Act 1

CNN News, August 5

Tampa Man Claims Power to Control Water

A man in Tampa, FL has joined the recent chain of unexplained phenomena, gaining attention online for what he describes as supernatural control over water. Richard Andrews, 31, posted a series of videos on August 3 showing this ability, and agreed to meet with CNN to demonstrate in person.

CNN reporters provided Andrews with a 20-gallon fish tank filled with water, and verified that it had not been tampered with. When Andrews waved his hands over the water, it rose out from the tank in a variety of shapes, including ones suggested by reporters. Andrews also demonstrated other forms of manipulation, such as the ability to spray water out from the tank, but was unable to retrieve water that had soaked into objects around it. According to Andrews, his power can only affect water that is sufficiently pure.

"I first did it Monday night," Andrews said. "Was in the shower, accidentally sent the spray away from me and all over the floor. When I figured out what happened, I did some messing around, trying to figure out how to control it. Once I was good at it, I had to show people. No one's been able to do this stuff before, not until like a week ago, and now it's popping up everywhere. I know some people are keeping secret about having powers, but screw that, I want to help get this stuff out into the open."

Analysis from CNN correspondents found no alternative explanations for the water's movement, or any other reason to doubt Andrews' claims about his abilities.

With more and more claims of similar "powers" holding up to scrutiny in recent weeks, increasing numbers of questions have been raised about larger-scale impacts of this phenomenon. Republican presidential nominee David Torch remarked Tuesday on Twitter that, if elected, he would ensure that the military recruits "the BEST superpowers" and makes use of them in combat. This has drawn a flurry of responses regarding possible interpretations or amendments to international law in applying it to military use of powers...

---

Private Chatroom, September 10

Peter: so you said your power was shooting lasers?

Cassandra: thats part of it. i think theres some other energy manipulation stuff i can do but i havent really figured out how yet

Cassandra: whats yours?

Peter: super strength and flight

Peter: so far the flying mostly means crashing into things

Peter: need to find a better place to practice

Cassandra: youre doing it inside?

Peter: I don't want to get spotted

Peter: I know some people have gone public but that sounds like such a bad idea

Peter: I don't want to end up in some registry, or give my boss an excuse to demand even more work

Peter: so it's nice to be able to actually talk to someone about it now

Cassandra: none of those registration bills have gone anywhere, right?

Peter: yeah not yet

Peter: congress is gridlocked and all that

Peter: but that won't last forever, and once the info's out there you can't take it back

Cassandra: true. i havent been super careful but im not gonna announce it or anything

Cassandra: hopefully the politicians get their shit together soon

Cassandra: finally go back to passing stuff thatll actually help people

Peter: they've gotta. republicans are gonna lose so many votes now that they've got this shithead dragging them down

---

CNN News, October 3

Stanford University Assesses Trends in Powers

On Saturday, Stanford University released a thorough review of "superpower" claims that have emerged in recent months. The assessment confirms widespread impressions that the first accurately recorded uses of these powers date to late July, and that the number of people with these capabilities has increased rapidly in the time since.

According to Stanford's findings, most verified power reports are from people between the ages of 20 and 40, with the number of substantiated reports diminishing further from that age range. The university found these reports to have occurred in at least 180 countries so far, and did not find evidence of powers being more likely to develop in some locations than others.

While some locations have had greater numbers of power reports than others, Stanford notes that most of this variation can be explained by differences in population between those areas and by differences in the spread of news about events in those regions. According to the university, controlling for those factors results in no significant correlation based on location.

Another frequent question about powers has been their origins and the possibility of common shared experiences leading up to their development. However, Stanford was unable to find any such commonalities, leaving the causes of the powers as uncertain as their mechanisms.

Due to the likelihood that many people with powers have not reported or verified them, Stanford could not determine an upper bound for the frequency that powers are appearing. However, the university estimated that there is likely at least a thousand new cases per month in the United States alone...

---

Private Chatroom, November 9

Lucas: is there any chance at a turnaround?

Lucas: like, if something gets recounted, then maybe...

Cassandra: i dont think so. sounds like nothings close enough to change

Cassandra: conway conceded the election last night

Toby: fucking hell

Toby: someone stab me so I wake up

Toby: or so I don't, I'll take either

Lucas: maybe before he can take office, he has a heart attack or something?

