Twenty three years ago. 2000, May 23rd. Just a regular and normal day for most people. Or so it seemed. Unbeknownst to everyone, something big was about to happen. Something that would forever change the natural order of things.
Just a day later, May 24th, they arrived. Mysterious purple doors, standing at about 2 meters high, they appeared around pretty popular places on Earth. In USA, in France, in China, in England... They were everywhere.
Mass-panic ensued. Humanity thought that they were being attacked. Aliens? Some new military tech? Nobody knew. The doors just... Stood there. For about two weeks, they never opened, creaked or anything of the kind. They just existed.
Of course, things wouldn't always remain quiet. They also decided on a name. The Gates. So, the world's governments banded together in a temporary alliance, creating The Gate Government, or TGG to stand guard at all times around the mysterious doors.
As expected, to keep things peaceful, The Gate Government kept pretty quiet about the whole thing. They announced just two things about these Gates. They aren't a threat, and if they become one, they'll be taken care of swiftly and hastily.
Yeah, right. They were scared shitless. Take care of? Take care of what, exactly? They knew nothing about these things. The Gates just stood there for two weeks, all menacingly, so the government thought that, surely, they were all bark and no bite? Right?
Well, you could say that those words weren't exactly all wrong. After all, they weren't doing anything. Yet.
So, after The Gate Government put out troops on each and every discovered Gate, hoping that if they opened, the dangers from within could be contained. But, weeks turned into months and, well, The Gates remained closed.
Well, time to pack up and move out! The Gate Government, that was made out of countries that normally were at each other's throats, disbanded, and they all went right back to their original-selfs. The Gates were officially redeemed 'Not a hazard and/or threat', and they were just kinda... Left alone? Some even became tourist attractions. Anyone wanna go kiss under the Eiffel Tower while in front of a very non-menacing big purple Gate?
It was now September. September 3rd, to be exact, and everything was going smooth and dandy!... Until it wasn't. Why? The non-hazard and/or threat Gates started opening. And what can the former Gate Government say in this situation? Because I'm not sure a "Oopsie! Our bad!" was gonna cut it.
Troops were immediately deployed, again, and while the Gate Government wasn't 100% anymore, it was still a force to be reckoned with! Well, uhm, hopefully.
Over the course of about a week, The Gates opened, slowly. Behind the big purple door was pitch black. The kind of black that could snatch away your soul and you wouldn't even notice. And then, on September 11th, The Gates now opened. Fully.
But uh, what now? What do we do? Do the troops advance in, guns blazing, or do they wait with shoot-on-sight orders? Tough to tell. It all stood on the leader and founder of The Gate Government, the president of The United States. What will he, our only hope, have to say...?
"Well, uhh, I donno man, let's just wait 'em out and shoot 'em up."
...We're doomed, right? Ugh, you gotta be kidding...
Once again, mass-panic ensued, people started evacuating as far as possible from the Gates in hopes that they wouldn't be caught in the cross-fire between humanity and whatever lied behind The Gates.
And what lied behind those Gates, is something we never expected... No, literally. We expected like, dragons and trolls, but instead, on September 12th, out came... Humans? W-Wait, what?
The soldiers, who have been preparing for this for a week, hesitated to shoot-on-sight. Who could, if you've been expecting dragons and got humans instead? Well... Kinda.
They were definitely human, they looked human, they spoke the language of where The Gate they came out from was, had actual names, and they were scared, confused and looked a bit rough. But something was a bit... Off.
The humans that came from The Gates were either a tad bit short, or a tad bit tall, or either too skinny, or too chubby. Some's faces look a bit round, some's look a bit square. They just had a bit of an... Vibe, I guess? A weird one, for sure, but still, all of them were taken in immediately, and sent to the nearest hospitals to be checked up on.
