Chapter Text
Superpowers originated from a very deadly global pandemic that occurred in the early 2000s (the story starts in the year 2103). The first people to gain superpowers were those that survived catching the pandemic. Originally, they made up less that 30% of the world's population. The Empowered are what people with superpowers are called in this universe. They make up around 70% of the global population. When people first started gaining powers it caused a lot of public unrest because of fear. For "public safety" governments started rounding all the empowered up and putting them in camps where they were studied and even experimented on.
Those with powers deemed too dangerous were either put into solitary confinement or killed on the spot. The mistreatment was kept under wraps for nearly 2 decades when Empowered started rioting in the camps and fighting to be free. Those that escaped brought their inhumane treatment to the media and with public support, riots, protests, etc. the empowered were released and reintegrated into society. Of course, people were still afraid so empowered had to wear markers that identified them as empowered. They were also required to have their powers on file by the government.
Empowered were treated as second class citizens which caused some of them to become angry. The angry had one of two ways of thinking either "we should be treated equally we're still people despite having powers" or "We should be above everyone not below them because we have powers". The latter began to act out on these thoughts and began using their powers to torment others or get what they wanted which made the situation of their treatment worsen. Normal people were unable to do much against them without lots of firepower which led to the army being called in to deal with these things or simply let them happen. They were soon dubbed villains by the government and named criminals.
Some empowered didn't like what was happening and feared what would happen to them if the newly dubbed villains continued doing bad things. Some took it a step further and attempted to fight off their fellow empowered or simply protect innocents during attacks. The government seeing how beneficial their actions were began to support them and later established the hero commission to regulate and manage heroes. As time passed being a hero became an official Carrer and they were paid well for risking their lives and properly trained in academy's so heroes could do better jobs at saving people and dealing with villains.
As time passed hero/villain society evolved until it took over. Powers were realized to be able to be passed down to children which lead to many normal humans aiming for empowered partners and soon the population of empowered grew until they were the majority. Inherited powers are either the same as or related to their parent's powers but occasionally outliers pop into existence that have entirely new/different powers. Of course, there were those who avoided mixing with them or simply could not inherit powers because of genetics which lead to a reverse in roles where the powerless were now second-class citizens.
As powers are still on the new side they are still being studied and don't have any official classifications yet.