Peter: wouldn't even help. if he dies, price becomes president instead

Peter: who isn't a complete lunatic but that might be even worse

Peter: either way they go back to trashing the country any way they can

Peter: say goodbye to any progress on healthcare and climate action

Peter: and if they get a chance to go after roe v wade, they will

Cassandra: maybe itll finally be enough for people to stop voting republican

Peter: people said that last time too! and it turns out there were still enough FUCKING MORONS out there who'd listen to all the shit torch said and vote for him anyway!

Peter: so many people will do anything to shit on immigrants and poor people and whoever else, and now they've got control of the whole fucking government

Toby: so, hope for heart attacks for like, torch and price and a bunch of republican senators?

Lucas: and the house. speaker of the house is third in line for president

Cassandra: this server is secure, right?

Peter: yeah everything's encrypted. made sure we'd be safe to talk about powers and stuff here

Cassandra: thats good. i dont want us to get in trouble or anything, for saying stuff like that

Toby: it's all hypothetical, anyway

Lucas: hmm. speaking of hypotheticals

Lucas: there's lots of people like us with powers now

Lucas: what if some of them decided to, like

Lucas: do something about it?

Peter: they'd have to kill a LOT of people

Toby: how many?

Toby: again, completely hypothetical

Peter: probably enough to get control of both houses of congress, at minimum

Cassandra: oh man haha

Peter: let me check the numbers on that

---

CNN News, December 9

Warning: The following video contains graphic content.

A cellphone video shows President-Elect David Torch giving a speech, from the viewpoint of the crowd filling the room in front of him. The camera shakes as a crash fills the room, and part of the ceiling collapses. Four people in costumes drop through the hole, two of them floating.

Most people in the room start to run for cover, including Torch. The phone's holder backs up slightly, but keeps recording. Near Torch, men in suits reach for their guns. Before they can fire, a woman who dropped to the floor, wearing a bright purple and yellow costume, reaches a hand forward. A wave of purple light spreads out from her, filling the room in moments. The guards take aim and pull the triggers, but their guns only emit purple sparks.

Two of Torch's guards begin to use powers of their own. One man swells in size, shifting into a muscle-covered giant. The other opens his mouth and lets out a beam of blue light, freezing the water out of the air it touches. It strikes the purple and yellow woman in the side, she doubles over in pain as frost begins to cover her.

One of the floating invaders, a man wearing a red costume sporting a yellow H, flies towards Torch. The giant swats a hand at the flying man, but he darts out of the way, grabs Torch, and lifts him upward.

"WE WILL NOT GO BACKWARDS!" the flying man shouts.

Using his left arm to keep the struggling Torch in place, the man draws back his right hand, forms it into a fist, and levels it at the back of Torch's head.

The camera stops following the flying man, dropping to the floor below him. A cracking noise comes from out of view, and blood splatters down from above. Torch's body drops down, a fist-sized hole through his skull.

Shouts erupt from the fleeing crowd. The camera moves, finding vice president-elect Price, as a laser strikes the guard standing in front of him. The guard drops, and the next laser burns a hole through Price's chest.

The camera moves to the laser's source, the same woman who'd released the purple light. The giant guard has two huge hands wrapped around the laser woman's torso, and squeezes. With a snap, she falls limp, and the purple light fades.

The view finds the flying man again, his hand now dripping red and gray. He speaks again, not appearing to address anyone in the room, but as if he's speaking into a headset. "Targets eliminated. We lost Pulse. Team A retreating."

The man flies back towards the hole in the ceiling. Before he reaches it, gunshots ring out. Blood bursts from the flying man's back, and he falls, crashing to the floor.

Guards advance, pointing their once-again working guns at the fallen man. Lying on his stomach, he turns to look towards the body of the laser woman. The two appear to be the only intruders left, the other two have disappeared.

"We did it, Cass," the man gasps out. "Things will be different, now."

The man stops moving, and the video ends.

While this occurred, a second group of powered assassins attacked Republican legislators in Congress, setting off a series of explosions that left many legislators dead or in critical condition. In the aftermath, two individuals were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the second group.

