The X-Virus was discovered by the Sky-heaven agency. A world-renowned space agency designed to travel to nearby planets like Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and its many moons; to find signs of extraterrestrial life.
Sky-heaven brought in a steady supply of samples from their expeditions across space, which gave Gabe O'Driscoll, a researcher of Sky-heaven, many opportunities to research on those samples. These samples ranged from generic rocks, odd compounds to other small cellular organisms like bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
Out of the samples that were brought back to earth, one of which; that was designated as X-16, was an obscure, highly contagious atmospheric virus that caused unknown effects.
Gabe O'Driscoll, who was a shut-in scientist of the agency, probed and researched X-16 using many scientific methods for months, trying to find its origin and effect, leaving none of his allocated pastime for entertainment or pleasure.
Every second of his life was dedicated to the X-virus, making many of his co-workers think he was either deranged or obsessed with it. Yet, even through his endless dedication and effort, he made no progress into the virus and was only left further bewildered by its enigmatic nature as time flowed on.
Eventually, six months after the discovery of X-16, an unforeseen accident occurred that changed the world forever. Gabe's laboratory had a leak that resulted in the X-Virus becoming airborne.
At first, governments were in a panic. The virus had spread quicker than any one of them could fathom, and they were fully prepared to allocate a huge of their funding to prevent its spread. Though, in the end, they decided not to. The virus had not shown any detrimental effects to any of the people who had contracted it and did neither impair any other significant life on earth.
Of course, there was still the off-chance that the virus may take time to develop; but the major scientific consensus that circulated was that the virus would not have any severe effects in the short or long term. So it was eventually forgotten with time, even though its markers were present in every human being.
June 23rd, 2023 — 13 months after the spread of the X-Virus.
Gabe was enjoying an iced espresso in his laboratory when all-of-a-sudden a pang befell his stomach that made him hurl out his coffee.
'What was that?', he thought as he touched and examined his stomach.
He had not had any digestive issues before and was a little concerned, yet scratched it off as just one of the by-products of age and continued guzzling down his coffee like he had been before. Finally, he finished his beverage and stood up to continue his work until another unexpected pang befell his stomach that made him recoil backwards.
"What is going on!" he shouted.
He fumbled to the nearest mirror, which was in an adjacent bathroom to the laboratory, and swiftly removed his shirt to examine his stomach.
He looked at himself in the mirror and gazed at his gut. He felt like his stomach was alive and was trying to burrow itself out from his midsection, and just the thought of it was sending chills down his spine.
Before he could make any analyzation of his gut's condition, another pang hit. Though this one was more severe and made him barf out his previously consumed coffee and the eggs he ate for breakfast.
"Eughhh," the vomit dropped to the washbasin, and with it traces of bile, making the bathroom reek of rot.
Gabe wiped the residual bile from his lips with the back of his hand and returned his gawk to the mirror, which caused his already grimaced face to contort even more at what he saw.
"What the hell!" he shrieked.
His abdomen was exuding a bright greenish luster, with greenish lines intertwining and branching out from his belly to the rest of his body.
Gabe was utterly shocked and wracked his brain for what was going on, but was interrupted by yet another pang that wasn't only converged in his stomach but felt throughout his entire body instead.
The pain made him scream again, yet this time in a more guttural, throaty intonation, causing his already hoarse voice to completely fade out. "Aghhh—"
When he recovered from the pain and leered back towards the mirror, what he saw in its reflection utterly startled him. The revolting greenish lines that were once only on his midsection had now expanded and covered his entire body, making him look like a half-transformed zombie.
The sight caused Gabe's vision to become foggy and his already strained breathing to become progressively worse...
It eventually got so strenuous he passed out. Causing him to fall backwards and lan on the white tiled floor with a loud "Thud..."
What Gabe wasn't aware of, was that similar events were happening all around the world, in every country, and in every city where the virus had touched. Resulting in every inhabitant of earth to have become inflicted by the greenish lines. And in result, fallen unconscious.
At that moment, every single human on earth that had contracted the virus; laid unconscious on the ground with bright greenish lines covering their entire bodies.
As they were finally awoken from their unconsciousness with time, the greenish lines that had lined their bodies from head to toe had mysteriously vanished.
This incident induced a public uproar, causing people to rush towards hospitals in waves, inevitably creating mayhem and congestion in the streets. Due to this, many lives were lost as a result, and numerous bodies lined the ground with pools of blood to accompany them wherever you looked.
Amid all that crazed, bloodied pandemonium, something unexpected transpired that no one had predicted.
Humans began acquiring special powers. Some were generic, others unique — and a few truly monstrous. Powers that had only been shown in comics and fiction were now becoming a reality.
In the beginning, it only escalated the chaos, yet that was quickly changed when the truly powerful who had gotten formidable powers took action. As a result of their actions, governments that once stood on top toppled, and a new hierarchy took precedent where only the powerful ability wielders mattered. The world had entered a new epoch, and abilities were now the center of attention and what truly mattered.
The ones who were imaginably everyday citizens before with sub par jobs had now become the world's most powerful that ruled nations like iron hammers. Their words had become indisputable, and they unilaterally decided all the laws.
Many thought it was unfair and wanted things to go back to how they used to be, yet nothing could be done. The strong ruled, and the weak obeyed — If anyone said, or did things differently, then they were only silenced by the Iron hammer. As a result, people eventually conformed to the strong's ideals, and with time, it was viewed upon as normal and just the way things were.
