View source for Millennium City

<div style="padding-right:30px; padding-left:30px; border: 10px Solid #666666; color:#FFFFFF; background-color: Black">
<div style="color:#FF9933; background-color: black">'''Millennium City''' is home to the superteam [[The Champions]].</div>
[[Image:MillenniumCity.jpg]][[image:MCLOGO.png|right]]
<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">In Game</p></h1>
*<b>Formerly</b>  = Detroit
*<b>Nickname</b>  = "City of the Future"
*<b>Population</b>  = 3.88 million (SMSA), 1.2 million (urban center)
*<b>Race</b> = 44% White, 41% Black, 10% Asian, 5% Other.
*<b>Religion</b> = 44% Protestant, 40% Catholic, 9% Jewish, 7% Other.
*<b>Major Industies</b> = Heavy Industry, Light Manufacturing, Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Steel.
*<b>City Government</b> = Mayor, Nine-seat City Council.
*<b>Mayor</b>  = [[Calvin Biselle]]
*<b>Superteam</b>  = [[The Champions]]
*<b>Corps</b>  = [[Advanced Concept Industries]], [[Duchess Industries]], [[Harmon Industries]], [[Binary Corp.]], [[Cambridge Biotech]], [[Fordham Chemtech]], [[Millennium City Free Press]], [[Liberty Airlines]]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">History</p></h1>

<center><font size="+3"><i>‘We hope for better things; it
shall arise again from the ashes.’</i></font><br>
—Father Gabriel Richard, pastor of Sainte Anne’s
Church, after Detroit burned to the ground in 1805.</center><br><br>

Founded in 1701 by the French as a fort and
fur-trading outpost, Detroit was captured by the
British in 1760 and passed to the control of the
United States following the Revolutionary War.
Although mostly destroyed by fire in 1805, it was
quickly rebuilt and became a major commercial
center. Its position on the Great Lakes made it a
prominent port and trading center, and later home to
industry and manufacturing. The presence of Henry
Ford and other early automotive pioneers made it
“the automobile capital of the world,” its name synonymous
with cars and vehicle manufacturing.
Detroit’s first costumed hero, [[Mr. X]], made his
debut in 1939 as part of the wave of costumed adventurers
who sprang up around the country in that
year. Unlike most adventurers of the day, he had no
superhuman powers and eschewed a flashy costume;
instead, he wore a plain suit and tie, with a respectable
hat and only a domino mask to hide his identity.
A brilliant detective and formidable brawler, [[Mr. X]]
was the alternate identity of crime reporter Peter Dix,
and he regularly battled mobsters and thugs throughout
the war. He even helped the Defenders of Justice
on one notable case in 1943 when a supervillain
called the White Knight used subsonic broadcasting
devices to foment race riots in neighborhoods where
African American's had recently moved in to work in munitions
and equipment factories.
After Mr. X’s retirement in the mid-1950s,
Detroit had no superhuman champions until 1966,
when football star Reggie Morgan became the [[Scarlet
Shield]]. Throughout the civil rights struggle (including
the devastating 1967 riots that caused $150 million in
damage), [[Scarlet Shield]] tried valiantly to keep peace
while battling racism, with limited effect. Morgan
died in 1974 when he was shot by assassins working
for organized crime. But by that time, several other
minor heroes had made Detroit their home, though
they never coalesced into a superteam.
Detroit’s next prominent hero was [[Shadowboxer]].
Joey Greene was a moderately talented boxer who
had crossed the mob and gotten shot in 1981— his
body was dumped at a construction site that was also
the location of some illegally-dumped toxic waste.
Greene eventually awoke with the ability to generate
fields of black energy around his hands and lower
arms that could expand to fill a small area, blinding
his opponents, and enabled him to deal out devastating
punches that could flatten a brick wall. [[Shadowboxer]]
became a highly effective vigilante, crippling
the mob in Detroit as well as thwarting several
attempts by [[VIPER]] to establish a Nest in the area.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">The Coming of the Destroyer</p></h1>

