It’s hard to imagine a world without heroes.
Throughout all of human history heroes have existed. To vanquish gods and demons alike. To save the collapse of cities. To rise and to fall. They have existed. Forever. In every country. Across the world. Heroes.
And like all heroes there are villains. Villains of such power and magnitude that it took a dozen heroes to take the villain down. Villains whose name strike fear into the hearts of all those who exist today.
In modern society, we know these villains and heroes, throughout all of history, to be derived from twenty mystical powers bestowed to humanity. Of the twenty that were said to have existed, only eighteen remain intact.
For most of history, heroes were thought to be born or chosen by the gods. Babies who awoke powers when they were strong enough to do so. And when they died their power was gone. Considering that most heroes lived longer than the human lifespan, unless killed by an outside force, powers were thought to jump and to change hands by birth and death alone. Because most cultures did not communicate, these heroes and powers were not examined too intensely. Different names were given to the different heroes, based on the language of the people they were born to and the power they were given.
It was not until global expansion and the year 1894 where experts began to research legends and the existing heroes of the time, and realized that the heroes were the same. The same powers bounced across the earth in varying degrees of power. By 1952, much about heroes was known. How to kill them. How and when they were born. How to identify them. How to track their powers. Much of the decades between 1894 and 1952 were wrought in war as greedy humans killed their pillars of power, and each other in an attempt to control the world. Yet, by 1952, the Federation of United Nations, or F.U.N., had made it so that the world was unified and conflict was “diminished.” The only question remaining about Heroes became, how did they get their powers? Greedy people with greedy hearts, searched for the answer.
Due to global expansion, and technological advancement, heroes were seen primarily in three ways. One, as something to profit from. Two, as a nuisance to public growth and the future. Three, outdated figures of myth who were no longer needed.
Deep in the caverns of Antartica the final answer was found. Discovered by Kennedy Saxon December 21st, 1955, the twenty Apex stones were discovered. Each a massive stone, glowing, a sort of pillar of natural excellency, the twenty pillars were moved from Antartica, to Greenwich London, and then to the Independent Nations of the United Americas, specifically to New York, home of F.U.N.
In testing the stones, many things were discovered. One, that by touching the stone, nothing would happen. Two, that they were nearly indestructible. Three, when a hero would touch the stone they’d lose their power and the subsequent person who touched it would then receive that power. It was realized that unless another touched the stone, the power would not be passed on, at all. In principal, this is where the Hero Exchange Protocol would come come to manifest. However, before The Hero Group could be established, humanity must face her darkest hour.
After discovering that powers could be stripped from the heroes that had them, F.U.N. declared all heroes to give up their powers. There was minimal outrage. For what had the heroes done for modern society? In the wars that they fought in, more casualties were created. In others they were hunted and could do no good. Most wished for the heroes to disappear, but the cultures that deeply held to the power holders and fought for their powers to remain.
In time, most of the twenty power holders gave up their powers. The ones who did not, we know today as: Impervious, Rain, Ms. Earth, and the two lost powers formerly known as Genesis and Omni. It was April 15th, 1974, F.U.N. was searching for the last five holders of their powers when Sophia Cyrus, Rosen Knox, and Lucas Moreau, walked into F.U.N. headquarters and became the world’s greatest super villains the world has ever known. Initially intending to become heroes, the three touched more than one stone, resulting in a corruption of the powers and a manifestation of what today is known as blackening. This marks the beginning of what is known as the Black Hero Conflict.
The three gained three powers each. The six remaining stones were captured, and the powers given to corrupt individuals around the world. Thus began the league of villains who terrorized the world for a decade. At first it was known that the stones were taken, not that the powers had been taken. Wars began to spread against F.U.N. regulations, but it was Impervious who first encountered Rosen Knox, the first confirmed super villain, known today as his “hero name” Bellweather. Upon the confirmation that there were three new “heroes,” Bellweather, Penny Bloodhope, and Executor, the world fell into chaos.
Between the years 1974 and 1978 there were dozens of confirmed killings between the dark circles from the passing of the six crystals and their powers. In this time the Heroes and, what we today call, Super Villains clashed numerous times. However, due to the three Super Villains having received three powers, the Heroes were no match for them. By 1979 F.U.N. was accommodating the Super Villains, and hope seemed to be lost.
