A YJA Moment - Ages of Magic

What sorcerers call Magic is the best utilized but no less mysterious of all the emanations of the source.  By the combination of a person's will channeled through specific rituals and personal sacrifice, a variety of potent effects can be manifested.  However, much like a mystical iceberg, the knowledge of the magical community is but a small part of the entire spectrum of the arcane.  It is very easy for magicians, though a rash action or accidental convergence of factors creates a devastating and uncontrolled magical effect.

Normally one can rely on the Rock of Eternity and its Guardian of Magic to act as a filter for arcane flows, preventing disruptions from tearing the fabric of magic asunder.  However, there are times when the disruption is so great, the effect so widespread, that even the Rock has difficulty returning things to normal.  When the mystic storms subside and things return to normal, will-workers find that the reformed flows have been forever altered.

It is in those times when the current Age of Magic comes to an end, and a new one dawns. Because using magic relies on specific requirements the dawning of a new Age can have disastrous consequences across the entire Universe.

Wizards may find they are unable to cast spells, while previously normal individuals are endowed with great power.  The normal boons and banes of supernatural creatures can be forever altered, allowing Vampires to walk in the daylight and make Werewolves immune to silver.  Even the great Sorcerer Supreme can lose their position, finding it thrust upon another often unknown individual.  Worse yet, magical prisons could be wiped away, allowing horrific entities freedom to sow chaos.

When the cosmic imbalance known as the Anti-Life Equation grew in Pleasant Hills, it caused da great disturbance in the fabric of reality.  All the emanations of the Source were affected and this left the Rock unable to calm of the ripples within the flows of magic.  A new Age of Magic was about to dawn in with these unique circumstances, no one knew what that would bring.

Thankfully, the Avengers were able to stop the expression of the Anti-Life equation with the sacrifice of the Vision, the Reverse-Flash, Mercury, and Nate Gray.  With that, the turning of the Age was averted, if only for a few centuries.

A YJA Moment: Orchis

Henry Peter Gyrich had long craved power.  He achieved a measure of his goals when he assumed leadership of Checkmate, the intelligence & operations branch of the secretive group known as Weapons Plus.  Gryrich's first step was to reveal Checkmate to the world, using the uncertainty of current events to absorb its rival the Office of National Emergency.

This proved to be a disastrous decision, both for Checkmate and Weapons Plus as a whole.  Due to the actions of the Resistance, the Avengers were able to turn the political and public opinion against Checkmate.  Because anonymity was always Weapons Plus greatest strength, the actions of Gyrich threatened to reveal all of the shadow organizations' dirty secrets.

Ironically it would be the enemies of Checkmate, the Brotherhood of Mutants that would provide Weapons Plus with a solution.  In retaliation for the widely-maligned attack on the Xavier Mansion, the Brotherhood's leader, Magneto, dropped an Aircraft Carrier on one of Gyrich's press conferences.  The Director and his senior leadership were killed instantly, along with an assortment of innocent bystanders.

Killian Devo, former Scientist Supreme of the villainous organization A.I.M. had been offered clemency by Weapons Plus in exchange for his servitude.  Years of successful projects had earned him the respect of his handlers, eventually allowing him to have his sentence commuted and granting him leadership within the organization. 

With the chaos that followed, the still-secret elements of Weapons Plus severed their ties to Checkmate and descended into the shadows once again.  Dr. Devo severed the remaining connections with the United States government and used his connections within the  elements of A.I.M. and HYDRA to pull in additional resources.  The result was a renewed organization which they code-named Orchis.

Seeing themselves as the last hope for humanity, Orchis is embarking on a bold plan to stop the tides of evolution and end the threat of metahumans once and for all.

Little do they know the first shots of this war had long been planned by another, one with an agenda separate from both Orchis and the Brotherhood...

A YJA Moment: Mr. Tawny

The stalwart companion of the Marvel family is the individual known as Tawny.  In the few years since he emerged, his appearance and demeanor hs changed.  This is because, the being is, in fact, two merged beings, one physical and one spiritual.

The physical part of the pairing is an enhanced tiger from Northern India. Captured by the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, he was genetically altered and injected with an ultra-steroid made from a combination of the Blockbuster serum and the drug Venom.  Freed by the original Captain Marvel, he was named "Mr. Tawny" and housed him in the Rock of Eternity.

Sometime later, Mr. Tawny came to the attention of an immortal spirit that also inhabited the Rock.  This spirit had many names over his lifetime and was known to possess various willing individuals and animals in order to experience the living world.

The spirit communed with Mr. Tawny and eventually, they became good friends.  With the tiger's permission, the spirit merged his essence with the animal, become a completely new being in the process.  The magic of the Rock of Eternity further altered the Tiger, granting him an anthropomorphic form.

The New Mr. Tawny has become a world-traveler and adventurer.  Armed with years of knowledge and a web of connections, he scours the secret places for mysteries and undiscovered phenomenon. 
He has continued a relationship with the Wizard Marvel, as well as Mary Bromfield the new Captain Marvel.

A YJA Moment - The League of Villains

With the disruption in magic during the Pleasent Hills Incident, the forces of the supernatural are in turmoil.  While the situation was resolved and the 11th Age of Magic was avoided, the forces in the universe have been shaken and are now in a process of realignment.  On the most supernatural night of the year, Halloween, a group known as The League of Villains are making a play for power.

The League of Villains is kept in line by their impossibly slender leader. His friends are permitted to call him Jack.  Everyone else has a different name for him - The Pumpkin King. The Skeleton. The Thin Man. The Rogue Reaper.  After abandoning his post as a servant of the afterlife, he came to the mortal plane where he proclaimed himself Lord of Halloween.  Not content to rule one holiday, he has on at least once occasion attempted to wrest Christmas from the grasp of the Allfather.  Taking a tithe of every soul he claimed has granted him power unseen by mere mortal ghosts.  Besides his potent spacial altering magics, he possesses the living shadow weapon Soul Robber, which can grapple objects and turn into a scythe and other weapons.

Seeing The Black Widow Bride, you would make the mistake of dismissing her as a simple ghost.  Constance Hatchaway is more than a conventional spirit - she is a powerful poltergeist whose spectral ax can cut through steel and bone.  In life, she had many wealthy husbands, all of them who perished in terrible... accidents which left their heads detached from their bodies.  She was never arrested or convicted for her crimes but after her death, she found she was trapped in the very house she had murdered in.  Only on Halloween may she leave her haunted house but must return before sun-up lest the psychopomps come and drag her to her due punishment.

It would be wise for no one to underestimate the man who goes by the name The Shadow Man.  Wile Doctor Samuel Facilier appears to be a bokor who practices the left-handed path of Petro Voodoo, he, in fact, was one of Jack's first disciples and is empowered by the same necrotic energies that fuel the Pumpkin King.  Capable of making pacts and casting spells, his main ability is to draw dark spirits into the material world to do his bidding.

Maleficent is one of the last surviving dragons that have survived to the modern-day.  For millennia she held a domain in England until she was betrayed by future King Edward II.  Seeking revenge, she cast a spell on his firstborn daughter to cause her eternal slumber.  Eventually, the spell was broken by a brave warrior Philip.  The Knight would end up gravely injuring Maleficent, causing her to fake her death so she could escape and heal.  Using her great magics and shapeshifting to skulk around the fringes of civilization for centuries she eventually agreed to join the League of Villains to carve out a new domain.