In July of 1992, however, a menace came to
Detroit far beyond the abilities of any one hero to
handle. [[Doctor Destroyer]], whose plans to take over
the world had only been defeated by the narrowest of
margins in the past, had just suffered his most severe
setback with the loss of his island base to his enemies.
Determining once and for all to eliminate the American
heroes who had constantly interfered with his
plans, Destroyer likewise decided the Earth would
be much easier to control without the United States
getting in his way. Retreating to a secret laboratory he
had built beneath an abandoned factory in Detroit,
Destroyer designed a gigantic tractor beam, with
which he planned to draw a series of small asteroids
into a collision course with Earth — or, more precisely,
North America. He intended to duplicate the
effect of the asteroid that had caused the extinction of
the dinosaurs, but on a much smaller scale controlled
by him, with the resulting ecological devastation and
dust clouds rendering America helpless and likely
straining the ability of the rest of the world to defend
itself.
Putting his fiendish plan in motion, Destroyer
hired several mercenary supervillain teams across
the country to distract and harass the heroes he felt
might oppose him. Then he activated his beam, seizing
control of a cluster of asteroids and sending them
hurtling through space directly toward the Earth. On
July 23rd, several heroes became aware of this threat,
and joined forces to stop it, dividing into two teams.
Those with powers useful in space were sent to stop
the asteroids, and an earthbound team was sent to
find and defeat Destroyer himself.
The spacefaring team was at first unable to stop
the asteroids despite multiple efforts, until the hero
[[Vanguard @Champions|Vanguard]] sacrificed himself to deliver explosive
charges into the center of the cluster, pulverizing it
into harmless dust. Unfortunately, Destroyer simply
selected another group of asteroids with his beam
and made a second attempt to carry out his evil plan
— leaving the team of heroes back in Detroit as the
only hope for victory. While some heroes dedicated
themselves to a perhaps-futile effort of evacuation,
others located Destroyer’s well-guarded base. There,
they found themselves in combat with several of
Destroyer’s robotic Destroids and a horde of villains
and mindless monsters he had recruited or built to
hold them off , including [[Grond]] and [[Glacier]]. The
assembled heroes of Earth, with more arriving constantly
to join in the battle, fought their way through
the awful horde, demolishing much of the city in
their wake. Several brave heroes lost their lives in
this battle, the largest superhuman confrontation in
recorded history. But they gave their allies in space
the time to find Destroyer’s tractor-beam generator,
take control of it, and use it to re-direct the asteroids
away from Earth.
After hours of combat, a few valiant heroes won
their way past Destroyer’s minions — only to find
Destroyer himself waiting for them. With his own
weapons, Destroyer slaughtered five of them, casually
turning aside counter-attacks with his powerful
armor. However, as the battle wore on, and more and
more heroes arrived, it began to look as if the day
would at last be won.
But Destroyer could not be defeated so easily.
Battered and bleeding, his armor cracked in a dozen
places, he refused to give up. “Not to the likes of you,”
he said when the Sentinels demanded his surrender.
“If Destroyer must fall, he will fall to his own hand,
not to his enemies.” With a mocking bow, he triggered
his last, and greatest, weapon: an orbital bombardment
cannon. A beam wider than a city block struck
the ground where he stood, obliterating him and
nearly two dozen superheroes instantly. Before the
heroes in space could find it and stop it, the cannon
swept its deadly ray across much of the city. The
resulting devastation levelled most of the city — and
what was left was quickly engulfed by fires, flooding,
or both. All that was ever found of Destroyer was his
shattered helmet.
Official records of the death toll resulting from
the city-wide battle and Destroyer’s suicidal strike
eventually listed nearly 60,000 fatalities. Few buildings,
especially in the city’s center, remained standing
and intact; numerous neighborhoods were virtually
wiped off the face of the Earth. Almost fifty superheroes
— including such renowned paragons of justice
as [[Johnny Hercules]], [[Flechette II]], [[Firefight @Champions|Firefight]], [[Amazing Grace]], [[Eclipse @Champions|Eclipse]], [[Goblin @Champions|Goblin]], [[Nimbus]], [[Icestar]], [[Crusher]], [[Vigil]], [[Tiger]], and [[Shadowboxer]]
— lost their lives as they struggled to stop Destroyer.
Today, a memorial to their bravery stands in the
center of Millennium City’s Memorial Park.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">The aftermath, and the rebuilding</p></h1>

