AN: I'll be using the setting of Claymore with the addition of some of the mechanics with respect to parahuman powers from worm.
For People Unfamiliar with Claymore a few terms you'll definitely need to know are:
Yoma: Predators of mankind that exist on the continent our story is set on. They can disguise themselves as humans they eat and even recall the memories of their victims to make their disguise even more convincing. They have enhanced strength, a regenerative factor, and can spear enemies on extendable claws. Some can even grow wings and fly.
Warriors/Hybrids/Claymore/Silver-Eyed Witches: Developed by the Organization to fight Yomas and Voracious Eaters for a price. They are said to be made by implanting the flesh and blood of a Yoma into a girl. They possess youki (Yoma energy) that gives them enhanced strength, speed and senses. Their ability to sense the youki of yomas allows them to detect Yoma in disguise. They also wield large claymores to execute Yoma they are contracted to kill. Thus, to the general public they are known as Claymores or Silver-Eyed Witches for their silver eyes and white hair. Amoung themselves, however, they refer to each other as warriors and take pride in standing as humanity's ill-appreciated only line of defense until recently.
Organization: A group that occupies the barren Eastern lands in a location called staff where they collect orphans or children who are sold by their parents to be experimented upon and turned into Human-Yoma Hybrids. Their customary form of dress is to wear all black. They also collect exorbitant and painfully high fees from villages and towns in exchange for sending one of their warriors to cleanse it from Yoma.
Voracious Eaters/Awakened ones: They are referred to as voracious eaters when the Organization or its warriors interact with the public. They claim these are long-lived Yoma who have managed to evolve. There are some whispers, however, that these Yomas who can easily massacre whole villages by brute force are actually former warriors. This theory has never been corroborated, but it is known that warriors are sometimes known to shout to one another in battles with these voracious eaters to be careful to not go over some limit...
Dragon's-kin/Descendents: A word known only to the black coated men of the organization. It is spoken of with fear and hatred.
If you're unfamiliar with the Worm, it suffices to know that in Worm after a certain event people begin to appear with super powers. This occurs not just in one world but across the multiverse. In order to awaken their power a person needs to be given a tremendously traumatic experience (i.e. worst day of your life level awful).
Prologue: Those Who Awaken and The One Who Slumbers
"No, no no, no."
A girl no older than 8 lay craddling in her arms a fallen number 2.
Behind her a rookie claymore wipes her blade clean and returns it to her sheath. The stress of the battle nearly overwhelmed her control, but the new power she walks away with is like pure ecstasy in her veins.
"The traitor has been punished." She said with disdain when her three comrades arrive.
"Wow, the newbie took down Teresa when even Ilena, me and Hailey couldn't touch her." Mentioned a short haired warrior.
"Did you awaken a power?" Asked Ilena.
"Yes, I don't know how to use it yet," she said with a slightly confused frown. "But it knocked us both out temporarily. I was just able to recover a little faster." Added Priscilla with frustration.
"A win is a win." Said Ilena wistfully.
"I think the girl possess a power as well. She was also knocked off her feet. She recovered first, though, so I can't be sure."
"You're right." Ilena confirmed.
"I knew Teresa wouldn't have deserted for just anybody. I wonder what her power was supposed to do. Probably boost their stealth or act as support. Maybe that's how she was so much stronger today." Mentioned Hailey, the weakest but eldest there.
"Let's take her with us. Headquarters is always looking for new powers to experiment with and even if it's not useful for research she might make a good warrior. Besides, I doubt she'd have any better of a life as an orphan with a power around here."
"Fine." Since powers had only emerged in their generation little was known about how they worked, except they tended to emerge when in despair and under great stress. In order to maximize the strength of the next generation and the available research subjects, the organization prioritized making new warriors from people who already had powers, or people closely related to those with powers.
Unspoken was the knowledge that if she wasn't kidnapped by the organization she'd just be snatched and enslaved by someone else. Given this was near the border of Toulaine and Lautrec it was even odds whether she'd go east or head west as tribute to the Empress.
Ilena studied the girl.
(A dark room wrapped in silent screaming. A brother who was not a brother.)
She moved forward to take the girl.
(Bruises on her stomach, back and thighs, but never anywhere visible. Her throat clamped tight with fear. She did not want to eat it)
She refused to flinch even when she had to pry her away from the corpse she was clinging to.
(Her weakness. Her helplessness. Her uselessness. Everything reinforced a thousand fold.)
"We will give it a proper burial, child. Now come with us." She was wary of any surprises, but as she'd suspected her power did not seem related to direct combat. Strangely, she also doubted her power was suited towards combat support.
While Hailey may believe she had lost today because of this girl's power, Ilena felt an almost inward fixation in it. Teresa had bested them today, and she'd done it alone. If not for a quirk of fate she likely would have killed even Priscilla. She had done it all with a power that Ilena had thought all but useless for combat. It was humbling.
