Brent woke up from behind the card boxes that covered his body in the alley, if he remembered well this should be his sixteenth birthday, the day children of the Gene era would get their Rank. His full name was Brent Nesstor, anyone who heard that last name during this era would gasp, that name was related to the current Rank S Inhuman, they would treat that name with the utmost respect, but here was his son sitting in an alleyway, branded as a failure.
Brent got up from behind the cardboard, looked at the ragged clothes and wet shoes that were making crunchy sounds on the snow, he picked up his scarf that had fallen on the ground and wrapped it around his face, he walked out the alleyway that smelled rat shit.
"stupid rats, they might be the death of me if the cold doesn't" he muttered from behind the scarf, after reaching the walkway, his next destination would be to get his breakfast at the alley of another restaurant, while walking towards the and ignoring the look of disgust from the people, he looked and stared at the hovering islands, tall highrises and a policeman hovering in the sky, seemingly staring down at the citizens arrogantly.
Since the Godfather of the gene era, Eber Stroman found a way to optimize human genes, humanity had never been the same, they used that knowledge to leap over what could have been years of struggle. the first generation of gene optimizers got the utmost care from Eber Stroman, they carried the best genes and their descendants were expected to have the same or have better ones.
After the first generation, the rest were simply called Inhumans, because of the amount of strength that these people could wield, ranging from controlling fire, super strength, and super speed.
If you were born inhuman, you were lucky because not only do you bring honor to your family but at the age of sixteen, you'd have a better chance of having a higher rank, ranging from lowest E, D, C, B, A, S as the highest.
People who are not born as Inhumans are usually treated like trash and are seen that they do not much hope, of course, they have the chance to get their genes optimized like the first generation at the age of sixteen, they would also get their rank on the same day, which would be considered low and would affect their future in any country they went, your gene rank could increase in the future but it was not that easy, how ranks are given is still a mystery, only known to prospective governments.
Of course, they are some powers that come with people's gene that are sometimes not accepted in society and either the governments cease those people and make them work for the governments or they're killed by their own parents. The ones that escape tend to bring problems for their governments.
Since gene optimization came, all sorts of lunatics popped up, the ones that use optimization on animals, or the religious ones that claim that Eber Stroman was sent to purge the world with his discovery, the governments see them all as threats, including independent organizations, and tend to crack down on them hard.
As Brent reached the alley on wayne street he hid right behind the dumpster waiting for the man who usually dumped the leftovers, his vision suddenly blacked, as his head was slammed into a wall, he heard ringing in his ears, he looked up at the two blurry figure right in front of him, one was the man who dumped food and the other seemed like an inhuman, with a blue light on his right hand.
"Is this the mutated animal, you said was behind at your alley," the inhuman said
"certainly looks like a monster, it would have been best if it was one though" he continued saying looking at the man, who replied with "These disgusting humans, times have changed but they refuse to change with it, just kill it, no one would care anyway," he said as he walked back into the restaurant's back door.
Hearing those words Brent recalled his father saying those words to his mother "I can't keep that disgusting human in my home any longer, Jessica throw that kid out before I murder my own blood"
"Nes wait, you said it yourself, he's blood, you can't just throw him out"
" I also care about my honor Jessica, throw that thing out, I can't have an incompetent child as a son".
That was the day he was put on the street at the age of fourteen, 'they couldn't wait for two more years for me to get optimized'
he looked up at the inhuman who moved towards him and grabbed his hair, he mouthed " pls pls don't kill me" in a hoarse voice
The inhuman ignored him and grabbed at his neck and squeezing.
Brent wanted to fight back, for once in his life, he wanted to fight back.
That was when he felt his body itching, he glanced at the glowing green hands at his hands that were at his neck and he felt that his body wanted to devour that green glow, he grabbed the arm and the hand and saw the green energy flowing into him, for the first time he felt the power, the inhuman tried to pull away, but his body was like a starving bear. It kept sucking in the energy until the man himself was completely sucked in his body, after that he ran fast.
Until he reached the ghetto part of the city he never stopped, he slipped into another alley and stared at his hands before fainting.