In the days following the disaster, the world
mourned the massive losses. President George
Bush, standing in the middle of the field of rubble
that was once the Renaissance Center, delivered
a passionate speech that challenged both superhumans
and corporations alike to rebuild Detroit
before the end of the millennium. He promised a
series of tax breaks for companies willing to move
to this new city once it was built, and to donate
their expertise and technology toward making
Detroit the leading city of the twenty-first century.
American business and America’s superhumans
rose to the call. Over the next seven years,
Detroit was rebuilt from the ashes. Corporations
such as Cambridge Biotechnologies, American
Business Machinery, Harmon Industries, Duchess
Industries, and countless others committed vast
resources to the project. And several superheroes
volunteered time and energy to the cleanup project;
for example, for a month Diamond, [[Meteor Man]],
and [[Golem]] worked alongside cranes and bulldozers
helping move massive girders, while [[Element Man]]
transmuted rubble into harmless gas and [[Diadem]]
telepathically coordinated their efforts.
But the planners had more than funding
and superhuman help, they had vision. Responding
to President Bush’s impassioned speech, they
decided not just to re-create Detroit, or to copy any
other city in the world. They chose instead to take
advantage of the opportunity to design an all-new
city — one incorporating the latest technological
advances and sociological and architectural
theories. New buildings were erected with space age
materials. Roads were built with transmitters
designed to control the computerized automobiles
that would operate within the city limits — and to
minimize the need for cars, a massive and effective
maglev monorail was built around and through the
entire city.
As the city was slowly rebuilt, residents
returned. One by one, businesses began work, new
universities opened their doors to students, and
citizens started their lives over in all-new homes.
By late 1999, the efforts of all the countless thousands of builders, planners, and contributors were
rewarded when the city, renamed Millennium City,
was officially declared finished and re-opened.
(Though in truth, much construction remained to
be done, and still does.) A special ceremony in the
new Memorial Park dedicated it to the memory of
all those who had fallen to protect the city. Dozens
of large corporations moved their headquarters to
the revived downtown, and their ubiquitous presence
enabled them to elect a City Council friendly
to their needs.
New superheroes were drawn as well.
Defender relocated to Millennium City in early
2001 and recruited several heroes to form [[The
Champions]], the region’s first superteam. [[Doctor
Silverback]] moved there along with his sponsor,
Cambridge Biotech, in 1997. And in recent months,
new heroes like the mercenary media sensation
[[Cavalier]] and the skilled martial artist [[Nightwind]],
have also come to town.
Of course, there have been new superhuman
menaces to deal with as well. A high-tech thief
known as the [[Signal Ghost]] has plagued several of
the city’s corporations. The supernaturally lucky
mercenary named [[Hazard]] has taunted the [[MCPD]]
on several occasions, as has the criminal mentalist
[[Brainchild]]. The cyborg mastermind Interface
has battled the Champions twice. From Detroit’s
infamous history of organized crime has come a
brand-new, high tech team calling themselves the
[[New Purple Gang]]. And of course, old threats like
[[Mechanon]] and [[VIPER]] look on the “City of the
Future” as a ripe fruit just waiting to be plucked...
or crushed.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Layout</p></h1>

