The Rift

On **Tuesday March the 13th, 2018**, at 4:08pm a massive cataclysmic event happened that is referred to as **The Rift**. It was a bright jagged tear in the sky that stretched wide and glowed bright purple and magenta over downtown **Halcyon City**. Giant strands of plasma energy randomly shot out from it like extended lightning strikes. It led to a chaos and mayhem of people screaming and running for their lives. Scientists still do not know how or why the Rift happened, and they’ve been studying tirelessly ever since to make sure it doesn’t happen again. People have speculated it was a reaction to our impact on the climate, others believe some supernatural fowl play may have been at fault, and others think that just the presence of Alphas on earth challenges a higher power and that this was the wrath of a vengeful god.

## **The Entity**

Out of the Rift flew a being comprised of cosmic energy that is today referred to as **the Entity**. It had the capabilities of flight and emitted powerful strands of cosmic energy that could disintegrate matter. Before it could cause more damage it was intercepted by the **Three Kings** who then it immediately attacked. Through their combined efforts the Three Kings eventually managed to defeat the Entity but the ordeal wasn’t over.

## **The Betrayal**

Without warning, King Lizard turned on his Alpha King & King Sphinx and violently lashed out. It devolved into a brutal all out brawl that eventually ended with King Sphinx using magic to cut off one of Lizard’s arms and Alpha King punching him unconscious. King Lizard disappeared that day after the heroes left to deal with the rift. His legacy was forever tarnished, he’s only resurfaced a handful of times since to commit various crimes under the new moniker **Tyrant Lizard**. It’s still unknown why the betrayal happened, some believe it was a sleeper-cell plot awakened, others believe interactions with the entity made him lose his mind, whatever the reason he let millions of people rooting for him down.

## **The Sacrifice**

Having just defeated a cosmic entity and his best friend, Alpha King summoned all the remaining will and strength inside him to make the ultimate sacrifice. Using his unique ability to absorb energy he absorbed the destructive cosmic strands and flew up into the Rift. His powers pulled the cosmic energy with him and sealed the Rift until it completely dissipated. Crowds of surrounding bystanders erupted into cheers and applause. Though it later dawned on everyone that not only was the Rift gone, but Alpha King as well. Halcyon city mourned the loss of it's great hero and commemorated him with a statue to honor him, located at the site of his sacrifice.

## **The Aftermath**

The Rift brought up a lot of complex questions that have yet to be figured out. New understandings about interdimensional physics and quantum physics were found but still many mysteries remain. One thing left in the wake of the Rift was the never before witnessed element **Cosmium**. Energy strands from the Rift interacting with earth matter solidified into this material when the Rift closed. It’s an unstable material that has a ton of different properties depending on the type of matter it fused with: it generates power, is incredibly resistant to extreme temperatures, and can conduct and magnify different kinds of energy.

An extremely rare version of this element is **Pure Cosmium**. Pure cosmium is synthesized from extracting it from other cosmium alloys. It's an even more unstable and unpredictable material that's been reported to be able to transmute matter, open rifts to pocket dimensions, and create temporal shifts.