Pacific City Chronicles

Pacific City has had a number of superteams over the years.
Sentinels 1951-1958
-none- 1958-1966
Century League 1966-1978
The Cadre 1979-1983 - Disbanded by US Marshall Feilds
Centurions 1983-1984 - Century League wannabes, disbanded after leader's death
Justicars 1984-1990 - Disbanded after scandal involving 3 members working for the Mob
New Centurions 1990-1998 - Killed by The Cadre
-none- 1998-2005
Westguard 2005-

The Victory Legion was the first real superteam in the world, created by the American known as The Public Spirit. It was started in September of 1942, after The Public Spirit conferred with Allied commanders and gathered a group of superbeings from the beseiged nations struggling against the Axis. The Victory Legion consisted of John Bull and Britannica (England), Liberte and the Partisan II (France), Minuteman, Swift Sword, and The Public Spirit from America.

The group fought the Nazi menace alongside others of the time, such as The Quantum Knight and Squire, Sentinel, Golden Angel, Nightingale, The Crimson Comet and Starbolt. They made tremendous inroads against the Nazis and served as the prototype superteam from which all others have taken their cue, including The Minutemen, the Night Watch, and the Silver Seven. All good teams have an arch villain, and theirs was Wulfgang Krieger, later known as Baron Blackreich. Krieger was obsessed with creating a Master Race, and most of the world's so-called Super Soldier formulas have their origin in his groundbreaking work. Doktor Blud used his Formula X as a template for creating the Psychomen and the Monster Batallion. Despite most reports, Krieger was never a member of the Thule Society, having litle use for magic and mysticism though his most important work was done with the reanimation of dead tissue. His infamous Necro-Nazis terrorized battlefields as the Reich began it's slow disintergration and Hitler authorized more and more outlandish schemes to regain lost territory.

The Victory Legion met it's end in Castle Blackreich in final battle with Wulfgang Krieger. Liberte shot and killed Partisan, and it was revealed she was in fact a plant by the Baron! She was actually a top Nazi shapeshifter spy named Sobriquet; she had killed the real Liberte months earlier and replaced her. Though they won the day, the loss and betrayal eventually led to the end of the team in 1946. In 1948, The Public Spirit finally retired and the world's first superhero team passed into memory.

Fort Rogers
After the Rose Hill massacre, the ne colonists wanted protection. Fort Rogers was the answer, and it stood on this rise of land for many decades until age forced it to close and be torn down. Some parts are preserved in a museum in the area. The area has a decidedly Bohemian quality to it, and is sometimes referred to as 'Little Berkeley'. The city's gay quarter along the south beach bleeds into a thriving artistic community that has several galleries, both public and private, small niche museums (The Museum of Masks has everything you ever wanted to know about various masks that heroes have worn, along with souvineers and a gift shop), homey Mom-and-Pop eateries and bakeries, and the first clock tower in the city. As it flows north and west, it shades into student housing, cheap fast food and various other University-oriented commerce.

'Chinatown'
With the largest Asian community in the US outside of San Francisco, Pacific City's oriental community is seperated within itself by ethnicity, so there is a Little Korea, Japantown, Hmong, etc. The Japanese are very strong within this community, and a man known only as The Mantis is said to be the boss of all gang bosses within it's confines. Most people simply come for the great food and the varoius festivals, but there are many specialty stores in the area, most not even labled as to what they are.

Drake Industries.
Robotics, areonautics, electronics; all these combined insutries are contained in the sprawling Drake complex. To the south is a series of offices, campuses and facilities for every kind of commerce from national company HQs to small business incubators.

Bank Street
The financial district, also known as the Jewelers District. Stock exchanges, accounting firms and software design houses stand side by side here.

Curry Oceanographic Institute
One of the top ocean research campuses in the world, bringing together some of the top scientific minds in the world.

Crown Pointe Theme Park
A large roller-coaster-centric theme park complete with rides, submarine tours, games, shows, and ten roller-coasters in the park itself. A hotel and resteraunt complex, two resorts, and a 'Pavillion of Planets' (providing sketchy presentations on the various alien worlds known) provide fun for the parents.

Bishop Square
Until the late Seventies, this was considered 'the heart of the city'. The massive St. Luke's Cathedral is the centerpeice. Across the broad square with it's small park, statues and man fountains stand the looming 'Press Buildings', where the city newpaper trade used to be conducted. Statesmen and Presidents frequent the Press Club Dining Room atop the old Herald building.

Further cleaning up of the map, plus the addition of place names and area names. I need to find out why the text tool makes everything so blurry.

