History Main / BizarreBabyBoom

* The idea with the "Century Babies" in Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'s ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' and ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' is that they represent various aspects of the century in which they are born, but they're actually born in the ''last century''. For example, the 20th century babies were born in ''1900, the last year of the 19th century''. This point is raised when [[spoiler:Jenny Sparks dies]] at the end of 1999, and it's claimed that it's humanity's collective consciousness that defines the relevant years, even if they're mathematically wrong.

* ''Anime/{{Scryed}}'' takes place in a future rocked by a geographical uprising, which has left 1% of the newborn children with the ability to manipulate matter at will and create "Alters", strange creatures that do their bidding. The number rises as the series progresses, evidently a side effect of continued tampering with the power of the other side, which started the whole mess.

* ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' is about a wave o' babies ([[WaveOfBabies not literally]]) with BodyHorror-tastic PsychicPowers. Revok, one of the children of the original boom, is plotting to start a second one, and then create an army of evil scanners and TakeOverTheWorld. And he probably ''could'' do it. [[LeftHanging Maybe he does]]. [[WordOfGod Cronenberg says]] that [[CanonDiscontinuity the sequels aren't considered canon]].

* ''ComicBook/RisingStars'' by Creator/JMichaelStraczynski, has exactly this premise: "In 1969 in the sleepy midwestern town of Pederson, Illinois, a flash of light in the heavens heralds the coming of the 'Specials', 113 individuals who are blessed with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men."
* The original explanation for {{Mutants}} (the "Children of the Atom") in ''ComicBook/XMen'' was as a side-effect of [[NuclearMutant atomic bomb testing]]. Later stories stated that while it wasn't the cause of the X-gene (mutants have been around since ancient times) it did cause it to manifest in a larger percent of the population.
* ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain'': James Jaspers has {{Reality Warp|er}}ing powers that in large enough bursts have a side-effect of inducing this. The children affected are called "Warpies" and their mutations are so unstable they don't live very long, often exploding very early in their lives. An ''ComicBook/XMen'' issue dealt with a James Jaspers from a parallel Earth whose only apparent power was reality jumping, the fallout from which caused an entire town in Africa to have similar baby booms.
* The premise of ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy''; the same year "Tusslin' Tom" Gurney knocked out the space-squid from Rigel X-9 with a flying atomic elbow "...forty three extraordinary children were born to mostly single women, who had shown no signs of pregnancy, in seemingly random locations around the world." A wealthy entrepreneur tracked down and adopted seven of these children to raised them as a superhero team.
* The idea with the "Century Babies" in Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'s ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' and ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' is that they represent various aspects of the century in which they are born, but they're actually born in the ''last century''. For example, the 20th century babies were born in ''1900, the last year of the 19th century''. This point is raised when [[spoiler:Jenny Sparks dies]] at the end of 1999, and it's claimed that it's humanity's collective consciousness that defines the relevant years, even if they're mathematically wrong.

* Perhaps the first screen media example: ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'', based on Creator/JohnWyndham's novel ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'' (see below), where an entire town loses consciousness for a day, and finds out later that all the women have become pregnant during that time. Followed in 1963 by ''Children of the Damned'', and then remade, again as ''[[Film/VillageOfTheDamned1995 Village of the Damned]]'', in 1995.
* Thailand also made a movie version, 1994's ''Blackbirds at Bangpleng'', which uses the same device, but has the children as less [[AlwaysChaoticEvil intrinsically evil]].
* Creator/DavidCronenberg's ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' is about a wave o' babies ([[WaveOfBabies not literally]]) with BodyHorror-tastic PsychicPowers. Revok, one of the children of the original boom, is plotting to start a second one, and then create an army of evil scanners and TakeOverTheWorld. And he probably ''could'' do it. [[LeftHanging Maybe he does]]. [[WordOfGod Cronenberg says]] that [[CanonDiscontinuity the sequels aren't considered canon]].
* ''Film/MinorityReport'' has the addicts of [[FantasticDrug Neuroin]] giving birth to the Precogs, [[{{Seers}} who can see the future]] -- especially murders.
* In ''Film/{{Looper}}'' it's stated that about 10-15% of the population has a mutation called "TK" ([[MindOverMatter telekinesis]]) that allows them to move objects with their mind. At first it's stated that it's essentially AwesomeButImpractical, as most can't do much besides levitate coins, but becomes a bit of a ChekhovsGun once it's revealed that someone is powerful enough in it to use it as a deadly weapon.
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Logan}}'', where a major part of the plot concerns the fact that mutants have ''stopped'' being born [[spoiler:due to the use of GMO food to suppress the mutant gene in developing children]]. Played straight with Laura and her "classmates", who were genetically engineered to create loyal soldiers with the X-gene. It didn't work.

* The "Whispered" of ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' possess a psychic connection with an undefined future, which "whispers" the secrets of "[[BlackBox Black Technology]]" directly into their minds. From time to time that connection can be established between individual Whispered. ''Every'' Whispered was born on December 24, 1981 (1984 in the anime) between 11:50 and 11:53 PM Greenwich Mean Time.f
* It only affects a small group, but in ''The Girl with the Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, a group of women that try an experimental fertility drug give birth to children with silver eyes who had PsychicPowers. Their powers grow stronger if they work together and a pair can "push" another remotely.
* In ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'', all of the women in the village of Midwich simultaneously become pregnant with [[CreepyChild alien children]] who all share the same uncanny appearance and have the ability to mentally manipulate people. This was adapted into a film, ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'' -- see above.
* Wyndham's earlier story ''Literature/TheChrysalids'' is something of the sort from the viewpoint of the children as their telepathic powers emerge.
* The "blue" children in ''Literature/ManifoldTime''.
* Charlie [=McGee=] in Stephen King's ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'' was the child of two college students who both [[TestSubjectForHire joined a double-blind drug experiment for pay]] and then later married. However, the drug gave them both paranormal abilities, and Charlie has developed powers of her own by the start of the book
* Wilmar Shiras's fixup novel ''Children of the Atom'' (first part published 1948; whole novel, 1953) is based on the notion that after an accidental release of radiation at a nuclear power plant, several dozen female employees give birth to {{mutants}} that are absolutely normal in every way except that all of them have [=IQs=] of over 300.
* In ''Literature/ShadesChildren'', during "The Change", everyone over the age of 14 suddenly disappeared and the mysterious Overlords appeared from nowhere. Children born during or after the Change had "Change Talents", basically PsychicPowers. Those who survived the Change got them too; there are multiple characters (one during the main story and at least one more in flashback) shown to have Change Talents who were definitely born before it.
* ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' sort of fits. [[spoiler:Aliens show up shortly before a bizarre new generation of humans appears, but they didn't cause it. The human race is [[EvolutionaryLevels evolving on its own]], as others have before, and the aliens are here to make this as painless as possible.]]
* In Creator/GregBear's ''Darwin's Radio'' (and sequel), the human race undergoes a disease called "Herod's Flu" because it spontaneously aborts fetuses -- and then the mothers become spontaneously pregnant again. It turns out non-coding introns in human DNA occasionally induce a mass evolutionary change, in this case to adapt us to better live in an information-rich world. This is a case of surprisingly plausible HollywoodEvolution, because Bear [[ShownTheirWork shows his work]]. However, the whole concept of "non-coding" introns has now had to be re-examined as ScienceMarchesOn.
* ''Literature/WildCards'': Though it's not limited to children, those born carrying the Wild Card virus far outnumber the original overt infectees (especially since most of the original group drew the Black Queen and died).
* Franchise/StarTrek novels:
** The ''ComicBook/XMen/Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' has a group of HumanAliens who, at age twenty-two, begin exhibiting destructive powers. They are revealed [[spoiler:to have been genetically engineered as potential {{Super Soldier}}s by aggressive but lazy aliens]].
** Another ''TNG'' novel has a bunch of [[BioAugmentation genetically enhanced Augments]] plotting to produce a Bizarre Baby Boom by infecting normal humans with a virus that rewrites their reproductive DNA to bring the kids up to the Augments' level, thus resulting in a {{Utopia}} of perfectly healthy, super-genius supermen who are neurologically incapable of violence. Since The ST-verse has a strict NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, [[EsotericHappyEnding preventing this is considered a]] ''[[EsotericHappyEnding happy]]'' [[EsotericHappyEnding ending]].

** The 1953 novel ''Mutant'' has the "baldies," [[ChromeDomePsi bald telepathic humans]] who were born after a nuclear war and subsequent fallout.

* The Salman Rushdie novel ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'' has 1001 Indian children with low-level superpowers. The connecting thread between them all is that they were all born at midnight on the day India gained its independence.
* In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', the [[MagicAIsMagicA magical nature of the land]] is such that anyone born there has a magic talent, but no one from [[{{Muggles}} Mundania]] is lucky enough to have one. So, a regular occurrence in the history of Xanth was that a wave of immigrants will come in from Mundania, have kids, usually having married among themselves, and discover that all of their kids have their own magic talents.
* In the ''[[Literature/ParableOfTheSower Earthseed]]'' books, a drug designed to cure mental degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's winds up giving the kids [[TheEmpath "hyper-empathy syndrome"]], which causes them to hallucinate feeling the pain of others.

* Michael Grant's ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' had a portion of the population (all children, because the book starts the moment that [[OnlyFatalToAdults all adults and people over fourteen 'poof']]) develop psychic powers [[spoiler:thus far because a meteorite hit the nearby nuclear plant 13 years prior, scattering radioactive fallout. Now discovered to have been the arrival of an evil alien, which needed the powers of one of the children to free itself and create a new body]].

* In ''Shade'', by Jerri Smith-Ready, 16 years before the start of the story there was the Shift, and all children born after the Shift can [[ISeeDeadPeople see ghosts]] (while the minority who could see ghosts pre-Shift have lost that ability). Ghosts also seem to have changed, becoming purple in color and sometimes going insane and causing sickness in all post-Shift children. [[spoiler:The protagonist was the very first person born before the Shift, and she ends up meeting the very ''last'' person born before the Shift. Both the First and the Last have special powers.]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', there is a variant: Sam [[spoiler:and a bunch of children from his generation were given Demon blood by BigBad Azazel when they were six months old. This gave them a variety of creepy PsychicPowers when they reached the age of 22 -- and were intended to be members of Azazel's army in an ill-defined plan. Turns out Sam is supposed to be the vessel for {{Satan}} himself, and Azazel's a master of the EvilPlan for having run his plan without a hitch (even his death really didn't put a dent in it).]]
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In the episode "The Children of Spider County", several people born around the same time in the same county have grown up to become geniuses.

* In ''Series/TheBoys2019'', super-powered people started to be born around 50 years ago in the US. Everyone claims that it's because they're been "chosen by God", a claim supported by the Vought Corporation that [[CorporateSponsoredSuperhero sponsors many of the superheroes]]. [[spoiler:In fact, Vought injects newborns with [[SuperSerum Compound V]], sometimes with their parents' consent, which is what gives the kids their powers. Compound V can also be used to empower normal humans, while giving it to adult Supes acts like super-steroids (with the same negative side-effects).]]
* In ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'', forty-three woman who were not pregnant that morning randomly give birth to babies, all of whom have some superpower of some sort. The series follows seven of those children who were adopted and raised as siblings, one of whom is powerful enough to end the world.

* In ''[[VideoGame/UFOAfterblank UFO: Aftershock]]'', there are human children who are born with unique abilities, such as PsychicPowers or the ability to adapt to [[{{Cyborg}} robotic implants]]. These children are instantly rejected, giving rise to the Psionic and Cyborg tribes.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': The comic's world had a TheMagicCameBack episode after the [[ThePlague Rash]] appeared. Magery runs in families in Finland and Ensi, who was a baby bump at the time of the outbreak, is mentioned to have been one of the first Finnish mages. This implies magery suddenly started appearing in Finnish children born in the early post-Rash era.
* A series of comics by one 'Enigmatic Envelope', creatively titled ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/enigmaticenvelope/gallery/63238289/the-impregnation The Impregnation]]'', takes this trope ''very'' literally. A young Japanese schoolgirl wakes up heavily pregnant after eating some new, possibly genetically-engineered, type of instant rice. Said pregnancy is apparently ''literally'' contagious, with any woman who so much as gets close to her (schoolmates, her doctor, random passers-by on the street, pop idols, the ''freaking PRIME MINISTER'') instantaneously ending up in the same state, and the same happening with anyone who gets close to ''them'', as well. This, understandably, sends Tokyo into complete chaos, as everyone scrambles to figure out the situation as the number of conceptions grows by the day.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'' it is stated that the dragon prince Azymondias can only be born in the eye of a storm

* In ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'', all of the women in the village of Midwich simultaneously become pregnant with [[CreepyChild alien children]] who all share the same [[UncannyValley uncanny appearance]] and have the ability to mentally manipulate people. This was adapted into a film, ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'' -- see above.

