WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE?

Who knows where mutants came from? A great deal of research has been done on this particular subject, but as of yet, no concrete answers have been found. The majority of research into the matter has been conducted by covert government agencies, all with their own agendas. Many are looking to find ways in which they can exploit super-humans, while others are merely looking for anything which can be used to destroy them.

One thing which has become clear through the massive amounts of research which have been made into the 'super-human question', is that virtually all super-humans are in fact mutants, or mutates. A mutant is a being which possesses abilities which differ from the norm of those which are inherent in other members of their species, while a mutate is a being who is possessed of latent, dormant abilities, which are commonly unlocked by something which affects them from outside (such as radiation, toxins and other ordinarily hazardous elements).

Many 'incidents' have been reported in various media of people attaining super-human abilities through unfortunate 'accidents', or even by design. Cases of a person being bombarded with a certain type of radiation, or of a scientist actually trying to imbue themselves with powers through experimentation. But research has concluded that well over 90% of those who have gained super-human abilities after the result of an accident, or through experimentation, were in fact possessed of latent mutant abilities which were actually unlocked by the catalyst which seemed to have imbued them with their abilities.

The actual numbers of mutants, and/or other super-humans who inhabit the Earth is very hard to estimate. Many of them have yet to make their presences known, for various reasons too numerous to go into here. Known examples to date number in the thousands, although the validity of many of these so-called 'super-humans' has yet to be verified. One thing which is evident is that super-humans do seem to be very much on the increase, the reason for which is another subject of research at this time.

Various theories have been put forward on the subject, the most common of which is that the nature of society today has helped to create an environment in which people could 'mutate' into a next genesis of evolution. Nuclear power and other such factors are generally the main sources of blame behind this reasoning, although no hard evidence as to whether this is actually the cause of the ever growing number of mutants has been uncovered at this time.

Mutants and other super-humans are, as a rule, feared by society as a whole. The primary reason behind this can be best put forward as follows; If you are going about your everyday life, and somebody pulls a knife or a gun on you, fear is generally the first emotion which springs forth. Fear that someone is going to cause you harm for whatever malicious reason motivates them. Potentially, anybody could carry a weapon, and use it to cause harm to others, which is why laws are in place to protect innocent civilians against such harmful acts.

Super-humans take the above analogy to the extreme, as many of them are indistinguishable from 'normal' people, but are possessed of powers and abilities which make them far more dangerous than a simple knife, or even gun-wielding human. Thus, the large-scale fear and even hatred of super-humans, is perhaps not surprising.

It is also then perhaps unsurprising that many governments and politicians have tried to tackle the super-human issue in one way or another. Numerous methods which are known to have been employed include recruiting super-humans, generally as a way of keeping tabs on them, as well as to use their sometimes unstable or outright dangerous abilities for the 'greater good'. Other governments have taken the stand that super-humans should be wiped out, before they wipe 'us' out. Programs designed to bring an end to the super-human menace have ranged from developing drugs which can negate super-human powers, to creating strike forces capable of eliminating super-humans altogether.