The world around me is so vivid it’s amazing. I’ve never had perfect vision to begin with and my eyes only got worse as I grew older. But now as a baby my vision is perfect, and honestly, it’s a little weird. I enjoy my vision, but it’s a little lackluster because I can’t seem to move a single part of my body. My legs and arms are practically jelly and I’m afraid to try to roll around because I might hit the soft part of my skull on something.

So far all of my time has been spent in a small crib located in a shockingly small room which I’m pretty sure is a closet. There’s not even a single window in here and there aren’t any lights leaving me in darkness for most of the day. Mom doesn’t take me out of my crib often; she really only does when my shit starts smelling too bad. Sometimes she forgets to feed me, but it’s whatever. My life right now is a bland excuse of one and I hate to admit it but I’m beginning to dread everything.

---Flashforward About a Year---

Ever since I have learned to walk my life has taken a huge qualitative leap. I say walk but it’s more like a slightly sped up hobble. Still, it is better than not being able to move at all. And I can finally move around and see stuff which means I can see what’s up with this new place I’ve been born into. I’m really lucky because I don’t have to worry about my mom or dad because they’re always out at their respective jobs and my brother and sister are at school for most of the day.

I hobble over to the couch and click the on button on the remote with my stubby little fingers. I lay into the soft couch and click on the news channel. ‘This TV thing is really amazing. I wonder how they keep so many people in such a small container’. Since I’ve learned to turn on the TV watching it has become quite the past time for me. *shik* That and making toast. I lay on the carpet floor and roll over to the tiled floor where the kitchen is and roll around the island expertly to where the toaster is. “...Jona Hughes here with the local news today we have an amazing story of a young hero...” I start stacking up a few pots and pans then stand on them to grab my toast. Taking the butter I hid in the bottom part of the fridge I rub a fingers worth of it over my toast. Knives are too hard for me to hold right now. “...Paul Wickman just barely saved his classmates at the prestigious Ridix Academy from imminent catastrophe with his A-grade power ‘Heat Absorption’...” Looking over at the TV I roll over to the couch as fast as possible. My sister goes to Ridix I wonder what happened.

“Ridix Academy was quite lucky to have a Mr. Wickmen in their ranks when the extreme pyro-terrorist ‘Heat-Meister’ decided to attack. Apparently, Mr. Wickmen had used his power to absorb all of the assailants' fire and body heat; effectively freezing the villain alive. Through some brief investigative tactics the police have determined that ‘Heat-Meister’ was actually a Ridix dropout ‘Sidmund Buck’ who had to leave due to a training accide-...there were no casualties.”

“Phew.” I was getting a little worried there. I sit back deeper into the couch and suck on a piece of my toast because it hurts to chew. It did not take long for me to realize that I lived in a new world. My new world is completely different; it is one of superpowers, fabled heroes, and atrocious villains. It is so futuristic I still can’t quite wrap my head around it and I don’t think I ever will. It is nothing like my old world, a world of mana and monsters. In this world, the people are the monsters. This crazy place called Earth seems to hold something for me my old one never did, but I just don’t know what it is yet. ‘I have become quite a bit more optimistic since my death.’I note listlessly. Is that a bad thing though?

I wonder if my Mom and Dad are rich or something and that’s why they always work. Most likely not. They probably work to support my two siblings and I. Going to Ridix is without a doubt really expensive even with my sister’s scholarship. Now that I think about it that’s probably why we’re living in this shitty apartment with only two rooms and the ‘living room’. It turns out I really do sleep in a closet while my sister and brother sleep together in a small room. *Click* The door knobs turns and I look over my shoulder towards the sound and nearly have a heart attack. I hope a one year old turning on the TV by himself is regular.

Honey, did you get home before me?” A feminine voice echoes through the mostly empty apartment. Like any one year old who’s afraid of being caught red handed I pretend to fall asleep. Or maybe that’s just me as a one year old. I hear footsteps walk over to the TV and turn it off.

“Why was the TV on god dammit I told Daniel to turn it off he is in so mu- how did Tom get out here? He looks so cute when he sleeps with those pudgy little cheeks. I hope he wasn’t watching the news there have been a lot of terrorist attacks recently. I should move him back to his crib...whatever I might as well let him sleep there while he can we’re going out soon anyway.” Mom thought aloud as she roamed through the house complaining about how everything was left out. She clearly had a stressful day.

