers prefer to use older, tangible force projectors. “I can’t always be sure where I’m going to be or what universes are going to be adjacent to where I am.” Commander Victory once explained, “But I can be sure of the projector by my side.”

 

David Hwang, the famous vice principal of Martin’s School, incorporates several intangible force projectors in his interdimensional BLANKET system. Urban Ranger, a Martin’s ERC teacher, on the other hand, is a fan of tangible force projectors as he finds them easier to modify on the fly and proof against interdimensional assailants.

 

Fox Probe

 

A Fox probe is an exploratory recording device and can be thought of as the multiverse version of a weather balloon collecting data on a universe that is then analyzed by ARGO scientists.

 

ARGO explores the multiverse through two primary methods. One is by going down the list of known Fox harmonics and seeing which ones haven’t been explored yet, the next is by using a vector (what ARGO calls anything, be it a device or a person like Martin’s Willow Collins, that can travel the multiverse) to access a world with an unknown Fox harmonic. Either way, once ARGO has a Fox harmonic, it sends out probes to gather as much information as possible about its associated universe. These probes are similar to star castles in that they monitor information not only within the universe but in adjacent universes to learn if the universe has any notable connections like an aeternum, but that’s where the similarities stop. Fox probes are not weapons, are not armed with weapons, and cannot be weaponized. ARGO sends out probes into the multiverse, not mines. If an ARGO probe ever loses contact with a data upload site (precise locations are unknown, but it is widely believed that the Blueprint is one of them. No locations are anywhere close to our universe. ARGO maintains the strict policy that until a universe has a vetted contact culture, no one talks to the locals about our home universe. Once a contact culture is established, ARGO hands off the burden of diplomacy and what may come of it to the Weft Authority) or falls into native hands it is programmed to harmlessly self-destruct by disintegrating to prevent potentially belligerent cultures from potentially reverse engineering the probe and figuring out how to make teleporting bombs.

 

The sheer mind-staggering amount of data Fox probes send back to be analyzed and cataloged by ARGO Commanders has been blamed as a major factor in “Commander burnout syndrome.” ARGO explorers spend the early part of their career invested in the worlds they explore. They physically visit them and talk to their inhabitants. Each new world is fresh and new and important to them. But when they progress to Commander, new worlds become data points. New worlds become a number within an uncountable infinity. Man was not made to love data. He was made to love color and vibrancy and life. The coldest numbers can weaken even the warmest heart.

Fox Tuner

 

A Fox tuner is a device originally created by Dr. Gardner Fox in 1961 to apply his discovery of Fox harmonics, the fundamental separation between universes. Fox tuners work by adjusting the frequency of the user’s Fox vibrations and those around him or her in a given area so that they “fall out” of our universe and “fit” in another. Superheroes such as Captain Marvel and his Marvel family used a similar principle to travel to and from the Heart of Eternity by vibrating many times faster than the speed of light as far back as the late 1930’s, but Gardner Fox was the first to truly understand what it was the superheroes were doing and the first to create a device that would allow basics to travel anywhere in the multiverse.

 

Fox tuners are not the same as world splinters and are not as safe or stable. Fox tuners do not gradually substitute one reality for another over a neutral medium, but they make up for it by being nowhere near as limiting in their use. Fox tuners require great skill to master, but once mastered they can take their user anywhere, absolutely anywhere, while world splinters are limited to their entry points. The Warp and Weft Authorities may prefer world splinters, but ARGO prefers Fox tuners. Any ARGO explorer with a rank above novice is suspected to know how Fox tuners like the back of their hand.

 

Gadgetool

 

The term gadgetool refers to any kind of generalized superhero equipment. Typically, gadgetools are not specialized equipment. One wouldn’t say a device that concentrates a superhuman’s fire generation power into the battery of a suit of robot armor is a gadgetool. Gadgetools are designed so that any superhero with any powerset can use them. They include less-than-lethal weaponry like sticky foam bombs, mobility devices like grapple hooks, medical scanners, and flashlights–never underestimate the utility of a good flashlight. The superhero flashlight industry is fiercely competitive.

 

Before the invention of the noosphere in the 1950’s, secret communicators often disguised in the form of a wristwatch were popular gadgetools. These communicators were phased out in favor of telepathy, but have recently made a resurgence as superheroes turn to low-tech solutions to defeat high-tech telepathic spying. The Fishermen, much to their credit, used communicator badges in the 1920’s and never stopped using them.

 

All gadgetool manufacturers believe that gadgetools should be as portable as possible. They often sell thin belts, bandoliers, and vests filled with hundreds of gadgetools placed between the microfibers. But manufacturers are divided on whether or not gadgetools should be concealable. During the Masked Mystery Men period of the 1930’s, concealment was very important to circumvent anti-superhero legislation restricting the ownership of masks and weaponry. Trick devices were common–walking canes that transformed into grappling hooks and dress shoes with smoke bombs hidden in the heel, as examples. But after the Worlds War, superhumans began to want gadgetools that look like gadgetools. “I don’t want my grapple to look like a cane.” the Flying Fox once said, “I don’t want to go out for a night on the town and accidentally deploy a cable in front of all my friends, nor do I want to go out gangbusting and find myself pointing a walking cane fruitlessly at a building.” Generally, gadgetool manufacturers are either/or on the issue. They either produce concealable gadgetools or gadgetools that clearly look like gadgetools (with personalized logos available upon request).

 

Gaeite Alloy Weapons

 

GAW weapons (don’t bother trying to figure out how the acronym is pronounced, pronunciations include “Gaul,” “gow,” “gah.” No one really knows how it’s supposed to be pronounced) are made by combining gaeite, rhecite, and perkunite together to take advantage of their different attributes. Gunnar Cropsey’s arm shields serve as an example. The shields are perkunite with a rhecite core attuned to controllers on his gloves. With a gesture, he can make the core spin rapidly which not only turns the surrounding perkunite into a powerful buzzsaw but generates heat which provides the perkunite with some protection against cold temperatures.

 

Another example would be Urban Ranger’s famous “smart bullets.” These bullets were caseless perkunite rounds with gaeite cores attuned to his thought-patterns. The perkunite gave his bullets stopping power and the gaeite allowed him to mentally control their path once fired. He could use the gaeite to make his bullets travel around corners and over obstacles. He could also make them stop in midair, which came in use in his fight against the fourth Crime King. The fourth Crime King had the power to create a powerful force field around himself as long as he concentrated. When Urban Ranger fired on him, he raised his shield anticipating the sound of perkunite hitting solidified force. When he instead heard nothing and saw a bullet suspended in the air in front of him, his concentration was broken and his shield dropped.

 

Limlal

 

Limlal means treasure in Universal Enochian and refers to the memory hordes gathered and guarded by Vovin Dragons.

 

Vovin Dragons are a powerful telepathic race known for their long periods of waking and slumber. They spend years awake exerting their powerful bodies. They adventure, they conquer, they explore, they destroy. They create memories, and these memories become very precious to the Vovin Dragons as crystalized proof of all they have done. Time devours all things but their memories. In the philosophy of the Vovin, memory is more real than physical reality, and a Dragon’s memory is the highest form of reality an object or person can attain. The Vovin imprint their memories on objects in an extreme form of a mnemonic device. If they look at an object or touch it, they remember everything related to the object perfectly. Thus to perverse their lives in clarity, they build hordes–limlal.

 

After years of waking activity, Vovin Dragons bed down in their limlal and enter into a deep sleep that lasts slightly longer than their waking period. As their massive bodies rest, their larger minds roam the Astral. Dragons became powerful telepaths through adaptation. Large memories give them large telepathic profiles, and large profiles attract parasitic thought-forms that could compromise their perfect memories. The dreamworlds of Dragons are vast, mighty, and hungry. They have learned to protect their memories by going on the offensive. They gather nearby dreams and nightmares and place them around their memories as a secondary protective limlal. 

 

Some Dragons come to prefer their Astral limlal to their physical one. Humans have beautiful ideas and Dragons love to collect them. Some limlals contain ideas for novels by Jules Verne and unfinished compositions by Mozart. If you’ve ever experienced a dream you barely remember after waking up or an idea you thought was wonderful but can’t recall moments later, a Dragon may well have taken it.

