Contrary to what Hollywood wants us to think, the first public sighting of something truly extraordinary wasn't in America. It happened in a dingy third-world country called South Africa, which is where I am from. There had been other sightings, but no one actually believed them because they were in places like Madagascar or the Amazon jungle, where people were heavily superstitious and claimed to see all kinds of weird and wonderful things. There was talk about a little 12-year-old girl with gills who could breathe underwater in Madagascar, and a pyrokinetic old man in Mongolia. Unfortunately, both of these claims were just talk without any physical evidence, so no one believed the apparent sightings.

As I was saying, the first real sighting was in my home country, in a small coastal city called East London. It happened on a typical hot and relaxing Sunday afternoon. It was one of those Sundays where you went to the beach to soak up the sun, eat a light lunch and ice cream while watching the waves gently beat the ocean shore. If you looked a bit further out to sea, you could, with a little luck, see some dolphins jumping about in the water. It was the perfect day for surfing and bikinis. None of which I was really interested in—I went to the beach for the great food that could be found on the beachfront. There were a bunch of restaurants lined up against each other, surrounded by hotels and BnBs.

I was at one of these restaurants when the sighting happened. Well…not there ‘there’, I was inside a forty-year-old man. Wait, no, that sounds gross. I was in the thoughts of a forty-year-old man. Somehow that sounds worse??? Ok, let me explain.

A few years ago, I fell into a coma. A drunk police officer who was also speeding veered off his lane and slammed into my driver’s side just as I was turning at a T-junction. I only noticed that he veered off his lane too late for me to move out of the way, plus there was another car behind me. It hit the driver’s side full on at a speed of 160km/h in an 80km/h zone. I was with my wife and a colleague of hers; we were on our way back from work, giving the colleague a lift. I personally don’t remember anything. In fact, I don’t even remember that entire week. The only reason I know what happened is through surfing through the mind of my wife, who came out basically unscathed—a few bruises and one broken rib.

I was immediately put into ICU and stayed there drugged up for two months. Doctors told my wife that they didn’t think I would survive, and even if I did, there was a high risk that I might be a quadriplegic. If only. I was in and out of consciousness during that time in the ICU. I started getting better, and the week when I was supposed to leave the ICU, I got an infection that riddled my body, affecting my liver the most. Since that got damaged a lot during the accident, it was still recovering and very weak. The infection, plus my already damaged and weak liver, caused me to go into Hepatic encephalopathy, which then resulted in me going fully comatose.

A very unfortunate and highly unlikely series of events needed to happen in order for that to occur, and I was that unfortunate one in a million. I went comatose because, you see, substances absorbed into the bloodstream from the intestine pass through the liver, where toxins are normally removed. Many of these toxins (such as ammonia) are normal breakdown products of the digestion of protein. In hepatic encephalopathy, toxins are not removed because liver function is impaired. Also, some toxins may completely bypass the liver through abnormal connections (called collateral vessels) that form between the portal venous system (which supplies blood to the liver) and the general circulation. These vessels form because of liver disease and portal hypertension (high blood pressure in the portal vein, which is the large vein that brings blood from the intestine to the liver).

A procedure used to treat portal hypertension (called portosystemic shunting) may also enable toxins to bypass the liver. Whatever the cause, the outcome is the same: Toxins can reach the brain and affect its function. Doctors are not sure exactly which substances are responsible for affecting the brain. However, high levels of protein breakdown products in the blood, such as ammonia, appear to play a role, which is how I ended up comatose. I was comatose for a few months at the beginning of the year twenty-twenty. During that time, I was in vivid dreams that felt real but are hazy. Some of those dreams felt like I was living a completely different life in a completely different body. After some time, though, these dreams started to feel more real, more immersive to the point where I was the person, or at least it felt like it.