A few minutes later Dad enters the house with Daniel and Mia and Mom seems to be riled up about something. They all notice Mom almost immediately and take off their shoes in a hurry. Daniel sits on the couch next to me and Mia sits on the armrest next to us. Dad goes up to Mom and kiss her and ask her how she’s doing but she doesn’t seem to be having it.

“Which one of you wants to tell me why I found a stick of butter on the floor, the fridge open, and toast crumbs everywhere?!” Mom yells in a beyond exasperated voice. Shit, I totally forgot to clean up my tracks because of the news!

“It wasn’t me Mom! It was probably Mia she’s the one who eats toast every morning!” Daniel retorts back. He always has been a bit of a snitch. Probably a by-product of being ignored by Mom and Dad. Along with being the forgotten middle child all the attention is snatched up by Mia because she turned out to have an A++ power.

“I did not! I had cereal just like you!” She’s not lying she has Nut Honey Cereal every morning. Not very nutritious if you ask me.

“Harold, what do you have to say about this?” Mom looks to Dad with a glare I don’t even need to see to know is there.

“One of you will have to speak up or both of you will be in big trouble.” Dad says in his loud scary voice. I close my eyes slightly tighter and curl up even more. My brother must have looked over to me because what he said next I would hold against him for the rest of his life.

“Mom I think I see crumbs on Tom’s cheeks.” Oh my god you fucking snitch. When I get older I’m gonna beat the shit out of him.

“Yeah, I think I see some too.” Mia you fucking smartass no good bitch face how could you. And you were my favorite sibling.

“Oh, don’t you try to pin this on Tom he can barely walk straight for christ sake how would he make toast.” Mom I love you so much.

“I don’t know honey I think I see some crumbs too.” Dad, no Harold what the fuck? What about bro code.

“Ah-shit look at the time. Forget showering everyone get in your dress clothes it’s time for Daniel’s awakening. You all have ten minutes we have to be at the town center at noon!” Mom realizes the time and quickly forces them to get into their dress clothes. It is eleven thirty so I’m assuming we live pretty close to the town center. That or Mom is bad at time management. After a bunch of rustling everyone rushes out into the hallway and lines up military style. Mom picks me up and puts me in a onezee suit. Apparently I’m going with them. She walks down the line and stops at my brother adjusting his tie and smiles when she was done.

“Mom I didn’t have toast I swear.” Daniel whines not realizing how little of a deal it really is. Daniel tends to overthinks the little things and has a bad nail biting problem. With his awakening today the nail-biting has gone up a lot of factors. These are just a few things I’ve noticed over the past few months. He also has a crush on a fourth grader while he is only a third grader and he is extremely self-conscious about it. Mei is more reserved then Daniel but she also has her problems. For example, she is very stressed all the time but our parents refuse to acknowledge it. I am really worried about her actually.

Mom continues down the line and when she nods satisfactorily she carries us out the door and for the first time I’ll be able to see the outside world. What was out there did not disappoint me. I saw towering buildings that covered for as far as I could see and people bustling everywhere. A lot more people than in my old village, no a lot more people than even the royal palace. Some people weren’t even human or even humanoid. There were a couple of bipedal dogs walking around in tuxedos and it is honestly super cute. My eyes flutter as I take in everything in awe as we make way to our old family carriage. The lights are so disorienting and why is everything made out of metal and brick? What are these rodes even made out of? I have so many questions but no one to answer them. We get in the car and Mom hands me off to Dad. I look up to the sky like I tend to when I need to think and notice it is gray and cloudy. I guess some things never change no matter where you are. The carriage starts up with an unsettling rumble and Mom inputs something into the horseless carriage starts up and mom inputs something into the light up panel. Then it heads off and oddly Mom doesn’t seem to need to steer the carriage. It seemed to do it by itself. I don’t trust it; the whole carriage with no horse thing makes me uneasy. I hope I can fly when I awaken so I don’t have to ride in vehicles. Actually, a lot of people don’t ride in vehicles because their superpower is faster.

---A few minutes of speeding to the town center later---

“Hurry up guys we’re late!” We hustling after Mom and find ourselves in a bustling room full of Moms and a bunch of other kids that look around Daniel’s age. We quickly funnel into the building and find a corner in the packed room. There appeared to be an auditorium where everything was being held but space in the room disappeared long ago. For a couple more minutes everyone kept on talking until suddenly the loudspeaker came on with a screech.

