Dylan had always had a fascination with technology since a young age. His parents had to stop him from disassembling their electronics nearly once a month until he was 15. When he was 4, he tried to microwave a fork because he “wanted to see what would happen”. Twice. To say he was a handful was an understatement.

Due to this interesting past, it was almost unsurprising when he assembled a device that physically shouldn’t be able to function at the tender age of 14. It was a simple device, a switch that, when flipped, could turn a connected lightbulb off at a distance. The connection wasn’t physical. In fact, as far as an electronic repairman could tell (Dylan’s parents had taken the device to someone with an amount of expertise in the field as soon as they saw its unorthodox nature) could tell, there was no way the contraption should be able to function at all. There was no recognized form of signal emitters at all. No Wifi, Bluetooth, wire, nothing. Instead, there was a complex metal structure, which the repair man completely failed to recognize. He couldn’t find any manufacturing information on the part either. Its homemade nature was additional evidence of the unordinarily.

Dylan didn’t have any access to the tools one would expect for complex manufacturing. His father, like many, had a selection of basic tools, such as needle nose pliers, a hammer, wrench, and a scant few other common tools.

His parents, asked Dylan if he had gotten the part from somewhere. He, of course, told them that he had made it himself. With a tired sigh, his parents paid the electronic repairman, and left the shop.

They might have been surprised, had they not suspected this would happen. Formators would often show signs of their powers long before they manifested. Dylan’s parents had long since expected it. Nearly everyone had a friend who had a friend who had some relative whose kid manifested powers.

Paul, Dylan’s father, looked resigned during the car ride back. His mother, Ronnie, took a more optimistic approach.

“Well, he’ll never lack for work, at least. And it’s one of the safest powers he could get. He doesn’t have to fight or go to disaster zones to make use of it”.

His father wasn’t convinced.

“While he certainly will have luck in finding jobs, safety is relative. Formators are often targeted by villains, and generally they don’t have the ability to protect themselves when it happens. There’s not much good advanced computer software can go against someone who can throw a car like a baseball. And even if he isn’t a target for villains, we’ve all heard of Formators dying horrible deaths due to experiments gone wrong”.

Ronnie was unperturbed by her husband's pessimism.

“You know those are outliers. There are plenty of successful Formators who live fulfilling lives free of any danger”.

The rest of the drive home was in silence. Dylan, for his part, was unperturbed by the conversation. While he certainly possessed the unrealistic self expectations of someone who was about to enter his first year of high school, the main reason for his lackadaisical attitude was due to the fact that he was paying absolutely no attention to the conversation going on between his parents in the front seat of the car.

He was instead flipping the switch on his device, repeatedly turning the bulb on and off. Sometimes, his hands would blur, and with a seemingly impossible deftness, he would unscrew the cover on the switch, removing the tiny screws with his bare hands, before opening the device up and staring at the mechanism within, seemingly in awe of what he had made.

This continued for the entire 35-minute drive back to their house. Upon pulling into the driveway, however, Dylan came to a terrible realization. Taking in the slightly dilapidated state of his parents' residence, he realized that his family wasn’t rich. They certainly got by, and he never lacked for food, but most would not call them well off. Both of his parents worked, and while he would often get one, maybe two presents on his birthday, there wasn’t a large surplus of money floating around.

This was a problem. How could his parents afford to buy him parts and materials? How was he supposed to grow his power?

Super humans, those with powers, abilities or traits beyond the capacity of a normal human, had been around since the beginning of recorded history. Often occupying the role of gods, devils, spirits, or heroes in stories, their prevalence both in myth and history is undeniable.

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It is also a recorded fact that, before the end of the 20th century, their numbers were relatively low. While a few participated in major world events, such as World War 2 (both on the side of the Axis and the Allies), it wasn’t superhuman intervention that saved the day. It was human determination and ingenuity. Any power paled in comparison to the atomic bomb.

