I slipped out of class, listening to my classmates babble on about how cool it was that WE were the ones next to the Office of Hero's Affairs, being able to see heroes... In their cars, commuting to the Office for their day jobs, or maybe even storming in so they can file a complaint. With the benefit of hindsight, it was kind of ridiculous, but when one day they build an office building right next to a school in a spring break flat, you're definitely going to attract some eyes. Even more so if suddenly people can fly and control bees and other ridiculous stuff, and those people are the kinds of people that come by.
That being said, that's not why I'm here today. I've been to the OHA a lot, so even though this is before I was registered and started to spend a majority of my waking hours in it or a similar building, I think I'd still be able to visit, just as long as they haven't changed the layout too much. Its relatively easy to navigate my way outside from my starting point, a memory of my girlfriend at the time breaking up with me. Even if my actual memory of the place is a bit fuzzy, the school is relatively small, so not much can go wrong. The halls are loud and filled with people, but the sights and sound range from nondescript forms to entirely blank spaces in the form of a person. The only thing that isn't fluff are the few friends, bullies, teachers, and other things that I've vividly remembered, and even then I can't be exactly sure the minutia is correct. Either way, the broad strokes of everything is correct and readable, and that's all that matters.
A quick open and close of a few doors, a hop over a fence past some burly Neanderlings-not an official term, just what I call them-and I'm into the compound. I'm not looking for anything in particular, I just thought it'd be interesting to see what the Office was up to in its early days. A panel near the entrance, on the inside of one of the secretary's reads "RM002, 0900-1200", which is code for: meeting in room 2 from 9am to noon. A good start, but I'll probably have to sit through a few meetings to find something interesting.
I sit in room 2 until the meeting starts, there are some heroes here that are older than me, and a few I can't make out or hear, probably left the association or died before I joined. From what I can gather, it's a meeting about hiring more staffers for the Office, and opening more locations across the nation. At this point in time the Global Heroes Coalition doesn't exist, and won't for another... 3 years? Its hard to remember when you can't check the internet, you have to randomly stumble onto someone looking at it on their phone or something. Side note: It is supremely weird to not be able to see someone's face but be able to see their phone screen in nearly perfect detail. It's like something out of Mirror, Mirror.
After sitting through a few more administrative meetings, the world starts to fade away around me until it resembles the blank void I started this journey in, looks like my memory ended. Oh well, I guess I'll go see something else. Just then, something hit me like a truck running through a red light. Why the fuck didn't I check out what was happening around when I died? My power obviously works, so what's stopping me from seeing my most recent memory again, just through a slightly different pair of eyes?
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A building sits around me. I'm in my chair typing away. Dreadfully normal for the day I die, but to be fair I don't know it yet. A notification pops up on my monitor.
VILLAIN ALERT
VILLAIN NAME: ???
VILLAIN CLASS: Anti-Utility
VILLAIN RANK: Bystander
A semi-normal occurrence, some people use powers for evil, and nearly anyone can become or be revealed as a villain at all times, so we have sophisticated detection systems in place. I know we take in what exactly they're doing to form the class, but it beats me how they're able to semi-accurately judge rank in less than a second without always knowing exactly who it is.
This time, its someone with earth-themed powers digging out the foundation to the building from underneath it. We don't have time to send out a strike team, but by the time we realize that, not all of us have escaped, including myself. In about a minute the 5 story office building topples down, and I'm crushed under the rubble. I can't remember exactly how long it took me to die, but seeing your own body being dragged into a- underground tunnel??? Wait what? I thought it was supposed to go black as soon as my memory gave out? I follow myself being dragged by whoever this mysterious villain is into a chamber. Sitting next to them is a familiar face, or at least someone who looks like them.
"Hello hero", they say in my direction, not the me-lying-on-the-ground me, the me-standing-10ft-beside-him me "I hope you'll excuse the rude gesture, but I needed to send a message" I yelp in surprise, and they open their eyes. Slowly they turn away and speak into their wrist. "Tell Goliath that the deed is done, and that Qi takes the credit."
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"The Supercession Nobody Talks About", anonymous forum post, Dated 3.080AS, Author "saikoupsykos", translated from Japanese
If you've been on the net for long enough, you'll start to hear whispers of something more. Supernatural phenomenon, underground organization, conspiracies. I'm not here to tell you what's true or not, but I am here to tell you that there's one you've probably overlooked.
Basic etymology for those that somehow haven't pieced it together.
Supercede: replace something, often times a position, organization, or in this case, way of life.
-cession: the action of giving or transferring, ceding, if you would.
And of course the obvious one,
Super: good in some ways, also carrying the cultural context of "super heroes", a term used in speculative fiction like how sci-fi used to speculate about the technology we now use on a daily basis.
"Supercession", then, would mean something akin to "global change in way of life", or in our case, "the advent of super heroes".
Now for some history for those that have been living under a rock.
Around 5 years before the Supercession (BS) nothing happened.
1 year BS, nothing happened.
6 months BS, nothing happened.
I think you're getting the point.
Nothing.
Happened.
People strive for answers as to why things happen so much that they fail to consider the possibility that nothing is the reason for something. Probabilistically speaking multiple one in a trillion events happen every day, we just don't see their effects. Modern science (and magic!) hasn't and probably can't fully explain everything we see in the world. Well, that's just the prevailing theory.
You see, something did happen. 1 month before, some of the leading members of the Psychic Underground, a cult based in [not gonna die today, thank you] mysteriously died. No one picked up on the story because the cult covered it up. In fact, everyone who looked into their deaths mysteriously died as well, and it probably would've gone on like that a little bit longer but, well, you know what happened.
But that's not all, a similar story was happening in all the majorly developed psychic cults. That is, all the ones with majorly developed foresight divisions.
