(http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/1/15/Hellfire_Club_Building_(Philadelphia).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101209023527)<br/><br/>The world was in chaos.  There was no other word for it.  For more than a year the major heroes of the world had been missing.  There was no hiding the fact, not anymore.  Too many time some terrorist of enhanced power villain succeeded where in the past someone one, be it the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, or the X-Men would had put a stop to it.  Oh the governments and the other heroes present in the world had did their best to cover up the fact, but something this large, something so pivotal could not be kept hidden forever.  Nature will always run its course, and she will always have her due.  A vacuum in any form, be the absence of air or power, was an unnatural state and could not exist for any length of time.  Power vacuums took longer to fill, but they eventually do.<br/><br/>The straw which broke the camel's back, as it were, happened first in Europe, in Berlin.  Stryker Research had made a breakthrough in energy technology.  The ability to store and contain anti-matter safely, to be able to use it as a viable energy source.  It was going to change the world.  There were organizations who did not want the world changed however, and while select groups having the technology was not a threat to them, the technology becoming common place was.  It could never be proven who was behind the attack on Stryker, but the Roxxon Corporation, whose backbone was built upon oil and other fossil fuels, had the most to loose from such technology.  Stryker was attacked, and no one came to its aid.  The facility and two miles surrounding it was obliterated in the resulting explosion.  The only saving grace was the facility was not in the city proper, but more than five thousand lives were taken that night, and it was a clear sign the world had changed.<br/><br/>One would thing an organization whose goal was control of the governments and economies of the world would welcome such change, but they would be wrong.  Chaos and disorder was as much an enemy to the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club as it was to any other organization dedicated to order, chaos was their enemy.  Every member of the Inner Circle lost a small fortune the day Stryler was destroyed, and the world markets had not recovered since.  Since it was clear what few heroes of the world were not enough to reestablish the status quo, then the Inner Circle would need to take maters into its own hands.  They needed stability or they would continue to hemorrhage as they had been the four months since the anti-matter detonation in Germany, and within the year the companies and fortune they had spent a lifetime building would be so much smoke and ash.<br/><br/>So the word went out to the members of the London chapter of the Inner Circle, nicknamed the Privy Council by their New York counterparts.  The Jade and Onyx King would be meeting, with other members would could attend in time.  Many could not as they were embroiled in affairs, aftershocks of the events in Berlin.  It would not matter too much as in the end, it would be the Jade and Onyx King would would make the decision of where to act, of when to strike and make a difference, but it was clear change had to happen, and it had to happen now.<br/><br/><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">[floatleft][img height=200 padding=2]Pic[/img][/floatleft]<br/>[b]Character Name:[/b]<br/>[b]Alias:[/b]<br/>[b]Time/Date:[/b]<br/>[b]Location:[/b]<br/>[b]Tagging:[/b] <br/>[b]Mentioned:[/b]<br/>[b]NSFW Warning:[/b]<br/></code></pre>