Ebb
Energized Blood Bullet - "EBB"
The one weapon the clandestine group SYNAI has in its war against superhumans. Emitting an energy upon a frequency than cancels out the powers of its targets, EBB is the one weapon they have against telekinetics, magnetizers and a host of superhuman criminals working to destroy the world.
The one weapon the clandestine group SYNAI has in its war against superhumans. Emitting an energy upon a frequency than cancels out the powers of its targets, EBB is the one weapon they have against telekinetics, magnetizers and a host of superhuman criminals working to destroy the world.
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SYNAI's primary duties are to take down those people exhibiting powers and using them for ill purpose. Thieves with the ability to phase between walls. Murderers who can kill without laying a hand on people. Con artists with the gift of absolute charisma.
SYNAI is currently working on an entirely electronic based version of energy disruption that would negate villainous powers, but for now they're forced to rely on the constant cloning and use of Stella Cells, carried in a blood formula in the tips of their bullets. The energy exhibited makes them immune to interruption by various forms of powers such as telekinesis. Upon impact, the tip of the casing bursts apart, releasing the Stella Cells into the body and negating the villain's powers for up to several hours as the blood filters into their system. This allows enough time to put the culprits into specialized holding cells.
The walls of SYNAI throb with a constant stream of mass produced Stella Cells in order to suppress the use of superhuman abilities while within the walls of the facility.
Maybe the blood needs an electrical charge that can't be feasibly provided on a long term basis?
Maybe that's one of the functions of their guns. The firing mechanism creates the electrical current necessary to oh-so briefly charge th blood in the tip of the bullet, thereby generating the bullet's anti-power properties.
And what about these Stella Cells? Who was Stella? A mutant too?
Then the really dangerous powers began to manifest, and a classification system became necessary to track those in the population who were dangerous and who were not. A distinction was made between those with lethal and nonlethal powers, nonlethal including low levels of telekinetics, superhuman strength, regenerative capability, invisibility, teleporters, and the muddled concept of absolute charisma. These were called Deltas.
Then the class of lethals came into play in rising classifications of Gammas, Betas and Alphas. Mid level telepaths, telekinetics, and super strengthers typified the bottom tier of lethals. Higher were those with high degrees of telekineses, mind manipulation, and environmental manipulation. These could include those with the ability to manipulate nature and the surrounding environment, or alter their own body composition to some degree. At the highest levels were those rarely seen who could create energy waves, nuclear fission, portals, environment manipulation of extreme degree, total telekinesis or telepathy, and others.
Despite a century of research, EBB, loaded with Stella Cells, remains the one weapon effective 100% of the time across all classifications of super normals.
And then this happened?
Dude, where is all of that from ?
Did any of them change into giant lagomorphs destroying the city in search of corn dogs?
Using this space as a creative scratch pad for a new story proposal.
We can only hope this happens!
SYNAI is an independent body funded almost entirely by the private donations of wealthy contributors. It acts in almost paramilitary fashion, scouring the United States in search of supernormals. Their motto: Versus Futurum. This said, it should be noted that some in the government are aware of its existence.
In their search they first make three determinations.
1.) Whether the subject is lethal or nonlethal
2.) If lethal, of what classification of supernormal are they.
3.) What procedure is appropriate for eliminating the potential threat, or of eliminating the threat of exposure to the general public in a way that would unveil the existence of supernormals.
The vast majority of nonlethal supernormals and low power, Gamma level lethal supernormals are approached through the same means. The target is obtained during sleep or some other activity in a way that agents can temporarily apprehend and subdue the subject, exposing them to Stella blood in a way that suppresses their powers. Via mental manipulation they are are brought to forget any awareness of potential superpowers. Further, they are led to believe they are of such illness that they will be required to check with doctors on a regular basis. The doctors they inevitably end up seeing are always members of SYNAI and always end up administering Stella Cells via transfusion or through prescribed pills. Should the target superhuman falter in their regular doctor attendance or pill use, they are then targeted for more invasive procedures. Regular interruptions via agents becomes necessary, and further mental manipulation, to induce a sort of hypochondria that will provoke the target into visiting their "doctors", becomes standard approach. Rehabilitation rates for these low powered individuals almost always approach 100%.
