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|THE SEVENTH DIVISION: AW2|
We were once heroes. But, as I’ve come to learn, heroes win the wars no one else could.
I don’t know if we’ll win this war.
And I’m so, so sorry...
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There were a lot of us. I guess I’ve lost count of how many people we inspired to join our cause over the decades. Masked men and women, seasoned vigilantes, misfits and the misled just trying to do right by this world – we had them all. Some possessed supernatural abilities, godlike powers. Some were the brightest minds the world would ever know. And some were just the everyday passer-byer’s on the street done with being reduced to a mere bystander. Whoever and whatever they had been didn’t matter. What mattered was that they fought for us to make Earth something we could be proud of. A legacy we guided into long-standing fruition.
We called ourselves The Seventh Division. It took seven reiterations for a group of crime-fighters to finally work. It was never a name intended to brand us and, yet, here we are. Some of us had our costumes, our masks and codenames. Childish things, all of it; we didn’t start off for the glamour. It was all good intentions in the beginning. Yet major media outlets make sure our name was etched into every mind everywhere. We became a global phenomenon. People demanded more of us, made shrines for us; they craved us, idolized us. They cursed us and loathed us when we couldn’t fight their battles, couldn’t save them or bring them justice. The government turned to us when problems were too big for them, and other times dismissed us as a nuisance. The Death Machine was arrested and imprisoned several times over until she was eventually shot dead by a county sheriff in some backwater town. The following week, Hemlock and Sung Jin Lee were commemorated for their on-going services to the NYPD. It was an uneven game we played.
In those days, when I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the bravest, most brilliant warriors and diplomats and allies, it was hard not to feel like a god. For thirty-six years, The Seventh Division didn’t only write world peace into the history textbooks, we promised to engrave it in stone. At the high peak of our success, in our later days, we were cocky. We believed we were Atlas, carrying the weight of the world and doing a damn good job at it. We fought everything from petty criminals to “supervillains,” we smothered World War III. We thought we were everything right.
And yet we still failed. Hard, without any grace or glory. We crashed and burned in the face of defeat at the hands of something more than an alien race. We saw them coming from halfway across our solar system. We thought we had time to prepare – hell, we felt prepared. For an intergalactic allegiance to all-out war, we thought we were ready. We really weren’t. All we were at that point was a ragtag team of socialites living the high life of being universally adored. There was no more fighting for the greater good. It was only for the glamour, the fame. Some of us like the validation of being publicly loved; some of us liked the easy access to drugs, power, sex, and five-finger discounts. None of us were innocent, or pure, or worthy of being touted as Earth’s defenders. We inflated ourselves without ever thinking we could be popped. And when we finally were, we went fast.
Of the twenty-two of us that fought during those endless days, only nine of us survived. Others who once stood proudly under the name of The Seventh Division fled once they knew we weren’t winning, just prolonging our collapse. That, or the lifestyle we upheld wasn’t what they signed on for, and I don’t blame them for it. I guess they knew best. They didn’t watch their friends and family crumble beneath an enemy we didn’t know could exist. They didn’t see the city of Adventbrook collapse from an aerial view like I did. They didn’t see the bodies of a few million innocent lives scattered across the debris and carnage. All because of us. All because we likened ourselves to deities and rulers and weren’t ready to live up that self-proclaimed title. We were just great pretenders.
We didn’t understand those aliens’ agenda – still don’t. They descended in massive, impossibly organic space crafts and slaughtered the citizens of Adventbrook. Only there, nowhere else. They were like elephant-sized jellyfish, the aliens – long and billowy, but not physical beings. Like ghosts; non-corporeal. We couldn’t make a dent in them. They took most of the bodies, a lot of the living, and left some behind to rot. Then, as quickly as they came and laid ruin to our efforts, they drifted out of our atmosphere and vanished into the dark abyss of outer space.
And just like that, it was over.
We were over.
...
That event – “The Extraterrestrial Battle of Adventbrook,” or “AW1: Alien War 1” for short – was two and a half years ago. After we couldn’t save that Canadian city nestled in the heart of Ontario, we warranted ourselves something of a bad rep and let it snowball. Those of us that lived through it didn’t try anymore. Of the nine remaining members, five quit and went into hiding, favouring a return to normalcy, whatever they considered “normal” to be. One is working exclusively with the American government – SETI, or NASA – having severed ties to the rest of the world shortly after. One went insane and became something of an antihero no one asks for. One fought back against the media backlash and annihilated a few dozen reporters and police officers. They’re still in some max security cell somewhere.
And then there’s me: the last remaining hero of The Seventh Division. The only one who still stands by that name. I’m old. I feel it. I’m not what I used to be, and I see it. I still try to bring justice to those who need it, but I am only one fraction of a much bigger core of that success I once knew. I fail more often than I come close to winning, and I don’t know why I keep trying.
But I know one thing: they’re going to return, and when they do, I can’t be the only one willing to try again.
- Zenith
...
And now it’s my time to speak! I guess one half Watchmen, a little dash of Falling Skies, and not quite enough of Avengers to be a full rip-off, we have this – The Seventh Division: AW2: an RP about re-assembling a broken-up group of vigilantes to prepare for the second alien invasion, and more. I know where I’m going to take this RP, what will happen and what plot twists we’ll encounter, so the structure is there, but enough leeway for us to do whatever we want with it. If we later want to carry on this RP into another story separate from the AW2 (Alien War 2) plotline, I’ve also planned for that. It’ll be fun, I promise!
In a nutshell, our characters are ex-superheroes who were defeated, retired, went into hiding, took up part-time crime-fighting, resumed their old lives, etc. They lived a lavish lifestyle and were shunned for it when it became clear they became greedy and corrupted. They were ostracized and disbanded when more than half of them died and, not only could they not save the day, but they gave up on it for the most part. They can be someone with super strength, telekinesis, supernatural qualities, or even just a knack for punching well. They don’t have to be “superhuman” necessarily, just someone once regarded as a hero who was part of The Seventh Division. They do have to be a former member of The Seventh Division, however. But whether they’re a first-generation member (The First Division, even?), fought in the AW1, or fled before it got that bad is your decision. They can be anywhere in the world now, doing whatever – most likely not still trying to save the day, mind you. Or, if they are, it’s definitely not under the guise of The Seventh Division anymore. It should go without saying, however, that your character should be a little grounded in realism. Think less Superman and more Hiro Nakamura.
I’m looking for roughly seven-ish other people who want to help shape this story and make it all sorts of crime-fighting, world-saving, character-exploring excitement. I guess you could say I'd like to focus on character development (who doesn't want to write in-depth for washed-up celebrity superheroes trying to reclaim glory while preparing for the end of the world?), but action is a major part of this as well. If you have any questions or want more information, feel free to ask here or send me a PM. There will be more information in the OOC, but I don’t think an info-dump is attractive for the Interest Check, is it?
I look forward to all the responses!
THE CHARACTER SHEET:
