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.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEeFuWZ6gmI
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVfE4a4HyE
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQlANXrbXyd
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEFX9vClYc
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTkL3NnnvLU
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeXwu1F0odu
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9xuBm3iaF
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbIYUdABkP
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBeLjHVVuxq
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0JgSd8GVYn
“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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUiVMLw6OpB
“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.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoptSebyOqT
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5v0wBtAHq0
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.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZonYfK6hPe
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.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhtDh0pcSZ
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BiXx7qqah
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWWwbqNsFlF
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3CjbVlaHff
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ElatWKj8Q
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGXemoJmUl
“What about hearts?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5f7ADtT2M2
“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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGu46sissY
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.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSv9n3h0kxF
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIBrJOIFJ0
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26fO5EOBHH
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.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnQtTihMjz
“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.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3muZDnj2Hh
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnK40FPAhIQ
“You live here?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm7ZByzrdsk
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBeFvI2d2r4
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo2MaAgDWJV
“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.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1YJ8Le6Gp
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5sDrFC2RXw
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi8NBqbsYRr
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.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gYOGZ31JX
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfo9jOCaBl
“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.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHpR2tj3IS
“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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvjBKLK9dFL
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmCUAq8tH9
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOEMLGHWR2K
“What kind of powers are they born with?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBLjOappAQb
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYuELUo9ex
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9shSmAu9gy
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDyjDz9GFXO
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.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMWSa2jWAu
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdumPZF0zC5
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡouBibR4wza
“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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgnqH0nnZV
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zc0pdGgB0
“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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd1sIMuj5FZ
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcjQ2lA3RC
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL77zzLOJLp
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKNWfT0hAbs
I was dreaming. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBIk00AtlL
I had to be. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK0a6THLohw
This wasn’t real. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNepDxEvvX
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrbzWoWIrc
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMbYRYqDqP
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwRIxkBRV6Z
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. 448Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81dRrwTNAl
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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