Ryker Stone woke up in a muddled mess from the dream.

"What? Huh?" he fumbled.

The world seemed to spin for a moment as he gathered his bearings. The room he was sleeping in was almost pitch black, thanks to the thick curtains hanging over the windows. His head swiveled quickly to where he instinctively knew they were.

The dream had been one of the most vivid experiences he had ever had. He hoped he didn't develop any type of prophetic superpower overnight.

"No…I don't want prophetic powers," he said slowly while shaking his head.

Developing that type of superpower was the quickest way to end up at an unlisted black site while doing clandestine work for the government. Either that or a rapid method for the government to send an assassin to kill you.

"What's going on? Who's saying that….Is it in my head?" he trailed off.

He held his fingers up to his temples and focused on seeing a new vision.

"I'm not trying to do that," Ryker said, a little confused.

How supers used their abilities was well documented in the years since they arrived. Using them was all about manifesting the person's will upon the world.

"Is someone under there?" Ryker looked under his bed. No one was there.

With his hand to his head and eyes scrunched tight, he waited to see if anything would appear in his head. When that didn't work, he tried to imagine a window to materialize that would show him what he wanted, which was next week's lottery numbers.

"I'm still not trying to do that," he said. "I mean, I would have, but not after you said that. I was trying to get your voice to stop. Or is it my voice?"

When nothing popped up, his worry about gaining prophetic powers drained away, and he relaxed.

"I was pretty sure it wasn't prophetic powers."

…😒

…😒

"Shshsshpshpshs" A whisper flitted through the room, and Ryker's head twisted to find its source.

"Okay, I definitely heard that, and it sounded nothing like a whisper," he said too loudly. Ryker ended up disturbing one of the numerous other occupants of the room.

"Shut up," Matty said from the bed next to his.

"What the hell?" Ryker said quietly. "I'm losing my mind."

Ryker looked at the eight other beds in the darkened room. He tried to see if he could tell if anyone else was awake. Each small bed was decorated the same, they had scratchy woolen blankets over a plain white sheet, and each appeared to have a sleeping form. Often, one or two kids were awake at any given time, either talking, crying, or spaced out from being too afraid to sleep, yet past the point of exhaustion.

That night, only Ryker was awake and moving.

"Except for Matty," Ryker mumbled under his breath.

…😠

…😠

Yet he could swear he heard whispering, and as Ryker tried to focus, he could almost make it out.

"No, I can clearly hear everything you're saying."

…😡

…😕

Anger and confusion tickled Ryker's psyche. "Tingles of emotion?" Ryker thought. "I need to go back to sleep."

After seeing everyone asleep in their beds, Ryker thought that it must be the pipes in the old barn house converted into a modern home for children.

"Sure. Okay." Ryker shrugged his shoulders in disbelief.

The old barn house had four separate rooms that could each hold about twelve bunks, depending on the child's size. Each room was separated by sex and age group. Ryker was in the room for the oldest kids; it also had the least number of occupants. In fact, he didn't have much longer to live there since his eighteenth birthday was coming up in two months. So, even if he didn't manifest a superpower, he would be moving out by then.

For the past year, Ryker had been working as much as he could and saving up every penny for that day. As a result, he didn't often sleep at the home. He worked incredibly hard to ensure he would have a place to live once the facility kicked him out.

Unable to sleep, Ryker did the only thing he could do. In the corner of the room was an open space where no bunks fit. Ryker moved silently over to the spot and set about working out. He didn't do anything too loud and ensured it wasn't too strenuous, at least for him. He started with simple pyramids of push-ups, crunches and squats. Starting from one, he worked up to ten, then went back down to one.

Ever since Ryker was young, he wanted to be a superhero. Most people in the world wanted the same thing at one time or another. Simultaneous with Ryker realizing he wanted to be a hero, he also discovered that the heroes were in incredibly good shape. At the time, he didn't know if it resulted from their enhanced physiology or if they just trained really hard, but he decided to train hard to achieve that goal.

"How do you know all this?" He held his hand up in a fist. "I swear, when I find where you are, you're going to get such a thrashing."