The meteor which uplifted the primates of Gorilla City, also altered other animals in the savannahs of Africa.  One of these creatures was the lion Scar, a power-hungry lion who craved the leadership of the pride held by his brother.  Arranging for the death of King Mustafa, Scar was eventually overthrown by his nephew Simba and was attacked and killed by hyenas.  Resurrected to life in the service of the League, Scar seeks an opportunity to share the pain and anguish he was forced to endure while biding his time to take over leadership.

League members operate out of a place they call the Haunted Mansion.  Hatachaway's prison is one house, many houses or no houses depending on the time and circumstances.  In truth, any sufficiently ghost-infested location can merge into the collective framework that is the Haunted Mansion.  When someone enters such a location, they are greeted to shifting floor-plans possessed by nine-hundred and ninety-nine ghosts drawn from around the world.  

Normal instances of the Haunted Mansion are manors in New Orleans, Philidelphia, and Thunder Mesa, Utah.  However, on Halloween, all haunted locations are potential portals for the Mansion. Using the Black Widow Bride as a guide, the League can effectively teleport across the country or the world using the Mansion.

A YJA Moment - Checkmate current events

[This is Oracle - Batman (O.G. Batman, Batman Prime?) has asked me to fill you in the current state of Checkmate.  I won't like to you - the situation isn't great, but the Great Takeover isn't exactly running smoothly for Gyrich and his goons]

[Thank you Oracle, I will be adding commentary when necessary - B]

As of the beginning of the month, Checkmate has subsumed all of the operations formerly held by the Office of National Emergency.  This includes the Triskelion and all Field Offices across the United States.  They are still in the process of vetting thousands of agents and support personnel.  Most of the staunchest loyalists were held in security lockup and were liberated by the Avengers to Outland.  It looks like a small number are being retained, with the rest being transferred to other agencies or having their employment outright terminated.

[We have the personnel we needed out of there.  Luckily, Gyrich doesn't seem to hold grudges with the rank and file O.N.E. personnel so I expect no harsh treatment - B]

Checkmate was empowered to subsume the O.N.E. by President Ellis through an executive order.  While well within the President's right to deal with executive-level organizations, this was highly irregular.  Most agencies, particularly intelligence and security agencies, are created through legislation not through what amounts to a presidential decree.  This has not gone unchallenged, as civil liberty groups have launched court challenges in order to determine the constitutionality of Ellis' actions.  This is expected to slowly pass through the legal system until it reaches a definitive end at the Supreme Court.

[Ellis stacked the Supreme Court with those aligned with his ideology, but that is not a guarantee that the SCOTUS will rule in his favor.  This is very much a Constitution grey-area -B]

The White House is, of course, rushing to make this court case a moot point by passing legislation.  The Security Agency Reorganization Act of 2019 officially recognizes Checkmate as the intelligence and law enforcement dealing with extraordinary (read Metahuman) threats to the American public.  Despite the Presidents party controlling both the House and the Senate, it is unclear whether the bill has enough votes in either body to pass.  All polls, both public and internal show the public deeply mistrustful of Checkmate, causing many politicians to ask serious questions about the agency.  2020 is an election year and many representatives and senators fear a backlash from the electorate if they push through legislation without the appearance of due diligence. 

[Politicians and the public are not stupid.  Despite what the President's loyal base think, the average citizen sees this for what it really is - a grab for power by Checkmate - B]

It doesn't help that Gyrich totally blew his closed-door appearance at the Senate Intelligence Committee meeting yesterday.  I managed to get a raw feed from sources that AW gave me and I can tell you it got very heated in that room.  The members of the committee were not impressed by Gyrich's attempt to keep Checkmate's organization obfuscated under the blanket of "national security".  They rightfully had tough questions about when and how this agency was formed, where it received its funding and its organizational structure.  Gyrich.s non-answers were not appreciated by the committee and it is expected that they will subpoena the acting Director for all relevant documentation in the next day or so. 

[While I don't expect the subpoenas to get anywhere, the fact that Checkmate can be subpoenaed exposes a weakness.  In order to gain power, Gyrich has sacrificed his agency's greatest asset - anonymity - B]

Did I say Acting Director?  Because though he has been appointed Director by President Ellis, Gyrich has not gone through the Senate confirmation process and therefore is not truly the head of Checkmate (at least on paper).  Henry has spent his life as a civil servant aggravating those in the halls of power and making a lot of enemies.  That is going to come back to haunt him in the Confirmation Hearings, where he will have to answer more tough questions, this time with already-skeptical audience analyzing his every word.

[There is no way Gyrich is going to win confirmation under normal conditions.  However, with Weapons Plus and Task Force X at this command, he could certainly engineer circumstances at would require a hasty confirmation. -B]

Well, that is all I have at the moment;  Summing up, Checkmate has a lot of power but none of it is certain and reliable.

A YJA Moment - Batman Incorporated

FADE IN

INT. DARK HALLWAY

ELEVATOR at the end of the Hallway opens. BRUCE WAYNE enters HALLWAY

Hello, my name is Bruce Wayne. You may know me as the CEO of Wayne Industries and the Wayne Foundation. For most of his life, my father Thomas Wayne worked to make Gotham City a better place. Had he not been brutally murdered, he would have continued spending our family fortune to help the disadvantaged.

BRUCE continues to walk down the HALLWAY

I too believed in my father's vision but the horrible truth was that Gotham City wasn't ready for a philanthropist like my father. It was too steeped in crime and corruption. It needed someone to shine the light in the darkness, to strip away the mobsters and the villains. So using my family fortune, I sought out and equipped and extraordinary man to strike at the heart of Gotham's problems.

BRUCE reached the end of the HALLWAY. The camera pans away to show a view of the BATCAVE.

I created Batman.

BRUCE walks into the BATCAVE, walking upstairs towards the BAT COMPUTER.

While I played the role of businessman and playboy, the Batman waged a one-man war on crime. First considered a criminal, then a vigilante, he was later heralded as a hero and was even made a member of the Justice League.

BRUCE reaches the BAT COMPUTER and sits down on a chair, facing the CAMERA.

The Dark Knight may be gone, but his legacy still remains. The man behind the cowl may have been the world's greatest detective; he may have been an extraordinary man, but he is not irreplaceable. We have his history, his resources, and his example.

BRUCE leans forward towards the CAMERA

That is why effective immediately I am taking a leave of absence from both the Wayne Foundation and Wayne Enterprises. I am taking this time to announce the creation of a new non-profit agency that will revolutionize crime-fighting world-wide. I would like to introduce to you...Batman Incorporated.

The BATMAN INCORPORATED logo appears on the BAT COMPUTER screen. BRUCE starts walking on a WALKWAY towards the BATMOBILE

Leveraging a decade of the Dark Knight. Using proven training and the latest technology to create new members of the Bat-Family. Batmen and Batwoman in every city; every country around the world.

BRUCE walks up to the BATMOBILE and stands beside it.

With independent funding and located in hidden locations across the globe, Batman Incorporated will combat crime in all its forms. Muggers, Organized Criminals, or Corrupt Officials. We will find and defeat you. We cannot be stopped.

BRUCE sits on the roof of the BATMOBILE

If you believe you are the next Dark Knight, we welcome you to contact us. Finding us is your first and only test. There are clues to a contact point within this message. This will be your only clue. We look forward to meeting you.