“Hello everyone I hope you are as happy and excited as I am to be here! Because today is the day your child awakens to his or her true potential and starts on their road success.”

*Cheers* even my mom and dad started cheering, but that only made Daniel more nervous and quite frankly it made me nervous. Does this event determine your entire life?

“Okay everyone settle down we are going to try to get through as everyone as fast as possible because we all know how tedious it can be waiting for your child to come up. Like every year we are going to be going through everyone by random choice.”

“I hear they actually didn’t use to go by random choice but through everyone's last names alphabetically, but then everyone started choosing last names that began with ‘A’ and everything got confusing when two kids with the same first name and last name got called up.” My sister whispers to my brother. Mom flicks Mia on the neck and returns her attention to the loudspeaker.

“Children when you come up to the stage all you have to do it touch the gem in the center of the podium and a card with the name of your power on it will be distributed to you. On the back of it will be a brief description of what your power does. Then please get off my stage because we have a lot of people waiting behind you. That is all.”

“Will Andre Beckham please come up to the page…”

---An Eternity Later---

“Mom I got an S class power! It says I am an avatar master of all four…” A weird bald kid went practically screaming to his mom. A bunch of people looked at him in awe and a few of the school ambassadors went over to him to give him their card. My sister has fallen asleep in Dad’s lap and it was Mom’s turn to hold me. But she has been dangerously close to falling asleep and the only thing keeping her awake is Daniel’s constant bantering. I for one am just excited to learn about all the possible powers. So far there have been powers from extending one’s fingers to changing skin tone and some people have a power that needs an impossible condition to be met and is entirely useless. For example, there was this one dude who had super strength, but every time he wanted to activate his power he would have to eat an entire can of raw spinach. He pobably ate it straight from the can with no salt or anything *blegh*.

---Another Eternity Later---

“And finally Daniel Thompson will you please come up to the podium.” Daniel’s eyes flicker awake immediately as he hears his name and he gets up in a hurry. He looks both ways fast and the finally realizes what’s happening. I chuckle in my head and watch him go up onto the podium. He reminds me a lot of Annette whenever he gets flustered like that which is kind of weird considering he’s my brother.

“Mumma...mumma...mum...mummy.” I pinch Mom’s cheeks to wake her up and point to the auditorium. She catches Daniel walking in there nervously just in time and gets up to follow him. She wakes everyone else up and we follow behind Daniel. Stopping at the bottom of the auditorium Daniel looks back at us and we all smile back towards him. Which probably looked weird coming from me. He gets up on stage and we watch him put his hand on the gemstone. It flashes brightly for a quick second and we all look in amazement, and the old man that was announcing the whole event just smiles in the background. He looks a little impatient, but that is really understandable. My brother pulls out his card and smiles at first but then frowns when he flips the card over to read the description. I feel my heart clench for him and I pray for it to not be anything too bad.

Daniel jumps off the stage on the verge of tiers and rushes over to Mom. Mom is prepared and hands me off to Dad who promptly hands me off to Mia who hands me off to the ground. Sitting on my caboose I wonder what type of power Daniel got. Daniel rushes up to Mom hands his card to her and buries his head into her pants. While he drowns out his cries into Mom’s pants Mom take the time to read the card. She looks shocked for a brief second then she reads the description and just smiles.

“Daniel stop your crying this instant.” Mom commands Daniel and Daniel follows suit almost instantly.

“Mmm.”

She smiles at Daniel.

“I always knew you were my smart little boy.”

“Mmmhm” The only thing that has ever been able to consistently make Daniel smile often is Mom. She always seems to know what to say to the hyper-attentive boy to take his mind off things. I never had a wife to help take of Annette but I’m sure if I did she’d have known just what to say as Mom does now too.

Looking around from the floor I see the man approach us and introduce himself.

“Hello everyone I’m Mr. Wyatt and who may you all be?” He said politely while looking at us with a courteous smile.

“I’m Annette this is Harold and these are my to children.” Oh that is fucked. That is so fucked. I never knew her name was Annette what the fuck. Everyone always just called her Mom, why is this bomb being dropped on me now of all times? Seriously though that’s fucked.

“Go on kids introduce yourselves.”

“H-hi I’m Mia Thompson.”

“Hello I am Daniel Thompson.”

