seperis

One of the multitudinous projects I'm working on at the moment is an Atlantis AU.

I like to call it Atlantis: City of the Future!


Designed and built during the 'technology' boom of the 50's, Atlantis was supposed to be a glimpse into the future of the modern city. Though it was technologically advanced for the time and a marvel of modern engineering and architecture, Atlantis fell into disrepair and corruption.

The criminal element stepped into the vacuum left by Atlantis' lackadasical governing body. The Wraith are an organized crime ring that have been sucking the life out of Atlantean business through protection money and graft. They are brutal and without compassion.

The Genii are more of a street gang and are in direct opposition to the Wraith. Originally a group of disgruntled citizens and business owners, the Genii slowly became more and more criminal, believing that they only way to defeat the Wraith was to fight fire with fire.

For decades this has gone on in Atlantis, but recently, there has been an upsurge in community involvement in the clean up effort. To that end, a new mayor, Elizabeth Weir, and a new Chief of Police, Stephen Caldwell, were elected on a tough anti-corruption platform.

It's an uphill battle, though. The community is scared and the police are outgunned by both the Wraith and the Genii. In addition, there is still a lot of corruption within the police department, but Caldwell has one squad he knows is clean: Bates, Stackhouse, Markham, Cadman, and Lorne. He also has made sure the crime labs (Parrish, Miko, Simpson, & Grodin) and coroner's office (Carson & Biro) are clean.

Another problem the police face is a small band of vigilante citizens. Though everyone knows their leaders are Teyla Emmagen and Ronon Dex, no one can prove anything. Even Teyla and Ronon are caught unaware when a new, high-tech vigilante shows up, though. This unnamed man appears occassionally to wreak havoc within both criminal organizations and literally nothing is known about him.

Now, Rodney McKay is an eccentric billionaire genius inventor (of course). He runs a small, but extremely profitable tech firm out of his family estate. He's known to be misanthropic, rude, and generally unpleasant to be around. In fact, no one bothers to seek his company except for Radek Zelenka, whom the world at large assumes to be one of Rodney's scientists. This is untrue. Radek is his creative partner ("Lab assistant!" Rodney insists) and co-conspirator in their personal war against crime in Atlantis.

John Sheppard is a private detective, formerly a member of the Atlantis PD. He was drummed out of the PD by Caldwell's predecessor, Everett, on trumped up corruption rumors to cover up Everett's own involvement with the Genii. Rather than face a fixed IA investigation, John retired from the force and opened up his own office with his rookie partner, Ford, who followed him when he left the PD. Sadly, Ford was killed by the Wraith and that loss eats at John.

John and Rodney meet when Radek decides to call a PI to solve an industrial espionage issue at the tech company...