FADE TO BLACK

A YJA Moment - The Spirits of Vengeance

Of all the varied creatures formed by the Higher Power, the mysterious creator of the world, none are so feared as the Spirits of Vengeance.  Neither angel nor demon, the spirits exist to punish the wicked no matter their physical strength or social status.  Like many other entities, the Spirits of Vengeance must bond their essence to the soul of a willing host for them to affect the physical world.

Though the exact powers bestowed on the host are varied, with some able to alter reality, control fire; and have some combination of super-strength, durability, or regeneration.  Almost all spirits have the Penance Stare, the ability to transfer to them the pain and anguish of all their victims.

In ancient times one of the Spirits went rogue and sought to use its powers to destroy anyone it deemed unworthy of life.  Nabu and an alliance of sorcerers defeated Eclipso and imprisoned him in a specially-prepared diamond, which instantly turned black.  The Heart of Darkness would hold Eclipso for many centuries until scientist Bruce Gordon accidentally released him during an experiment in the 1970s.  

The first modern Spirit of Vengeance was the Justice Society member known as the Spectre, who appeared in the 40s.  Gotham City Police Detective Jim Corrigan was investigating an organized crime cartel when he was murdered by the mob's henchmen.  Bonded to a Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre returned and dealt final justice to all that had wronged him.  Corrigan continued to house the Spirit for many years and is still active today.

The Spirit is known as Zarathos was corrupted by the infernal powers and was used by the demon Mephisto to further his aims.  Attempting to create another Eclipso, he tricked a stunt driver, Johnny Blaze, into a making a deal to save his ailing father.  Bonded to Zarathos, he turned against the forces of hell and became the first of the supernatural vigilantes known as Ghost Rider

Years later, Danny Ketch would learn that his family line was a host to successive generations of Spirits of Vengeance.  After gaining the amulet of his ancestor Noble Kale, Danny invoked the power of the amulet to summon the Spirit.  Inspired by Johnny Blaze, Ketch adopted a biker motif, become the second individual to become the Ghost Rider.

Yoshio Kannabe was also inspired by both Blaze and Ketch. Using ancient rites to call upon what he believed to be Emma-o, the kami of revenge, emerged as a blazing curse on the nation's Yakuza.  Reborn as Boss Bosozuko, Yoshio would become a media icon, even graduating to the ranks of Big Science Action. 

The current Ghost Rider is a young street racer, Robbie Reyes who drives a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T.  After stealing a vehicle that housed stolen technology, Robbie was hunted down by gang members who riddled his car with bullets. Awaking to find he was not injured, Robbie later discovered he was now hosting a Spirit of Vengeance.  Like Danny Ketch, this Spirit also inhabited successive generations, previously using his uncle Elias Morrow as a host.  His uncle had been an evil man and had corrupted the Spirit, forcing Robbie to redeem the Spirit as well as act as the newest in the line of Ghost Riders.

A YJA Moment - An Interview with Director Gyrich

[Excerpts from the Edge Network’s prime-time show Jetstream, where host Jezebel Jet interviews head of the government agency Checkmate, Director Henry Peter Gyrich]

Jet:  The latest Galaxy Broadcasting Poll, well over half of Americans don't trust Checkmate.  Does this bother you?

Gyrich:   Not at all.  I think if you polled the public, you would find that they mistrust most government agencies…

Jet:  Yet, the numbers are particularly high for Checkmate.

Gyrich:   I admit, our introduction to the public could have been a  bit better timed…

Jet:  Timed?

Gyrich:   With the nation’s security at stake we felt it necessary to take extraordinary steps…

Jet:  Mr. Gyrich, your agency appeared out of practically nowhere and staged what was effectively a hostile takeover of another government agency…

Gyrich:  ...which had betrayed the people’s trust and risked their safety.  Need I remind you that Director Hill left control of The Shield in the hands of foreign nationals?  Teenagers no less!

Jet:  You are speaking, of course, about the new Avengers team that formed in the wake of the Watchtower Massacre?

Gyrich:  The incident with the Watchtower was tragic, Ms. Jet. Yet, our defense lay in the individuals who largely owed no allegiance to the United States.  A mythical beast, two individuals who claimed to be deities, Captain Marvel’s former sidekick and an underage vigilante are not appropriate national defenders…

Jet:  But your Thunderbolts are?

Gyrich: The Avengers, Ms. Jet.  As our team is now sanctioned super-team on American soil, they are now to be called the Avengers.  And yes, they are very much appropriate national defenders.

Jet:  I want to get back to the poll numbers, Mr. Gyrich.  These were taken last week before the leaked footage…

Gyrich:  ...you mean the stolen classified information…

Jet:   …the leaked footage of your altercation with Secretary-General Lex Luthor and his Squadron Supreme.  Footage that, among other things, alludes to an alliance with Luthor as a part of the crime syndicate known as The Light.

Gyrich:  That incomplete footage was released entirely without context as part of an attempt to discredit Checkmate

Jet: Then you don’t dispute its authenticity.

Gyrich:   I do not.

Jet:  Are you a member of The Light, as indicated in the video?

Gyrich:  The footage is part of an on-going and extremely classified investigation.  I cannot comment on it any further.

Jet:  I don’t think the public is going to be happy with that answer.

Gyrich:  They are well within their right, especially in light of the thoughtless actions of the Office of National Emergency in the last few months.

Jet:  You are not bothered by this?

Gyrich:  On the contrary, I am very disturbed by the idea that Checkmate is treated with suspicion.  However, I made a vow to protect American citizens from all threats visible and invisible.  I wish I could explain the contents of that video, but as I said it is part of an on-going investigation.  As the Director of Checkmate, I can only assure the public that once we have completed the investigation, we will release as much information as we are allowed under our nation’s security regulations.

Jet: Thank you very much for your time, Director Gyrich

Gyrich:  It’s been a pleasure, Ms. Jet.

Announcer:   For the full interview, check out Jetstream, tonight at 9 pm Eastern.  Or join Silver St. Cloud and Booster Gold himself, Michael Jon Carter, as they are joined by the Checkmate Director tomorrow morning on the Silver and Gold Morning Show.  See local listings.

A YJA Moment - The Reverse-Flash

Note: Mercury was a character played by a former member of our group Jon-Mark Wolfraim-Jenkins and idea, creation, and most of the history of the character belongs to him.

Eobard Thawne was a scientist hundreds of years in the future.  A brilliant mind, he had a terrible upbringing and he saw the worst that humanity had to offer.  Developing a sadistic streak, he loved to gain revenge on his enemies, using his intellect to engineer circumstances that would injure and humiliate them.

He was also a fan of the silver age Flash Barry Allen, idolizing him for most of his life.  Volunteering at the Flash Museum he discovered Speed Force residue on the various items used by the Flash Family.  Siphoning that energy to gain his own form of super-speed, Eobard used the Cosmic Treadmill to travel back in time in order for Thawne to become the Flash's new side-kick.

Rejected by his hero, Thawne swore revenge.  Learning how Allen gained his connection to the Speed Force, he recreated the accident to grant himself permanent super-speed.  He then went on a crusade to kill Barry and replace him as the Flash.  After many years, the Reverse-Flash would prove to be the Flash's greatest foe and the one he was never able to fully defeat.

In order to stop him, the golden age Quicksilver, Maxwell Mercury plucked a young Eobard out of time when he was just a brilliant teenager.   He was then transported to 20th Century where he was adopted by the Allens in order to give him a less troubled upbringing.  When Thawne inexplicably and spontaneously developed his own connection to the Speed Force, it was decided that he would join the Hammond Institute.

