Welcome to Gaia! ::

This "issue" is going to use a rather different format than the usual. In here, I will detail all the major news stories that have hit while the focus of the story was in another universe. Obviously, with news coming out every day and the setting advancing eleven months, some of the news may slip past you. Here I will detail all the things that catch the eye of one or more members of the party.

At the top of each post, I'll mention the date of the news story. For reference, the group vanished on 02/11/06 and re-appeared on 01/15/07. The posts will not represent the news articles themselves, but the main part of the post will only contain the information found in the article.

At the bottom of the post, I will put any information that one or more members of the party can infer from the article, based on their own knowlege. I will mention this in a quote box, and the top of the quote box will say which members of the party are able to infer this information. For instance:



It is a known fact by everyone in the group that Revenant just seems to keep getting back up whenever he's killed, so everyone can infer this. Another example:



Since only Matty was there for his intro, only he would recognize this woman. Finally:



None of your characters were there, so none of you have this information in-character. However, since this game is designed like a comic, there are some scenes that I'd like to reveal to the "Reader," but not to any of the characters. Therefore, you must keep this knowlege OOC. Though most of the time, it won't matter a lot.

All that said, I guess I'll get going with actually writing this thing. I can't make any promises about how soon I can get it done, but I will try to make sure I get most of it done before next session.

This article details the events of Bolt Special #2, or at least as much as the public eye saw. It talks about three heroes, one of them a Protector, going in to resolve the situation. It also speculates that in the seeming absence of everyone except Nebula and Bolt, perhaps these two new un-named heroes are forming yet anther New Protectors.

This article talks about a public statement made by a new organization called Prima. (This statement is available in video archive as well.) Although the organization is led by Infierno, who has previously been painted as a criminal, it states that he has reformed, and is now working for the common public good. He states that in the absence of the Protectors, he has risen up from his formally self-serving perspective and realized that the city needs heroes like him. The organization has promised to take down The Grave and any other criminal organization that tries to take hold of the city. Currently, Infierno is the leader, with Molly and a mutant called Plague as his two lieutenants.

The article goes on to say that the chief of police still has a warrent for the arrest of all three of these people, and has released a public statement that this organization is to be considered a group of villians, not heroes.

This is the first article mentioning Prima, though there are many more following it. Most others are more biased, painting them as either heroes or villians, but not giving both sides of the story. The percentage of articles painting them as heroes declines as time goes on.

It appears by this article that Battalion followed through on his promise in the last one, and has not only been convinced of Infierno's reform but has joined his ranks. He has announced publicly that this city needs all the heroes it can get, and that without the Protectors in place, Prima is all we've got. He also asks that Prima's other members be pardoned, at least until it is seen whether they can help with the "Grave" situation.

This article is the first real solid proof of Prima's decline. They are trying desperately to prove themselves, but in this particular incident, they end up doing more harm than good. Specifically, while attempting to capture a simple mugger, Infierno manages to miss him and hit a fuel tanker instead, which exploded, killing a dozen innocent civilians. Infierno flees from the scene.

Police are now in active pursuit of anyone involved in Prima, including Battalion, even though he has done nothing illegal except for associating with them. The article even gives a number to call if anyone has any information that could lead to their arrest.

As if to answer the title of the last article I listed, Mantra forms. It consists of Mistora, Emily, Chicomecoatl, and the magic user Battalion fought, who this article reveals is named Kavi Virendra. They claim to have formed for the sole purpose of taking down Prima, though they are willing to fight other criminal threats as they arise.

The writer doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in this team, as they seem to have as much of a spotty past as the members of Prima. Only time will tell, however.

Many have joined Prima and Mantra, mutant and human alike. Both are regarded as gangs now, and they are part of one giant gang war where more bystanders are killed than actual combatants. It is a very bad situation.

There is now a lot of pressure on the President to follow through on his promise to take action against mutants. He is sticking with his guns, saying that he is not going to punish the many for the actions of a few. He does say, however, that if things continue as they are, he will be forced to involve the military.

It has pretty much become common knowlege that the military is not trained to deal with this situation, and they are withdrawn. Instead, more funding is pumped into the police force, since they are trained to deal with threats around large numbers of civilians. Police are being trained more and more. Hundreds of arrests are being made, and things are slowly starting to improve. The four super-beings at the top of each organization continue to elude police, however. They very rarely participate in the crime they've generated, now, simply staying hidden and planning things.