Current Events

A quick guide to game history, both recent past and notable events that have taken place on camera. Items should be added to the timeline if they would be newsworthy.

Recent History: 1979-2012

• 1979 - Dr. Moira MacTaggert publishes research documenting the discovery of a gene that triggers superhuman powers in homo sapiens. This gene is named the X-Gene.
• 1980 - Scotland becomes the first country to require mutant registration of those with superhuman powers.
• 1986 - Scotland overturns their mutant registration laws, in a very narrow vote.
• 1994 - All branches of the U.S. military adopt a ban on mutants serving.
• 1999 - Fell Peak, NM becomes the first U.S. town to adopt anti-discrimination laws protecting mutants.
• 2002 - Senator Grover from Florida proposes a law barring mutants from holding federal civil service positions. It dies in the House after passing in the Senate.
• 2006 - Switzerland adopts a restrictive immigration policy banning all mutants from gaining resident status.
• 2008 - Philip Bancroft is elected President of the United States. A moderate Democrat, his views on mutants are, for the first time in several cycles, fairly progressive.
• 2009 - Under the new president, the Bureau of Mutant Affairs is established, a subsidiary agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
• 2010 - Washington state becomes the first U.S. state to adopt anti-discrimination laws protecting mutants.
• 2011 - Derek Simon, the governor of Arizona, begins campaigning heavily for president. Favored to win the Republican nomination, his platform includes heavily anti-mutant views.
• 2011 - The Brotherhood of Mutants stage an attack on a gathering of diplomats in New York City. The resulting furor kicks anti-mutant sentiment to a record high, right in the middle of election season.
• 2012 - In the wake of Magneto's attack, Simon's election campaign jumps 15 points in the polls.
• 2012 - With anti-mutant fervor on the rise, the elections brought in a tide of politicians -- including the new president-elect, Derek Simon -- promising to take a Hard Stance on the mutant issue.
• 20 December, 2012 - The Open Door Shelter in Manhattan, previously quietly tolerant of their mutant population, decides under new management to evict the mutants currently living there and ban mutants from their shelter. A protest against this action turns violent, leading to eight arrests and a multitude of injuries.