 

While sleeping, Dragons will sometimes wake up for days or weeks to peruse their physical limlal and repair the fidelity of their memories. They become extremely angry if they find anything out of place, and their wrath reaches mythological proportions if they find anything missing. Tectonic plates can and have shifted from their rage.

 

Edith Ogden, a part-dragon part-human student at Martin’s School, has several draconic instincts including the instinct to assemble a Limlah. Her room is congested with miscellania. She never throws anything away. It’s impossible to walk in her room without stepping over things. She doesn’t walk in her room at all. She floats through it. Edith doesn’t have the long periods of alternating activity and sleep full-dragons have, but she does drift in and out of sleep at night to groggily look at items kept on her night stand. While asleep, Edith roams the dreamscape of Joyous Harbor collecting nightmares and discarded thoughts. Edith’s quality of sleep, as you might suspect, is very poor, especially with her habit of staying up late playing video games. She tends to make up the difference in math class.

 

Many and vast are the stories about Dragons and their hoards. Not only mankind but the Dyeus have stories about hoards filled with gold, magic rings, powerful swords, and strange artifacts. It’s true that limlals can have valuable objects, but the important thing about the objects isn’t their value, it’s the memories they have. A Dragon could hold onto a large gemstone to remember the person that used to own it or the journey taken to possess it or the place where it was once kept, but they could keep a brass bowel or a hat for the same reasons. 

 

People have sometimes found their way into limlals. Throughout history Dragons have risen from out of the Earth to abduct humans they find interesting, especially humans they befriend. In their limlal, all their needs are provided for. They are given everything they could want except freedom. Dragons abduct humans out of love. They don’t want them to grow old and change and die, so they commit them to their memory. Human remains are often found in limlals and they’re often the most treasured objects within them.

 

Mask

 

Superpowers are thought-responsive and thought-controlled. This is why theoria is important for any superhuman. Clear thoughts create precise powers, disciplined thoughts create strong powers. The very nature of a power can be changed with enough theoria. A man with the power to create flames can, through theoria, discover how to not only add heat to the environment but absorb it and move it around. He can learn how to move heat out of a given area to make the temperature plummet. He can turn fire into ice–that’s theoria.

 

But of course, as with any work that requires a lot of self-discipline, people have wondered if there’s not an easy way to master superpowers.

 

The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but only if you’re willing to pay a very steep price.

 

While the biochemistry holy grail of the 1920’s was a drug that could cure all disease and stop aging and the holy grail of the 1930’s one that could grant superpowers, the holy grail of the 1950’s was one that could enhance superpowers. 

 

Superpower enhancement was briefly entertained by the Allies during the Worlds War of the 1940’s. They had reliable, powerful supersoldiers in the form of Black Terror soldiers and Hydromen and they equipped them with the best weapons and gadgets. But scientists couldn’t help but wonder if something more couldn’t be done to the supersoldiers after their empowerment to make them better? It was known that emotions influenced superpowers. The flames of an angry superhuman were hotter. The muscles of a confident superhuman produced more force. The telekinetic field of a frightened superhuman moved more matter. Maybe by inducing emotions in a controlled manner such as through a drug, supersoldiers could be enhanced?

 

The military looked at the hypothesized benefits, weighed them against the possible costs, and then froze all research. Their supersoldiers worked fine and training was already a reliable way of making them stronger. Any sort of “courage-in-a-shot” could interfere with their training. And they weren’t going to run experiments on their supersoldiers to make sure, not while there was a war on. It also didn’t help that many supersoldier types, the Black Terror soldiers in particular, relied on extremely precise coordination between members to get the most out of their powers. Having Black Terrors experiencing sudden emotional spikes could only harm their coordination.

 

But in the 50’s, the world was at peace, and speculation had room to grow into experimentation.

 

Superheroes are notorious risk takers. It takes a certain kind of overpowering personality to be willing to fist fight supervillains, after all. It wasn’t hard at all for researchers to find willing labrats.

 

The breakthrough came in 1955 as “the enhancer.” The enhancer created brief but powerful feelings of euphoria and invincibility. Powers did improve under its influence. But before they marketed it, its creators wanted to do more research. The enhancer was released throughout the superhero community to mixed reception. Many rejected it outright. They not only feared possible side effects and addiction, but they feared taking it meant that one had completely failed in the practice of theoria. The delay of gratification is a major part of developing self control. To reach for the enhancer meant that a superhero couldn’t delay gratification. Thus the enhancer was not only a risky path to self-betterment, it prevented one from reaching self-betterment through traditional methods. 

 

But other superheros, particularly the younger ones, were willing to try the enhancer.

 

The enhancer worked, it was everything its developers had hoped, but its side effects were everything its developers feared. It was highly addictive. The brain came to rely on it to produce endorphins and adrenaline. Not taking the enhancer led to powerful feelings of depression. Superheroes also began to take the enhancer out of emergency situations. It invariably grew from an enhancer to a crutch. Superheroes began to fear doing anything without the enhancer. They didn’t feel right going into emergencies without first taking it. They felt scared, nervous, and edgy where they used to feel calm and stable. They needed to take the enhancer just to feel like they had any of their old confidence at all.

 

The designers pulled the enhancer and apologized to the superhero community.

 

Then they were shocked and disturbed to find that superheroes begged them to bring it back.

 

When they refused, superheroes created their own enhancers and circulated them throughout the superhero community as “mask.” The drug got its name because its users justified taking it by saying it was just like putting on a mask, that it was just like slipping on the classic hero persona, a persona that didn’t know fear, that didn’t feel pain, that was supremely confident, competent, and authoritative.

 

It was no secret that superheroes acted braver than they really were. The costumes and supernames and theatrics helped them tobe more than what they were. Wasn’t that what the enhancer did? Wasn’t that what a mask did?

 

Mask became the superhero communities’ dirty little open secret throughout the 50’s and 60’s. People knew it was circulating through the community, but no one wanted to talk about it, especially not those that were taking Mask. They feared that admitting to taking Mask meant they weren’t cut out to be superheroes. They feared their colleagues looking down at them. The silence would break in the 1970’s due to Mask becoming popular within the public at large-it turns out that anxiety over living up to one’s persona is far from confined to the superhero community–and the 1971 suicide of the fourth Trickshot due to depressiona aggravated by mask use. The Statesmen created programs encouraging superheroes on mask to seek psychiatric aid and to be open with their colleagues about their addiction. Due to their efforts, rates of use in the superhero community dipped decade after decade and are currently at an all-time low. Cutting mask use among the general population has been far harder, and rates continue to climb. Discipline is built into the superhero community. It was relatively easy for it to course correct. But the general population is far more impulsive, especially with “supersociety malaise.” The comforts of modern society bring them grief, and mask is a way of masking the understated pain of near-utopian living just like the BOL and its antics.

 

At the federal level, no substance is banned. Mask is legal to manufacture, legal to sell, legal to own, and legal to use, though there’s considerable social stigma against those that develop and sell mask. It’s hard to like people whose business model is to turn superheroes into addicts. But laws have been passed in certain states to make it difficult to deal in mask. There’s licenses, and fees, and background checks, and interview sessions, and so on, and so on, and so on. They haven’t done a thing to stop the use of mask. Mask was only ever a symptom of a persistent human failing–the preference for quick gain even at the cost of long-term decline.

 

Earth State has completely banned the sell and manufacture of mask, which has done more harm than good. Superhumans are under intense obligations in Earth State society. The more they use their powers the “correct” way, the more “privileges” they are afforded. This makes the demand for instant-courage high. Young superhumans turn to mask just to keep up with what’s expected of them, and with Earth State laws they can only get mask by talking to criminals and becoming criminals. This places them under the influence of organizations like the BOL.

 

Mask use is by no means a good thing, but outlawed mask use is even worse. It’s better to allow a young superhuman to make a bad decision and learn from it than to try and force them to change by increasing what are already steep consequences of mask use.

While rarer today than it ever was, mask use still occurs within the superhero community. Nemea, mother of Martin’s student Burning Bright, took mask to try and deal with the anxiety of being stalked by the supervillainess Atalanta and the psychological instability mask created contributed to her ultimate defeat at Atalanta’s hands. Panel, one of Mr. Blue’s “Anti-Martin’s” students, is given a supply of highly potent mask to keep him dependent on Mr. Blue.

