We stood in the gym hall in our gym clothes. It was all the guys from our year group so there were around thirty of us. I’d never particularly liked gym class, but the facilities at this school were definitely made it seem a lot more interesting.

The gym teacher a massive red bald guy, with arms the size of tree trunks blew a whistle for our attention.

“All right you sissies! I’m Mr Bernard! Today we’re going to test your physical capability, and grit!” he roared. “We’ll be doing a bunch of physical fitness tests to size you up, and sort you into two groups for lessons you can handle!” There were a series of groans from everyone, me included. I should’ve realised the moment I’d seen all the equipment the assistant teachers had brought out.

“Now to make this a little interesting, we’ll start with the beep test!” Mr Bernard said grinning manically. There was a series of louder groans as we were all directed into a single line, and the beep machine was turned on. God, I hated this damn thing. I zoned out as the familiar introduction voice explaining things reverberated from the speaker. I’d always sucked at endurance stuff, and sticking to walls wasn’t going to help me here. The first beep sounded, and we took off. Eh, I wouldn’t push myself. It’d be nicer if I didn’t wake up sore tomorrow.

Slowly people started to fall behind and exit the test. I wasn’t even breaking a sweat. We carried on, and eventually Quinten fell out. Ok, whatever had happened had definitely boosted my endurance because there was absolutely no way I had more stamina then Quinten. Before long it was just me and three other guys, Jaden included. I slowed down and intentionally dropped out, not wanting to look too suspicious. I was barely sweating and didn’t feel tired at all.

The test ended and we split up into two groups. Ours had our measurements taken. I was 5’4’’. Still short, but half an inch taller than I had been last month. At least I was growing quickly. Then we did some more tests. I didn’t break a sweat in any of the endurance tests. It was unnerving suddenly being so much better at endurance. What the hell had happened to my body?

I couldn’t come up with any reasonable conclusion. Not that I’d be able to with my understanding of biology. This was way above college level, let alone high school freshman level. If I wanted to figure this out I’d have to let a proper scientist know. Could a proper scientist even figure out what had happened? I didn't know. And either way, I was a little reluctant to tell anyone but Quinten, so that was off the table. The only reason I hadn’t said anything to Quinten yet was because he was intentionally avoiding me. It must’ve been because of the tissue box stuff. He’d come around.

We moved onto strength tests, and I quickly realised that I was stronger too. I don’t know how I hadn’t noticed it before, but it been more than apparent when I’d destroyed everyone in the grip strength test. I’d played it off pretending it was faulty, and that I’d barely applied pressure. Mr Bernard had given me a different one and I’d toned it down getting a slightly higher than average score on the next one. I’d need to be careful about exerting my strength, but I guess I rarely ever exerted myself, so I’d probably be fine. Gym classes ended and we went to the showers. I glanced at myself in the mirror. I didn’t look any different. I sighed, now that the initial excitement the question of what had happened was starting to worry me more and more.

-

“Remember the homework will be due next Tuesday. Have a great day everyone” Mrs Simmons said as the class prepared to leave. I got up, and started packing my bags. The lesson hadn’t been boring but my mind had been elsewhere. I needed to test what I could do safely, and then figure out how to make money off of it. Suddenly someone slammed their bag into me as they walked past. I turned to look at them as two of girls followed after the perpetrator, giggling. They all turned to look at me as they left. It had been Kate. Weird. I’d just avoid her.

I stepped out into the hall and made my way toward the library. Maybe I could find something about superpowers or metahumans there. I stopped by my locker on the way, struggling to unstick myself from the mess inside. I was still getting the hang of it which was starting to get annoying.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I yawned as I walked through the chaos of the hallways. For a private school outside of lessons things were a lot more informal than you’d assume. It’s not like it was a bad thing, but it kind of stood out. I made my way down the stairs past all the art installations on the walls. There tons of annual in school and out of school extra-curricular competitions and events. I guess it made sense that a prep school would push those for students, but I didn’t like the idea that it was mandatory to join a club. Quinten was trying out for the basketball team. We were supposed to go together but I doubted he’d force me to now that he wasn’t talking to me. I would have to find one eventually though.