But the landscape of supers started to change. Census officials first noticed the number of powered people increasing faster than the population. People with registered powers started to classify stronger and stronger. Whereas in antiquity, a power set like that of Zeus, the ability to fly and hurl lightning might make you the strongest person alive, in the changing era it started to become less rare. While it was certainly special, rare, even, it was no longer unique, and it would no longer put one on top.

In response to the changing landscape of superpowers, government acted fast. They scrambled to assemble sanction teams, trained and licensed in order to deter and, when necessary, intervene in superhuman crime. A reporter was the first to use the word superhero. The term quickly caught on.

The most prominent early team was the United States Peacekeepers. Comprised of 6 members, they were unexceptional by modern standards, but at the time, they were groundbreakingly powerful.

Their leader, Robert Kroll, was the first publically known super to have more than two powers. Possessing the ability to fly, super strength, speed, durability, he led his team to victory time and time again, until most of them died stopping Calamity.

Power development also started to diversify around that time. Many experts believe that the reason powers started off so similar was because they manifested due to a need or desire, and often in stressful situations. The amount of super humans that came as the result of farm accidents was rather high. At the time, strength, speed, flight, were all useful, simple, and easy to understand.

It was estimated that in the current year, nearly 1% of humans had superpowers. These powers could range from the ability to always know where your favorite shoes are to being a vessel for the unstoppable power of the sun.

On average, a power would be somewhere in between those two ranges. Denizens of the internet had taken to grading them on a tier system: trash tier, for those so poor as to be useless, low tier, like Olympic level speed or strength, or the ability to float, mid tier (where most powers fell), such as flight, low level super strength, etc. After that, there was high tier, with powers such as supersonic flight, laser vision, etc. Finally, there was peak tier, powers that simply defied all logic.

These tiers were not recognized by experts or scientists. Powers rarely fit so neatly into a category. There was a sense a logic to their manifestation and potential, however. Powers generally didn’t fluctuate much in strength. Someone with super strength wouldn’t often get much stronger than they were at any given point in time, for example.

There was one exception to this rule. During the first 6 months to 2 years after acquiring a power, it was malleable. Excessive usage could make it stronger. Training could also provide focus. Power generally started off broader than what they ended up as. For example, someone with a heat based power might be able to emit it from their body, focus it, change its course, perceive heat, be resistant to heat, be able to sense sources of heat near them, and much more. As they started to use their powers in a certain way, however, many of these auxiliary powers would weaken or even disappear entirely. In exchange, the parts of their ability that were used would get stronger.

Therefor, the first few months after awakening a power were essential in shaping its future. If you didn’t choose an aspect to focus on, you might end up with a power that’s broad and mediocre, or even worse, if you failed to use it enough, you might end up even weaker than you initially started.

This meant that Dylan was in a conundrum. He needed to make use of his ability. If he failed to do so entirely, as a formator, he might end up with his power being relegated to nothing more than what a talented non-powered might possess. He was lucky enough that his abilities should allow him to utilize common household items and machinery, at least to make low level contraptions, but acquiring even those would be a hassle.

His family couldn’t afford to keep replacing appliances, nor would they give him permission to take apart and repurpose the ones around the house, so he was out of luck there. He didn’t have a job, which meant no money to spend to get what he needed. His parents were likely to be almost entirely unhelpful. They probably would rather he had weaker powers, as that would mean he would be exposed to far less danger.

His desperate planning continued as he got out of the car. The awkward silence between his parents had been banished, and they were now talking about some mundane adult thing. He paid them no mind. It’s not like their menial conversation would contribute anything important anyways. No, he needed solutions. Dylan was not willing to be stuck with a mediocre power.

Right before going inside, he heard the deep rumbling of an engine behind him. Turning around, he saw a garbage truck, driving down the street. Its chipped and dulled green paint was covered in spots of rust. He continued to stare as it drove past. In its bed he saw the faint gleam of an old toaster, thrown, incorrectly, into the trash.

Suddenly, Dylan knew what he needed to do.