Joining the school he made friends with fellow students Kentauride, Mary Marvel, Staci the She-Hulk, and Melinoe.  When the group was transferred to become Team Gamma of The Avengers, he joined them and took on the code-name of Mercury.

He would encounter his older self, the Reverse-Flash on several occasions with the elder Thawne attempting to tempt him to the dark side.  During the original incident at Pleasent Hill, when Nate Grey channeled the Anti-Life Equation, the Reverse-Flash would become infected and turn into a time paradox separate chronologically from Mercury.  The younger Thawne received a vision of the future where he inherited the mantle of the Flash but lived in a world beset by zombies.

When the Watchtower incident seemingly killed all the world's heroes, the older Thawne allied himself with Lex Luthor, joining The Squadron Supreme as the "hero" The Blur.  While working with Stormwatch, Luthor discovered traces of the Anti-Life Equation within his body.  Just before Stormwatch was disbanded, Luthor sent the Blur on a mission to Pleasant Hills, where he re-infected Nate Grey and caused the infamous Anti-Life Incident.

A part of X-Man's Anti-Army, Blur fought the Team Alpha in Pleasent Hills.  After Nate was accidentally killed by Darkseid's Omega Beams, the Blur's connection to the Negative Speed Force and the Anti-Life Equation was severed.  Enraged by his defeat, the Reverse-Flash screamed at the heroes as reality wiped his current self from existence. 

The current status of Eobard Thawne in the time-stream has not been revealed, although Mercury also disappeared from the time-stream.

A YJA Moment - Cable and X-Man

In an alternate dark future, Nathan Daystrom Summers, the child of Jean Grey and Scott Summers was fighting a losing rebellion against the forces of the Anti-Life Equation.  One by one the forces of free humanity fell to the insidious infection that was the Equation.  The aging speedster, the Flash, Eobard Thawne had just been killed and now Nathan himself was the only metahuman left unaffected.  

Nathan Daystum Summers.  Cable.  A man that the Equation felt was the perfect vessel for its essence.

Cable searched for the source of the Anti-Life.  He was aided by strange visions that seemed to be forgotten memories but couldn't have been.  The reflections in the mirror looked like him but subtly different.  It was impossible that he had forgotten a completely different life.  Then at the heart of the Equation infection, in a place that once was known as Pleasent Hill, he found the source of his hallucinations.

It was him.  Or rather, a recreation of him.

The man who Cable named X-Man was Nathan Grey.  Presumably spurred on by the knowledge of the future, a 21st-century geneticist called Nathanael Essex took genetic material from Jean Grey and Scott Summers and made his own version of Cable.  Seeking to improve already potent psychic abilities, he added New God DNA into the mix.  

X-Man attacked Cable immediately and nearly killed him.  In order to flee from the compound, Cable had to tax his own telepathic and telekinetic abilities to their maximum, almost completely burning himself out.  Despite this, he was gravely wounded in his escape and had to be cybernetically reconstructed. 

Obtaining a time machine, Cable went into the past.  He first plucked X-Man during his mid-teens and flung him into the further past.  When that didn't seem to change the future for the better, he went into the past himself to do what he needed to do.  Along with mercenaries Domino and Deadpool he would kill Nate Grey once and for all.

The trio's attack on the Hammond Institute would fail and Cable found himself incarcerated.  He would later join the Avengers as Team Omega and would aid them in their battles against Weapons Plus and The Light.

Always in the back of his mind was the vision of his "twin brother", the swirling epicenter of a storm that would end all of creation.   Now despite everything that has happened.  Despite everything that he and his allies have done.  That vision was coming true.

Serving as host and beacon to the Anti-Life Equation, Nate drew Darkseid to Pleasant Hills.  During the battle, the New God decimated the assembled heroes and was about to kill Mel with his Omega Beams.  X-Man was able to snap out his trance long enough to interpose himself in from of the goddess.  Despite all of his telekinetic strength, the beams cut through the force-shield and obliterated Nate into dust.

A YJA Moment - The Fall of the Light

In the ancient past, the warlord known in the modern days as Vandal Savage encountered an alien for the first time.  Thanos, the renegade son of Darkseid, had come to Earth seeking the Anti-Life Equation and take it for his own.  The confrontation between the two was apparently illuminating, for afterward Savage sought out an audience with the Lord of Apokalips himself and offered him his aid, in exchange for rulership of the Earth.

Thus the greatest collection of super-villains with a singular goal of world domination was formed. Not just to rule the world, but to preserve it from the firepits of Apocalips and the cruel machinations of Darkseid.  A "Light" in the Darkness.  The Light.

The purpose of The Reach was to aid the Light in taking over the world, giving them needed technologies and also to help them discover the metahumans.  The Anti-Life Equation turns normal humans into mindless zombies, but metahumans become more malleable slaves under its effects.  The Light was also working to undermine the Reach, eventually hoiping to have the forces of Apocalips finish them off.

One of the main projects of the Light was the creation of Nate Grey.  Using the blood of Thanos kept by Savage, plus the DNA of metahumans Scott Summers and Jean Grey, they used the rogue geneticist Nathanial Essex to build a proper vessel for the Anti-Life Equation, should it be found.

When the Reach was defeated by the Justice League and their covert-operations Team, Vandal Savage took the Warworld and defected to serve Apokalips directly, figuring it was better to rule in Hell than serving time in prison. This forced Lex Luthor to take control of the Light and forge an alliance with the power-hungry individuals within Weapons Plus.

Luthor initiated Project: Stormwatch which would replace the world's heroes with ones of his making.  Gaining the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, he undermined the League until his opportunity to destroy them manifested themselves.  Obliterating the Watchtower with an anti-matter missile, he then replaced the Justice League with a team he called the Squadron Supreme which headlined a group he called Stormwatch.

The forces at Weapons Plus were concerned for the United States and cared nothing for the world or the ultimate plans of the Light.  After Luthor convinced the American government to allow Checkmate to absorb the Office of National Emergency, Weapons Plus cut all ties with the Light and gave Luthor notice not to interfere with the United States from this point onward.

Then the combined force of the Justice League and The Avengers, who had been actually saved by the machinations of Rip Hunter, launched a campaign to deal with Stormwatch and Luthor once and for all.  Gathering evidence of their treasonous activities, the heroes located the mysterious Skywatch, an alien vessel gifted to Savage years ago by Thanos which existed in the space between dimensions known as The Bleed.

The attack on Skywatch was swift and at its end, the base was destroyed, the members of the Squadron Supreme were defeated and Luthor himself was in custody in The Outland, the pocket dimension where the assembled heroes based their operations.

Yet even in defeat Luthor had an ace up his sleeve.  After Weapons Plus defected, Lex had discovered the Anti-Life equation residing in one of his Squadron Supreme members, Eobard Thawne, aka The Blur or The Reverse-Flash.  In revenge his sent the Blur on a "mission" to Pleasent Hills to kill Nate Grey, knowing that instead Nate would become infected by the Anti-Life and become the vessel for they had designed him to be.

With Pleasent Hills now a beacon radiating the Anti-Life Equation, it's only a matter of time before the forces of Apocalips or maybe Darkseid himself will arrive to claim their prize.

A YJA Moment - Of Godwaves and Men...