January-June, 2013

• 22 January, 2013 - A federal agent is murdered in the Garment District by a mutant who can seemingly grow animals larger.
• 6 February, 2013 - In response to the rise in mutant crimes and triggered largely by the FBI agent's death, Mayor Lovet announces that open, voluntary displays of mutancy are punishable now by ticketing up to $500. During his speech, a human gunman shoots at the mayor; a mutant stops the bullet before it can hit him.
• 15 February, 2013 - A series of explosions near a building in downtown Manhattan leads to the so-called Spider-Dude, a masked figure known primarily for his youtube videos of apparently superhuman acrobatics, being added to the FBI's terrorism watchlist.
• 20 February, 2013 - A mutant loses control in Central Park, shooting poisonous quills at bystanders. The same mutant who saved the mayor during his announcement of the ticketing ordinance responds by shielding the nearby people from the accidental attack. In response, he receives a ticket from the same police officers he just protected from the spray; pictures and videos of the incident go viral.
• Late February, 2013 - The wanted terrorist Spider-Dude has many more sightings around the city -- this time not involved in any criminal activity, but spotted at housefires rescuing occupants before the fire department has time to show up. There is much debate across the internet about whether Spider-Dude is a terrorist or a hero.
• Early March, 2013 - A handful of disappearances around the city lead to mummified bodies turning back up, drained entirely of blood. A shapeshifting shadow-woman is spotted with the unconscious bodies of one of the missing children; this mutant's involvement is suspected in the murders.
• 14 March, 2013 - The mutant responsible for the abductions and murders is found dead; the abducted victims rescued describe him as a giant spider made out of blood. Rumours abound -- that the shadow-woman suspected of the murders actually helped rescue several of the victims, that another mutant living in the sewers was responsible for hunting down the bloodmonster. Also, that the monster's corpse has vanished from the morgue.
• 15 March, 2013 - President Simon visits New York to personally present a silver star medal to Elliott Carruthers, the daughter of New York's senior senator. Carruthers, a Naval officer, was being recognized for her bravery in defending her ship against a pirate attack.
• 17 March, 2013 - Local musician Ryan Black is arrested on drug charges following an East Village raid. Tabloids are full of pictures of him being taken away in handcuffs; his upcoming show in the city sells out within hours of the press releases.
• 20 March, 2013 - Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp, announces an upcoming gala where he plans to demonstrate a new line of mutant countermeasures. In an unconventional move, he announces plans to invite prominent mutants to the party, with stated intentions to work with and not simply against the mutant community in these measures.
• 22 March, 2013 - A group of people calling themselves the 'Sons of Magneto' start gaining some internet notoriety with their conspiracy theory videos about mutant deathcamps where the government is rounding up mutants en masse to experiment on them/kill them. Shoddily made and full of kind of unhinged rants, nobody much takes them seriously.
• 24 March, 2013 - A mutant terrorist lights several storefronts in the Upper West Side on fire, killing one woman and forcing Zabar's Deli to close after the heavy damages. During the arson, the man was screaming about declaring war on 'homo inferior'.
• 28 March, 2013 - The Oscorp Gala ends in chaos as four mutants calling themselves 'Sons of Magneto' attack the party. The attack came right in the middle of Osborn's announcement of his plans to open a mutant school to help mutants understand and control their powers. No deaths or serious injuries are reported after the attack, largely due to the combined efforts of a number of Osborn's mutant guests to stop the attack.
• 29 March, 2013 - The Daily Bugle publishes an article about the Mendel Clinic, an upcoming mutant clinic in Manhattan; it speculates that places like this and the planned Oscorp Institute are fronts for mutant terrorism.
• 31 March, 2013 - News comes to light that the four youths responsible for the attack on the Oscorp Gala have disappeared from police custody.
