The Broken Shields
Freedom City. Built and maintained as a monument to the greatest of ideals. New Hope. Inhabited solely by volunteers helping rehabilitate those who had turned to evil. The Silver Fortress. Perhaps the ultimate training ground for any whose powers are uncontrolled or dangerous. All these and more stand testament to the inherent nobility, no matter how often some may try to keep it repressed, of the human race and of those who would seek to use their gifts in defence of that nobility. All over the world, heroes have existed in some form or another since before the dawn of time, standing between the innocent masses and those would seek to dominate or destroy them.
The usual barbaric methods for punishment have been transmuted in modern times, suiting both sides of this conflict, the aggressors of which finding that breaking out of the prisons built to hold them generally easier than coming back from the dead or crippling injury. Of course, there are always exceptions. If caught in time, the hero can be chastised and taught a better way, the villain kept in a unique cell tailored specifically to their requirements. But today, there is a monster loose in the world, a predator either too powerful or too wily to be captured or contained, hunting only prey meeting a very specific set of parameters and meeting no effective resistance in the process.
In New Folsom, over half the imprisoned super-villains were found dead one morning, most horribly butchered. Then it was the turn of the super-heroes to meet this foe. Worldwide, in barely three weeks, close to a third of this singular population had been slaughtered. Countless prison breaks were reported among the super-villains, who went straight into hiding rather than resume their prior activities. In two months, those comprising the primordial ranks of hero and villain had become a species on the verge of extinction. Only the strongest and smartest had survived the slaughter - of them, barely two dozen had any measure of real power, the rest slain when they went out to find and fight the threat.
YOU are one of these last survivors. YOU are one of those who will decide the fate of this age.
