Second Genesis: How to Train Your Nemeses (for the Apocalypse)

On New Year's Eve 1999, the world didn't end. It changed. After Earth passed through a cosmic debris field, the miracle mineral Aethercite fell from the sky, giving humanity everything it ever wanted. Clean energy. Advanced technology. Metahumans. Then, the world's first supervillain leveled Manhattan and sparked a global arms race. Thus began the Global War on Supervillainy. Governments built teams. Corporations cashed in. Capes became celebrities. And guys like Gabriel Shaw got chewed up and spit out by the machine. Gabriel did his time abroad. Tried to coast through life back home. Tried to drink enough to forget the depths of human depravity he'd witnessed during the war. When he stumbled upon a piece of Aethercite and gained powers of his own, he thought things would change. They didn't. Years later, washed up and keeping his metahuman status a secret, he intervenes in a disaster involving Aurora Bay's beloved Astra Gems, a trio of superheroines who still believe in doing the right thing. That same night, Gabriel's future self appears in his apartment with a grim warning: the world ends in two years, and the Astra Gems are the only ones who have any hope of stopping it. But they're not powerful enough. Now, to save the world, Gabriel Shaw will have to become 'Kingslayer,' the villain the Astra Gems need. He'll have to push them. Break them. Forge them into something strong enough to weather the Coming Storm. And he can't ever tell them why. They'll call him a villain. A terrorist. A threat to everything they stand for. But when the sky finally cracks open, Kingslayer will make sure they're still standing, even if it costs him everything.