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.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmM7GaqfN5X
“We better give you the grand tour,” Rim suggested, fishing something out of the many pockets of her belt. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcjWrQogR9D
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLu14vlerGf
“Awesome….” She simply boarded the vehicle like it was the most normal thing. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWdftx5dzP
“Sit behind me,” she ordered, starting up the engine. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQkFkcRkzL
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYOW5yilNI3
“What about you, Lena?” I asked the wizard girl. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYFm3QsXYD
She chewed on her stick. “I need to go.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUi8citJq9Y
Her face was clouded. I thought it would be best if I didn’t ask where she was going. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwbgzGgUH1
“Okay then, we’ll see you later?” She gave a slight nod. Maybe a nervous half-smile. Rim passed me a helmet. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7rdAk20BR
“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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡidfEhYgejq
“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.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXsSahJuY2
“Supernatural abilities,” I summed up. My eyes probed wildly to get a look at everything. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOjSbwsk3Xj
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.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQLPpR5gUzn
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.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFyoK8kh9s
She looked back at me. “You getting all this?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZypOpDqPRE
“Oh sure,” I responded. “Please, go on Professor Rim.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QqCH7DBqd
She scoffed before continuing, pointing to Sector 2. “Chest-naturals have two powers: strength and heart.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKEMlStv6Qv
She thought for a moment. “Your friend, Allen. He’s a chest-natural for strength.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ40p4JNdzsi
I would never look at Allen the same way again. No wonder that guy could play. I reeled my mind back in. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1kcj1eaqc
“What about hearts?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaNIc2kXkY9
“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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjUyIsER1K
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.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjnkuTOEJKM
“Elastic Rim,” I said, remembering the name the computed had given her. That had to be her super name. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdjCUcJB3Lm
A thought occurred to me. “No way, are you really….” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0ZMJCVK8q
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.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76uqX8Fvu5
“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.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs974IxToiK
“Since before I can remember.” She said evenly.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kMj9ZYwcJ
“You live here?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb2Cdk6N919
“Yep. Here, you have two names. My name is Rim, but Elastic-Rim is my hero name. ” She waved to someone on the street.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpPL3r6KomN
“That’s Travis,” she explained. “He’s a stomach-natural.” I busted a laugh. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrgBUmXSSrJ
“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.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNXd5Q3Mfx
I did. “Throwing up is probably not a problem either, right?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLanFoSCcY
“EW! I’m going to toss you off this thing,” she threatened, turning a street corner. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCRJLyQlU6
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.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3dUuQLYXbj
“Who lives here?” Rim turned, surprised as if she drove through here a lot and forgot to look at the mess. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhlT3il0DT
“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.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxnz98DDdGO
“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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmUsNHqBp6
Rim was silent for a moment. “Ultra-naturals are really rare. They only pop up when the world really needs them.” 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo9L7VfeQsS
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTY2S9YLHs
“What kind of powers are they born with?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpiQA2TfXXF
“Powers? You never know with ultra-naturals. Time, Natural Forces, Invisibility…..” She caught herself, rushing on. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXsawn8KMG
“Basically anything. There hasn’t been an ultra-natural in…a long time. Let’s be happy.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JEqtnavDO
“What do you mean? It sounds cool. Anyone would want to be one,” I mused.500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXPx9nvNA61
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.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHY373LJ9A6
“Huh?” She stared me down. The electric blue eyes made it intense. “You don’t want to be one.”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbJhwyBeC4
“I never said to me!” I defended, half lying because I thought it was cool. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe62jxxQLzQ
“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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Sfjj15oKn
I was confused. “Enemies? Like the ones that tried to get me in the gym?”500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83acLIu0rm
“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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡykksbdloYv
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtbnKBXwIB
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qdx5rNQbu
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqqOkUdjNa
I was dreaming. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4sCUI6FGI
I had to be. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRJumuV3WK1
This wasn’t real. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiCDolzUxbd
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡocyy9re8gO
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ89uSBxj39e
“You ready for a surprise?” She asked rhetorically. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTom5wZjRiL
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. 500Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj8DmP1vdZZ
I knew this “quiz” could possibly be code for “your doom”.
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