“TOM!” I yell out in my baby voice while laughing and giggling eliciting a few chuckles at my baby antics. I really am a good actor by the way; having to act nice around the people you hate for years tends to help your skills. The old man just laughs and starts talking to mom.

“These are quite the kids you’ve got Annette.”

“Yes I know…”

I zone them out and realize the stage has been left completely unattended to. I look back at the family and see them all distracted, Mom’s talking to old dude, Dad’s asleep, and Daniel and Mia are talking about his power. Which appeared to be some mind enhancement thing. I look back to the stage and see that gemstone unattended. It would be a shame if I didn’t at least try to see what my power is right? I’ve waited here for so long so there is no point in waiting any longer to see what my power is.

I give the go ahead for operation roll to the cool gem and see what my powers are and I proceed to discretely roll down the amphitheater type auditorium hallways until I come to a crashing halt. I realize I’m at the bottom of the stage and I need to somehow climb up on top. Looking up the stage looks so much higher than it did before but that doesn’t stop me. I roll over to the stairs as fast as I can. Which is pretty slow. I look back and see that everyone is still distracted, but the old man looks likes he’s getting tired of talking to Mom. Looking up the steps they look humongous but at least these are plausible. I reach up both my arms onto the first step and use them to leverage the rest of my body on the step. Then...I pull my leg up onto the step. Oh no! My other leg weighs me down and I start slipping from the step! At the last second I clench my hand on the edge of the step and pull the rest of my body up. I’m exhausted from the effort but I realize if I want this operation to succeed I have to act fast. I repeat the same steps with the other steps and I proceed without a hitch. I have become a stair climbing master. I go into rolling mode and barrel roll over to the podium. Now is the time for the true challenge. I have to climb up onto the podium and somehow touch the gemstone. Luckily for me, the announcer brought a chair to sit in while he announced stuff. I roll over to the chair and thankfully it too is of the rolly kind. I grab it by the middle piece and push it over to the desk.

“Huh? What was that?” everyone looks over confused as to where the sound of a rolling chair came from. I hold my breath and my heart is in my throat. I can hear my blood pumping in my ears.

“Must be nothing.” I somehow managed to roll the chair over to the podium in time and hide underneath it. Settling down and taking a deep breath I continue on my escapade. I grab one of the chair arms and use it to drag myself up to the next handlebar which gave me more leverage to pull myself up. I get up but now I’m spinning. I stand up as slowly as possible and grab the podium. Spinning the chair I make the back part face towards the podium. Holding onto the podium I stepped onto the chair armrests and did my best to balance. But the chair seemed to want to spin out of control. I stand up on top of the chair backrest and use that to propel myself onto the podium. Looking at everyone in satisfaction I feel proud of myself. Considering I’m only like one and a half years old this is quite the feat.

I look down at the gem with pure unadulterated greed. And I can’t help but reach out to touch my precious.

“Mom where did Tom go?” Daniel asks.

“Harold where did you put Tom?” Mom asks accusingly.

“With Mia.”

“Mia where’s Tom?” Mia looks everywhere worriedly. She had only looked away fro a second where could a one year old have gone?!

“Ah! Up there on the podium!” Mia finally finds me but it’s too late. I’m already about to touch the stone. I touch the gemstone and it shines brightly.

“How in the world did that boy get up there?” Mr. Wyatt asks mystified.

“Tom get down from there right this instance! I am so sorry Mr. Wyatt that boy just cannot be kept in one place without disappearing.” Mom yells at me sounding quite scary in the amphitheater.

“It is quite alright Mrs. Thompson this actually happens often but usually with toddlers who are a little bit older. There’s no big reason to worry about awakening children prematurely it’s just a little dangerous. You know how it goes when toddlers get powers. Blow up this blow up that.” My Mom’s face visibly paled as he said that and she ran over to me jumped on the stage and plucked me right off the podium. She looked at the slot that dispenses out the cards with the power and description on them and waited. Soon my card came out and she plucked it from the dispenser and brought it up to her eyes. Her eyes opened slightly wider and flipped it over to the other side. She just gasped and fainted on the stage. I am so absolutely fucked with this power. Goddammit curse me and my overactive:

Imagination

This is the power to create anything from your imagination as long as you understand all the basic properties of what you are creating. If you do not understand the properties all that will be created is a simple illusion that has no effect on any of the senses except sight. Beware this power is not just an active one but also a passive one. You cannot create matter that does not exist.

Rank: SSS