For higher level powers - most commonly Betas, as Alphas only surface every decade or so - direct intervention is required. Even under the strictest regiments, Betas seem to become aware of their powers. In response, SYNAI directly intervenes, bringing them within their facility through a variety of coercive means that usually require force. Education concerning the use of powers and training is provided should the target consent. Living on-facility is required for the first year of training. Jobs are provided upon the completion of this year, within SYNAI led businesses.
Before exposure to SYNAI education, complications often arise. Indeed, the vast majority of targets begin to utilize their powers in ways that make it difficult for agents to identify them. Robbers, murderers, con artists, all utilize their powers in ways that are subtle enough to avoid detection for a good deal of time. Once their actions bring them to the awareness of the agency, direct intervention is employed.
Upon apprehension, their choice is either to willingly submit to Stella blood transfusion and a life within the bounds of SYNAI's outline, or to be permanently restricted to SYNAI facilities.
It should be noted again that SYNAI is not an agency of the government and is not bound by any ensuing requirements.
Alphas, a rare breed, arise only rarely in the population. Most often they utilize their power for malevolent purposes and require swift interaction. It is not uncommon for a number of agents to be employed in the apprehension of an Alpha. Their treatment is approached with the same regulations as Betas except with heightened monitoring. It is not uncommon for agents to be placed covertly within the area of an Alpha's public life without their knowing. At the slightest hint of deviance from SYNAI regulation, intervention may become required. This is due to the intensity of an Alpha's power.
It should also be noted that, of all targets, Alphas are most often the most difficult to tame. Very few enlist in the program. Indeed, few are apprehended. Almost all are killed in the course of attempting to apprehend them, due to the necessities of circumstance. Alphas employ powers of such magnitude that lethal force is often required, and very often a large scale "cleanup" of the surrounding area is required in order to erase the memories of the event from local memory.
In the case of Betas and Alphas, SYNAI acts almost entirely as a supernormal police force. Almost all Betas and Alphas are prone to criminal acts utilizing their powers, and the most common actions for an agent are to apprehend or kill in the line of duty. While Betas have a higher rate of rehabilitation - aligned with a higher rate of apprehension due to less intense powers - Alphas are almost always killed due to the extreme use of force they employ.
~~~
It looks just like any other round. Small enough, about the size of a .40 caliber bullet, nobody would be able to tell that the front tip of it is primed to come apart upon contact with another surface. Inside? Blood, loaded with Stella Cells. That may sound grim, but it was a necessity arrived upon after decades of research. True, there had been plenty of efforts to reform supernormals, to take different paths with them. At the end of the day, there were still plenty who rejected the offers made by the agency.
SYNAI. It was what it was, the last line of defense between the population of the United States and the supernormals that had slowly been surfacing over the last century. Since at least the early 1900s, their numbers had been growing. At first there had been maybe one in one hundred million that possessed a power. In the early days, it was easy enough to control these individuals. Times had changed, though. More and more, supernormals were proliferating. It had gone from one in one hundred million to one in ten million. Soon, it might be one in one million. What happened when it was one supernormal to one hundred thousand normals? Or one in one hundred?
That was an eventuality, a possibility that could not be contemplated. Imagine a world filled with people, normal humans with all the flaws and selfishness that the world possesses, and then give them a power. Give one flight, another speed. For one, give them telepathy, and to another super strength. Now give on the ability to control the weather, or to control fundamental energies of the universe.
It gets scary, thinking about it. It would be the end result if the genes of supernormals were allowed to rage throughout the population. It was the reason they had to be apprehended, rehabilitated, and their powers suppressed. When properly done, the mutant gene clusters that bestowed powers did not pass onto the next generation.
That was the primary purpose of SYNAI, to maintain order in a world that would fall into chaos if the supernormal genes were allowed to run rampant. This duty required diligence, force, and a unique type of person. Not just anybody could be an agent of SYNAI. Think about the average police officer, putting their life on the line to apprehend a thief, or a murderer. Now imagine if that thief or murderer could phase through walls or kill with telekinetic ability. Suddenly, the image is a bit darker, that much more grim. It wasn't easy to be an agent. It never had been, and the task would only become more difficult. The truth was, the situation with supernormals was only getting worse. It wasn't just that they were growing in number, no. The greater problem was that the gene was growing stronger and in turn, supernormals were gaining powers far more fantastic than they had ever possessed in the past. From super strength to the ability to manipulate nuclear energies, supernoral powers were growing frighteningly strong. It requires a forceful hand to deal with.
