Seattle

Seattle is a port city on the west coast of the United States, located on an isthmus between the Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington. Due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Seattle is in a major earthquake zone. It is the northernmost major city in the United States and was the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region before the Mayor's rampage in 2019. Recovery and rebuilding has been aided by several business interests lead and organised by Sanderson-Shields Corporation who are interested in restoring the fourth largest port in North America in addition to the booming tech industry present in the metropolitan area before the rampage.

Seattle house prices were some of the highest in the country before the rampage and prices have barely fallen due to the new artificial demand created by the new influx of corporations interested in building Sanderson's vision of a city of the future. Homelessness and inequality are rampant in the city creating a very real class divide.

Seattle has a notably large LGBTQ community, sixth in population in the country as well as having many other sizable minority groups- Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Samoan and Somali.

Seattle has a significant musical history- fostering a strong jazz scene during the first half of the 20th century and is the birthplace of the alternative rock movement: grunge.

## History

### Founding-Modern Day

The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. As such Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for over 4,000 years. When European settlers first arrived, the natives of the Duwamish tribe occupied twenty villages around the Elliot Bay area.

Two rival settler parties established towns in the area though eventually both would join into one and the subsequent settlement was named Seattle after an anglicised form of the name of Chief Si'ahl of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

During the mid-19th century many neighbourhoods in Seattle were at ground level on tidelands and often flooded, after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 all new construction was required to be masonry and the streets were made to be one or two stories higher (generally 12ft to as high as 30ft) to prevent both devastating fires and frequent flooding. Thus many neighbourhoods in Seattle are connected by a network of passageways and forgotten basements that fell into disuse after a series of scares regarding the bubonic plague. Some found use as speakeasies during prohibition and as flophouses for the homeless during the great depression but generally the Seattle underground would be untouched until the villain Doctor Chimera moved into Seattle.

Boeing was a key local player after WW2 in establishing Seattle as a centre for aircraft manufacturing. In the 1980s onwards Seattle developed into a technology centre.

Atlas Academy was founded an hour away from Seattle- positing it's place carefully in an idyllic and undisturbed area but close enough to a major U.S. city to give students 1) a normal life with a safe home 2) an opportunity to train as crime-fighters.

### During the Campaign

#### 2017

The Burke Museum was targeted by Hammurabi due to it's collection containing a rare Babylonian tablet.

On Halloween 2017 a number of children, teens and adults around the city were magically transformed into their costumes (for example a kid wearing a werewolf costume would become a ferocious werewolf) by Loki.

Buffalo Buccaneer's crime spree was ended by Kid Spectacular and Kid Thunder who fought off the crew of his teleporting pirate ship.

#### 2018

During the summer Osprey patrolled Seattle with help from a new sidekick investigating an organisation called ZODIAC that rose from the ashes of the Institute.

Another organisation rising in Seattle at this time were the Silver Skulls, a group of seemingly teenaged metahumans using their powers to steal vast amounts of money for their boss- the Ramskull (who would later be revealed to be Lincoln Ward, a therapist and counsellor at Atlas Academy)

One Man Army attacked a number of establishments all across the city simultaneously to hide his true mission- stealing a vital component from the Sanderson-Shields aircraft facility.

#### 2019

A train bringing research material for the Sanderson-Shield facility was later attacked by the Carnival of Carnage. Luther Sanderson was aboard the train personally to ensure nothing went wrong and Team Hope repelled the attack. Sanderson's right hand woman and bodyguard shockingly revealed she had plotted with ZODIAC to get one over on Sanderson (secretly though, she was getting one over on Hammurabi to get Sanderson instituted as leader of ZODIAC) and stole Project JADIS.

Seattle's housing crisis and growing inequalities were tragically amplified when the Mayor was mutated by Dr Chimera into a gigantic lizard monster whose rampage would render many parts of the city unliveable for months. Numerous chimeras escaped into the streets of Seattle with UNISON struggling to keep a lid on the situation. One group of sapient chimeras, known colloquially as the Monkey Mafia, established the community of Little Apetown in a mostly abandoned neighbourhood- though tensions between them and their human neighbours came to a boil until the intervention of Kid Spectacular who persuaded Don Waffle Corleone to direct his monkeys to help rebuild Seattle and work with the authorities.

