THEN
Krypton was one of the last safe worlds in an ongoing conflict between the Galactic Union and the Apokk Empire. Matters grew dire when the Red Lanterns and the Reach became Imperial citizens and pledged their loyalty to Emperor Uxas. Many planets were left burning wastelands, and the survivors ended up on Krypton in refugee camps.
The children of the refugees attended a school headed by Jor-El's wife, Lara, sister-in-law, Alura, and Alura's sister, Astra. These three women oversaw the education of children from multiple worlds, and for several years, they lived a fairly normal life, playing games and studying in class. But then the news came that Imperial forces had breached further into Union territory, conquered their capital world, Oa, and that they could have a fleet upon Krypton in a matter of days.
Jor-El and his longtime friend, J'onn J'onzz, returned from the battlefield, determined to save the children from the incoming disaster, at least. J'onn explained that his world had died many years ago, but its neighbor, Earth, was ripe with life. There were no space-faring civilizations for many lightyears in any direction other than Mars, to which he could attest being that he searched for centuries until he came upon the edge of the Union border. He had been the sole survivor of a massive civil war on his planet, and at the time, Earth had no advanced technology at all and still fought wars with metal blades. He grew bored with their limited knowledge and sought another world more on par with the the life he was used to.
Jor-El commandeered the largest spaceship he could find and stacks of cryogenic stasis pods. They instructed the children to lay in the pods and to be brave, fitting in as many as they could. Filled to capacity, J'onn piloted the ship up and out of orbit, then made the jump to hyperspace. Only six days later, Krypton fell to Imperial forces.
Even at max speed, it took years to reach the distant Earth, but the children did not age due to their stasis. J'onn remained active the entire trip to watch for any signs of danger, and upon reaching their destination, he was astonished at how far Earth's technology had developed in just a few centuries. He was also concerned about how best to integrate the children into his society, so he temporarily left the ship cloaked in Earth orbit while he used his shapeshifting ability to infiltrate the United States government.
J'onn spent several years building connections and influence in a number of identities, the most prominent of which was Doctor Saul Erdel, a role in which he actually became a United States Senator. When he was ready to start bringing the children out of stasis, he realized it would be hard for them to adapt, so in addition to using a gene scrambler to temporarily make them all appear human, he sealed away their memories until they were older.
Under the identity of FBI Agent John Jones, J'onn "discovered" an underground bunker in Kansas filled with kidnapped children who all had amnesia. He implanted the English language and a variety of North American accents into their brains so they sounded like U.S. citizens, and saw to their care in a nearby orphanage. When no one came to claim the children, they were eventually placed into foster care and given legal names.
NOW
Today, those children are all grown up, spread out around the country living their adult lives, having no idea they are actually aliens. That all changes, however, when a young chemistry student named Mark Desmond suffers a lab accident that leaves him in a coma for five months. Upon awakening, his original memories return -- he was one of the older children in the refugee camp on Krypton, having been about twelve Earth years old when he entered stasis. His real name was B'lokkim, and his race was normally large and strong. It has been thirteen years since his memories were sealed, though he still managed to catch up to his peers in school and is currently working towards his doctorates in biochemistry and molecular biology at Cadmus University in Metropolis, Delaware, which is across the bay from Gotham City, New Jersey.
Mark becomes obsessed with restoring his true form and the powers it possesses, and grows to resent J'onn for taking away his identity. He develops a serum that will restore the memories of the other refugees, seals it within containers in aerosol form, and then ships them to each of the children of Krypton. Each one opens the package, gets blasted in the face with the serum, and then their memories return. In each package is also a letter asking them to come meet with Mark at Cadmus.
Our RP starts with us all meeting Mark. J'onn shows up and discovers the serum also made us all immune to his mind wipe, so he can't take away our memories again. From here we eventually end up in two teams -- Mark's team of villains and J'onn's team of heroes. In addition to these two, I will be playing Clark Kent and Psimon, as well as other background characters that are not aliens, such as Lex Luthor and Queen Bee of Bialya.
Your characters should be one of the alien refugees, but you can also play Earthlings that become heroes or villains by some other means or as a result of the battles between the refugee teams. But prior to Mark Desmond setting all this in motion, the world is very similar to our normal 2016 world, so powers and aliens and advanced technology cannot be public knowledge just yet. There can still be pre-existing costumed vigilantes, but they can't have any epic superpowers that are obvious to the public, at least not until after Mark Desmond blows that shit up all over the media, lol. Prior to this a majority of the world thinks superheroes and powers are pure fiction.
