After the Rise (A Superhero Story)

The Apex Corporation told everyone in Ascension it had the situation totally under control.Without warning, the Surge sent a burst of radioactive energy from deep underground that blanketed the mountain city of Ascension like a fine dusting of snow, resulting in less than one percent of the city's population gaining superhuman abilities that ranged from mildly inconvenient to catastrophically destructive, irrevocably changing the city's power dynamic overnight.

One year after, the Apex Corporation has firmly established its Protectorate Program, employing as many newly powered people as it could to face the Altered and bring the city under control once more.  After months of fierce battles, the city enjoys an uneasy peace while Apex struggles to keep the balance of power from tipping again.

Ethan Havoc, however, doesn't care about any of that.  In fact, he's heard a rumor that Apex doesn't have everything as under control as they want the people of Ascension to think.

He heard that rumor from an entirely unstable stranger, but desperate times call for desperate deep dives into mining tunnels that hadn't been used in a century.Now, after finally gaining his own powers in a tragic accident that, depending on who you ask, may have been entirely his fault, Ethan Havoc is on the brink of reaching his goal and becoming Ascension's newest Protector. It cost him every relationship he had, but nobody said purposefully altering your DNA to become a superhero would be easy.  Or smart.  Or worth it.

Of course, things would probably be easier if Ethan also hadn't accidentally created the newest supervillain to target Ascension in the process of gaining his own abilities, but how was he supposed to know that Slate would have a murderous streak aimed directly at his own family?

Having put his own sister in danger, Ethan has to gain control of his new abilities while fixing all the new problems he's caused in his pursuit of getting them if he wants a shot at becoming a Protector, but Slate isn't going to wait for him to figure out how to fight while she presses forwards with her plan to upend the fragile power structure in Ascension.Ethan may have missed the rise, but what comes after is entirely up to him.