#-aftermath SDFKSDFHS they're fun!

[spearcast]

i have a very VERY self indulgent original superpowers/superhero universe where the story is based around a majority of superpowered individuals being marginalized and over-policed and so on and so forth and a big theme of reconnecting as a community and coming against / dismantling both the government and a corrupt monopoly that takes charge of a lot of supes (the same way the us military takes advantage of marginalized individuals be they poor, poc, so and so forth). LONG STORY SHORT lots of fun themes and shit all floating around in the brain but sometimes you just need a very op self inserted main character and that is what hotspot is for me

i have. a lot of logistics and worldbuilding i want to at least put out into the universe under a read more but the TLDR of it is that hotspot is far too powerful for the govt and the organization (called CONQUEST) to really threaten and they soon begin to realize that hotspot is onto their shady goings-on and has to navigate the way to take them down (with the help of friends!! found family!! superpowered peoples reconnecting after forcibly being kept apart!!) without. like. tearing the planet in half bc they could if they put their mind to it. SDFHKSHDFS

essentially at a certain point in this universe people began being born with superpowers- it started off as a few at a time (which is where a lot of mythological heroes and characters in general are believed to have stemmed from, superpowered individuals born in ancient times) and by the time of 'present', there's a substantial portion of the population that have super-abled abilities. in the "80s" and "90s" (idk if i'm lining up this universe's time period with ours or not so 80s /90s are just concepts here SDHFKS) there came a lot of government regulation that was meant to keep superpowered people from becoming too powerful- or in their words "too dangerous" toward normal folk- and one of the major legislations was that heroes couldn't team up unless the team-ups were sanctioned by the national and international governments they were associated with. this also saw the birth of CONQUEST- an organization led by a woman named rebecca fowler and her husband meant to mentor and guide young supers into being helpful members of the community. behind this exterior, CONQUEST was really a world-power-funded military/weapon building corporation that actively took advantage of the supes they took under their wing. the alternative was to be an independent supe- "indie heroes" were governed solely by the mentor that chose them and a team of representatives and often had to do dealings with the government directly as opposed to following an organization's lead.

these were really the only two plausible options for anyone who had superpowers. anyone else was deemed a vigilante or danger to society and were either locked up for good in "defective supe" centers OR they were exterminated.

as was what happened with some supes, horizon renna was not born with their abilities. they began to develop when they were around seven or eight- and unfortunately for them, they were both blessed and cursed with terrifyingly apocalyptic abilities, and ended up destroying a section of their state when their powers emerged. thankfully they and their parents had been on vacation, in the middle of a state park when it happened- but the tumultuous volcanic and literally earth-shattering abilities they possessed were incredibly dangerous for a child with unstable emotions. there was much talk of just ending their life, because a small dose of being overwhelmed was all that led to a forest being turned to ash and molten rock, but a mentor stepped forward soon after- mililani kane aka ka wahine ‘ai honua (dubbed pele by the media), a renowned independent hero from hawai'i who at that time was in her mid 40s, saw much of herself in the child. while she didn't possess the massive destructive power that horizon did, she knew that she could use her knowledge of the extent of her own abilities to guide horizon to be able to control themself and their abilities. it was with mililani's help that horizon eventually grew to be one of the most powerful heroes, and most powerful supes across the board, in the world. it truly infuriates both rebecca fowler- who still heads CONQUEST in the present- and the united states government, considering they could've been brought into CONQUEST and be more easily manipulated.

essentially the LVL 0 rating that horizon has is due to how they categorize power levels within the universe (and i went numeral instead of the greek alphabet ranking that like. marvel uses SDFKHS):

6; least powerful, considered standard human base

5; first divergence from humanity

4; second divergence from humanity

3; power levels begin to become exponential; level 3 supers hold most of the high-level physical ability supers, like super strength and elemental abilities.

2; transition from physical abilities like elemental abilities and strength-based abilities to lower level psychic and metaphysical abilities

1; second most powerful, even more exponential than level 2, going from generic "looking at someone and reading their mind" to a more vast "can read and alter the minds of a room full of people"

0; the most powerful based upon what they could feasibly do with their already proven strong abilities. Hotspot is a level 0 super because she has the ability to connect deep within the earth and could ultimately destroy it on a whim if she so chose to. This has been proven by her holding back eruptions and earthquakes for even short periods of time. There are only a few physical-ability Level 0 supers like Hotspot, most are metaphysical supers.

there are also subcategories that they use to try to organize supes even more, like "celestial" being focused on star/space abilities, "substance" being focused on gravity/density abilities, "transmission" being focused on voice/sound abilities, "electronic" being focused on electronic/electric abilities, "psi" being focused on psychic/psionic/quantum abilities, and "vitality" being focused on life/death/youth/etc abilities. but. YEAH

originally from hotspot's pov it starts out as CONQUEST bad and indie good, but as the story progresses and they're forced to navigate the intricacies and politics of the supe world they come to realize while CONQUEST is a horrible company not all of the people within it really had much of a choice and then as some supes begin to go missing without much noise being made about it, along with the shadier sides of the organization and the government at large coming to light, they have some choices to make. i think it's fun and a lot of the characters surrounding horizon are either super self indulgent ocs or based on people from my life so AHSKDFHS yeeeee i had more but i think that's enough rambling for the moment

EDIT: OKOKOK WAIT i wanna give some hotspot-specific fun facts to end the rambling

they've learned there are many subcategories to their own abilities- they rarely get cold, their core is believed to be ABLE to reach the same temp as the core of the planet tho it would pretty much destroy their physical form as well as anyone around them so they don't ever try it- this also resulting in them being pleasantly warm to the touch at all times, though sometimes they can be searing in the middle of battle

most materials made of rock and mineral can be manipulated by them. glass? they can melt it and turn it into sand, or vise versa. gravel? can be turned to asphalt or tar or even solid rock. they can change rock to different parts of the rock cycle, especially after making it molten and melty. they can also pick up ANY rock and after a moment can tell you exactly what kind of rock/mineral it is. they have a lot of geologist friends SDFHKHSF

processing and melting plastic makes them feel sick in the same way that overexerting themselves without much to replace their energy makes them tired and go hibernal for some time. they've gotten to the point of having more stamina that staves off that hibernal period, but it still hits them now and then.

because of metal and magnetism having a connection, they can shift the rocks on their arms into magnetic rock and thusly can tell where true north is the same way a compass can. if dropped in the middle of wilderness they can make their way back to civilization because they are their own compass in that sense SKDFHSHDF

their body, while technically flesh like any other person, can be manipulated into a plasma-like state that mimics semi-solid lava and magma. this means wounds that harm them can be healed fairly easily by shifting from their human form to the lava form and just closing up the wound or whatever needs to be done- and this, as is learned later on in the story, means they can regenerate limbs, and ultimately, their entire self no matter how destroyed their body is.