He was trying to stay in the best shape possible if he wasn't helping around the orphanage, working to earn money, or sleeping. Even after he concluded that he probably wouldn't be getting a superpower, Ryker found that exercising gave him a sense of happiness and fulfillment. However, his motivation and desire dwindled every day he got closer to eighteen.

"I haven't told anyone that," he said, befuddled.

After making it through the exercise pyramid with what he thought was relative ease, he decided to do some extra sets. He was in the zone. In no time, he was huffing and puffing as his muscles throbbed. He hadn't felt so good while exercising in a long time. He kept working out until he had a thick sheen of sweat over his body.

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Ryker was breathing hard after all the exercise, and he knew that he needed to take care of his muscles after such extraneous work. Since it was still early and everyone was still asleep, he started to stretch.

While stretching, he thought about the dream he had. Surprisingly it was still fresh in his mind.

"I had actually already forgotten about it…wait!"

Sure, some of the details were disappearing, but for him to remember so much for so long was rare.

"And that damn whispering sound was still there," he thought.

"What?" he said aloud. "How…I didn't…."

It was starting to annoy him. After he was done stretching, he decided that he would try and discover what was making that sound. He didn't want it to be some type of gas leak that he could have prevented.

He could have sworn it was getting louder too.

"Nope. Still the same."

Ryker was in a seated hamstring stretch with his right leg tucked in. He went over his plans as he stretched his torso to reach his left leg. He had only started making plans in the past year after he failed to get powers and go to a training institution. He wanted a physically based power, so he always worked out. If someone manifested their powers early enough, they had a chance to be picked up by one of the country's major STCs, or Superpower Training Centers. There they would get a first-class education, learn how to use their abilities, and often get placed in a job or super team where they could flourish.

"Oh my god!" he hissed. "Is that what this is? Did I manifest powers?"

Please just wait! 🤬

"Wait, what?"

He thought that it would be nice to have a place like that. A place where he belonged and could grow and fit in. Sure, most kids wanted to be superheroes when they were younger, but most didn't have as much drive and dedication as him. As a result, he was always an outcast from the larger groups.

Ryker never knew his parents, but he wasn't alone in that aspect. The appearance of the gates and the rise of superpowers swiftly threw the world into a downward spiral. Like many across the globe, he was left without a family from the ensuing chaos. From what he was told, his parents were two henchmen for a villain that had already been forgotten to time.

"His name was in the paper," Ryker mumbled. "What am I doing? This is stupid. I hope this isn't my power, and I'm just crazy."

Not much was known about Ryker's origins since a curious neighbor found him alone in a small apartment after his cries alerted them. A large attack on the city happened on the day the neighbor found him. It was possible that his parents were innocent bystanders, but a few years ago, Ryker was given access to the documents confiscated from the apartment.

No one actually told him that they were henchmen, but there was enough available information to piece it together for himself once he was old enough. Both his mother and his father had registered low-level psycho-kinetic capabilities. Since their bodies weren't recovered and he was found alone, it was clear to him that they had been some of the villain's henchmen.

Ever since that day, he had grown up in the many foster homes around the city. He was four years old when he entered the system, but Ryker wasn't alone. The attack on Reno wasn't the first super-powered calamity to strike the nation. That was a plague that beset the world for years and still didn't show any sign of slowing. America was actually dealing with the problem better than many other countries.

After a few years of living in various foster homes, the nation changed its policies on children of the state. There were just too many across the country to monitor and police. In response, larger institutions to house them came back into popularity. It was there that he learned how to survive. There, he learned to rely upon himself rather than any other. It was amazing that he could make it through and still aspire to be a hero after living in such austere conditions.

Ryker groaned loudly. "Seriously?" he mumbled under his breath. "It's not that bad. There are plenty of us that live decent lives after we get out of the system. It's even better if you manifest a power. Then you can move to one of the academies for training.

"I'm sure plenty of horrible places are out there, but this isn't one of them. I have to be careful, and I've had my share of fights, but I haven't been abused, and I've always had a place to sleep and food to eat. I don't need anything else."

Due to the remnant of the United States, school was still mandatory until fifteen – primarily because the federal government subsidized the state for the number of children enrolled, similar to their support of orphanages. Unfortunately, the living conditions and the education weren't what one would call top-of-the-line. Ryker also learned he needed a job before he finished mandatory schooling. Those that didn't, ended up being assigned one. Those jobs were never good.

