[Cortex] Into the Crimson Code [EN] | ходы игроков | London Bridge is Falling Down

                
  The story of struggle
                

This world had metahumans for a long time. Since Ancient myths people sung praises to heroes like Gilgamesh, Heracles, Achilles and others. They weren't thought of as inhuman, and usually never sought for power or to prove themselves superior. But with the passage of time they died out. Because of limited data the answer to the question why remains unknown but the most popular reason is the existence of a deadly plague, affecting only metahumans. But the concept wasn't forgotten and one day in 1950s the new metahuman was born. Then another one and another one. It was a mere thousandth of a percentage, but that was enough to shift the world. The existence of metahumans was equal to nuclear power and the world had a new reason to be entangled into a worldwide conflict. It ended in 1993, when the treaty of Washington was signed. It was basically denuclearisation, but with metahumans. All and any usage of them in the army was forbidden and the world finally found itself in peace...

But in 2005 the scales shifted once again. Mysterious teleporting metahuman successfully attempted the assassination of Queen in Buckingham palace. This event shook the world. For a year after British metahumans were nearly forbidden from basic human rights. The same day many flew to the France and other European countries, but huge amount stayed. The first post-Elyzabethian prime minister Ian Crimson started the "Crimson Initiative" designed to shorten the gap between metahumans and general public to protect the last.

Crimson Initiative contained three steps:
1. Decrease birthrate of new metahumans by injecting people with a newly designed vaccine
2. Implement new ways of resisting supervillain attacks
3. Isolate the metahumans into ghetto-like communes

This inhuman plan meant only one thing. Ian Crimson was killed the next day after revealing it by the same villain. The next prime-minister Neil Rhodes was actively against Crimson's reforms and implemented the current system of the enforced registration and restrain measures. Measures were color-coded with Green Code meaning that local police force was enough to prevent collateral damage, and the highest Crimson Code, meant that the sole existence of subject was endangering to society and as such he was to be eliminated by the special forces, containing best meta humans available. This "Rhodes Regime" served as a basis in founding of the International Organization of Metahuman Research and Control (MRC for short). They implemented terms "indie-vigilantes" for registered solo heroes and "Hero teams", as well as "Unregistered vigilantes" and "Villains". Registration usually meant that hero's name becomes a public knowledge, which usually means endangering their families, which was the reason for the general distrust towards the system. But since many heroes went through the process and PR machine started to turn its wheels, opinions changed.

For the next 15 years Crimson Code was activated a lot. It became a general occurrence. The world was never calm, new and new outbreaks put a lot of stress on limited registered heroes and underprepared police officers. As such Unregistered Vigilantes once again came to the call. Many of them died, many joined the teams and in the end chose to register, but there still remained those, who ignored the law. Viper was one of those. Young man was clutch in preventing villain outbreaks time and time again. His efforts made streets of London much safer, and his travels usually meant that he will cleanse another city from danger. Viper was voted Person of the Year by New-York Times on two separate occasions. His popularity was enormous... and now he is dead and people are on the verge of panic. Who can save them now?

                
  The story of success
                

Who is that Viper? For me he is no better, than those who he placed behind the bars. He never thinks of consequences, never tries to prevent collateral damage. And he has a cult formed around his persona. Imagine one day he will put the last convict behind the bars. Do you think that if he won't have anything to do, he will peacefully retire? No, he will be the last convict, who need to be brought to justice! This is the hill I am going to die on! Why are you laughing?!
— From the famous "Vigilante Menace" YouTube-video featuring Gerald G. Garyson

  Jesse Jenkins was you typical student at Oxford: smart, talented, hard-working and all. His only problem was that he was socially anxious, as his father was a world renown supervillain Python. Jesse himself didn't receive any powers and was grateful for it, as his shoulders were free from all the pressure, he could have had. With his father caught for the last time, JJ finally tried to open up to people... but it was too little too late, so instead he hid himself behind scientific research. He himself wasn't that successful, but met a lot of scientists, who would help him in the future. One such scientist, Karl Harris, was a metabiologist, who tried to recreate the genes of superhumans inside his vipers... Jesse was unlucky to find one of those snakes outside of terrarium and it bit him. Surprisingly it wasn't painful, he just passed out. Waking up on the floor at the morning, he was surprised to actually be alive. And then strange things started to happen. First JJ noticed that he was stronger and faster than before. he started to notice strange things and even saw through the objects... It was strange but he liked it. he finally received his power and seriously considered registration, but a random robbery started the chain of events that led to Jesse becoming Viper...