 

Myrmidon

 

Also known as drones, dons, myrs, automatons, and autos, myrmidons are artificials whose intelligence ranges from that of a smart calculator to a smart dog. Officially, they are not considered people, though they may be shaped like people. They are property similar to pets and livestock.

 

One purpose of the Primus Accords of 1912 was to decide the difference between a machine and artificial life. The Rossum Robots that recently rebelled against being built and shipped to fight on different sides of the Great War in the Air had proven that they deserved to be counted as humans and granted the rights of humans, but where was the line? At what point did a machine become a Rossum Robot?

 

It was in the best interest of the Rossum Robots to set as many levels of protection for themselves as possible. They had been property. They would not be again. The Primus Accords forbid “the production of life for the sake of war” and included in the definition of life “plastiflesh” beings like the Rossum Robots, but that potentially meant “thinking machines” of metal weren’t protected. And what of producing life for the sake of other activities? What of producing life for the sake of construction or agriculture? What of producing life for the sake of servitude? The Rossum Robots attempted to extend the prohibitions of the Primus Accords to stop the production of life “for any base, crude, or demeaning purposes” but ran up against the Ganymedes, plastiflesh beings like themselves created by the Kokomaht Project and programmed to never raise a hand in anger, always be polite, and to assist and obey others to the best of their abilities. The Ganymedes saw the Rossum Robots as staging no less than genocide against their race by attempting to prohibit the production of more Ganymedes. A compromise was struck in the form of a bill of artificial rights including:

 

The right of childhood. Artificials cannot be created and sent out the door. They must be introduced to the world and educated in the ways of man. The Primus Accords called for a period of education for all artificials of no less than 40 weeks, but most countries enacted laws setting it to a year or a little more than a year.

 

The right of determination. Artificials may be created with certain proclivities or behaviors just like how humans are born with certain preferences, but like humans, they must have the ability to learn from their experiences and change their behaviors.

 

Notably, these rights did not include the right of representation. Democratic nations were concerned that masses of artificial votes conditioned to vote this way or that would destroy their political systems. To this day, the topic of artificial voting rights remains a contentious and thorny subject.

 

Artificial rights were contingent on artificials either possessing human intelligence or, importantly, capable of developing human intelligence. The “capable” provision was put in place to prevent manufacturers from developing artificials whose intelligence fell below the requirements for the Primus Accords that would then evolve to have human intelligence after being marketed and sold. This actually prevents artificials from being created as perfect reproductions of humanity. They don’t go through a state of infancy. Infantile artificials would have created a legal gray area the Rossum Robots did not want to explore.

 

Thus, artificials without human intelligence or the ability to develop human intelligence were not protected by the Primus Accords and were not, legally speaking, artificials. Companies and nations were able to mass-produce these artificials to serve as soldiers in the Great War in the Air, and these came to be called myrmidons after the blindly loyal followers of Achilles.

 

Modern myrmidons include the obvious combat drones, which to this day can only be made with metal and other “nonliving” materials due to the Primus Accords, but also drones for labor, companionship, and exploration. Myrmidons have been used by ARGO to explore other universes, by doctors as surgery assistants, by superteams to assist in rescuing and moving civilians out of emergency zones, and by VIPS as life-like decoys.

 

Perkunite

 

Perkunite is a refined form of gaeite and was named for its inventor Perkun, the Baltim incarnation during the Proterozoic Dyeus civilization. The molecules of perkunite work differently from conventional matter. Energy causes its molecules to contract, not expand, while extremely cold temperatures cause it to liquify. Perkunite is an incredibly strong metal provided its kept warm. No physical force can deform it, no amount of energy can bend it. The more energy applied to it, the stronger its molecular bonds become. This applies to atomic manipulation as well. Any atomic tampering is converted into stronger bonds. This property makes perkunite ideal as a prison for supervillains with atomic manipulation powers, and it was the very reason Perkun invented perkunite. When the Proterozoic Dyeus fought a war against the Vovin Dragons, they were decimated by the Vovin Dragon’s entropic breath. Perkunite was created to counter this entropic breath, and with it the Proterozoic won the war and forced the Dragons to peacefully settle in the iron-rich oceans.

 

The knowledge of perkunite manufacture was lost with the Pangean Dyeus, but Aiwass, the Baltim incarnation during the early 20th century, remembered how he made perkunite while fighting Proterozoic Dyeus ghosts during the Borderland war and introduced it to mankind in the late 1910’s.

 

Perkunite is often used to make weapons for superhumans. Where other materials shatter under the strain of superhuman muscles, perkunite just gets stronger. The Swordsman, a pioneer in superhuman weapons describes the impact of perkunite in his 1923 book Forge of the Gods: “Missiles and bullets are the weapons of men, but only archaic weapons will do for supermen. The ancients understood. Thor had his hammer, King Arthur his sword, Poseidon his trident, and Cu Chulainn his spear. Until recently, we didn’t have worthy materials to build with, no orichalcum or cyclops smiths or Vulcan forges. But we do now. Perkunite is every mythological weapon waiting to be forged.”

 

When enough force is applied to perkunite, it enters a “supersolid” state where its molecules are so compressed they start to overlap. Perkunite begins to produce a perpetual amount of energy, and for this reason is called “hot perkunite.” It radiates heat. Air hisses in its presence. To revert perkunite to a solid state, it must be quickly cycled through cold environments so that its radiation doesn’t warm the environment and prevent the phase shift. When even more force is applied, perkunite starts to form atomic singularities. It becomes a metal full of black holes. These atomic zones of infinite density further strengthens the perkunite, which creates further singularities, which further strengthens the perkunite. There is no naturally occurring way to revert perkunite from this state. Eventually, the perkunite stabilizes and stops forming atomic singularities. It becomes a substance similar to matter and energy and yet distinct from either. It becomes “star perkunite,” and while stable, everything around it is unstable. It produces a gravity well that vaporizes nearby plants and snuffs nearby stars. It blazes hotter and brighter than any supernova. Anything that faces the edges or point of a star perkunite weapon is drawn into the perkunite by the infinite force of countless singularities and shredded at the level of quantum information. The massive voids of our universe are their sheathes. They are drawn to fight things too large for human observation.

 

Quite interesting for something that started as a defensive weapon, isn’t it?

 

The major powers of the universe such as the Chromians and Blood Clan, who learned about perkunite from the ascended Dyeus, create star perkunite by tossing perkunite into a black hole and waiting for the light to form. These weapons are strictly for superhuman use and when wielded by superhumans can become extremely destructive. There is no upper limit to star perkunite. It will continue to grow stronger the more force is applied against it until its very presence shakes the universe apart.

 

Form Masters, at their natural size, like star perkunite as they produce one of the few phenomena large enough for their nanotechnology to observe. They never fail to smile when they see the tiny light marking their gravity well.

Photite

 

Photite is a naturally occurring material bonded to the photons of our universe and many others, Photite is typically found in an inert, intangible form that can only be observed by travelling many times faster than the speed of light. When exposed to a modulated series of electromagnetic radiation, photite activates into an incandescent solid sometimes called “hard light.” By manipulating photite, one can manipulate photons that naturally bond to it, and this allows for the construction of hologram projectors, invisibility cloaks, color markers, and night screens–objects that interact with nearby light in such a way that users can see through darkness as if they were holding a flashlight while being unseen. It’s a favorite of late-night urban superheroes like the Nightwatcher.

 

In its activated form, photite is useful for energy production and construction. AEon Construction in particular became known for building glowing buildings out of photite in the 1930’s. Photite has been used as “buoys” to guide faster-than-light superhumans and starships as it emits an energy signature many, many times faster than light which allows superhumans to “see” even if no light can actually reach their eyes. Photite also has fairly obvious weapon applications. Photite fields can be set up to capture superhuman speedsters in “speed traps” that activate when a certain speed is reached. Speedsters end up surrounded by solid matter faster than even they can process. Photite can also make beam weaponry, but this understates the true destructive potential of photite. Photite can generate massive, cosmic levels of energy. The Chromian empire keeps a stock of photite bombs which activates all photite within a certain area. This photite then expands at speeds several times that of light to activate more photite which then expands and so on, and so on. A photite bomb can create a cosmic wildfire that can burn down a universe if allowed to spread. This is actually the intention behind the creation of photite–all photite was created by Form Master named Ialpor, a living universe driven insane after he took evil into him in an effort to understand it. He attempted to set fire to the multiverse but was stopped and imprisoned by his fellow Form Masters. Photite are the embers of a distant, roaring fire cast into the light of countless universes. They are harmless–when people, you know, don’t make bombs out of it.