Around the beginning of the year twenty-twenty-one, I slowly became aware of my surroundings. I could hear machines beeping and people talking, and it felt like someone was crying next to me. I struggled to clear my head, and I tried to move any muscle in my body, but to my dismay, I couldn’t even lift my eyelids. A machine next to me started beeping louder, and I could hear a familiar voice right next to me stop crying and call out for a doctor or nurse. I then realized who that voice belonged to—Skylar, my wife. I tried and tried to speak, to move, to shout, anything, but still nothing. I pushed, strained, and concentrated as hard as I could, but still nothing. The beeping on the machines got louder, and I could hear Skylar start crying again, asking what’s going on, the nurse that came to my aid not knowing and calling for a doctor.

In that moment, when I could hear Skylar crying again, something inside of me broke, and I started feeling myself lift up. But as I was lifting up, I started to get pulled towards something, or something was pulling me—at the time, I wasn’t sure. I started to ‘see’ a series of pulsating lines made out of light flowing everywhere around me, and it seemed I was being drawn towards Skylar. And I say ‘see’ relatively because I couldn’t actually see the pulsating energy lines; I could sense them, just like how you know exactly where your nose, ears, and eyes are at all times. Even if you close your eyes and plug your ears, you would still be able to locate them on your body.

All of a sudden, I was crying, worried about my husband who was in a terrible car accident, worried that something was going horribly wrong right now, that some sort of complication happened during the surgery that he was in last night. My heart was aching beyond anything I had ever felt before. All my energy felt drained, like I hadn’t slept well in a long time. I felt as though my world had crumbled and my last string of hope was breaking. My head hurt, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. How would I tell the kids? How would we live without him? I felt ill, but I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with me. It felt like someone was twisting my intestines from the inside and squeezing my heart and lungs, even though I could breathe fine.

All that pain and rushing thoughts felt like they were mine until after a full minute or more, I felt my thoughts separate. The thoughts I was feeling before started feeling foreign, like they weren’t my own. I started remembering who I was—I don’t have a husband, I’m married to Skylar. The more time passed and I struggled, the more I started to be able to discern whose thoughts were whose. This process seemed to take forever, but eventually, I was able to separate our thoughts. I then realized that I was reading—well, sort of reading, more like inside Skylar’s head.

Now it felt like I was an observer of her life and body. I could move, but only because Skylar was moving. I was in her head, I realized. What were those lights I had ‘seen’? If I am inside her mind, can she hear me if I spoke? I shouted out,

“Skylar, honey, it’s me!”

Nothing. No response, and I could feel that she didn’t hear anything I said. I was inside her mind after all. I had so many questions about how I was doing this. Could it all be a seriously vivid dream? No, it can’t be. I can feel my own original body over there as the doctors poke and prod me, checking if I am responsive, but at the same time, I can also feel my wife’s movements and thoughts. This is too vivid to be a dream. I am still aware of my body but still can’t move it.

Ever since my strange experience inside Skylar's mind, I noticed odd things happening around me. My mind was sharper, and I could sense when people were around me. The ‘lights’ I had seen started to ‘appear’ more often, especially when someone got really close to my still comatose body. They appeared faintly at first but grew more vivid with each passing day, forming an intricate web of energy that I could tap into if I focused hard enough. Each person had their unique energy line flowing from them when they moved, which grew fainter when they left the room and eventually disappeared.

As I practiced flowing into these lines, I got better at separating my existence from whoever’s mind I went into. I discovered that if the person I was inside was close to another, I could latch onto their energy line and switch. This allowed me to ‘travel’ not only around the hospital but outside of it. Even if the lines around me were faint or disappeared, I could still find my way around. I could feel the other person's movements and emotions faintly, like an observer. If I concentrated, I could feel them more vividly.

I tried going deeper into people's minds to see if I could hear anything beyond their present thoughts, but I could only observe the present. Over time, I noticed that people don’t think the same way. Some only hear a voice, usually their own, with no images; they couldn’t visualize anything. Some people heard multiple voices and visualized two-dimensional objects but not three-dimensional ones. Others could visualize three-dimensional objects and decipher their measurements. Some people's thoughts were fast-paced and jittery, while others were the complete opposite. Everyone’s mind was different and unique, and people interpreted the world around them differently.