As one of the emanations from the Source of Everything, the Godwave is a powerful force which continually ripples from one end of creation to the other and back.  Where it goes, powerful beings are created.  Some are mortals who are elevated to godhood, others are created whole-cloth from the wave, even born out of the existing beliefs of civilizations.

The godwave continually moves and as such many incarnations of deities have been created.  These generations of gods in the universe are marked by the term "Worlds", as each new incarnation of gods and goddesses tended to reshape the worlds they were in contact with.

The First World created the fewest but most powerful of the entities and they represent concepts as old as reality itself.  Death, Destiny, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and Dream form a group known simply as the Endless. 

The Second World deities were more numerous, with entities dealing with more physical concepts such as light, darkness, and physical matter.  These included the Primordial entities and the Titans of the Greeks.

The Third World was the most abundant, with Pantheons on numerous worlds.  On Earth, the Asgardians, the Kami, Olympians, Netjer,  and the Shen are only a few of the groups created in this Wave.

The Fourth World is the newest incarnation of the gods and the most mysterious.  To this date, only the New Gods of Apokalips have been discovered, though they are worshiped by no one other than the inhabitants of their realm.  Some legends speak of another group of New Gods from a place called New Genesis, but they were believed to have been destroyed by Darkseid years ago.

A YJA Moment - The Middle-East

The Middle-East is a cultural melting pot of ancient traditions and modern wonders.  There are currently three important nations to current events - Qurac, Bialya, and Khandaq. 

Originally Qurac and Bialya were two nations were united under the Biayan Empire, a monarchy which had existed since the late 15th Century.  In the early 20th century, most of the royal family died while on a vacation in Europe, killed in a bomb attack in the south of France.  While anarchists were officially blamed, most believed the murders to have been orchestrated by the leader of the Biaya military leader Abdullah Adnan.  The General took no time in seizing control of the government and installing himself as President of the nation.

This did not sit well with the remaining good percentage of the civilian population.  A civil war would soon erupt in the streets with forces loyal to Adnan battling paramilitary units against his military rule.  The rebels capitalized on the divided loyalties within the Biayan military and continued to defeat the forces loyal to the General.  Eventually, Adnan was forced to yield the western third of the Empire to his opposition.  This split the nation into two: Biaya in the East and Qurac in the West.

Biaya continued to be a constitutional monarchy, although in name only.  A minor member of the royal family was placed on the throne, while all decisions were made by the newly appointed president Adnan.  In stark contrast, Qurac transitioned into a fully representative democracy and became a cultural center in the region.

Tense, but relatively peaceful coexistence existed between the two nations until the arrival of the woman known as Queen Bee.  Possessing the ability to generate mind-altering pheromones, she quietly inserted herself the affairs of Bialya until she had both the President and the King under her thrall.  After marrying the monarch in a lavish ceremony, both her husband and the President were killed in a tragic car accident, leaving Queen Bee the undisputed leader of the nation.

The new Queen of Bialya has turned her attention to Qurac and works tirelessly to reunite the two nations into a more glorious Greater Bialya.

Near the Sinai Peninsula, lies Khandaq.  Thousands of years ago it was growing power in the region, rivaling their neighbors, the New Kingdom of Egypt.  It continued to prosper under its Pharoah, protected by its supernatural Champion Teth-Adam.  However, when the villain Akh-Ton attacked the national and murdered its citizens, Teth-Adam took revenge on the invader and then killed the Pharoah for his weakness.  "Black Adam" would have placed himself on the throne if not for the actions of the Wizard, who stripped him of his powers and sealed him up in a tomb.  Soon after Khandaq as absorbed in the New Kingdom as one of its provinces.

Since its glory days, the region has been conquered many times by many nations.  Its citizens suffered under cruel kings and dictators or languished in periods of lawless anarchy.  The region had never found any lasting amount of peace until the present day.

When Dr. Sivana found the ancient crypt of Teth-Adam in the ruins of the old capital Shiruta, he wished only to claim the powers of Shazam as his own.  Instead, he resurrected Black Adam, who found he could once again tap into the powers of the Rock of Eternity.

Black Adam traveled to see the changes that occurred since he last walked the Earth.   He encountered Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, battling them on more than one occasion.  Eventually, he encountered The Light, who offered to help him a position of leadership and aid in rebuilding his homeland if he would join their Injustice League.  Defeated by the Justice League's covert Team, he expected to be rescued, but no help came.

Abandoned and betrayed, Black Adam broke free from Belle Reve Prison and traveled to his homeland.  Slaughtering the warlords and gang leaders that ruled the region, he proclaimed the birth of a new Khandaq.  In the last year, he has rebuilt the capital Shiruta, and protected his borders from at least a half-dozen incursions by neighboring states.

He is joined in this endeavor by his wife Adrianna Tomaz who is able to tap into the Egyptian goddess in order to be an avatar of Aset.  Her younger brother Amon Tomaz has been given access to Black Adam's powers to become the hero Osiris.

A YJA Moment - The Thunderbolts

When the world's heroes fell in what was to be known as the Watchtower incident, the villains of the world took no time in taking advantage of their absence.  This was no less true for the forces of Weapons Plus, whose international allies had been the one to murder all those heroes.

Director Henry Gyrich convinced the United States government it was imperative that the nation not be seen as weak following the loss of the Avengers.  Even in death, Nick Fury was held in high regard within the halls of power and the decision was made to allow Maria Hill and her new Avengers team time to set up and defend the nation.

Gyrich was allowed to form his own secondary team and was allowed to seize the Hall of Justice from the now-deceased Justice League to form as its base.  Drawing from the hundreds of incarcerated super-villains within Task Force X's "Suicide Squad" program, the Director began creating new heroic identities for them to serve as the members of his new Thunderbolts team.

The core of the Team, Thunderbolts Prime, was designed to emulate the very heroes they replacing.  They were composed of the following individuals:

The newest Captain America was John Walker, war-hero and poster boy for everything that America stands for was perfect for this role.  Though some in the team chafe at his command style and apparent arrogance, his force of personality (and fists) keeps them in line.  He was given unspecified genetic enhancements in order to replicate Steve Roger's Super Solider abilities.

Eric O'Grady was a former employee of the Office of National Emergency.  A chemistry major in college, he was tasked with aiding Hank Pym in his experiments at the Triskelion. Fired for some unspecified indiscretions, he stole a prototype shrinking apparatus and defected to Checkmate.  He serves on the team as the new Ant-Man.

Ares is the literal greek god of war.  A constant foe of heroes such as Wonder Woman and Thor, Ares grew increasingly unsatisfied with the modern nights.  While the war was everywhere, the human's dependence on drones and other machines gave him little joy.  How Gyrich was able to entice him on the Thunderbolts is unknown but he is both a powerhouse and a source of tactical experience. 

Yelena Belova was a graduate of the Russian Red Room training center, which continued to operate despite the fall of the Soviet Union.  Inheriting the code-name of Black Window, Belova was infatuated with the previous Widow, Natasha Romanov, and attempted to assassinate her on several occasions.  Disavowed by her government and incarcerated, she was transferred over the Task Force X and onto the Thunderbolts.

No one on the team trusts the gaunt individual code-named Ghoul and for good reason.  William Hand has an obsession with death.  Known for desecrating the bodies he's murdered, he was judged by the Spectre who took his right hand and then killed him.  Making a deal with the Underworld, Hand was reanimated and had his hand replaced with one which could drain the life force from his victims.  He voluntarily has joined the Thunderbolts to seek out his benefactor's daughter,  Melinoe.