Years went past, and the world kept changing. It was undoubtedly due to the abilities humans had relied so heavily on, and every year was now accompanied by many new technological advancements. If one were to walk around a city, it wouldn't be an unusual sight to see all kinds of futuristic technology like teleportation hubs, hologramed billboards, and improved energy sources at every street corner.
The world had been completely reformed, and any traces of the past were gone.
But on that day, that accursed day. People had remembered one component that they had long forgotten... War. But not just any war, a war against extraterrestrials that had power unlike any.
July 7th, 2030 — 7 long years after the initial appearance of abilities was when they invaded. Vulkors, they were called, and they were frightening. They possessed supernatural strength and the agility of dragonflies.
According to history books, the Vulkors came to earth because they sensed an abnormally powerful influx of energy from the planet after the awakening of abilities.
They came on their massive spaceships that donned heavy weaponry and initially landed on the southern-hemisphere of earth. They looked like humans yet possessed a few discernible traits that made them stand out. Among those traits were reddish irises, pointy ears, and whiter skin than the average human, making them look a bit more like porcelain statues than humans.
Humans were shocked and very alarmed by the sight of extraterrestrials yet were still rather composed — and more so excited from their presence than scared. This is because humanity had come a far way when it came to technology and was no longer considered a weak specie, causing more to be brimming with excitement rather than anxiety at the prospect of their being other races in the universe apart from them.
Every single television across the globe started airing their landing, and people watched their screens with wild anticipation of what was about to happen next. Even the metropolitan areas with millions of merchants, laborers, and leaders had all their heads turned to the hologramed billboards that hung from the skyscrapers to watch the advent. It wouldn't be short of an exaggeration to say that the entirety of earth's workforce had fully stopped that day to watch the incoming extraterrestrials.
Yet as soon as they landed, what people hadn't expected, became true. They didn't arrive majestically and greet humans with fervor but instead started slaughtering humans indiscriminately.
Their massacre was left unabated with little resistance from humanity, causing millions of lives, children and women included, to be wiped from existence. They did it by the means of their supernatural strength, though more so from the weapons they wielded. They were weapons crude in appearance but mightier beyond belief.
They took form as swords, axes, and other crude archaic weapons of the past but showed massive differences as compared to them. These weapons had an unearthly glow to them and were able to cause enormous destruction with nothing more but of a simple swing. Armies were wiped out from their weapons might, buildings cleaved in half, mountains crushed from above, and rivers split in two. They were monstrous and coined as magical weapons by humanity.
Humanity fought back by the use of their abilities that were not only versatile but some even extremely powerful, causing the Vulkors to become massively restricted in their onslaught. Albeit, Vulkority was still on top, they had caused an unimaginable amount of bloodshed by the use of their supernatural strength and magical weapons.
September 13th, 2034 — 4 years into the war, humanity finally turned the tides.
They had made an unlikely discovery and found foreign teleportation coordinates on a shot down Vulkor spaceship, that gave them the plausibility to teleport to other planets.
These planets were home to ferocious animals that had the ability to wipe out hundreds of ordinary men with nothing but of a swipe of their paws. There was a wide array of their species, and an even wider spectrum to ascertain their strengths.
At first, humans had a very arduous time exploring these planets with the likely threat of the beasts lurking around them, yet also on the off-chance that a Vulkor might attack. After all, these were their planets, and finding a Vulkor or a Vulkor base wasn't that difficult.
Humanity held numerable conferences on whether or not they should withdraw yet ultimately wiped that thought from their minds as soon as they had made a tide-turning discovery.
The planets animal remains could be used to make weapons, but not just any ordinary weapons, magical ones! The same ones Vulkority used to create inconceivable bloodshed and destruction.
These weapons had the same earth-shattering effect as the ones belonging to Vulkority and gave off the same unearthly glow when they were made into weapons. Moreover, it led to armor becoming impenetrable, not even allowing the highest-concentrated plasma to pass through. It also caused blades to become even sharper, making it so that reinforced steel was nothing more than just warm butter in its path.
Humans began rapidly replacing their technological weapons with magical ones, which eventually turned into the new norm, and soon, 5 years into the war, humanity had fully turned the tides. Vulkority began being pushed back and was losing more people than they could ever afford. It ultimately led to a truce to be proposed by Vulkority which Humanity grudgingly acknowledged.
Many humans were still very impassioned to get vengeance on the Vulkors for the millions they had slaughtered, yet gave way to the truce nevertheless because of the scope of their might. Supposedly, by speculation, Vulkority still had other armadas which they hadn't sent which were laying siege on other planets around the universe, and if they were eventually sent, the outcome of the war would be vastly different than it is now…
As the truce was finally signed, Vulkority expeditiously retreated to their side of the universe, giving humans their long-awaited era of peace. Society was now free from war, yet it still underwent numerable transformations after the retreat of the Vulkors to prevent a possible continuation of the war. It was promptly decided that to strengthen their childrens ability prowess, schools would be entirely focused on ones ability, making the already stretched divide between ability levels even wider.
Children were now taught how to fight from adolescence within school, and the curriculum was mainly transformed into one entirely focused on strengthening the abilities of the young. Also, upon reaching 16 years of age, one was required to attend military school, where most people yearned to succeed in. As it is the deciding factor whether or not you were worthy of moving up the hierarchy.
It was the place where dreams were made or crushed by the iron boot, and If one were to fail, they would be lucky if they could even get a laborer job when they were older.
May 29th, 2057 — 19 long years after the end of the war, in an ordinary school's back alley, laid Lachlan Grayford on the ground, an abilityless boy surrounded by his bullies.