In 1999 rumours began to surface of a new drug on the streets of Hudson City. According to the rumours, this deadly narcotic granted its user temporary superpowers. A couple of freak accidents took place that were supposedly linked to the new street drug, all isolated cases with bizarre crime scenes that were never solved, but there was never conclusive evidence of someone having obtained actual superhuman abilities.

After several weeks the drug was removed from circulation for good, no thanks to the HCPD. A large drug lab explosion put an abrupt stop to the distribution of the narcotic, destroying the remaining drugs along with it. The drug lab lit up like any other, but the smoke hung low to the ground, covering large parts of the city in a peculiar purplish haze until the next day. The HCPD told the reporters the haze was no more harmful than the regular smog, but citizens were still advised to stay indoors. News of the exploding drug lab never even made the front page.

Unbeknownst to the HCPD, the narcotic that was destroyed was never going to be a new street drug, it was a mutagen. The tests that were conducted after the explosion were also done in a negligent manner and never considered the effects that the purplish haze could have had on infants or unborn children. It later turns out a small percentage of those babies had been affected by the leftover particles of mutagen in the haze.

In 2015, more than 15 years later, a growing number of teenagers from Hudson City were discovered to have a genetic mutation or mutant abilities, all of them within the same age group.

Now faced with an unwanted generation of mutants popping up in Hudson City, a city that traditionally does not have a metahuman presence, the city council worries that if left unchecked these kids would inevitably end up introducing the already crime-ridden city to a wave of metahuman crime. Or worse, a hero complex!

The solution came in the form of the Ravenswood Academy in Millennium City, who agreed to set up a new program for Hudson City transfer students. Allowing Hudson City to make their problems go away discreetly with little more effort than a generous donation, while at the same time offering these kids the opportunity to get a handle on their nascent abilities. All of the teenagers they managed to identify as, or highly suspected to have been, affected by the mutagen were then approached and got offered a spot in the program, including scholarships and housing arrangements.

As outsiders in Millennium City, the group of outcasts from Hudson City chose to stick together. Eventually deciding to take matters into their own hands and form a team of young vigilantes, The <name>.