 

Fortunately, the massive amount of void within our universe (we’re composed of about 80% void) acts as a kind of natural firebreak and would allow cosmically powerful forces to intercede in the event of a photite bomb.

 

Pressure Gun

 

Developed by the Urban Ranger in the 1920’s, pressure guns were “guns for superhumans” who wouldn’t have benefited from standard kinetic firearms.

 

There is a limit at which certainly weaponry provides no benefit to a superhuman. At a certain point, the force of a superhuman’s blows are diminished by trying to use a sword that’ll just liquify under the force. At a certain point, a superhuman can fling a rock faster than a bullet. These limits are known as UR limits after Urban Ranger (no one ever figured out his secret identity, and not for a lack of trying). Urban Ranger invented the pressure gun to get around these limits.

 

Pressure guns use the piezoelectric properties of rhecite to store and concentrate physical force into a generator that then fires a bullet at speeds far, far faster than any chemical compound could allow. Early models used a rhecite grip with which the operator would essentially transform grip strength into electricity. Later models would use a harness that covered the entire arm to tap into more mechanical energy. Operators could fire a pressure gun through punching, which caused these models to be called “punch guns.”

 

Pressure guns are powerful weapons, but they are also precise. Skilled operators can determine exactly how much force they apply to a bullet. When used with the right ammunition, this can create a less-than-lethal option for subduing foes. Some pressure guns feature a storage system invented by Urban Ranger where physical force is stored within a battery that can store a certain amount of energy, but some superheroes prefer older models that lack this feature. A storage system essentially turns the pressure gun into a bomb, and the consequences of this were demonstrated when Urban Ranger lost a hand to the third Crime King when the supervillain shot his pressure gun.

 

Prime Pie

 

The prime pie is the signature pizza of Original Prime, the only pizzeria in the multiverse that delivers anywhere. It is the most ordered, most cooked, most delivered (yes, one does imply the other, but they like to list them all on the advertisements) pizza in the multiverse. Some dare suggest that it is the greatest pizza in the multiverse (though others say it’s simply the most common, fit only for the lowliest of plebeian taste buds).

 

So, what is the prime pie?

 

Beware, once you know it, you can never forget it.

 

You really want to know?

 

Last chance to back out…

Okay, the prime pie…

 

…is a pepperoni pizza. Several pepperonis are arranged in the shape of a “P” so that the pizza looks like the Original Prime logo. It is served with a cup of garlic butter dipping sauce, extra cups cost a dollar each.

 

It’s also soft crust, so New Yorkers can start crying now.

 

You were warned.

 

Pua Pohaku

 

Pua Pohaku, in Hawaiian “flower rock,” refers either to a person or an object. The person is the daughter of kamalani Ahi and the pastoral god Aristaeus, who spreads the fire and obsidian of her mother and grandmother in the form of the plants of her father. The object refers to her creations or the creations of her grandmother Pele, obsidian flowers. Pele dug tunnels beneath the Hawaiian islands and filled them obsidian flowers lit by flowing magma. The tunnels are considered a major attraction in Hawaii and throughout the decades smugglers have risked the goddess’ wrath mining them out of the tunnels. Pua Pohaku breaks with her mother’s tradition by giving away her flowers for free. Her generosity stems from her father who shared with mankind several pastoral skills from hunting to beekeeping. It’s something of a minor controversy within the Pele family. Pele believes that being a “flower girl” is beneath her granddaughter and her granddaughter disagrees. She doesn’t understand why someone would hide beautiful things underground.

 

Rejuvenation Treatments

 

Senescence became a curable condition when rejuvenation treatments finished developing in early 1950. Their development had been a long time coming. Mankind nearly had it in the late 1930’s, but research had to be put on hold for the war. Scientists switched from focusing on the universal problem of age to designing and perfecting bioweapons, particularly supersoldier treatments like the Black Terror formula. Thus is the range of man’s aims revealed. But as soon as the Worlds War ended, man returned to rejuvenation treatments with a decade of new insights and in months a treatment was ready. Wrinkles smoothed, cells regenerated, colored hair pushed past gray, and the Puer Torch was lit in Mainline City for all those who had died before man no longer had to die.

 

The creation of rejuvenation ranked among mankind’s greatest achievements. Sociologists like Dr. Hercules Stone commented with anticipation and anxiety that with rejuvenation mankind was entering an unprecedented and uncertain epoch. Dr. Stone once wrote: “For all of man’s existence, death has been natural. It has been something to anticipate and prepare for. It has been a goad for human action. It has been an equalizer. It has forced power and authority to change hands. Under a certain theory, we even owe our human empathy to our human mortality. We evolved to care greatly for our progeny as legacy was the closest we could ever come to immortality. But now death is unnatural, and what will come of it we cannot say. We likely won’t have the faintest inkling of what we’ve done for centuries. Death has been the ultimate constant for mankind, the ultimate North star, and now we’ve shifted it. We are uncentered, and the freedom presented to us is terrifying.”

 

Man has always chased immortality. One of our earliest stories is about Gilgamesh acquiring and losing the flower of youth . But man thought immorality was impossible until the Climacteric. In the late 19th century, man knew of Abramelin the immortal and ghosts which copied life but never lived, and thus never died. Immortality was possible, it was a real thing. Now man had to figure out how to make mortals into immortals.

 

In 1878 the Carnacki Foundation created somatic manes by binding ghosts to bodies made of gaeite–a small but notable step forward. Man had technically “created” physical immortals. In 1908 it was not longer a matter of technicalities, mankind had created humanoid immortals out of an artificial protein and plastic mixture called “protoplasm.” It was possible to create immortals, but still man didn’t know how to make humans immortal.

 

In 1912, a group of scientists banded together in the shadow of the Great War in the Air to create several different races of artificial each after their individual ideas of perfection. They named their project the Kokomaht Project after the Yuma creator deity who crafted the perfect form of man after his brother, the blind and evil Bakohtal, formed an imperfect humanoid. The Kokamaht Project believed that there was a good chance that mortal mankind would one day be replaced by immortal artificials and wanted to create several different kinds of artificials to ensure that man’s children represented his heart, to ensure that each race had their ambitions checked by the others, and to ensure that man would be remembered fondly if he was to be replaced.

 

In 1919, the first artificial heart made of protoplasm was successfully transplanted into a human body. This kicked off a frenzy of experimentation and research during the “immortal 20’s.” Researchers went to great, sometimes criminal lengths to try and be the first to create the panacea. Dr. Gary, better known as “Gary the Ghoul,” became an enemy of the Monster League by kidnapping vagrants and runaways to experiment on in his flesh vats. Several immortal superhumans appeared in the 20’s and further stoked the flames of frenzy. There were quasimorphs made of undying sand, glass, and metal. There were men whose skin never bled and whose bones never broke. Finally, at long last, there were human immortals, there were beings born of women who became unkillable through the miracle of primary hyperstasis. Mankind felt it was close to achieving the impossible. It’s little wonder that a few went “mad scientist” under the heady atmosphere.

 

The frenzy of the 20’s cooled into the slow, steady progress of the 30’s and the science of secondary hyperstasis developed in leaps and bounds. It became possible for superpowers to be granted through drugs or ray exposure. The Black Terror formula made it possible for men to lift battleships over their heads with muscles like steel–but those muscles still wore down and aged. Man could create powerful mortals, but they were still only mortals.

 

Research on rejuvenation was paused with the start of the Worlds War. But man was close. Man was very close, far closer than he knew. If not for the Worlds War starting in 1940, man could have had rejuvenation in a year or so. The number lost to the Worlds War includes all those who perished from old age. Late in the war, Allied military considered putting money behind rejuvenation research in the hopes that, if the war continued beyond 1950 (no one knew how close the Axis were to folding until the very end), they could use rejuvenation treatments to bribe the Axis into surrendering. But they ultimately went with the surer bet of biochemical research and development.