Universities and Colleges

UWPC – University of Washington at Pacific City. Extension of the UW university system
PCU – Pacific City University. Largest and best institute in the area.
Crown Pointe College – The chief rivals of PCU in the athletics area as well as scholastic merit. Crown Pointe is a private college known for a very exclusive student body.
St. Anthony’s College – Oldest college in the area, privately funded.
Buckley Conservatory of the Performing Arts – Music, dance, theater
Adams Polytechnic University – Leader in aerospace and electrical engineering

Barrow Hill
Barrow Hill has a murky past involving murders, mysterious mass suicides, and general strange goings-on. It’s said to be one of the most haunted areas in the US because not only is it on the site of an old Indian burial ground, it’s the site of Rose Bay, the first settlement on Crown Island.

Rose Bay, founded 1835, is named after the Fireweed wildflower that dotted the area and was one of the first permanent settlements of any size in the Northwest Territories. The Mtaki Tribe natives seemed friendly and helpful, and eagerly aided the settlers; for this reason the town grew rapidly and also didn’t feel the need for much protection. By 1837, though, increased contact with other nearby tribes revealed that the Mtakis were shunned as demon worshippers. Scouts who tried to relay this information to the city fathers were laughed at until the summer solstice of 1837, when the Mtaki revealed their true nature and slaughtered every white man on the island and nearby mainland in a massive demonic ritual that was supposed to drive the white man from the shores of North America. The next trading ships that came found every human in the area white and native had been skinned alive and the town burned to the ground. They buried all 3000 and more in a mass grave under what became known as Barrow Hill. A new colony was founded at the Crown Pointe anchorage in 1843.


North Church
North Church Street is the center of the city’s entertainment district, starting with the theater district based about the Newhaven Opera House at its southernmost end. Theater groups, art house movie theaters, and small museums quickly give way to good restaurants and nightclubs as well as the larger hotel chains and the convention centers. North of that are the various casinos and large hotel complexes. After that, though, the character of the area starts to deteriorate. The casinos become cheap card parlors and the nightclubs become strip clubs and ‘gentleman’s entertainment clubs’. The hotels drop in price as well as minimum occupancy times. The bars become rougher. Just before the area devolves into Iron Harbor, it makes one last stab at respectability with the Convent Arena, a sports complex that usually plays host to boxing, kickboxing, pro wrestling, and local school matches of various types.

What are the best places to live in Pacific City?

Within the actual city limits (basically, just Crown Island)….

Gold Row
This downtown area centered on 24th Street is the site of five-star hotels, exclusive stores and boutiques, the best restaurants and high-rise luxury condos. It’s the third most expensive address in the US. Most high-end retailers in the US and quite a few international ones have an outlet here. Many corporate headquarters are located here as well. Gold Row is generally considered to start in Township Square with the old Pacific Herald building.

Cicero Park
Old homes around the actual park area combined with a great deal of police presence make this a safe and expensive place to live. Rows of spacious brownstone reconstructions, Victorian corner homes and turreted brick hotels are scattered around this residential neighborhood. Most of the waterfront development is newer and up to modern codes because it was destroyed by Lemurian bio-machines during the invasion of 1995.

Connerton
Formerly ‘Conner’s Town’, Connerton is a 19th-century settlement that was overtaken and incorporated early this century by the rapid urban growth. Conner’s Town was founded by silver magnate Peter Conner in 1834, who built a sprawling mansion atop Pickens Hill overlooking the bay. Even today the ‘Pickens Hill Conners’ are one of the top five wealthiest families in the area. Most of central Connerton is a historical district surrounding the Maritime Museum and Boardwalk (including the whaling ship displays), but away from the tourist areas are quiet narrow streets lined with brick apartment buildings, neighborhood bars, and some of the finest seafood dining in the city (including the Pickens Crab House, the first five-star restaurant in the city).

Witch Hill
A small four-block area adjacent to much more infamous Barrow Hill, Witch Hill nevertheless has a bloody past. In 1870, the five Abbey sisters were dragged from their home (now long since demolished) and hung for practicing witchcraft. Each year for five years, the legend goes, one of the people involved in the hanging disappeared without a trace until a masked gunman confronted the demon-women and killed them again (modern superhero scholars are almost certain this was The Silver Kid, who was said to hunt skinwalkers and other supernatural creatures). Today it’s the site of Pacific City’s largest Halloween celebration, which usually spills over into Conestoga Park. Witch Hill features several nice detatched brick row homes, a close-knit community, numerous shopping, dining and theater amenities, and is the heart of the local non-chain booksellers area.

What are the worst areas of Pacific City?

Iron Harbor. In 1956, this was the shipping center of the city until it the shipyards were destroyed by the Silver Sentry's battle with a Korexian invasion force. The new shipyards were in a different area and Iron Harbor spiraled into poverty. Rezoning attempted to correct the problem but only produced an industrial hellhole where people once lived. Today, the area is block after block of abandoned warehouses, rusting gantries and dockyards surrounded by outdated housing projects, factories, chemical facilities and mills. Crime is a tremedous problem and the Bonelords gang rules the streets and alleys. The area abuts the north end of the red light district, which certainly doesn't help matters. The vigilante Raven is often seen in this area.

