by C. C. Ekeke
Titan’s death hit Geist very hard. But he channeled that grief into finding Titan’s true killer, as he didn’t believe Lord Borealis was guilty. His suspicions paid off after he teamed up with a rookie reporter named Quinn Bauer. Together with his team, they uncovered Morningstar as Titan’s murderer.
Up until recently, Geist had been able to remain an urban myth to the general public until he revealed himself to the world in order to save a citizen from plunging to their death.
Giaconda “Annie” Machado: Annie Machado has been Quinn Bauer’s best friend since their days at Brown University together. She is engaged to her longtime boyfriend Johnny Sherwood after almost three years together. Annie works as a publicist at one of San Miguel’s top publicity agencies that handles entertainment, sports, and financial clients. Before that, she worked in Publicity for OWE’s film division. Annie’s a fiery and fabulous personality, loves dressing up and going to hotspots around San Miguel with her friends and fiancé. She is cultivating a growing network of friends and contacts, but has a core circle whom she hangs out with regularly, which includes Quinn. Annie is known to party as hard as she works.
Annie was born in El Salvador before moving to Miami at age two. Her family then moved to Ohio when she was nine. A lot of the verbal bullying and abuse she took over her first name caused her to go by “Annie” to fit in. Around age thirteen, her family moved again to San Diego. Annie lived there until she attended Brown University in New England. After a few months at home post-graduation, Annie settled down in San Miguel, California. Quinn is like a sister to Annie, which is why she encouraged her best friend to move across country to San Miguel in late 2017. Even though she is a year older than Quinn, many times, Quinn is the one who comes off more mature. Annie was critically injured when the disgraced hero Morningstar sent Dynamo drones to kill Quinn at Las Mistras restaurant, but she thankfully pulled through surgery. Now she has been attending meetings for survivors of superhero battles to deal with the trauma along with Quinn.
Golden Guardians: The Golden Guardians are the Bay Area’s main superhero team. The roster consists of Stryker, Cleric, Sequoia, Goldrush, Darkwing, Eureka, Frost, Mox, and Gateway.
Grace Misawa: Grace is a student at Paso Robles High and close friend of Hugo Malalou. They are the same year at school. She was one of the first people to join Hugo, Wale, and Simon’s Fab Phenoms group. Grace is an excellent freestyle dancer, so much so that she is an assistant coach for Paso High’s Songs Cheerleaders team. Grace is very popular thanks to her overall friendliness, oddball wit and quirk, yet stylish fashion sense. Aside from dancing, Grace also makes many of her own outfits and is learning to style hair. Grace has noticed the change in Hugo since summer and is frustrated with how secretive he’s become. She has a complicated relationship with Simon Han, who is madly in love with her.
The Harlem Knights: Another Seneca international team based in NYC. The team leans into hip-hop, sports and R&B stereotypes for his roster and is predominately black. This makes them the cooler and hipper team compared to the Protectorate. Led by the charismatic Romeo, The Harlem Knights consists of Mighty Afrodite, the Ruckus brothers Bedlam and Hoodlum, Sista Soldier and Streetsweeper
Helena Madden: Helena Madden is the Editor-in-Chief of SLO Coast Daily (aka SLOCO Daily), one of the leading news sites in California. Madden originally started off in politics, serving as communications director for Tom Ridge’s gubernatorial campaign at age 22. She then served as his comm director during his first term as governor. Disillusioned by Ridge’s policies and actions, Madden stepped down after a year and began working as a political analyst on cable news and eventually a political correspondent for the Washington Post. She was an embedded reporter for John McCain’s 2000 GOP primary run. From there, she had stints at the Daily Beast and the New Yorker, and serving as a war correspondent for the Guardian in the Middle East. Seven years before the events in Age of Heroes, she accepted the Editor-in-Chief job at SLOCO Daily, a small regional paper that mostly relied on print publishing. With a partner in Dave Packer, the VP of Ad Sales, they transformed SLOCO Daily into a digital powerhouse that could compete with the Daily Beasts and WIREDs of the media space. Madden and Packer were never friends, but they were an effective team. But in recent years, even their professional relationship has grown more openly hostile.
