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.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5puG5OvXrC
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyS1DU6a9n
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORzYGuP0si
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1NFPSd8Pe
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMpJjC8w9d
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqq6iB7ops
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU8OyiIN6O4
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIOGtnzKsH
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ613FPBdsFs
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS6eY3SfLML
“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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRhcelDTrZ
“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.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRFktzWK2A
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjC4ucrYvzz
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.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhKBzYYvMC
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.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Qwuy0uo0S
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnoVFB95LF
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxno0f8flTz
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHP5kOLeWW
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmKCgUHxj5c
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoOR7Qz6ml6
“What about hearts?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9TwIz8iR8M
“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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtE8XksFlNN
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.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcSpGHfXYT
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZKaaXBN5wU
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRagqkkVScm
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.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSWwIeMpKmA
“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.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tgSl7hpg6
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7tE9yOIx6
“You live here?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnYaazcaOWA
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpnldeTPyb
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWER4yjEimZ
“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.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpORp685Bp8
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZHq5m9nTl
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAM51KIp3FE
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.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCsDhZtRrE7
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGLMUgLhtNX
“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.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNOzkkX4Fng
“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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWMrJx2k18
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANdVSgkyp1
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWhfWDq2xA
“What kind of powers are they born with?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡle5OkjLl0I
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykbDgCl9yR
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6DGYsJTgn
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4jUdvtWG6R
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.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD41WvCYhYA
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgDb8jBVKCr
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xNUIEOoO6
“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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1bxupREgM2
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm9FOhTAoY8
“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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RIq43gtJ0
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtgkfnmOfy
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8UlEmvkUd
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAALUL7Hdua
I was dreaming. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8EELYjaEFs
I had to be. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIEGK3EO33I
This wasn’t real. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbXtRcPGZR
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNldwxbCE67
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1U2GtjaBFK
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjRgKc0Fh9
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. 418Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJN5hagZmjP
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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