The Ascension Incident
Thirty years ago, the world learned the gods were real. Not through prophecy or miracles, but by catastrophe.
On Monday, November 4rd, 1996, the day was like any other in Chicago. Children attended school, parents went to work, the city was bustling as it had for decades. At 8:17 PM, a sixteen-year-old Bloodmarked descendant (later identified at Subject A-01) suffered, what witnesses described as a "divine triggering event", in the center of downtown after a football game. No one knows exactly what triggered the teen, however, survivors reported blood curdling screams, sudden electrical storms, violent seismic activity, and people vanishing in mid-stride. All within eleven minutes.
Afterwards, thousands were found dead, entire city blocks had completely disappeared, and reality itself seemed to bend for several miles. Some examples were vehicles fused to concrete; some victims partially turned to ash; and some victims were never found at all. The most disturbing after effects were the temporal inconsistencies that occurred immediately after.
Recorded emergency calls right before the Ascension Incident officially began, revealed that witnesses were reporting impossible creatures, giant silhouettes moving through storm cloud, and figures wreathed in an unnatural light above the city skyline. Some recordings malfunctioned, twisted speech that hadn't ever been heard before in the modern age. All across Chicago watches and clocks all froze at 8:23 PM.
The United States government immediately acted and sealed Chicago off under military authority, briefly calling the event as terrorist attacks, experimental weapon failures, or mass hysteria. The public didn't believe a stitch of it. Too many had seen the truth, and for the first time in modern history, humanity learned that gods were real. Not only were the pantheons of gods real but their children and descendants were as well.
And so global panic began. Religious organizations fractured, governments collapsed to public pressure, and reports of supernatural phenomena increased worldwide. Discoveries of genetic markers, inherited anomalies, and bloodlines were recorded. Descendants of gods had lived among humanity for centuries unnoticed. Now, they were being found on a world stage. Fear spread faster than the truth, creating the new age witch hunts at an alarming rate.
By 1998, an international task force was officially created by the United Nations, assigned with identifying, surveilling, containment, and possible elimination of divine descendants deemed too dangerous. In the United States, this organization became known as the Directorate of Divine Affairs, or the DDA. The majority of the public supported the measures, according to the media. After all, if a teenager could just erase half of a major city by losing control...what else are those divine descendants capable of?
Thirty years later, the world seems to have grown divided. Some believe that the descendants are victims of ’divine abandonment’. Others believe these descendants are weapons of mass destruction waiting to be awakened. One fact remains, after the Ascension Incident, more of the impossible has been happening at an alarming rate.
