Sci-Fi Shenanigans

What Would You Do?

While I have reviews to write for Star Trek and Metropolis, I don't feel like doing any of that. Why? I have a ton of brain vomit regarding Heroes. Yes, I realize it's deader than King Tut, but that hasn't stopped me from re-imagining it. This is, indeed, what fanfic is for, and I have gone that route. However, I recently came up with an idea that does not fit into fanfic because it would be a completely different world with radically different characters.

About the only things that would be kept from the original show would be humans with unusual abilities and an organization dedicated to them in some way. From there, it's a brave new world, I tell ya. The Company has morphed into the Able Bodied Society (ABS), a much more benevolent organization that dates back to the turn of the 20th Century. It was founded by a small group of people from around the world who discovered in secret that they could do what others didn't. I even play around with history and include Teddy Roosevelt as one of the founders. In case you're wondering, he had superimmunity (although was still mortal). Like I said, I'm playing around with history. Anyway, so when these able boded individuals meet through various coincidences, they realize that they cannot let their powers be made known to a public that was just becoming aware of Darwin's theory of evolution. So they decide to create an underground support group so people have a place to go to use their abilities in a way that keeps the public safe and people from accidentally using their powers when they're under duress.

The ABS eventually becomes a global organization as human locators and precognitives direct the leadership of the ABS to more people with abilities. DNA studies help the ABS further understand how their individual members operate and even allows for a quiet coalition to be set up between the society and regular people who understand that these abilities are a part of human growth. This coalition enables those with abilities to be kept mostly out of harm's way, something very crucial when one looks at the social backwardness engulfing the United States today.

That's where the story really begins. By the turn of the 21st Century, the ABS has expanded enough to require multiple departments and calculates that there are about 14-15 million people on the planet with superabilities. Though the abilities are starting to become understood through DNA/genetic studies, there's still a lot of unknown factors at play. Combined with the religious fervor engulfing many parts of the world (including the United States), the ABS understands that their ranks are not enough to face down a fearful, uninformed public. So even with more knowledge at hand, it is still a battle of survival that sinks to a nadir in 2010. This is where the expansion of the leadership comes into play. The new leadership includes a Board of Trustees, selected representatives from each of the departments (as well as continent representatives and representatives at large) that discuss/plan for the future of the ABS and those with abilities. In 2010, the five new selectees join the board right when a breach is uncovered and a much revered precog is killed. The five that join have a variety of powers: telekinesis, persuasion, force field generation, water transformation and omniscience. These new board members belong to the Departments of the Non-Enhanced Coalition (NEC), Earth Conditions (which takes a look at non-human influence phenomena of the planet), Securities (which works to protect vulnerable able bodied), Future Planning (which charts the path of evolution for the able bodied as well as their social standing) as well as the continent of Australia.Their jobs become much more difficult when all of their departments experience massive shakeups. The precog that was killed was Maori, and the Australian Continent rep learns his own wife was behind the murder. The precog predicted a socioeconomic meltdown in the United States catalyzed by corporate pawns, events that tax the NEC and Securities. The Earth, meanwhile, is experiencing rapid tectonic shifts as well as unexpected warming of the oceans. All of these events challenge the existence of the ABS before the Future Planning Department realizes that another part of the precog's most revered prophesy is coming to fruit.

While the US teeters toward collapse, a trio of able bodied saviors is about to be conceived and born. Known as the Holy Trinity, these three girls will have the right combination of powers to halt and eventually reverse the social insanity of the country and its ripple effect on the world. The key is ensuring that they survive childhood in such a challenging environment. On top of that, the girls' father is a prominent entertainer who is easily recognizable by much of the public but who is completely unaware that he is a carrier of the genetic linchpin for superabilities. Thus, the Holy Trinity has a chance of being captured in the spotlight against their will. This puts the ABS in a bind, as they have to choose how they will divide up their resources between short term and long term survival. The five newly elected representatives have to work together to reconcile the survival needs with a fractured board while keeping themselves alive.

There are other elements to the reimagination that have popped up but don't really have a form. One is the genetic determination. When Heroes first aired, I figured with a predominantly male cast that abilities were a sex-linked trait. This rendition looks to have a more complicated origin that involves genetic dark matter and genes not linked to the 23rd chromosome. This allows males to not have abilities but sire daughters who do. This suggests a possible common thread with Fragile X, but I would have to look at the Fragile X Syndrome more closely to determine if that's the case. Second, some abilities are more common than others. Precogs are surprisingly common and tend to be female. Force field generators have been around for a long time. On the other hand, omniscience is considered the rarest power. This makes omniscients very much coveted within the departments, but they are also the biggest targets. The power is the least apparent at first glance, yet omniscients who keep using their powers to defeat/deadlock socially prominent foes put themselves at high risks for assassination attempts. They also suffer from psychological distress the most and may be more common if most of them didn't commit suicide just to end the perpetual despair of knowing everything. There are other matters (such as funding) that I have not yet addressed but are lingering. I just had to get this down so I can stop thinking about it for a while.

As you can see, this is a much different take on the concept of people with superhuman abilities. It draws its inspiration from the first season of Heroes where reality very much played on the characters' mindsets as they discovered their powers. In this case, reality keeps the able bodied from extensive power use, and they are under no delusions that they will be welcomed. They understand it is a fight for survival first and foremost. From there, nothing can be taken for granted. If only I could get myself to finish up my other projects so I can mull over this one some more....