Chapter Text
It had started over a hundred years ago; a child had been born with an odd, gem-like protrusion on the back. Doctors had declared the newborn baby to be healthy, but were baffled by the abnormal addition.
As the child grew up, more babies around the world were born with gem-like lumps on their backs, and it soon became clear that each of these children had access to incredible powers. It also turned out that using the gems, they could transform into an alter ego, and as such the protrusions were dubbed “transformation stones”.
Most people reacted with fear and hostility towards these new super-humans, leading many governments to enact laws that they claimed were to protect people, but were in actuality meant to ostracize and oppress these people.
The first law was that children with transformation stones were not allowed to go to school with ordinary kids. At first, this forced parents to either home school said children, until many governments created schools specifically for those children. The idea was that the children would live at those schools, learn how to suppress their powers and live normal lives, and while the schools did provide that, they were also a front for scientists and doctors to experiment on the children and find out more about how they worked. A group of scientists discovered that the transformation stones were some kind of extreme mutation, and thus gave those who bore it the name “Homo Melior”.
The second law came only shortly after the first; it dictated that all Melior people had to be registered as such by their local government, including what abilities they had and what their transformed alter ego looked like.
The third law was that all business owners were within their right to refuse service and give jobs to Meliors.
Unsurprisingly, those laws only fanned the flames and made people more paranoid and scared of Meliors. People demanded to have tests made that could determine if a baby would be Melior, encouraged doctors to find a cure for the mutation, some people even demanded to have a law enacted that prohibited Meliors from having children to further prevent any more Meliors.
Following this, many parents with Melior children began hiding said fact, teaching their kids to be ashamed about that part of themselves. So many Meliors grew up hiding from the government, and if they were found out, they would cut all ties, take a new name and move somewhere else.
Naturally, this oppression and secrecy took a toll on most, if not all Meliors, many of whom didn’t want to hide their powers. Some Meliors decided to take the first step to show people that they should not fear them, and became heroes, protecting others and saving lives. Others, caught up in the injustice and cruelty, became villains; bend on inflicting as much pain on the world as the world had on them. But most Meliors still only wished to live a normal, peaceful life, with a stable job and a pleasant home.
The influx of heroes and villains caused a great split between people; some started seeing the abuse and oppression Meliors had to suffer, some started believing that Meliors could do wonderful things with their powers, some were more convinced than ever that Meliors were horrible monsters that didn’t deserve equal treatment, and a few saw opportunities for power…