I stepped inside the library. It was large with two separate floors, massive bookshelves lining the walls, and tonnes of tables throughout the room. The reception desk was curved around the pillar in the centre, with the three receptionists tapping away at their computers. There were a decent amount of kids in here, but it still felt empty. I guess that was more a testament to it’s size than anything to do with the amount of students who used the library. I paused as the slippers rubbed against my feet. It was one of the only rooms in the school with a carpet floor. I guess they’d done it to make it feel comfortable, but with my heightened sense of touch it just felt weird.

Now where could I look? Would there even be a metahuman section, or would those books just be in science? I walked over to the reception desk and one of the receptionists, an older lady with greying hair and a permanent frown looked up at me expectantly.

“What can I do for you today?” she asked.

“Do you have any books on metahumans and the human anatomy?” She tapped at her keyboard and glanced up at me again.

“Do you have any specific book in mind?” she asked.

“Uh… not really, just anything to do with those topics” I replied. She sighed loudly.

“Well the human anatomy books are in the biology section of sciences. We’ve got a lot of those. The metahuman books, however, are everywhere. There’s not enough of them to give it it’s own section so they’re put into the other main topics the books are about. You’ve got metahuman books in the history, the sciences, and a few in fiction. Do you want to look around or pick out books from the computer?” she asked.

“I can look around” I said. She nodded and went back to tapping away at her keyboard as I walked away.

Hmm, it was probably best to look for the metahuman books in the sciences section. Something there might explain what the hell was happening, or how metahumans even came to exist in the first place. I remember vaguely learning about it having something to do with WW2, but I couldn’t remember it exactly.

I reached the biology section and flicked through some books. I grabbed two on the human anatomy but none of the metahuman ones seemed remotely helpful. They were all huge books about stuff I barely understood. I picked up one just in case it came in helpful, then I moved to the history section to see if I could find something interesting.

I flicked through the books trying to find something on metahumans when I finally came across it. The dark history of the super soldier. The cover was a black and white picture of a bunch of scientists watching an inhumanely large man with no hair wave a black flag with eagles on it, through the air. I flipped to the blurb.

In the modern day the super soldier is seen as a beacon of hope and peace. With many of the first superheroes being super soldiers who fought for the allies in the chaos of World War Two; and various stand-out superheroes in the modern era like The Kansas Wonder, British Hope, and the beloved leader of the Vanguard, Icon. However, the origins of the super soldier and the dark roots of its history in Nazi Germany involving human experimentation, dark agendas, and secretive societies is largely unknown to the public. In this book I, Harold Johnson, am going to explore and detail the dark truths, and history behind the super soldier.

I flipped the book back. Whoa, that was a bit… much. And the Kansas Wonder? How old was this book? I checked the date. 1999. That made sense. Not many people spoke about the Kansas Wonder after some controversy back in 2003 a few years before I’d been born. I couldn't remember exactly what had happened, but I also couldn't remember caring that much about it. Anyway, the book seemed interesting, plus it’d give me something to do. I put it on top of the pile and made my way towards the front desk.

-

I sat in my room flicking through the human anatomy book, and metahuman book. All I’d gotten from this was that I’d need to dissect myself, or have a bunch of scans done, which I was more than reluctant to do. On top of that the super soldier book had put more than just the fear of God into me in terms of experimentation. Some of the stuff governments around the world had done to the children of some of the first super soldiers was insane and had definitely made me reconsider telling any authorities what had happened to me.

I closed the book and sighed. This had been a dead end. I dropped the book onto my bed and hopped down from the ceiling to the floor, landing with a small thud. I wanted to test what I could do. Like really test what I could do. Sitting on the ceiling was cool and all, but after today I was starting to yearn for more. I mean I could do front flips with ease now! I could throw myself across the room and catch myself on the wall! And I was making a concerted effort to be careful. What could I do if I wasn’t? I sighed falling back onto my bed. There were two days till the weekend. If I wanted somewhere to practice, I’d need to get a pass to leave.