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.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJBAHGseEN
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡquUT3Cw3N6
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DCdgwtOX2
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUbuDgjpaz
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwCnrwRUbF
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnHbcpPHDF
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0hTn2OzKS
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IpB48hUMP
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsRmIY51ru
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoi2jeMDe7
“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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnmfnNZ3i58
“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.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvH7eH05PTd
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPTSfTGu6i
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.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡubt1CjHutz
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.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfohZL2UU3n
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4PhEdEUAQ0
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMDTqhTT2nX
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajESRq5m6n
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwy7aoglgvM
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfxiz9L2F3Z
“What about hearts?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFGGh7IyMq7
“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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqeidlaSVZ0
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.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtUYttHnA1
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsO4m2htrYP
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDIVUSuoLM
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.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2HvyvK9tr
“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.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNYxPhJKn9g
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡathMce2yeN
“You live here?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtk4Aq5H8Uu
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1CuywWFRv
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaibJJJzNF
“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.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKzCaqqIaC3
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7rmmt8Glm
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEDTa1VSJb
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.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAKJc1Ux5iV
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpQw89fcQsk
“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.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuYdmALSyB
“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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUlXNlwd34G
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfFMsQAD7m2
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡof722rVUSX
“What kind of powers are they born with?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2p9zCZrvl2
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTy28MFQw2
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUReHNrGONQ
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyugsusDMb7
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.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡayhLj4JglD
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffkDECGIq4
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjfSioxwqfM
“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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI8axNskTEt
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipp84cCPfU
“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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbEpQPrkK4
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2qqflPZMn6
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaj2XLSJcZa
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBwG0TOJix0
I was dreaming. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHl5nZUWNgf
I had to be. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0NB1Ww74r
This wasn’t real. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNj8DYhehyo
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTOb1lRPZz
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTtipFEg8D
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjm1qwgZzR
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. 489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU0YnOAupQj
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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