"What? We're giving that traitor a proper burial. We ought to just leave the corpse out for the retrieval squad." Said Priscilla.
"If they want it they can dig it up. I'm not leaving it out."
The girl continued to struggle.
(A cliff. Is this the end?...I will follow you. To the end of the earth or even beneath it.)
She was about to warn her comrades about their newest charge being possibly suicidal when she saw the girl stare up at Priscilla. On her face, a rictus of hate and despair.
(She's rising! My legs...I throw myself in front. Finally, at las-No! No, no, no, no it should have been me. Why? WHY? Don't touch me. You should have left me behi-MverSilAirprofSwoFaiRdntIleHMeeoriDonAbonEs...)
'What was that? It didn't make sense, but there was some...weight to it. Like nothing she'd sensed before.' Thought Ilena.
"Hailey, take the child."
"You sure she's safe?"
"Pretty sure her power has something to do with knowledge." Ilena said passing the stiff child to her. "Sophia help me create a hole." She glanced at Priscilla then changed her mind.
A while later the armor around Sophia dispelled and a hole had been cleared. Ilena rolled Teresa into it. It didn't fit. Priscilla trimmed the feet off and they rearranged her before covering her, and placing her blade pommel and hilt face up upon it.
The blade custom could not be observed with the danger of grave robbing and it falling into the hands of someone with enhanced strength and endurance who would wield it against them.
"This is the end that awaits you if you betray the organization." Whispered Hailey with resignation.
"But you'll probably be eaten by something first. Hopefully we can give it a bellyache going down and coming out." Said Sophia with a nasty grin. Storm Rain Hailey attempted to swipe her head, but the blow was dodged. Then she grabbed the blade of the former number 2 and it vanished before their eyes. The child sagged when she saw this.
"Enough. Let's hurry back." Said Ilena picking up the silent child. A carefully controlled blow to the back of the head knocked her out. She would awaken in a carriage heading East carrying one other child, two men in black suits and a single warrior.
Omake: A Study of the "Unnamed Island"
In the first decade following the emergence of Hunters, there was strong support for withdrawing all usable assets from the Unnamed Island, and sealing off all research projects there. The general sentiment was that these hunters were exactly what they'd tried and failed to achieve for well over a century.
The only thing that stayed their hand was reports of a few descendants or dragon's kin using terrifying, unnatural powers on the battlefield. To combat them a testing facility study the possible interactions of these powers with the similar ones wielded by awakened hybrids was proposed with an emphasis on analyzing hidden dangers and weaknesses. It was also proposed that these powers may hold a key to successfully weaponizing hybridization.
A condition of the mainland's continued support was that Staff now serve as recruiters shipping as many prospective hunters as they could afford back to the homeland. Those leftover were generally people with powers less useful for direct combat such as knowledge, skill granting, or innovator abilities. Later when higher-ups realized the usefulness of innovators when used in groups or with sufficient material support, these two would be shipped off. Of course, a variety of combat powers deemed too weak to be useful were also left to be experimented upon.
In order to collect recruits, kidnapping, blackmail and human trafficking occurred at the hands of unmodified guards and the obedient warriors or failed warriors. This, unfortunately, lead to the deterioration of the Organization's already poor reputation as they were seen as attempting to maintain their monopoly on force.
Predictions that the presence of powers may be related to ones family and blood seemed to pan out for at least the first generation. This led to many unsuccessful attempts at breeding programs.
The gravest mistake was the failure to quickly grasp that although the humans being numerically superior tended to have far more Hunters, the higher quality of Hunters tended to come from stronger beings. This meant hybrids, descendants, and especially powerful awakened hybrids tended to acquire the best powers. Meeting the qualifications to acquire these powers was often an issue, since they far less likely to meet with tragedy and trauma, but for those that did the most frightening abilities tended to appear.
By the time this fact was recognized the Organization's position on the Unnamed Island was already heavily compromised with a smaller corps of only 40 warriors, made up of those with noncombat powers, weak powers or no powers at all. Little could be done too about the angered populace who had begun mustering around rival coalitions of Hunters.
AN: Upon this continent the mythos of superheroes does not exist, so rather than calling them capes in the East, headquarters of the organization, they're known simply as "those with powers" or occasionally Hunters although only men dressed in black tended to use that terminology.
To those in Toulouse, dominated by the Holy City of Rabona, it was common to call them the "God-touched" for their superior ability to fight Yomas and voracious eaters. The most prized were those rare ones who could identify yomas or draw them out when they're hiding. They have had limited interaction in any case, with the most troublesome and destructive abilities, that seem concentrated in Alphonse, the frosty north, deep in the jungles of Lautrec in the West, and buried to the South under the sands of Mucha.
Similarly, the word "triggered" is not used to refer to those who receive powers. In the central land of Toulouse the term "touched" is used, while in Sutare, the East, "awaken" has come to refer officially to gaining access to a unique power. Unofficially it is rumored to have another meaning related to releasing youki but this is not spoken of outside the halls of the organization.