UNIQUE
UNIQUE—the United Nations International Quorum of Unaligned Exceptionals—is a subgroup within UNISON. Superheroes affiliated with UNIQUE have chosen to work closely with UNISON and the United Nations, forsaking nationalist agendas in favor of bettering and uniting the planet. In exchange for having UNISON help to coordinate and support their activities on a global level, members agree to focus on the priorities identified by UNISON and the world community, usually of national and international scope and importance.
Maintaining a global defense against superhuman threats while also respecting the sovereign rights of each nation is a daunting task. UNISON’s overall goals are to protect and nurture the entire Earth, facing challenges such as major natural disasters, alien invasions, or incursions from parallel dimensions, in addition to the normal threat of superhuman villains. However, many nations remain reluctant to allow foreigners, regardless of how well meaning, to act freely within their borders.
Members are pressured to balance the reluctance of sovereign nations against the importance of evacuating civilians, minimizing damage to world heritages, and clean-up following unusual events, especially in nations lacking the superhuman resources to do these things unaided. Some countries invite UNIQUE reluctantly, others eagerly, and still others require the diplomats of the United Nations and UNISON to smooth problems over after UNIQUE has taken action—especially in matters of international importance—and the danger is resolved.
UNIQUE feels the eyes of the world on them in ways many superheroes never worry about, serving as the face of a tense international alliance. Operatives must exhibit good judgment, quick thinking, and a genuine desire to help, rather than a desire to make splashy and showy heroics. UNISON has shaped UNIQUE by recruiting individuals with stable personalities and steadfast character, and providing them with exceptional resources and training.
A few years after its founding in the late 1950s, the United Nations International Superhuman Oversight Network rapidly discovered that no matter how highly trained and motivated its regular agents were, some problems required the assistance of metahumans. Volunteers and local heroes were often willing to help, but UNISON needed its own on-call superhumans. Some problems needed immediate responses, and other operations required long-term coordination. UNIQUE was created in the early 1960s to fill that need. Over the years, superheroes both powered and non- were recruited as members of UNIQUE, so their efforts could be organized and directed from a centralized source.
UNIQUE has served honorably as the superhuman arm of UNISON. The team has a large number of members who serve in various roles and capacities all over the planet, and sometimes beyond. A relatively small, rotating portion of the team as a whole, the “active members” are on call for emergencies at any given time. Active members live and stay in UNISON’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, or New York City, where much United Nations business is conducted. From those locations, they connect to UNISON’s data network and are ready to respond to emerging threats all over the globe. Active members will generally be the first responders to crises, and often will be the only group to become aware of a new threat in time to minimize the immediate damage.
Members of the team who are not active at a given time, called reserve members, remain available as backups but are left free to pursue other interests and projects. Many reserve members pursue other superheroic activities, while others do things such as research, philanthropic work, post-disaster relief, or simply spending time recuperating, as being a superhero is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting.
UNIQUE is a collection of people who share the goal of helping and protecting the world, and the organization is structured accordingly. In spite of its size, the members of UNIQUE generally consider each other personal friends. UNISON invests considerable time into teaching not only emergency response but also communications skills to help minimize the conflicts such a high-pressure position can generate. Members operate with training as both military and diplomatic forces, and are granted significant latitude in protecting the Earth. But that freedom comes with considerable responsibility, as every mistake or failure reflects not only on members but on UNISON and global cooperation as a whole. Members must be above any suspicion that they would allow danger to befall a rival, or treat a villain differently because they share a homeland.
UNIQUE members, particularly those who are on the active rotation, possess a combination of raw power, skill, and ability to deal with global problems, and the judgment to exercise those talents responsibly. The organization recruits some of the most powerful superhumans on Earth-Prime, but also seeks out those suited to working in a group. Many countries lack the financial and superhuman resources to handle large-scale crises, and criminal organizations such as SHADOW prey heavily on nations that lack superhumans and/or strong economies. UNIQUE is often the only organization able to respond to brewing emergencies in smaller or impoverished nations, even as the Freedom League has stepped up to assume a more international role. Active members often find themselves thrown into world-threatening situations in far-off locations with very little time to get their bearings.