• 4 April, 2013 - Following the exposure of the Mendel Clinic in the Daily Bugle, Dr. Iolaus Saavedro, the clinic's founder, makes a speech in Central Park to announce the clinic. Saavedro was arrested during the speech for speaking without a permit.
• 12 April, 2013 - An unidentified mangled body is found in an abandoned vehicle in Staten Island. Reports say that it looked like an animal had eaten right through the man's skull.
• 15 April, 2013 - Washington State overturns its mutant nondiscrimination legislation, rendering mutants once again no longer a protected class anywhere in the country.
• 17 April, 2013 - The Latverian Science Exposition opens in New York City, spearheaded by the recently arisen dictator of Latveria, Victor van Doom; it will continue throughout the rest of the week.
• Late April, 2013 - A wave of mutant disappearances is sweeping New York. Again. Must be Tuesday.
• 2 April, 2013 - An serial killer the police call the 'Chelsea Ripper' surfaces again after a year-long dormant stretch. Targeting pimps in the city, the killer's MO is to leave them mutilated, mailing body parts and taunting letters to the police.
• 3 May, 2013 - Latveria officially adopts mandatory mutant registration.
• 9 May, 2013 - A US diplomat and Doctor Doom are assaulted by a terrorist in broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan. Two casualties, both body guards that accompanied the duo. A dozen of people were critically injured after the car was driven into a nearby mall and then subsequently exploded.
• 13 May, 2013 - Reports come of an attack at Oscorp Tower. Largely speculative, what is known is that the high-rise was evacuated, an explosion heard shortly thereafter. In the wake of Oscorp's controversial announcement of their Institute, terrorist involvement is suspected.
• 23 May, 2013 - Much of the town of Grover's Mill, NJ -- stores, banks, restaurant, schools -- is destroyed in a sudden series of sinkholes. The cause of the sinkholes is unknown. Homes and the town's one hospital were oddly untouched by the event.
• 26 May, 2013 - An attempted bank robbery in East Harlem is foiled by customers on scene, notable among them the public figure and known mutant Luke Cage.
• 29 May, 2013 - An explosion in a tenement complex in Queens brought down a host of police and fire officials. A series of pipe bombs were discovered to have gone off; police reports state that five bodies were found in the apartment where the blast originated.
• 30 May, 2013 - A group of volunteers helping with cleanup after the Grovers Mill disaster were attacked by what witnesses say were giant ants. Reports claim the witnesses fended off the attack with mutant powers; the ants themselves are suspected to be the product of mutant powers as well.
• June, 2013 - The Mutant Registration Act is released from committee for a full vote in the House. As the vote draws closer, an ad campaign sweeps the country encouraging support of the Act. Its tagline, 'Human First!', can be seen on posters and in papers and on television nationwide. Its most prominent spokesperson can be seen, too, both in the ads herself and making the rounds on radio and television talkshows across the country.
• 9 June, 2013 - An NYPD Sergeant is killed on duty in Central Park, the first NYPD officer slain in the line of duty in over a year. Myriad eyewitnesses to a shadow monster as the perpetrator lead to a drastic spike in aggression from police against mutants citywide.
• 11 June, 2013 - Evolve Coffeeshop, a popular hangout with mutants and one of the only mutant-friendly business in the city, closes after a fire that claims three lives.
• 12 June, 2013 - A young man with a shadow-like mutation is shot to death by police outside a bakery in TriBeCa. Investigation is ongoing into his possible involvement in the death of a police Sergeant earlier in the week.
• 18 June, 2013 - A press conference at Stark Tower launches an investigation into the NYPD when it is alleged (along with video footage of the gruesome fights) that members of the NYPD were involved in kidnapping mutants and forcing them into fights.
• 21 June, 2013 - The City Hall was assaulted by insectoid creatures under control of a mutant. The terrorist was successfully apprehended.
• 21 June, 2013 - In response to the fight ring footage exposed at Stark's press conference, a subway train was derailed, causing plenty of injuries but no deaths. The terrorist is still at large, and speculation is abound whether another terrorist - known as the Spider - alleviated the disaster or helped cause it.

