September 5th, 30XX.

Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

I weakly groaned to an irritating alarm clock blaring throughout my room on my nightstand. My face buried deep in my hands, shortly slipping into my lap as I endlessly stared into the greige carpet floor. I repeatedly blinked to regain my groggy vision then leaned back with a refreshing yawn.

Desperately reaching for the intrusive device, I tapped it to cease all sound only for the clock to fall off the nightstand and break into two.

… I'll get the warranty later, I thought.

Minor annoyance aside, it finally stopped. I sluggishly stood and hopelessly dragged to the bathroom like several tons were weighing me down uphill. Turning to the side mirror before me, there was my rough looking appearance. I looked like a zombie with a messy head of dreadlocks and bloodshot green eyes.

Turning on a knob on my sink, accidentally I splashed my face with hot water. Of course, I recoiled in pain. While it did wake me up, I wished it weren't so agonizing.

Allowing myself to regain my composure, I ran warm enough water for my shower. Hovering my wrist over the raining faucet, I was immediately greeted with the perfect temperature— not too hot, not too cold, just right for me. Having undressed myself I then stepped foot in the bathtub, warm sprinkling water hitting me with a sigh of relief.

After finishing my morning cleanse and leaving the bathroom with an all black attire, my stomach annoyingly growled.

I need something to eat.

I walked to my kitchen across the hallway.

I lived in my own apartment, it wasn't big but it also wasn't small either. The essentials were there, a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room that hosted a $15,000 flat screen television I won from a lottery I didn't even enter. Its comfortability was its affordability, just right for a minimalist like myself.

"Let's see." opening up the cupboards in the kitchen scanning the contents to satisfy my hunger, nothing but canned foods apparently.

Ugh, I knew I should've gone grocery shopping yesterday, but my local store was struck by lightning after I searched for my apartment key for almost an hour. What are the odds?

The cupboards were closed, proceeding to turn on my phone to look at the time being 6:20 AM. I remembered instantly.

Today was my first day of school.

With time fleeing I opted for a simpler meal, a slice of bread was grabbed then put into the toaster. I set the knob to two minutes, yet even I knew what the result would be. Within mere moments it sparked, much to my annoyance, it was already malfunctioning again.

Walking away I snapped my fingers, on cue the now toasted bread flung into my hand flawlessly like it was routine.

"Of course…” I nonchalantly said, it perfectly toasted with no room for error.

I decided to spread a good amount of strawberry jam on its surface, then inserted half in my mouth.

I'll go grocery shopping after class.

I hurried out after grabbing my belongings, heading to my balcony bearing witness to the loud, busy world of Brooklyn. I stepped up to the gray bar on the balcony in a squatted sitting with the toast remaining in my mouth, I could feel the warm breeze blow my hair, letting myself be present in the current moment. My apartment was on the seventh floor of a twelve story building.

My feet were carefully pressed down, carefully I braced myself. Quickly leaped from my balcony as if I were a bird taking flight, sticking a perfect landing without even a stumble in my step. With that performance, I would've passed with flying colors. Taking the long sidewalk with my hands strapped to my backpack, a small yawn escaped my lips.

I crossed the supposed empty street, thinking nothing of it. My ears were suddenly ambushed by the piercing sound of rubber that tore through the road. My head snapped to my left, spotting a large white semi truck speeding in my direction. I couldn't make out the driver, but they must've been frightened due to how frantic the vehicle was moving. For every registered thought made the truck was closer and closer, I merely stood in place.

Huh.

Through a sudden occurrence, before the truck could smash into my body and thus end my life instantaneously, it managed to somehow fly over me with three flips in succession. A quaking crash was felt beneath me, without any bothersome explosions however. It slid after the troubling landing on its side, the driver door immediately opening to reveal a climbing middle aged white man with his red trucker hat caught ablaze.

"Hey, kid! Your parents teach you to look both ways before you cross the street?!" He yelled at me.

"..." I didn't respond.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Eh?" I faced him with my mouth still stuffed. I think he said something about my parents. “... No.”

I don't recall being told to look both ways, I looked down instead to pretend I was shameful.

"So they raised a little shit, is that it? I could've died because of you! you're lucky I didn't turn you into roadkill!"

Only thinking about yourself, eh?

The man's face was visibly red.

"Well. You didn't." I finally finished my toast, speaking loud enough for him to hear.

"You… you…"

"Your head's on fire, by the way."

The man patted his head, immediately his fiery rage turned into a comical panic then an incomprehensible shriek.

"He'll be fine."

Shrugging it of, I then left the crash site so any profanities of his were drowned out. I was sure he called me an extremely inappropriate name. No matter giving strangers attention, I had somewhere to be.

