The Safeguard Initiative (WIP)(24K words)(Minor Update 2025/11/02)

Finally began working on my game, took a lot courage and self-hype for me to even post this,lol.

The world is on the brink… and you’re at the center of the storm.
Harmonics make up six percent of the population. The majority of ordinary humans fear and resent them. And in the chaos, a superpowered terrorist organisation called The First Hand is rising. Every city, every street, every life is a potential battlefield.

You are… or were a field agent of the Safeguard Initiative, an exclusive organisation of agents who defend mankind and Harmonics alike.

Summary: You are a telepathic Harmonic, leading a new team of agents on operations against the world’s most dangerous threats. Train your operatives, hone their abilities, and teach them counter-measures to any scenario.

Master the battlefield not with raw power, but with strategy, foresight, and teamwork. Anticipate your enemy’s movements, coordinate the movement of your team in a flash of time through thought, and exploit flaws before others can catch on. The fate of billions hangs in the balance of how well you train your team… and how well you outthink The First Hand.

Genres: Cinematic Action-Thriller, Urban Superpowered Fiction, Tactical Drama
Features:

  • Play as male, female, or non-binary(when I figure out to code how the pronouns change sentences properly).

  • You are a telepathic Harmonic. No other abilities required, your mind and your hands are your biggest weapons.

  • Command and mold a team of varied Harmonics with distinct talents.

  • Train, plan, and instruct your team to counter enemy abilities.

  • Pick your fighting style.

  • Reveal terrorist conspiracies and infiltrate violent networks.

  • Build personal relationships and trust with your teammates in crisis.

  • Romance a shapeshifting charming man; a brooding fire wielder, a genius tactician, a social media influencer with the powers of a ghost, or even a terrorist capable of controlling blood at will.

Demo: CoGDemos

ROs
  • Yukiko Takemura

Yukiko, 32 years of age, of Japanese descent, exhibits fair skin and light blond hair that cascades freely down her back. Her chestnut brown eyes are keen and observant. Standing at a height of 5’2", she possesses an overall petite form. A Harmonic who demonstrates significantly increased intelligence, making her a valuable component in the back-end operations of the organization, particularly in the realms of Harmony research and biochemistry. However, she consistently chooses to engage on the frontlines. Yukiko has developed a range of gas bombs with various effects, including paralysis, hallucinations, and incapacitation, further underscoring her commitment to active combat. Overall, a very kind woman, she keeps to herself for the most part.

  • Charlotte Reed

Charlotte Reed, an African-American woman, 29 years of age. She stands at 5’6", her Harmony allows her to turn invisible as well as intangible at will. Interestingly, she has little experience utilizing this ability, even though she awakened as a teenager. She seems to place most of her focus on her job as a social media beauty influencer. Distinguishable features are steel grey eyes, normally keeps her black hair braided, the style it’s kept in changes from time to time. She has small freckles that litter her face, shoulders, and collarbone region. Has a personality that’s a little rough around the edges, though she has a softer side that very few people see.

  • Matthew Moreau

Matthew Moreau, of [REDACTED] descent, is a 25-year-old male with distinctive short black hair. He stands at 6’2" and possesses a Harmonic class of creation and manipulation, providing him shape-shifting. Unlike standard shape-shifting, his transformation capability allows him to become objects, replicating them down to the cellular level. Previous manifestations include firearms, small vehicles, and various small to medium-sized animals. His primary constraint appears to be a requirement for a comprehensive understanding of the entity he aims to mimic; this encompasses not only the mechanics of a firearm but also the anatomical structure and typical behaviors of a pigeon. Despite numerous attempts to encourage Agent Moreau to expand his mental library, he remains largely unresponsive. Childish and brash personality. Make a note to keep Agent Moreau away from alcohol.

  • Malik Thompson

A unconventional addition to Team Octra.Thompson is an African-American male, standing at 5’9" with an average build, 29 years of age. His most identifiable features include black dreadlock hair swept to the side of his face. His dark green eyes shift to a emissive lime green when he comes into contact with his mask.The most intriguing aspect of this temporary agent is he is [REDACTED]. The aforementioned mask grants him access to a Harmony, enabling him to expel and manipulate green flames from his body with precision. Further monitoring is required to understand this anomaly. Has violent tendencies, only noticeable goal of his is vengeance.

  • Jasmine Evans

Jasmine Evans, a member of The First Hand terrorist group. 30 years of age, Caucasian female. Long black hair tied back in a ponytail, standing at 5’4. She has the ability to control blood at will, often opting to form weapons of hardened blood, creatures of various sizes that show signs of semi-sentience. Prone to violence, and seems to get some sense of satisfaction from bringing harm to others.

