Purpose
The inadvertent brainchild of Rasheed and some of his colleagues, the Prometheus Project, like many horrible things, was founded with good intentions. Originated as a project to more thoroughly understand and hopefully learn from mutant abilities, it soon developed the rather severe flaw of neglecting to obtain consent for any of the experiments it did, which slowly grew more and more invasive in scope.
The first lab was opened in 2004, though at the time their methods were not so inhumane and their methods of obtaining subjects not so unethical. As the project grew in scope and the government got more and more heavily involved, pushing harder for the project to help in military ventures rather than its original focuses, their practices grew more brutal, eventually evolving into Prometheus as it is today -- an extensive nationwide operation that imprisons mutants and uses them as labrats in a wide variety of experiments intended to further everything from medicine to clean energy to military weapons.
Reputation
Until 2021, Prometheus was a highly classified state secret, relatively unknown to the outside world. Within mutant community and those who have ties to it there were always rumors, with varying levels of truth and exaggeration to them, of mutants being captured and imprisoned in secret government experimentation, but outside of those who personally knew Prometheus survivors, nobody mainstream much paid attention to the hysterical ramblings of a few freaks.
Until early 2022, when a widely spread expose in Vice by reporter Daiki Komatsu, complete with grainy spy-cam footage and many interviews with survivors, told the world the story of what had been going on for years. In addition to the news of Prometheus, it was spread that mutant activist Jackson Holland had for years led a dedicated team of mutant fighters on a campaign to attack the labs and free mutants inside. Holland's subsequent arrest in February 2022 was a highly polarizing move by the government, and largely served to bring forth an outpouring of public support for what was widely, even among those usually wary of mutants, seen as a political persecution of someone fighting against a very cut-and-dry injustice. Though the government has continued to paint Holland as a dangerous terrorist, support for freeing Jackson and shutting down Prometheus has snowballed in the year following the expose and arrest.
In summer of 2023, there was a week-long standoff at the gates of Prometheus's largest facility, that culminated with Jackson Holland leading the inmates at Lassiter to very publicized freedom. In the immediate wake of Occupy Lassiter, the Prometheus Project was officially disbanded, and nearly all their inmates released in a hugely controversial move.
Spaces
Prometheus has research labs spread all throughout the country, most often but not always in isolated locations. The labs tend to be grouped around researcher interest -- maybe one lab specializes in looking into neurodegenerative diseases, maybe one lab specializes in trying to augment human strength, maybe one in physicists looking into energy weapons, etc. This sometimes means mutants with similar powers may be in the same labs, but not always -- there are many different applications to many different powers, and it isn't always an immediately intuitive line why someone's ability may be useful to someone else's research project.
The labs are specially built to house their captives, often well fortified and well guarded. Most often, the cell blocks where the prisoners are actually housed have technology built in to suppress active uses of mutant abilities, as well as often being equipped with shielding against psionic intrusion. Prometheus contracts with a private military contractor for security -- half of the guards working the labs are themselves mutants.
Recruitment
Despite rumors of mutants being snatched off the streets, that is not actually how Prometheus comes across most of their victims. Inmates arrive at the labs through a number of different avenues of dubious ethical status but, generally, more or less aboveboard legality.
By far the most common route into Prometheus is contact with the criminal system -- mutants get arrested, tied up somewhere in the legal system, end up in jail somewhere, someone complains they do not have facilities to properly house them, a judge assigns them to special detention in the Project. This happens with adults and children alike; it is common for people in the juvenile justice system to complain that delinquent mutant children are a danger to others in youth jails or group housing and have them end up in the labs via court order that way.
A secondarily common route into Prometheus is voluntary admission. Generally this happens when either a mutant themselves or the parents of a recently manifested minor child is seeking assitance (either with their mutation or, sometimes, an unrelated medical/psychiatric condition) and a medical professional who is unfamiliar with mutant issues recommends them to a Prometheus-affiliated doctor. Most often, the recommending doctor does not truly know the scope of what Prometheus does and just knows they are a program that "works with mutants"; most often, the mutant in question enters the program glad for a place to hopefully be able to figure out and get control of a confusing or dangerous power and only realizes significantly after they have checked themselves in that they have no easy recourse to leave again.
Doctors, researchers, security, custodians, etc, working at Prometheus come by their jobs the normal way of people who work in highly-security government positions. There are a lot of background checks involved; there are criminal penalties for whistleblowing, but as jobs go, it's stunningly routine.
If you would like a character whose backstory is connected with Prometheus, please talk to us to make sure that the history makes sense with ingame canon! Please keep in mind that the Prometheus Project is now ended -- it can still be a part of your characters' backstory, but the last labs were shut down in summer of 2023.
Resistance
For many years now, a dedicated team of escapees from the Prometheus labs has been organizing to track down the labs, break into them, and get mutants out. They've been quite successful at it so far and have rescued hundreds of mutants; it has put them in a tense place with the government, who very much wants to arrest or kill them but does not quite want to spill the beans on their torture labs. Within the labs themselves, they are sort of a boogeyman to the workers, sort of rumoured mythical heroes to the mutants still imprisoned. Among the administration of the labs, a perpetual thorn in their sides.
Something like a community has sprung up among mutants who have been liberated from the labs. The Prometheus raid team makes an effort to keep in touch with all the people they have rescued, wanting to make sure they cannot again fall through the cracks and end up back in the labs -- while it's up to any given individual if they're interested in maintaining contact, many remain on neutral if not supportive or friendly terms with each other.
Below please find a history of all the past Prometheus raids to date -- if you would like to have a character who has a past history of being involved with Prometheus, it would be ideal for them to have been broken out during one of these events, as escape from Prometheus outside of these raids has been extremely rare and is unlikely to be approved in a character background.
