From Handbook of the Union Universe

Hyperion Watchmen
Moderator(s): @Romanov
Age Rating:	15
Characters Involved:	Hyperion Watchmen
Start of Plot:
End of Plot:
Plot Timeline:
Blurb
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IC Knowledge of following Events
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Tags
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The Rivera Incident is the shared origin of all the Hyperion Watchmen characters, plus the origin of a few NPC foes too. It allowed for the creation of a RP Supergroup with a common, shared origin.

Contents 1 Plot Overview 1.1 Coile's Idea 1.2 Chove's Announcement 1.3 The Official Facts 1.4 Psyte's Account of the incident 1.5 Bastinado's Account 2 End

[edit] Plot Overview

[edit] Coile's Idea

Emergency rooms are hectic places. Lives are at stake and depend on split second decisions. Sometimes those decisions carry a payload and something unforseen takes place. In a city like Paragon City the risks are just that much greater.

People can be in an emergency room for many reasons. Some are brough there without consent, unconscious and bleeding to death. For some there was a sudden chest pain or a tearing headache, a suspicion of worse things to come. Some are there to support, to be there holding a hand. Some wish to lie and bum some drugs. Some, those in whites, they work there.

When a person is mortally wounded there are no questions asked. There is time for them later, when the threat to life has been removed. And therein lies the risk. When Sunburst died his nuclear explosion collapsed the Southern warwalls in Siren's Call, rendering the whole zone uninhabitable for a year. It does not have to be that drastic every time.

Sometimes it is just a few city blocks that get demolished. Sometimes only one. Maybe it is just a building, or if there is luck and good fortune, only a room. Could even be there is no demolition, just an explosion. An explosion that permeates a whole emergency room, striking at each and everyone present.

When that happens, people die. Some do not, though. Some carry children who become altered forever. Those who do die, they leave behind them the circles of mourners. Some who live become altered themselves. The death of a superpowered being can be the birth of many. They are treated, physically and mentally. Some then go on with their mundane lives.

Some, they see the world and their chance to make a difference. If a hero died they may want to honour his passing and carry on the work. If a villain died they may wish to prevent such an event happening again. United by a common turning point they can stand taller than any of them alone.

And thus a group is born.

[edit] Chove's Announcement

HOSPITAL HORROR AT DEATH OF A HERO

….. mourning the loss of their loved ones last night after an explosion in Paragon City Hospital. The blast occurred at around 10pm and caused extensive damage to the Emergency Room and adjoining areas…..

….. detonation was triggered by the death of one of Paragon City’s self-proclaimed ‘defenders’, Hyperion Star, although the extent to which his death contributed is still under investigation by the Paragon City Police Department. Current speculation appears to point to the payload of a new weapon embedded in Hyperion Star being partially responsible for the explosion and indeed the reason for Hyperion Star’s presence in the hospital…..

.….total number of casualties reached 36 of which 17 were fatalities, a number made worse by the confusion caused by the blast and by the fact that most of the victims were hospital staff and could therefore not help the injured…..

…..onlookers reporting that some people seemed to ‘miraculously walk clear’ of the explosion without any apparent injury to themselves whatsoever whilst others weren’t so lucky…..

…..new and as yet unopened ward will be used as a temporary Emergency Unit until the investigation is complete and full repairs have been carried out…..

…..a joint ceremony for the deceased will be held and a memorial plaque will be placed in a place of honour at the entrance to the rebuilt Emergency Unit…

[edit] The Official Facts

• Hyperion Star died at the Rivera Medical Centre in the "Outbreak" district of Paragon City.

• The incident happened at about 10pm on February 14 (Valentine's Day).

• The Emergency Room and other parts of the centre suffered severe damage. Many parts of the hospital were reduced to rubble. Witnesses described the building shaking and many spoke of a flash of light.

• 17 people died in the incident. 44 people survived the blast (the actual figure is 45 as Bastinado has removed records of him being there). 19 of these sustained injuries of varying degrees.

• Survivors known to have exhibited powers:

Daniel Asche, stone armour, deceased Shannon Moon, ice armour, deceased Jackson Whyte, fire blast, deceased Rex Balantine, radiation blast, deceased Jorge Gorman, elec/elec, the Safehouse Megan Forster, telepathy, the Safehouse Stanley Splitkin, regen/flight, the Safehouse Arthur Penningworth-Smythe/Moonfrost, fire melee, wherabouts unknown Johnny Ember/Street Flames, fire/fire, wherabouts unknown Marina "Burnie" DeSousa/High Burn, rad/rad, Hyperion Watchmen Bastinado, super reflexes, Hyperion Watchmen Solar Flare, fire/fire, Hyperion Watchmen Suzi White/White Vampyr, kin/dark, Hyperion Watchmen James Carter/No Known Codename, sonic/sonic, Hyperion Watchmen Psyte, mind control, Hyperion Watchmen

• A Paragon Police Department investigation was launched but was never completed. The Medical Centre and Fire Department investigations found that the explosion was the result of a gas leak.

