LNH20: Earth-Twenty Roundup Thread And Getting The New Tag In There

[Andrew Perron]

So, I've been alchemizing the different ideas that have been going
around for the history of this setting and the foundation of the LNH.
Here's a vague collection of what I have so far.

In 1878, David E. Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a
telephone receiver when experimenting with his carbon microphone.  On
the opposite side of the world, twenty seconds later, a bright flash
lit the sky.  Over the following years, there were many reports all
over the world of costumed men - and occasionally, women - popping up
and performing extraordinary feats.  We know that, eventually, a loose
organization was formed known as the Network of Remarkables.  We also
know that this organization did not last to the 20th century.

The net.ahuman history that most people know starts in 1942.  Three
days after the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was booted up, she appeared:
Lass Lady.  Charismatic, heroic, and friendly, she was the flagbearer
for the generation of heroes that followed.  Of course, this was not
universally considered a good thing; some sociologists have considered
that the tendency to think of them as "weirdos" and "net.kooks" may
not have gotten such a strong foothold if she hadn't been a woman in a
leadership position, and some contemporary sources accused her of
being a "female impersonator" (as the oh-so-tasteful lingo went back
then).

Over the decades, the debate over net.ahumans came to resemble two
others; the issue of civil rights, and the issue of nuclear weapons.
Net.heroes and net.villains appeared many times over the years, the
responsibilities of the power tending to tip its bearers into one role
or the other, and the governments and the people have responded many
ways - celebrating them, enslaving them, supporting them, persecuting
them, becoming them.

By the early 1990s, American society had adapted to them, and after a
couple years with no leading net.hero team, The Alt.thority [Note:
This is a placeholder name] came together.  They were one of the more
effective crimefighting teams of the era, and their modus operandi was
going out and confronting villains when they weren't ready.
Unfortunately, this backfired rather badly when Dr. Killfile *was*
ready for them, and drained their power into a device that set up a
Subject-Based Killfile across the entire US, blocking off most
net.ahuman powers in the affected area.

[Note: I figure Dr. Killfile is fair game, since Steven Librande only
came up with the name, and any actual *character* was a group effort
by various LNH writers, but if anyone disagrees, speak up!]

[Another note: What "most" means is up for debate.]

Years later, the killfile expired, and all of a sudden, new, untrained
net.ahumans were popping out of the woodwork.  While society in
general made it the hip, cool thing to have powers, there were many
were perfectly comfortable with it not being in their backyard.  Some,
meaning well, called for the government to set up some support for
them; some, not meaning so well, called for laws and controls.
Different states dealt with it in different ways; some enforced older
laws in new ways, while others explicitly opened up freedoms that had
previously only been assumed, and yet others rode out the storm,
waiting to see what would happen.  In one area, Mrs. Schlubb's School
For Gifted Youngsters offered "training"; in another, the police began
officially sanctioning vigilante activity.  And it was in this fire
that the LNH was born...

[Hm. This really wasn't silly enough.  Ah, well, just a blueprint we
can build on...]

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, a member of the Alt.thority:
Cheesecake Lass.