The Empowered

Chapter 1

One moment, I was sitting in my room watching Youtube; the next, I was standing next to a massive banquet table in a circular room with nine other kids my age, looking just as confused as I was. The table had dozens of dishes on it, filled with more food than any buffet I had ever visited.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!", a loud voice rang out. We all looked up to see a boy watching us from a balcony on the other side of the room.

He didn't look that much different from us if you ignored the green snake eyes that he had and the curled horns on either side of his head. He clapped his hands together and started floating in the air. "Welcome to the 2020 Superpower Feast. Please select a food in front of you and l'Il give you a superpower based on that food!"

We all stared at him for a few moments, too stunned to say anything. Then, one girl with brown curly hair spoke up. "Are you saying...are you telling us that you're the one giving 16 years old superpowers every decade?" she asked in a dazed voice.

"Yep, that's me," he replied with a sly grin. "Of course, I make sure to always wipe their memories before they leave this place." "So," he said, looking around at all of us. "Who wants to go first?"

There was a tense silence for several moments.
The boy yawned. "Well, don't all volunteer at once." His voice took on a more serious edge.
"But, really, do choose something before I get bored and choose a grateful group of teenagers that does want superpowers.'

One boy wearing glasses slowly walked over to the banquet table. We all watched him nervously as he picked up a plate that contained several slices of steak and began eating from it.

Suddenly, we heard him gasp. Before, he had been fairly skinny. But now, right in front of our stunned eyes, massive muscles were appearing all over his arms and legs. The boy floating over us smiled and clapped his hands. Both the boy in glasses and the plate of half eaten steaks vanished from the room. "Don't worry about him,"
he said, gazing down at us. "I just sent him back to Earth. He'll wake up, thinking that he was blessed with superpowers while he was
sleeping.

He giggled. "Well, who's next?"

I raised my hand. "You said that we can eat anything from this table and we'll get a superpower from it, right?"