The Reverse Zoo Occupation

The Reverse Zoo Occupation is the title given to the occupation of the district of Tecoma by The Menagerie. The occupation began with a series of large explosions targeting key infrastructure and routes in and out of Tecoma, trapping the population inside. This was made possible by the unique canyonous geography of Tecoma that already has many natural chokepoints. This initial attack was perpetrated by The Tunnel Snakes.
In the early days of the occupation following the entrapment of Tecoma the district was overrun by Menagerie villains and thugs who spread destruction and violence throughout the area. Though shortly afterward they began abducting and imprisoning anyone they could find and forcing them to horrible acts such as fighting to the death or horrific death games. These acts are what gave the occupation its name, the animalistic Menagerie were rounding up regular people and caging them like zoo animals. It was common that children were separated from their families, many of who's whereabouts are still unknown to this day. It is estimated that up to 3000 children remain missing.
The sudden and unexpected nature of the attack caught the heroes of Laststar unaware and allowed The Menagerie to act unimpeded for many days as the heroes organised a rescue operation. The few heroes that were in Tecoma at the time were vastly outnumbered and struggled to fight back alone. Notably, The Blades played a large role in the early days of the occupation organising resistance movements and helping people where they could.
As heroes entered Tecoma many were ambushed and killed. The Hero Association suffered many losses from this, 50% of their B Class heroes and 20% of their A Class heroes were lost this way resulting in a massive reduction in their ability to act as heroes throughout Laststar. As The Hero Association accumulated losses they began committing higher ranked heroes to the conflict who acted recklessly and had their judgment clouded by revenge. The more powerful Association heroes caused much death and destruction themselves as they acted without regard to the collateral damage they were causing in their skirmishes with The Menagerie. A notable example of this was when The Lord of the Hunt engaged Night Stallion which ultimately resulted in the complete destruction of the Sobek suburb.
Over the weeks, as more heroes made their way into Tecoma the tides of battle shifted in their favour, though much resentment toward the Hero Association formed due to their destructive, vengeful tactics. Many citizens of Tecoma formed their own rebellions inspired by the more heroic and mindful heroes. As these citizen rebellions grew larger and merged together their primary tactic for ridding the city of The Menagerie was scaring them off with massive didgeridoo orchestras and the support of the heroes. As the didgeridoo is the traditional instrument of Tecoma these combat orchestras held symbolic meaning to Tecoma citizens and served to rally the population around them, growing exponentially larger and more effective.
The Reverse Zoo Occupation lasted a little over a month and resulted in the death of 10% of the Tecoma population. Tecoma was never a wealthy district but the death and destruction the occupation wrought will have long lasting repercussions that will set back the district economically for generations to come.
The scale of The Reverse Zoo Occupation is larger than anything The Menagerie has pulled off in the past and many speculate that they did not do this alone and were in fact supported by some other outside benefactor. There where a number of high profile crimes that happened elsewhere in the city at the same time that wouldn't have been possible if not for the attention of the citys' heroes being focused on Tecama during this period.