  Somebody hired amateur robbers to clean up the house of Karl, and they kidnapped his daughter and him. Jesse happened to go by and followed them. He was scared and called the police, as they frightened kidnappers. That led to them making a horrible decision... JJ could only watch as Karl was pierced through his back with a knife.

If only I was not a coward. He would be alive. I can't leave that responsibility to anyone else, because now I have the power.

  Jesse started his secret antivillain campaign. He proceeded to save Karl's daughter. She wanted him to become a foster father of her, but Jesse declined, as he couldn't look her in the eyes without remembering about his failure. Finally he embraced his new identity and chose a name to mirror that of his good for nothing father — Viper to his Python.

                
  The story of the end
                

Viper was successful but he never bathed in accolades and moved towards next objective. People always need me, he always said. He put all of the hopes of people around him onto himself. We told him that it would only break his back, but he was adamant. Never rested, even when sick. His worst mood was when nothing happened for a couple of days. It was like... he felt useless. By the way, his second worst mood was after fighting his own father.
— Viper's Gal-in-a-chair

  Viper was everywhere and nowhere. His secret identity became a very famous topic in the world heroic community. Many claimed that he was the strongest hero in the world in terms of skill and time and time again he proved those claims by defeating villains, new and old. That's why his demise was a surprise to everybody...

  In the start of December he had received information, that mysterious villain bought a couple of villains from the jail and used their labor to build some sort of device. It wasn't clear what that was, but Viper started his search. Finally he found something resembling the portal and tried to break it. He didn't succeed initially, as he was stopped by a bunch of villains, he himself put into the jail. And then, when he thought that he failed, he dealt the final blow to the machine, thus breaking it in the middle of charge. Sadly that did cost him his life...

  The funeral is set to happen on the 9th of November, in two days. His death is close to national tragedy and as such, there is going to be a lot of people. Some of them hope to see his face, but the MCR respected the highly valued opinion of Sir Aaron Wright from North London and agreed to keep the identity of Viper hidden. They still don't know the details of his demise, as his body was found on the boat in the River Thames. Even villains respected him enough to not hide his body. Or was it something else?

                  
  Heroes and villains
                  

  Teams supporting Enforced Registration

Defenders of Tomorrow
Initially they were party animals. But then they kinda had a depressive phase. And then shit really went down with Wonder, so TomTech tried to capitalize on that. Rebranding, some cool events. Oh, and they also do some heroic stuff.
— Random Chicago resident
American team of five superheroes operating in the mid-west from New-Edinburgh to Kansas City. In ten years they became famous, not without help of Tomorrow Technologies, technological superpower on their own. Only two of five actually possesses any metahuman powers, others are empowered by technological wonders and pure skill in piloting them. Current members are:
  Ethan Irons / Cupid
Bisexual disaster in a fullmetal suit. Actually very capable and quite successful... but still a disaster.
  Daniel Star Jr. / Captain Tomorrow TomTechWonder
Initially the guy you don't want to see saving your life. But he matured. Hit that midwestern emo phase, grew up a little more and then took the mantle of a "new Wonder". Still have a lot to work on, but he is getting there.
  ASIMOV-04
Constantly updated AI. Initially was quite hostile but patches and real life experiences changed him. The best example is Patch 1.07. Patch-note stated "Fixed occasional Racist Remarks".
  Jane Griffin / Maegera
Very angry woman, who can just straight up kill anybody getting in her way. Still has a wholesome side to her and she is an actual mother. Her husband is a famous actor.
  Genessee
Native shaman, wielding the powers of the totemic animals. Initially just tried to stop his mad father, but the heroic stuff just sucked him in.

North London
Their work is splendid. Never seen such a team. Sadly it looks like their time has come. We never got details, but they just stopped... They fere Unbeatable!
The only official Britain-based team of superheroes, which operates around whole Europe. Four members are friends since college. All of them were given the title of Sir by King Charles in 2017. They dealt only with huge outbreaks but currently they are on hiatus, following the fallout between members. The rumors say, that they still work solo and under the radar in different places around the world, but officially nothing was ever confirmed.
  Sir Aaron Wright / Arsenal
  Sir Henry Berg / Gunner
  Sir Terry Adams / Enforcer
  Sir Shaun Campbell / Switch

Normandy
I am Laurent Normand and this is my favorite vigilante on the planet.
French-based collaboration of solo-heroes, officially placed under the same flag. They are constantly hiring new prospects to increase their hold. The idea was first proposed by Laurent Normand to replace his old team, that failed to live up to expectations and failed to stop a villain. Laurent didn't give up and after five years of vigilante work came up with this project with the help of his friends: Archangelo and Admiral. They formed "Normandy core" and since then many heroes joined them and their cause of creating a legal indie-vigilante organization. Current number of affiliates is close to 40!
  Laurent Normand / Shepherd
  Gaetano Valverdi / Archangelo
  Natalie van der Rijn / Admiral
  And many more associates!

