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.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0y9rm3XdIo
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCMpf4nEwI
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLXKHvFpqeX
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNufMo00iX9
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEdkvQF6Cv
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGppnkXzYsO
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrS2fQIuhsD
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJCpPRjsNMl
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTTdcSCn78K
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ29FPtRtKwQ
“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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXO4mEaZYmF
“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.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGHL5OSTh9
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8cirMHoxC
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.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnVzRDBbcGn
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.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLdD3bpPci
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbo7oSXerTJ
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6JxUCmhCyx
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6Hja0a6DT
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6oGDTkw2Ta
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoq1JZhM8l
“What about hearts?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfL05i93wv6
“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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZe4xr4bhbw
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.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGkM8nZDzR8
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfLNi8ftE8
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09R2oj7kHy
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.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOkOQbt0GEk
“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.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT12UnjPGXJ
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9frLTTZ0ff
“You live here?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUMXmg8QJM1
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6WzXA3QJm
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxblb1VuQXO
“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.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6DclxmoHv
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLiJjkWbiR
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwbY3MrMGOx
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.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMagKEAe1op
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRhWAuPC5l
“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.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWOTA1uSnAx
“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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlDzRR5Pfj
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6JuB21V3jA
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSMCZJ0UoR
“What kind of powers are they born with?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoQYTW7Lpm
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYV5nHTfIg
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrrrH0il9NK
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJCAQNeMARb
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.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6uNkP3sqE
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwBcA2RvWY
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPQgnF5Yvo
“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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIvOGW2U01
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHGdzFPT2B
“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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1cLMCeL9h
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zP8f4e021
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YvxCrHFHr
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrzuT4wwGBu
I was dreaming. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQ2Q0OLKRN
I had to be. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAVsAmumCc
This wasn’t real. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHNKWWFhq1
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWEUlbG92Od
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe9VdN6nfbY
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QCr3MUhqZ
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. 438Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuk11MKhYYy
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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