Wild Cards: Spite and Malice (MM3E)

"I’m sixteen, and near as I can figure all my friends and I do is worry. What are we gonna be when we grow up, who’s gonna ask us to prom, how the hell do you fit in when you don’t look like anybody else in the whole world. We’ve got a lot to worry about."

Carrie Vaughn - “The Thing about Growing Up in Jokertown”

The wild card virus, also known as Xenovirus Takis-A, is an artificially-created organism developed by the Takisian aliens to enhance their own psionic powers. The aliens decided to field-test it on Earth. It was released over New York City in 1946, and changed the course of human history forever. The virus is extremely deadly, killing 90% of the infected. The remaining 10% are transformed in spectacular ways. Most become jokers, hideously deformed monsters. A few lucky survivors become aces, superhumans gifted with amazing powers.

70 Years after the release of the virus, you are a teenager starting high school at Cascades High School in New York City, better known as Jokertown High. You're just discovering who you are and what you're capable of, where you fit in, and who you can trust. The road ahead is uncertain and full of peril, but Joker or Ace, you're already ahead of the 90 percent of Wild Carders that drew the Black Queen, so you've at least got that much of a start. All you have to do now is figure out where your life goes from here