* The "Whispered" of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' possess a psychic connection with an undefined future, which "whispers" the secrets of "[[BlackBox Black Technology]]" directly into their minds. From time to time that connection can be established between individual Whispered. ''Every'' Whispered was born on December 24, 1981 (1984 in the anime) between 11:50 and 11:53 PM Greenwich Mean Time.

* The original explanation for {{Mutants}} (the "Children of the Atom") in ''ComicBook/XMen'' was as a side-effect of [[ILoveNuclearPower atomic bomb testing]]. Later stories stated that while it wasn't the cause of the X-gene (mutants have been around since ancient times) it did cause it to manifest in a larger percent of the population.

* Wilmar Shiras's fixup novel ''Children of the Atom'' (first part published 1948; whole novel, 1953) is based on the notion that after an accidental release of [[ILoveNuclearPower radiation]] at a nuclear power plant, several dozen female employees give birth to {{mutants}} that are absolutely normal in every way except that all of them have [=IQs=] of over 300.

* In Arthaus's 3E ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' products, calibans are supernaturally-mutated humans, altered in the womb by exposure to magic, curses, or the malignant influence of hags. Metagame-wise, they take the place of half-orcs as potential [=PCs=], orcs being unknown in Ravenloft.
* Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE) was the Technobabble term concocted by scientists of the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Verse, to try and handwave why babies all over the world were suddenly being born as elves and dwarves. The term lasted until dragons started showing up in the skies again and the effect tapered off once magic stopped spiking and the number of metahumans had reached sustainable levels.
* In the pulp-era game ''Spirit of the Century'', all the player-characters (and their major opponents) were born on the first day of the century and have a special link to some aspect of the century's communal mindset as a result.

* ''Anime/{{Gilgamesh}}'' features super-powered children born from embryos exposed to AppliedPhlebotinum.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Fanfic/TheAlarmaverse'': ''Twilight Sparkle and the Strange Case of Old Res'': An aftereffect of the Great Bloop: "And, during the following June, July, and August, every foal born to Pasture citizens had red eyes and a silver mane. These "Bloop babies" were unusually long-lived, but otherwise normal ponies."

* Creator/DavidCronenberg's ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' is about a wave o' babies ([[WaveOfBabies not literally]]) with BodyHorror-tastic PsychicPowers. Revok, one of the children of the original boom, is plotting to start a second one, and then create an army of evil scanners and TakeOverTheWorld. And he probably ''could'' do it. [[LeftHanging Maybe he does.]] [[WordOfGod Cronenberg says]] that [[CanonDiscontinuity the sequels aren't considered canon]].

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Logan}}'', where a major part of the plot concerns the fact that mutants have ''stopped'' being born [[spoiler:due to the use of GMO food to suppress the mutant gene in developing children]]. Played straight with Laura and her "classmates", who were genetically engineered to create loyal soldiers with the X-gene. It didn't work.

* It only affected a small group, but in ''The Girl With The Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, a group of women that tried an experimental fertility drug gave birth to children with silver eyes who had PsychicPowers. Their powers grew stronger if they worked together and a pair could "push" another remotely.
* ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'' is a 1957 novel by Creator/JohnWyndham in which all the women in the village of Midwich simultaneously become pregnant with [[CreepyChild alien children]] who all share the same [[UncannyValley uncanny appearance]] and have the ability to mentally manipulate people. This was adapted into a film, ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'' -- see above.

* Charlie [=McGee=] in Stephen King's ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'' was the child of two college students who both joined a double-blind drug experiment for pay and then later married.

* In Garth Nix's novel ''Literature/ShadesChildren'', during "The Change," everyone over the age of 14 suddenly disappeared and the mysterious Overlords appeared from nowhere. Children born during or after the Change had "Change Talents," basically PsychicPowers. Those who survived the Change got them too; there are multiple characters (one during the main story and at least one more in flashback) shown to have Change Talents who were definitely born before it.
* Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' sort of fits. [[spoiler:Aliens show up shortly before a bizarre new generation of humans appears, but they didn't cause it. The human race is [[EvolutionaryLevels evolving on its own]], as others have before, and the aliens are here to make this as painless as possible.]]
* In Creator/GregBear's ''Darwin's Radio'' (and sequel), the human race undergoes a disease called "Herod's Flu" because it spontaneously aborts fetuses -- and then the mothers become spontaneously pregnant again. It turns out non-coding introns in human DNA occasionally induce a mass evolutionary change, in this case to adapt us to better live in an information-rich world. This is a case of surprisingly plausible HollywoodEvolution, because Bear [[ShownTheirWork shows his work]]. Except that the whole concept of "non-coding" introns has now had to be re-examined as ScienceMarchesOn.
* ''ComicBook/WildCards'': Though it's not limited to children, those born carrying the Wild Card virus far outnumber the original overt infectees (especially since most of the original group drew the Black Queen and died).

** Another ''TNG'' novel has a bunch of [[BioAugmentation genetically-enhanced Augments]] plotting to produce a Bizarre Baby Boom by infecting normal humans with a virus that rewrites their reproductive [=DNA=] to bring the kids up to the Augments' level, thus resulting in a {{Utopia}} of perfectly healthy, super-genius supermen who are neurologically incapable of violence. Since The ST-verse has a strict NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, [[EsotericHappyEnding preventing this is considered a]] ''[[EsotericHappyEnding happy]]'' [[EsotericHappyEnding ending]].

* In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', the [[MagicAIsMagicA magical nature of the land]] is such that anyone born there has a magic talent, but no one from [[{{Muggles}} Mundania]] is lucky enough to have one. So a regular occurrence in the history of Xanth was that a wave of immigrants will come in from Mundania, have kids, usually having married among themselves, and discover that all of their kids have their own magic talents.
* In Creator/OctaviaButler's ''[[Literature/ParableOfTheSower Earthseed]]'' books, a drug designed to cure mental degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's winds up giving the kids [[TheEmpath "hyper-empathy syndrome"]], which causes them to hallucinate feeling the pain of others.

* In ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'', telepath Terrence Cee [[spoiler:has inserted the telepathy gene into every one of the female genetic samples sent to the exclusively male-populated planet Athos for their reproductive machines, intending to cause one of these]]. Unusually, protagonist Ethan eventually decides this is a good idea for everyone involved and rolls with it: [[spoiler:with genetic samples having already found their way into the hands of imperialist and generally nasty powers, and Terrence as proof that telepaths are possible, it's only a matter of time before cloned and indoctrinated telepath minorities become government tools. The only way to counter this danger to human freedom is with a race with a free telepath majority]].