Madden is an excellent journalist and skilled leader, but is known to be mercurial and have a nasty temper when someone disappoints her. Madden prioritizes the job above all else, including a personal life, and sees SLOCO Daily as her kingdom. She pushes her subordinates hard and expects their best and is not afraid to play her department heads against each other to bring out their best. She met Quinn Bauer through a mutual friend, seeing the potential in the young lady. Since bringing Quinn into SLOCO Daily, Madden has taken Quinn under her wing to be the best she can be. Despite Quinn’s stubbornness and moral center, Helena regards Quinn as a daughter and sees her potential as an investigative journalist to be limitless.
Herogasm: Herogasm is a news site that reports on all superhero news, gossip, leaks, deep-dives on superhero teams, and solo heroes.
Heroes Anonymous: This was a defunct and short-lived superhero team operating out of St. Louis. The roster consisted of Greyson Hirsch (gravikinesis/radiation blasts), Connie Ishibashi (intangibility/density control), Big Izzy (molecular mimicry), Kathleen (arm shapeshifting), and Tom Fitzpatrick (teleporter). The group started off as a therapy group led by Dr. St. Pierre to help his patients master their powers while overcoming the psychological trauma behind the problems. But after Hurricane went down fighting Excessive Menace, Greyson and his fellow patients stepped up to defeat the threat. While Hurricane was on the mend, he asked the team to continue operating. Then tragedy struck during a mission, and the team disbanded. But thanks to paranoia, Tom Fitzpatrick continuing to operate, and Lauren Gerard flipping on the team to protect Greyson, each member of the group was captured besides Connie and Greyson. The two have fled St. Louis and are now on the run.
Hurricane: Richard St. Pierre is a clinical psychologist who operates as the superhero Hurricane. He is blessed with aerokinesis, and uses it to fly, create powerful gale-force winds, and shield himself from injury. When Hurricane was a rookie, he got recruited to join the Midwest Miracles, a team of powerful heroes from Chicago, Jefferson City, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Des Moines. The long-established team had been around since 1994 and was considered by many as the Vanguard of the Midwest. That all ended when Paragon was unleashed upon the unsuspecting city of Chicago, leveling several buildings. The Midwest Miracles tried stopping the legendary powerhouse, only to get slaughtered. Hurricane was one of the only survivors from that team. After those events, Hurricane continued protecting St. Louis and East St. Louis with the help of his partner Rodney Johnson and his tech guru Letty Masters. Unfortunately, many superheroes never lasted long in the Midwest. And any attempts to form a team usually fizzled in short order.
However, as a clinical psychiatrist, Hurricane dedicated himself to helping others, specifically supers whose psychological issues were hampering control of their powers. This is how Hurricane met Greyson Hirsch prior to his transformation into the villainous Damocles. Hirsch was part of a patient group Hurricane had gathered and was making huge leaps in controlling his powers as well as confronting his many mental issues. But when Hurricane got severely injured battling Excessive Menace, Greyson Hirsch and the patient group the battled Excessive Menace in his stead.
When Greyson and the rest of the patient group, dubbing themselves Heroes Anonymous, successfully beat Excessive Menace thanks to his training, Hurricane leaned on them to protect St. Louis while he recovered. Part of him hoped to lead a team that could cover more ground and take the load of his busy schedule.
Jamie Goldstein: Jamie is an SVP at OWE and the Head of Content, Programming, Live Events, et cetera for all things Extreme Teens. She was close with Missy Magnificent when the teen hero was still part of the OWE family but of
ten exploited that relationship to make Missy do what she wanted. She’s fueled by caffeine and works non-stop on all things Extreme Teens due to the size and profitability of the franchise. This causes her to treat the kids like workhouses instead of people. Jamie thinks that she is a more empathetic and caring individual than she actually is.
Jen “J-Tom” Thomas: J-Tom is a student athlete who attends Paso Robles High and is the same year as Hugo Malalou. She is a member of the Sensational Six, a group of girls led by Briseis El-Saden. J-Tom is the nicest of her circle and has several friends from different social cliques. She likes to volunteer at local food banks or animal shelters when she isn’t doing classwork, working on tech inventions with her dad, or playing varsity volleyball for her school. J-Tom created a functional virtual assistant based solely on her father’s notes, which she continues upgrading into a possible AI. She and Brie have been friends since middle school, and it was through her that Jordana and Brie became friends. More often than not, J-Tom feels invisible around Brie, Jordana, Natalie and Spencer, who attract a lot of boys eager to date them. This caused J-Tom to bond with fellow squad mate Lia Kim, who was also overlooked amongst their circle.
