Star Harbor Nights

At this point, we'll take a break from our brief history of before time in order to acquaint you with some of the more recent events of this world we have been watching. If you are lucky enough to be a native of the world in question who has somehow found this narrative, you will probably find this installment somewhat tedious. You may find it a better use of your time to do a search for a popular brand of diet soda in conjunction with a popular brand of breath mints. The results are rather striking.

All others, attend.

The city of Everett, Kansas does not exist in your world... nor does it in this one, any longer. It was founded in the 1850s by anti-slavery settlers from New England. Its original name was something long-winded and pious, but in the days following the Civil War it came to bear the name of the three brothers who took it upon themselves to build the tiny settlement up into a major transportation hub, connecting the cattle markets of Texas and Oklahoma with the existing rail lines in Omaha, Nebraska in time for the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

The Everetts were not just shrewd businessmen, but good businessmen, and good business creates wealth rather than simply accumulating it. Other regional centers of the cattle and rail industries didn't so much feel the bite from the Everett Brothers' presence as they enjoyed the benefits of a larger economy.

The brothers were, of course, not saints, and perhaps some of their practices would have raised red flags with modern regulators. In the days of the robber baron, though, they were real princes. They paid their men a decent wage to keep them loyal and productive, and did their best to keep them healthy and safe. The phrase "investing in the community" may not have existed at the time, but that is exactly what they did, building first a school and then a hospital.

By the 1920s, the town of Everett had become the city of Everett, and the Everett Brothers Freight Company had become simply known as the Everett Company. It had long since expanded into too many other areas of commerce to sum up in a single company name. The Everetts were still the stewards of their community, and their presence had a softening effect on the blow the Great Depression dealt to their fair city. When the sleeping giant of American industry awoke and struggled to its feet in the days of World War II, it found the factories and rail yards of Everett had been up for hours and even made coffee.

In the heady post-war days of seemingly boundless optimism, the civic leaders of Everett undertook a major effort to modernize their city, funding the building of glistening modern skyscrapers and glittering public parks. Part of their attempt to project a new and modern image was a new and modern name, decided by popular vote. Thus, the thriving city of Everett disappeared forever from the map... and in its place was Nebula City, "The place where tomorrow's stars are formed."

Did the city's first family feel slighted by the change? Not so much, as it had been the reigning patriarch of the Everett family who put forth the idea. Perhaps he was motivated by the charges of critics that his family wielded too much influence over civic affairs, that it was dangerous for too much of the city's well-being to be tied to the fortunes of a single corporation.

The change in name did nothing to change these conditions, of course, but as is so frequently the way of things in this world, appearance counts more for reality. You may thank whatever power you recognize that things are not so in the world you hail from.

While Nebula City does not have as large a mutant population as Crescent Bay, nor as expansive a vigilante community as Star Harbor, it did have its share of protectors. The first generation of such had been dubbed by the press as the Heroic Virtues... and then later known as the Heroic Trinity. The masked detective, the caped titan, and the ancient queen each had begun their careers with different titles, but they soon came to be known for the strengths they each were seen to embody: Reason, Might, and Grace. The world would eventually repay them quite poorly for their service to it, but more will be said of that later.

Before the trio met their end, they left to Nebula City two children who would grow up to be among its protectors, and one who would be its darkest demon. More will be said of that, too... perhaps sooner rather than later.

When our story resumes, you will meet the current scion of the Everett family and the first woman to head the corporation now simply known as "EvCo." The first not due to any particular level of sexism within the family business, but simply because the mix of offspring had always been heavily male.

Evelyn Everett makes her home in the penthouse atop the tower at One Everett Plaza, the building which houses the headquarters of her family's business... and business, under her rather exacting rule, has been booming like never before. You might think that she sleeps securely in her fortress-like apartment suspended high over the world, but as long as the costumed heroine Storm Siren plies the skies over the city her family built, Evelyn Everett gets no sleep at all.

You will shortly find out why.