* In ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'', forty three woman who were not pregnant that morning randomly give birth to babies, all of whom have some superpower of some sort. The series follows seven of those children who were adopted and raised as siblings, one of whom is powerful enough to end the world.

** The ComicBook/XMen/Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration crossover novel ''Planet X'' has a group of HumanAliens who, at age twenty-two, begin exhibiting destructive powers. They are revealed [[spoiler:to have been genetically engineered as potential {{Super Soldier}}s by aggressive but lazy aliens]].
** Another Franchise/StarTrek TNG novel has a bunch of [[BioAugmentation genetically-enhanced Augments]] plotting to produce a Bizarre Baby Boom by infecting normal humans with a virus that rewrites their reproductive [=DNA=] to bring the kids up to the Augments' level, thus resulting in a {{Utopia}} of perfectly healthy, super-genius supermen who are neurologically incapable of violence. Since The ST-verse has a strict NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, [[EsotericHappyEnding preventing this is considered a]] ''[[EsotericHappyEnding happy]]'' [[EsotericHappyEnding ending]].

* In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', the [[MagicAIsMagicA magical nature of the land]] is such that anyone born there has a magic talent, but no one from [[{{Muggles}} Mundania]] is lucky enough to have one. So a regular occurrence in the history of Xanth was that a Wave of immigrants will come in from Mundania, have kids, usually having married among themselves, and discover that all of their kids have their own magic talents.

* In ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'', telepath Terrence Cee [[spoiler:has inserted the telepathy gene into every one of the female genetic samples sent to the exclusively male-populated planet Athos for their reproductive machines, intending to cause one of these]]. Unusually, protagonist Ethan eventually decides this is a good idea for everyone involved and rolls with it: [[spoiler:With genetic samples having already found their way into the hands of imperialist and generally nasty powers, and Terrence as proof that telepaths are possible, it's only a matter of time before cloned and indoctrinated telepath minorities become government tools. The only way to counter this danger to human freedom is with a race with a free telepath majority]].

* Unexplained Genetic Expression ([=UGE=]) was the Technobabble term concocted by scientists of the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Verse, to try and handwave why babies all over the world were suddenly being born as elves and dwarves. The term lasted until dragons started showing up in the skies again and the effect tapered off once magic stopped spiking and the number of metahumans had reached sustainable levels.

* The superhero MMORPG ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' features an NPC named Fusionette who is one of the ''Nuclear 90'', a group of 90 children who were born in the same year who have superpowers involving nuclear fusion. So far she is the only one of The Ninety to show up in the game. Most or all player characters are also suggested to be the result of a different Bizarre Baby Boom, according to [[AllThereInTheManual the related books]], specifically one tied with the most recent opening of PandorasBox after World War I.

* ''VideoGame/XComApocalypse'' introduces genetic hybrids of humans and the sectoids of the first game. They're some of the best soldiers you can recruit in the game, because of their high level of psi stats and lack of real drawbacks. They have no sinister motives, since the aliens that intended to exploit them were wiped out almost a century earlier, but are still [[FantasticRacism discriminated against]] by the people and government of Mega-Primus.
* In ''VideoGame/UFOAftershock'', there are human children who are born with unique abilities, such as PsychicPowers or the ability to adapt to [[{{Cyborg}} robotic implants]]. These children are instantly rejected, giving rise to the Psionic and Cyborg tribes.

* A series of comics by one 'Enigmatic Envelope', creatively titled, ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/enigmaticenvelope/gallery/63238289/the-impregnation The Impregnation]]'', takes this trope ''very'' literally. A young Japanese schoolgirl wakes up heavily pregnant after eating some new, possible genetically-engineered, type of instant rice. Said pregnancy is apparently, ''literally'', contagious, with any woman who so much as gets close to her (schoolmates, her doctor, random passers-by on the street, pop idols, the ''freaking PRIME MINISTER'') instantaneously ending up in the same state, same with anyone who gets close to ''them'', as well. This, understandably, sends Tokyo into complete chaos, as everyone scrambles to figure out the situation as the number of conceptions grows by the day.

* Due to an explosion caused by the titular character in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', it's explicitly stated that future generation of children will look weirder than they do. That's really saying something considering that [[CrapsaccharineWorld the town of Elmore]] is full of talking donuts, {{Reality Warper}}s, sentient everything and a few [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] thrown in for good measure.

* "Thalidomide children" were born in early 1960s. Maybe as many as 20,000 children were born with birth defects (mostly phocomelia - a disorder which causes stunted limb growth) because their mothers had consumed thalidomide, at the time prescribed as an anti-emetic, during pregnancy.

It's [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the not so distant future]]. Some bizarre event (perhaps a [[ApocalypseHow Global Catastrophe]]) rains down from the heavens to strike an unsuspecting Earth. [[AfterTheEnd It passes]], leaving the shattered fragments of humanity that remain to rebuild their lives, thankful that it is all over.

Some time later, about 10-15 years (or just nine months) after the Event, people start to notice a few ''strange'' things about at least ''some'' of the children now being born into the world. [[ChocolateBaby Their hair and eye color doesn't match that of their parents.]] Odd powers may start to manifest. [[PsychicPowers Telekinesis, teleportation, setting fires with their minds...]] these things come easier to them than riding a bicycle.

Or perhaps their powers are a lot more subtle in nature. Perhaps the only power they were granted was the ability to see extra-dimensional Space-Vampires or to pilot a HumongousMecha of mysterious origin, and now those children are the only ones who can stand between humanity and an otherworldly threat which has cropped up and is now seeking to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

If all of the children are good, you can expect them to be recruited as soldiers or pilots by a shadowy [[GovernmentConspiracy government agency]] which seeks to protect humanity. (At least, that's what they'll ''claim'' to be doing. There's no guarantee that they won't actually try to [[{{Tykebomb}} use the children]] in their ''own'' plot to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.)

If ''all'' of the children are evil, expect them all to be on the same side and to be [[CreepyChild damn creepy.]] More often than not, they'll have wicked powers and much higher intelligence than normal humans, meaning that most conventional forms of fighting will have no effect on them. In most cases, it will require nothing less than a HeroicSacrifice to take them out.

