1 Probability

Marcus Million was truly one in a million. In all the worst ways - he was one of a select few that had the unfortunate lack of what was called the Alter gene. A strange biological mutation that popped up in humans back in 2000.

The moon had turned blood red, casting a strange glow over the entirety of earth. A shade of crimson layered over the blue rock we called home, and in that light came something strange, something that fiddled with the deep recesses of the human genome and grew, or perhaps implanted, something more.

That was the Alter gene. An organic marker that was more parasite than genetics, but gene sounded more welcoming, and so the name stuck. It granted people powers they could only envision in comic books. Super strength, speed, flight, the whole package. People even started to be able to bend the fundamental fabric of reality, manipulating space and time with a wave of their hands.

But that blood moon, the New Moon as it was called, was almost a hundred years ago. It was 2070 now, and, miraculously, humanity hadn't wiped itself out with their newfound powers. There was instability of course, Marcus had read about it in his school's history books. With power came abuse, and with abuse came a vicious cycle of exploitation and suffering that blossomed into a deadly mushroom cloud of conflicts worldwide.

Failed attempts at government regulation of powers, escalating tensions as countries attempted to militarize enhanced humans, and general chaos in geopolitics arising from 98% of the human populace gaining strange abilities led to a third world war.

Thankfully, that had all been settled by 2020, and the world had healed, heralding in a new age of heroes that donned masks. Of course, with heroes came the villains, but in general, mankind took a step forward, putting conflicts behind them and reforging society anew and better.

In particular, there was one man who spearheaded world peace. Tai, the first hero, the first one to wear a Mask and fight for justice. The only thing that beat out his absurd might was his strong moral compass and he along with others like-minded put a rest to the chaos plaguing the world, establishing the Alterhuman Agency to regulate powers borne from the Alter gene and to institute a peacekeeping system of superheroes called Masks.

Society grew to accept Alterhuman powers, progressing rapidly and fruitfully. Alterhumans became mainstream, and people like Marcus who held no power became the rejects.

But Marcus didn't mind too much. He lived in one of the most peaceful cities in the world - Sunsky. It was a metropolis built in the wake of the third world war ending, symbolizing an era of progress where society meshed with its new superpowered men and women. It was advanced, clean, and nearly crime free if you were rich, but that was the same for anywhere you went in the world. Some things never did change.

Marcus wasn't rich. He was born in the Projects, a section of Sunsky that was built to house refugees that arose from the ashes of the war. The area, even now, was poorer than the rest of pristine Sunsky, and there was a fair bit of crime here and there. But not much, especially in comparison to some other cities in the states where police and Masks constantly struggled against villains.

People were generally nice in Sunsky. Marcus knew he was an outsider - he got those looks sometimes, the raised brows, the pitying nods, when he told people he wasn't an Alter, that he had no powers, but he didn't let it get to him. He'd never wanted power because he'd never needed it to be happy. He had a good life going for him, good group of friends, good family, good grades, the whole package deal.

But not all good things last.

When Tai, the premiere Mask, face of the Alterhuman Agency, retired five years ago, chaos crept back into the world. Crime started ramping back up. Trust started growing thin. Marcus felt it. The tension in the air, in the streets of Sunsky where before there had just been a clean type of peace. People didn't feel safe out at night anymore. There were reports of villains more and more frequently, whispers of organized crime on a scale that hadn't been seen since the tumultuous decades preceding and succeeding the third war.

And it was during this new era of uneasiness that Marcus, who already had little to his name, no powers, no nothing, lost it all.