Plink
Magic Eight Ball
Early Morning, March 14, 2020 EST
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
It had been another busy twenty-four hours for Colonel John Haverson and his team. The morning before had seen their little convoy racing from IASC headquarters in Virginia to respond to an incident in another state. Hours of travel, debriefings, filing forms, and more travel later they were up in Baltimore to turn over a prisoner. Spending the night, they were finally on their way back to McLean and some well-earned rest on a sleepy Saturday morning with their loved ones.
The convoy was mostly nondescript, three out of four vehicles plain-looking unmarked black SUVs. It was the fourth one drawing stares at traffic stops. A hulking black military MRAP transport IASC agents nicknamed the Tank. Not because they rode it into firefights, but from the fact they only rolled it out to pick up special cargo. Only the IASC had anything like it, Its distinctive looks one reason most people were even aware the agency existed. The other reason had to do with the cargo.
Four years ago, a mysterious event in outer space briefly turned night into day across North America. Over in seconds, the weeks and months following what would come to be known as the Anomaly saw astonishing changes in the lives of a varied group of individuals. Once ordinary human beings who inexplicably began displaying what could only be called superpowers. As their numbers soared from the hundreds into the thousands, numerous incidents heavily covered by the media drove home what happened when they tragically lost control of their abilities. Or used them for a selfish purpose. Theories from all corners invoked everything from aliens to secret government experiments to the end times as confusion and perceptions of a threat prevailed. None stuck except a word floated to describe what was apparently a frightening new chapter in humanity's evolution. Terahumans, from the Greek for monster.
Within a year calls mounted for the government to take action against its own citizens. Rumors began the so-called teras were taking steps to organize themselves in response. Something drastic looked imminent until a voice of reason emerged.
Dr. Aura Kallis had seemingly come out of nowhere to become the leading mind on the terahuman dilemma. A polymath and the only scientist alive with better than a feeble grasp of terahuman biology, her research gave the government the tools it needed to humanely intervene when a tera lost grip of their powers or turned rogue. She was also a tera herself, the only one in her forties when all others had been in their teens up to their late twenties at the time of the Anomaly. Embracing the role of the reassuring face of teras everywhere, the company she founded, EVE, rapidly became a billion-dollar enterprise on the back of massive government contracts. Dominating the cutting-edge biotech hub around its headquarters near Baltimore.
It was the IASC's job to take point in the government's dealings with Dr. Kallis and EVE. The perks included high-tech equipment like the Tank, a mobile containment unit for dangerous teras, as well as an array of one-of-a-kind weapons and gadgets. The risks for its agents—from a variety of civilian and military backgrounds—involved facing off with out-of-control teras and outright superpowered criminals. It was always an IASC team called on to transport terahumans in custody to the EVE-run detention facility outside Baltimore.
Most of the agents sharing Colonel Haverson's SUV were asleep in their seats when he heard his ringtone. Someone was calling from Liberty Crossing, IASC headquarters.
"Sorry to wake you up, Colonel, the Director needs the team to make a detour. Something's come up."
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
It had been another busy twenty-four hours for Colonel John Haverson and his team. The morning before had seen their little convoy racing from IASC headquarters in Virginia to respond to an incident in another state. Hours of travel, debriefings, filing forms, and more travel later they were up in Baltimore to turn over a prisoner. Spending the night, they were finally on their way back to McLean and some well-earned rest on a sleepy Saturday morning with their loved ones.
The convoy was mostly nondescript, three out of four vehicles plain-looking unmarked black SUVs. It was the fourth one drawing stares at traffic stops. A hulking black military MRAP transport IASC agents nicknamed the Tank. Not because they rode it into firefights, but from the fact they only rolled it out to pick up special cargo. Only the IASC had anything like it, Its distinctive looks one reason most people were even aware the agency existed. The other reason had to do with the cargo.
Four years ago, a mysterious event in outer space briefly turned night into day across North America. Over in seconds, the weeks and months following what would come to be known as the Anomaly saw astonishing changes in the lives of a varied group of individuals. Once ordinary human beings who inexplicably began displaying what could only be called superpowers. As their numbers soared from the hundreds into the thousands, numerous incidents heavily covered by the media drove home what happened when they tragically lost control of their abilities. Or used them for a selfish purpose. Theories from all corners invoked everything from aliens to secret government experiments to the end times as confusion and perceptions of a threat prevailed. None stuck except a word floated to describe what was apparently a frightening new chapter in humanity's evolution. Terahumans, from the Greek for monster.
Within a year calls mounted for the government to take action against its own citizens. Rumors began the so-called teras were taking steps to organize themselves in response. Something drastic looked imminent until a voice of reason emerged.
Dr. Aura Kallis had seemingly come out of nowhere to become the leading mind on the terahuman dilemma. A polymath and the only scientist alive with better than a feeble grasp of terahuman biology, her research gave the government the tools it needed to humanely intervene when a tera lost grip of their powers or turned rogue. She was also a tera herself, the only one in her forties when all others had been in their teens up to their late twenties at the time of the Anomaly. Embracing the role of the reassuring face of teras everywhere, the company she founded, EVE, rapidly became a billion-dollar enterprise on the back of massive government contracts. Dominating the cutting-edge biotech hub around its headquarters near Baltimore.
It was the IASC's job to take point in the government's dealings with Dr. Kallis and EVE. The perks included high-tech equipment like the Tank, a mobile containment unit for dangerous teras, as well as an array of one-of-a-kind weapons and gadgets. The risks for its agents—from a variety of civilian and military backgrounds—involved facing off with out-of-control teras and outright superpowered criminals. It was always an IASC team called on to transport terahumans in custody to the EVE-run detention facility outside Baltimore.
Most of the agents sharing Colonel Haverson's SUV were asleep in their seats when he heard his ringtone. Someone was calling from Liberty Crossing, IASC headquarters.
"Sorry to wake you up, Colonel, the Director needs the team to make a detour. Something's come up."