* ''Manga/AliveTheFinalEvolution'' invokes this trope, but doesn't actually use it--the space-beings thud into and apparently fuse with human beings, upon which most of them promptly and joyfully commit suicide. The few who have strong enough will, in some fashion, to survive, get superpowers instead. The persons involved can be any age--the oldest shown was an old blind man--but the main focus is on the new [[{{Tykebomb}} tykebombs]], so it plays out a lot like this trope.

* The "Whispered" of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' possess a psychic connection with an undefined future, which "whispers" the secrets of "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Black Technology]]" directly into their minds. From time to time that connection can be established between individual Whispered. ''Every'' Whispered was born on December 24, 1981 (1984 in the anime) between 11:50 and 11:53 PM Greenwich Mean Time.
* The Twilights of ''{{Manga/Gangsta}}'' are the children of those who used Celebrer, a drug that enhanced strength, speed and agility and was used during wartime. Twilights inherit these traits but are most often affected by genetic, mental and physical deficiencies and are not particularly long-lived (hence the name).

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', about 5 generations before the story began, a baby born in China became the first known occurence of a Quirk-user after they started emitting light. Some time afterwards, a majority of people were born with Quirks, leading up to the present time where about [[EveryoneIsASuper 80% of the population have Quirks]].

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', only children born after the apocalyptic Second Impact can interface with the titular robots. The actual reason WHY it has to be children born after Second Impact is never made clear, though with the secret of the Mechas they're piloting [[spoiler:containing the souls of their dead mothers]] it might be better not to know at all.

* Children from ''Manga/TowardTheTerra'', born naturally on Nazca are all Type Blue and [[spoiler: grow incredibly fast.]] They all share the same slightly sociopathic mentality, which connected with their actions doesn't score them many points with the other Mu.

* The original explanation for {{Mutants}} (the "Children of the Atom") in ''Comicbook/XMen'' was as a side-effect of [[ILoveNuclearPower atomic bomb testing]]. Later stories stated that while it wasn't the cause of the X-gene (mutants have been around since ancient times) it did cause it to manifest in a larger percent of the population.
* There is a Marvel comics RealityWarper known as James Jaspers whose powers in large enough bursts have a side-effect of inducing this. The children affected are called "Warpies" and their mutations are so unstable they don't live very long, often exploding very early in their lives. An X-Men issue dealt with a James Jaspers from a parallel Earth whose only apparent power was reality jumping, the fallout from which caused an entire town in Africa to have similar baby booms.

* The idea with the "Century Babies" in Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'s ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' and ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' is that they represent various aspects of the century in which they are born, but they're actually born in the ''last century''. For example, the 20th century babies were born in ''1900, the last year of the 19th century.'' This point is raised when [[spoiler:Jenny Sparks dies]] at the end of 1999, and it's claimed that it's humanity's collective consciousness that defines the relevant years, even if they're mathematically wrong.

* ''Fanfic/TheAlarmaverse'': ''Twilight Sparkle and the Strange Case of Old Res'': An aftereffect of the Great Bloop: "And, during the following June, July, and August, every foal born to Pasture citizens had red eyes and a silver mane. These “Bloop babies” were unusually long-lived, but otherwise normal ponies."

* Perhaps the first screen media example: ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'', based on Creator/JohnWyndham's novel ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'' (see below), where an entire town loses consciousness for a day, and finds out later that all the women have become pregnant during that time. Followed in 1963 by ''Film/ChildrenOfTheDamned'', and then remade, again as ''[[Film/VillageOfTheDamned1995 Village of the Damned]]'', in 1995.

* Creator/DavidCronenberg's ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' is about a wave o' babies ([[WaveOfBabies not literally]]) with BodyHorror-tastic psychic powers. Revok, one of the children of the original boom, is plotting to start a second one, and then create an army of evil scanners and TakeOverTheWorld. And he probably ''could'' do it. [[LeftHanging Maybe he does.]] [[WordOfGod Cronenberg says]] that [[CanonDiscontinuity the sequels aren't considered canon]].

* It only affected a small group but in ''The Girl With The Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, a group of women that tried an experimental fertility drug gave birth to children with silver eyes who had PsychicPowers. Their powers grew stronger if they worked together and a pair could "push" another remotely.
* ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'' is a 1957 novel by Creator/JohnWyndham in which all the women in the village of Midwich simultaneously become pregnant with [[CreepyChild alien children]] who all share the same [[UncannyValley uncanny appearance]] and have the [[{{Brainwashed}} ability to mentally manipulate people]]. This was adapted into a film, ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'' -- see above.

* Wilmar Shiras's fixup novel ''Children of the Atom'' (first part published 1948; whole novel, 1953) is based on the notion that after an accidental release of [[ILoveNuclearPower radiation]] at a nuclear power plant, several dozen female employees give birth to {{Mutants}} that are absolutely normal in every way except that all of them have [=IQs=] of over 300.

* Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' -- sort of fits. [[spoiler:Aliens show up shortly before a bizarre new generation of humans appears, but they didn't cause it. The human race is [[EvolutionPowerup evolving on its own]], as others have before, and the aliens are here to make this as painless as possible.]]
* In Creator/GregBear's ''Darwin's Radio'' (and sequel), the human race undergoes a disease called "Herod's Flu" because it spontaneously aborts fetuses -- and then the mothers become spontaneously pregnant again. It turns out non-coding introns in human DNA occasionally induce a mass evolutionary change, in this case to adapt us to better live in an information-rich world. This is a case of surprisingly plausible HollywoodEvolution, because Bear [[ShownTheirWork shows his work.]] Except that the whole concept of "non-coding" introns has now had to be re-examined as ScienceMarchesOn.
* ''ComicBook/WildCards''; though it's not limited to children, those born carrying the Wild Card virus far outnumber the original overt infectees (especially since most of the original group drew the Black Queen and died).

** The Comicbook/XMen[=/=]Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration crossover novel ''Planet X'' has a group of HumanAliens who, at age twenty-two, begin exhibiting destructive powers. They are revealed [[spoiler:to have been genetically engineered as potential SuperSoldiers by aggressive but lazy aliens]].
** Another Franchise/StarTrek [=TNG=] novel has a bunch of genetically-enhanced Augments plotting to produce a Bizarre Baby Boom by infecting normal humans with a virus that rewrites their reproductive [=DNA=] to bring the kids up to the Augments' level, thus resulting in a Utopia of perfectly healthy, super-genius Supermen who are neurologically incapable of violence. Since The ST-verse has a strict NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, preventing this is considered a ''happy'' ending.
* Creator/HenryKuttner's 1953 novel ''Mutant'' has the "baldies," bald telepathic humans who were born after a nuclear war and subsequent fallout.
* Kuttner also has a story called "Absalom" where more and more smarter and smarter children are born every generation. There is a problem with the older generations being envious and afraid.

