by Phoebe Hopps

[CW police violence]

Finally, after years of conflict, Sparked Defender of Citropolis Wallace Udarnik has put an end to the reign of terror of the terrorist who called herself The Phoenix. Through cooperation with the Mayor's Office, Udarnik identified the Phoenix as Nina Adkins, a waitress. Adkins refused to come quietly, and was killed in the ensuing conflict.

This operation would not have been possible without the aid of the Citropolis Police, and their new prototyped equipment from Stewart Industries. A memorial will be held to Madeline Blair, the officer who was murdered by Adkins during her arrest, later this month.

Phoebe Hopps

Over the past month we have seen the landmark legislation from the Mayor’s office regarding Spark registration becoming established in record time. Registration Offices have been set up all across Citropolis, and almost the entirety of the Sparked population has been successfully and peacefully registered.

The Mayor’s Office, and indeed the entire population of Citropolis, thanks those Sparks who registered without incident, and requests that anybody who knows of any of the few remaining unregistered Sparks to report them to the appropriate authorities. Together, we are making Citropolis a safe place for our children to grow up in.

by Francis Akira

The polls are about to open for our next mayoral election, as Mayor Meyer faces off against surprise challenger Nestor Hoyne. The Mayor's infrastructure-building record is unimpeachable, but Hoyne is emphasising criticism of Meyer's record on civil liberty issues, especially the Spark Registration Act. Hoyne, child of the powerful politician Alan Hoyne, has also accused Meyer of using fear to perpetuate a political oligarchy.

And on the subject of their father, Nestor Hoyne has been a vocal critic of the current state of the Alan Hoyne Institute for Sparked Individuals, and has made reforming it one of their campaign promises. An article on their visit there can be found on page 3.

[OC: the election's outcome will be revealed next turn]

Citropolis Secrets

Our column has head through the grapevine that perhaps Mayor Meyer’s seemingly safe and happy family is not all that it seems; rumours are that there is a secret Spark the family have been keeping hushed away from the public. Who is this individual? What can they do? How dangerous are they? Are they threatening the Mayor, preventing him from properly cracking down on Sparks? Don’t worry citizens of Citropolis, we here at Citropolis Secrets have all the answers.

A third break in has occurred at the Udarnik Compound this week. It is believed to have been the same individual behind all three incidents. The unknown assailant is believed to be a spark with wind-related powers, aged 15-20. Police have been reviewing the data recently collected under the Spark Registration act, in order to assist with the case.

There is some speculation that the individual may have been involved with the Phoenix, as it believe the two were spotted together moments before The Phoenix was brought down, though police have been unable to confirm this claim. An image from security feeds have been released, and authorities are asking for the help of the public to identify the individual.

[For those that would recognise him, this looks like Davy Jenkins]

A flash of truth, in uncertain skies

Printed on glossy blue paper with a seemingly hand painted logo, this new news source can be found online and with copies scattered throughout Citropolis. It starts to pick up a lot of traction, especially as it becomes increasingly clear there was more to stories like Triple Threat than first reported in the Sleuth. It's up to you if you saw a copy, and how

[CW: police violence]

Startling new evidence has come to light about the events leading up to the greatest tragedy in Citropolis’s history, the Fallout.

Thirty years ago, Sparks were not publicly talked about in Citropolis. Officially, nobody knew they existed. As the pioneering historical work of Professor Rafael Ortiz has shown, this narrative of denial, while very strong, always contained cracks. But it was only with the Fallout that the narrative officially changed, that Sparks were officially acknowledged, and, at the same time, defined as something to fear. Nuke was the ‘bad Spark’, Wallace Udarnik the ‘good Spark’, and all others had to fit neatly into this paradigm, control themselves or be controlled by the city. Thus the Alan Hoyne Institute, and the Spark Registration Act.

