Super Natropolis was massive. It was in the shape of a snowflake. A central citadel was surrounded by six divisions, each stranger looking than the next. One had tall buildings with a large base. Another’s buildings were circular.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJwTOZDyb45
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCybAa8oHR
She picked out something the size of a microchip and tossed it in the air. It folded out and expanded until it became a small motor scooter. I stared at it for a long time, completely stunned. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1btFLDrdUG
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbWYD58d3j
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFz1DLxfigj
I did as I was told, swinging my legs to sit behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. It felt awkward, as I didn’t know her well, but I had a feeling this thing might leave me in the dust if I so much as let go. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZudWHoVWHn
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu3lwcSiNGA
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9G1kkadfNC
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtABfNh8Ikx
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8bvyqbg7q
“You might need this.” I barely had time to put on my new headgear before we were off. Rim looked around as she drove, making me wonder how safe the bike was. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcOfn5opNW
“Welcome to Super Natroplis, home of the Super Naturals. You see, every once in awhile, babies, or people in general, are born with advanced abilities in certain areas of the body. There’s a legend that says it started a long time ago when some mad scientist tried to enhance his DNA to make himself ultra-powerful. Apparently, it didn’t go as planned, but it was passed on through his genealogy, and thus the term Super Naturals was born.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEhcwRCdnt
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rY7t3xeZk
Rim nodded and continued. “Sometimes it’s really common, like when some people are better in class than in the gym or vice versa. Here, we divide it up into six sections.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNsocmMD9i
She pointed to the first sector. “Head is the largest, as it has the most abilities linked to it. The brain-naturals are sometimes linked to things such as intelligence, telepathic commutation, physic visioning, healing, telekinesis, magic, and so on. Then you have the other head things, such as the nose. I’m not kidding. My friend is a nose-natural, and his sonic sneezes are explosive. You also have ears-naturals, who can hear from far distances and eye-naturals with X-ray and laser vision.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtSOxKSWIo
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpJf1EfsRg
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXD9xRwpld9
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9STsju8by
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm91ED3F9sf
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ49zDUNCpbG
“What about hearts?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzMf1sUoXb
“Don’t mess with them. They’re obsessed with beauty and romance and they’re good at it too. They love gossip.” Rim snickered like she remembered a related comic moment. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MSucpX3PL
She pointed to the next sector with tall buildings with a wide base. “Next is leg-naturals, like yours truly. We specialize in speed and flexibility.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2q7YMgO9cP
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBW2lpGB7K
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjIv3pnjUs
She grinned and without breaking a sweat, kicked out her leg, which wrapped around a lamppost. It stretched like rubber as it circled around the lamppost before retracting. I stared as her leg went back to normal.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD36p2dCrd5
“That’s how you switched with Lena in the car. You’re ultra-flexible?” She nodded. I asked her how long she’s known about it.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqD1PO8QL32
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWkXmYI12K
“You live here?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUxicb9EnOM
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSQzCgZCbn
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPdIHpKh38
“I’m serious! They’re resistant to natural hunger and thirst! Don’t judge! You’d dream of having that if you were on a deserted island. Think about it.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0qiu57IRt
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtMdc2Qwgpj
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHHi4FsDPgV
We began to drive through an old rickety town. The paint job was messy and some of the weird-shaped buildings looked almost rusty as if no one wanted to fix it. I wrinkled my nose.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUkLo8vMnCv
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEb4Tu7CIC
“This is the Ultra-natural part of town.” She said the name as some type of virus. “Ultra-naturals are extremely powerful. They often have one or more extreme powers. Exceedingly dangerous.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHGPx5PlHd
“So….why don’t they use their quote “extreme powers” to clean up the place? It looks almost…deserted.” I pointed to the nearest street, which looked like the residence of a hurricane victim. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kwgZ1Nw3n
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLZmY861H8
I got a crazy image of a really muscular guy in a jumpsuit popping out of the ground, shaking my head. I tried to think of something educated to say. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QbMwAuNvL
“What kind of powers are they born with?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡim85NSmHJ3
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsDPOsHwoyk
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBI612o5Jmr
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xWzzDV7uj
With that, she slammed the brakes. I raised an eyebrow. She turns to me and grabs me by the shoulders. “You don’t mean that.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9a6rA5zM9o
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRcbEBk6qR
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnKStKbXcDB
“You said ‘anyone’ as in ‘you.’” She sighed painfully. “Look, it’s dangerous. You get hunted, you get caught, and the thing about ultras….they don’t last long. Put in horrible danger by our enemies.” Her expression was sad. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyvJsFRBJa
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZFeRMFv9G
“It’s not safe to talk about them here. Come on. This place scares me.” She bit her lip and turned her key, the engine of her scooter humming to life. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgf8YHQdOil
She wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the trip. Was it something I said? I still didn’t understand how I belonged here. It was all so bizarre, like something out of a fairytale. I looked at my own hands. They didn’t look like something….not human. In fact, they looked weak and less powerful than I expected. I wasn’t a superhero. I was just a regular kid. A kid named Blake, who had a mother and a father. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iRfGOLLZu
Well, he never knew his father, but that was another story. He went to school and played volleyball and skateboarded with his buddy Allen. I could never be one of these. I realized fully for the first time that Allen was a super natural. I mean, it made sense and all. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHYweqQt3R
He was strong and undefeated in volleyball. That kid I met in the gym with the sports goggles…..he was something else. This? This wasn’t something I was expecting. I pinched myself in the arm, hard. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8kRzcfjUuL
I was dreaming. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡneZebLgMRp
I had to be. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeo0a4iELx1
This wasn’t real. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOsePMp1Zto
I looked at some kids hanging out by a café. Two boys were trying to grab their sodas out of the air, while a girl laughed, a weird glow settling around her, her fingers touching the sides of her head as if she was levitating them. The weird just gets weirder. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2cAlzZWNeX
Along with the residential buildings, Super Natropolis also had some awesome places to have fun, like rock climbing walls the size of skyscrapers, and big fields and parks. I glanced at Rim in the rearview mirror. She looked angry and hurt, but she wouldn’t let me ask what was bothering her. She shut me out and kept driving. Something pops up on her dashboard, but I can’t see what it is. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡitlRh9RsNx
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡezdlTZcFYL
I asked her what it is. She told me it was time for me to take a pop quiz. Judging by the powers in the town, I wasn’t particularly excited. 553Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtbA9CCVU4
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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