Upon arrest, Toby Williams and Lucas Baker confessed to participating in the bombing of Congress, but refused to provide information on any assassins who may have escaped. According to Williams and Baker, the organizer of the pair of attacks was Peter Myers - who they refer to as Hercules - the powered assassin who died after killing president-elect David Torch...

---

Several months later

I grabbed my bag and got up from my desk. Finally, time to get out of here.

As I made my way out of the office, my boss met my eyes. "Isaac!" he called out. "You sure look excited to leave, huh?"

Dammit, that wasn't supposed to show. "Nah, just thinking about what a nice day it's been." I gave him my best smile. "See you Monday!"

He nodded, looking satisfied by that. When I reached the door, I let the expression drop from my face. Choke on glass, asshole.

I left the building and headed for the bus stop. We could have had trains here instead, but no, Cincinnati's subway system had been abandoned halfway through construction because people liked cars so much. They sure weren't as fond of them anymore, with gas prices skyrocketing and repairs getting increasingly inconvenient.

At the bus stop, I flopped down onto a bench and thumbed at the six-pointed star on my necklace. According to the schedule, the bus was five minutes away. As if anything had been running on time in the months since everything went to hell.

I unlocked my phone to check for messages. My friends from college had been talkative.

carlos: then two days after i replace that tire, ANOTHER one goes flat

carlos: so im paying for that on top of how much gas costs now

Hana Needs Coffee: damn

carlos: i know some of yall have given up on cars but i dont have an alternative

carlos: so, like, fuck

madison (they/them): god, we just hit a year from when the first powers showed up

CROCODILE PUNCHER: wait really?

madison (they/them): yeah this article was the first news of them. july 28

Superpowers Real? Woman Turns Invisible at Supermarket

Hana Needs Coffee: that one was never confirmed, was it?

Hana Needs Coffee: took a few more days for anything concrete

madison (they/them): considering the timing it was PROBABLY real. and people are saying it counts so idgaf

A year, huh. I spoke up.

Isaac (he/they): a year since powers started showing up, and eight months since some idiots used them to set off a civil war

madison (they/them): yeah... it seemed cool at first though

madison (they/them): thinking about the kind of powers we might get and stuff

CROCODILE PUNCHER: tbf if it wasn't THOSE idiots it would have been some other idiots

CROCODILE PUNCHER: world turned into a powder keg the moment the universe decided to start handing out magic by cosmic lottery

Isaac (he/they): that too. tl;dr fuck powers

madison (they/them): you guys are depressing lmao

I mean, fair, but still.

Peter "Hercules" Myers and his team had succeeded in their goal, sort of. They killed the newly elected president and VP before they could take office, along with enough Republican members of Congress to take away their majority. In the aftermath, Republicans argued for quickly arranging special elections, so they could elect a new red Speaker of the House to fill the line of succession in time to take the presidency in January. Democrats argued that filling all the seats that quickly wasn't viable. Neither party was willing to accept the other taking control in such a chaotic time.

They didn't get the chance to resolve the dispute. Once it was clear that people with the right powers could just murder any politicians they didn't like, it became a race to see who could do it better. Before long, all the major politicians were either dead or in hiding. By now it was impossible to properly govern anything much bigger than a city, and most of the people running those cities were capes acting as superpowered warlords.

Apparently lots of other countries were facing their own messes, but I hadn't been staying on top of news from them. Keeping track of the Formerly-United States of America was enough trouble.

"Bus isn't coming!" a woman near me called out, bringing me back to the present. She continued, looking at her own phone. "Some issue with the route. No word on how long it'll take."

Ugh. Couldn't even be surprised, things just kept falling apart these days. Not enough funding or coordination to keep everything working. It was lucky enough that we weren't having issues with phone service this week.

I pocketed my phone and got back to my feet. It'd be a 40-minute walk back to my apartment, no sense in putting it off.

Cincinnati wasn't the worst place to be these days, I reminded myself as I walked. Being a big city meant we had a lot of resources in one place, so it was easier to keep things decently functional than in more sparse locations. But being in Ohio also meant we were fenced in. Liberal "bluecapes" had control of the city, but most of the region was in the hands of conservative "redcapes".

People had tried, briefly, to classify powered folks as "superheroes" or "supervillains". That quickly fell apart, due to a lack of agreement about which ones were which. But capes had been forming their own loose coalitions. Here, those tended to have roots in the Democratic and Republican parties of yesteryear, and so the terms bluecape and redcape emerged. Unaffiliated supers were usually known as rogues.