* In Creator/OctaviaButler's ''[[Literature/ParableOfTheSower Earthseed]]'' books, a drug designed to cure mental degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's winds up giving the kids [[TheEmpath "hyper-empathy syndrome"]] which causes them to hallucinate feeling the pain of others.

* Micheal Grant's ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' had a portion of the population (all children, because the book starts the moment that all adults and people over fourteen 'poof') develop psychic powers [[spoiler:thus far because a meteorite hit the nearby nuclear plant 13 years prior, scattering radioactive fallout. Now discovered to have been the arrival of an evil alien, which needed the powers of one of the children to free itself and create a new body.]]
* ''Central Passage'' by Lawrence Schoonover had the American government trying to rebuild after a brief nuclear war, and worried about the potential threat of some oddly mutated children, including the main character's son. A postscript reveals [[spoiler:that the mutants eventually took over. They call non-mutant humans "helots" -- the term the Spartans used for the slaves on whom they periodically declared war as an excuse to murder them.]]
* In ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'', telepath Terrence Cee [[spoiler:has inserted the telepathy gene into every one of the female genetic samples sent to the exclusively male-populated planet Athos for their reproductive machines, intending to cause one of these.]] Unusually, protagonist Ethan eventually decides this is a good idea for everyone involved and rolls with it: [[spoiler:With genetic samples having already found their way into the hands of imperialist and generally nasty powers, and Terrence as proof that telepaths are possible, it's only a matter of time before cloned and indoctrinated telepath minorities become government tools. The only way to counter this danger to human freedom is with a race with a free telepath majority.]]
* In ''Shade'', by Jerri Smith-Ready, 16 years before the start of the story there was the Shift, and all children born after the Shift can see ghosts (while the minority who could see ghosts pre-Shift have lost that ability). Ghosts also seem to have changed, becoming purple in color and sometimes going insane and causing sickness in all post-Shift children. [[spoiler: The protagonist was the very first person born before the Shift, and she ends up meeting the very ''last'' person born before the Shift. Both the First and the Last have special powers.]]

* In ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', some children (including [[spoiler:Olivia]]) were given a drug (made by [[spoiler:Massive Dynamics]]) back in the early 80s. It was meant to enhance their minds. It worked a little too well in some cases, but it also had some unpleasant side effects on several subjects.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', there is a variant: Sam [[spoiler:and a bunch of children from his generation were given Demon blood by BigBad Azazel when they were six months old. This gave them a variety of creepy psychic powers when they reached the age of 22--and were intended to be members of Azazel's army in an ill-defined plan. Turns out Sam is supposed to be the vessel for Satan himself, and Azazel's a master of the EvilPlan for having run his plan without a hitch (even his death really didn't put a dent in it).]]
* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episode "The Children of Spider County", several people born around the same time in the same county have grown up to become geniuses.
* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E20SmallPotatoes Small Potatoes]]" a number of women are giving birth to children with tails, because [[spoiler: they've used a fertility clinic where a mutant works as a janitor. He then used mutant abilities to impersonate the husbands and impregnate the wives. There was also a woman he pretended to be Luke Skywalker with.]]
* In ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'', super-powered people started to be born around 50 years ago in the US. Everyone claims that it's because they're been "chosen by God", a claim supported by the Vought Corporation that sponsors many of the superheroes. [[spoiler:In fact, Vought injects newborns with [[SuperSerum Compound V]], sometimes with their parents' consent, which is what gives the kids their powers. Compound V can also be used to empower normal humans, while giving it to adult Supes acts like super-steroids (with the same negative side-effects).]]
* In ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' forty three woman who were not pregnant that morning randomly give birth to babies, all of whom have some superpower of some sort. The series follows seven of those children who were adopted and raised as siblings, one of whom is powerful enough to end the world.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', biotics (people who can [[MindOverMatter manipulate the mass of objects]]) are the result of in-utero exposure to [[MinovskyPhysics Element Zero]]. A couple of spills resulted in most of the early human biotics being concentrated in a few major cities. Eventually, [[GovernmentConspiracy Cerberus]] stops relying on accidents to [[TykeBomb create super soldiers]]. Plus Element Zero only works in a small percentage - a majority of the people will go through life with no abnormality at all, and most of the rest end up with brain tumors.
* ''VideoGame/XComApocalypse'' introduces genetic hybrids of humans and the sectoids of the first game. They're some of the best soldiers you can recruit in the game, because of their high level of psi stats and lack of real drawbacks. They have no sinister motives, since the aliens that intended to exploit them were wiped out almost a century earlier, but are still discriminated against by the people and government of Mega-Primus.
* In ''VideoGame/UFOAftershock'', there are human children who are born with unique abilities, such as psychic powers or the ability to adapt to robotic implants. These children are instantly rejected, giving rise to the Psionic and Cyborg tribes.

* In the backstory of ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' it's mentioned that the children of the Dark Elves who went underground [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=7&overview=1&chibi=1&cover=1&extra=1&page=1&check=1 were changed]], losing the color in their hair, having darker skin and discolored mouths due to lack of nutrition. The elves saw this as a sign that they were to go extinct, and by the time the story starts they have all but vanished and been replaced by the titular drow. On the other hand, drow who live in surface colonies, taking full advantage of the greater bounty of resources available, eventually give birth to dark elf children.
* ''Webcomic/FreakAngels'' (read it [[http://freakangels.com/ here]]), though the big end-of-the-world event doesn't happen until they're all 17, apparently. [[spoiler:And they caused it, albeit accidentally while defending themselves from a GovernmentConspiracy who were hunting them.]] The story takes place six years after the event.
* ''Webcomic/StrongFemaleProtagonist'' has a world-wide storm that occurred during the (female, strong) protagonist's gestation and granted some percentage of her generation puberty-activated superpowers and deformities.

* WebOriginal/{{Afterworld}}: Some children are born okay after The Disappearance. Some... [[BodyHorror aren't]]. [[spoiler: Her aunt adopts the ugly ball of flesh anyway]].