July-December, 2013

• 4 July, 2013 - Another NYPD officer -- coincidentally the same responsible for the shooting of the young shadow-mutant in June -- is killed on duty, this time apparently as the result of a bar fight.
• 9 July, 2013 - Four unidentified (allegedly mutant) terrorists attack Sing Sing correctional facility, breaking into the Control Unit where highly dangerous mutant criminals are kept; five prison officials die and 8 mutant criminals (including Thea and Cain Marko) escape. The Brotherhood is suspected of involvement.
• 21 July, 2013 - Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn announces his company's development of the world's first technology for blocking telepathic signals. Previously tanked after Osborn's announcement of plans to build a mutant institute, Oscorp's stock skyrockets overnight.
• 26 July, 2013 - News reports announce the death of the Shadow woman responsible for the murder of an NYPD sergeant in June. Reports say the woman was killed during a raid on the sewers, where apparently she had been hiding.
• 12 August, 2013 - Police pursuing one of the escaped fugitives from the Sing Sing jailbreak end in a firefight against a group of mutant motorcyclists. The ensuing violence results in the death of three officers and one of the mutants. The mutants involved hole up in a church in Harlem, remaining there amidst enormous community controversy and law enforcement uproar over how to deal with the fugitives.
• Late August, 2013 - The contingent of mutants hiding out in the Harlem church continue to grow; news coverage including a visit from prominent mutant persona Luke Cage publicizes one of the instigators' announcement that the church will be a safe harbor for all mutants in need. Following this, many homeless, fugitive, and otherwise displaced mutants begin to take up residence while both support and protest from the surrounding community continues to grow.
• 17 September, 2013 - Mutant activist Luke Cage, during an interview on the local morning talk show Alison!, announces his intention to run for Harlem's newly vacated City Council seat.
• 26 September, 2013 - A joint effort between the NYPD and Hammer attempts to round up/evict the mutant fugitives from the Harlem church. Despite tens of thousands of dollars of damage, all the mutants escape. The church is destroyed in the process. Mutant city council candidate Luke Cage is on the scene; his polling numbers drop a few points following his arrest for smashing his way into the government truck that broke through the wall of the church.
• 11 October, 2013 - A mutant teenager dies in Harlem, after Mount Sinai hospital denies him treatment following a bullying assault at his school.
• 31 October, 2013 - A Times Square flashmob rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" turns violent when some of its dancers begin attacking each other.
• Early November, 2013 - A particularly severe start to flu season prompts a barrage of free flu clinics to open up around the city, with strong encouragement for people to get vaccinated.
• 5 November, 2013 - News that infected patients demonstrate severe unpredictable aggression is joined with rumours that even death does not cure this -- the dead victims of the sickness only continue to attack.
• 5 November, 2013 - Election Day has a record low turnout, with a climbing death toll from the supposed flu strain hitting the city and numerous reports of attacks on the voters waiting in line citywide. Mayor Lovet is re-elected to a second term, while Luke Cage loses his City Council bid.
• 5 November, 2013 - With its opening gala postponed due to public health emergency, after months of controversy about opening a mutant clinic, the Mendel Clinic opens -- and closes again -- with little fanfare. Citing the current public health emergency, the Clinic says it is looking forward to a grander reopening once the crisis is contained.
• 7 November, 2013 - With the sickness still spreading and attacks on the rise, New York City and the county of Westchester are both put under quarantine. A curfew between the hours of 11pm and 5am is also put in place.
• 8 November, 2013 - A health warning is announced throughout the city -- research out of the Mendel Clinic pinpoints /language/ as the disease transmission vector. People are heavily cautioned to refrain from saying certain words and avoid repeating words spoken by infected patients.
• 8 November, 2013 - With the ravenous dead roaming the streets and no way out of the city, waves of looting have begun spreading through the city. Many wealthier neighborhoods are hardest hit, both by looting and by the plague of dead crowding the streets.
• 10 November, 2013 - Around the city, shelters are put in place by relief organizations and guarded by the National Guard, safehouses for the uninfected to take refuge from the violence that comes both from the dead and from the infected -- or sometimes simply opportunistic -- living.
• 10 November, 2013 - As the swarms of dead grow, there are rumors of some sort of robot dropping into the areas where shelters have been set up to assist the National Guard in keeping he hordes at bay.
• 11 November, 2013 - Word of a treatment -- not a cure, but at least a way to slow the progression of the disease and dampen its symptoms -- comes at the same time as news that the sickness is now starting to pop up in different locations around the globe. Trucks loaded with the medicine spread throughout the city, though the police and the Guard have their hands full trying to contain riots over the supplies.
• 13 November, 2013 - News spreads that the Mayoral mansion has been burned down, with a plethora of bodies (a few still moving) charred crisp inside it. Though most all the bodies are too burned to identify, it seems clear that New York City's mayor is dead.
• 16 November, 2013 - With the city still under quarantine, an acute food crisis is adding starvation to the city's rising death toll. Though food and other essential supplies are being continually airdropped into the quarantine zones, the relief supplies are only being delivered to the safehouses -- which, following two catastrophic events relating to superpowered zombies, have banned mutants from their premises. Exceptions are made for mutants coming to receive their cure treatment, though they are only allowed in long enough to get the shot and then leave.
• 21 November, 2013 - The good news that a cure has been developed for the disease triggers a wave of riots around the city as people fight to be first to receive the new medicine; wait times days long and a lengthy treatment process makes demand for this cure even more intense than for the treatment that preceded it. Around the world, instances of the disease continue to grow, but with treatment already developed none of these outbreaks reach the same catastrophic scale as New York's.
• 24-26 November, 2013 - Following concerted eradication efforts, the quarantines in NYC and Westchester are lifted, as well as the curfews.
• 2 December 2013 - An article in the Daily Bugle claims the zombie virus was created by a mutant, and unleashed when the government attacked him in an effort to take him into custody. Anger directed towards both mutants and the government handling of mutants is high.
• 8 December 2013 - National news calls out mutants as both the villains and the heroes of the zombiepocalypse, naming Andrew Kinney, a mutant who controls pathogens, as the originator of the disease as well as recognizing the work of Jackson Holland in instigating a cure and fighting back against the zombies.
• 16 December 2013 - The National Oversight and Registration of Mutant Abilities Law, more commonly known as mutant registration, passes into law. The newly created Mutant Affairs Division (a child agency of the Department of Homeland Security) has 60 days to design and implement the mutant registration regulations.
• 17 December 2013 - A protest over the recent mutant registration bill, meant to be peaceful, ends in chaos when a pyrokinetic loses control of their mutation and the police respond violently. Luke Cage and Jackson Holland-Zedner are arrested in the ensuing confrontation, together with Micah Holland-Zedner, Dusk, and the pyrokinetic who began the incident. Video footage of the incident draws far more sympathy for the mutants, with video of the police beating people while kneeling with their hands behind their heads.
• 23 December 2013 - Housing discrimination is highlighted in the news with the mass eviction of over a dozen apartments with mutant residence at the Village Lofts apartment buildings in the East Village.
• 29 December 2013 - Malthus Rogers, the head of HAMMER, a federal law enforcement agency dealing with the most dangerous of mutant threats, dies in an apparent accident, caught in the crossfire during a zombie attack.
• 29 December 2013 - A video released by Malthus's lawyer immediately after his death accuses Jackson Holland not only of Malthus's murder, but of extensive terrorism, including unleashing the plague that killed nearly a million in New York City. Jackson is subsequently arrested.