• Although several people saw Hyperion Star on the day, nobody has been able to give a detailed description of his appearance.

• Tests by Johnny Ember suggest the incident has altered the DNA of survivors. These changes apparantly continue after death.

[edit] Psyte's Account of the incident

I remember that night well. Everyone running around trying to save some hero. All I remember thinking was "What about everyone else? There are other people here that need attention!" I was never a fan of heroes in those days.

I could hear him moaning though. Through all the commotion around him, he was moaning. Some hero.

I got a bit closer, I don't know what drove me but i wanted to know more. Mop in hand I swept closer until I could hear his moans. They reminded me of times before and what I had done, times when the people like him were my enemy.

I could barely see him through the crowd of people struggling to help him. I remember how he looked up, how in my final memories of that night he struggled to get his final words out.

Then the flash of light the boom that rocked the building and then silence and dark.

Silence and darkness for a long time.

I can see again now. But not as normal men see. I can hear again now. But not as normal men hear. My world is a dark and quiet place now. I can see only a little and in uncommon shades. I can hear muffled murmers now but their meaning eludes me.

But my mind sees and hears all. My mind is powerful.

Only now do I remember that strange heroes last words..."Run. Save yourselves"

I died with him that night. My nefarious past is deceased. Now there is vengeance for the man who with his last breath tried to save a roomfull of complete strangers.

Now there is only Psyte.

[edit] Bastinado's Account

For almost a year I had been investigating the aftermath of the incident at Rivera Medical Centre that ended the lives of many and changed the lives of a few. But the person or persons covering up what really happened on that night had several weeks head start. And even when I thought I was making progress, it seemed as though someone was pulling the strings just out of sight. What I did have was a list of patients and staff who were in the hospital at the time of the incident. Once I had removed the names of the deceased, I was left with a list of 44 people who may have been affected by the incident in a similar way to myself.

The first name on the list was Daniel Asche. He lived in a small apartment in downtown King’s Row. I observed the place for a couple of days. Nobody went it, nobody went out. I decided to take a look inside, and made a chilling discovery. I walked through the apartment, the air was a little stale but nothing out of the ordinary. But when I went into the bedroom, I saw that the bed had collapsed in on itself as if something heavy had crashed down on to it. I moved closer. In the centre of the bed was something roughly the size of a large man. But their were no sounds of breathing, no movement at all. Carefully, I drew back the bed sheets from the shape. Small plumes of dust rose into the moonlight. I laid my hand on the shape - it was cold, lifeless stone. But on closer inspection I could see a hand, rigid like a claw, trying to break free from the rock. From the position of the hand I guessed where a face would be. And seemingly carved into the rock was a face contorted in terror. A quick inspection of photographs in the apartment convinced me that this was Daniel Asche. I search the other rooms but there was nothing of interest other than a “hero” registration form.

From the fire escape, I called the police. Within ten minutes an ambulance arrived. I kept out of sight, but was close enough to see two large men enter the apartment. Another five minutes passed and they left carrying a gurney. There is no way they are able to carry that petrified body I thought, but a trail of crumbling dust suggested they were doing just that.

I followed the ambulance, I knew the streets well enough to keep up even on foot. It turned into the tunnel leading to Independence Port. But it did not come out the other side. I searched every inch of that tunnel and could find no clue to how the disappearing act was pulled off. Needless to say, the next day not one of Paragon City’s morgues had a record of the body of Daniel Asche being brought in.

That night I broke into the offices of the Paragon Times. Avoiding the night news desk, I accessed a computer and began to search for the names of the other 43 people on my list. Four were reported as missing persons. But more disturbingly Shannon Moon has been found frozen to death on a bench in Atlas Park. Jackson Whyte has disappeared, but the paper ran an interview with a close friend who wanted to remain anonymous that was convinced he has spontaneously combusted. Rex Balantine died of radiation sickness, his illness was blamed on his seven years stint as a stuntman making low budget westerns in Nevada.

I’d thought what happened to me on that night was a gift. That I had been given another chance. But in that darkened room I came to the realisation that any number of the people at the Rivera Hospital that night were living with a possible death sentence.

PPD and Freedom Corps no longer have records of a hero called Hyperion Star, if they ever did. But, the fact that something happened on that night could not be covered up. The official line from the joint PPD, Fire Department and Rivera Medical Centre investigation was that there had been a gas leak, causing mass hallucinations and ultimately an explosion resulting in 17 deaths.

It was about time somebody remembered those 17 men, women and children. I filled out one of those “How are we doing?” cards at the hospital reception, suggested they hold a memorial service. The day before the board met for its monthly meeting, I paid a visit to the centre manager. Showed him the sights from the top of a smokestack in King’s Row until he came round to my way of thinking. Two days later the Paragon Times reported that a memorial service was to be held at Rivera, a year to the day of that “gas explosion”.

[edit] End

This plotline is the essential starting point for all Hyperion Watchmen characters