Most supers didn't actually wear capes, so the real takeaway was that words are dumb.

After about 15 minutes of walking, I heard something. Shouting, from up ahead. People started running my way, rushing into buildings-

Around us, sirens went off. Shit. It's a cape fight.

I ran for the nearest store - a sandwich shop - to take shelter. People inside were heading into a back room, and I followed, joining about two dozen others. The lack of windows meant less risk of getting hit, but also no way to see what was going on. We waited, with only the sounds of impacts and sirens from outside to tell us what was going on.

I wasn't even sure who the attackers were. In the eastern part of Cincinnati, the closest threat was the group of redcapes that controlled Hamilton, but last I'd heard, we had a ceasefire with them. Still, cape politics could change fast. Was this what caused the bus issues?

We heard another crash - this time from somewhere above us. A creaking sound followed, and cracks began to spread down the walls.

Shouts erupted, and people started scrambling towards the exit. Someone pushed past an older man, who fell to the ground and struggled to get up. I offered him my right arm, helping him up and keeping him steady as we followed the others.

As we moved back through the shop, the creaking got worse, and bits of ceiling started to drop down. I could catch up, if I left him behind. But I don't want that on my conscience. Better to just do my best and-

Just as we got outside, everything shook. Something crashed down onto us, sending us stumbling forward and pinning my left leg. The old man collapsed next to me, unconscious.

Fuck.

I tried to wrench my foot free of the wreckage behind me, but the chunks of ceiling pinning it were wedged together - I couldn't find a way to move them. The building seemed to have stopped falling apart for the moment, but... I glanced up. The shop's sign was broken halfway off the wall, hanging jagged metal above us.

I looked around for help. A figure jumped down from a nearby building - a burly man with a pickaxe, hard hat, and orange jacket resembling a miner's uniform. Under the jacket, he wore a dark grey bodysuit that covered his face and hands. That had to be Nitroforce, one of Hamilton's redcapes, which was the opposite of helpful.

From what I'd heard, Nitroforce's strikes could send out violent vibrations, to break apart stone and other objects. Which meant he was likely the one who'd destroyed the sandwich shop. And some other nearby buildings, that showed signs of new damage.

As I tried again to pull my leg out, Nitroforce had his eyes on the roofs above. A burst of silver light shone near him, and another figure jumped down - this one, I recognized instantly. She had a suit of sleek metal armor with a similar bodysuit visible through the gaps, and an energy cannon strapped to her right forearm. This was Artemis, one of Cincinnati's bluecapes. On my side, supposedly.

The bodysuits were nemenon, a sturdy fabric that resisted bullets ridiculously well. Only tech capes could create it, but enough of them had learned how to make it that by now, most capes incorporated it into their outfits. But only people with the right connections could access it.

Artemis aimed her energy cannon at Nitroforce. Before she could fire again, Nitroforce raised his hand and noise ripped through the air. Artemis jerked and her shot went wide, the ray of silver light colliding with the wall behind her target.

Nitroforce leaped towards the sandwich shop where I was stuck. As he landed, he swung his pickaxe into what was left of its front wall. Another rumble went through the building, and I glanced back up at the sign above me. You fucking asshole.

Artemis glanced at me, and for a moment I wondered if she was going to try to help. But I should have known better. The next moment, she was back to firing at Nitroforce. Why couldn't it have been someone who would take the bait?

I tried one more time to free my leg, but everything was still stuck. Hearing the sign sway again, I curled up as best as I could, and tried to hope for the-

BOOM! Rubble crashed down around me, onto me. Something sharp hit my back, stabbed into me, through me. Every breath, every impact became agony.

I didn't want to look down to see if it was as bad as it felt. At least I won't have to worry about it for long. A chill went through me, my vision started to blur, and the feeling in my legs started to fade.

A voice, like a woman whispering into my head. You're not going to die like this, are you?

I gasped, from pain, and... something else. Something inside me twisted, then struggled to burst out. My body stretched, gave way, and...

I was free. Rubble fell away from me, along with some sort of ash-like powder. The rod that had impaled me was snapped in half. And I felt... different. Bigger. Hungrier.

