The Federal Paranormal Bureau of Investigation was born out of a dramatic increase in paranormal crime during the nineteen seventies.  The Federal government recognized that super powered criminals, be it those who practiced the little understood phenomena known as magic, or illegal technology, or inherent powers posed a threat beyond what conventional law enforcement agencies could handle.  Progress had been made with the passage of the Babcock Act, which protected super powered vigilantes to some extent from civil and criminal prosecution in their prosecution of paranormal crime.  But the Federal government went further in creating a law enforcement division that would specifically concentrate on investigating paranormal crime.

The FPBI was and is a sub-department of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  It's agents are armed with and specially trained in the use of advanced weapons, and they are given an extensive education in the nature of what it means to be super human.  And there are some FPBI agents who actually have super powers.

These super powered agents usually possess "low key" abilities, powers which are easily hidden and in most cases are more useful in investigating crime rather than battling super powered criminals.  Many have administrative and/or liason duties.  These agents have been given nick names which over time have stuck:

AGENT A: Agent A's powers allow him to alter his appearance, so he was given the nick-name "Agent Alias".  He can completely immerse himself into a role so completely that he has been forbidden to accept field assignments for "a while" due to an "unfortunate incident" that involved him shooting a fellow FBI agent.

Agent A dislikes being deskbound, but he understands why he is in the metaphorical dog house.  And truth to tell, being under cover can be very stressful.  While he is chomping at the bit to get back out into the field, he is grateful for the rest from field duty.

AGENT E: Samantha "Sam" McHenry exists in mental contact with a (possibly) infinitude of other 'Sams'. The contact exists in three basic modes. The first is background where everyone receives an almost subliminal knowledge that might be useful in any particular situation. Background is much like perusing a vast library or doing a web search; there is little focussed thought involved and it works continuously. The second is conversation where two or more Others are speaking and sharing information consciously. The third is rapport where the minds are joined very closely so that sensory information can be shared and even one's body can be controlled by another. Some elder Others suggest that Samantha's merging with Sam is a fourth mode while others argue it is merely a fluke and unstable happenstance.

From this, Samantha derives abilities that are less flashy than most but can be potent in the right circumstances.

E is the youngest of the paranormal agents.
 
 
 

AGENT I: A man with uncanny intuition, Agent I is able to find patterns in seemingly unrelated facts and clue and even draw correct conclusions just by hearing scant infomation.  He hardly reads any fiction because he is able to guess the ending by the end of the first chapter (He figured out the secret of The Sixth Sense just from the title).

Agent I has to be very careful how he uses his powers; a criminal case has to be put together in a manner that makes sense, and jurors and judges must be able to connect the dots.  So often Agent I has to find dots 2-9 after he has discovered dots 1 and 10.
 
 

AGENT O: "Observation" is Agent O's forte.  She is able to psychically witness events happening from afar through some manner of psychic observation.  The problem is, much of the information is inadmissable so like Agent I she has to be very careful in how she employs her abilities.  The ability is useful in situations like monitoring a hostage crisis.

Agent O was an effective sniper for years and loves guns.  Big guns.  The bigger the better.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

AGENT U: Being able to see up to five minutes into the most probable future might  sound like a neat power, but like his fellow agents, Agent U (for "upstage") has to be very careful on how he employs it.  Shooting a suspect because he "saw" the man pull the trigger on his hostage just does not cut it.  However, the abilities did lead him to aiding fellow agents into avoiding many an unfortunate outcome.

Agent U has been able to employ his power in hand to hand combat, seeing his opponent's moves micro-seconds before the person makes them.  Using the power this way can be potentially dangerous in that he has to focus on the one person and would miss any outside actions.
 
 

AGENT Y: "Sometimes Y" began his career during the seventies as the Vigilante Thumper.  With his female sidekick Bambi, they had fought crime in New York and New Jersey and it was him working with Congressman Bill Babcock that helped to get that bill passed.  The elder statesman of the paranormal special agents, he has been in semi-retirement.  Agent Y is physically tougher and stronger than normal people, and he ages slower.  In his late fifties, he looks a decade younger.

 
 

FPBI Troopers: While many FPBI agents are plain clothes types that conduct forensic investigations, a majority of FPBI personnel consists of soldiers armed with the very latest in hi-tech weaponry and armor.  These Troopers may appear to be some paramilitary force (and the FPBI has been sometimes criticized with bringing "war to the streets of America") and many are recruited from the various branches of the United States military, but each one has also undergone rigorous FBI training courses and are well aware of the importance of exercising proper force against both conventional and paranormal threats.  In the years since the FPBI has been founded not a single civilian has been lost due to "friendly fire" incidents or cases of mistaken identity, something FPBI officials are fiercely proud of.