Agents worked against these individuals, fought them with the only weapon that remained effective: The EBB. Bullets tipped with blood capsules of Stella Cells, they produced an energetic effect that dampened and canceled supernormal powers. Telekinetics couldn't grab these bullets with their minds, and magnetists couldn't stop it from approaching using all the magnetic fields in the world. EBB was the single weapon that evened the playing field and, in the scheme of things, even it was pathetic in the fact of people who could fire bolts of energy from their hands or cause the earth to rupture. Rare cases, but they had existed nonetheless. In the end, EBB was only the tool. It required men and women with hearts of steel to properly use it.
When he was writing New X-Men, Grant Morrison decided it was important that Beast become a cat for some reason. It was mostly pointless and it was left with pretty much no explanation, requiring another writer on a different X-Men comic to pull one out of his ass.
I got to make a joke, no hard feelings, love that guy.
He would be like Snape's blog.
He's a cynic! Well, maybe not, love him...
I think Snape's blog would be a compilation of obscure dark magic and potions. And would have absolutely nothing personal about it.
I don't know.
I heard the man keeps a diary and thats not so far off... XD
That was hilarious. Also, I like buttons too.
Once a candidate believes in the threat and becomes willing to face it, they come up against another hurdle. Too often, the organization has found itself with prime physical specimens - former soldiers, special forces, or high performing police officers - that simply do not have the mentality for battling against supernormals. Some Betas scratch at the basement of Alpha level powers and become terrible threats. Putting a gun into a person's hand and asking them to fight these sort of beings isn't enough. Agents have to be able to outthink their opponent, to be one step ahead. An EBB isn't going to hit a target who tears up a piece of the ground to form a barrier, or who uses magnetic force to strip the weapon from an agent's hand. In the course of battle, smart decisions need to be made. Each supernormal needs to be approached with a tailored battle plan. You don't want to try and tackle a magnetist the same way you would a telepath, as both will approach the fight differently. So, agents are expected to not only be physically capable of enduring a drawn out fight, but of critical planning. This planning goes on before the fight even begins, and then requires smart decisions in the heat of battle.
The truth is, even if a candidate gets past the first barrier to joining SYNAI, they find it harder to get past the second. A great many of accepted agents are actually rather normal looking individuals. There are few who are incredible physical athletes. Of course, all are fit, able to fight, to pursue and to endure. However, it's a rare sight to see any that are built like mountains. Few have massive arms swelling with muscle or legs that look like they could kick through a signpost. The truth is, the typical agent is a late twenties to early thirties male, in good shape but nothing close to the image of a professional athlete or Olympian. The quality that defines them is always their cunning and ability to endure despite all odds. An agent cannot be a quitter. Indeed, the ability to endure is their greatest characteristic of all.
It is surprisingly difficult to find such people. All human beings, regardless of conditioning, have an in-built switch in their mind that alerts them to when they've reached their threshold. A few are able to push past this for a moderate time. Even fewer are able to push on when they've been past a typical threshold for extreme lengths of time. These are the men and women who fall seven times but always rise again, willing to reenter the fray. When ten miles of running has drained them, they keep on until they've hit fifteen. Then, they keep going until they've hit twenty, if they need to. There is no way to measure this sort of quality until a person has been under observation, until they have been tested. It is therefore no surprise that the physical testing for agents can be intense, requiring two weeks of constant physical performance on land and, in shorter durations, at sea. These tests require physical marches, exposure to all sorts of extreme weather elements, and require subjects to demonstrate they can survive under such conditions. Firing practice occurs daily at intervals, again requiring candidates to demonstrate their ability to be lethal even under the harshest conditions. Through all of this, their ability to plan and act intelligently under duress is also measured.
Not many pass through, and those that do are little different from many people in the general populace. None are bred killers or war lovers. Instead, they are generally normal individuals, good natured and friendly, who simply know they have a job to get done. There's no room in SYNAI for men and women looking for thrills, people who don't know when to withdraw because they've got the scent of blood so strongly in their nostrils that they don't know when to breathe fresh air. Intelligent risk taking is a necessity of the job. Thrill seeking, on the other hand, is a liability to an agent and their comrades. Those who love war too much often fall a bit too far toward the war loving side, and are usually weeded out. Those that manage to pass through often end up dead because of their own actions.
It's a narrow slice of the population that can meet all these requirements, but there has never been room for compromise in the organization. Open the doors too wide and you'll simply have dead bodies piling at the feet of supernormals. Substandard candidates can operate for a while dealing with lethals and Gammas, and occasionally Betas. The long lived Betas though, the experienced ones, and the Alphas always, have an easy time dealing with agents that lack.
