RESONANCE

The **RESONANCE Research Group** is a government-funded organisation situation within Halcyon City, created to study, analyse and replicate various super- and meta-human powers for the sake of welfare and technological progression.

## Overview

At the core, RESONANCE is a relatively small-time, government-funded organisation that arose as a public scholastic initiative in response to the supernatural Golden Age power boom. Though at first focused entirely on analysis and understanding of the various superpowers and their relation to (or exception from) modern scientific theory, gradually the initiative changed hands, leaders and goals until the modern Research Group emerged.

The Research Group's main (and perhaps 'only') subject of focus is the relationship of modern sciences and the explicitly supernatural powers exhibited from birth by many citizens of Halcyon City and beyond. RESONANCE aims to understand exactly how powers such as pyro- or cryo-kinesis, sound manipulation, size-shifting, radiation generation and a plethora of other examples influence, extrapolate or contradict the known rules of chemistry, physics, mathematics or the common sciences at large. With such knowledge, the effective capabilities of mankind at large can quickly become expanded, leading to breakthroughs and new technologies for society's general betterment.

RESONANCE remains a transparent organisation, publicly announcing their discoveries inventions. Citizens are welcome to visit and tour the public facilities, provided they remain within sectors designated as safe - as a good number of experiments the Group conducts risk health and safety regardless of taken precautions. Any advances and breakthroughs are also announced to the public, though few actual inventions have yet left the testing laboratories and become integrated in public use. As a government-funded organisation, patents released by RESONANCE are intended to be free-to-use, construct, propagate and alter by the public. When they actually release, that is.

## Recruitment & Relief Services

Perhaps inevitably due to its focus, RESONANCE finds itself with a staggeringly high number of empowered individuals amongst its personnel. During the Group's infancy, super- and para-humans were counted exclusively as research subjects or independent partners/cooperators. As time went on, many of these empowered insisted to join the ranks as researchers themselves, until the lines between both blurred completely. Nowadays RESONANCE welcomes both those willing to experiment with understanding powers in general, as well as those wishing to better their own control over their gifts.

The latter group in particular emerged naturally over the Group's current lifespan. With the understanding of a power's function, or perhaps even before such is firmly established, comes the understanding of the power's applications and extent. Thus, RESONANCE's testing and analysis found use first in designing therapies to help empowered manifest, invoke, control or quell their gifts as necessary. While many of these techniques are publicly available and readily shared with other organisations or facilities focused predominantly on supernatural therapy, the Research Group nevertheless remains one of the prime centres for empowered therapy. Many members who join RESONANCE as (unofficially) 'patients' find themselves naturally remaining with the organisation, ascending to proper member status whilst wielding their powers for research rather than control purposes.

## Location(s)

Due to its scale, the Research Group possesses a central HQ building vaguely in Halcyon downtown along with minor research and testing sites both within the city as well as in its immediate countryside area. Projects capable of being conducted on a small scale are widely researched in city-bound facilities, while larger (or riskier) endeavours are shipped to off-city locales.

The RESONANCE HQ itself is a dedicated skyscraper building, extending above-ground as well as below with extensive underground labs and testing rooms. The HQ likewise serves as the main recruitment and information centre, being perhaps the most open of the Group's locales - aside from less than a dozen restricted sectors, the building is largely available for the public to tour. Outside of testing and public relations, the HQ also contains the central servers used for information storage and data analysis (though rumour has it back-ups exist *somewhere*).

Outside of Halcyon, RESONANCE facilities are much more subdued and small-scale - relatively so, as outdoor testing areas, while barren or sparsely equipped, cover a considerable amount of terrain. Smaller facilities within the city are still open for visitation, though their designated research is often considered off-limits to non-staff out of safety. Facilities wholly outside the city require permits to enter and are under proper screening so as to avoid serious incident or injury - it is here that perhaps the most destructive powers are analysed and studied.

## A.E.G.I.S Cooperation

While formerly priding itself on transparency and ideological independence, it cannot be denied that RESONANCE would not reach its current state without involvement from Halcyon City's A.E.G.I.S. organisation. Following the events of T-Day and open hostilities from G.R.E.Y., RESONANCE has been recruited (though some say 'strong-armed') into cooperation by the City's supernatural security division. In exchange for adjusting their profile towards more militarised and peace-keeping focus, with A.E.G.I.S. being the first sector receiving new inventions and breakthroughs even in testing phase, the Research Group receives a far larger budget and government cooperation in conducting their research.

The actual sentiment within the Research Group regarding the "hostile takeover" varies. Many older members feel this course of action is a betrayal to the purely scientific and even pacifistic creed RESONANCE set for itself from its early days of conception. Newer (and empowered) members on the other hand cite that A.E.G.I.S. involvement allows them to help the world in a manner more direct than merely wielding, controlling and analysing their powers, without the duties and obligations a full conscription would entail. While the friction within the group exists, neither side denies that without A.E.G.I.S. assistance RESONANCE would work under much more dire straights before. The continuing conflicts around the city, such as presence of H.E.L.I.X. or Gambite, seem to cement the latter views of the involvement's necessity.

## Paranormal Research

By far and large, paranormal research falls out of RESONANCE's scope. Abilities and phenomena existing in the magical sphere fall under systems different and often incompatible with the scientific method - fundamentally, while one side focuses on the study and understanding of natural laws, the other side focuses instead on bending or breaking the selfsame laws wholesale. While it is inaccurate to say that RESONANCE shuns the magical side of the world, the Research Group has little to no expertise in the paranormal sphere and readily ships findings within it to appropriate groups with better experience.

The same logic applies to the study or research of the various otherworlds that exist outside of the Prime Physical reality. By definition, these realms are categorised based on deviation of natural laws from the core reality within which RESONANCE operates, and thus any discoveries or inventions made therein risk being inapplicable when transported back home. Should circumstance and possibility arise, RESONANCE will not shy from obtaining a better understanding of such a reality - but nonetheless exploration of such realms falls squarely outside of their jurisdiction.