 

In 1949, near Christmas, the first rejuvenation chambers were tested and exceeded even the most optimistic predictions. Even the recently deceased could be snatched back from the jaws of death. After New Years, it was a new world. Senescence was as treatable as the common cold.

 

Great good has come of rejuvenation treatments. Man now has time enough for things–time enough to try a million things, learn a million things, do a million things, and be a million things. But rejuvenation is a contributing factor to the “supersociety malaise” infesting our world. Young people are born in a world far more complex than the one their still-living ancestors knew. They see people with decades of experience without any sign of slowing down and wonder how they’ll ever measure up. Previous generations have done so much. They’ve mapped the universe, they’ve saved the universe. How can someone with only a handful of years ever matter to anyone? So many young people feel that they can’t measure up, can’t do anything meaningful, and don’t have anything to offer anyone, especially not themselves.

 

It is a bitter truth that the global suicide rate has never been higher now that everyone can live forever. 

 

Supercriminality is also boosted by rejuvenation. The BOL recruits many young people into their organization by preying on their alienation and frustration. If nothing about you is important, you still don’t have to be unimportant. You can force people to notice you, and while it won’t be like respect and it won’t be like love, it will be unlike being ignored. Get an attention-getting superhero, get a bright costume, get a cool gimmick, and go out and ruin someone’s day. You’ll be the biggest, most important person in the room until the superheroes show up to arrest you–and then you’re the most important person in the world running and fighting with people that have their own comics and action figures.

 

One of the greatest challenges superheroes face today is to figure out how to not only beat the BOL but break them out of their psychodrama. The purpose of the modern superhero is not only to protect people, but to wake them up to the possibilities that await them in the world. Superheroes fight not only evil, but despair. There’s a multiverse of endless adventure out there, but between that and man falls the shadow of despair. Superheroes shoot through this shadow and shine like stars in the night sky.

 

If we can no longer be guided by the North star of death, we’ll have to try following the stars of life.

 

Rhecite

 

Rhecite is a refined form of gaeite created by the Proterozoic Dyeus civilization. It’s name comes from the Titan Rhea, whose name meant “to flow.” Rhecite is known as “the flowing metal” and flows in response to modulation in an electric current. Rhecite is often used as a component of robot armor, especially in joints, and in gadgetools such as swords that bend like whips with a press of a button. Rhecite can be programed to react in certain ways to certain frequencies and charges. One charge turns a rhecite weapon into a shield, another turns it into a sword. Rhecite also has piezoelectric properties and produces an electric charge when placed under pressure. When subjected to the pressure of superhuman muscles, it can become quite an engine of power, and rhecite has found its way into the grips of pressure guns and the drawstrings of superhuman bows.

 

Rhecite is a phenomenal material, but it must be handled with care. Too much pressure applied the wrong way can cause it to shift uncontrollably, and in combat must be used with insulated shielding to prevent opponents from ruining its coherency with EMP.

 

Safoam

 

Safoam is “safety foam,” and finds its way into many superhero gadgetool kits. Not only is safoam useful in safely restraining criminals, but its life-supporting qualities makes it a first-aid staple.

 

Safoam began as one of ARGO’s many experiments at their Groom Lake test site in the 1930’s. Safoam, like Dr. Claude Steven’s MAS, was intended to be a next-generation life support system for multiversal exploration. Safoam was envisioned as a kind of “spray-on” protective suit which could be thickened or lessened to suit the environment. Safoam used a rhecite alloy to create a layered, selectively permeable membrane around an ARGO explorer. It would be splashed on as a mixture and instantly settle into bipolar layers with the top rising above the lower like oil on water. The top layer would be a hard and durable shell while the bottom next to the explorer would be breathable, digestible, and pressurized embryo-like substance derived from RUR protoplasm.

 

“Egg armor” is what the ARGO scientists called it.

 

While still in the experimental stages, ARGO was attacked as part of the 1940 blitz, and all energy was put into figuring out how to apply their experiments to the war effort.

 

A problem egg armor had in ARGO’s experiments was that it was very sticky. It was horrible to manage, it got everywhere and stuck to everything. It would keep explorers alive, but also immobile. They were trapped, suspended in the bottom layer while the top layer clung to the environment. But saffoam’s stickiness made it an asset on the battlefield. Paramedics used it to quickly cover and treat the wounded. Saffoam made quick and sterile bandages and slings. It could also be applied over to downed combatants trapped on the front lines through safoam grenades. Paramedics could fire a grenade which would then expand and cocoon the wounded. Later they would be detected by temperature scanners and dug out. 

 

Many soldiers of the Worlds War owed their lives to safoam. While it wasn’t an alternative to surgery, the pressurized bottom layer stabilized wounds and stopped bleeding while the top layer provided protection. 

 

After the war, safoam was used extensively by first responders and superheroes. The formula of safoam was modified to make it even better at imbolizing, stabilizing, and protecting those it was used on. It was given fire retardant properties, and post-war firefighting involved low-grade freeze rays to put out fires and safoam to secure survivors. Nanites were incorporated into the bottom layer to aid in the healing process (and to make the layer smell less like blood and eggs).

 

Superheroes saw saffoam as an answer to one of the most troubling parts of superheroing–how does one arrest a criminal and keep him until the cops arrive to process him? The Masked Mystery Men of the 1930’s quickly learned how important the question was. The Flying Fox once took down an entire gang of bank robbers…but ran out of handcuffs. He had to improvise ties out of clothing, and while he went to get the police (there was no noosphere in those days), one gang member got loose and freed his friends. But with a toss of a grenade, bad guys could be safely and humanely secured for police retrieval. 

 

Throughout the decades, Superheroes have learned how to pull off several tricks with safoam. By diluting it so that the top layer is transparent, it can be applied as a mask to the face that’ll provide oxygen, filter bright lights, block poisons, (supervillains have a historic love for airborne poisons be they “knock-out gas” or hallucinogens) and, of course, protect the secret identity. If a superhero runs out of room in his or her utility belts, a little dab of saffoam will make sure whatever they need to carry with them gets carried. There are even some superheroes who have made boats out of safoam. The Crime Fighter once famously made a dummy of himself out of safoam to trick the 10th Crime King. He even painted it–the Crime Fighter is nothing if not resourceful in a pinch.

 

Over at Martin’s School, student Burning Bright uses safoam grenades to quickly quelch any fires that grow beyond his control and several MS’s use safoam cannons as part of a “hall monitor mode.” Safoam is great for slowing down superpowered kids running too fast in the halls, especially middle schooler speedsters who have no speeds between walk and light-speed.

Safoam is like coke–the name is commonly used to refer to a wide variety of products while technically being a distinct product. Safoam is a brand of Locke Labs, and other common brands include gloo (the preferred brand for Martin’s MS’s for its superior comfort), glu, nu-glu, glu-oop, and glop.

 

Spinal Implants    

 

Spinal implants are tiny rhecite orbs placed within the cervical column to limit a superhuman’s powers by interrupting their mental control. They are most often used to limit or remove a supervillain’s power, though in some cases innocent superhumans voluntarily undergo surgery to relieve themselves of the great responsibility great power entails.

 

The great commonality of superpowers is that they are thought responsive and thought controlled. It doesn’t matter if the superpower is the ability to run faster than light or juggle stars, it all comes down to the human mind. The hyperstatic principle of theoria is based on conscious control of superpowers. Spinal implants can thus be thought of as the state utilizing theoria “for” a superhuman. 

 

Implants work by essentially becoming secondary brains. They seamlessly integrate within the host’s nervous system and are programmed to respond to brainwave patterns associated with power activation and jam them like a circuit breaker. They can also be programmed to send out electromagnetic signals alerting authorities if their host has moved beyond a prescribed area or is attempting to force the activation of their powers through the jamming. For reasons of safety and humaneness, implants can only limit powers. A full neurological block has the potential to cause damage to the nervous system and from a philosophical standpoint, many see it as wrong to completely derive a person of his or her superpowers, especially if they are born with them.

 

The most implants within a person, the more the activation signal is muffled. Powerful superhumans can have their entire spin riddled with metal from their cervical column to their sacrum.

