Reformer Prog.

“Second chances are like gardens: they do better when you nurture them.”

The Reformer Program is controversial in the eyes of many. It stands as an opportunity for former Menaces to be given a chance to use their traits to help protect society and its people, rather than prey upon them. The APF runs the program, which is a double edge sword. On the one hand, it’s good to have a governing body with that level of sway and power keep tabs on people who, though doing good now, may not have yet earned the public’s trust. The trouble comes with the oversight given, with numerous cases coming up over the years of the APF abusing their own system to fast track troubled individuals into specialized roles. These roles are almost always non public facing, allowing the APF to bring dangerous, unrepentant individuals into their fold, without doing the usual work to help reform their ways or help them reenter society.

In spite of that, the Reformer Program has produced some truly incredible stories of individuals who were able to turn their lives around, and do true good for their fellows and citizens at large. This includes individuals like Nobel, formerly Noxious, a reformed menace with the ability to change himself and/or the matter around him into any type of gas. He used this trait to rob banks and join villain groups, but as he grew older, he found this life haunting him more than helping. Since then, he’s become instrumental not just in saving the public and avoiding massive disaster, both from natural and unnatural sources. He’s put in dozens of hours working to help scientists understand air pollution and find hidden solutions to the worlds air quality.

Trouble is another reformer with a very different history. She could create illusions based on an individual’s worst fears, allowing her opponent to build a prison of their own making. Should someone find their way through her mind games, Trouble could generate energy blasts based off her own emotional responses, specifically rage and resentment. Trouble didn’t use this skill set to rob banks, but instead to try and protect young women and those often victimized. She quickly grew a name within many male circles, where fear of her was generated instead of understanding at the plight she had taken under her care. When she brought down a police captain who was assaulting a young woman, it was an opportunity the old guard jumped at to reign her in. Even though her rap sheet consisted mostly of assault charges filed by men who themselves had been victimizing someone, she was left to plea for a deal with the Reformer Program. Trouble hasn’t changed her name, and her approach is largely the same, she just now has some authority to throw around to go with it; something those who hoped to hamper her were unhappy to discovery.

For every one of those cases though, it seems like the APF is being exposed for two cases that, allegedly, included incredibly lax oversight on individuals much more dangerous than someone like Trouble, and with more damage to their record than even a Menace like Noxious had been. Dr. Frankenstein is an easy example to give for many in this camp. Frankenstein was a power broker who had loose morels to say the least. He became known for experiments that often ended in the deaths of any homeless who had formerly occupied an area. Many believe he is still running such experiments either with or without the APF’s knowledge. The APF weighed all these things, and decided that they’d rather have him on their own payroll. Frankenstein has brought his expertise in developing his trait granting chems to the APF, who in return give an occasional blind eye to his more extra curricular activities on the chance his discoveries might benefit the agency or government at large.