Millennium City, formerly known as Detroit, is
one of the most prominent centers of superhuman
activity in the Champions Universe. With a population
of approximately 1.2 million, Millennium City
proper takes up slightly less space than its former
self. Because of the unique nature of its transportation
system, the boundaries of the city are fairly
easy to discern: they extend from Livernois Street
on the west and southwest down to the Detroit
River, over to Hayes Avenue on the eastern side up
to the Millennium Highway (formerly known as
the “8-Mile Road”) in the north. That border leaves
some of what was formerly Detroit outside, primarily
to the west; some has been subsumed into the
city of Dearborn, while the section to the northwest
is now a suburb called North Detroit.
With large amounts of space to work with,
the architects of Millennium City saw little need
to build up; even in the center of downtown the
largest buildings are only 30-40 stories tall. Instead,
they built out, and filled each level — the most
notable and ubiquitous features of the city are the
multilevel walkways, ramps, arches, and bridges
connecting each building. Every block in downtown
Millennium City has several levels of walkways
above the street, most enclosed but usually at
least one with openings on the side (also allowing
the wind to pass through) and some totally open to
the elements (and closed to foot traffic during bad
weather). Th e largest buildings are the seven that
make up the rebuilt Renaissance Center, averaging
45 stories each and housing the headquarters
of some of the world’s biggest and most advanced
corporations.
The Detroit River, which passes to the south
and divides Millennium City from its Canadian
sister city Windsor, connects Lake St. Claire to Lake
Erie. This cold and swift river moves an enormous
amount of freight, although most of the shipping
business in the area actually runs through Windsor.
Commuters can cross this river either by quick
ferry service, by under-river tunnel, or by one of
two aerial gondola lines, which are very crowded
during rush hour.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Leave the Driving to us</p></h1>

Upon entering Millennium City, the first and
most notable landmark one encounters are the
Gates. Millennium City is a “closed system”; there
are only four entry points to the city by road, and
each has a gate where sensors check each entering
car to confirm that it is equipped with a “control
chip.” These chips allow the computerized roadways
running through Millennium City to interface with
the car. (If a driver’s car does not have a chip, extensive
and well-guarded parking garages are available
at every Gate, along with stations for the People
Mover monorail. It is also possible to rent a chipped
car at stations just inside the Gates.) Chipped cars
can receive direct signals from transmitters along
the roadside, which send information regarding
traffic conditions and other hazards. Furthermore,
only chipped cars are allowed on “The Loop,” the
freeway running along the perimeter of the city,
where control of the cars is relinquished by the
driver to a massive computer, which keeps traffic
zipping along at a standard 70 mph with each car
at a uniform distance and shifting lanes to exit at
the destination the driver entered in advance. The
Gates themselves are also stops on the new highspeed
rail system installed in the mid-1990s covering
almost all of southern Michigan.
The city itself is designed to be friendly to
pedestrians. There are extended walkways connecting
buildings, each lighting up at night when
motion sensors detect movement nearby. The
walkways, streets, and sidewalks contain powerful
heating elements that keep snow, ice, or even
standing water from accumulating. Many buildings
have rooftop parks or gardens, taking advantage of
the space available at higher levels to create a more
comfortable urban environment. It is quite possible
to cross Millennium City in several directions
without ever descending to street level, and some
citizens take pride in doing so as little as possible.
As a visitor walks through Millennium City, he
notices the flashy video billboards, some of which
utilize three-dimensional “hologram” technology.
Large displays are mounted on the sides of tall
buildings, but there are smaller ones on walls at
ground level as well. On most street corners one
can also find “Info Kiosks,” small stands where vendors
sell newspapers and snacks while large screens
broadcast news and advertisements. Each of these
kiosks also features private phone/Internet access
booths, separated by screens which turn opaque
when a user enters.
Visitors who stay for extended periods learn
about some of the other unique features of Millennium
City. The libraries and schools have state-of-the-art computer systems and store the vast
majority of their data electronically. Every building
within the city limits is wired for ultra-high-speed
Internet access. The city’s governmental systems use
the latest equipment; for example, the voter rolls are
online, and voting itself is fully automated and can
be done from the privacy of home, vastly increasing
turnout.
Obviously, a city as wired as Millennium City
draws an enormous amount of power, and the
electricity supply is an ongoing concern. The city
is covered with solar panels, which take much of
the roof space of taller buildings. Northeast of the
city along the shores of Lake St. Claire are numerous
“windmill farms,” each with thousands of
small turbines spinning in the breeze. The primary
sources of electricity remain the two nuclear plants
in Monroe, thirty miles south (known as “Fermi
2” and “Fermi 3”) and a dozen fossil-fuel plants.
Several scientists in Millennium City, including [[Dr.
Silverback]] and his colleague Dr. Abnel Ali, are committed
to solving the city’s energy supply problems.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Government</p></h1>

