Introduction - OOC

This is very much the 'what-if' scenario that was mentioned above. The storyline picks up at the activation of Janus, a secret group which is ostensibly run by a figure named "ALICE" who contacts these various mutants and brings them together. The characters are mutants on the roster selected for their abilities and called up in various fashions (as to avoid detection by the authorities or the Brotherhood of Mutants) These people are instructed to proceed to a small cottage on the outskirts of the the town of Rowley, Massachusetts (Population 5,500) where they will be conducted to their final destination.

The whole thing, of course, is highly mysterious and very vague, but presented along the lines of, "Do you feel you have a greater stake in this than being a bystander?" and "Do you really want the Brotherhood to take over, or the US Government to be goaded into a war with all mutants the way the Brotherhood wants?"

The idea is very simple; it is a world where the tensions between mutant and human have boiled over and where the Professor and the X-men (and some others) have been eliminated. The contingency plan, codenamed "Janus", is to recruit people who, in normal times, were not involved with the affairs of other mutants or the world, into a team if the worst should happen. All of them were powerful mutants; some existed on the fringes of society, keeping their secret and trying to make a life for themselves. Others were deliberately kept in reserve for the day that they might be called, knowing that they'd be activated for the worst; they wait for the day while praying it never comes. With the situation deteriorating, these dangerous individuals form a last line of defense.

Now that they are activated, they are being thrown into the frontline; the goverment is after them, and probably will label them as mutant extremists. The Brotherhood of Mutants will be against them because they are 'human appeasers.' Caught in the middle and in a desperate situation, their mission is to do as much as they can, while understanding that events have spun out of control. It is not an enviable position, but the stakes are too high to do nothing. But the X-men were defeated and the situation is out of control. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, and that means that the members of Janus are screened for a different psychological profile than the one Xavier used for the X-men -- Janus is willing to draw blood and fight dirty. If MCF troops and mutants in the Brotherhood have to die to save the noncombatants, so be it, they made their choices. If the MCF and Brotherhood expect X-men style fair play, they're in for a rude awakening.

The characters are probably a mix; (self-)destructive, borderline personalities that find themselves oddly comfortable with the fucked up situation all around them and others with stronger ideals, but finding them tested in harsh times, perhaps finding their faith in humanity, mutants, the X-men or Charles Xavier strained or even broken.

The setting? Well, in the Marvel fashion, this is Earth-717, which means we have some freedom to vary things a bit; the Marvelverse involves multiple realities, and this is the reality of Earth-717. Characters must be be completely original; no canons will be accepted in this RP.