 

For murderous supervillains, considerations of their secure imprisonment and punishment outweigh considerations of their wellbeing. If a supervillain massacres a city block, they can expect no mercy. These supervillains are fitted with a single implant made of rhecite colored gold during its manufacture to ensure that it’s not confused with standard silver colored implants. These golden “master controls” completely shut down the superpower activation signal, even at the cost of neurological damage. As such, only one implant is ever required. These implants also have a remote killswitch function. One press of a button and the entire nervous system turns off. Death is near instantaneous.

 

While implants are generally effective in depowering superhumans, as Stone’s Law would suggest, they are not effective 100% of the time. Some superhumans don’t have a nervous system that can be hacked by an implant. Quasimorphs provide an example, as do telepaths that master the ability to project their consciousness completely into the Astral. Other containment strategies such as the Icebox and Sandcastle are used to incarcerate these supervillains.

 

The planet is in general agreement over the use of implants for superhuman criminals. If someone commits a crime, society has the right to take away their freedom. Taking away their superpowers is an extension of that right. But Earth State and the US are in disagreement when it comes to particulars. The US tends to rule softer against superhuman criminals than Earth State, especially if their powers come from primary hyperstasis as opposed to secondary. While no US law exists that says judges must rule more favorably in the cases of offenders who acquired their powers naturally, studies have shown that primary hyperstatics tend to receive lighter sentences than secondary hyperstatics for similar crimes with natal hyperstatics receiving the best sentences.

 

Does a superpower that a person was born with “belong” to a person more than one they acquired later in life? Are superpowers derived from objects just as much a part of a person as superpowers derived from their body? The “natal powers vs acquired powers” debate is often used as a point of debate and essay prompt for students of Martin’s School’s social studies classes.

 

Earth State believes that superpowers create an advantage for individuals that society must act to balance. Part of this balancing involves mandatory implants for any non-misdemeanor offence. In the US, implants as punishment only comes up if a superpower was used in the offence, and even then using a superpower in an offence does not necessarily mean an offender will be implanted. But a citizen of Earth State can lose his or her ability to fly for tax evasion. Earth State justifies this policy under the logic that if a superhuman commits a crime, they were motivated by the privilege afforded to them by their powers. Their powers made them contemptful of Earth State’s laws, thus the remedy is to humble them by taking their powers away.

 

Earth State and the US are also divided on the role of implants in rehabilitating or punishing superpowered criminals. When a superhuman commits a crime in the US, it is thought that their power has grown beyond their discretion. The solution is to limit their power and find them productive, meaningful work to do with their power. In time, once they understand that they’re supposed to use their powers for work, not criminality, their implants can be toned down or even removed entirely. Implants thus work to rehabilitate an offender. The chance to have them removed once they show promise provides motivation for them to try using their powers for honest work. But in Earth State, when a superhuman commits a crime, it is thought that their ego has placed them above the common man. Their powers are taken away as punishment to check their ego. No amount of improvement or remorse will bring them back. It is only the attenuation of the sentence that restores powers.

 

While spinal implants are often thought of as belonging to the harsh world of criminal justice, they’re used frequently in the civil world. Their civil use is controversial in the US. Culturally, it is seen as preferable to master a superpower or metapathogen through theoria than to be implanted. For superpowers, there is a great stigma attached to implants. A person, especially a man, is seen as weak if they muffle a perfectly good superpower. Getting an implant is seen as tantamount to admitting that one is a coward who doesn’t believe he has self-control and doesn’t trust himself with any degree of power. There is some truth to the stigma. Many superhumans take implants just to avoid ever having to worry about superpowers. Being a basic means in an emergency no one expects you to do anything and everyone works to protect you like you’re something special. Being a basic means you can throw temper tantrums without worrying about taking out a city block. Being a basic means your DPR is at rock-bottom.

 

Being a basic has its perks. Unfortunately, record numbers of young people, especially young men, get implanted as a form of rebellion against society. They aren’t going to work, they aren’t going to try, and they aren’t going to do anything but sit at home and be normal. Interestingly, many of them join the BOL and end up using the very powers they once discarded to vex society.

 

The stigma against voluntary implanting is considerably lessened for those with metapathogens. While everyone wants to believe that through hard work and dedication a person can overcome their metapathogen like Tanya Abelman and Donald Swift, the sad reality is that many cannot. And even for the ones with the potential to master their metapathogens, they face the choice of spending long, hard years meditating and working or taking an hour of surgery and getting on with the rest of their lives. Some people just want the right to feel in control of their lives. That is not a right that should ever be denied them.

 

In Earth State, there is no stigma against implants. The government even runs information (propaganda) campaigns to get its citizens to implant as much as possible. “A subdued power is a useful power” as one infamous poster says. The government heavily incentivizes implants through its social credit score system. Those that voluntarily take implants receive a higher score and more privileges–and the chance that with a high enough score they can one day remove their implants and have access to the high privileges of being a “Proven Defender” the closest thing Earth State has to superheroes.

 

The topic of childhood implants is highly controversial both in the US and Earth State. In both the US and Earth State, the decision is up to the parent or legal guardian until the child reaches the age of majority–however,a child can refuse implants in the US, in which case a court decides what’s to be done about the child. In Earth State, they cannot. Total authority rests with the parent. If parents disagree on a child’s implants in Earth State, the child is given implants. It only takes one parental signature.

 

Earth State incentivizes childhood implants by making them a requirement for superhuman children to enter public schools. Children with implants are also given higher social credit scores and have their insurance paid for by the government.

 

The choice of whether or not to put implants in their children is a hard one for parents to make. The US’s Statesmen organization has counselors trained to assist parents in understanding their options and making the choice. Earth State’s counselors say only one thing–”It is in the best interest of yourself and your child to give them implants.”

 

For US or Earth State parents, the consequences of implanting–and not implanting–can be severe. When a child grows up, they always turn a critical eye to their parents and the choices they made. Implanted children blame their parents for holding back their potential. Children without implants blame their parents for forcing them to develop powers. “I was born with the power to create energized cables out of thin air. My parents loved that about me. They kept telling me how much money I was going to make for them going into construction. But they never loved me. Now I tear down buildings.” BOL member Party Crasher once said. “If they were smart, they would have given me an implant. Then I could have done what I wanted to do–play ball, play video games, be free.”

 

Implants remain a controversial part of global superhuman culture. They are at once a source of liberation and imprisonment, but it is perhaps for the best they exist. Can we truly accept superpowers and the potential they represent if we do not have the choice to reject them?

 

Star Castle

 

Star castles are defensive installations used throughout the universe which monitor and control extradimensional travel. The Warp Authority typically manages the ones controlled by humanity. Star castles work by rerouting extradimensional travel to a given location–often a location with several weapons trained on it. If someone, for instance, traveled to Earth by using a Fox tuner or world splinter, if they aren’t cleared by the Warp Authority, they’ll find themselves teleported to Alpha Centauri next to Kinnison Castle and its impressive array of weapons. In any universe where teleportation technology is common, star castles are critical defenses.

 

The Chromian Prosperity is known for its unique star castles modeled off nature’s galaxy leviathans. These sun leviathans are capable of swallowing stars, which gives the Chromians a huge advantage against less developed races. “Sign the treaty and we’ll unblock your sun.”

 

Star Train

 

Star Trains are luxury star ships designed after Earth’s railroad trains. In a universe where teleportation is commonly available, relatively slow-moving ships drifting through a bubble of spacetime have an appeal. Sometimes, you don’t want to be on the other side of the universe in an instant. Sometimes, you just want to drift upon the void and watch the planets go by. That’s what star trains are mostly for, but they also serve an important function as VIP transport.

 

When a politician decides to take a visit to a hostile planet, it’s very important that they travel in a slow, easy to observe star train whose movements will be recorded on local spacetime. Light creates a lasting record even if you got faster than it. Teleporting to a hostile planet means that an “accident” could happen. 

 

“We didn’t mean to blow up the ambassador’s ship, but our scans detected weapons aboard and routed them to a star castle. Too bad its vaporized and corratoring evidence is impossible to obtain.”

 

Star trains are also very opulent. Their cheapest cars are like ballrooms and their VIP cars are like palaces. Arriving on a star train shows that one is a very important person indeed.

 

Star trains are run by private companies who side with no culture or culture. The companies (Caosga Rails being the largest in the Milky Way) try to fill the cars with as many different cultures and races as they can, even to the point of offering free tickets on occasion. Such diversity acts as a deterrent to terrorists, kidnappers, and assassins. A Chromian terrorist might not be bothered by the prospect of blowing up a train full of Estrel, but a train full of Estrel, Barsoomians, and Humans will give them pause.