Few know that the Thunderbolt code-named Hawkeye is actually the notorious hitman known as Deadshot.  The assassin-for-hire has cut a swath of destruction through the American underworld until he was captured and turned over to Task Force X. A mainstay of the Suicide Squad, he is considered Gyrich's inside person on the team.

Very little is known by the hero known as Prime.  It is rumored that whatever caused Kevin Green to become the muscle-bound powerhouse was derived by the genetic material of Doomsday, the Hulk, and even heroes such as Superman.

Simon Williams was an actor and the son of an industrialist, who blamed Stark Industries for his father's company's woes.  After his father's untimely death, he was tricked by A.I.M. into undergoing enhancement experiments in order for revenge.  Defeated by Iron Man, he eventually reformed himself and joined The Sword.  He was believed killed in the final battle against Ultron, but his ionic form reconstituted itself with the help fo Weapons Plus.  Relying on their scientists in order to continue existing, he has joined the team under his old code-name Wonder Man.

The original purpose of the Iron Man suit was as a prototype for the U.S. military Variable Threat Response Battle Suit program.  Gyrich took various incarnations that program and combined them into a new War Machine armor, known simply as the Prototype.  Lacking Stark's advanced control interface meant that pilot Captain James Ruiz had to be cybernetically implanted with neural control points so he can operate the armor.

A YJA Moment - The Magic of Shazam

Magic. As one of the emanations of the Source, it is one of the most feared if not misunderstood forces in the universe. For with it, even mortal men and women can slay the gods and become gods themselves. In almost every age across the entire universe, individuals have sought to master the forces of the occult, creating objects that they hoped would grant them endless power. The Books of Magic. The Darkhold, The Starheart. The Necronomicon.

However, none of them is as powerful or integral as the Rock of Eternity. Its creators are a mystery but few would doubt the utility of the Rock. It maintains the even flow of magic, purifying it of impurities and absorbing the spikes caused by careless rituals. It also serves as a magical prison, holding all those entities that should not and cannot be allowed to wander reality.

Maintaining the Rock is an individual known as the Guardian of Magic, or simply "The Wizard". Since its creation the Guardian has overseen the Rock and protected it from attempts to destroy or usurp is power over magic. It's easy to confuse the role of Guardian of Magic and its Champion with the Sorcerer Supreme. The Sorcerer Supreme defends Earth from magical threats, while the Guardian protects all of the magic across the universe. Both are independent of each other but both are intertwined by their roles

The title of Guardian of Magic was first assumed by the great will-worker Agamotto, creator of many mystical artifacts and one of the founders of the modern mystic arts. At the height of his power, he discovered the Rock of Eternity and seeing the need to protect it from those who would abuse such power, took up its defense and maintenance.

The second guardian was known as The Champion. Instead of casting spells, the Champion had gained his power by traveling the ancient world and interacting with the gods. By overcoming their trials, he gained some of their power such as great, strength, speed, and wisdom. When Agamotto grew weary of his tenure as Guardian, he gave it to the Champion who took on the name of Shazam.

The Wizard Shazam did not have magical powers like Agamotto and thus was limited in the scope of his travels, lest someone take advantage of his absence from the Rock. So he sought to find a new Champion that he could bestow some of his power into and become his agent in the material realms.

His first choice Teth-Adam abused his power, seeking to become a ruler of Khandaq. The Wizard imprisoned "Black Adam" in a tomb for his hubris and was so disgusted by his mistake that he did not choose another Champion until the modern-day.

It took the kindness of young Billy Batson and Mary Bromfield in order for the Wizard to once again bestow the powers of the Champion to mortals. They would help the material world as Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel respectively.

Recently the Wizard Shazam has given up his role as Guardian, passing it on to the young Batson. The new Wizard Marvel has his sister Mary as the new Captain Marvel, the champion of magic. In turn, Mary has granted the power of Shazam to a new generation, the young metahuman Kamala Khan, allowing her to become Ms. Marvel.

A YJA Moment - The Life and Times of Loki

Loki Laufeyson. The frost giant child rescued by Odin many centuries ago. He who would attempt to overthrow Asgard, plunge the Nine Realms into war and lead an alien invasion of Midgard. In recent years, defeated and bored of his existence, Loki wandered the single goal - Discover the truths that Odin the Allfather gained when he sacrificed his eye to Mimir's Well.

It's unclear how Loki found the knowledge. Some say that he followed in Odin's footsteps and that he sports an artificial eye. Others say he made bargains most foul with the most shadowy of entities. Regardless, the god of mischief found the greatest secret that Odin ever learned. He learned of the true depths of Fate.

Humanity and the gods were linked. The gods needed the worship of the masses for their power but were bound to mortal beliefs. It was a subtle bind, encouraging the gods to fulfill the roles that humanity had spun from them. If the god had been caught telling a lie, then it was likely that they would always be considered the god of lies, mischief or deception. They would be rewarded when they acted in an appropriate manner and would even gain supernatural powers.

It was this binding that forced Odin to adopt the identity of Allfather Christmas, whom the world knows as Santa Claus. It was also this phenomenon that set Loki and Thor on a seemingly eternal rivalry, the gods of mischief and thunder.

Then Thor died and the bounds of fate had no god of thunder, so chaos reigned. It rained every day for weeks, the sky echoing with thunder. Armed with his knowledge of fate and his desire to break the mold created for him, Loki took the unheard-of step and picked up Thor's hammer. Becoming both the god of lies and thunder (or as Mel calls it "The god of meteorology") has changed Loki. Still the charming agent of chaos, the Laufeyson has become more heroic, helping the new Avengers and unaware that instead of breaking his bonds, he has instead been ensnarled even more.

With the return of Thor and the rest of the heroes from the dimensional fragment, the Odinson seems uninterested in reclaiming his position as god of thunder. It remains to be seen if Loki continues to wield Mjolnir or will attempt to cast it off in order to regain some freedom from the shackles of fate in which he finds himself tightly bound.

YJA Campaign Phase Two - A Synopsis

The world is without its greatest heroes, killed in the aftermath of the Watchtower incident. As the world comes to grips with this solemn fact, The Avengers are forced to come up with a plan in order to handle this emergency.

Team Gamma immediately was forced to become Team Alpha. This group was composed of Kentauride, Mary the new Captain Marvel, Melinoe, and Loki the god of mischief and thunder.

The new Team Gamma was composed of Queen Shuri the new Black Panther, Ghost-Spider, Patriot, Squirrel-Girl, and Ironheart. They were recruited from various groups in Hammond High.

Cable, Deadpool, and Domino were released from custody to become the new Team Omega.

Melinoe started a social group in the magical community known as the Order of the Beer-Tree. Members included John Constantine, Odin, the Wizard Shazam, Stephen Strange, Swamp Thing, Wolverine, and Wong. This group became an unofficial Avengers magical group.

She-Hulk and Mercury left the Avengers to work to protect Europe along with former rogues Captain Cold, Golden Glider, and Pied Piper.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Lex Luthor spared little time in replacing the Justice League. He announced the creation of Stormwatch, a worldwide network of heroes that will protect the planet. Their most powerful membership formed the Squadron Supreme.