* Due to an explosion caused by the titular character in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', it's explicitly stated that future generation of children will look weirder than they do. That's really saying something considering that [[CrapsaccharineWorld The town of Elmore]] is full of Talking Donuts, {{Reality Warper}}s, sentient everything and a few [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] thrown in for good measure.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', only children born after the apocalyptic Second Impact can interface with the titular robots. The actual reason WHY it has to be children born after Second Impact is never made clear, though with the secret of the Mechas they're piloting [[spoiler:containing the souls of their dead mothers]] it might be better not to know at all.

* ''Anime/{{Scryed}}'' takes place in a future rocked by a geographical uprising, which has left 1% of the newborn children with the ability to manipulate matter at will and create "Alters", strange creatures that do their bidding. The number rises as the series progresses, evidently a side effect of continued tampering with the power of the other side, which started the whole mess.
* ''Manga/{{Needless}}'' takes place after WorldWarThree in which those born within the "Black Spot" gain superhuman powers.
* ''Manga/PleaseSaveMyEarth'' features the reincarnation of a group of alien scientists after they all die when their civilization ends, and focuses on their lives as typical Japanese teenagers.

* The Diclonius of ''Manga/ElfenLied'', which can intentionally infect normal humans so their children will inherit the mutation.
* Although drugs were involved, all the powerful psychics in ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' are explicitly young people, or awakened to their powers at young age.
* The "Whispered" of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' possess a psychic connection with an undefined future, which "whispers" the secrets of "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Black Technology]]" directly into their minds. From time to time that connection can be established between individual Whispered. ''Every'' Whispered was born on December 24, 1981 (1984 in the anime) between 11:50 and 11:53 PM Greenwich Mean Time.

* ''Manga/AliveTheFinalEvolution'' invokes this trope, but doesn't actually use it--the space-beings thud into and apparently fuse with human beings, upon which most of them promptly and joyfully commit suicide. The few who have strong enough will, in some fashion, to survive, get superpowers instead. The persons involved can be any age--the oldest shown was an old blind man--but the main focus is on the new [[{{Tykebomb}} tykebombs]], so it plays out a lot like this trope.
* The Twilights of ''{{Manga/Gangsta}}'' are the children of those who used Celebrer, a drug that enhanced strength, speed and agility and was used during wartime. Twilights inherit these traits but are most often affected by genetic, mental and physical deficiencies and are not particularly long-lived (hence the name).

* ''Film/MinorityReport'' has the addicts of [[FantasticDrug Neuroin]] giving birth to the Precogs, [[{{Seers}} who can see the future]] - especially murders.
* In ''Film/{{Looper}}'' it's stated that about 10-15% of the population has a mutation called "TK" (telekineses) that allows them to move objects with their mind. At first it's stated that it's essentially AwesomeButImpractical, as most can't do much besides levitate coins, but becomes a bit of a ChekhovsGun once it's revealed that someone is powerful enough in it to use it as a deadly weapon.

* It only affected a small group but in ''The Girl With The Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, a group of women that tried an experimental fertility drug gave birth to children with silver eyes who had PsychicPowers. Their powers grew stronger if they worked together and a pair could [[{{Suggestion}} push]] another remotely.

* Charlie [=McGee=] in Stephen King's ''Literature/Firestarter'' was the child of two college students who both joined a double-blind drug experiment for pay and then later married.

* Some New Age circles believe that the coming of the Age of Aquarius has caused the next generation to be "spiritually gifted". Thus, the "indigo children" phenomenon.

* The premise of ''[[http://www.twindragonscomic.com/comic/the-beginning/ Twin Dragons]]'' is that sixteen years previous one in one thousand births began to produce "hybrids" with varying degrees of animal traits. The protagonists, of course, are fraternal twins who ended up with dragon traits.

* Due to an explosion caused by the titular character in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', it's explicitly stated that future generation of children will look weirder than they do. That's really saying something considering that [[CrapsaccharineWorld The town of Elmore]] is full of Talking Donuts, [[RealityWarper Reality Warpers ]], sentient everything and a few [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] thrown in for good measure.

Some time later, about 10-15 years (or just nine months) after the Event, people start to notice a few ''strange'' things about at least ''some'' of the children now being born into the world. [[ChocolateBaby Their hair and eye color doesn't match that of their parents.]] Odd powers may start to manifest. [[PsychicPowers Telekinesis, teleportation, setting fires with their minds...]]these things come easier to them than riding a bicycle.

Or perhaps... their powers are a lot more subtle in nature. Perhaps the only power they were granted was the ability to see extra-dimensional Space-Vampires or to pilot a HumongousMecha of mysterious origin, and now those children are the only ones who can stand between humanity and an otherworldly threat which has cropped up and is now seeking to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

This often appears a type of MetaOrigin in superhero and superhero-like stories.

Often creates an entire generation of {{Superior Successor}}s.

* The original explanation for {{Mutants}} (the "Children of the Atom") in ''Comicbook/XMen'' was as a side-effect of [[ILoveNuclearPower atomic bomb testing]].
** Later series stated that while it wasn't the cause of the x-gene (Mutants have been around since ancient times) it did cause it to manifest in a larger percent of the population.

* The premise of ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'', the same year "Tusslin' Tom" Gurney knocked out the space-squid from Rigel X-9 with a flying atomic elbow "...forty three extraordinary children were born to mostly single women, who had shown no signs of pregnancy, in seemingly random locations around the world." A wealthy entrepreneur tracked down and adopted seven of these children to raised them as a superhero team.
* The "Century Babies" in Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'s ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' and ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}''. The idea is that they represent various aspects of the century in which they are born, but they're actually born in the ''last century''. For example, the 20th century babies were born in ''1900, the last year of the 19th century.''
** This point is raised when [[spoiler: Jenny Sparks dies]] at the end of 1999, and it's claimed that it's humanity's collective consciousness that defines the relevant years, even if they're mathematically wrong.

* Perhaps the first screen media example: ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960'', based on Creator/JohnWyndham's novel ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'', where an entire town loses its consciousness for a day, and finds out later that all the women have become pregnant during that time. Followed in 1963 by ''Film/ChildrenOfTheDamned'', and then remade, again as ''[[Film/VillageOfTheDamned1995 Village of the Damned]]'', in 1995.

* It only affected a small group but in ''The Girl With The Silver Eyes'' by Willo Davis Roberts, a group of women that tried an experimental fertility drug gave birth to children with silver eyes that had PsychicPowers. Their powers grew stronger if they worked together and a pair could [[{{Suggestion}} push]] another remotely.
* ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'', a 1957 novel by Creator/JohnWyndham, in which all the women in the village of Midwich simultaneously become pregnant with [[CreepyChild alien children]] who all shared the same [[UncannyValley uncanny appearance]] and had the [[{{Brainwashed}} ability to mentally manipulate people]].