Prodigy
Germany-based team of young European heroes. They started their work as Young League in summer and since then did participate in two huge villain outbreaks in Eastern Europe. They since then changed their name to something cooler and continued to climb the ladder of European Super Heroic ratings (of course unofficial ones).
  Silva Andreas / Raining Man
  Luke Ødegaard / Break
  Mia Kühler / Zero Point
  Adam Schneider / Crusader
  Friedhold Richter / Alptraum
  Nika Koyanskaya / Tails

                  

  Indies

Paola Ostin / Bullettime aka Paragon V
We fight for freedom and for safety of our citizens. But I can't protect them with my fists alone, I need my voice to be heard.
American Symbol and one of the most successful heroes of her time... which to the disappointment of the masses ended not that long ago, as Paola decided to finish here days in the field and start political career. She still didn't name her successor, which is a huge debate between many parties, each trying to push for their own candidate to become Paragon VI. The rumor is that Paola's choice is so controversial that she can't tell about it before she convinces the higher ups... Her powers are a well-kept secret.

Linus de Paul / Moment
Learn how to beat a villain if he interrupts a date with your crush and you have just a spoon after this segment from our sponsor SkyrimVPN!
YouTube sensation and genuinely a nice guy... even if a little bit corrupted by fame. He lives in Brighton, but mostly films his videos and defeats the villains (in that order) in other cities, including London. Has collaborated with almost every famous hero and is really sad about death of his friend Viper.

Alan Burn / Sheriff
No I did not steal that car, it belongs to the Solar Department under Intergalactical Law Enforcment Unit... Don't you look at me like I am on drugs.
A title given to a chosen human. He needs to protect the Earth from interplanetary convicts and send them to the jail.. But he is also never sitting still, when the planet is struggling with internal danger. It was a popular trait, so now it is actually a requirement... if they only increased the salary... Alan is the first black Sheriff but he doesn't like when somebody comes up with that fact, as it paints this situation as an exception rather than the norm.

Vasily Zhivoglyadov / Sherlock
It's elementary, my dear friend. Now let's see this "Paul Allen's body".
Also just a title. This one is given to one of the best detectives in the world. Current holder is fifth one to be given such an honor. The requirements are vague, but in a nutshell it is decided by a test organized by a previous holder.

Abdelouahed Chadli / Chad
Stand strong, my friends. You've lost a lot today, but I can assure you, that we are not going to let anything bad happen to you.
— Official Declaration after the news about the death of Viper
Immensely strong guy, whose main power is not even his physical abilities, but his unbreakable will and wholesome demeanor.

Jane Bond / Zero-Seven
Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?
Works in secret, while also being stylish as a prestigious lady. Some say that she is a spy, serving the Crown, some say that she is an uncontrollable enigma, that just happens to enjoy Britain. Her powers include inhuman agility and perception altering abilities.

                  

  Unregistered Vigilantes

Warren Ward / Warden
I know my rights and you clearly don't. First you chip us, then you put probes up our asses and tomorrow we will watch as our children are taken away in chains, because they were deemed too dangerous for this fragile peace you envision.
One of the most famous heroes in the world in 80s and 90s. And now the most active opponents of MCR and their registration policies. The media blame him for assisting every crime possible and he doesn't do himself justice with his relentless aggression towards officials. With the help of USSR organized international fund to help people avoid Registration, which includes a lot of suspicious steps but in fact helps to avoid Registration...

Atlas
Sorry, I am not under your jurisdiction to be "Registered". The only person I bow to is the Sun itself.
Ambassador of Atlantis. He is firmly against registration and uses his diplomatic immunity to really prolong the process and be useful for as long as possible. He is a metahuman enforced by technological wonders of his motherland and blessed by their god.

