Brief

Ace Cooper is a former detective and Navy Seal with a supernatural healing ability investigating a suspicious death when he's drawn into a secret organization of other gifted people. They must team up to defeat a group of supernatural villains bent on exterminating all of the 'less evolved' humans from the earth.

What We Liked

"Prometheus Annihilation" combines a detective story and classic superpowers to form a modern day story. Emphasizing character over throwing punches it weaves a battle between good and evil that can only be won before it even begins.

Film: Prometheus has a simple story but one filled with twists and turns driven by ever shifting character loyalties and disturbing revelations. It can be a character driven addition to the superhero canon that will keep audiences guessing up until the last moment.

TV: Prometheus Annihilation shows a capacity for being adapted into an episodic series by virtue of its variety and depth of characters. Ace Cooper is only one of many people whose lives have been affected by the powers they possess. Exploring the lives they've lived and the world they're creating will take time and involve many adventures.

Key points: In depth character backstories. Superhero team-up. Grounded sci-fi. Twists and turns. Happy ending.

Synopsis

Ace leads a rescue operation of a kidnapped boy. His friend, the Mayor of Boston suggests he start a private tactical team with public, but clandestine backing.

His first case, Adam, the son of a wealthy businessman whose death may have been an accident or a beating. Ace and his partner Harry investigate. They catch a car following them and discover Gus, another private detective hired by Adam to investigate death threats months before his demise. The three of them question Adam's roommate Roman, who's getting threats too and is about to flee when he's shot through the head, through a window, right in front of Ace.

Fortunately, Ace has another talent besides being a detective. He places his hands on Roman's head and in seconds the wound is healed. Since he was young he's been able to heal himself, others and give himself super-strength. Roman is back from the dead. Gus sees this and is not surprised. When they get to a safehouse Gus informs them that he and his twin brother Josh also possess superhuman abilities. They are part of an organization that tracks the gifted, the Prometheus Corporation.

They all have different abilities and they are all half-siblings born of the same father, something to with human experiments conducted by Nazis in WW2. Ace then finds himself in front of Wyatt Carlton, the businessman who hired him and his very alive son Adam. Adam has the same abilities as Ace, his rapid healing saved him from an encounter with Alexi, a man believed to be Ace's twin with the opposite power, the ability to drain life.

Alexi is part of a gang called the Petrovists and his powers are growing and he could soon be a weapon of mass destruction. Ace may be the only one who can stop him. Ace is also stunned to learn Harry is gifted too, but in what way he won't say.

Adam shows Ace other uses for his powers, opening doors, blasting objects and creating a protective forcefield. Wyatt it turns out is clairvoyant and he has a vision of an impending attack on Fort Gordon in Georgia. When Alexi arrives Ace battles him with his new powers and they capture him. Under interrogation he claims the Petrovists have a 'pusher' who implanted thoughts in Alexi's head and that they plan to wipe out the rest of humanity so that only the gifted will survive.

They also learn that Gus is working for the Petrovists, the groups is led by someone called the Doctor and they have a weapon called the Janus strain. Gus confesses, but claims he initially joined the Petrovists for protection and opposes the evil they've become. He tells them that Janus is a bioweapon that will be deployed via mobile gas canisters. The fast mutating virus that can kill 75 percent of the world in a week is being stored at a facility in Montana.

They teleport to Montana and nab the Doctor, with surprising ease, only to return to Boston several people at headquarters are missing and Wyatt and Gus are dead. Ace and Harry are trapped in an interrogation room and the Doctor informs them there are no gas canisters. All the gifted are infected with the virus and they are now about to travel the world.

Alexi rushes back to free them just as the building explodes and Ace is trapped by the rubble. Ace wakes up in 1974, Rich, a time traveler, has pulled him from the rubble. The two of them intercept baby Alexi and drop him with Ace's parents. When they return to the present Ace has a set of new memories. He's part of the Phoenix organization which protects the gifted and which dealt with the threat from the Doctor years ago.

About The Author

Ben Dedrick lives in a suburb of Augusta Georgia with his wife and children. He spent ten years in the Navy. Prometheus Annihilation is the first book in a trilogy.