To boil it down, an agent needed to be smart, and have an ability to endure. They also needed to be willing to coerce people that, sometimes, simply wanted to lead simple lives. Nonlethals and Gammas often fell into this range, but they had to be controlled. An agent had to be willing to set aside moral qualms in order to benefit the greater good. It wasn't always easy, but when done properly, these sorts of people could live relatively normal lives. Sure, they might need to visit the doctor more frequently than others, but that was preferable to being permanently confined. It was also for their own good. Low powered individuals had, occasionally, demonstrated an ability to 'mature' their abilities. Nonlethal powers grew lethal, and Gammas became Betas. While under treatment, their powers suppressed by Stella Cells, this had never happened.
*Some rules and restrictions apply.
Martinez had only been on the job for about six months. Young as he was, he'd come into the agency after a traumatic encounter with a Phaser. Phasers could move through walls, passing through solid matter or allowing solid matter to pass right through them. Normally they were considered nonlethals and were subject to monitoring the way all nonlethals were. Had the encounter ended with a simple, unbelievable eyewitness account of seeing a man pass through walls, SYNAI wouldn't have had much trouble on their hands. A simple mindwipe of Martinez and an arrest of the criminal would have been in order but, unfortunately, this particular Phaser had decided to use his powers in a decidedly different way. He'd actually passed through Martinez, something widely agreed to be unwise and potentially lethal. The act of phasing matter through a living being could be excruciating, pushing aside molecular bonds and snapping them back into place. Even without any visible damage to a person who was phased through, internally the victim's nerve centers went into a hyper flare up. The victim could also find themselves experiencing memories or visions that didn't belong to them, a result of intertwining neural networks colliding with one another for all of a second. Martinez could have died, while the perpetrator set off on his escape.
This is where the agency got a nose for Martinez. See, most people would have gone down and never gotten up. Martinez was a little different, though. He'd gone down. To be honest, it would have been impossible for a person to keep standing straight as their molecular fabric was distorted for a moment. The amazing part, though, was that he'd gotten up. As the perpetrator had tried to escape, Martinez had managed to find it in himself to prop himself up, pull his gun and fire. He'd caught the Phaser in the leg, putting a stop to the man's escape, before going unconscious himself. It wouldn't be until later, at the hospital, when agents of SYNAI were able to catch up to both Martinez and the criminal. Martinez had been babbling about the criminal phasing, something that had been chalked up to injuries. Nobody had really believed him, so there'd been no need for a cleanup team at the hospital, no need for mass mindwipes or coercion. Both Martinez and the criminal had been attended to by staff entirely on SYNAI's payroll. From that point, their lives had taken two different directions.
A wipe of the criminal's mind and regular blood transfusions had become required. Because of exposure to the public, including all the chatter that had gone on at the police department, there were many who'd known the man would have to stand trial. Fortunately, SYNAI had no issue maintaining its team of doctors at the prison facility. When the mind was released to the general public, he'd be quickly snatched up for his violent assault on a normal. There was no leeway with the agency on this issue. Supernormals that committed any act of violence on a normal were to be held indefinitely.
As for Martinez, there hadn't been an agent at the hospital who hadn't been impressed by his performance. His resilience and ability to clinch the job had won him their respect. So, soon after it had been arranged for him to be moved to a private room, they'd begun their first debriefing. They'd had a psychologist sent in, employed by the agency, to discuss what Martinez had seen and done in full detail. Nothing would sway the young man from his belief that he had seen what he had seen. This, combined with his ability to follow through with his mission despite the intense agony he'd been under, had made him a potential candidate. The only question had been how he would react to stories of supernormals and the agents that pursued them.
With many, and this included Jeremy Martinez, the thought of an entire population of people capable of extraordinary things was slightly frightening, and slightly absurd. It helped that Martinez had seen an example with his own eyes, had been victim to supernormal powers and was even carrying memories that had nothing to do with his life. Convincing him that these things were real was the easiest part. What they had anticipated would be harder was persuading him to join their ranks.