Some highlighted adventures:

• The group rescued a young group of metahumans from containment from Trask Industries. One of those members, Panacea, turned out to be a shapeshifted Unicorn. Panacea was then hunted by Sergei Kravinoff hired by John Constantine. John needed the horn to cure a case of magically resistant lung cancer.

• They discovered that Stormwatch was behind the attack on the Watchtower, reversing an antimatter warhead from the remains of Brainiac's Headship. In their escape, they encountered Hyperion and Nighthawk, who revealed there are part of the Squadron Supreme under duress.
  
• Helping the magical anthropomorphic tiger Tawny, Team Alpha helped recover the stolen Chronicle of Hidden Paths from the ninjas of The Hand. The Chronicle would reveal to Kentauride the existence of an untouched hidden land known as Outland, and showed Captain Marvel that Billy Batson might be alive.
   
• The group traveled to Monster Island and discovered that the Rip Hunter had been behind the scenes for many plots. Blaming himself for the current problems, he systematically eliminated all sources of time travel technology, using the last of it to send a dimensional shifting device to teleport the League Watchtower out of harm’s way.

The end of Phase Two was a pivotal moment:

Using technology provided by Rip Hunter, Team Alpha was able to travel to a dimensional fragment where Hunter had sent the League Watchtower. There they found the Avengers, Justice League, and other individuals believed to have been killed.

Threatened by the magical might of Thulsa Doom, Team Alpha had to assault his Temple of Set. Destroying the Altar within, they were able to distract the sorcerer-king long enough to allow the survivors to reach the portal and make it back to Earth-Prime.

When the arrived in the main timeline they were met with dozens of golden-clad soldiers bearing the mark of Checkmate. Henry Peter Gyrich had convinced the President of the United States to revoke the authority of the Office of National Emergency and allow Checkmate to absorb it.

Using the threat of extradimensional contamination, the survivors are held in quarantine until further notice. Nightcrawler has been able to teleport Team Alpha out of the Baxter Building and to a secure location, but without a clear path on what to do.

With Lex Luthor in charge of United Nations law enforcement and Henry Gyrich in power in the United States, the free members of the Avengers once again are the world’s only heroes

Thus begins Phase Three: Dark Reign.

A YJA Moment - The Negative Zone

Almost all the timelines in The Great Spiral are of similar composition.  The lone exception is The Negative Zone which is composed completely of antimatter.  The Negative Zone is a stunted ruined dimension, filled with the fragments of ancient matter and crackling energy discharges.  Unlike most universes which are almost infinite, the Negative Zone is actually quite small - it's long been theorized one could use the spacial difference to travel vast in the real world, by crossing over and traveling in "Negative Space"

The Negative Zone was first discovered by Reed Richards when he was a student in Empire State Universe, theorizing the existence of an "Antimatter" universe adjacent to ours.  For years Richards conducted experiments to reach the Negative Zone until he came up with the Artemis Drive.  The experiment itself was unsuccessful but led to the creation of the Fantastic Four.  Since then, Reed has used the data of the failed mission to construct a stable dimensional gateway to the Negative Zone but only uses it sparingly.

For the Negative Zone is inhabited by a great many threats.

The biggest threat is an insectoid horde known as the Annihilation Wave.  Lead by the cosmically-empowered Annihilus, the Wave exists only to conquer and consume.  Annihilus has found naturally occurring breaches between dimensions, crossing over to our dimension on at least two occasions.  Each time they caused great damage to the galactic community until an alliance of alien empires drove them back.

Millennia ago, the Weaponeers of Qward were a scourge on the galaxy, selling weapons of mass destruction to whoever could pay their price.  After untold billions of dead, The Green Lantern Corp intervened and brought the Weaponeers to justice.  The Guardians of Oa exiled the entire planet of Qward to the Negative Zone but left their factories intact.  The rogue lantern Sinestro traveled to the Negative Zone and made a deal with the Weaponeers - through this alliance the Weaponeers were able the reverse engineer an Oan Power Ring, giving Sinestro his own fear-based weapon and the Qwardians valuable technological knowledge.

The most mysterious is Counter-Earth, an identical replica of Earth (and the solar system).  The only difference between this world and our own is that the morals of all the inhabitants are reversed.  On Counter-Earth the Crime Syndicate and The Oppressors fight for control of Earth while The Shadow resistance run by Alexander Luthor seeks to free the planet from domination.

Beyond these threats, there are dozens of races and individuals such as Blastaar and The Tyannans that inhabit the Negative Zone.  With little exception, all the species are aggressive and xenophobic.  There are few in this dimension that can be called allies.

A YJA Moment - Japan

For many years the islands of Japan have been protected by its greatest superteam, Big Science Action. The team was led by the mysterious alien Ultimon, blessed with fighting skills, energy expulsion, and size manipulation powers.  It included Boss Bosozuko, the Japanese Spirit of Vengeance; Blazing Sun, mutant fire manipulator; Cosmo Racer, former Herald of Galactus; Dr. Light, master of the electromagnetic spectrum; Fuji, encounter-suited mass of plasma energy, the armored heroine, Hammersuit Zero-X; and the shadow-warrior Nazo Baluda.

Big Science Action protected Tokyo during the Monster Wars when giant creatures appeared on Michinojima a.k.a. Monster Island.  The unrecorded island is home to a number of dimensional anomalies which allowed alien life forms to pass into the world.  Joined by the infamous kaiju Godzilla, Big Science Action was able to drive the entities back to the island and allow the Self-Defense Forces to quarantine the region.

Although the Justice League was involved in helping protect Japan from threats, it was Big Science Action that was the most beloved.  They were widely emulated by starting heroes and many metahumans dreamed about being invited onto the team.  Big Science Action was on the Watchtower when it was destroyed by the anti-matter warhead, plunging the entire nation into turmoil.

The Japanese government hastily put together a new team in order to protect the country and calm public anxiety.  The reformed villain Silver Samurai was placed in charge of what would become known as the Big Hero 6.  These included the experimental battle-droid Baymax; armor-suited Go Go Tomago; genius teenager, Hiro Takachiho; secret agent code-named Honey Lemon; and Martian expatriate Kid Kaiju  

Okata Yutani,  one of the richest people in Japan, used his immense wealth to forge himself a super-hero identity.  Calling himself the Most Excellent Superbat, he created the Atomic Lantern, clad with an energy-emitting battle-suit; speedster Lightning Flash; tiny flying Lolita Canary capable of generating sonic screams; and Atlantean Shiny Aquazon.  Together they became the Super Young Team, an independent super-team.

A YJA Moment: Wakanda and Zandia

In prehistoric times and alien meteorite crashed into the continent of Africa.  Composed of the kinetic-absorbing element Vibranium, the meteor changed the flora of the region creating such wonders as the Heart-Shaped Leaf and the area that would eventually be known as the City of the Dead.

The peoples in what would be known as Wakanda were a mix of East African and Nubian traders and expatriates from Kush.  They would form a number of tribes as they settled into the region, forming the Golden, River, Merchant, and Mining Tribes.  When the Golden Tribe rose to rule over the others, the tribesmen that opposed their leadership left to form the Jabari Tribe.

The early history of Wakandan history was filled with trade and exploration.  Emissaries traveled as far as Egypt and India, bringing back the worship of Bast and Hanuman, which would lead to the development of the current rites of the tribes.

When the colonizers from Europe arrived, Wakanda retreated into its borders, developing techniques to keep interlopers out.  As their knowledge of Vibranium grew, they were able to develop technological means to protect their borders.  Members of the tribes of Wakanda took their most promising defenders and tasked them with keeping their nation free.  This was the beginning of what would become the Border Tribe.