After taking many turns I could see the community that was the greater city, people littered the streets like bugs tending their own schedule. I was no different of course, I had to go to school. I stepped on the nearest sidewalk, minding my business as usual.

Soon a collective of gasps filled the area, numerous strangers paused upon seeing an intruding figure dash at full speed. It was a masked man in a black trench coat being chased by three police officers, the man running and jumping off buildings as if he were a performer.

"Stop! Call backup!"

Many panicking voices broke into fearful screaming.

"Watch out! It's him!"

"I thought they caught him already!"

“Good for nothin’ cops!”

“How'd he escape the first time?!”

The public fled as fast as they could, leaving only me turned around to witness the chase.

"Uh…" I was confused, again.

"Why are ya standin' there kid, Crawler's back!" A heavyset man called out to me, running past.

"W-Wait!" I reached my hand out, luckily it got his attention.

"Who's Crawler…?"

"You don't check the news do you? He's a serial killer!"

"Ah…"

I've never seen that guy before.

Before I could ask, he left. Was this guy really that bad? People were beginning to stare at me thinking I was a suicidal idiot.

The masked man landed, revealing two knives from his coat pockets and racing toward me. How shameless, he cared so little he was willing to shank someone in broad daylight. Of course, with my luck, I was his target.

The masked man picked up speed, readying to definitely stab me in the jugular. Right when he was about to impale me with his sharpened blades, his shoes suddenly came untied causing him to trip. In the midst of his falling I raised my hand, painlessly chopping him in the neck to ensure he'd crash in the hard concrete.

He smashed his face abruptly, the mask cracked and shattered on impact. I then crouched in a low squat, patting his head so he didn't feel as bad.

"So you got the Wallcraw Inheritant, you'd do better in the circus if you weren't a criminal."

Wallcrawl was quite the formidable traversal Inheritant, with it one was able to cross virtually any surface should they have enough momentum. While it was physically costly, the perpetrator was adeptly athletic all things considered.

"Come on, let's get you up to the police."

The now maskless man sobbed, he refused to show his face.

"... Okay, this is getting embarrassing." I stood up.

Soon, one of the useless officers came to the scene.

"Thank you for catching him sir, he's been on the run for months!" The remaining few handcuffed the defeated man. "How do we repay you-" I left.

"No thanks." I always avoided the police no matter what. I've had too many unfortunate run-ins with them to be on good terms, besides, I was on my way to school anyway. No looking back, it was said and done.

Eventually I walked to a bus stop, where I sat and stretched. That was a lot of walking, so sitting for a while wouldn't kill me. I leaned back and looked up at the bright, sunny sky. My eyes progressively got heavy, soon I went into sleep mode.

"Hey! Hey Zen!" A random voice cried out my name. Well, not so random, I instantly knew who it was. My head instinctively arose and panned to my right.

A curly orange haired Caucasian boy with glasses was running to my direction, frantically waving all suited with a face of joy as he saw me.

Oh, that's…

On cue, the boy tripped on air and fell flat on his face, sliding towards me. His glasses went flying, but I managed to nonchalantly catch them in hand. How lucky.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Julius Prince, 17.

Caucasian.

Telekinesis Inheritance.

Zen's one and only childhood friend, a kind-hearted guy who gets migraines pretty easily.

"You drop these?" I handed the glasses to him, even luckier they weren't harmed.

We were friends for as long as I could remember, everything related to my past drew blanks except for him and I being together.

"T-Thanks…" Julius gratefully took back his glasses, putting them on for readjustment. Now he was complete. Even if I didn't know it was him, I recognized that silver Star of David necklace from anywhere, he was one to be proud of his Jewish background.

"Careful J. You get enough migraines as is, don't want you dying on me now."

"I don't get them as easily anymore, I've been working on my inheritance all summer!"

Julius was born with the Telekinetic Inheritance, being able to move virtually anyone or anything with just his mind alone. As literally mind-blowing as this could be, fate pulled a cruel trick on him and too birthed him the condition of chronic migraines. While it didn't stop him persay, overuse of one's Inheritance already strained your brain, that already doubled to where he's needed medication since he unlocked his power. Despite the hurdles placed in front of him however, Julius never let his limits define him, which I always respected.

"You say it like we never hung out this summer, I only took a few days off!"

"When you're with someone all the time it's easy to tell whenever they aren't there."

"You got that right."

Without saying a word, we instinctively fist bumped.

"Wait a minute, are you attending Shine High too?" Julius asked with a look of bewilderment.

"Yeah. I didn't tell you?”

“No! This is news to me!”