 

Superpower Ranks and Categories

 

During the immediate decades following the 1860 climacteric, hyperstasis was too rare for it to have categories or rankings. Superpowers were thought of as being completely unique phenomena. But as hyperstasis increased in frequency, trends started to be observed. Categories started to be used. Superhumans that could summon and control fire were called pyrokinetics. Superhumans that could move quickly were called speedsters. Superhumans that could lift cars and endure gunfire were called strongmen. The first academic list of superpower categories was written in 1916 in a scientific paper penned by Dr. Hercules Stone and Dr. Charles Fort titled Observed Similarities and Symmetries Within Hyperstasis and published in the mirabology journal Novae. The writers cautioned that superpower categories were descriptive, not prescriptive, and that every superpower was unique. 

 

The 1930’s created a global demand for systems that not only categorized superpowers but ranked them. Europe wanted to rank superpowers by how susceptive they were to socialized hyperstasis systems. Germany wanted to know which kinds of superpowers could be controlled by a standard Vril field, which needed special attention, and which needed special attention. America wanted to rank superpowers for their potential utility and destructiveness. Under the NRA, superhumans could be told where, when, and how to work, so a system was needed for NRA executives to decide who got placed in industry, who got placed in research (and who got placed as research), and who got drafted. Individual judgements were not an option for the NRA–neither was individual anything. They wanted categories so they could say “I didn’t place you here, your category did.”

 

Categories and ranks were also sought by the medical field for far more benevolent purposes. Nothing is more frightening for a paramedic or surgeon than a wounded or sick superhuman. They were desperate for any way to identify different kinds of superhumans. If they could reliably identify and categorize superhumans, they could make reliable treatments and train to effectively carry out these treatments.

 

Interestingly, mirabolists were never big on categories. They were fine sticking to the list presented in Observed Similarities and Symmetries Within Hyperstasis and the minor variations and updates published in issues of Novae. They preferred studying superpowers on an individual basis, a practice that continues to this day.

 

Unfortunately for the medical field (and fortunately for the governments), their attempts to categorize superpowers ran up against Stone’s Law. For every category, there was an exception. There was a superpower that couldn’t be detected, or contained, or planned for. There was a superpower that laughed at Vril fields, that ruined careful paramedic planning, and acted exactly how its category said it shouldn’t act.

 

Shortly before the Vril blitz of 1940, everyone dropped their categorizations–everyone except for the insurance companies. 

 

They were the only ones to come up with a categorization system in the thirties that persists to this day.

 

Accuracy wasn’t as important for insurance companies as it was for the other groups. What they cared about was risk assessment–this kind of superhuman, and what does it matter if the “kind” has a little arbitrariness in it–is associated with X value of damages more than other kinds of superhuman. They pay more. It really was that simple. Insurance companies have been taken to court by superhumans several times throughout the decades over baseless discrimination–but the lack of any objective categories and ranks for superpowers means there’s no way to refute the subjective categories and ranks that correlate to Y likelihood of destructive incident. It can’t be baseless if there wasn’t a base to begin with.

 

Is it wrong that insurance companies use a lack of objective superpower categories and ranks to justify using their own categories and ranks? It’s a debate and essay topic often used in Martin’s School’s social studies classes.

 

The ranking system used by insurance companies around the world is called the Destruction Potential Rank. The DPR is something every superhuman is familiar with. Even if you plan on never once using your powers, you’re going to have to deal with the DPR. It’s revealed an interesting fact about superpowers–the ones with the highest DPR aren’t the ones you might suspect. Superhumans with the power to blow up planets and snuff out stars don’t have the highest DPR. Potentially, they’re very dangerous, but they’re aware of how dangerous they are and take several precautions to prevent their powers from hurting anyone. The ones with the highest DPR are low-level strongmen, people like Steel Dolly. These superhumans are the likeliest to have accidents with their powers. They’re the likeliest to accidentally put their foot through the floor of their cars when hitting the brakes and the likeliest to break someone’s arm with a firm handshake. Part of the reason Martin’s School has a strength control class is to help students with superstrength get their DPR down.

 

The DPR has influenced superpower culture both in the United States and abroad. It was used in the United States during the 30’s as an additional way for the NRA to force compliance from superhumans. If superhumans refused NRA orders, they would not only be jailed, but they would find their insurance would go through the roof. One of the reasons the Statesmen formed in 1938 was to provide a way for superhumans to make their payments and to negotiate with insurance companies to lower individual DPRs. Even if they didn’t provide a way for superhumans to market their skills and maintain their anonymity, the Statesmen would have been a success just off getting everyone insured.

 

Earth State uses DPR as a blatant control tactic. Earth State doesn’t jail superhumans with noncompliance, it’s written into their founding constitution that they can’t. Instead, they create incentives and disincentives. DPR functions as both. If they play ball with Earth State regulations, they get everything paid for–absolutely everything. If they don’t, their DPR goes through the stratosphere.

 

Japan has always been very interesting when it comes to superpower categories and ranks. Their society is very hierarchical and competitive relative to the United States. Where American superhero culture emphasizes categories and builds superteams with a wide range of powers, Japan’s superhero culture emphasizes ranks and builds superteams with synergistic or uniformed powers. This is perhaps best seen in the Spectrum Soldiers, a legacy of Japanese superteams whose individual members are not only uniformly powered but uniformly costumed. What matters in forming a Japanese superteam is how powerful the members are together. Japan doesn’t believe in “all-in-one” superteams. Superteams should be designed to hit a specific type of emergency as hard and fast as possible. If a superteam struggles with a particular situation, you don’t switch up their roster or tactics, you get another superteam.

 

This approach means that young Japanese superheroes compete with each other for slots on pre-established teams. Those with a high rank get the slot, those with a lower rank either become support or look for another career. Thus Japanese culture had a huge need for a ranking system, and amusingly, not only do superheroes compete for ranks but ranking systems compete with other ranking systems for public validation. The current champion of the ranking systems is the Toriyama Power Levels system used by Ishinomori School, the Japanese counterpart to Martin’s School. The TPL is a complex system that takes into account a superhuman’s experience, accomplishments, defeats, and potential to come up with a single power level number.

 

There is one stat that trumps all others in the rankings. It’s not not power, it’s not speed, it’s not even intelligence–its age. Age is foundational for Japanese hierarchical structures. Children are taught at a young age that they have senpais (seniors) and koheis (juniors). Japan has a great respect for their senior superheroes, perhaps even greater than what America has for its own, and even when their powers pale in comparison to younger superhumans senior superheroes can always pull rank. It doesn’t matter if an elder superhero’s only power is that he can jump across buildings. If he has something to say, younger superheroes listen.

 

Young superheroes compete with each other in CRS battles to establish rank. Unlike Martin’s School, combat training is mandatory at Ishinomori. Fighting tournaments are frequent, and attract global viewership. The philosophy at Ishinomori is that if a student can’t handle the pressure of fighting with the eyes of the world upon them, they don’t belong at the school.

 

The highly controversial but highly successful entertainment simulation show Power Battle uses several ranking systems including the TPL to determine which superhuman wins their weekly simulated battles. People have always wondered who would win in a fight between superheroes X and Y, the physical nature of superheroes readily invites such comparisons, but Power Battle turned speculation into a spectator sport. Countless viewers download the latest hologram battle each week to see who the research computer picks to be the winner.

 

Power Battle has been criticized throughout the year both on methodological grounds (several glitches in the research computer have been detected including one that judges any attack with sufficient luminosity as moving at the speed of light and another that treats a given superhero previously interacting with another superhuman as having similar stats to that superhuman) and moral grounds. Some superheroes find it disturbing that people make videos where they beat up their friends. But even with these criticisms, Power Battle remains popular.

For as unique as superpowers are, it’s in mankind’s nature to look for and find patterns. If we can find patterns in clouds, we can find patterns in superpowers. But as useful as categories and ranks can be, it is important to remember what Dr. Stone and Dr. Fort said back in Observed Similarities and Symmetries Within Hyperstasis–they are descriptive, not prescriptive. Nothing in nature comes with a label, and that includes superpowers.

