For years, people have claimed to have abilities, special powers that are unique to each person. Psionicists have been recorded throughout history as wizards, fortune tellers, and mind readers. Now, in the Twenty-First Century, the number of claims has risen, and the governments of the worlds have invested billions of dollars into the study of these alleged Psychics. Their results were not only positive, proving the fact that Psychics existed, but they also managed to isolate what causes the phenomenon.
In only five months, the American government managed to create a biotechnical reconstruction of the psychic gland. The process was incredibly hazardous to the patient, and only one of the first thirty-two test subjects survived. This one survivor, however, exhibited more power than any Psychic that had ever been studied. His name was Jonathan Redman, a Leutinent in the United States Army. He soon became the forefront in psychic research and development, performing tests and exercises that strengthened his own powers and helped the scientist that were running the project to continue with their work smoothly.
After two years of research and hardships, the scientists succeeded in lowering the death rate to thirty-eight percent, which was well within the regulations of the U.S. Military. They gave the project a new name; C.A.R.D. The Cerebral Archive Realignment Device. It was a small chip that redirected the neural impulses so that they would cross the newly inserted gland, therefore activating it. The response was different in each person, and none were as responsive as Jonathan, but they were still functioning synthetics.
Word got out that the Military was using small strike squads of Psychics in raids against terrorists, causing a fierce uproar amongst the true Psychics, whom were by code and ethic neutral in all matters political. They began to stage peaceful riots, as the hippies did a half a century ago. They were met with devistating force. In return, a small group of Psychics banded together and carged an Army base, wreaking havoc and chaos amongst the ranks of normal soldiers. These renegades called themselves the Wild Talents, thus naming their people for the remainder of history. The Military captured and killed the group and then turned their attention to the remaining Talents.
In a single fel swoop, the Military silenced over three hundred thousand Talents, utterly destroying them and placing a world-wide manhunt on them, using their newfound technology as a bargaining chip. The U.N. sided with America in a unanimous vote. And so the Great Card Wards began.
Jonathan Redman, now head of a squad of soldiers known as the Suits, led the hunt against the Wild Talents, making no mistakes and taking full advantage of his powers. He quickly began to slip into a state of dellusion, insisting that he be titled the Black Joker. His headquarters was renamed the House of Cards. He refused to speak to anyone but his closest men, the Suits, and he dedicated his entire life to finding a group of four Talents, a group he called the Aces.
He constructed the sceneraios a thousand times, calculating each approach, and yet, something kept him from them. Repeatedly, when he built his houses of cards, one card refused to obey. It was the little Joker, or the White Joker. Frustrated by this card, he dispatched CARD Hunters to various places around the world, attempting to head off this mysterious figure.
