SPOILER: Godlike Origins
Origins that will be guessed at when the public is aware of the powered people......
Contents
General
Many will call them HOAX.
Conspiracy Theorists
will say that the government had chemical and/or biological agents as secret toxins, biological warfar materials either trafficed by US scientists on board or in the cargo hold. On the crash these chemicals did *something* to the victims creating the "godlike".
Religious groups
will boast god or demon given answers. The more sane of the groups will note them either as gifts or as signs of the coming end times... the apocalypse...
UFO theorists
will point to the passengers being abducted during those 5 years they were "in comas" and they were either replaced or changed by aliens... the most popular theories being War of the World type theories - ramping up on the new upcoming movie by Speilburg staring Tom Cruise! Some geeks show examples of that cheesey sci-fi movie "Millenium" as an example of how they'd do it...
Old Ones
Some even note the combination of gods and aliens such as the "old ones" from Mu and Lemuria giving them their powers from deep below... This might even be "justified" with crackpot astrologers showing the stars *are* in a "strange" alignment...
Wild
a freak solar storm penetrate the ozone layer, and irradiate the plane, the passengers and crew, who unwittingly got exposed to a gas being tested by the FAA/FBI that suppose to calm passengers down to the point of apathy, reacted with the radiation, and Zap! Microwaved batch of Meta-humans. Who by the way stay crunchy in milk!
POSSIBLE TRUTH
My main theory (that won't be suggested in campaign until much much later) is that these people were simply adjusted by humanity of the future. Humanity have found a passage "key" to travel through time, I'll be using theories from the RPG Continuum for time travel. http://www.aetherco.com/continuum/index.html And they've altered these people NOT to change things but to KEEP the status quo. Their "history" tells them that these people were given powers that changed the world's direction toward the "real" future. And they're simply making sure that comes to be. Later I may have a 1-2 person "team" appear in the world that WERE NOT on the flight manifest that DO have powers like the "Godlike"!! These people would basically be the X-files type agents (spanners) from the future... coming back to make minor adjustments.
???
Counting Sheep
There are people suffering countless illnesses of the mind, tortured by internal demons, haunted by glitches in the wiring, or emotional traumas that can't be easily medicated, counseled or removed. Dr. Torvo Firinsczy however has a solution and a theory. He's going into the subconscious, through peoples dreams, he's sending people in to fight the evils in the minds of others, to salve the wounds, and heal. His theory is that many people need heroes, need to believe, even if subconsciouly that things can be better, to get well.
You are one of the chosen volunteers. You log into a Dream Machine when you goto sleep at night--and are given dangers to thwart, innocents to save, and disasters to be averted. The Dream Machine makes you a superhero. Though no one will remember your name, no one will sing your praises. But each night you log in, wrap about yourself the iconographic splendor of superheroes and make a real difference in someone elses life.
This could be run on multiple levels, too; you could add in questions of a "Cold War of the Unconscious", with governmetn and corporate spies and saboteurs wreaking havoc on others' sleeping minds (giving the Heroes some direct, "aware" opposition to confront). And then ... there're the nightmares of Heroes. If it takes a Superhero to help ordinary people suffering mental anguish in their dreams ... what does it take to help another superhero suffering such dark dreams?
