The Super Powered's world is like ours, except that a percentage of the population are people with powers who live alongside regular humans. There are supers, who have control of their abilities, and powereds, who lack that control.
Supers come in all shapes and sizes. No single power is exactly the same as another. They can control and are protected by their own power, but they only ever have just one ability that tend to be more multifaceted. They are treated like the popular kids, the ones who always win.
Powereds are much like supers, only that they do not have control. It is not skilled based, but rather genetic. Their lack of control usually manifests in some 'trigger' causing their ability to activate and go out of control. IE a person having teleportation but only being able to do so when they sneeze. They're treated like a disabled person, usually with disgust or pity.
There are categories that classify many supers under a certain power, though not all are recognized by the government and not all have a general classification. Those categories are:
- Advanced mind
- Energy manipulator
- Elemental manipulator
- Shifter
- Strongman
- Tech genius
- Teleporter
- Speedster
- Summoner
- Enhancer
- Healer
Of those categories summoners, enhancers and healers are the most rare.
In this world, one could imagine that people with such power would feel they should rule over everyone else because of how strong their ability is. To counter such thoughts the governments of the world developed their own programs to have those people become government approved heroes.
The U.S. program is called the Hero Certification Program, or HCP for short, started when the first registered hero, Captain Starlight, approached the government in 1957. The program is as follows:
Over 4 years of college the students were to keep their involvement in the program a secret, training in the classes of close combat, weapons, ranged, focus, control and subtlety while keeping their regular classwork above a C+ grading. Many applications are entered every year and fifty are accepted, but only a fifth of that class will graduate after the four years.
Those who graduate as heroes have to take 2 years as an intern under a hero approved by the government to do so before they can go out on their own. Exceptionally few heroes ever do their jobs solo, making teams the go-to as not everyone can do everything. The job isn't always as expected, as many heroes have to kill to protect the public.
Heroes have to follow the rules mandated by a governmental branch, the Department of Variant-human Affairs (DVA). Sometimes that involves killing, sometimes it doesn't. After particularly violent events heroes are required to go to the DVA for debriefing and/or counseling. The DVA is what protects heroes from financial and judicial charge as they are the only ones who decide if a hero has committed a serious crime, like gross negligence, or not. The DVA can be harsh in their decisions, but they are the force between the heroes and the regular public.
