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.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ILucOjbFs
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL8tE5hyA7E
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc28ZMW9LtI
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWqWYUWE0hR
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0lkvsEqF4d
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRQ6yrcjFD
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVi5DFAtM3H
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwV9oK10MGt
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4p8b8MXa1d
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkKxsa5bs7q
“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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZDLmWH8pW
“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.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XXThdyobi
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TjbOIto5c
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.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexFdtkgHRQ
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.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe77lC3Ng1c
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94paTq7O3Q
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdeh9poaleY
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkVnnmzysr
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpT9xxKrqvU
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRhpMDFwyY
“What about hearts?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3owA4fWwd8
“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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcP2b9ta1jJ
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.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnLTy0x37F
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8PWV3mC38
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡda1e4lXwOy
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.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq36DzlKTsa
“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.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj35dVeDtwm
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4vbiFHdHTC
“You live here?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe6sQqPtg31
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiyausXrBp
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPl7uf88Wmz
“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.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn05OQK7nZU
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwfdit3vfR
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswlGQfoa54
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.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkN5GTaZ9la
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7AHEcAjgQm
“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.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YL6JHVdcF
“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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtYrm1bC2p4
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ85FYDNYAnz
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTRcWb6OXsA
“What kind of powers are they born with?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcahoTFLfq
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9pPfWT7l1Z
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3H5ZiWtxD
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2bsY6YvnX
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.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDm2oeAw0uK
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjpM0pfHMr
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznQSm4PnZy
“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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORbdtNdc7I
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTPdQUdbMt
“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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfM8C18WsXf
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwkL7L5pVO
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1LjpqAZEL
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpIJf21S71
I was dreaming. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0s62YAGNTQ
I had to be. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZL47opW3W
This wasn’t real. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrOvZP7gLfb
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmYLSoL6BLs
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWXZLY92ju
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNtqrFcUdA
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. 531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebE6FOI80b
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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