behind the mask

It was 1986, the Cold War between the national superpowers was still raging. A young geneticist by the name of Bernard Harvey developed what he thought would be the deciding factor for the United States, the ammunition to put the USA as the only global superpower on earth. It was something he called the Catalyst Serum. Upon having the serum injected into the bloodstream, it would unlock a portion of the brain that human beings couldn't normally access. This caused the development of powers that were incomprehensible at the time, anything from enhanced physical abilities, energy manipulation or a vast array of other amazing, nearly godlike abilities. Each person it was tested on displayed a new, unique power, seemingly completely random and unable to be predicted. 

However, the serum was unstable. Either the body accepted the serum and begin producing it almost naturally, or it rejected the serum, causing a painful, agonizing death. An unheard of 90% of the volunteers died when injected with the original Catalyst Serum. 

The remaining survivors possessed powers that proved uncontrollable and dangerous at times. Five years were spent trying to perfect the serum. But when the Cold War ended in 1991, so did the Catalyst experiment. There were 120 surviving test subjects, or Anomalies had they had been called. These Anomalies were trained soldiers, vetted and trusted by the government, and were allowed to return to their homes and live a normal life. 

What the government couldn't predict was that the serum was able to be passed down to the Anomaly's children. Babies were being born with powers unlike anything the world could imagine. The government went to work on a cover up, trying to capture and contain any new Anomalies.

This era was known as the Shadow Wars. The government was fighting against their own creation, and trying to keep the general populace in the dark. It wasn't till 2001 that a man named Troy James, known to the general public as Thanatos, appeared. He possessed the ability to absorb the life energy of any living thing around him, and could effectively kill people with a touch. He could then take that energy and instill it in any corpse, effectively raising the dead. With his army of undead he was able to lay siege to the White House. The seige lasted for four days before finally being repulsed, but it was too late. The secret was out. The U.S. did take back the White House and capture Troy James. Within the year they proceeded to make a quarantine zone, relocating all known Anomalies to the southern United States and the small city of Merridale. The countryside around it was quickly built into shanty towns, camps to house the incoming influx of Anomalies. 

A new government agency was formed to maintain order. It was known as the Anomaly Control Department, or ACD. A large base and a state of the art prison facility were built in the center of the town, and were stocked with the latest advancements in military tech. The once modest town quickly turned into a prison town for a problem that the U.S. obviously had no idea what to do with. 

Several uprising groups sprang up, both from the normal human population, and the Anomalies, protesting the taking of basic human rights from the Anomalies. Not all these groups were law abiding and peaceful. The staunchest line of defense for Anomaly rights is an underground group known as Halo. Very little is known about this group as they seem to stay in the shadows and out of sight. They only striking when they have an upper hand, and seemingly have very precise control over their powers despite them being dampened by the city-wide field. With such a volatile mixture of people and conditions it is very apparent that conflict is sure to arise. The question is, where will you fall when everything blows up?