Except, as the Bolt’s evidence suggests, there was a process just before the Fallout that undercuts traditional accounts of Nuke and Udarnik motives, and which of them was to blame. Nuke – real name Bobby – was in fact an idealistic, enthusiastic member of a peaceful movement advocating for Spark rights and visibility, who had revealed their identity and powers at a peaceful gathering this group organised. They were then followed home, by police officers including Wallace Udarnik, and accidentally activated their power in self-defence, its extent exacerbated by fear. Bobby died in the blast.

This would be a reasonable extrapolation simply from the archival evidence The Bolt has discovered. Flyers this organisation printed and distributed emphasise their peaceful, idealistic spirit, and show that the day they organised their peaceful coming-out rally was the same day as the Fallout. The connection between this fact and the traditional story of the Fallout seems clear.

Several of the flyers, including the one on the day of the Fallout, are reprinted here

But, we have more than archival evidence. We have the testimony of one of Bobby’s contemporaries in this movement, Puck.

‘We were dreamers, alright,’ Puck said, ‘And we really thought if the city knew us, the real us, it wouldn’t fear us. Bobby was probably the most idealistic of us all. They didn’t know how their power worked before the Fallout. Didn’t know the extent of it. They’d never been so scared, so alone, pushed so hard. Before it had been… mostly a bright, optimistic power, like them, a source of light and heat on a smaller scale. I’m not sure if the cops assumed it would have more dangerous implications than they knew about then, or just picked a random scapegoat.’

There we have it. Bobby did not reveal themself as the first stage of a malevolent plan the police needed to stop. They revealed themself because they wanted the city to see them, to greet the world as they really were. This atrocity wasn’t caused by Sparks, but by the fear of them.

In the wake of the protest at Levitt Park last month, a new organisation to promote Spark rights has been formed. Lighthouse, it is called, and it’s the first organisation of its kind to come into the open since the Fallout. Lighthouse is committed to non-violent forms of protest, and it encourages its members to abide by the Registration Act, even while it seeks to overturn it. It comes at a significant time, with the crises Sparks are facing, and is part of a broader pushback – the Nestor Hoyne campaign, perhaps in its humble way the founding of the Bolt – that will hopefully soon bear fruit. After thirty long years of clouds, the light at last seems to be breaking through.

Attached is a picture of Howl, from Triple Threat, in some kind of bunker with an exoskeleton on his back

Last month saw the end of the “sparked” group Triple Threat's regular attacks on Citropolitan life. It has since become apparent that two of their number, Howl and Blowback, were not Sparks at all. In fact they were using user-enhancing technology, identical to that being trialed by the police from Stewart Industries.

This hoax was revealed by Jay – a Spark hero wearing no mask – who fought Triple Threat during their last attack at the mall, subduing Howl themself. Blowback was brought in by the police sometime later. A spokesperson commented there had been a misunderstanding, and that Triple Threat had stolen some Stewart Industries prototypes, and Blowback was imprisoned.

The public is rightly shocked by the outrageous hoax.

[OC: A few days later there is a Sleuth article with the same story from the police, neglecting to mention Jay, warning that Shadow Caster is still at large. It features comments from an apparently furious Edmund Stewart]

[CW institutional neglect and abuse]

The Bolt was lucky enough to hear from a student who is currently studying at the Alan Hoyne Institute – although, as they explain, ‘studying’ is perhaps not the right word. They told us about their experiences there of not being allowed to leave, of routine mandatory medical examinations, and of the neglect they have faced.

‘We’re almost entirely self-taught, self-sufficient, everything. The older kids have to take care of the younger ones, and everything we do has to be approved by staff who most of the time can’t be bothered to do the approving.” They explain, “We get punishments for completely arbitrary reasons – like, not being allowed to go home because we played Brawlball without supervision, or not being allowed to use the internet because we did homework in class. And that stuff is really important when we’re not allowed to leave, you know?”

The full interview can be found on page three.

Below are links to the school news pages for January. You will only have access to the news for your own school.