Maybe it was due to his youth and that impetuous nature of his that occasionally still got him in a bit too over his head, but Martinez had demonstrated no issue with the prospect of joining an organized force that fought against such people. He felt victimized. Undoubtedly, the mix of memories in his mind and the excruciating pain he'd suffered had lent toward his willingness. Unfortunately, too much enthusiasm was a cause for alarm. The agency couldn't afford to recruit someone so hotheaded they'd be uncontrollable. Still, nothing in his record had indicated anything like that. His time as a police officer, though only two years in and remarkably unremarkable, indicated a young man with a fair head on his shoulders. His one sin was that of being a young man, prone to all the occasional miscalculations that entailed. In interviews he'd come across as intelligent, thoughtful and dedicated. So, in the end, SYNAI had put him to the test.
It had taken time. The doctors at the hospital, those not on SYNAI's payroll, had been unable to find a reason why Martinez had been in so much pain following the incident. Being phased through left no damage that could be detected on an MRI or CT Scan. Organs all remained in place, no internal bleeding occurred and there was bruising or scarring. It was Martinez's nerves that were out of sync, and nothing but time would heal that. Unfortunately, without a viable medical excuse, there'd been few options for him in the police force. Of course the department hadn't been about to release him, not right away, but between his complaints of pain that stemmed from nowhere and his initial accusations of someone that could move through walls, red flags had gone up. Unable to perform his job for any observable reason, it had only been a matter of time before he was released.
SYNAI was not about to allow that to happen without supporting him, though. On the condition that he kept quiet about the incident and told no one about what had happened, they'd also pledged to support him financially. True, they'd kept agents on him to ensure that he honored his end of the agreement, but it had turned out to be unnecessary. Martinez had never so much as whispered a word about the agency or his encounter, never again. In follow up interviews with his superiors, prior to his release, he'd denied his original claims. He'd simply been in pain and incoherent, or so he said. It had been enough to win him even further admiration from the agency.
So, over the course of the next month, as his pain gradually subsided and the terror of the intermingling of foreign memories gradually began to fade, SYNAI had once again approached him. They'd kept him afloat, staying faithful to their contract. Following all that, they'd expected he'd submit to the physical testing, a two week test of endurance. Nobody who goes through that testing phase escapes pain free. Marching through heat and cold, exposed to rain and snow, to extreme heat or biting winds, the test was never easy. Martinez though, demonstrating the same internal fortitude that had allowed him to fight against the pain of molecular displacement, had emerged victorious.
His first day at SYNAI's main facility had brought surprises. Agents had been curious to see the newest batch of recruits, and Martinez had been the youngest at 23. What quickly emerged though, over the course of the next few weeks, was the source of the young man's ability to endure. Good humored at every turn, he'd always been able to meet people with a smile and a handshake. In a corporation that was occasionally bogged down by the distressing news of agent deaths or new threats, Martinez had been a source of joy. Those first few days, when he'd been seated at his cubicle and told he'd be dealing mostly with paperwork, he'd taken it with a smile. At the water cooler, he'd had nothing but jokes. It was obvious that Martinez had a resilient personality, one that continued to shine even in dark times. Dedicated and good humored, he'd been a grand addition. He'd walk down the halls of the agency, his blue tie sitting across his white button up shirt, his tanned features sitting beneath jet black hair. Every day he came in with a joke and a smile.
For Agent Fiskman, it had been a welcome change of pace. Fisk was a bit of a health nut but otherwise joe average, a man who'd formerly been a cop himself but had lost some of the shine of his youth. He'd seen enough in the last few years that, while he'd remained a joker and storyteller, he'd also become grim about his prospects of retiring. Things in the supernormal community had gotten worse, not better since he'd joined, and the pace of the agency had only increased as the number of reports had accelerated. Busier had led to more deaths, and Fisk had seen a few of his friends go.
Still, he'd been able to tell when he'd seen Martinez that this was a kid that he liked. He only hoped that the boy would live long enough to take on a younger partner of his own someday, but that wasn't in Fisk's hands. He'd become used to staying detached from his partners, just in case they didn't pan out. Normally that was the case. Either a rookie agent retired after being overwhelmed by the threat they faced, or was killed outright in the field. It was a tough gig, and it had required him to toughen up his own heart. With Martinez though, it had been hard to keep him at a distance, and not for trying either. Fisk had stonewalled Martinez at every turn, keeping conversation short and as professional as possible. It had been hard though, with the kid showing up with donuts one day, or coming in with a load of jokes to tell. His energy was infectious, and Fisk had been unable to keep up the facade. He'd eventually come to terms with the fact that, maybe, he actually liked Martinez. At least, he liked the rookie enough to be contemplating that he might like him.