J-Tom generally doesn’t take part in Brie’s schemes and takedowns, but has done so a few times when she felt the person deserved the payback. J-Tom was in her first serious relationship during her ninth grade yea, which lasted about seven months before ending amicably.
She began secretly dating Spencer Michelman, one of her best friends during the summer before tenth grade. This was a huge shock to J-Tom, who had only been attracted to boys before that. But she openly embraced the new relationship. Spencer, however, is deeply ashamed of her own sexuality and demanded they keep the relationship secret. J-Tom bonds with Hugo during aftermath of her falling out with Brie and finding out that he knows about her relationship with Spencer.
Jensen Clarke: Jensen is a close work friend of Quinn’s from SLOCO Daily. They first met during Quinn’s time in the Social Media/Digital Media department and still hang out, even though Quinn became a reporter. Jensen works on Product Design for SLOCO Daily’s special sections and sponsored promotions. She is soft-spoken, girly, and very pure-hearted but loves some good gossip. Currently, Jensen is dating Creed Samuels.
Jess Richardson-Palmer: JRP, as she is sometimes known, works in Ad Sales for SLOCO Daily under Dave Packer. Jess, like most Ad Sales employees, has an inflated sense of self compared to anyone outside of Ad Sales. The only people she respects are executives close to or on Packer’s level or reporters with a lot of clout and accomplishments, like Quinn Bauer.
Jess works closely with Tania Navarro as Packer’s minions who enforce Ad Sales’ monopoly on resources. They also are tasked with fetching Packer candy during meetings. Jess has been rumored to have sexual relations with Packer, despite both being married.
Johannes Cassel: Dr. Cassel was a famed German biologist who studied superhumans extensively when they emerged in the 1970s.
Johnny Sherwood: Johnny is the fiancé of Annie Machado. The two have been dating for almost three years. Their relationship has had more than its share of drama but the two love each other. Though Annie has a fiery temper and can throw tantrums especially when drunk, Johnny has been a mostly stabilizing force in her life. However, his family isn’t too keen on his intention to marry Annie and has let it be known in subtle ways to her. Johnny mostly gets along with Quinn but can get jealous of Quinn and Annie’s closeness. Johnny works at a media marketing and franchise firm that does business with Paxton-Brandt. After a brief split in Generation Next, he and Annie reunited and plan to go through with their wedding.
Johnny Truelove: Truelove was a former superhero and sidekick of Sentinel during the 2010s. Though born with no superpowers, Truelove was a huge Sentinel fan and trained hard to become a superhero. At first, Sentinel refused to take him on as a protégé, but Truelove was persistent. During one Vanguard battle, Truelove saved Sentinel’s life, using his body to shield the hero from gunfire. While in the hospital, Sentinel gave him a transfusion of blood, which enhanced all of his bodily functions to the peak of human potential. From there, Truelove joined the Warguard, where young and potential superheroes train and run missions before becoming part of the main Vanguard team. At the same time, Sentinel would take Truelove on missions as his sidekick Kid Patriot. However, the stress of being a superhero eventually grew too much for Truelove and he cracked under the pressure, using Amp to enhance his powers. This led to stints in rehab. Sentinels tried helping his sidekick, but to no avail.
After he finally hit rock-bottom, Truelove was offered a job managing the Extreme Teens on the condition that he stayed clean. So far, Truelove has honored that agreement, but remains very bitter toward Sentinel.
Jono McGowan: McGowan is an Irishman who works at SLOCO Daily as editor of its Superhero News division. While talented at his job, he uses his position as Helena Madden’s boyfriend to his advantage. When a project of his does well, he will take a lot of credit, even when someone else has done a lion’s share of the work. If that project fails, McGowan is quick to throw anyone else associated under the bus and take no responsibility. Because of this, he is not very well-liked around SLOCO Daily. Quinn tolerated him at first. But after his behavior following her getting the Vanguard interview assignment he wanted, McGowan and Quinn have been enemies.