One day, as I was practicing this newfound ability, I felt a sudden pull toward the beachfront where an extraordinary sighting was about to happen. Multiple stronger-than-usual energy lines were converging at the beach. Could it be other people with abilities? Excited, I ‘traveled’ to the beach. I could feel the energy lines converging at a single point; something big was coming.

I arrived at the beachfront and found myself inside the mind of a forty-year-old man enjoying a soft serve while basking in the sun with his family. This brings us back to the story of the first public sighting. The place had three fast-food joints and a small convenience store sharing one small building, with a hotel on the top floors and another next to it. The layout was open-plan, so you could see into all the other fast-food places and the convenience store if you looked around. It was early afternoon, around lunchtime, when it happened.

An average-looking, skinny, caramel-skinned young man, wearing blue jeans, Converse sneakers, and a red t-shirt, appeared. He had curly hair, green eyes, and was of average height—not really tall, but not really short. He wasn’t noticeable at all. In fact, nobody would have even batted an eye if he hadn’t jumped onto one of the outside benches. He seemed kind of nervous. A few people briefly glanced at him and then went back to their much more interesting meals and conversations, as he didn’t do anything initially. After a brief awkward pause, he took a deep breath and started speaking.

I am not sure if it was the great weather, the good food, or the fact that it was a Sunday, but in that very moment, everyone looked at him. His voice was a shock to everyone there—he sounded exactly like Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, which was unexpected due to the guy’s appearance. He then proceeded to switch between Jeremy, Richard Hammond, and James May, all the hosts of Top Gear. And he made it sound exactly like them, no doubt.

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People stopped mid-bite, conversations halted, and all eyes were on him. He seamlessly switched from one voice to the next, capturing their mannerisms and speech patterns perfectly. It was like the three hosts were standing there in front of us, arguing about the merits of some absurdly expensive car. However, people quickly got bored and returned to their conversations and food 30 seconds later. A few still watched but were slowly starting to lose interest as well. Fortunately, the man whose mind I was in seemed to be still interested. I could see inside his head that he was a fan of the trio, having watched both Top Gear and The Grand Tour, and was currently watching the first season of Clarkson’s Farm, which came out in 2020 during the COVID lockdown. He was thinking of taking out his phone and recording the incident, which he proceeded to do while still keeping his eyes on the performance.

The young man could see that people were losing interest in his performance and looked frustrated, like his message was not being heard, whatever it was. He then proceeded to reach into his pocket and take out one of those oversized glass marbles and place it on the palm of his hand facing up. Still in Clarkson’s voice, he beckoned everyone to look at his hand. He then moved his empty hand below the one with the marble. He snapped his fingers, and a loud bang was heard, which captured everyone’s attention, because snapping one’s fingers does not produce such a loud sound. He apologized nervously about the noise and did it again. This time, there wasn’t much of a sound, just a slight humming noise, but to everyone’s surprise, the oversized marble started levitating in his hand. Now everyone was focused on him. He clicked his fingers again, and the marble levitated higher. He then flexed his hand with the levitating marble, and it rose higher and higher. He started juggling the marble from one hand to the other without ever touching it. People were cheering him on now, phones were out, and a crowd started forming around him, watching in amazement.

Someone in the crowd shouted that there was a wire, and the young man encouraged someone to throw something in his direction. Now back to using his original voice, I assumed. A little kid threw one of his tiny toys at him, and he proceeded to not only catch it without touching it but also start juggling the toy using nothing but what seemed to be telekinesis or sound I wasn’t sure, he was mimicking voices at an incredible level of accuracy plus he snapped his fingers in order to trigger what he is doing now. He then stopped the juggling, returned the toy, put the marble back in his pocket, and, now using his Richard Hammond impression, slammed his one foot on the bench that he was on. In that instant, he started levitating, balancing on one foot at first and then, as the crowd gasped, he started levitating with both his feet. He then proceeded to give a speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and everyone in between – I hope you enjoyed the show! Yes, what you just saw was real. No camera tricks, no fancy Hollywood effects. Supers are real!

