People aren't just born unnaturals, that's why they're called Unnaturals. Unnaturals are made... manmade, so two off-the-street people couldn't just have one on their own, out of no where. Women were often duped into free prenatal care, costless healthcare only if they were pregnant since the serum worked only on unborns.... the doctors were actually G.E.M labs doctors or, more to the point, medically-trained G.E.M. lab scientists. Generally Unnaturals are victims of a free health care system, such as Federal and State jobs, most are military brats, etc... some kids are actually /sold/ as was Starchilde (Tayla Dreyer - Whitefyre's best friend, a Lair Brat)... her dad had massive gambling debts, so he sold his unborn kid for testing in exchange for lots of money. But that's a rare case; most are military kids, no matter the country they are born in. And while the majority of Unnaturals are American, there are quite a few who are not. The secret serum was sold to the highest of bidders, which caused problems. This, then, is the truth which NO CHARACTER, NOT EVEN AERIK, KNOWS... not for certain, at any rate.
The serum is two things: a base, which acts as a suspension material and buffer, and the blood of the Twins, Helfyre and Brimstoan. The Twins, being a kind of crossbreed demon-thing kind of sort of, had the ability to alter others with an infusion of their sanguine (not unlike the vampires they resemble), but couldn't just go around biting people and altering them without defeating their own purposes which will be explained later... so they gave the ability to alter to certain humans who were experimenting in the ethically questionable field of genetics, way back during World War 11. The humans created the base to suspend the blood of the fiends, make it less potent, but had no idea with what they were really tampering. Just try getting GEMlab scientists to admit they hadn't clue of what they'd created, though (the serum)! After the existing supplies of serum were sold to other countries and the control over the Unnaturals' creations and the direction of the field of research loosened to an undesirable point, the Twins stopped giving the key vital to the serum's effectiveness; their blood. The serum cannot be reproduced exactly, not even with the most advanced sciences, as the Twins' blood is absorbed and 'lost' in the Unnatural. All attempts have been hideous failures and always will be, hence why no unauthorized (unauthorized by the Twins) Unnaturals can be -made-. The Twins have a degree of control over the workings of their bodies, even in such a manner (meaning their own blood, removed from their bodies). Of course, that their blood is present in each and every Unnatural only helps them... its like a tracking device, a sensor. They know each and every one of their 'children', and can find them at any time. If they happen to bite an Unnatural and the exchange of blood moves full circle (the Twin's in the Unnatural and the Unnatural in one of the Twins), the hapless victim can become a thrall or even a mental microphone as can be seen, at times, in Whitefyre.
Mental shields are actually very rare to have inborn, i.e., Venin or Ricochet. Naturals can, at times, have them too, but most shielding is either taught or given, or maybe due to the nature of one's specific talents (Old Scratch, etc...). Most unnatural powers (but obviously not all) are energy-based ones. Or kinetic-based. Lots of powers do recycle because there's only so many of those to go around... but remember, unnaturals were made to be soldiers, to blend in with the normal natural crowd, but pack a friggin' punch. The element of surprise. They were somewhat tailored-made. Those who don't have energy-based powers are either (tend to be) psionics (rare!) or shifters. The Twins were going for a vamp who could withstand the sunlight and were playing around with gene codes an awful lot to get what they wanted. The soldier bit was a distraction from their real purpose, one naturals or just humans would understand better for all its potential. So... there it is in a nutshell. Naturals wanted to make soldiers, sell them, and make money, and the Twins just wanted an unhampered killing machine, their own way, of course. That's why the storyline is so aggressive, its supposed to be. These aren't X-Men or mutants via Marvel and DC comics, I purposefully steered my universe away from that school of thought. Not children of the Atom or the "next step in evolution", none of that... they were made and already have an inbuilt destruction code in that they tend to be sterile, as most mutates are in nature. Already selected for natural extinction, as it were. The probability that an Unnatural will bear offspring is quite low and lowers with each generation. Probability of an Unnatural and Natural breeding successfully is higher, but power transfers are lower. Eventually, Unnaturals will die out.
Old Scratch is the first unnatural ever. He was a test-tube baby created near the middle of World War 11, but the GUARD was unhappy with the results. Ian lacked the specific energy projections they had hoped for, and GEMlabs spent over the next 20 years attempting to perfect the serum that causes the unnatural mutations in human embryos before trying it again (the serum is injected in the fetuses at about 2 months). Scratch is the oldest living unnatural, none but him (or Attrait) are over 30 years of age, and those are rare, most being teens to early twenties (see below for Unnatural history). Scratch was born in GEMlabs and raised by the GUARD, bearing the names of the doctors who donated their egg and sperm to his creation. He was rigorously trained in all things, his IQ near genius level. He is proficient in hand-to-hand combat, a variety of weapons, several forms of martial arts, extremely computer-literate, a wiz at technology, master of disguise, espionage, clandestine operations, spying, etc... He was married for a time, but his wife got scared and absconded with their infant daughter, Yvette. It was Scratch who helped hunt her down, and in the chaos that followed, she was shot by a trigger-happy Hunter, whom Scratch had immediately killed (Or so the GUARD report goes. In actuality, Scratch protected his wife and daughter, hid his second child, a son (BlackDagger), misled searches for his wife, kept communications down, and commanded his wife to flee with Yvette, promising he'd watch over them. And he did, except somehow the situation got out of his control, his squad found his family, and the GUARDian who shot his wife against Scratch's orders ended up a casuality of "friendly fire" a week later). But the girl, Yvette, misunderstood what was happening, and has blamed her father for the murder of her mother ever since. Scratch is a GUARD Hunter, who tracks down and secures R.UN.ners. He is loyal to the GUARD, but does not necessarily agree with their methods. Scratch has even been known to help young R.UN.ners on his days off. He is devoted to getting his job done except on his down time. It is all he has ever known.
About 19 years ago, a GUARD
employee named Dr. Miltenburg finally realized what an abominable
thing GEMlabs was doing and broke into the main computer storage
rooms, setting into motion a virus that destroyed all
computer-stored data on unnaturals while he destroyed all written
data. All unnaturals had been kept track of by the GUARD who
kidnapped the children between the ages of 2-4 years and placed
them in military-like camps for training and conditioning. Some
95% of names and locations of unnaturals were lost, as was the
formula for making them (there are no written texts known to
exist, Miltenburg was very thorough). The GUARDsmen finally
managed to gain entry into the storage room and gunned the
hapless man down. Now Tracker Squads, Hunter Squads, and
Cyhunters are employed for the R.UN.ners' capture.
Since the original perfected serum's destruction, GEMlabs was forced to start all over again but their attempts are far from perfect. Most of the new unnaturals , born under controlled circumstances in the past five years, are horribly disfigured and or/die within their first few years of life. GEMlabs cannot reconfigure the syrum using existing unnaturals since they all mutate differently and the syrum is absorbed. However, the GUARD is desperate to reclaim the R.UN.ners in hopes of discovering the key to the serum. Both the GUARD and GEMlabs are privately funded by an unknown source. Unnaturals are a well-kept secret that threatens to be exposed, especially since most are now discovering their powers. But since most R.UN.ners know about the GUARD, they are also struggling to keep a low profile, which has proven frustrating to those who track them down. ((For more in-depth information, please go here. ***addendum*** I forgot to mention the glitch. The glitch is a flaw in the genetic code that stops the body of an unnatural from aging for about 20 years. It usually hits in the mid twenties, but that is not a set time, although it always strikes AFTER puberty.))