All in near-perfect condition. They were just a bit dehydrated and hungry. The Gate Government cleared out a few buildings in each country and deployed them there, called them care-centers. But, we can't just refer to them as... Them. So uhh, what now? Weirdos? Too rude. Humans? Feels off... So, humans... That came from Gates...
The Gatelings. The name caught on quick. The gatelings were fed at the centers, and, as suddenly as The Gates appeared, they disappeared. Into thin air. No sign of them, at all. But that's a lie. A single Gate stood still in Japan. Why?
This was soon answered three days later, September 15th. A man came out from the Gate. Unlike others, he wasn't weird looking in any way. He had long black hair, and stood at a pretty high 189cm, though. Even so, it was just one man... Wait, just one? Usually, a Gate held two hundred people at the mininum, so why...?
Wait, that's not even the weirdest part. The man wasn't okay. He looked even more scarred, confused and scared than the others. Plus, he was hurt. Big time. Blood gushing out from his forehead, scars and cuts all over his body... He looked like he just got out of a war.
The five officers deployed on-duty near the Gate rushed over to him, and immediately started questioning him about his well-being and state. Of course, they were speaking japanese, but the man... Wasn't understanding? That's odd.
Normally, gatelings were fluent in the language of the Gates' location. So why was this clearly Japanese man not speaking Japanese?
Before passing out from blood loss, he muttered just six words, in perfect english.
"I am... Kinko Yani... Please... Hospital..."
Of course, he was admitted to a hospital in Japan for the time being, but because he couldn't speak Japanese, he was quickly transferred over to a hospital in USA.
Same old story as all the other gatelings, though. No correlation of anything before stepping out of The Gate, only knew his name and, in his case, not the language of the country of origin of The Gate. He was just considered a rare case, and was quickly forgotten about. He wasn't anything worth investigating.
This brings us to two years later. 2002, December 19th. Gatelings were officially allowed to roam the Earth free, and engage in every and all human activity, such as jobs, marriage, and even schools were opened for gatelings, in case they wanted to seek high-ranking jobs or positions.
There were about 10.000 gatelings in total. Not exactly a low number, but not that high either, so this didn't really affect stuff like inflation or supplies stocks.
The age of the gatelings ranged around 19 to 29 years old when they came out of The Gates, so they were all adults. In other words, starting a family and getting a stable job was many gatelings' goal. And they did exactly that.
One thing to note is that, even though they spent a lot of time together in the care-centers, gatelings didn't really get along with other gatelings. Weird, but this too was overlooked. This resulted in no relationships between gatelings of any kind. Sexual, platonic or friendly.
Even so, that didn't mean that gatelings had no interest in relationships. Quite the opposite. They soon started going out with humans that didn't originate from The Gates, both the males and the females.
And so... After what only felt like a blink of an eye... On April 30th, 2004, the first gateling and human hybrid kid was born. The world was shook. In a good way! Not that much later, other babies started appearing all around the globe. As the gateling males started getting married, their human partners started taking their last name, and it all quickly became normal to be in a relationship with a gateling. Not that it was ever weird, but now it was super alright!
Now, whether the kid should be called a gateling or a human was still up for debate. So we came up with a solution. It wasn't great, but it was a solution. If the dad was a gateling and the mom was a human, they took the title of just, human, and the other way around. Basically, the kid's gonna take after their mom. As I said, not a great solution.
And just as expected, everything seemed to be going just fine! The kids were all healthy and alright, and nothing was abnormal about them.
And so, they kept growing and growing, they went to normal kindergartens and schools and, again, everything was going smooth and dandy!
Until. It. Wasn't.
May 6th, 2014. That date is something we nowadays refer to as 'Doomsday'. Why, you might ask? Please, allow me to answer you. Two parents, both in their late thirties, had just had a newborn baby a few months ago, and their oldest son's birthday was just about a week ago. They were out in the city, on a normal walk. Since the birth of the baby, they've been doing this twice a week.