I got my hands under myself and pushed myself back up. Were they still hands? They were pitch-black and animal-like, now, bearing giant claws. When I got to my feet, I was standing much taller than before - at least eight feet total.

The old man was still on the ground below me. Didn't look like he was bleeding. Hopefully he was... relatively okay.

Whatever was going on, some sort of power had to be responsible. It had saved me, but... something was wrong. There was a void inside me, an emptiness I needed to fill. Needed to feed.

Artemis and Nitroforce had stopped running around. They stood a few car lengths apart in the street - Nitroforce to my left, Artemis to my right - looking between each other and me. Seemed like they weren't sure who would act first. My eyes settled on Nitroforce, and fury filled me.

YOU DID THIS TO ME.

I leaped towards Nitroforce, slashing my right hand down at him. He jumped back, swinging his pickaxe into the road. As I landed at the spot where he'd been, the ground below me exploded, showering me with rubble. It was distracting, but it didn't hurt.

I lunged for him again. I wasn't sure how this body worked, really, but I had instincts about how to move. This time, silver light shone from the side, and my right hip burned as a laser swept across both of us.

Fuck off, Artemis! I'm helping you!

Nitroforce's pickaxe intercepted my next claw swipe. His power radiated down my arm, throwing me back. I tried to figure out a way to talk - to tell Artemis to stop shooting at me - but my body wouldn't cooperate. My mind was barely cooperating.

"RAAAAAUGH!" I roared.

Another blast of silver light hit us. It was painful, but Nitroforce seemed more bothered than I was. I recovered first, slashing towards his face. He raised his pickaxe again - not fast enough to block properly, and my claws collided with his right hand. The pickaxe went flying, along with two of his fingers.

Nitroforce stumbled back, howling in pain. But he was no longer the most interesting thing in front of me. My eyes went to where his fingers had fallen, and something told me what I had to do.

I dove towards the fingers, snatched them up from the road, and tossed them into my mouth.

I felt a bit of my hunger recede, felt a bit more... whole. This is it - this is how I can fix this.

I just need the rest of him.

Artemis was turning away from us, distracted by something else. I didn't know what, and I didn't care. Nitroforce ran the other way, towards a side street, and I charged after him.

I caught up just around the corner. As I reached him, Nitroforce stomped the ground next to a stop sign, shattering the pavement it was stuck in, and pulled it free. With a yell, he swung it towards me.

I ducked out of the way, then slashed through the sign's support rod. The upper half fell to the ground - I grabbed it and swung it into his chest, sending him sprawling into a parked car.

Dropping the sign, I grabbed Nitroforce with both hands, lifting him off the ground to match my new height. I wasn't sure if he was still breathing - but it didn't matter.

I opened my mouth, now wide enough to fit his entire head inside. My teeth closed on both sides of his neck, and I bit down.

I swallowed, trying not to dwell on the taste or think about what I was eating. My body knew it was food, and that was enough. A few bites later, I was finished, and the hunger and emptiness began to fade.

The power that had burst out of me started to... settle, to fold back up into place. My vision blurred again, all my senses went fuzzy for a moment. When they cleared, it was over.

I was myself again. Or... was I? I was closer to my old shape and no longer eight feet tall, but I still felt bigger than normal. My clothing felt different, too - I glanced down and saw the orange of Nitroforce's miner outfit, as intact as it had been before I'd chewed him apart. Did I really just... eat someone? And I didn't have that monster form's ridiculous strength, but I could feel something else. The power to send out waves of energy, to shatter anything around me.

What the fuck is going on?

I needed to get out of here, and before Artemis could get back. She was enough trouble even before I'd body-jacked a fucking redcape.

I ran off, in search of someplace to hide.

---

???

The woman shut her eyes, concentrating on the target location. When she opened them, they showed a street with signs of battle.

Not quite the spot she'd wanted to project her consciousness to, but close. She willed her ephemeral form forward, floating through people and structures in her path. No one noticed her.

She could feel the change in the air around her, the impact of the power that had been used. People without powers wouldn't have picked up on it, probably even the people involved in the fight weren't sensitive enough. But it was there.

She floated closer to where it had happened, by the broken street sign. She concentrated, feeling out for traces of the power, assessing its capabilities.

There we go, she thought, feeling a smile form. This will do.