Johnny Baht, forced to petty thievery by being orphaned at an early age in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the biggest city in the country, overheard a security guard laughing at a local dive bar. The guard bragged about how lax his job’s security was, saying he’d even forgotten to turn on the closed-circuit cameras last week. Johnny had to take the job. The moment he and a couple of the boys were sneaking some of the most expensive-looking equipment out of the factory was the one that the capes chose to bust in. Everybody scattered, but Johnny was the one who took the hit that landed him on the conveyor belt, which then led to the machines severing his hands at the wrists and his legs below the knees.

Professor Vergil Sonne was demonstrating his newest breakthrough in teleportation technology when terrorists took over the press conference. With dozens of people held hostage, the police didn’t dare storm the building. But the superhumans did. Every shot terrorists fired at that guy who could move at incredible speeds missed him, of course, but they didn’t all miss the teleportation device. The portal misfired, creating within the Professor a rift between this world and one teeming with primal energies that ripped his body apart.

Andrea Jimenez was happy for her life to have finally settled down. After years of fighting for her country’s interests abroad, she could spend time with her beloved husband and kids, watching them throwing a baseball back and forth in the park on their traditional Saturday picnic. She could do nothing but watch as a giant steel beam, thrown from a nearby building during a super-powered brawl, crushed her family and her happiness in a microsecond.

Xander Faust compiled the data from these situations and more, quite pleased with what he’d been able to accomplish. With a set of bionic limbs here, a containment suit for a vibrational force of nature there, and a promise of sweet vengeance offered at just the right time, he had pulled together quite the team. Faust’s philosophy was simple: the world had enough of heroes. It was time to make some villains.