Thebes, Mississippi - Timeline
Atlantis – Plasma Core saved the Space Shuttle Atlantis from being burned up upon reentry by using his body as a heat shield. The resulting heat energy is even more than Plasma Core can withstand and he appears to burn up. Once the shuttle is on the ground, Plasma Core appears again and the National Day of mourning is turned into a day of celebration. He is coined “The Living Light” by the media and it is theorized that the energy expended simply destroyed his physical form, allowing the energy being he really was to be released. Plasma Core never refers back to the incident but he becomes the fastest being on the planet, able to travel at the speed of light. The incident also marks a change in Plasma Core as he no longer considers himself human. He puts himself on reserve status with the Ministry of Justice and begins to do research for NASA, by exploring the solar system. Catch 22 – The Catahian Orbital Observatory was stuck by a meteor designated IU-22. The resulting orbital debris rained fireballs over various parts of the world for weeks. A large section of IU-22 crashed to earth just southeast of town, destroying a large section of a blacktop-covered superfund site. The radiation from the observatory’s reactor, the properties of the meteor and the superfund materials created a horrific toxic creature. It was able to sense toxic materials as a food source and moved toward the Switchback. The military’s initial attempts to destroy the creature failed. The creature’s blacktop-like hide was either to hard to penetrate or attacks with sufficient mass scattered the creature into parts, each part becoming a new creature. By the time the Ministry of Justice came on the scene there were six of the creature and they had made a mess of the local Army Reserve Unit. The team tried to round the creatures up, when it just reformed back into one creature. Water seems to cool it off and slow it down, heat seemed to speed it up but caused it to become more ravenous. Soon all the superteams in the United States convered on the creature in Switchback, and attacked the creature in mass. Careful plotting by Technologist allowed the teams to heat the creature and then cool it off, over and over again. They eventually caused the creature to harden and brake apart into large, steaming blocks akin to greenish black basalt. Technologist helped the EPA cleanup the mess, though the eventual resting place of the creature is unknown. Gangwar – This open war between numerous gangs resulted in many deaths in the Rookery and Rosedale. A Gang task force was created, and Sgt. Brian O’Shea was put in charge. Armed Forces came to the task forces’ aid on a number of occasions when the gang members gained support from a new villain called “Ghetto Blaster.” Turned out that the self-stylized Ghetto Blaster was little more than a gang leader with a suit of Armadillo Armor. Armed Forces crushed Ghetto Blaster’s armor in Junkyard’s car press and brought Gangwar to an end. Jupiter 3– Under the guise of a building renovation, Mechanix’s agents created a 40’ tall robot using the building's internal framework as the gurney. No one outside was the wiser until Jupiter 3 came to life. The robot destroyed the building that housed it, and immediately attacked the Ministry of Justice HQ. By the time the team had assembled and launched a counter attack, the Headquarters was in ruins. Numerous television stations recorded the giant robot attack, and V-Tube still has images online, showing the robot pounding the HQ with a familiar robotic voice intoning, “Must Destroy Ministry Headquarters! Destroy HQ! Destroy Liberty Belle! Danger Mechanix, Danger!” The team was beaten back at first by the sheer mass and power of the giant robot, but Liberty Belle and National Defense hatched a plan. They were able to lure the robot into a nearby transformer substation and short-circuit the metal behemoth. Motor Madness – A plot hatched by Mechanix to paralyze the city. The master villain was able to lock all internal combustion engines so their throttle remained on and accelerators could not be throttled down. Once something was started it would not shut off and once something started moving it would not stop. This caused all sorts of havoc within the city. Mechanix’s broadcasting station was found to be in the Center City Arena and the Ministry of Justice fought a pitched battle against various monster trucks. Eventually, the main monster truck, King Titan, was destroyed and “Motor Madness” came to an end. Ring of Three – A trio of mystical villains set in motion a series of events that tried to summon a major demon. The unknown trio began to steal Native American mystical artifacts from around the city. At one point Warpath came on scene and blamed The Department of Indian Affairs for not protecting Native American heritage. A battle soon ensued between Agents of the Department of Indian Affairs, local police and Warpath. The hostilities caught the attention of the Ministry of Justice with Armed Forces, Liberty Belle, Plasma Core, and Wirework locked in combat with Ghost Dance, Iron Horse, Totem and Ten Bears. The battle was at a standstill until the remaining member of the Ministry of Justice started to arrive on the scene. At that point, Warpath retreated in the face of superior numbers. It is not exactly known what lead the Ministry of Justice to Snow Lake, but once there they joined forces with Warpath against the Ring of Three and their otherworldly agents that had already summoned. The two groups were able to defeat the Ring of Three and barely able to close the portal before the demon could fully form. Unable to gain a foothold into this world, the demon's body solidified and turned to black stone. Amid the chaos of battling the demon, the villains known as the Ring of Three were able to escape. Sentry Initiative - Hailed as the next step in law enforcement, the Sentry Initiative, or SI, is a join project between the City of Thebes and the Department of Homeland Security. The goal is to incorporate cutting-edge surveillance technology, unmanned sentry pods located through out the city, and all law enforcement/emergency communication channels. Silons are the slang term for Sentry Initiative pods and surveillance equipment (because of the slit optics used so frequently by SI). Sign of the Times – Mechanix plotted to control the flow of information from the Newspaper, the Thebes Times. However, his plan was quickly discovered though the bumbling investigation of a local freelance reporter Stan Chee. Alerted, the Ministry of Justice arrived at the Times and battled robotic printing equipment gone wild. Mechanix escaped, again, leaving the Thebes Times in ruins. Waterworks – The villain known only as Waterworks froze the Thebes Water Treatment facility solid. Plasma Core and Armed Forces responded to the call for assistance only to find out Waterworks not only froze the water but poisoned it as well. So, if the thawed the water, the local supply would be poisoned. Psiborg and Plasma Core made relatively short work of the villain as he cackled at their plan. He still wanted $20 million in ransom or the city’s population would suffer for their insolence. Armed Forces shut down the pumping stations and Plasma Core started boiling the water with his Plasma Blasts, eventually turning all the standing water into vapor. Once the water was gone the duo found Waterworks' poison traps, saving the water supply. Waterworks was convicted for Domestic Terrorism and sentenced to 15 years in PIT. World's Fair– The fair was held outside of the Switchback, with a vast majority of the building materials coming from the Wrecking Crew scrap. Amazingly enough during the entire month of the World's Fair, not one villain threatened the city. Wrecking Crew – Another evil scheme of Mechanix but solely bent on destruction. Mechanix released the Wrecking Crew upon the city. The Wrecking Crew were four mobile car crushers set loose at different parts of the city. Each Crew member would “eat” cars, converting them into parts and building onto itself. As they ate cars they became increasing bigger and took on different forms: one was a 25’ tall humanoid, one akin to 20’ diameter spider, one like a six legged alligator and the last like a wasp with a 30’ wingspan. The humanoid and alligator robots were dispatched separately but the remaining two converged on Switchback, merging into a huge monstrosity. Psiborg figured out the creatures main weakness was its need to eat, so they team starting throwing anything they could at the behemoth. Eventually, the creature became engorged and went into a stupor, unable to power itself. Liberty Belle proposed to the city council to recycle all of the scrape and use it for something good.
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