“Well I'd watch my attitude there friend of mine, where's this ‘too’ coming from? You never told me either.” I jokingly shrugged.

“Yes, I DID tell you! You just never responded!”

“Huh.”

“... Check your phone…”

Doing exactly that and checking my messaging app, Julius did indeed tell me he got accepted, he sent it the day I got my invitation, too.

“... I went to sleep.”

Although pretty careless in my delivery, I did feel a little bad I ghosted my best friend. Even just a little it stung.

“I can't say I'm not used to it,” Julius nudged my shoulder. “You're a good friend, just a terrible texter!”

I couldn't get mad, he was right. Texting was never the best way to get my attention, unless you called or rammed a car into my apartment odds are you weren't getting an answer out of me.

“My bad.”

“It’s fine, just tell me how you got accepted in the school!”

"I regurgitated the history of Inheritants, nothing special.”

“That’s definitely you Zen, always cutting corners.” He playfully chuckled.

“Yeah yeah, just butter them up with a history lesson and all, talk about humanity's will to evolve— yadda yadda and you got your passing grade." I shrugged the explanation off, it was easy getting accepted. They were so obsessed with evolution it was almost laughable.

Don't believe me? Allow me to ask what Julius wrote his paper on.

“What about you?”

“I talked about inheritance research and what's in store for the future of evolution.”

See?

Julius looked around the empty road. “So when is our bus supposed to get here anyway?"

Whistling, I counted. “Three… two… one…”

Right on cue, a beam of light sped towards us and solidified into a large burgundy bus twice the size of a regular school bus. Its doors automatically opened to no human driver found, however.

I snapped my fingers. “Now.”

"H-Hey! Aren't these the warp cars that only billionaires have?!" Julius frantically pointed at the bus, pure shock on his face. I couldn't blame him, we only recently got flying cars for millionaires a couple hundred years ago. I only saw two in person, and one of them was stolen.

"Yeah. But Shine High has access to all the new stuff, y'know?"

"Makes sense…"

Julius and I walked the steps in the bus, there we saw it was already crowded with our would-be classmates. Absolute chatter filled its interior, if you weren't involved in a conversation everything came out as incomprehensible noise to you. No matter how advanced things got, the one thing that always stayed the same were teenagers on a school bus.

"Please take your seats."

A clear feminine voice came from one of the speakers, it was the bus itself talking to us.

Ah, there it is. This thing is controlled by an AI.

"'Kay." I said carelessly, walking down the long row.

"You sure there's even one seat left?" Julius anxiously asked, trying to maneuver around the sea of students while I had no problem doing so.

"I'm sure. I read they don't send out new buses until the ones they already have are full, guess we got lucky."

"Looks like you came prepared for this place, huh?"

"Haha. What's gotten into you? It's usually you doing the research and I'm playing catch-up, y'know.”

I squinted my eyes, seeing two open seats together in the far back.

"Hey. I see some over there, to the right."

"Alright!"

We made our way back, we were just a row before the complete end of the bus, I was seated first then Julius followed facing the window on his side.

"Capacity has been reached… next destination, Shine High."

An uproar of cheers were heard upon the announcement, some were more animated than others. I leaned back with a relieved sigh, glad for my unpredictable morning coming tto an end.

"I think I'm gonna nap. Wake me up when we're there." I immediately went to sleep.

"Sure… but I've never been in one of these warp cars before, wh—whuaaaaaaaa!" Julius' question abruptly ended as the bus took off, launching forward at light speeds with his face stuck to the window.

Seeing a warp car was one thing, but being in one was completely different. They were out of convenience for transportation to get to one's destination in little time, its convenience came from being able to take you anywhere in no time. It did this by entering a specific "warp zone", the zone mirroring any area of the real world with the difference being only authorized cars were allowed for travel.

These were not commonly used so we were currently the only ones present, crashes were minimized if not impossible with this new mode of travel. Interestingly, warp cars changed the perception of anyone seated. While we were traveling at the speed of light, it was a mere five minute ride which meant Julius was screaming for just as long. He wasn't to be excluded however, so were most students with the exception of a handful including myself.

Finally the bus stopped in its tracks near a giant gate surrounded by a large crowd, Julius fell out of his seat and everyone simultaneously went quiet as well.

"Destination found, welcome to Shine High dear students. Let the beginning of your new school year be one to remember." The AI kindly said.

I immediately opened my eyes to the voice. "Nice, we're here. Let's go J." I stood up, walking out with everyone else as Julius laid flat on his face, weakly getting up and following me outside.

After everyone got off the bus sped off into the distance, unable to be seen.