* Wyndham's earlier story ''Literature/TheChrysalids'' is something of the sort from the viewpoint of the children as their telepathic powers emerge.
* In a similar example, Wilmar Shiras's fixup novel ''Children of the Atom'' (first part published 1948; whole novel, 1953) is based on the notion that after an accidental release of [[ILoveNuclearPower radiation]] at a nuclear power plant, several dozen female employees give birth to {{Mutants}} that are absolutely normal in every way except that all of them have [=IQs=] of over 300.
* In Garth Nix's novel ''Literature/ShadesChildren'', during "The Change," everyone over the age of 14 suddenly disappeared and the mysterious Overlords appeared from nowhere. Children born during or after the Change had "Change Talents," basically PsychicPowers.
** Those who survived the Change got them too; there are multiple characters (one during the main story and at least one more in flashback) shown to have Change Talents who were definitely born before it.
* Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' -- sort of. [[spoiler:Aliens show up shortly before a bizarre new generation of humans appears, but they didn't cause it. The human race is [[EvolutionPowerup evolving on its own]], as others have before, and the aliens are here to make this as painless as possible.]]
* In Creator/GregBear's ''Darwin's Radio'' (and sequel), the human race undergoes a disease called "Herod's Flu" because it spontaneously aborts fetuses--and then the mothers become spontaneously pregnant again. It turns out non-coding introns in human DNA occasionally induce a mass evolutionary change, in this case to adapt us to better live in an information-rich world. This is a case of surprisingly plausible HollywoodEvolution, because Bear [[ShownTheirWork shows his work.]]
** Except that the whole concept of "non-coding" introns has now had to be re-examined as ScienceMarchesOn.

* The Comicbook/XMen[=/=]Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration crossover novel ''Planet X'' has a group of HumanAliens who, at age twenty-two, begin exhibiting destructive powers. They are revealed [[spoiler:to have been genetically engineered as potential SuperSoldiers by aggressive but lazy aliens]].
** Another Franchise/StarTrek [=TNG=] novel has a bunch of genetically-enhanced Augments plotting to produce a Bizarre Baby Boom by infecting normal humans with a virus that rewrites their reproductive [=DNA=] to bring the kids up to the Augments' level, thus resulting in a Utopia of perfectly healthy, super-genius Supermen who were neurologically incapable of violence. Since The ST-verse has a strict NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, preventing this was considered a ''happy'' ending.

* "Thalidomide children" born in early 1960s. Maybe as many as 20,000 children were born with birth defects (mostly phocomelia - a disorder which causes stunted limb growth) because their mothers had consumed thalidomide, at the time prescribed as an anti-emetic, during pregnancy.
* Another anti-emetic, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol diethylstilbestrol]] (also called DES), caused birth defects including reproductive tract conditions such as "T-shaped" uteruses in baby girls between 1941 and 1971. In some cases, DES also caused some rare cancers, and the effects could be passed on to the children of those exposed.
** DES is quite important in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol#Lawsuits modern history of American tort law]]--all American law students read some of the cases--requiring several developments respecting the statute of limitations (unlike thalidomide, DES defects were generally not discovered until the daughter grew up and found out she couldn't have children), assignment of liability in mass torts (DES was a generic drug, meaning that it was typically impossible to figure out which exact company made the pills that caused the damage), and the use of expert testimony.

* The so-called "Origin Generation" in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' was the result of TheTunguskaEvent. It's called that not only because it signaled the beginning of the "Age of the Superhuman", but because this generation had the highest ratio of superhuman-to-normal births worldwide than any other that has come since.

->''"This was a test campaign used in 1947 to market a new product. The product was a drug, a tranquilizer called 'Ephemerol'. It was aimed at pregnant women. If it had worked, it would have been marketed all over North America. But the campaign failed and the drug failed, because it had a side effect on the unborn children. [[PsychicPowers An invisible side effect.]]"''

* A series of comics by one 'EnigmaticEnvelope', creatively titled, ''[[The Impregnation https://www.deviantart.com/enigmaticenvelope/gallery/63238289/the-impregnation]]'', takes this trope ''very'' literally. A young Japanese schoolgirl wakes up heavily pregnant after eating some new, possible genetically-engineered, type of instant rice. Said pregnancy is apparently, ''literally'', contagious, with any woman who so much as gets close to her (schoolmates, her doctor, random passers-by on the street, pop idols, the ''freaking PRIME MINISTER'') instantaneously ending up in the same state, same with anyone who gets close to ''them'', as well. This, understandably, sends Tokyo into complete chaos, as everyone scrambles to figure out the situation as the number of conceptions grows by the day.

* WebOriginal/{{Afterworld}}: Some children are born okay after The Disappearance. Some... [[BodyHorror aren't]]. [[spoiler:Her aunt adopts the ugly ball of flesh anyway]].

* The premise of ''[[http://www.twindragonscomic.com/comic/the-beginning/ Twin Dragons]]'' is that sixteen years previous one in one thousand births began to produce "hybrids" with varying degrees of animal traits. The protagonists of course are fraternal twins who ended up with dragon traits.

->''"This was a test campaign used in 1947 to market a new product. The product was a drug, a tranquilizer called 'Ephemerol'. It was aimed at pregnant women. If it had worked it would have been marketed all over North America. But the campaign failed and the drug failed, because it had a side effect on the unborn children. [[PsychicPowers An invisible side effect]]."''

Some time later, about 10-15 years (or just nine months) after the Event, people start to notice a few ''strange'' things about at least ''some'' of the children now being born into the world. [[ChocolateBaby Their hair and eye color doesn't match that of their parents.]] Odd powers may start to manifest. [[PsychicPowers Telekinesis, teleportation, setting fires with their minds]], these things come easier to them than riding a bicycle.

Or perhaps... their powers are a lot more subtle in nature. Perhaps the only power they were granted was the ability to see extradimensional Space-Vampires or to pilot a HumongousMecha of mysterious origin, and now those children are the only ones who can stand between humanity and an otherworldly threat which has cropped up and is now seeking to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

Perhaps...the children ''themselves'' are the threat which seeks to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

If ''all'' of the children are evil, expect them all to be on the same side and to be [[CreepyChild damn creepy]]. More often than not, they'll have wicked powers and much higher intelligence than normal humans, meaning that most conventional forms of fighting will have no effect on them. In most cases it will require nothing less than a HeroicSacrifice to take them out.