Chapter 1: The Awakening
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By the year 2550, Earth had endured centuries of turmoil. Over 300 years ago, a massive meteorite struck, devastating the planet and wiping out nearly 70% of the human population. The next three centuries were filled with chaos, struggle, and recovery. Finally, in the early years of the 26th century, stability was restored.
Now, humanity resides on a single habitable land known as NOVA—the last refuge of civilization. The rest of the world remains uninhabitable, with the remnants of old countries and cities lost to history. Over time, humans and all other life have evolved, developing extraordinary abilities. Now, People and other living things can awaken super powers. Although awakening super powers isn't that rare, at the same time, it's not common either. Some use their newfound powers for the greater good, but many have turned to crime, plunging NOVA into an era of conflict between heroes and villains.
Nova Elysium had never been a city of subtle contradictions, a city of neon-soaked dreams and dark alleys, where progressive genius existed alongside the weight of ancient secrets with ease. Among its teeming populace was (25 years old) Orion Titan, a young man whose life had, until now, progressed in a rhythm of unremarkable routines and stifled introspection. To the passerby, Orion was just another typical citizen of this great urban labyrinth: a diligent office drone by day, a lonely night-time walker by night, his eyes carrying the subdued glint of one who had seen too much and spoken too little.
Every morning, when the soft light of dawn crept over the horizon, Orion would wake up in his modest apartment on the outskirts of Nova Elysium's downtown district. The apartment was a simple room with the sparse trappings of an existence lived on the fringes of prosperity—dog-eared comics and books piled haphazardly on a wooden bookshelf, a worn family photograph of a long-forgotten past, and a messy desk full of sketches and crumpled bits of paper covered in bursts of inspiration. Despite the simplicity of his daily existence, however, there was an undercurrent to Orion's life that spoke of untapped potential—a quiet confidence of a destiny not yet fully revealed.
A subdued melancholy marked Orion's life. His early years had been marred by tragedy and isolation, events that had left him with memories too sore to remember and a sense of estrangement no ordinary human experience could explain. There were moments, in the quiet of the night, when the whispers of those forgotten years stirred in him—an underlying power, wild and unlearned, burning below the surface of his peaceful exterior. He could not name it, this latent power that ran through his veins, nor comprehend why the weight of destiny seemed to cling to him like a second skin. For all these enigmas, nonetheless, Orion's heart remained open to the world's beauty—a beauty the neon lights of Nova Elysium endeavoured, day by day, to replicate.
In quieter moments, Orion would catch himself reflecting on the inexplicable occurrences that had dotted his life—a fleeting flash of light on his fingertips during a moment of intense emotion, a surge of sudden strength when he was at his most vulnerable, or the odd sensation of being able to anticipate danger before it arrived. These occurrences, fleeting though they were, became threads in the tapestry of his life, each indicating a hidden depth and a troubled history that he could not deny but could not quite touch. There were nights when the stars overhead in Nova Elysium seemed to whisper secrets in a language that only his soul could understand, and they urged him to embrace the mysterious elements of himself.
Yet Orion had never chosen the safe path—a life distinguished by prudence, responsibility, and the reassuring dullness of routine. He had learned, perhaps too early, that there were some things better left unknown, buried under the cloak of routine and practicality. The world about him hummed with promises of rebirth, yet he remained anchored to his low-key life, unaware that the seeds of transformation were already being planted within him.
It was on an ordinary-looking morning that the first cracks in the facade of normality began to appear. The sky above Nova Elysium was a kaleidoscope of swirling clouds and shimmering colour in constant motion, and Orion had stepped out into the cool air with his mind already on the mundane tasks of the day. The streets were crowded with people hurrying to work, their lives interwoven with the intricate tapestry of city life. And yet, even in the rush and bustle of daily life, an undercurrent of anticipation filled the air—a feeling that something world-shattering was going to shatter the illusion of normality.
As Orion walked the bustling avenues, he was acutely aware of the city's electrical hum. His senses, always so open to the world around him, picked up on the imperceptible shifts in the atmosphere—a tremble in the air, a fleeting shudder in the ground. There was a subtle charge as if the foundations of Nova Elysium itself were gearing themselves up for something that would refuse explanation. Orion tried to dismiss these sensations as coincidence, the byproducts of a vivid imagination induced by his sleepless nights. But deep down, a spark of intuition knew that this day was going to be different.
In the absolute centre of the city, where skyscrapers reached greedily into the heavens and glass facades reflected the myriad lights of progress, catastrophe struck without warning. It began as a low, threatening growl—a low, humming sound that resonated through the steel and concrete of the city centre of Nova Elysium. Abruptly and without forewarning, a calamitous mishap erupted in the city centre, shattering the fragile safety veneer that had shrouded the city for so long.
A pileup involving several cars, compounded by a sudden industrial blast, rocked the streets with reverberations. It was a spectacle of pulse-stopping chaos: mangled debris, towering plumes of smoke, and the agonized wails of the victims caught in the maelstrom. Orion was left immobile for a fleeting instant—a moment of suspended disbelief until his inner reservoir of strength burst forth like a tidal wave releasing itself from captivity.
In that charged instant, something awakened in Orion. His heart pulsed to the rhythm of the symphony of disaster, and an odd strength coursed through his arms. With the agility of a dancer and the force of a tempest, he hurled himself into the midst of the debacle. In a scene ripped from the pages of myth, Orion took to the air, his body borne aloft by an unseen force. For the first time in his life, he experienced the thrill of flight—a release from the gravity-bound limitations of the human condition.
The moment his feet left the ground, Orion's entire body was filled with a burst of pure energy. Muscles that had been dormant in chains of routine for so long exploded with supernatural strength. His arms extended as he flew above the commotion, and his entire body glowed with a radiant aura of power. It was as if the power of the universe had become concentrated in the core of his very being, stirring up strength that had been imprisoned beneath years of inhibition.
Every motion was succeeded by bursts of intense light, arcing with the energy of a thousand suns. The city beneath him blurred into colour streaks as Orion shifted with a smoothness and swiftness that defied natural laws. The flying cars, formerly parked and held fast by mechanical tethers, were so many obstacles in his path as he negotiated the destruction with ease. In a single sweeping gesture, he reached down and snatched a twisted heap of wreckage that was about to pulverize a cowering bunch of onlookers, the sheer energy of his intervention staying catastrophe in its tracks.
Even as the physical manifestations of his power amazed the onlookers, Orion's own mind struggled with questions. "What is happening to me? Was I born with these powers, or did the dire circumstance of the crisis trigger them?"
His very cells hummed with this newfound awareness—a realization that the world was no longer quite so black and white as it had formerly been and that within him lay the potential for both greatness and ruin equally. A discordant, jarring sound resounds in his mind.
[Ding! Congratulations, the Super Hero system is activated.
~Status window~
Name: Orion Titan. Skills: Level-One
1. Super Strength.
2. Super Speed.
3. Super Stamina.
4. Super Hearing.
5. Super Eye Sight.
6. Super Sense.]