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.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtJkflj1woS
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxXkSi6V67
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0rwtqoC4Hb
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNFo6i4UNA
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBSKcP2VRtr
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIFnIwo4a3T
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRIP4W8PVA
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBfKxDhESF7
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KKB1xaCp4
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXrvQye41I9
“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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj3CmNzKhHL
“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.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs5ZSkrCHvc
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrASeGm9vL3
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.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHJVgdRPdlw
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.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqAUMdL7s9
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJXo1MUTUw
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTEhUtn3Ux
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnvwYieXD9
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZHUZQJTTuI
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3M4iGEKHA
“What about hearts?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSnz5CMw7M
“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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9uxfWwBzyq
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.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraUWX00IGi
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4a1y6KdLq
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjicwaRcVMi
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.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbGU1owFaN
“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.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuGfNsTXmTw
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLfVZG2cDVD
“You live here?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvbVPtJNpg
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfs8mACNHEq
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1w0XsEYWwU
“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.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbcQxYBY49K
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgqYk2A8Kv
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzxrD2JOtQ
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.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yIEVgrR9T
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2I1NKeuAq
“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.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPaqse3pFT
“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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdDqeTWApFy
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8k10EUEVQL
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7cqYFi2q6J
“What kind of powers are they born with?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6i7a6HCe2
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyj9BvDNd6
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLM8WAKCrSq
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdiuvPhObdC
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.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tkPZcwtd2
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOGZPghKCAf
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NQWZJnS5d
“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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa92jh9i1o3
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZcDMYI4b5U
“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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9hJrETbq7
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ODXAwrAkH
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlmPHwPZcr
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0PcuvKLKZ
I was dreaming. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS6acoK7Au3
I had to be. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8OgooOjSvd
This wasn’t real. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiewIF2kbK
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBto9Zg0Dk
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4NV7cE4Ib
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeD1pgRj7A
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. 571Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCy7g3DaXl
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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