Genesis and Omni, along with Kennedy Saxon’s son, Bradford Saxon, were three members of the elite team that retrieved one of the six missing stones, effectively making Bradford Saxon into the sixth true hero of humanity. While he never used a hero name, his legacy lives on today in the hero Saxon, who has inherited his power in the modern era.
The year of black flames, 1980, rolled around and by this time all of the five remaining stones had been located, but not retrieved. The Heroes had planned their all out attack on the Super Villains who had enslaved much of Europe, Africa, and Asia in their control. The most noteworthy of these battles was The Battle of the Atlantic (which decimated costal cities, in the wave backlash of the battle) The Drusian War (which eliminated life in North East Asia) and The Battle for Earth, where Executor, the most bloody of the three Villains, was taken down.
While it is assumed that Executor was killed in The Battle for Earth, the fact is that Executor was nearly killed and his body transferred so that his powers could be stripped from him.
The year of black blood followed in 1981, as the bloodiest year in human history. While the year before had experienced the wiping of costal towns and cities and the elimination of life in the North East Asia. It is predicted that more people died in 1981 than the year previous, and known to be the most bloody. There were riots, mass murders, the burning of cities, bombings, and the scattering of civilization away from major cities. In this year, four of the missing stones were taken back, and their powers retrieved. However Bellweather and Penny Bloodhope killed Impervious, as well as Ms. Earth. Bradford Saxon was corrupted by the blackening, from Penny Bloodhope attacking him and infecting him. With it came the most tragic moment in human history for heroes.
The Battle for F.U.N. broke out, on the eve of Christmas 1981, Saxon, who was blackened, gained two of Executor’s old powers, thus becoming a new Super Villain. Genesis, Rain, and Omni fought them trying to bring Saxon back, and in the chaos the Apex stones for Genesis and Omni were nearly destroyed. Both heroes were tragically killed, but in their last act of power, the two were able to plant the final seeds of hope into Bradford Saxon.
1982, is commonly known as the year of black smoke. The year did not amount for much in physical battles but mental ones. The Villains had won. The Heroes were over. The future was looking bleak. For the next two years, society sustained itself on the crumbs and whispers of hope that came in the shadows. Of the heroes who were gathering their strength. Of the possibility of a better future.
1985 and 1986 were deemed the years of silver rain. Marked by the last great battles of heroes and the creation of The Hero Group, this two year period is the moment where humanity’s progression was changed. Between 1982 and 1985, the remaining heroes banned together to protect the remaining stones, as well as to try one last offensive against the Villainous Three. This group, had no name but was headed by Kennedy Saxon and Harper Dubois.
Harper Dubois, daughter of Kennedy Saxon and sister to Bradford Saxon, was the brains of the operation, working around the clock, despite having a son, in order to save the world. In 1981, she, her father, and son were three of the only survivors of The Battle for F.U.N. having been saved by Saxon, in his blinded and confused state. It is for this reason that his family still believed in him, and that Genesis and Omni had done something to him. They had transferred all the Apex stones, even the shattered Genesis and Omni stones, to a new facility and protected them.
Her son, Maximilian Dubois, had been eight in 1981, only having known the world of terror and darkness, wishing for a brighter world. It was not until 2053, that certain truths were brought to light in regards to the night of 1981. These truths, while of little importance at the time, are the final piece and saving grace of humanity.
1981, Christmas Eve, Maximilian Dubois, 8, was traveling through the chamber where the Apex stones for Heroes were kept when the Villainous Three attacked. As the world crumbled around him, he hid himself in an effort to survive, watching as his heroes were killed before his eyes. Saxon, who had been fighting Genesis and Omni, was attacked one final time by the two of them and went into a daze. In his daze he nearly shattered the Genesis and Omni stones. He killed everyone he could, but saw Maximilian and fled. He would later do the same for the rest of the F.U.N. headquarters only stopping when seeing Harper Dubois and Kennedy Saxon. Genesis and Omni, who had not died, were helped by Maximilian. But there was little the child could do. Both realized that if they died, their powers would be lost to humanity forever, and the final key they had left Saxon to break free and perhaps save the world, would be lost with them.
