2001 December Sphere

It wasn't fair, humanity was finally given the keys to the kingdom, cheap renewable anti-gravity had just been given to us, the technology was so simple a 3 grader could make it work, just run a current through some plant juice and you are gold. The plant? Grew like Kudzu. It was everything I had ever wanted, ever dreamed of and it came with the price, the knowledge that the leader of the Endbringers would try to destroy everything we had ever made.

Why? Shits and giggles...yeah it was hard for me to accept as well. So I had three choices, go back to Earth, go further away in the solar system or die with my colony. Some of us went back but most of us truly believed in the cause. We went further into the stars, we also recieved more people, NASA knew that it's days were numbered and had settled for using every inch of launching capacity they had. They sold memorabilia, they did tours, they asked, begged for donations and fought tooth and nail for every scrap of eqiupment they could get.

I stared at the results.

"Old tanker ships?"

"Put in a couple gas generators, a couple barrals of G juice, and a couple weak rockets and you can get anything into space."

"It looks like scrap."

"It is, but it's filled with seeds, machine tools, books, media, and everything we could stuff into it, Sphere."

I looked at the incoming armada.

"Really?"

"Yeah, turns out the government seizes a lot of drug boats, we pulled some strings, we also bought a lot of ships that were about to be scrapped."

"Thanks, this is a lot of help for a doomed cause."

The NASA rep chuckled.

"What we both know that the Endbringers are going to cut us off."

"There's hope, were trying to leverage the PRT and the government but mankind just might have the stars, Endbringers or not, I'm sending you the files right now."

I opened the email and my eyes open.

"This...the keys to the kingdom, can he really do this?"

"He's delivered on all his other promises, the issue's political more then anything else. Some people still don't trust him, even after Behemoth."

"Can you convince them?"

"Not all of them but enough, we're doing every inch of lobbying we can but we're going to need your boys to hold down the fort."

I looked out into the starry abyss.

"You can count on us."

"Roger that Sphere, good luck and godspeed."

I opened up the intercom.

"Ok people you see all of that? That's humanities hopes and dreams coming our way, the Endbringers want to steal the stars from us, today... today we say no. Today, we represent the defiance of the human race, we are not cattle to be devoured and destroyed, we will endure and grow stronger."

I paused.

"We are not alone in the universe, we have of course suspected it for a long time but aliens are real, in the Endbringers' case they're hostile, but we also have friends amongst the stars. This isn't the end, this is the beginning. The beginning of a new age and we're all going to have to work hard to make it work."

I cut off the intercom and turned to look outside, at the stars.

"We do this for all mankind."

Science! with Doctor Haywire- PBS

A scientist smiles and steps up.

"Hello, I know that a lot of people are scared these are scary times, people with super powers, Endbringers and a lot of other strange things. Humanity is at war and for the longest time we didn't know how, or why, or what was happening. It's been a strange 20 years, but thankfully we now do have some answers."

The background changes to an image of space, the man smiles.

"This is the universe, it's really big and for a long time we wondered if we were alone in it. It turns out we are not alone."

He frowns as images of Behemoth and Leviathan are shown.

"Aliens do exist, and some of them are bad, they choose to hurt people and destroy things because they think it's fun, and that's wrong."

An image of Ironwood forms.

"But some of them have chosen to help us."

A child raises his hand.

"But aren't the enbringers bad?"

The man nods.

"Being bad is a choice, have you ever said mean things to some one?"

The child looks away embarrassed.

"That was bad, but have you ever helped someone?"

The child nods.

"That was good. This is Ironwood, he's an Endbringer, but he realized that what the other Endbringers were doing was wrong and he's on our side now."

The child nods.

"But he's scary."

A child walks in with his mother.

"This is Alex, Alex actually met Ironwood."

An image of a bald child in a wheelchair is now on screen.

"I used to be real sick, I hurt real bad every day and I couldn't walk, but Mr. Ironwood fixed me right up."

The scientist smiles.

"Like I said, you can choose to be a good person no matter who you are"

He then gets a serious look as Alex is walked away, the image of a spaceship is now in the background.

"The Endbringers came from outer space, they crash landed on Earth. Their ship keeps most of them away from us, but they are trying to escape. I know it's scary but humanity is at war. Sometimes when you're dealing with a bully, well you have to fight back."

The man looks sheepish.

"Always try to talk to an adult first but sometimes you don't have a choice and we don't. thankfully the alien ship didn't just have Endbringers, they also had shards."

An Image of a hero apears in the background, the number of heroes gets larger as he speaks.

"Shards are symbiots, things that help you out. When something really bad happens to you, you trigger and get superpowers. You can choose to be a good person and become a hero and make the world a better place."

The image of the heroes grows larger.

"You could also chose to go into business and become a rogue."

An image of a smiling cape in a business suit, the scientist comes back and frowns.

"Or you could chose to become a bad person and become a villain."

Images of destruction, crying people, injured people, the scientist comes back into focus, shaking his head.

"Like the bad Endbringers, villians have chosen to hurt people, don't become a villain."

The man take in a breath, an image forms of a hideous spiky monster, the child looks scared.

"Is that a villian?"

The scientist looks tired.

"No, in fact let me bring him in."

The spiky monster walks in the children looks scared.

"Hi my name is Hedgehog, I'm not going to hurt any one."

They back away the scientist shakes his hand.

"This is Hedgehog, he's a case 53 and he's a good guy."

"Really?"

"Yep."

The child blinks.

"Then why do you look scary?"

The scientist, nods.

"Sometimes when people trigger it goes wrong, people lose their memories and can look different. This doesn't mean they're bad people, just like normal capes they can be heroes too. What matters isn't what you look like, but the choices you make."

"What should I do if I trigger?"

"If you ever trigger you need to tell the PRT, then you can join the Wards."

He smiles.

"The Wards will teach you how to use your powers safely."

Commercial break.