The Black Contagion
The in-universe name was given by the press for what occurred during the first half of Solar Flare.
Grandmother Millie
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Camila Belmonte
Age: 50
Height: 5' 3"
Weight: 105 lb.
Likes: Wine, Roxanne, Corina, good food, the outdoors
Dislikes: AI's, OverHumans, talking with your mouth full, cursing
Mehs: Roxanne's stubbornness.
Powers and Abilities: She's got the Mom look down pat.
Traits: Bubbly, excitable, easy to talk to, non-judgemental
Camila first met her future husband, Humberto, when they were teenagers in the ruins of Old Earth. They eventually had a family of their own with the birth of their son. In time, their son brought home a wife; they soon became expecting, and this child was Roxanne.
Humberto got lucky in a way Old Earther's never do; he came into some money. Enough for passage to Izanami, including one child for free. Roxanne's parents refused to go and left her in Camila and Humberto's company.
Neither grandparent has ever said why, and absent an actual answer, Roxanne assumes it's because she wasn't wanted. Camila and Humberto focused wholly on raising Roxanne right, and watching her little sunshine grow into a powerful woman filled her heart with endless joy.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Humberto, sadly, passed away during the Black Contagion.
Madrono City Maximum Security Prison Complex
Madrono City was the second settlement after Izanami was founded in 2900. Underworld elements supposedly aided in its conception and construction, eventually leading the sister city to become a haven for drugs and crime.
It was condemned and turned into an OverHuman prison in 3088. A drug called O-Zone led to an abnormal influx of OverHuman people roaming the streets, resulting in an endless gang war. The final straw came when a member of the previous parliament was assassinated while making a campaign stop.
In the run-up to that, MAD City—as it became colloquially known—was already on thin ice with most of the planet. O-Zone escaped from there and landed on the other settlements' doorsteps, and OverHumans started emerging in their populations. This politician tried to preach reform for the city and didn't want it seen as a scapegoat.
But after the assassination, it became exactly that.
A massive search to find the perpetrator or perpetrators directly led to the city's downfall. First, the city fell under martial law. Eventually, OHs within city limits get designated as enemies of the state. In the end, authorities never found the ones responsible, but the marshal law remained in place.
Deemed too far gone, access to the city was prohibited. Roads destroyed, bridges blown up; Madrono City was transformed into the first OverHuman prison and has served as such ever since. Within the walls, the population can roam freely and live as they wish; minimal power is funneled into the city to serve these ends. Prisoners caught attempting to leave were executed on sight. There are rumors that normal humans are trapped there, but no one reasonably believes it.
OverHuman
[Ohver-Hyuman], noun.
A human being with unnatural talents and abilities, whether born with them or not.
The first OverHumans appeared in Madrono City not long after its founding. Born from a street drug flooding the market (dubbed O-Zone), 1 in 3 people who took the drug manifested paranormal abilities; the rest would die.
A second less dangerous version of the drug hit the streets next and directly led to the shuttering of Madrono City and, it can be argued, the current boom in the OverHuman population.
The drug still exists out there, but more than half of new OverHumans are the result of natural births and are rising.
Estimates have the total OH population as around 2 million.