Yet despite all their attempts to keep knowledge of their advancements hidden, word led to the outside world of the wonders of the nation.  This attracted many people from around the world from European treasure hunters to Arabian merchants hoping to make it into the jungles of Wakanda and find the fabled City of Birnin.

These encampments grew over the years, eventually becoming administered by Oberst (Colonel) Frederick Zand as part of German East Africa.  After being administered by the Belgians in the 19th and 20th Centuries, the territory became independent after World War Two as The Republic of Zandia.

Where Wakanda has been a symbol of peace and prosperity, Zandia has been a place of war and oppression.  The colonial powers were harsh on the people before independence but things have improved little since.  Sometime in the 19th Century The Church of Blood, a vampire cult made its way to Zandia has dominated the nation until recently.  The Light, secretly using the United Nations as cover, overthrew president Elias Seromba and drove the Church underground.  Brother Blood, the immortal leader of the Church of Blood, continues to dominate portions of the country, effectively fighting a civil war with Lex Luthor and the Light.

A YJA Moment - Time Travel

Time Travel is one of the most dangerous and misunderstood capabilities.  The very use of it to travel forwards and backward in time can change history and every use weakens the time-space continuum.  The actual facts about altering past events have still not been determined but it is known that you can make minor alterations without issue, large-scale changes cause the creation of a new timeline.  The various timelines occupy a grand helix of realities known as The Spiral.

In order to Time Travel, one must leave their timeline, entering a null space known as The Bleed, also known as The Superflow.  This very act changes a person, permanently unanchoring them from their own dimension.  Even when they return to the timeline, either in the past or exactly when they left, they are no longer natives of that timeline.  This seems to be a defense mechanism for reality, as it prevents time paradoxes from occurring.  It also prevents the individual from being updated from any changes in the timeline made after their first time-jump. 

The only exception to this are those individuals, like The Flash, who draw their power from The Speed Force.  Using a device known as The Cosmic Treadmill, speeders who draw from the Speed Force can travel in time without leaving their timeline.  Thus any changes to the timeline will instantly be remembered.  The Speed Force also allows them to distinguish between the old and new timelines and provides a manner of protection from Time Paradoxes.

On Earth, the father of technological Time Travel is the mysterious individual known as Rip Hunter.  Sometime in the future, he discovers the means of moving back in time, through his Time Sphere.  He was careless in his early exploits and inadvertently seeded the technology through the timeline, giving rise to the heroes Booster Gold, Cable, and The Waverider; as well as villains Chronos, Per Degaton, and The Time Trapper. 

At some point, a huge Crisis occurred and all of reality was altered in a fundimental way.  Something important was supposed to happen and it allowed ancient dark forces to gain a terrible advantage.  Though the individuals and the changes are still not known, Rip Hunter knows that it was his technology that was responsible. 

Now designated himself as the Time Master, Rip Hunter is now on a crusade to return the universe to a proper balance, and in the process remove his Time Travel technology from everyone except is own hands.

A YJA Moment - Transformers

In the depths of space, there is an artificial planet known as Cybertron.  On this planet is a race of shape-shifting robots known as the Transformers.  Their sentience draws from a strange energy matrix known as a Spark.  The origins of the Transformers and the Spark are unknown but there are many theories, forming most of the religious beliefs on Cybertron. 

For as long as anyone can remember there has been a civil war on Cybertron.  The noble Autobots, led by Optimus Prime have been fighting the despotic Decepticons, led by the evil Megatron for centuries.

Years ago, most of the Autobots left their homeworld, forced by the Decepticons to flee into space.  They crashed-landed onto a small planet called Earth, where they hid among the humans disguised as the variety of vehicles. 

Eventually, the Decepticons found Earth and started plundering its natural resources to create their fuel Energon.  Though the Autobots attempted to stop them, they were greatly outnumbered.  Optimus Prime contacted the Justice League, who intervened to stop Megatron and forced his forces to retreat to Cybertron.

Optimus gathered his forces and returned to Cybertron.  With him were a selection of heroes such as Mary Marvel, who felt they needed to help the Autobots liberate their home.  Gathering the hidden and imprisoned Autobots, the coalition of humans and Transformers were able to win several decisive battles.  They gained enough territory so that the Autobots could continue the war without the Earthlings help. 

War continues on Cybertron.  The Decepticons, losing the recent conflict and running out of Energon have once again been forced to return to Earth to attempt to acquire its natural resources.  Creating a Space Bridge somewhere on the moon, Megatron, Soundwave, and the Seekers have come to bring their conflict back to the humans.   Again with the help of Mary Marvel and Avengers the evil Transformers were defeated but not vanquished.

A YJA Moment - Doctor Doom

The story of one of the worlds of dangerous individuals starts in the old Kingdom of Latveria, a small country in south-eastern Europe.  It was ruled by the House of Von Dohm, distantly related to the Prussian royal family.  In the early 20th Century, the House of Fortunov overthrew King Rudolf V and purged the Von Dohms from positions of power.  Young Crown Prince Werner and Princess Cynthia were barely able to escape and fled to the United States.   Because of an administrative error, their names were misspelled as "Von Doom"

Victor Von Doom was raised by his parents in America. His father Werner told him of his royal lineage and demanded a level of academic and personal perfection few people could attain.  His mother filled his mind with folk tales of the homeland and revealed to him the ancient mysticism her family had possessed.  In everything, Victor not only met expectations but exceeded him.  

Despite the royal lineage, the Von Dooms were not wealthy and Victor was forced to attend Empire State University in New York City.  There he met a young Reed Richards who was studying science.  At first, they became friends as Victor and Reed shared a keen intellect.  However, Doom became jealous of Reed's scientific acumen and they eventually became rivals.

Unable to defeat Reed in academia, Victor sought to best him in the business world, founding Von Doom Industries.  Even then, he found no victory.  Richards had no interest in becoming rich - he helped found S.T.A.R. Labs to further scientific study and the financial benefits of his patents were only to allow him to continue his research.

When the spaceplane accident created the Fantastic Four, Doom became keenly interested.  Creating a suit of armor he attacked the Baxter Building, hoping to capture Richards and his friends for more study. He was soundly defeated, his face horribly scarred as a result of a miscalculation.  

Now a wanted man, Doom fled America and headed to Transia.  For years he had been embezzling money from his company in order to construct a robot army to retake his homeland.  With advanced technology decades about anything, the Transian military possessed, his cyber-army carved out a new nation...or rather an old nation.  The recreated Kingdom of Latveria, with Doom alone as monarch.

Painted as a despot ruler of a rogue nation, Victor became furious a the world.  Despite helping protect the peoples of Latveria and Markov, and ending the horrors of General Russov, the press now treated him like the real threat to peace.  When super-heroes started attempting to depose him, he knew what must be done.

If the world thought of him a super-villain, then a super-villain he would be.  Modifying his exo-suit to resemble an ancient suit of armor and donning a fearsome metal mask to hide his disfigurement, he became the villainous Doctor Doom.  

Latveria became a true rogue nation.  His borders were fortified with advanced weaponry.  He sheltered wanted fugitives in exchange for their knowledge or service.  He sold illegal technology to various organizations, forging mutual defense pacts.  He became everything the media claimed he was, but in doing so he secured his throne from all but the most world-class threats.