UNIQUE and UNISON work very carefully to vet prospective candidates prior to offering membership. In most situations, one or more current members will arrange to meet with the prospective member for an informal conversation to gauge a candidate’s skills, abilities, and personality. If the screening goes well, the candidate is then asked to meet with Matron, the current field leader. If that goes well, Matron makes a recommendation to UNISON Director General Jennifer Ellis, and pending her approval, the person is asked if they would like to join. The process is quite similar to a job interview because in many ways that is exactly what being a member of UNIQUE is: a job protecting the entire planet.
Not every UNIQUE member serves as or even aspires to become an active member. Many have powers or personalities that are more useful in non-combat roles, and they spend years or even their entire careers in support roles. For example, the agent Delphi (see Russia & Central Asia in the Atlas of Earth Prime) serves as a noncombat covert analyst, working undercover to monitor suspicious activity. Heroes such as Delphi never leave reserve member status and do not rotate in to become active members. Within UNIQUE, this is simply considered efficient management of superhuman resources rather than a mark against the person who chooses to contribute in this way.
UNIQUE functions as an arm of UNISON under the authority of the United Nations, dealing with national, international, and planet-threatening events. UNIQUE usually operates either under the express invitation of the nation they are entering, or because binding international treaties and humanitarian ideals make an obvious moral case for action. At odds with this general practice is the fact that the team’s founding charter gives it extremely wide leeway to decide for itself when an emergency is so severe that it has to act regardless of permission or opposition by the nations involved. Although this clause is rarely invoked—and it invariably triggers international pushback against creeping authority when it is—there have been moments so urgent that UNIQUE felt obligated to act without approval.
In practice, this means that UNIQUE occupies much of its time with large-scale humanitarian relief, international criminal investigations, security for UN and UNISON personnel, and working to prevent crises. While UNIQUE and its members are generally against crime, they are not police, and respect the fact that each country has its own set of laws and policing regimes. Although reserve and active members are generally willing to help when local law enforcement or local heroes ask for backup, it is also not unheard of for UNIQUE to decline to assist because of disagreements over whether or not a law or policy can be enforced in good conscience. It is also not rare for UNIQUE to offer to help and have those offers be politely declined for various political reasons. UNIQUE tends to become involved in a traditional superhero capacity either in matters that are non-controversial, or in emergencies where there is no time to seek prior approval.
UNIQUE’s international responsibilities sometimes slow their response in an emergency, and they come under fire for failure to act as often as for acting—particularly from the superhero community. From UNQIUE’s perspective, violating international sovereignty can cause as much misery and loss of life in the long run as a small delay in acting, while many civilian superheroes argue that their role first and foremost is to react to people who need them now, and deal with the future as it comes. While no official rivalry exists between UNIQUE and the Freedom League, and the two organizations have worked together in the past, both have a long-standing policy of not recruiting members from the other.
Assets
As an extension of UNISON, UNIQUE has access to all the UNISON resources. Additionally, because UNIQUE’s work and needs are specialized, it can call upon a few additional resources not available to the average UNISON agent, mostly in the form of support staff. Secretaries, researchers, trainers, doctors, scientists, and linguists are all available on short notice to provide whatever support members need.
Both UNIQUE and its individual members are well regarded in the international and superhuman communities, and members gain some diplomatic immunity in UN member states. As active agents of UNISON, each member’s requests and actions are considered to represent the United Nations as a whole, with all the weight that carries. This reserve of goodwill is a major asset whenever a member needs some form of official government response or endorsement.
In addition to UNISON’s facilities around the globe, UNIQUE maintains two dedicated bases, military centers with comfortable living facilities: one outside New York City and another near Geneva. Both are regularly staffed by UNISON analysts and guards, with UNIQUE members—both active and reserve—living there on a rotating basis.
UNIQUE relies on a dedicated jet aircraft to transport members and resources across the globe at high speed.
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