Viper
Hey guys, you chillin' there? Mind if I interrupt you casual robbery with my snarky comments? Wow-wow, you could've just said "no".
Mysterious London vigilante, who was hunting all types of wrongdoers for a couple of years without revealing his identity. Normandy officially came to him with invitation dozen of times, but he ignored them all. His list of caught villains is impressive when compared even with top-tier teams. Also called Viper but has no noticeable snake features.

                  

  Unregistered non-human personas

Death
Don't worry child. We are not going to hurt you. Others... might not be so peaceful. You shall keep them locked away.
One of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It has two bodies: Cat and Vulture. They represent the acceptance of death and the avoidance of it. Death organized the Deathbringers — order of the most lethal assassins, who bring death to those, who evade it too much. Though, they are not the concept itself, they are just given a lot of power in that field.

Wonder
It can't be registered, it can't be controlled, it can't even be stopped. What if one day it decides, that humanity is a thing of a past?
— TomTech presenting their rebrand of Captain Tomorrow
Once thought of as a Hero, now they are more of a Force of Nature. Juggling powers, moving with supersonic speed, changing looks and always appearing somewhere, where expected the least are trademarks of this elusive character. Maybe whatever hides behind that creature done with saving humanity and now tries to save the Earth?

Apollo
The power of the Sun in the palm of my hand!
The self-proclaimed God and the Protector of Atlantis. He was the one to hide this civilization at the bottom of the ocean and he is the one to make it reappear in 1993. As a newcomer to the international scene he initially gave humanity the technology for thermonuclear fusion. Since then he was rarely seen by a small selection of powerful people and all of them said that Apollo is really a god, as he showed them unbelievable wonders.

Merlin
It's pure unfiltered magic, not some circus abrakadabra, you, uncultured gremlin.
— Angry rant before turning the source of the negativity into a sheep
The time-and-space protector coming from ancient stories. Not only he possesses the incredibly vast collection of magical artifacts, he is also himself quite skillful in ways of magic, being able to move around multiverse with ease. He hardly counts as human or even metahuman, and he himself confirms it by saying that he is actually a Time Lord and changes bodies once in five years. What's with those British and constant soft reboots?

                  

  Villains of London

Crimson Chaos
Bloody Hell, what happened... Who the hell are you? What are you doing with the que...
— Last words of the fastest guard in Buckingham Palace
Teleporter, who is solely responsible for assassination of queen in 2005. His real name and motives remain unknown, as he doesn't speak at all. He was captured multiple times, because apparently using his powers , but after recharging his powers he once again was starting to play the game of mouse with British Heroes. After North London hiatus he strangely kept quiet.

Column
Column is not just a name. It's a symbol. He is the thing that keeps criminal world of London in check, not you. He provides us with work and money , while you only take it all away. He is truly a pillar of your world and peace...
— from the interrogation of a caught Mob Boss
Enigmatic criminal Boss of London. Few were blessed to see him in person. He is ruthless and powerful, while also being a good business man.

# BD Gilbert / Fafnir
And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for my meddling sister!
Incredibly talented tinkerer, who took the wrong path in life... he came to Britain.

# Chelsea and Division
"Why won't you smile? It looks good on you!"
"Bloody hell, stop screaming please, I already cut it off. Wow, sis, he is dying."
"No-no-no, please don't leave us! I still have so much to show you! Now, here is a guy we broke one month ago... See, he's got no legs! And you still have one! Be a man, goddamit!"
Two crazy sadist-sisters, claiming to be Death's apprentices.

# Eel
He is eelusive, eelluminating, eellegant, eelectric and most importantly... He is me.
Slimy, electric and disgusting villain by choice.

# Doug O'Connell / Baskerville
I don't want it to happen... I don't want. I-I-I... AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU.
British werewolf. Is either the subject of experiments or a holder of an ancient curse, it's hard to differentiate, as both are possible... But Baskerville isn't just a werewolf. He is an alfa werewolf of a great strength and enormous hunger. Such power comes at a cost of his real personality being too weak to stop the beast inside.

# Markus Jenkins / Python
It's just a coincidence. I don't know why did he chose that name. Bet he didn't know about me. I am a small fish in a large river, innit?
Quite a character, he made a living by working for a huge mob boss, who was one day eliminated by the order of Column. Since then Python became a rogue villain, robbing banks, kidnapping rich children, destroying property. When he was caught for the first time, he was laughing. Rumors are that this disaster of a man had a family and still chose this lifestyle.