Everything was going as usual. They passed the park, and the flowers carefully planted in it, and kept going forward towards an... Who would've guessed? An ice cream stand! It stood between two tall apartment buildings. The oldest son suddenly picked up an interest in the ice cream. After all, he just turned 10, he was a big boy now! He deserved it!
And so, he mustered up the courage, and asked his two parents...
"Mom, dad, can I pleeease get an ice cream? I swear I'll eat it slowly so I don't catch a cold!"
"Sorry kiddo, no can do. Me 'nd your mom forgot our wallets at home. We'll get it for you next time, alright?"
The kid was in awe. Some would even say he was flabbergasted. Not once did he expect his father to betray him. So, he got a little angry. Maybe even a little sad. But yet, there were no waterworks? No crying? No no no, none of that.
After all, who needs waterworks when you can have fireworks?
"W-What?! I've been a good boy! I want my ice cream! And I want it now!"
With that, he quickly gestured towards the ice cream stand, and... Something happened.
As his hand whooshed in the air, sparks suddenly appeared, and the ice cream stand started going up in flames!
Panic ensued, followed by a crying baby and two scared and confused parents.
"H-Huh?! What's going on? Sam, what did you do?!"
"Dad I-I didn't do anything! I swear! I just waved my arm towards it!"
After he said that, he started flailing his arms around, scared. Did not help. Only made things worse.
Sparks started flying out from the boy's hands, and sparks turned into flames and flames turned into chaos. The fire spread across the two buildings from the stand, and it spread quickly.
"No, no, no! Please just stop!"
And stop it did. The fire quickly retracted from the building, to the stand, and to the boy's arms. Expect he wasn't on fire. He wasn't screaming in pain. His hands were the fire. And with just a quick little wave of his hand, they went back to normal.
No fire damage was left on the buildings, stand, or on the kid. What just happened was straight out of a fantasy novel.
The parents immediately reported to what remained of The Gate Government, which was mostly constructed of USA states and a few European countries by now, and they brought in every hybrid kid they could find. Sure enough, sooner or later, they all started showing signs of what could only be described as superpowers.
Super-speed, element manipulation, like water, ice, earth, rock, and anything of the sort. Just... Superpowers. Straight out of books and movies.
The world was shook. And not in a good way this time. Shook as in scared. The government wasn't okay either. They don't have any superpower expert or anything like that. Their best shot was comic-book expert Greg from across the damn street!
They gathered whatever scientists were willing to help, and begin researching. Blood samples? All turned out fine, normally and during the use of the powers. Body vitals? All normal as well.
So, then... What the hell was going on? What now? Do they release little SuperMans all over the world and pray, or do they attempt to train them to control their powers? Where would they even start?
As the rational people they are, they of course... Let them go! Not our fault, and now it's someone else's problem!
Jesus, we really need some better people around...
Anyway, TGG decided to just let them go living their normal lives. The children were instructed to not attempt, under any circumstances, to use their powers. They wanted them to just try to keep them hidden.
...Of course, telling a kid "Hey, you're a superhuman! But don't use your superhuman abilities!" is like telling a dog not to pee in the house.
Ah, as for the powers, their official name is Agilys. Why? I honestly don't know. Does it stand for something, or...?
Well, anyway, the plan didn't work. Hybrid kids started using their Agilys everywhere. At school, public places, at home. Everywhere. Nice going, TGG.
Once again, they were brought in. This time, they actually did bring some comic-book experts Greg's to help them. And so, the Agily Control Training Program started. Basically, it teaches kids how to use their powers, but at a minimum, so they don't explode, burn, freeze, crumble... You get the point. It's so that they don't fuck shit up. This program took a lot of trial and error until it became decent at it's job.
It became mandatory for hybrid kids who turn 10. It's like... A very weird but also cool after-school program.
And so... It's finally time to actually start. Our story started in 2000, it continues in 2015, and it'll spread out all the way to 2023, the present.
I hope everyone is buckled up, because it's gonna be a bumpy road ahead.