January-June, 2014

• 1 January, 2014 - A second arrest is made in the terrorism investigation into the zombie plague.
• 6 January, 2014 - Videos begin flooding the news, recorded testimonials from mutants formerly held in Prometheus laboratories. The horrific accounts within begin to sway sympathies for the alleged terrorists who raided the labs.
• 8 January 2014 - A short statement is released from the Department of Defense in response to the testimonial videos. Among other things it states a full investigation is being launched into the alleged abuses.
• 20 January 2014 - Several whistleblowers come forward from within the Prometheus project itself; though the evidence they bring forward is not publicly disclosed to the press, it is evidently enough to strongly substantiate the video testimonials released countrywide by the mutant former test subjects. Jackson Holland-Zedner and Ryan Holloway are released and all charges cleared; prosecution is looking instead into charges against Promethean officials.
• 25 January 2014 - A Mutant Affairs building on Roosevelt Island was blown up by known agents of the mutant Brotherhood. Anthea Garretson, wanted for numerous violent crimes, was positively identified at the scene by he lone surviving police officer, who was able to confirm the presence of her giant insects as well as a male accomplice. The pair set several of the upper floors on fire and ignited a gas leak from below.
• 26 January 2014 - Ryan Black takes home all four of the Grammys "Big Four" general awards; promptly upon receiving his Best New Artist award, discloses that he is a mutant, was also a test subject of Prometheus and that his hit single was written about Jackson Holland-Zedner.
• Early-Mid February 2014 - A series of odd THINGS begin appearing around the city. A Hug Bank in the financial district manifests out of thin air overnight with all the characteristics of a legitimate financial establishment save that it dispenses hugs instead of legal tender; it lasts a week or so before vanishing again. On Sunday Feb 2 the city wakes up to find itself "painted" in the very distinctive artistic style of Jackson Holland-Zedner; the brilliant coloration lasts only a day before vanishing. Tuesday Feb 4 had a day-long burst of chocolate rain. Saturday Feb 8 had the city overgrown with tropical jungle plants for the weekend. From Wednesday Feb 12 - Friday Feb 14 everyone in the city received their own personal animated snowman assistant, cheerful and helpful to answer questions, carry packages, hail taxis, offer fashion advice, whatever! From Friday Feb 21 - Sunday Feb 23 the city's buildings get a futuristic sci-fi makeover; also many varied stars are scattered all around the city like a giant city-wide scavenger hunt.
• 14 February 2014 - Mutant Registration opens nationwide. For New York State, the deadline for everyone to register is one month.
• 22 February 2014 - June 3 is set as the date for the Special Elections to fill the vacant mayoral seat.
• 26 February 2014 - The days since Registration began have been protest-filled, with a large push towards convincing people to boycott registration. There are attacks outside three separate Mutant Affairs offices on visible mutants heading to and from registration.
• 28 February 2014 - Bodies begin to turn up around the city, in various states of dismemberment. Though it's largely kept quiet, rumor in mutant communities says that these corpses have all been noticeably mutant.
• 8 March 2014 - An anti-registration protest organized by Jackson Holland-Zedner sours when a group of counter-protesters show up; someone opens fire. Eyewitness accounts say both bullets and arrows were fired with many claiming Holland himself was shot, but by the time police and medics arrive on scene, both the shooters and all the injured have vanished. In the wake of this, support for the registration boycott skyrockets.
• 8 March 2014 - A bar in Morningside is the site of an altercation; according to eyewitnesses, some sort of 'wolf-monster' mutant attacked the bar's patrons; one patron pulled a gun and opened fire. Other mutants on scene apparently attacked patrons with some form of blood-based powers.
• 13 March 2014 - The deadline on registration is pushed back a week after a series of explosions destroy over two dozen Registration offices, killing thirteen and injuring dozens. Investigation is still pending into who is responsible for the attacks, with witnesses claiming such contradictory stories as bat-demon-monster people and lightning-wielding Sith lords or Sergeant Kyle Whelan all spotted at various locations. Whether out of political support or simply fear, the number of people refusing to register is growing.
• 18 March 2014 - An explosion at the Village Lofts in the East Village burns the apartment building to the ground, killing 17 residents and 1 firefighter and injuring dozens. Though the perpetrators are unknown, the fire originated from an explosion evidently set outside the apartment of mutant rockstar Ryan Black, leading to strong suspicions of the detonation being an anti-mutant hate crime. Or someone who really dislikes indie rock.
• 24 March 2014 - A new media campaign sponsored by Luke Cage's Heroes for Hire organization has added a mutant-rights support ribbon to the roster of ribbons available to show support for various causes. The ribbons are blue and yellow in the shape of a double helix; together with rubber bracelets embossed with the emblem, the media campaign encourages all to display the symbol as a support for mutant rights and stance against the MRA.
• 24 March 2014 - An awards banquet is given by the city to honor heroes of the Rising Plague; the acting Mayor distributes Keys to the City to a number of people who showed exceptional valor in their services to the city during the zombie crisis. Among those so honored were Luke Cage, Lt. Commander Elliott Carruthers, Jackson Holland-Zedner, Dr. Iolaus Saavedro, Dr. Rasheed Toure, and Regan Wyngarde. Among the political buzz about the city honoring two controversial highly public mutant activists, there was a second layer of gossip across social media and entertainment news when Luke Cage's date, talk show host Alison Blaire, unexpectedly outed herself as a mutant with a sparkling light show in support of one of the award honorees.