Millennium City is the largest city in Michigan
and the county seat of Wayne County. The mayor,
elected in 1996 and reelected in 2000, is [[Calvin
Biselle]], a Democrat. Biselle is a African American man, 46 years
old, divorced with two children. He receives strong
support from the local unions, the casinos, and the
young, “hip” workers who’ve moved to Millennium
City in the last few years to take high-paying programming
and engineering jobs. Biselle is notorious
for his public “misstatements” — he regularly
mangles the English language and makes numerous
factual errors in speeches and other public appearances
that his staff immediately corrects in hurried
“clarifications.” However, Biselle strongly supports
the arts (both classical and contemporary — he
numbers among his personal friends several rap
artists, actors, and writers, and dated actress Leah
Ross for several years), is socially progressive, and
projects a youthful, energetic image. 
While the Mayor controls the executive functions
of city government, the City Council handles
the legislative and fiscal considerations. The
nine-seat Council is largely made up of moderate
conservatives selected and supported by the corporations
that built and run Millennium City. One
notable exception is Councilman Brianna Cook, a
Chippewa Native American who represents the 5th District
(which includes two of Millennium City’s three
Native-run casinos).
The City’s Police Commissioner is Ruth
Arnold, formerly head of Old Detroit’s Organized
Crime Task Force and a thirty-year veteran.
Well-regarded for her ability to tie mob heads up
in administrative red tape, Arnold has inherited
a force deeply divided between young “techies”
armed with the latest cutting-edge science and
equipment and an aging force of Old Detroit’s
veteran cops holding on for their pensions. Millennium
City has a police force of 10,000, approximately
70% of whom are officers.
Millennium City’s internal government frequently
finds itself competing with Wayne County’s
government, including the County Executive Leonard
Berman and County Prosecutor Daniel Watson.
Compared with the city, the rest of Wayne County
frequently considers itself underfunded, especially
the cities of Dearborn, Livonia, and North Detroit.

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Heroes</p></h1>
*[[Defender]]
*[[Witchcraft]]
*[[Kinetik]]
*[[Ironclad]]
*[[Sapphire]]
*[[Doctor Silverback]]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Heroic affiliates</p></h1>
*[[Microman]]
*[[Nighthawk]]
*[[Juryrig]]
*[[Justiciar]]
*[[Celestar]]
*[[Ravenspeaker]]
*[[Dr. Ka]]
*[[Black Mask]]
*[[Redsnake]]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Villains</p></h1>

*The [[New Purple Gang]]
*[[VIPER]]
*[[ARGENT]]
*[[The Maniacs]]
*[[The Red Banner]]
*[[PSI]]
*[[Escaped prisoners]]
*[[Destroids]]
*[[Foxbattlebot|Foxbattlebots]]
*The [[Black Aces]]
*The [[Cobra Lords]]
*[[DEMON]] and [[Fire demons]]
*[[Elder Worm|Elder Worms]]
*[[Gadroon]]
*[[Lemurians]]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">Districts</p></h1>

*[[City Center]]
*[[Renaissance Center]]
*[[Downtown]]
*[[Westside]]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">External Links</p></h1>
* [http://www.champions-online.com/worlds/millennium_city Millennium City profile]

<h1><p style="font-family:times;color:Silver">OOC Corner</p></h1>
Like this Page!? Enjoy this Story!? Get to know the man Behind the keyboard at [[User:Jade Defender]] here at Primus Database!

[[Category:Locations]]
[[Category:Millennium City]]
[[Category:Lore]]