Foreword by
The Editors of Olympus
All of the material in this work was originally recorded electronically. Much of it comes from video recorded interviews, the rest from meetings and other similar events. As much as is possible we have tried to preserve the actual words of the participants. Certain contributors are such unique individuals that we have had to adopt somewhat radical presentations of their words.
The first recording was made at the beginning of the third year following Olympus Day One. Pulsar recorded most of his chapters at the very end of that climatic year.
Many of the events described within these pages are matters of public record. What we offer is the inside look. A vast amount of false material has sprung up around Olympus so we offer the following comment: Any resident of Olympus can verify every single bit of this material. Any alterations we attempted would be rapidly exposed.
This is the record of what really happened. It is told by those who's actions were central to the recent history of our planet.
Chapter One - "Fate and the First Four"
It was three years ago. Almost to the day.
For some reason we have never understood a few hundred of us changed. We became gods.
Too many for one little planet. In the beginning we were so scattered it was easy to believe we were unique. But each day brought a new story, a whisper, a blurry picture.
There were people out there somewhere who were doing things that no human had ever done before, so they said. Average folks resist radical new ideas but the evidence mounted fast.
Then exposure. Live on national television.
Took just a little over two months.
Has any video, outside of the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination, ever been analyzed as much? 'The Fateful Four' was what they were eventually called. None of them lived out the day so they never got to tell us what they called themselves.
Would the world be different if the other four had not been in that city on that particular day? Only one of them lived there people always seem to forget that. If evil had won, would they win in the end, would they win tomorrow?
But they were all there. Eight MetaHumans met in battle in the heart of a major city. It really is a wonder that so few people were killed.
Twelve died, eight humans and four MetaHuman. The other four became superstars. Well superstars in concept anyway, our speedster made sure we vanished when the fight was done.
Do you remember the next 48 hours? People call it 'The Great Pause' because it seemed the world was on hold waiting for 'The Four' to appear.
I remember four people trying to get to know each other with no time to do it. We trusted each other from the first moment but we had no idea who we had just fought beside. All were agreed we had done the right thing, some were hit hard by the deaths of our opponents. I was not one of those, I see no other way.
But what lay before us was too much, too much power, too much responsibility, too much of everything. We all needed about a week to sit and think about it. Any notion of that was removed from all of us within hours of the battle. The news was insane, reactions were intense, and confused. I heard some really funny things, and some stuff that made me want to cry.
We had hours.
We really almost went our separate ways, technically we did for about two hours at one point. Speed would not let go. No matter where any of us went, he followed. He talked, and talked, and talked. Psyche brain-blasted him into unconsciousness, 10 seconds after he woke up, he was talking to her again. Speed knew he needed us.
We all came back.
Ever met a Telepath? As nice as most are I would avoid it if I were you. They read you, all of you, without effort. Your whole life flashes before their eyes, with great detail and depth. All the little private things only you knew about, they know. It is unsettling.
It makes them powerful, even in a room full of power. We listened to her that day. She told us that we were all Heroes. Not perfect, not supermen, but Heroes. One solid bit of trust out of which came so very much.
A new Superpower was born. I mean that in the way they used to mean that term. The four of us represented as much power as a major nation, and we knew it.
A Telepath, A Speedster, A Superman & An Energy Master
Psyche, Speed, Thor & Pulsar
Speed got the clothes and masks we wore that day. Now they are in a glass case for people to look at, still kinda feel weird about that.
Psyche and I could not fly back then and Thor of course has never learned. So we took a limo to the TV studio. Speed ran along, around, and ahead, of us as we traveled the twenty miles or so.
You probably remember that press conference far better than I. A lot of it was just surreal blur. We showed off our powers, Psyche went last not because she was shy but because we knew she would scare people in a way the other three of us would not. She did. They were. We moved on.
I remember a shower of questions. Most of which we would not answer like 'Who are you?'. Quite a few we had not idea how to answer as in 'Why did this happen?'. I understand they were confronted with something beyond all possible prediction, but still, only 1 out of every 10 questions was even slightly decent.
Finally I got tired of it and asked everyone to please just sit down for a moment.
Then I spoke. I told the world in simple terms that there now existed some unknown number of superpowered individuals. I said we had no real idea how many but it had to be something above 100. Perhaps many times that number.
The world had changed.
I hated having to say that we four feared that many of the people who have so suddenly gained these powers might misuse them. Power corrupts, absolute power does worse. I invited them to consider the power of the four of us.
I said quite simply "We are beyond all normal human control. We choose to stand with humanity but others will not. Four others already made the wrong choice. They will not be the last."
Then I spoke to all the MetaHumans out in the World.
These words I remember quite well, kinda proud of them.
"Because we are different we have decided on the term that will be used for our kind, MetaHuman."
"I would like to speak to my brother and sister MetaHumans. One day not too long ago you woke up different. Faster, stronger, or just,” My force field flickered about me for a moment, “different."
"We do not know why this happened, we do not even really understand what has actually happened. But we do know we now have power. Power beyond imagination. Whatever our lives were before no longer matters, this is what we now are. We accept that."
"You have power. How are you going to use it?"
"We four have already made our choice clear. Now we are asking you to do the same."
"In one month there will be a place... a place we will call home. If you are MetaHuman there will be room for you there. We wish to meet all of you. Together we have some really big decisions to make about the future."
"And because I must, because two days ago I killed a MetaHuman, my final words must be to the very few of you out there who have already made a bad choice."
"If you take lives, if you cause chaos, we will come for you."
"We are... Justice."
The others were standing beside me as I spoke the last lines. It did make a nice poster. At my signal, Speed popped all of us out of the building.
I am Pulsar and this is our story.
Pulsar, Psyche, Thor & Speed
MetaWar Chapter Two
Written by Christopher Darque
Banner by Domina Nequam