Prometheus Raid History
| Date
|
Location
|
Lab Name
|
Total # Escapees
|
Deaths
|
Rescuees
|
Raid Team
|
Notes?
|
| February 2009
|
Pennsylvania
|
Fermi
|
17
|
4 Labrats
|
Jax, Ryan, B
|
X-Men
|
n/a
|
| April 2009
|
Montana
|
Penfield
|
24
|
8 Labrats, 2 raid team (Golem, Jordana)
|
Hive, Flicker, Shane, Daiki, Scramble, Halim
|
Jax, Ryan, NPCs
|
MOST of those killed by hive specifically
|
| July 2010
|
Ohio
|
Franklin
|
25
|
2 labrats
|
Dusk, Joshua
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, NPCs
|
n/a
|
| August 2011
|
South Dakota
|
Rosen
|
119
|
16 labrats, 1 raid team (Amila)
|
Jax, Taylor, Spencer
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Scramble, NPCs
|
Hived!Jax captured deliberately at the beginning of the summer; helped plan this uprising/raid from inside.
|
| June 2012
|
New Mexico
|
Watson
|
23
|
1 labrat, Flicker
|
n/a
|
Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Scramble, Ian, Eli
|
simultaneous w/CO raid
|
| June 2012
|
Colorado
|
Crick
|
14
|
2 labrats, 1 raid team (Lisa)
|
n/a
|
Jax, Hive, Joshua, Peace, Dusk, Lisa
|
simultaneous w/NM raid
|
| July 2013
|
Connecticut
|
Hooke
|
13
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Peace
|
small lab, stealth raid mostly entirely pulled off by HiveFlicker
|
| March 2014
|
Upstate NY
|
Lavoisier
|
26
|
1 labrat
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Liam, Dusk, Peace
|
n/a
|
| Oct 16, 2014
|
VA
|
Morgan
|
33
|
Flicker
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Dusk, Tag (driver)
|
n/a
|
| Apr 2015
|
Tennessee
|
Lederberg
|
17
|
Flicker
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker
|
n/a
|
| June 2016
|
Pennsylvania
|
Mendeleev
|
32
|
6 labrats (incl. Eli), 1 raid team (Peace)
|
Mirror, Ash, Horus, Ion, Joshua, Anima, Parley, Kay, Kadar
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Scramble
|
n/a
|
| July 23 2016
|
Vermont
|
Oppenheimer
|
34
|
2 labrats
|
Matt, Alma
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Ash, Ion
|
n/a
|
| June 2017
|
Montana
|
van Leeuwenhoek
|
31
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Ash, Ion, Scramble, B
|
n/a
|
| July 2017
|
Wyoming
|
Curie
|
22
|
Flicker
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Ash, Ion, Scramble, Matt, B
|
n/a
|
| July 2017
|
Idaho
|
Eyring
|
47
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ryan, Hive, Flicker, Joshua, Dusk, Ash, Ion, Scramble, Matt, B
|
Flicker lost his arm
|
| June 2019
|
Pennsylvania
|
Hofstadter
|
20
|
Flicker
|
n/a
|
Jax, Ion, Hive, Flicker, Dusk, Matt, Scramble, Shane, Ash, Joshua, Tag, Daiki
|
Jamie's first encounter with the team -- he chose to stay behind
|
| August 17, 2019
|
Maine
|
Blackburn
|
30
|
Aubrey
|
Flicker, Polaris, Wendy, Leo, Rosalyn, Winona, Nandini, Maya, Jamie, Domino, Anahita, Karida
|
uprising
|
labrats organized their own jailbreak from inside
|
| October 16, 2021
|
Massachusetts
|
Dirac
|
|
|
n/a - failed
|
Jax, Matt, Ion, Skye, Hive, Daiki, Joshua, Ryan, Shane, Polaris
|
Skye, Joshua, bunch of their comrades got captured
|
| November 6, 2021
|
Massachusetts
|
Dirac
|
|
|
Skye, Joshua
|
Ion,Dusk, Taylor, Hive, Polaris, DJ, Matt, Jax, Mirror
|
Carnage escaped
|
| May 4, 2023
|
Ohio
|
Lassiter
|
0
|
Brendan
|
n/a - failed
|
Asva, Avi, Beau, Brendan, Echo, Harm, Lael, Kavalam, Kelawini, Nahida, Nanami, Nevaeh, Sriyani
|
impromptu raid to rescure Gaétan and Spencer. All the kids were captured.
|
| July 4, 2023
|
Ohio
|
Lassiter
|
1
|
|
Kavalam
|
uprising: Avi, Beau, Echo, Gaétan, Harm, Kavalam, Kelawini, Lael, Nahida, Nanami, Nevaeh, Roscoe, Spencer, Sriyani
|
children organized escape from the inside, thought to have failed due to everyone forgetting Kavalam.
|
| July 23, 2023
|
Ohio
|
Lassiter
|
|
Dusk
|
Spencer, Echo, Nanami, Kelawini, Harm, Gaétan, Avi, Nahida, Nevaeh, assorted NPCs including Queen Bee
|
Alma, Ash, Blink, Ion (field leader), Kyinha, Matt, Scramble, Tian-shin, DJ, Heather, Polaris, Ryan, Scott (field leader), Skye, Steve, Charles, Hank, Sam, Daiki, Tag, Winona. Everywhere: Hive
|
Most of the team was captured: Charles, Heather, Hank, Sam, Scott, Skye, Winona and DJ's comatose body made it home, as well as the drivers. Hive was put in a coma, Ion disappeared after being depowered.
|
|
