It's oddly quiet, almost unnerving, but peaceful at the same time. My head is clear, my stomach empty but not yet hungry. I open my eyes to see the clear blue sky. It's such a beautiful day, the sun shining down on me warmly. The wind seems to be whirling around me, my long brown hair drifting in the breeze as if I was floating in mid-air. It's so nice and quiet, I feel like I'm slowly slipping into sweet unconsciousness, watching as I drift farther and farther away from the clouds above.

This sensation of peace, it's a rare feeling nowadays. Things used to be peaceful, when everyone was created equal and no man had power over another. Everybody lived their normal lives, each person doing their part to make a functional society. However, things couldn't stay this way. Or rather, they didn't.

The first signs of change were noticed about one-hundred years ago. Humans were being born with strange features such as webbed fingers and toes, tails, and even wings on some occasions. Although these occurances were strange, this was only the beginning. Soon people that were able to use strange powers began popping up around the world, all whose powers appeared to be different and unique for each individual. There was invisibility, telekenisis, water breathing, and countless other random powers that began to emerge. At first only about ten percent of the population had these powers, but eventually almost ninety percent of all people were born with these powers, which were given the name of oddities.

Although many people received an oddity, some were corrupt by their power and became evil, attacking people with weaker oddities than themselves. Because of this, a group of people with powerful oddities were forced to rise to the occasion, taking the task to protect the other citizens upon themselves. With this they became known as the primary heroes, vowing to protect everyone in this world from the corrupt villains.

However, the stronger the light shines, the larger the shadow grows. As this group of heroes grew more and more powerful, so did the villains. Both groups grew so great in power that normal civilians were completely at their mercy, unable to do anything to defend themselves. As a result they were forced to put all their trust in heroes, entrusting their lives to these people. For a while the heroes appeared to be stronger than the villains, however, the heroes neglected to train replacements as they grew older, while the villains made sure they had successors to take over when they grew too weak to fight. Consequently, the villains eventually became more powerful than the heroes.

The heroes all got together and made a collective decision; they would take children with the strongest oddities and train them to become heroes to fight the villains and help keep everyone safe. Those not chosen would stay and follow a normal education and keep running society how it had been. This marked the beginning of a new era of mankind, children's performances being evaluated starting in elementary school and going all throughout middle school. They were then either taken or left, those taken becoming known as the chosen. There were only twenty chosen each year, only the best of the best, so most children gave up on becoming one of them.

Once chosen, the kids were trained for four years to become heroes. They were taken away to a remote destination that not many civilians knew about, taking not only high school classes that would help them in the real world, but also taking special hero courses designed to improve their oddities and abilities. This is how our era of oddities began, by innocent children being taken away to fight others' battles. Sounds messed up, right? Nobody else seems to think so. It's an 'honor' to be chosen, and families give their children without a single complaint. Unfortunately, my parents were some of the many who thought this way.