The Breaking Point

by Mephit James

This timeline follows many of the same events as the standard timeline but early on it deviates from the printed materials. Before Amanda Sykes is revealed to the world, a group of Russian sleeper agents make a bold move in Washington D.C. based on rumors of her activities. When General Andrew Colt gets involved, these agents are given dark energy powers but so are three American citizens. The result is a special task force led by General Colt which works hard against the Russian metahumans, and eventually Bich Thi Nguyen, as another metahuman conflict which operates at the same time as the situation in Vietnam.

Major Characters

  • Private Karl Berger: A fresh recruit on leave to Washington D.C. given powers during the National Mall Incident. Not the sharpest tool in the metahuman shed.
  • Callie Callahan: A jazz saxophonist from D.C. given powers by General Colt, but not the most enthusiastic recipient of powers.
  • General Andrew Colt: Progenitor of the many of the other metahumans in this list and commander of the mission to stop the Soviet metahumans.
  • Tracy Colt: Wife of the general and insistent on being involved now that she’s caught super.
  • Andrew Colt Jr: Superpowered kid. A real wild card with a lot of baggage.
  • Senator George McGovern: Also a metahuman and opposed to Colt’s plans for a superteam. With Johnson occupied, he’s the biggest counterweight to the general.
  • Dr. Magnus Ostberg: A Minnesota doctor in Washington D.C. for a medical conference when he is given dark energy powers by General Colt.
  • Bich Thi Nguyen: Vietnamese metahuman empowered by General Colt during his first military trials of his power.
  • Aleksandr “Shura” Sokoloff: Male Russian operative, given powers by General Colt during the National Mall Incident. Super strength and super speed. Cover alias Edgar Henry Gardener.
  • Yuliya Gomolova: Female Russian operative, given powers by General Colt during the National Mall Incident. Superhuman strength, cryokinesis, flight. Cover alias Kimberley Amielle Acker.
  • Aleksei Matveev: Male Russian operative, given powers by General Colt during the National Mall Incident. He has the power to change appearance and read minds. Cover alias Harold Charles Berkowitz.

1968

Suspicion 0 | Technology 0 | Economy 0 | Warfare 0


February: Amanda Sykes reveals her powers to Chris Marshall who brings her to Gen. Andrew Colt. Both men are infected. They then bring her to President Lyndon Baines Johnson who also becomes infected. The president gives dark energy powers to J. Edgar Hoover, Brenda Harkness, Bryson Maas-Thierry, and others. Meanwhile, Abe Sykes spreads dark energy to all of his power descendents.

March: J. Edgar Hoover passes dark energy to all of his power descendents while Lyndon Johnson gives it to Sen. George McGovern and Sen. Robert Kennedy as his last two infections. Meanwhile, Amanda Sykes begins fighting in Vietnam (starting rumors almost immediately) and Jarvis West begins abusing his powers, though initially in minor ways.

April: Three days after being shot by James Earl Ray, MLK appears briefly to his wife and children. Meanwhile, blurry photos of Amanda are published and the military declines to comment on rumors of a “superhero” fighting in Vietnam until blurry footage of Amanda is televised. After that they admit to using “metahuman soldiers.” Amanda spares the life of Sét and Nguyet Cam, the latter when she witnesses the atrocities at My Lai. In one of the first attacks by Sét, Private Achille Riitzi survives and is given dark energy powers. When his abilities are recognized, he is returned to the United States for study.

Faced with the threat of an American supersoldier, the U.S.S.R. activates sleeper agents in the D.C. area who attempt to kill the president. They are stopped by the Secret Service but during the ensuing chase across the National Mall, Andrew Colt telepathically spies on the Russian agents and speaks to several bystanders to urge them to action, empowering all of them. Later, this is known as the National Mall Incident. Along with his wife and son, as well as Bich Thi Nguyen earlier in the month, Colt has created his final six power offspring in one incident.

May: Christopher Marshall (rather than Andrew Colt) empowers Jason Blume, Mark May, Art Harmon, and Joe Ruiz when his turf warriors pull them free of wreckage after attacks. He also gives dark energy to an ARVN commander, a Vietcong officer, and several other Vietnamese fighters who survive his warriors’ attacks.

General Andrew Colt is given permission to form his team of specialists to counter Russian plans in the U.S. Dr. Magnus Ostberg, Callie Callahan, and Private Karl Berger join for various reasons and undergo specialty training to identify Russian agents.

In Vietnam, other metahumans are empowered on both sides.

June: News of Vietnamese metahumans becomes impossible to keep quiet anymore and the brief feeling of positivity about the war quickly subsides as the U.S. does not seem invulnerable anymore.

The clash between Lin Wen and Jarvis West in Boston receives a lot of media attention and J. Edgar Hoover travels with Dwayne Sinclair and Maurizio Spear to the city to try to pick up West's trail.

July: After another clash with Jason Weeks, Lin Wen, and Barbara French against Jarvis West in New York City, General Andrew Colt explicitly tells his team of Magnus Ostberg, Callie Callahan, and Karl Berger that West is not a Russian agent and therefore none of their concern. They are to concentrate on the escaped sleeper agents.

August: General Colt's team responds to the attack by Ngoc Vo and Sét but they mostly play clean-up after the fact. President Johnson meets with the Soviet amabassador over the situation in the Czechoslovakia but is unable to persuade the representative when he is forced to operate through an interpreter. It is a difficult situation and clearly the Soviet embassy has been advised to avoid talking to the President directly.

September: After failing again, this time with the negotiating team from North Vietnam, President Johnson demands results from Andrew Colt's team in shutting down the communist metahuman teams. They finally determine that Aleksei Matveev, Yuliya Gomolova, and Shura Sokoloff escaped to Florida and then to Cuba where they presumably met up with communist agents who could get them back to Russia.

October: After the St. Louis Gateway Arch is crushed by a massive Monument teleported to the U.S. by Ngoc Vo, President Johnson announces a cessation of bombing and the opening of talks with North Vietnam. Secretly, though, he instructs Andrew Colt and General Abrams]] to explore plans using metahuman operatives on covert missions in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia respectively.

Dr. Magnus Ostberg, in collaboration with the CDC and Surgeon General's Office, produces a government report on the transmission and nature of "dark energy powers" among individuals. The study utilizes observations of all known metahumans (American, Vietnamese, and Russian) as well as tests using Ostberg's powers and those of Callie Callahan, Karl Berger, Andrew Colt, Dwayne Sinclair, and Maurizio Spear.

November: Lyndon Johnson is elected for a second time and begins his third term in office. He immediately authorizes Operation Torchcarry for Amanda Sykes to attack the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos and Operation Shadowbox for Andrew Colt's team to infiltrate East Berlin with J. Edgar Hoover's "Exam Team" (Dwayne Sinclair and Maurizio Spear) to find and assess Soviet metahumans.

December: Sirhan Sirhan tries and utterly fails to shoot President Johnson, shooting himself instead. Bich Thi Nguyen slips across the northern Vietnamese border on December 31st as final preparations for Operations Torchcarry and Shadowbox are underway.

1969

Suspicion 0 | Technology 1 | Economy 0 | Warfare 1

January: Magnus Ostberg, Callie Callahan, Karl Berger, Dwayne Sinclair, and Maurizio Spear cross the border to East Berlin.

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