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0)The news was all atwitter with fear, speculation and loathing. It was a typical Monday after a long weekend.
A few years passed since the first of the anomaly was spotted, as the solar system hurtled though space. So few people actually grasped astronomy and that the solar system was not only spinning on its own but plummeting through space at terrifying speeds that it was comical. Back in those days it was such an alien concept that the whole solar system was moving that falling through a cloud of space gas that underfunded astronomy failed to notice until only thirty days prior to splattering sun first into the gaseous goop was unthinkable.
Strange days back then became common place as fantasy and fiction became daily reality.
The solar system simply passed into the radiant gas belt. The deeper into the gas belt the more profound the effects.
Things started small at first, just a few oddities showing up here and there.
Then the world suddenly gained super powers, some benign and others dangerous at a rate of about thirty percent of the population. Justice leagues begin to form as people all over the world merge to police their neighborhoods and cities. Normal people become extraordinary the next day almost at random, before understanding started to dawn about the compatibility and scope of power. So many powerful people begin to manifest powers that governance fundamentally shifted as the powers that be were suddenly forced to rewrite laws to accommodate themselves in the changing world.
Normal people just got along with their lives as best they could. Most people were just dealing with the criminal mischief and titanic battles between power mad villains and noble heroes who opposed them.
It made good news viewing for a while, watching from afar as nut-bags ripped themselves and chunks of real estate into shreds. Some highly televised battles ended spectacularly with murder and mayhem, while others in ever increasing numbers, as the heady rush of power expired killing off the insanely aggressive, then the global powers ‘hangover’ happened dragging society into a tired lull and reorganization period, and fights were mostly turning into low grade good-natured contests.
Suddenly, people started getting ideas and dictatorial governments were toppled by people with the means to resist violently and successfully against their oppressor’s statist authority. Some societies became liberated and strove for freedom. Others toppled one regime and replaced it with new faces using the same old oppressive tactics with powers holding the whip and crook, instead of guns and tanks. Still other groups worked to over through free societies for their own base nihilistic ends. It all depended on the culture, people and groups involved how that chaos worked itself through to completion.
Some hero groups dedicate themselves to repairing buildings and the world, others opposed the wrongdoers with force, and some groups formed neutral orders to heal the wounded from both sides. There were other neutral groups that had powers over earth and water that strove to protect, purify and cleanse the environment itself.
To each their own.
Many people migrated from cities to small towns and the populations of countries became as level possible as people tried to protect themselves with distance.
That made for some comical commuting situations the first six to twelve months as people realized new infrastructure requirements and needs were not always possible to solve with things like telecommuting and in narrow small town roads where populations were suddenly doubling over night.
Prisons also stopped working, because inmates could walk out at will. Powered guards of any quality become too expensive for prisons to hire or keep, and they moved to private security in great numbers. Convicts with powers could open walls, the ground or wreck bars in any number of ways, and it did not even need to be the ones intending to escape that benefited. Many walked and other unpowered convicts just followed through the holes they made.
With all the new powers floating around, those violent and flamboyant ones were many of the first wave of psychotic jerks unleashed upon the world and mutually destroyed when they encountered the equally zealous and inexperienced League members. That removed a great many of the careless and stupid from the gene pool on both sides of the fight.
Police ended up tying into, incorporating and reforming their own hero squads of detectives and special units above SWAT. They drew many from the local Leagues, but it was hard to find quality powered who were not arrogant jerks who just wanted fat paychecks to indolently recline on the steps in front of city hall all day, signing autographs.
The problem of economics consistently plagued the public servant sector like any other as they grappled with the new powers commodity they needed to incorporate into their human resources.
The benefit was that in many places the governance was suddenly replaced by more representative forms because the special people of the world could suddenly tell oppressive leaders to 'sod off' without much fear of reprisals. In other places, it went the other direction, and the powered simply threw off their old guards and placed themselves atop the apparatus of power, ruling tyrannically. It pretty much depended upon cultures what people were willing to accept.
One pleasant secondary effect of the whole powers thing sorting itself out was that EPA type organizations went away. With the sudden creation of not-for-profit groups of environmentalist believers who actually cared about the environment with the power to actually fix it, instead of cushy bureaucratic jobs, the environment started being actually fixed. The American ‘Employment Prevention Agency’ dissolved and the groups were directly funded with grants to clean designated areas. Because whole sects of specials dedicated themselves to healing the earth and doing all those touchy-feely things that they had been powerless to do before it all seemed to work out for the better.
Some of the more literally entertaining aspects that evolved after the arrival of powers were Arena Leagues. They formed and the contests were broadcast from ruined or abandoned areas of major cities like the old 'Running Man' movie. Some were team challenge events like giant obstacle courses for time, others were team combat events, and some were solo arena matches. The Leagues paid well but there was always that real chance of death and dismemberment making them dangerous like gladiator matches in Rome. Even with rules in place, the shows were made for mature audiences.
But there were always those same idiots who brought kids to R-rated movies and then complained about the violence for their kids and why there were no warning labels on the movie.
Like the R-rating was not warning enough, but some people just needed clubbing to fix their level of stupid.
The fights were still hugely popular and the gladiators became the rock star & movie star studs and queens with fame of professional sports and Hollywood rolled into one mantle. They truly were comparable to the gladiators of ancient Rome.
Some religious groups protested the matches. Others, early on, simply committed mass suicides thinking it was the end times.
Most people just get on with their lives as more and more people manifested powers and the huge dispersion of ‘many low powered’ and ‘very rare extremely powerful’ was slowly accepted.
There were still those other nut jobs who refused to grasp reality and protested the ‘inequitable distribution of power’, but they were a psychological disorder for another conversation.
