Metahumans

Metahumans are one of the many strange phenomenons born in the aftermath of the Blackout, one that despite uncountable research grants and hard work of millions of scientists (and thousands of Ontokinetics) remains completely unexplained to this day.
A fact that didn't stop Mankind from taking full advantage of it - for better and for worse.

Career

Qualifications

Being a living, biological entity and possessing sapience are the basic requirements, with the rest being a pure dice throw. It is estimated that around one person in five million manifests a meta-ability (also known as superpower or individuality), which usually occurs in ones' early teens. There has been a single case of a bottlenosed dolphin manifesting a meta-ability, which is believed to be the main evidence for sapience being the prerequisite.
Meta-abilities are to some degree inheritable. It is believed that the chances of inheriting them depends on the amount of meta-abilities in the last two generations. A single parent having a meta-ability means 1/6 chance. Two parents having it means 1/3 chance. Both parents and all four grandparents having metaabilities guarantees that all of their children will have it. However, with meta-abilities being extremely rare and spread randomly throughout the population, such cases are rare.

Other Benefits

The side-effect of awakening a meta-ability is that your position and state in the universe appears to be reinforced and strenghtened. Metaphysicists, for example, find it much harder to influence them with their invocations. In a way, it appears that all Holders exert a permanent metaphysical influence upon themselves, one that allows them to use their powers, and that has to be overcomed to influence them.
The same influence makes them significantly more resistant to injuries and allows them to perform feats of superhuman strength, speed and endurance. This, too, is explained by the same self-influencing metaphysical field which makes their own perception of themselves influence their actual state, causing an effect best described as a 'Charles Atlas Superpowers'.
Tearing a Holder's arm off will anchor itself in their psyche and overcome that effect, but 'merely' shooting them with a pistol might cause no or almost no injury, even if the bullet went through a crucial organ like heart, Holder's mind suppressing and partially (or completely) negating the injury. Going for the head is usually the best choice when facing a meta-ability Holder.
Similar mechanism works for the aforementioned strength, speed and endurance, with possessors of meta-abilities often being able to permanently push themselves to superhuman levels merely by believing in themselves. This, however, has its own limits. A meta-ability Holder can - potentially - push a car off them or maybe even pick it up and raise it above their head with enough effort, but they'll need a superstrength meta-ability to be able to do that to an armored vehicle.

Operations

Provided Services

Depends on the powers that one happened to manifest. Some of them become artists that can weave and shape materials to a degree that no other person can. Others go for law enforcement or criminal life. Some are encountered among the survey fleets, and a lot of them live a completely normal life that doesn't benefit in any way or shape from their powers.