Jordana “Jody” Buchanan: Jody Buchanan is a student athlete at Paso Robles High playing on the Bearcats varsity softball team. She is also Brie El-Saden’s best friend and a first cousin to Quinn Bauer (her dad is the brother of Quinn’s mom). Originally from the Bronx, Jordana’s family moved to San Miguel just before she started sixth grade. She’s sassy, smart, blunt, and brutally honest, but is a sweetheart with friends. However, Jody holds nothing back when she dislikes something or someone. Jordana and Brie became friends sometime around seventh grade, having been introduced by mutual friend Jen Thomas. Jody used to be close friends with Abby Dunleavy until the latter slept with Jody’s boyfriend at the time, DeDamien Harris. After this, Jody and Brie became practically inseparable. Up until their tenth-grade year, Jordana used to hate Hugo Malalou because he’d called her Jodie Big Cans in eighth grade in front of several classmates. The nickname haunted her for almost two years. After Hugo rescued her from nearly getting struck by a car combined with his huge growth spurt, she began having feelings for him. The two are currently in a casual relationship, which caused a falling out between her and Brie.
Justice Jones: Justice Jones aka Manuel Rivera is a street-level superhero and ex-member of the outlaw biker gang Los Lobos Guerros (The Wolves of War). Jones is blessed with superstrength, durability, and stamina. He is also known as one of the best pure strikers in the superhero community. When Jones was part of Los Lobos Guerros, he served as an enforcer due to his powers. When the gang ran afoul of Titan, the two came to blows. Even though Titan outclassed him in strength, speed, and durability, Jones took a lot of punishment before he went down and was finally arrested. After a few years in jail, Jones turned his life around due to being inspired by Titan and became a hero. Taking on the Justice Jones moniker, he traveled across the country on his motorbike, dedicating himself to helping the less fortunate who slipped through the cracks. Due to his past, Jones is nicknamed “the Outlaw Superhero” or “the Lone Wolf.”
Kendall Caruso: Kendall is a student at Paso Robles High and member of the Songs Cheerleaders team. She is not a part of the Sensation Six but maintains close friendships with Briseis, Natalie and Spencer. Kendall is vapid and shallow in character, caring mainly about what makes herself more popular.
Khan: Khan is a man with a tiger-like mutation granting him superstrength, enhanced durability, and thick fur that covers his body, fangs, and claws. He was raised by Darren Proctor and his family for years. After the suicide of his adopted sister, he remained loyal to his father and served as his enforcer to execute Proctor’s plan to “take modern teenagers to task.”
Kil
lawatt: Killawatt is a lower-level supervillain and occasional foe of Titan who operates out of California. He is usually found working as a henchman for criminal masterminds and is not known for his high intellect. He possesses the power to generate and absorb electricity, which he can channel into devastating blasts.
L.U.N.A.: L.U.N.A. is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Born to Korean immigrants in Australia, she took part in an OWE contest to find the next big K-Pop star in Busan, South Korea. From there, L.U.N.A. released three albums in Korea, which also broke bank all over Asia. Her music style is akin to typical K-Pop meets American pop and she is known for killer dance moves reminiscent of Janet Jackson and Britney Spears. L.U.N.A. found similar success in China, Japan and Indonesia, dominating the music charts. Her next goal was to conquer America. But the company, fearing she might get lost in the shuffle against K-Pop acts like BTS and Blackpink, set up a fake romance with their speedster hero Blur to boost her exposure in America. This worked, and allowed L.U.N.A. a successful launchpad for her debut album in America. Now she is tearing up the US music charts faster than anyone expected while she and Blur are the new “It” couple obsessed over by fans, social media, and the gossip blogs.
Lady Liberty: Lady Liberty has been active since 1993, appearing first in Philadelphia as its patron hero. Not much is known about her origins outside of hearsay and rumors. What is confirmed amongst her peers is that Lady Liberty is not a superhuman but has obtained her powers through mystical means that she doesn’t readily share. She reached iconic status after joining the Vanguard, becoming the role model for women and little girls everywhere.