Isla Maria. The Spanish ghetto, more commonly known as La Hoya ('The Pit'). Povery and rampant unemployment, overcrowding and gang warfare between a dozen different rivals creates an almost visible aura of fear. Razor and Saber (apparent brothers with force-field powers) are known to be protectors of the area and rarely leave it.

Blackmine aka The Tombs. About a dozen square blocks in the north-central area were reduced almost to rubble by a time-displacement effect during the Eternity War. It's been more than 10 years, and so far no-one seems to be able to rebuild the area. It's a haven for homeless, runaways, odd cults, and the like. It's almost totally cut off from the rest of the city in terms of services; bus or train service only at the edges, no taxis, little electricity or fresh water.

StahlKorps: The Steel Corps. Nazi Germany had help from many strange quarters as it’s scientists ranged far afield in their search for any means to prevail over their enemies. One of the strangest was the Steinhauer Wormhole, an unstable hyperspacial bridge to the planet Korex, in the Andromeda galaxy. The Korexians were fanatical militaristic expansionists who ruled over 10,000 planets, and who thought the Third Reich had the right idea. Messages and information flowed back and forth, and from this the Nazi science corps was able to build the armored walking machines, the VogelPanzer, (Bird-Tank, called so because the two long legs are reminiscent of a bird’s) and the TotenPanzer (Death-Tank, a massive armored fortress on four legs). At the height of the program, there were almost 200 AusländerMaschines within the Empire. The units were high-maintenance because the builders simply did not understand some of the technologies used. They were capable of tremendous devastation but were also instant targets for any significant metahuman, so they tended to be used mainly as support, propaganda displays, or metahuman exterminations. They led to the development of the later FurchtWaffe, or Weapons of Fear, like Doktor Blud’s Eisenhunds.

JägerGeist (lit. Spirit Hunter). They were the most feared SS special group in Nazi Germany. The atrocities that came to light in 1949 fueled the US witch hunts of the late 1950’s. Composed of telepaths and empaths, the JägerGeists were a law unto themselves even within the SS. Though most were barely powerful enough to reliably read surface thoughts, they learned to link themselves together in series and boost their power exponentially. That technique has never reliably been replicated since that time, and is still a subject of intense research. Many theories have been advanced but so far none have been proven. What is known is that this ability enabled even the weakest empath among them to read and control a person like the strongest psychic. They periodically swept Berlin government buildings for spies and traitors. Those they found were frequently ‘re-educated’ on the spot, turning them into fanatical believers in the Nazi cause.

They became extremely powerful, politically, after Karl Kaiser (aka EisenMaske) became their leader in 1943. In 1944, he attempted a coup but was betrayed by his own second-in-command. He (actually his clone) was publicly lobotomized and the JägerGeist ranks were purged almost to the point of extinction. Kaiser survived the war and re-surfaced in Austria in 1965 as ambassador to Vargastadt, granting him diplomatic immunity to prosecution for his many war crimes. He has devised a means to psychically steal youth from people and has remained young all these years.

Minutemen Memorial
Battalion Park has several statues and plaques to fallen heroes of all sorts, but the largest is the Minutemen Memorial. Five bronze statues stand atop a marble pedestal, depicting the first Pacific City superteam: The Minutemen. Originally started by Amazing Woman, Red Ace, and Mercury, the Minutemen served in every theater of WWII though they concentrated on the Japanese threat. They gained and lost members over time until they numbered five in 1958: Red Ace (Super strong war hero), The Shield (Alien with a golden force shield), Vesper (Formerly the villainous Mind Maiden), The Eagle (Weapons expert with mechanical wings) and Raptor (Eagle’s former sidekick Wing). On July 4, 1958, they stopped a plot by Reichmaster (II) to turn the entire city into mind-controlled Nazi zombies but at the cost of their own lives.

The city erected the Minutemen Memorial Complex in 1960. It consists of the north end of Battalion Park, with the bronze statues surrounded by plaques and changing holographic displays of everyone who ever served with the Minutemen. Their former base atop Superior Tower now houses the Minutemen Museum, which holds a re-creation of their main meeting room, a theater constantly showing their various Movietone News clips, interviews and press conferences. On Saturdays and Sundays the theater shows the restored version of 1975’s ‘Minutemen’ and 1998’s ‘Front Line’ for a minimal charge. There is also a gift shop and a trophy room (The trophy room is filled with replicas after the incident with Count Catastrophe's Disaster Staff).

NFL: Wolverines
Major League Baseball: Kings, Redwoods
National Basketball Assoc: Silver Knights
American Hockey League: Stars

Barber Stadium Complex, including the BarberDome, the Levy Arena, and the St. John Olympic Center. Named for James ‘Buddy’ Barber, a local philanthropist and sports enthusiast. The Barber Complex was the centerpiece of Pacific City’s 1984 Summer Games hosting, and has since been expanded even further.