"Lex, you suck," Maron said.
That was probably not gonna be the first and the last time I was gonna hear those three words. Turns out, I was wrong.
I live in a world where everyone has a superpower - lightning-bringer, invisibility, mind reading, face swapping, fire abilities, water abilities and quite a lot more which I do not know of. In rare cases some have 2, but I on the other hand have none.
There was a legend according to which there once had been a lady who could use multiple powers, but instead of helping people, turned against them. It was like hell, people recalled as the world spiraled in flames, the lady destroying anything in sight as per her mood, till she died by her own power.
Having gone mad crazy over her immense power, she used lightning in a rainstorm, probably thinking 'the electricity will run them through' and ended up electrocuting herself. But the fact that someone could get multiple powers be it over time or at once seemed too good to be true. Still in today's world, it's not possible. (PS - she was still given a funeral, which goes to show how people wanted things to change.)
I am 14 year old Lex, who's still waiting for his superpowers to come. I yet haven't been able to stand up to my name meaning 'Warrior', mainly because there's never been a need to since nothing but occasional thievery happens here.
(Well, how quickly my role was gonna change, I did not know)
Very few people in here get at least one power once they turn 12, and most get one once the officially become a teenager. So if you're good at math and you don't get 2+2 equals to 5, then you'd probably notice that I'm running a year late.
I live in a town called Syncret on an earth parallel to the one in the milky way galaxy. Inspired by the words syncretic, the town changes over time depending on how the people want it to. Sure, everyone's mentality isn't the same and hence a number of issues cannot be resolved, but it feels pretty good, seeing something different once in a while.
My mom and dad are architects, known by the whole town and a few neighboring towns because of their mind-boggling powers to create and manipulate the existing establishment to develop, or destroy for both work and other reasons (undisclosed).
I stuck my tongue out at Maron.
"Bro I really don't know why I haven't gotten a power yet. Maybe God is looking for the rarest of the rarest one ever," I said, knowing that would never be the case, but it would be different if it actually happened.
"You should stop being delulu," Maron smirked.
"Hey that's mean!," I said.
"Now now boys, stop talking and focus on my teaching," said our teacher Nick, and the class snickered. Mr. Nick was a young man, probably of around 23-25, and had started teaching in this school, the "Power-Limit breakers academy" since last year. He took an interest in me once he learnt that I had not yet gained any superpower. Nevertheless, he still taught me. I think it was probably because he thought I might get some kind of power no matter how useless, so I didn't ever complain and worked with him.
Let me give you a brief about how our school works.
Once a child is born in the town, they are home-taught for the first 8 years. Yes, it is compulsory for every family with children to do so. There are a total of 9 grades which are completed at the age of 17 or 18 by most children. The first grade is where the basics start. For the first three years, it's all mainly theoretical learning, and lots of playing for fitness.
Everyone easily passes the first three grades and after they do, the top 5 among each grade are awarded medals. Then they move onto the fourth grade (age 12), where the real journey begins. From grade four, it's slightly lesser theoretical than grade three, and a slight amount of practical learning. Very few children get a power in the fourth grade, but since some do, the "High Board of Ultra Power Holders" decided that it was worth keeping practical knowledge in grade four because then every child would see if they had a power and eventually, they'd get one by the time they enter grade five.
Let's get back to the story.
"Now, let me show you a power you might not have ever seen or heard of. I call this the power-stealer, and like the name suggests, it lets you steal somebody's power. The downside however is, you can't keep it forever i.e., it stays within you for a specific time which is around 10-20 seconds. Some people might be able to increase the time but that's an extremely rare case. Now yes, you might think 'what use is it if it only stays for only a limited time'. You'll see that in some time. Now....." went on Mr. Nick.
Once I heard about this power, I couldn't hear what he was saying the rest of the time. I had a sudden urge to have it. Having lightning powers, invisibility and the ones I told earlier were too common. I wanted to have something that was a bit uncommon.
"So Lex, since you're the only one right now without a superpower, we're gonna see if this one works out for you. Come up front," said Mr. Nick.
I got up from my seat, walked towards him in a formal manner and slightly tripped, getting a few more snickers. Nevertheless, I maintained my composure and turned around, facing the class.
"Take the index finger of either hand, and put it on the forehead of... let's see..... Claire? Yes put it on her forehead for two seconds."
Claire was the second most studious and academically well-performed person in the entire school with Maron at the top. She had water-controlling powers. She could channel water from a bottle to a narrow pipe and vice versa, from the river to people's houses (within a distance of a hundred and fifty meters), create small small hurricanes just for show, and everyone used to think that was awesome since the other people with this power could do smaller things.
Maron had face-changing powers. He could make himself look like almost anyone. It may sound cool and interesting, but it was okayish because he couldn't yet manipulate his voice to sound like the person he changed his face into.
I walked up to Claire, looked into her I-know-everything eyes, put the index finger of my right hand on her forehead for two seconds.
A slight jerk, I felt in the head.
"I feel something in my head," I said.
"What do you feel?" one asked.
"What does he mean?" another one asked
"i'm hungry," someone said.
"What even- ," The entire class turned towards the one who spoke, but couldn't figure out whom did.
"Silence," said Mr. Nick. "Lex, imagine that Claire's power is transferring to you. Channel the power from her to you like water flowing from a river to the sea. Create a closed zone within you for that power. Concentrate with all you can."
Thankfully, my concentration power was high, though I used it on almost everything apart from studies.
I concentrated with my eyes closed, and willed on water from my bottle to come out in the form of an orb onto my hand. I felt a tugging sensation in my gut.
Suddenly, my entire class gasped.
"How did he do that! The water didn't even come out of the bottle."
"I can't believe it."
"Damn that's awesome, but looking at that orb is making me thirsty," that same person said (the one who was hungry minutes before).
"Dude, you gotta keep your stomach in check," Maron said.
Half the class laughed (probably out of nervousness).
"Ummmm...." was all that I could say.
I didn't know what was going on, so I opened my eyes. What I saw actually opened my eyes (well you know, opening eyes in a literal sense plus opening eyes in a shocking sense).
I was fascinated, delighted, astonished, and afraid at the same time.
In my hand was a medium sized orb of water, all crystal clear, shining.
I looked at my hand, then the class, then my hand, and then Mr. Nick. He had a smile on his face.
"There you go Lex. I'm glad I was able to help you out."
Looks like I had an affinity for something after all.
I had discovered my first superpower - the rarest of all, power-stealer.