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Author's Note:

This is the prolog of the superhero novel, setting the stage for what's to come. I hope to get some feedback on what you think.

Team Argos

Book 1: The Unveiling

Prologue

by: Jear77

The meteorite changed everything.

Scientists should have known something was off; days before there were all sorts of signs.

Animals started going haywire. Normally docile animals lashed out, biting, and scratching their owners pulling and pushing them in random directions. Zoo and circus animals attacked their handlers, trying to escape, and sometimes succeeded. Wild animals showed up in the middle of cities and migratory birds took off and flew in random patterns. Zoologists should have realized from anecdotal evidence that all of these animals were trying to escape an inevitable doom they knew not where it was coming from.

Climatologists around the world wondered at the crazy weather systems that caused deserts to get monsoon rains, and snowstorms, and rainforests to suddenly dry up. Concepts of winter and summer, spring and fall all seemed to have gone out the window. Oceanographers also had clues. The tides were much larger than usual, flooding seaside towns. Whales and dolphins beached themselves, while in other areas of the world "red tide" killed fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms. It was so bad that people living in the area had to evacuate because it got in the air.

Geologists had their hands full too. The Hawaiian Islands became volcanically active, wiping out many buildings, destroying plants and killing wildlife and many inhabitants in a swath of destruction that knew no limits. The volcanic basin of Yellowstone Park obliterated a huge section of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Washington. Massive earthquakes along all major fault lines began happening, knocking down buildings.

Widespread fires tore through the cities uncontained because firefighters couldn't get to them as the streets were torn up, sparked due to snapped electrical wires. Nuclear reactors had meltdowns due to improperly working equipment. In cities that had a reactor, radiation was everywhere. Laboratories safeguards confining bio-engineered viruses, weapons, and mutagens were eradicated, causing them to be released. There was widespread death as people's immune systems couldn't keep up with the barrage of attacks.

With all the things happening on earth, no one thought to look up into the sky to see if something outside the earth was causing the disturbances, not that it would have done them any good anyways. Then the meteorite struck. It was several miles across and odd shaped. As it entered the atmosphere, it broke in two. One part of it fell into the middle of ocean. The resulting destruction was like a thousand atom bombs, sending a massive tidal wave that struck the east coast of the United States, causing massive damage on top of what was already done from the natural disasters. A massive amount of water evaporated, blocking out the sun. The other half of the meteor broke in a million pieces and rained fire from above. Up to this point, the wilderness areas had been relatively untouched, but now they become engulfed in an inferno.

Millions of people died. Millions more became deathly ill. A few survived, deeply scarred. Fewer still came out unscathed. The survivors began to change. Part of it might have been caused from the viruses and radiation. Part of it might have been the will to survive.

Part of it could have been the luck of their genes. Part of it could have been scientists trying to give mankind a way of survive. Part of it could have been help from beyond--this life or the stars. Part of it could have been magic. Whatever the cause, people changed. This is not to say the change was easy or pleasant. It wasn't. It was painful, and horrible, and not a few died in the change

They changed; some according to their personality or will, genes or science, luck, magic or deals with things they didn't understand to survive. Soon, ideas of national origin, ethnicity, race, and religion were obliterated. Some became anthropomorphic animals. Others became things out of mythology: Minotaurs, gryphons, dragons, medusas, satyrs and more. Still others bound themselves with symbiotes, or bartered their souls with demons from hell, and took on their aspects.

From the ruins of society they rebuilt to a more thriving, more successful, better society. Unfortunately, this idyllic, "better society" came with its drawbacks, a dark undercurrent that few saw, and fewer recognized; a dark undercurrent that grew and grew.

Many years later...