Transformations (c) 2012 Darke Angelus
This tale was inspired by a prompt found at the Tiger and Bunny Anon Meme at Dreamwidth dot org. that requested back stories of the Heroes discovering their powers for the first time.
A/N: With the exception of a few ages revealed as canon, virtually everything else that you will read here is the creation of my own warped imagination. Take note that there is some extremely disturbing content (all confined to the last chapter "Wild Tiger") so consider yourself forewarned.
In NC 1932, the first documented case of a person exhibiting the "awakening" of NEXT powers had been that of a luckless South American missionary suffering from malaria in a hospice near the Congo. The entire ordeal was caught on videocassette and on about three dozen rolls of film by a reporting team from TIME Life News. The lead reporter went on to receive the Pulitzer prize for his discovery in what, arguably, was considered the greatest story of the decade, if not the century.
The missionary, a Guatemalan priest named Ernesto y Nieva, had succumbed to the late stages of fever and delusions of the illness and was entirely oblivious to his first, and ultimately last, display of power. Raving on about Jesus in his native language, Ernesto's emaciated, sweat-drenched body began to glow blue, barely perceptible at first but quickly growing in intensity. His brown eyes transformed into two piercing blue sapphires. He began levitating off of the bed to the astonishment of patients, a nurse, two nuns, and the four-man TIME life team. Moaning, Ernesto began steadily gaining altitude until his weakly thrashing body collided with the thin, tarpaulin-patched mess that was the mission roof. He eventually worked his way through this flimsy barrier and continued to go up into the air.
The news team ran outside the hospice and the video recorder kept Ernesto in its sights, following in his steady ascent into the clear blue sky. By now, the priest was becoming semi-aware of his surroundings and exultant that God had chosen to raise him up into Heaven. Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! Unfortunately, at an altitude of about seven hundred feet in the air, God seemed to grow bored with the whole affair and the blue aura around Ernesto suddenly winked out. Screaming, the man plummeted to his ungraceful death, landing right back into his own death bed.
Understandably, the footage was carefully evaluated when the group returned stateside and the entire incident was about to be scrapped by a suspicious Editor-in-chief. At around that same point in time, another news story began to cross the wires; this one about a man named Mikhail Petrov in Stern Bild City who was exhibiting some rather fantastic abilities and was quite public about displaying them. That man would go on to become the first Hero named Mr. Legend but, in terms of timing where his powers were concerned, he was actually the second documented case (to the indescribable relief of the TIME life reporter). Soon after that, the phenomena began appearing everywhere. There was simply no discernable rhyme or reason in who would turn into a Noted Entity with eXtraordinary Talent(s). The demographic was as intangible as the geographical region and the cases accelerated quickly, inciting a widespread panic that was common among a populace exposed to anything strange or misunderstood.
Scientists were at their wits-end trying to find an explanation for what was dubbed an "epidemic" (although only affecting 1 out of 200,000 people, it could hardly be considered a plague). Everything was put into question: The environment, the water supply, sun spots, the ozone layer, global warming, the magnetosphere, and so on. The focus gradually turned inward. The culprit was narrowed down to one innocuous mutated gene nestled deep in what had previously been considered dormant DNA. What caused the catalyst or trigger that unlocked that little cluster of chromosomes was just as unknown as the power it would inevitably reveal.
When the cases were all grouped together and classified, it essentially boiled down to this: Eighty-nine percent of NEXTs were really just borderline mutations; fast hair growth, elastic skin, other odd abilities. They were fascinating subjects to study but had no real practical application, and were certainly not considered threatening. If all instances had stuck to that kind of uselessness, nobody would have paid it more mind than a circus freak show. Unfortunately, the power sometimes took a more potent, concentrated turn. Five percent were intellect based abilities: crazed geniuses, prophetic artists, telepaths, and kinetics. After that, the classifications began to blur with the identification of what could only be labelled elemental-based powers. The proverbial earth, air, water, and fire types with amazing variations among the three percent gifted enough to be able to wield that ability without dying from it first. Many military organizations recognized the applications for defense and long distance combat and quietly enfolded many such NEXTs into clandestine operations, never to be seen or heard from again (at least not in social circles). Two percent were considered offense-type bruisers: The super strong or invulnerable types that had civilian police forces practically at their wits end because they were responsible for causing the most property damage. The final one percent were considered unclassifiable. They were the select few whose power defied all laws of physics or reason and delved far into the fringe side of the scientific spectrum.
It was a flip of the coin, a chance of fate, a roll of the dice. All people possessed the dormant gene in their genome, silently lying in there like a defective switch to a potential Hydrogen bomb. Nobody knew why it would suddenly become active in one person and why someone else would stay normal. Popular belief was that it took an immense emotional shock to trigger the gene to action.
That theory seemed supported by the personal histories of Stern Bild's current roster of Heroes: Eight charismatic individuals of varying races and ages.