The one thing that separated us from the school was the gate holding off at least a thousand students, thankfully it wasn't as crowded as the bus.

Many students were astonished at this new reality.

"It's… way bigger in person."

"Some people go their whole lives without seeing this place, and we haven't even walked in yet."

“Do all American schools look like this?”

“I worked my ass off all summer, I deserve to be here!”

While I understood the excitement everyone had shown, I was never good at expressing myself, so I just looked disinterested at the world's most prestigious school.

Eventually, Julius’ voice interrupted my thoughts. "What do you think they have?"

"No idea… we'll see what they got for us."

Before he could reply, an authoritative voice ceased the talkative crowd.

"Attention, everyone! Please, may I have your attention?"

We all looked for the speaker, however none could be found.

An American bald eagle landed on the gate, flapping its wings. It wasn't a typical bald eagle however, it wore a golden Great Seal of the United States necklace with a flowing cape of the country’s flag. Its other noticeable traits were its uncommon blue eyes and reddish brown feathers.

"Up here, up here!" it waved its wings.

A plethora of confused chatter left us. Was that voice coming out of that bird?

"Thank you! As you all may know, the bald eagle is what represents the amazing United States of America! So it has been decided with a group of very important people to announce I will be administering Shine High as your principal!"

"Well, why don'tcha become our President while you're at it?" I sarcastically whispered.

Julius then elbowed my shoulder. “Rude…”

The bird continued to speak. "For now on, I'd appreciate my dear students to now address me as Principal Eegul. E-E-G-U-L."

His name was just eagle spelled wrong? Oh boy.

Edward “Eegul” Abraham, unknown age.

American bald eagle.

Communication Inheritance.

A surprisingly intelligent bird capable of human speech, rumored to have the IQ of every single president in U.S. history. Despite being so promising, he isn't very well liked.

Like the bird said, the bald eagle had always been associated with the United States since the beginning. This one in particular was quite special, being the only known animal born an Inheritant with the absurdly rare Communication Inheritance allowing him to speak any man-made language. This was an anomaly among anomalies, as animals were believed to be incapable of being born with such gifts. Some theorized he was a lab experiment, others figured he was simply a genetic outlier.

I was more inclined to believe the latter anyway. Funnily enough, contrary to his position, the other students looked more annoyed by his presence if anything. Seriously, I don't think I've ever met someone kill the enthusiasm of an entire crowd this fast before.

“You lucky lot have all passed the written portion of the entrance exam, and thus have moved on to show your physical prowess! It will be a fairly simple challenge, for it is only to sort you all into your appropriate classrooms."

I see, we aren't just given a room to sit in like a normal school, the efficiency of our inheritances dictate that.

“It is very important you converse amongst ourselves, you all are not only peers, but a soon-to-be family of Shine High relatives!”

In case anyone were to fall for someone this year, they'd prefer not to call their future lovers siblings. As expected, many students looked in either disgust or simply tilted their heads.

“It appears I've soured the crowd, hm? No matter, what's more important is asking who wants to finally walk the floors of Shine High!?”

Of course, they all erupted into a booming cheer.

“That's the spirit I love to inspire! Without further ado, the gates of opportunity have been opened! Enjoy your stay in the greatest school in the world!"

As he said so, the gates opened themselves. What stood before us was a heavenly sight, for what was intended to be a high school had more of a University-like aesthetic. Its campus was huge with thinly cut grass, there laid a long gold stone path leading to the front doors. Many flags were parallel to one another surrounding the path, perfectly trimmed bushes were meticulously placed through the vast field.

“Not bad.” I quietly complimented. “Ready, Julius? Julius?”

Julius laid flat on the ground, foaming at the mouth. He was dying from excitement, literally!

Lifting him to his knees, I slapped him in the face. “Wake up.”

No dice.

I slapped him again. “Wake up.”

Still nothing, there was only one logical thing to do.

I countlessly slapped him in rapid succession, my hand and his face were smudged blurs.

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake—”

Finally I felt something of a struggle. “S-Stooooop slapping meeeee!” Julius cried out, holding my slapping wrist.

“Oh. There you are, you passed out for a second there.” I helped him stand on his feet, he immediately went to readjust his glasses.

“Thanks… I'm just a little nervous, but I'm ready… I think.”

“You think?”

“I know.” He balled his fist, looking at it as if he were ready to conquer the world.

“That’s what I like to hear.” I patted him on the back.

“What about you? Are you excited?”

“As excited as I'll ever be.”

I wore a blank expression.

With one “determined” look to another, we mutually nodded.

Facing the gold path in front of us, only the wide doors were in our sights. “Let's go.” We both said in unison.

Like the rest, we walked the path of our future…