The Icehouse

Internal Combustion Engine

With the development of the Jaffe battery and fusion power, it would seem inevitable that the internal combustion engine would go the way of the dodo.  The reasons this did not actually occur are fairly straightforward.  There comes a point after which the energy output no longer increases with the size of the Jaffe battery.  Likewise, there is a lower limit to the size of a fusion reactor.  These two size limits created the perfect niche in which to foster the survival of the internal combustion engine.  Included in this niche are such things as aircraft and locomotive engines, tank engines, smaller ships, and the larger cargo trucks.

What the Jaffe battery and fusion power did do was force the makers of the internal combustion engine to create much more fuel-efficient designs.  By 1995, even the worst of the gas guzzlers were getting 36 miles to the gallon, while the more fuel efficient engines were getting over 100 miles to the gallon.

The International Fighting Championship

Also known as The "Great Bermuda Punch-out" the International Fighting Championship is held every January in Bermuda.  It is a no-holds-barred, full contact combat tournament between super-powered opponents.  The winner of each competition gets to choose his prize.  If the request is within reason, Lord Doom will grant the request.

Nearly every entrant has some level of superhuman strength, though there have been combatants who didn't.  None lack superpowers (its one of the rules of entry).  Entry is by invitation or audition: the only people invited are those eight people reaching the semi-finals the year before, assuming they all survived the contest.  Auditions involve a demonstration of combat skill and superhuman power.

During the competition, the fights are refereed and are broadcast in a pay-per-view extravaganza that nets Lord Doom millions.  The fights last until one opponent shouts "stop", taps out, is knocked unconscious, is killed (killing your opponent is discouraged, but it is understood that accidents happen...  Only three deaths have ever occurred in the thirty-two year history of the contest), or is removed from the arena by his opponent.  This last has only occurred once, when Strength of Tarot punched Diamond Dan Luxx through the reinforced wall of the arena.  This was also one of the three deaths.

Ionitro

Ionitro is a very powerful, and very restricted, putty-based explosive developed by an unknown meta-genius four years ago.  The formula and detonator design was classified by the US government, but copies have been known to show up in the occasional internet chat room or two.  Ionitro detonates when an electric charge passes through a special detonator, momentarily suppressing the attraction between electrons in the ionitro.  This causes the protons in the nuclei of the putty to explosively repel each other, releasing great amounts of energy.  Ionitro is stable without the detonator, even if exposed to electric current.  The detonator only functions with ionitro, and vice versa.

While it costs about thirty-four cents to manufacture the detonator, the putty costs nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per quarter-ounce to make.  It is thus not in wide use.

Ixtli

The fourth planet of 20 Leo Majoris.  Homeworld of the Tautiq.

Jaffe Battery

The Jaffe battery has become the standard source of stored electrical power in the world today.  Jaffe batteries have a stored capacity a thousand times greater than old-style batteries of similar sizes, and can be recharged without degrading.  This has lead to the revolution of electrical vehicles and power-efficient living.

Jaffe Foundation

Jaffe, Roland O.

In October of 1969, a 69 year old retired bus driver from Green Rock, Kentucky, went into his garage to tinker with an idea he had.  The idea, for a new design of electrical storage battery, changed the world forever.  Roland Jaffe had no education in engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, or any of the other sciences one expects from someone who discovers new principles of energy physics.  His was one of the first recorded cases of metagene-inspired genius.  When General Electric bought the patent for the battery from Jaffe in October of 1970, they made the man a billionaire.  When he died in 1977 with no surviving family, his will created The Jaffe Foundation, a charitable trust which offers grants to aspiring inventors.

The Johns Hopkins Metagene Expression Study

Commonly called the "Superman Report", the Johns Hopkins Metagene Expression Study was an in-depth study of trends in the expression of the metagene.  The study took over five years, wherein scientists interviewed and studied over four hundred metahumans around the world.  The findings of the study included (but were not limited to):

• The most commonly expressed super-power by far is superhuman strength.  Nearly 65% of all metahumans have some level of superhuman strength.  In addition, nearly half of all superhumanly strong metahumans have such strength as a side effect of other powers.  The exact level of strength augmentation varies from person to person.  At the low end of the scale may be a person who, though he himself is un-athletic, has the physical strength of a trained athlete.  On the other end of the scale are people capable of lifting megatons of weight over their head.  While the stereotypical superhumanly strong person is tall and massive of build, this is not necessarily the case with specific individuals.
• The rarest of all powers are the various psionic powers.  Only 5% of all metahuman expression results in psionic abilities.  Of this 5%, fully 35% are incurably insane because of a faulty expression of their powers.
• The study determined that once a given person's powers express, his offspring (if they too are metagene active) will tend to have similar if not identical powers.  While this is predicted by modern genetic science, it was confirmed in the study through clinical examination.
• Several standard genetic markers have been linked to the expression of certain power sets, but only in the case of physical enhancement.  In other words, a metagene test can reveal whether or not a person has superhuman strength, but not the ability to start fires with his mind.
• In some 55% of all cases of metagene expression, the "powers" gained by the individual are of a weak or useless nature.  (The report cites as an example "Subject A-204" whose "power" was having two functional, fully opposable thumbs on each hand.)
• While most metahumans are unique, there are several "power sets" that have occurred so often they are considered almost clichés.  Such "power sets" include such archetypes as the "feline humanoid", the "minotaur", the "amazon", and the "SIF" (an acronym meaning "Strength, Invulnerability, Flight", one of the most commonly found sets of powers out there).  There are many others.

Joshua Tree Federal Super-Maximum Detention Facility

Officially, the Joshua Tree Federal Super-Maximum Detention Facility does not exist.  No records record its existence amid the scores of prisons and jails in the United States.  No prisoners have ever been sentenced to serve time behind its bars.  Yet, if the Joshua Tree Super-Maximum facility does exist, deep in the mountain ranges and desert scrub of Western Nevada it would be the pinnacle of the Damocles Directive: a secret and secure facility to house and deploy what could possibly be America and the World’s last hopes in the event of direst catastrophe.

Rumors of its existence abound however; the United Nations has privately condemned the creation of such a facility saying that the United Nations should hold these dangerous entities since they are a threat not merely to one nation but to the safety and stability of the world.  The United States of course steadfastly denies the existence of Joshua Tree.

If it were real, it is rumored to possess the following.  This may or may not be true sources have been unable to vet the veracity of the statements.  Key features of the facility are believed to include a miniature fusion power station and a massive force field around the perimeter of the facility.  When activated no force has yet breached the walls of the facility.  The facility is also equipped with a number of antipersonnel weapons to ensure that escape is highly unlikely.  This equipment includes high decibel sirens, blasters capable of delivering a variety of munitions, and large area gel cannon.

The facility is believed to be able to house 130 Alpha Class metahumans and 500 support personnel.  Up to 100 highly advanced androids are "employed" by the facility in a support capacity.  Joshua Tree is believed to be almost totally self-sufficient requiring only the human support crew to leave occasionally for R&R in Las Vegas or other local city.  All other needs are met by the extensive stockpiles of food and water held deep within the facility.  In the event of containment breach the entire facility is designed to collapse inward trapping the highly dangerous criminals inside: Buried alive for all time.

But again these could all just be rumors.