I used to be a high ranking government official. That's all I'll say. It was the kind of position you'd never officially hear about. It was the kind of job that didn't get any admiration from the public. People looked at me and saw a government hiding things from its citizens. People looked at me and saw shady government organizations and projects. People saw their tax payer money going to something that wouldn't benefit them. People looked at me and saw everything wrong with America. Did I care? Did it bother me? No, because I wasn't just a government official. I didn't just have my job in my life. I was also a husband and a father.
I never particularly liked the superheroes, not like most people. When people looked at them they saw hope. People saw inspiration. They saw something to strive towards. These so called heroes made the world a better place. I never believed it, I lived my life with my wife and two children and did my job.
The so called superheroes were fighting supervillains in a city one day. They were throwing each other through buildings, throwing cars, destroying the city. Falling rubble from a skyscraper fell on civilians. I lost half my face, and my wife and two children lost everything. I died inside that day. After the so called heroes defeated the villains they went home. They celebrated their victory. They didn't care about the little guys. That my family died as collateral damage and they didn't even notice. They didn't care that my life had ended.
I tried, I really tried, to not let my hatred consume me. To not let my burning hatred for the superhumans affect my decisions. To have cold hard logic be the driving force in my reasoning. That's why I kept doing my job until the world finally saw the so called heroes like I do. When they took over. When they decided their power meant they could take humanity's destiny into their own inhuman hands. When that happened the governments of the world activated AXIS, and I became who I am now. I will do whatever it takes for humanity to control its own fate.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Inhuman power corrupts inhumanly.
Welcome to AXIS, my attempt on an original take on a superhero RP. The basic idea of the RP is that the world has been defined in recent history by costumed superheroes who have used their powers to protect the world, but they are and always were flawed people. Though far from evil when contrasted with supervillains, these heroes were as fundamentally flawed as anyone else. From giving in to human urges occasionally, to having a moral view warped and skewed by power, attention, and accountability, the heroes of this world have shaped it to the point where human civilization now depended on something inhuman to exist.
The superheroes used to fight against supervillains. These battles seemed to be endless, and many villains would always come back no matter how many times they were defeated. This all happened in the RP's backstory however. It's like your parent's high school days, important once but not now. Over many years the superheroes became jaded and cynical. The villains were never permanently defeated or rehabilitated. Meanwhile people died in the crossfire. Whenever the heroes tried to take more extreme actions they were heavily criticized. The superheroes came to believe the old ways didn't work. That they couldn't truly call themselves heroes if they allowed the world to continue in its broken state. The old system didn't work.
The superheroes eventually formed FLAGG. Officially FLAGG advises the governments of the world. Unofficially its authority is greater than that of any government. Unofficially the superheroes took over the world. Moving quickly and quietly, the superheroes simply started to do things they'd never done before. For the first time they started to kill, and to imprison. They readily made backroom deals with influential figures. They appealed directly to the people and even encouraged uprising. By the time the governments of the world knew what was happening the superheroes had already undermined them. They made demands that seemed benign when looked at individually, but before they knew it the superheroes had taken over the world from the world's governments.
The idea that the superheroes could turn against the governments of the world had been thought of before. Years before FLAGG was formed the governments of the world created the AXIS project. The goal of AXIS was to stop the superheroes should they ever turn against humanity. When FLAGG was formed the AXIS project was activated. AXIS used whatever it could against the superheroes. Neutral superhumans were recruited. Former supervillains were recruited. Political prisoners of FLAGG were rescued. Scientists were given funding for their projects. Skilled criminals who would have rotted in jail were recruited. On top of this AXIS receives funding from world governments even as they are controlled by FLAGG. Though AXIS could do nothing to stop FLAGG from taking over, it works underground to eventually defeat the superheroes.
The RP begins with the fifth year of FLAGG's rule. As the inhuman one world government solidifies its control, AXIS is finally ready to fight back. AXIS believes that the superheroes should be defeated so that humanity can reclaim its freedom, but FLAGG believes that the old ways never worked and that they can truly help the world. Oddly for a superhero story, in the world of AXIS you'll find that heroism is relative.