Note: Prologue was written in my native language and translated via AI. This was when I wasn’t confident in my English. Chapters 1 and onwards are written by me, no AI translation, as I feel more confident in my English now. Prologue will be rewritten in the next update

Feedback is encouraged. Let me know if you find continuity problems, spelling errors, code errors, etc. Thank you :grinning_face:

For the best experience, I’d recommend waiting until the word count grows to a more complete playthrough length. Updates are released in smaller, steady increments.

Changelog:
  • Minor Update,09/19: Concluded initial introductions to teammates. Now sitting at roughly 10K words.
  • Minor Update,10/05: Bug fixes, completed first spar, begun second spar
  • Minor Update, 10/10: Completed second spar
  • Minor Update, 11/02: Completed all spars.
82 Likes

You’ve got a pretty decent start right here, i enjoy you coming up with your own word for “supers” instead of just calling them metahumans or something, Harmonics just sounds cool too.

i enjoy that the main character is in their mid thirties instead of early 20s, its nice to have a slightly older mc, i also like that the mc’s power isnt the most useful for actual combat yet they’re actually a badass instead of a damsel who needs their team to save them constantly

10 Likes

What are you saying that mc’s power isn’t the most useful for combat? Sidestep stare.

@Logan hey, it was fun to read. I especially like that, for a change, we play as someone who’s an experienced and older, who’ll be train a group of rookies. In IFs with some kind of agency, we’re usually the rookie. You can add short descriptions of ROs in the main post. They seem interesting.

Also, isn’t the name & surname we chose MC’s real name?

9 Likes

Thank you!:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: I’ll be sure to add the descriptions in the main post, still unfamiliar with how to set things up neatly on a forum post. Also, yes the name you pick for the MC is their actual name, there just might be situations later on where a fake name is needed.

3 Likes

This looks interesting!

2 Likes

Ah, I was confused because in stats and profile there was the word “alias”.

Could you explain a little how MC’s powers work? Is what they read from a person’s mind superficial or can they delve deeper? Can they communicate with someone mentally? Can Harmonics powers evolve? For example, could MCs develop telepathy without touch?

2 Likes

Most of these delve into spoiler territory, so I’ll answer what I can. MC’s powers work similarly to Ms Martian from Young Justice, where they can communicate with teammates over long distances without the need to physically speak. Its basically a super secure phone call. Their abilities will be explored in later chapters though :upside_down_face:

4 Likes

Is the guy we met in the shop preparing for an interview at our agency?

2 Likes

yup, released a small update that explores this a liiiiiittle

2 Likes

Such a solid wip, very excited about it, and i really hope you finish it

2 Likes

They’re such a lovely group of newbies. Can’t wait to be the grumpy, mean leader agent.

… can we keep calling Charlotte ‘Charlie’ to tease her? : P

Wait, wait. Besides a terrorist (I don’t know about that fire wielder), everyone is our subordinates. And we can romance them? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: That’s inappropriate. Unprofessional :joy:

7 Likes

Yo, yo :smiley: which update frequency sounds more appealing to you? I’m leaning more toward smaller and frequent updates so that feedback is easier to implement, idk though, I’m honestly open to either one. What do y’all think?

  • More frequent, smaller updates at a more consistent schedule
  • Slower updates, at larger word count/chapter progression
0 voters
1 Like

What is more convenient for you :person_shrugging: Obviously most people will opt for slower updates. Once they start reading, they prefer it to be longer.

Duel with Charlotte was fun… We’ll beat all of them, right? :face_with_monocle: It would be a shame to lose to a newbie lol but I wouldn’t mind a bigger challenge.

Small remark - Matthew at one point referred about MC by their first name, which is a bit out of place in this context, considering they’ve only just met, they are at work and MC has a higher rank. I know he’s laid back guy, but it still seems a bit too soon for that. It would be better to use the title and surname.

3 Likes

Noted🌹

Well there will be a small chance you lose against Yukiko in the spar but again, very small chance of that happening if you make appropriate choices in that fight.

Huh, there should’ve been a choice for the player to give Matt shit for that, I’ll fix it. I think I skipped over it

2 Likes

Did a character design for one of the minor antagonists🤓: Isabel Dredd

5 Likes

Hello, I just want to say that your game logo looks amazing! Reminds me of Stellaris. Really brings back memories, I need to start a new playthrough some day.

1 Like