I know, I know – you've all heard the rumors. Stories about people doing incredible things in remote corners of the world, particularly in places that the media usually skips over. Maybe you've seen some grainy footage on social media and thought, 'That can't be real!' Well, guess what? It is.

You see, I've just given you a front-row seat to something that people have been whispering about for months. The whispers are true. We exist. And if my little performance here hasn't convinced you, then I don’t know what will!

Now, I know what you're all thinking: 'How did this happen?' Was it COVID-19, the pandemic that changed everything last year? Or those supposed alien sightings in America? Honestly, I can't confirm or deny any of that. Your guess is as good as mine! All I know is that one day, I woke up, and things were different. I was different. And I’m not alone.

People all over the world are noticing changes in themselves. Abilities they can't explain. Powers they never asked for. It’s happening everywhere – from bustling cities to quiet villages. And yet, here we are, still debating whether or not it's real.

To the governments of the world, I say this: Stop sitting on your asses! It's time to address what’s happening. We need answers. We need support. We need you to stop pretending this isn’t real because, trust me, it is.

But hey, let’s not get too serious. I mean, think of the possibilities! Free energy from supers who can generate power, clean water from those who can purify it with a touch. The world can be a better place if we just acknowledge what's right in front of us.

So, let’s embrace this new chapter in human history with open arms and maybe a little bit of humor. After all, if we can't laugh at the fact that I can now float while delivering a speech, what can we laugh at?

Thank you all for being here today. Spread the word, share the videos, and let the world know: Supers are real, and we're here to make a difference.

Oh, and if anyone's got a theory about how this happened, drop me a message. I'd love to compare notes!

Thank you!"

And with that, the young man stopped levitating and quickly left, his shy demeanor back. Some people tried to stop him to ask questions, but his small stature enabled him to slip by the crowd, swiftly jump on a motorcycle that looked like a Vespa, and quickly disappear.

I stood there, still inside the forty-year-old man(pause), amidst the crowd, feeling a strange connection to the young man. I had seen the lights before, experienced the sensation of being drawn towards something. This was just the beginning. There were others out there, people with extraordinary abilities, connected by the same pulsating lights. After that, the crowd took some time to eventually die down, and things went back to normal. Some people were still talking about what had happened, and it seemed a lot of people were uploading the videos they took of

what just happened to their social media pages, including the man I was in. The world was about to change, and it had all started here, in this small coastal city called East London in South Africa.

In the months following the first public sighting of a super, a lot of things happened. First, the young man who had appeared on East London's beachfront re-emerged, this time on his own YouTube channel. He called himself "Mimic the Sound Smith," a clever play on words akin to a blacksmith. His real name was Dylan Brown, a recent university graduate struggling to find a job. Dylan discovered he could manipulate sound while rehearsing for a play. The details were vague, but he mentioned being in his dorm when it happened. He began experimenting with his voice, and over time, discovered new aspects of his ability, like the levitation he had demonstrated in front of the crowd.

Dylan had been struggling financially at home, and his inability to find a job after graduating weighed heavily on him. Companies wanting juniors with five years of experience fresh out of college frustrated him. Although he had studied chemistry, he was a performer at heart, having participated in drama and choir throughout his school career, including college. He kept his abilities secret and practiced in private until he felt confident enough to reveal them. Struggling to find work anyway, he figured that coming out as the first super in a public setting and then starting his YouTube channel would gain traction faster than the other way around. Despite this, some people still believed he was faking it.

Through online forums and interactions with people from his township, Dylan learned about others with abilities popping up worldwide, especially in areas with low-quality healthcare. Many of these abilities caused people to hurt themselves or others because they had no control or tried to hide them, leading to disastrous manifestations. Dylan saw the need to raise awareness about what he called the "smith outbreak." He advocated for a system to help those struggling with their newfound abilities, urging humanity to come together and solve this global issue as they did with COVID.