The Sanderson-Shields Corporation was the first company to stake their claim in rebuilding Seattle into a city of the future and established their new Western Headquarters. This would invite chaos into the streets of Seattle when the Paramount Contract- a bounty on Luther Sanderson's head for nearly one billion dollars- was released onto the dark web. Within a day the city was crawling with assassins, killers and super-villains each hoping to take home the grand prize. ZODIAC officially fell apart as several members tried to kill Sanderson (who was the leader of ZODIAC)

The Carnival of Carnage returned to Seattle in late 2019 while rebuilding was in progress and The GREAT Boris tried to convince Fahrenheit to join them in their attack on the new Sanderson-Shields West building- claiming that their leader had been kidnapped by Sanderson and was being held within. Team Hope stopped them from ever setting foot in the building.

Not long after a business conference was hosted at the Armstrong Hotel by the four major corporations interested in the rebuilding of Seattle- Sanderson-Shields, Terragenta Global, Langford Group and Noxxon. This event was attacked by a number of villains working under the employ of the Second Iron Bull creating a tense hostage situation- luckily no blood was spilled though the Iron Bull and Metalmark escaped.

Throughout the fall and winter of 2019 metahumans began disappearing all over the city, additionally there was a startling increase in superpowered chimeras appearing in the city. In order of first appearance: an empowered King Crab, a giant land squid, Teleporcupine, Trunkmaster and Megalodon.

A metahuman called Summer causes a string of fires in the city due to the dogged pursuit of her by Sanderson's meta-hunters and Black Maiden, confronted by Fahrenheit she agrees to "live among monsters" like herself. The destruction from the ensuing battle against Black Maiden and her legion of brainbots necessitated replacement of several utility water pipes.

With the aid of his chimera chameleon ally Karma, Kid Spectacular finds out about Sanderson's plan to capture metahumans for experimentation and tries to break into the holding cells where he is captured and his memories erased by Ross Slate- an unwilling participant in Sanderson's plans. Finding some of his notes from before the investigation in his room he goes back in and rediscovered what he had already found out once before. This time he evades capture and escapes with some of the metahumans as well as rescuing Ross Slate. KS accidentally awakens Ross Slate's long-dormant memories of who he was as *Mr Mnemonic*, who swears revenge against him and his family.

Burke museum was attacked by Professor Photon, who tries to escape with the Tablet of Hu Solan but is stopped by Kid Spectacular. This incident gets KS in trouble with the Chinese cultural office, the police and UNISON.

#### 2020

Hanson MediTechnology was absorbed into Sanderson-Shields after the original lab was destroyed during the Mayor's rampage- Ironhide shows Team Hope schematics indicating there was a secret underground bunker and sends them to investigate. They sneak through the National Guard's barricade around the area due to the high number of chimeras. Inside the lab they discover several feral chimeras, a feral Doctor and early designs for Metamorphic Chimera Mutagen- the experimental power booster Sanderson has been using on Chimeras and Metahumans.

Burke museum was destroyed when Kid Spectacular and Fahrenheit fought Darkbolt and Meteor Knight.

During a stakeout of a building being used for underground metahuman brawls, Loxley and Kid Spectacular are forced to act when Blueshift (working independently of them) rushes onto the scene. They learn that Sanderson has been skimming off some of the fighters for his experiments.

Alpha Squad moved their headquarters to Seattle at Ironhide's request after UNISON shut down any Atlas Academy missions because of an international incident caused by Team Justice and Team Hope in Slavija.

After an Atlas Academy student goes missing, Ironhide officially elevates the situation with Sanderson into a war, scouting out his facilities, luring and capturing Hyena and eventually launching an all-out offensive against Sanderson's secret metahuman holding facility.

## Points of Interest

* Space Needle
* Sanderson-Shields West
* Museum of Flight
* Burke Museum
* Little Apetown
* The Anchor is located in the Salish Sea off the coast of Seattle
* Alpha Squad HQ
* Atlas Academy is located just over an hours drive away.

## Notable Inhabitants

* Lucas Knots
* Arion Magnisson
* Don Waffle Corleone
* Tommy Mandrill
* Karma Chameleon
* Luther Sanderson has publicly made Seattle his new home
* Cordell Hayles
* Mandy Miller
* Grunger