In an attempt to save the world. Omni convinced Maximilian to help Omni and Genesis to their shattered stones. The two touched their stones and much of their original power was lost, save what little could remain in the shattered stones. With his dying breath, Omni explained the plan to Maximilian, hoping the boy could give the word to someone else who would be able to use his power. Genesis told Maximilain that there was a chance that the world could be saved, and that she had created a facility to hold the stones that could only be activated by her power. She warned him that once the Villains knew their powers remained, they’d do anything to destroy them.
While his heroes died, Maximilian touched both stones. While touching more than one stone corrupted an individual, because much of their power had been lost, the Omni and Genesis stones could give their power, but only together was their power worth anything remotely useful. And because neither stone glowed when later found, the world thought the powers lost. It is speculated that it was not the intention of Omni or Genesis to have this small child take the powers, however he did so anyway and hid the secret for the majority of his life, to ensure that if such a problem came again, it could be resolved.
Flash forward to 1985. Maximilian is 12 years old, and the final battle is to come. The Last Great War of Heroes, or the First Last Battle, was fought with much of the destruction of years prior. It was Four Versuses eight, and the plight for peace seemed to be ending. The Great War of Heroes began with the Villainous Three starting the fight. Saxon and Penny Bloodhope traveled to take down Kennedy, Harper, and the tactics for the heroes as Bellweather fought the others, trying to take them down and to incapacitate them. Most were childish newbies, and it was worth noting that many were not expected to survive.
Upon arriving at the Hero headquarters, Saxon was confronted by Maximilian, and the final key was used. Maximilian, who could only use his powers so well, convinced his uncle to help him. What should have been a single sided massacre, became the downfall of Penny Bloodhope, who was dragged to the three stones of her powers and forced to release the powers to them. Saxon, knowing that he could not hold on with the blackening, gave up one of his powers, realizing that he had to keep at least two if he wanted to take down Bellweather. Penny Bloodhope, Sophia Cyrus once more, was incarcerated and later died in prison from unknown causes.
With a stronger control over his uncle’s mind, Maximilian helped Saxon with a secret communication device that he had invented. Bellweather was able to take down a few of the heroes, and Saxon arrived. The Last, Last Battle in the The Last Great War of Heroes was fought between Saxon and Bellweather, spanning no more than an hour, and resulting in the deaths of both Saxon and Bellweather for the whole world to see.
Over the course of the next two years. The last of the taken stones was retrieved, and all children with signs of the powers were taken to the F.U.N. facilities to meet their stones, that were transferred there, and their powers were taken. The world wanted no more heroes. But in all voids, darkness began again and without support, F.U.N. faced complete and total collapse.
In 1986, Harper Dubois proposed the Hero Group to F.U.N. as an elite group of the eighteen powers that would be used to pacify and save the world from destruction. The people selected as heroes could be any person at the age of 25 who succeeded in passing multiple rigorous tests of intellect, skill, and ability, pairing them to one of the eighteen powers, that they would be best suited to use the full potential of. These heroes would reign for ten to fifteen years before they would be made to return their powers and a new generation would take up the mantle. In the event a hero died or lost their ability to perform their duty to their highest ability, they would be replaced as immediately as they could be. Thus would be known as the Hero Exchange Protocol.
The Hero Group was ratified in November of 1986.
For the first decade, the heroes were wrought with difficulties. Keeping the Exchange Protocol Candidates to their proper specifications, public trust, power learning, each posed a new and difficult problem for the Hero Group.
By the time that Maximilian Dubois was twenty-five, however, he and his mother were able to come up with the exact necessary conditions to ensure the Protocol’s success. By thirty, Maximilian had invented multiple new inventions of note to help heroes and the world, as well as having attained his law degree and PHD in Hero Physics. Maximilian became the first official CEO of the Hero Group, taking complete control over the group that would flourish under his control. While many suspected him a genius, none knew that his success in controlling the heroes, identifying problem candidates, and mastery over their powers, came from his own powers granted by the Genesis and Omni stones.
That is, however, until Rosalie Adair, 25, became a candidate for the Hero Exchange Protocol in 2036, approximately four generations later from the original 1986 Heroes.
So this turned out a lot longer than I was expecting it to become. I had this dream on 03/21/2020, that basically followed this plot, but in the Rosalie years. This is split into two parts. Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 is the history. Part 2 is going to be the story of Rosalie as it pertains to the dream I had. I know that this story speaks to a lot of other super hero stories, but IDK it just seemed like fun to write it out.
MM
Marlena Marie 