Dylan's charming personality and impressive displays of his abilities quickly gained him popularity. His YouTube channel blew up, earning him multiple sponsors and interview appearances. He spread his message of unity and the potential to use these abilities to address global issues like world hunger and environmental conservation. However, not everyone liked his peace, love, and positivity message. Critics claimed that the appearance of smiths was China's fault because of COVID and suggested it was a conspiracy involving all the world's governments to develop new weapons of war. Some believed it was a religious sign, with God gifting people with abilities making them smith’s so that they can help people during the reckoning. Others schemed that it was Satan bestowing these powers for an so that he can have an army to fight the four horse men during the reckoning. Others thought it was simply human evolution and that we as a species were moving onto the next stage of evolution, while some attributed it to aliens, claiming that those with powers were abducted and experimented on and then sent back to Earth to help conquer humanity. No one really knew the cause of the emergence of smiths, but their existence was undeniable.

Unfortunately, many people with abilities faced significant drawbacks. Physics still applied to these abilities, causing numerous accidental deaths. Speedsters broke their own bones or crashed into buildings because they couldn't process the world at their speed. Strongmen crushed their internal organs by flexing too hard or trying to lift heavy objects, their steel like muscles crushing their bones and internal organs rendering them seriously injured or worse. Pyro kinetics/flame-smiths spontaneously combusted at the worst possible moments, burning themselves and others around them to death. Despite these negative side effects, some managed to control their abilities.

Dylan, or Mimic, was determined to raise awareness and push for governmental support to help smiths gain control over their abilities, preventing harm to themselves and others. Surprisingly, South Africa took the lead, setting up a registrar system where supers, or smiths, could register at Home Affairs. They were categorized, studied, and taught the basics of their abilities over the course of a few weeks. This process helped many gain basic control over their powers.

However, this still being South Africa, shit quickly hit the fan. Gangs and criminal organizations saw the benefit of using supers. They lurked around Home Affairs and training facilities, recruiting registered smiths. They threatened to harm the smiths' families if they didn't join and promised incentives like money and protection from other gangs wanting the same things as them to the most useful ones. With South Africa's high poverty and crime rate, gangs grew stronger rapidly. Fewer people registered, and government corruption diverted funds meant to help smiths into the pockets of the higher-ups.

Despite these challenges, Mimic continued to advocate for unity and the responsible use of abilities, hoping to create a better world for everyone.

Meanwhile I was getting a better hang of my abilities, skimming though the minds of thousands in the city of East London, I spent countless hours experiencing life through the bodies and minds of others, I I noticed that I had a limited range of how far I could travel by jumping from mind to mind, actually I wouldn’t exactly call in a limited range more like I found it harder to find my way back to my own body after travelling all the way to the outskirts of East London. Not being able to make it back into my own body terrified me, I had no idea what would happen to me If one day I was not able to make it back to my body. That thought made me face difficult questions which I didn’t have the answer to, such as would I simply fade away into nothingness if I couldn’t make it back into my body? Would I die if the person I was in died in that moment? I didn’t have a time limit of using my ability.

I also noticed that there was so much crime and so many terrible people out in the world. Not saying that I didn’t know this before—I mean, I am a married grown man with kids—but the amount of terrible shit that happens daily is beyond frightening, especially since I could be inside the heads of people seeing their thoughts and feeling all their emotions and intents. The worst things being children being abused. Having kids of my own and not being able to do anything saddened and infuriated me beyond words. I had to find a way to help people. I could not control or take over the minds of the people that I travel into, but after some time, I noticed that inside the head of supers I could leave suggestions inside the mind of those I possessed. So I felt powerless and that infuriated me, and made me depressed, so I spent a lot of time inside people, especially supers.

Recently, I had taken an interest in the mind of a young man in his twenties who lived alone in his apartment in Quigney, near the beachfront. He worked as a junior software developer—an impressive feat since East London is not really big in tech. But most interesting of all was his ability, which I wasn't really to sure what it was, I had only seen snippets of it, and he never thought about it. He reminded me of myself in my younger years. Today I spent most of the day in his head. He seemed to not use his ability a lot—in fact, he barely used it, ever. Which perplexed me. Today I am spending the whole day in his head, hoping to see why and to also avoid thinking about things that depress me.