Although he found a job, Ryker still wasn't in the best position to have a comfortable life since he was about to turn eighteen. He worked hard and managed to save up some money to afford a small place once he was an adult, but life wouldn't get much better for him, at least not with a lack of valuable skills. Ryker took his education into his own hands and managed to get a job somewhere that gave him the ability to self-educate.

"Tsk."

While manifesting powers was good, people who displayed them late in life often had trouble. They would find that they were behind the curve. The large majority got their powers years earlier and trained in an academy – if they manifested before fifteen. As such, they were more familiar with their powers, in better shape, and were supplied with more resources to succeed. Often, those who manifested later in life ended up following the path of villainy.

"But that won't be me. I'll either use my powers for good or not at all. I've been training my whole life. I might have a few things to learn about using my powers effectively, but I'm more prepared than anyone. I have parents who weren't the best, but I've never blamed them or used them as an excuse for bad things. In fact, I've used them in the opposite way. I use the knowledge to be the best person I can be.

"I try to be as helpful as I can and to stay positive. I've worked and trained hard all my life, probably more than people in a super-powered academy. And even if I don't get a power, I'll be just fine…."

"Why can't you shut the hell up, meathead," said a nasal voice behind Ryker. He immediately knew who it was. Jacob Ramsay, the gerbil-faced kid, was only a few months younger than Ryker.

Ryker turned to look back at the annoyance. "Damn, it is him," his face scrunched up in thought.

"What's the matter? Did you forget how to talk?"

A short laugh oinked next to him, which of course, was his crony, the too-large Eddie…whatever-his-name; Ryker couldn't remember to save his life. The two loomed over him since Ryker was still sitting on the ground.

Just in case they decided to do something, Ryker swung around on his butt to put his legs between him and them. Then, he subtly moved in a position where he was ready to kick out at Eddie's legs and then stand up since he was the physically threatening one.

Jacob was the brains of their small operation, although that wasn't saying much.

Ryker snorted a laugh.

"Is something funny? Why the hell are you sitting in the corner mumbling to yourself anyway?"

"I'm a meathead? Have you ever seen this guy next to you? He literally has lard for brains."

"What'd you say? I don't care how many push-ups you can do; I'll still crush you." Eddie took a half step forward and raised his fist in a poor imitation of a fighting stance.

"You have to have lard in your brains, or else you wouldn't listen to him all the time," Ryker said, pointing at Jacob. "You're bigger. You should be in charge."

Ryker knew he could beat both of them, but he still needed a place to sleep for the next couple of months. Fighting would only get him kicked out and maybe even arrested since he was so close to being of age. So, the best thing to do was to sow discord between the pair. It was a classic tactic to turn the henchman against the leader. A tactic that he learned from studying everything he could about the super-powered world.

His ploy worked, and the bigger boy scrunched his face in thought as he glanced at Jacob. Jacob wasn't as much of an idiot as Ryker thought, and he went on the defensive to fix the rift that formed. For his part, Ryker used that moment to get off the ground.

"Listen," Ryker interrupted the two bickering boys. They turned quickly to him in surprise. They had momentarily forgotten about him and didn't realize he had stood up. "Sorry I woke you. I was just working through some stuff."

"Well, it's not okay," Jacob said, crossing his arms. Ryker just stood there waiting for something else to happen. Whatever Jacob was expecting Ryker to do didn't take place. So he just decided to stand there with an uppity look on his face.

"So…what did you expect me to do?" Ryker asked slowly.

Jacob became visibly flustered as his inability to know what to do next was uncovered. He stuttered, and no response came as he continued to be unable to think of anything. Ryker stood there waiting until the boy eventually turned and stomped away toward his bed.

Eddie apparently didn't get the memo right away. He continued standing there and staring at Ryker for another minute before finally noticing that Jacob was gone. He sneered again but didn't say anything else until, eventually, he also turned and walked away.

The room was getting significantly lighter as the yellow sun started to creep around the edges of the curtains. Needing to get clean after the intense workout, Ryker headed to his bed and got all his bathroom essentials ready. Suddenly, he had a horrifying thought that whatever was happening to him was going to continue in the shower. He grimaced inwardly, but there was nothing he could do about it.