I Re

(another set of words in a sequence for/related to deus ex parabola's superhero GLOG. i don't even like superheroes but i keep writing this for accursed, unknowable reasons)

A city run entirely on blind optimism (and, of course, the elaboraziones just a bit south, but we don’t talk about those), I Re is on track to turn into a full-blown cyberpunk dystopia within the decade and absolutely hyped about it. A new skyscraper sprouts every week with a new company inside - in a month, they’re both gone. 

Local Newspaper - Eye Re

Everything’s a stock ticker (“How Will the Reappearance of Supervillain “Symphony of Noises” Affect Defense Investments?”) a heartwarming story of survival (“3rd Grader Raises $10,000 to Clean Cordoned Waste Site”), or about traffic.

Factions

Locus International: design and production of spaceborne industry. NASA offloaded the work of rocketry to them years ago, and the ESA did the same last year. An immense mass driver is under construction on the outskirts of I Re, entirely under their control. Conspiracies abound, especially around the fabled document Solutions for Occupation, said to contain Locus’s plans for an orbital habitat to escape climate change. While Locus is often the target of crimes (armored truck hijackings, payload smuggling, and hacking attempts, in particular), never fear; their External Affairs division has the equipment and legal cover to protect corporate interests.

Example Locus Superhuman

Telescope - 1Σ, Perceive 1, Think 1

Automatic subconscious understanding of trajectories and navigation. Maximum range for all weapons and thrown objects is tripled, and Telescope may make impossible attacks (ricocheting a bullet off the side of a building, off the sidewalk, and through the cracked window of a moving car five blocks away). Notably, Telescope doesn’t get bonuses to-hit or damage.

Telescope works exclusively as a rocketry and mathematics consultant, and any statement that Telescope (and thus, Locus International) are the cause of recent murders in opposing companies is grounds for a libel suit.

The First and the Last

Full-on paramilitary technomonarchists in the Curtis Yarvin vein, The First and the Last are an increasingly common sight on the streets of I Re. Their plans hinge on the creation of a society ruled by sovereign corporations led by a single unencumbered Executive, an objective that The First and the Last believe is key to continuing human technological progress.

Example The First and the Last Superhuman

Tatterdemalion, 1Σ, Shift, Ace

At will, can become "unnoticeable" - not in the form of becoming invisible, but in becoming a person whose presence would not raise concern - in most cases a janitor when in a public place or a pedestrian when outside.

This works on a building-scale basis, inconveniently - Tatterdemalion will remain a janitor even as he attempts to break into the Sealed Biotechnology Wing, Where We Definitely Don't Let Janitors In. Similarly, when outside he will shift from one body to another as his power attempts to determine exactly what kind of pedestrian is least interesting in this neighborhood.

ДPYГ

A voice on the screen, with no known identity. They speak privately with those in need - “You will have no insulin. You will go to the basement of 3310 Grover Street and find twelve buckets. You will pour one down the sink at the peak of each of the next twelve hours. You will have insulin.”

Their messages are spread between those who have heard them, searching for hidden patterns, but ДPYГ has remained indecipherable. They have no ideology, no patterns, and, it seems, do not benefit from their work.

ДPYГ has no subordinates, but they do not need them. Everyone works for them when they ask. 

I Re Municipal Police Department

Hot off the heels of eight simultaneous scandals ranging from “accidentally” leaving a suspect locked in a car on a set of train tracks to “accidentally” raiding the offices of local journalists to “accidentally” running off with tens of millions in taxpayer money, the I Re police department is undergoing a revolution, with high-ranking officers fired, budgets cut, and new penalties for use of force.

We both know that’s a lie - the police budget doubled this year and they bought a tank.

Example I Re Municipal Police Department Superhuman

“The Sheriff”, 2Σ, Perceive II, Zap

While the I Re police department is the city’s largest employer of superhumans, most discussion of their hires focuses around the faceless, nameless figure of “the Sheriff” - stories of suspects paralyzed with a glance from across a city block, and a detective who can smell murders.

The I Re police will readily admit the Sheriff’s existence, but their cases and identity are hidden.