 

Tabletop Games

 

Trading card games, dice-based role playing games, miniature wargaming, board games–call them what you will, they’re played on a tabletop.

 

For all the cyber bells and virtual whistles of noosphere gaming, a niche audience still prefers face-to-face interactions and improvisational storytelling to more modernized forms of social entertainment. Martin’s School even has its own tabletop club.

 

There’s a part of the human brain that goes back to caves that prefers toys to be physical objects that take up space and be hugged by fingers, not electronic vapor that travels from program to brain. That’s the tabletop part.

 

Vast and numerous are the games that make up tabletop gaming. The world’s most popular tabletop game is the collectible trading card game Multiverse War, a game sponsored by ARGO and based on ancient duels conducted by the first sapiens. The first sapiens would reach across time and space to abduct champions to fight as their gladiators–a barbaric practice brought to an end by the empathic maturation of the first sapiens and the intervention of several time traveling superheroes (one of the earliest morals in our universe was “be careful who you wish for–they might be stronger than you wanted”), but quite fun in the form of a card game. It’s also education to boot! ARGO spends some of its budget promoting Multiverse War because it encourages young people to learn about the multiverse and its inhabitants. Real war is very bad for multiversal coexistence, but fake war is actually very good. 

 

A handful of superhumans have managed to tap into the old powers of the first sapiens to become “card masters” who can play Multiverse War for real. They can summon beings from throughout the multiverse to fight for them–provided they’re to be drafted. Notable among these card masters is Koki Takahashi, a student at the prestigious Ishinomori School who goes by the supername Card Shooter. Koki is the world champion of Multiverse War–the real version and the game version.

 

For miniature wargaming, the great popular cashcow is Hercs and Gabes which has been going strong since 1981. The game is based on the mechanical armor warfare of the Great War in the Air and is played on two boards–a skirmish board where players take turns maneuvering Hercules and Gabriel armors and a tactics board where players move pieces representing landships, airships, and naval carriers around a map of the globe. 

 

For board games, Jetan has recently made a resurgence in popularity. This Barsoomian game is played similarly to chess or shogi and involves moving Barsoomian warriors (yellow and black to represent the yellow Barsoomians of the south the black Barsoomians of the north) around a board with the ultimate goal being to capture the opponent’s princess. The Barsoom club at Martin’s often plays Jetan, and the club finds teaching the game a great way to introduce Barsoomian culture to new members.

 

And lastly, for roleplaying games the grand patriarch credited with starting the genre in 1974 is ARGO and Adventure. The game, which is also supported by ARGO like Multiverse War, though to a lesser extent owing to it being more niche than Multiverse War, has the players take on the role of ARGO explorers trapped in a fictional kind of universe called a shadow universe. Though an unknown power, ARGO explorers are forced to enter shadow universes under contrived circumstances that just so happen to facilitate a certain kind of gameplay. Shadow universes can only be entered by a handful of ARGO explorers, and they’re limited in what they can bring with them. Most technology simply shuts down in a shadow universe. And near-invariably, shadow universes are filled with monsters, danger, mystery, and treasure.

 

The goal of the ARGO explorers is to secure the point of contact, called a “crash site” in the player’s guide, and create a fictional device called a “light portal” that’ll allow for reinforcements to arrive. The light portal can only be constructed after “shadow corruption” is removed from the universe. For more combat-minded adventures, this corruption often takes the form of a big, evil“shadow boss” waiting behind a small army of monsters and traps. For story-minded players, it’s often in the form of a malevolent thought-virus, shadowy mastermind, or body snatcher mimics necessitating players to get involved in intrigue and politics.

 

After saving a universe from the shadow forces, players hand-off responsibility of what comes next for the universe to the Weft Authority (it happens in real life to) the characters “adapt” by spending points acquired through the game to become stronger representing characters building a tolerance to the shadow forces. Adapting allows players to bring in better technology and even superpowers if they have them in their natal universe.

 

Since 1974, other game developers have taken the formula of ARGO and Adventure and tweaked it to suit their tastes. Some like the “crash site crawling” aspect of the game, the addictive hedonic treadmill of crash, secure, adapt, crash, secure, adapt, and focus on it to create a game that’s like a group solving a puzzle. Players of “crash site crawling” derivatives of ARGO and Adventure challenge themselves to get their characters through a gauntlet of traps and monsters. Cosmic Light is one such derivative. In it, players don’t play as ARGO explorers, instead they play “warriors of light” who represent cosmic forces of discovery and progress at war with “warriors of darkness” who represent cosmic forces of ignorance and stagnation. But on the other hand, some like the storytelling elements of ARGO and Adventure, and for them there’s First Contact, in which players take on the roles of multiverse explorers from several fictional universes taking their first steps out into the multiverse. Instead of encountering a shadow force to create conflict, they run up against the limits of their technology. Leveling-up and combat isn’t as important for First Contact as storytelling. First Contact is often credited with starting a wave of “primitive world” games. Our real universe is very stable. Superpowers have given us rejuvenation treatments, the noosphere, the interway, and an army of superheroes that stands ready to respond to any crisis so we can focus on moving forward as a species. That’s good, but adventure needs some conflict, thus many RPGs feature settings without superpowers. One of the most popular RPGs is Mice and Magic which is based on observations of universe Mu-Omicron. Players take the role of tiny creatures–mice and insects and moles, and in taking on these roles make things that would otherwise be completely inconsequential to our daily lives important. A book becomes a hill containing priceless knowledge between two immovable plates, a table a four-legged mountain, and a plate, an ice-slick lake.

 

Nowadays, there are many tabletop RPGs out in the world, many of which are from other universes (IP law is very hard to enforce across worlds). But regardless of where the games originated, their appeal remains the same–action, adventure, and mystery all played out on the top of a table.

 

Universal Enochian      

 

Universal Enochian, or logaeth, is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the multiverse and is the customary language of our universe. Enochian is our name for the language and comes from a form of the language revealed to the 16th century spy, alchemist, and mathematician John Dee by Annael, angel of the VALIS sphere. The verbal based Enochian known to Dee was only a small part of the logaeth lexicon, which is based on syncopations within an underlying vibrational structure.

 

In other words, the language of the angels is that of song.

 

Logaeth came to be the common language for our universe through the Constellation Mappers, the oldest religion in our universe. They picked up the tongue from a delegation of Urch angels from a nearby VALIS called LOGOS around 12 billion years ago. As the Constellation Mappers performed their sacred duty of mapping constellations and recording their stories, they spread logaeth throughout the universe. The Chromian Empire originally banned logaeth within its borders believing it to be barbaric and un-Chromian, but the language became so widespread they had no choice to allow it. Official documents within the Empire are still written in Chromian. Logaeth was also adopted by the Form Masters. In taking a language spoken by inhabitants of our universe, they felt closer to those inhabitants.

 

Universal Enochian, interestingly, was spoken on Earth before John Dee. It came to Earth when the Lorians, a race very active within the Constellation Mappers, visited the Star Sculptors of the Hadean epoch.

 

When the Star Sculptors ascended into the Astral to battle the Vovin dragons, they left Universal Enochian on steles for the Dyeus civilizations to learn. Enochian would continue to be spoken on Earth until the collapse of the Cenozoic Dyeus.

 

Because of the actions of the Star Sculptors in protecting the dreamworlds of countless extraterrestrial civilizations from the Vovin dragons, they and the lifeless, burning rock they called “Caosga” became famous throughout the universe. Though the Star Sculptors are pleased by the biosphere that now covers Caosga, what the universe at large knows and cares about about Earth is that the Star Sculptors rose from its flaming pits. Extraterrestrials are often quite disappointed to find that Earth is now covered in water and clouds and ice and people. On the positive side of things, this makes Earth rocks expensive mementos. Extraterrestrials will pay through the nose for verified Caosga rocks.

 

Worldsplinter

A worldsplinter is any stable extraspatial portal. It can be either intrauniversal (such as a portal from Earth to the Moon) or interuniversal (such as a portal from our universe to Willow-Wells). Worldsplinters are called splinters because they gradually connect fragments of two realities across a neutral medium such as the Blueprint or a portion of the Astral. This gradual connection is modeled on the Aeternums of the first sapiens and gives worldsplinters their noted stability. All three multiverse organizations (ARGO and the Warp and Weft Authorities) make use of world splinters.