Specials

Chapter 1- Dawn

Dawn looked around the huge room, a shock of nervousness winding in the pit of her stomach. There were thousands of kids here, ranging from middle school aged to high school aged. All lined up to test themselves on the futuristic device before her. She could feel eyes on her, from both the kids in the line before her twisting around to look at her from the curious peeks behind her, curious to catch a glimpse at anyone. Of course, Dawn was one of the prime kids to be looking at. Electric blue, shoulder length hair. Bright green eyes. Clothes an explosion of tie-dye, huge black combat boots on her feet. Dawn was a regular explosion of color, that was for sure. Dawn took a deep breath, tipped her head up and threw her shoulders back in a confident stance. Who cares if they stare? I'm here to help myself, not them, Dawn told herself sternly. Yeah. She was here to take care of herself, not these losers. She was here to take care of her little issue, the issue that left her wearing tall black gloves all the time. Actually, it wasn't a little issue. It was a big issue. Because whatever Dawn touched with her bare fingers, out of their gloves, was instantly dashed with colors flashing in vibrant rainbow hues. And it wasn't just normal colors. There were colors so neon and shining that it would blind you just to look at them. They would flash and dance brighter than the shimmering costumes of acrobats at a circus, so startling it would knock you off your feet if you weren't prepared. Her parents had even taken to wearing sunglasses all the time, placing heavy black-out shades on the windows. If you couldn't see the issue, maybe the issue would go away. That wasn't the case with Dawn's abilities. The more she tried to ignore them, the more they made themselves prominent. And that was why her parents had sent her here, all the way to California from Wisconsin. Because they were desperate to cure her, desperate to make her another cookie cutter little girl who wore drab grey dresses with their plain blonde hair. So that is what led Dawn to be standing in line at Tanya's School for Gifted Children, ready to be tested with a device that would determine which power group she was in, testing whether she was good or evil, just so that they could dorm her with exactly the right person. At this point, Dawn would go with anyone. All she wanted was to be cured. To get headaches instead of constantly giving them, to stop hurting the ones she loved because of this cursed, terrible mutation. Yeah, that was what she was. A mutant. Like in the movies, cast out from society and taken to a school run by some bald guy in a wheelchair. Except here, it was a middle aged woman with a blonde ponytail who took them in. And here, if the machine said you were evil, you were dropped down a pit where you would be imprisoned, never to hurt a human or a gifted. Dawn almost snorted to herself. Gifted. Yeah right. More like cursed. Also, a main difference between here and the movies was that in the movies, they were trained to fight against evil, and were even allowed to be outside fighting in real situations. That wouldn't happen here. This was just a place to learn to control your abilities. They used to have field missions, as Tanya had said when she visited Dawn's house and was convincing her parents to let her come here, but they had quit having field missions because of an accident a while ago. Dawn has the suspicion that there was a fatality or something, but there was no trace of it on the internet.

But just because it isn't on the internet doesn't mean that it didn't happen, Dawn reminded herself. And then she turned her attention back to the line stretching in front of her. Another random pang of anxiety hit her when she remembered that more than half of these kids could kill her or leave her in the hospital for a very long time if they felt like it. Dawn looked to the front of the line to the kid who was being tested for power group and morality at the moment. It was a short, chubby blonde girl who happened to be a tornado from the waist down. The light flashed green for good, and she went through the gate that was labeled 'elemental.' Duh. Dawn already knew where she would be sorted. Good, obviously, though she had attitude she had never thought of hurting someone in her life. And she would go into the 'color' branch for obvious reasons. Why did they even need a machine to do this? Dawn decided it was mostly for show. To intimidate the children. To show them that this was their new home, and they better appreciate it otherwise they'd wind up in deep, deep trouble. Dawn looked around at the others in line curiously. There was no shortage of interesting people to look at. There was a girl a ways ahead of her with a short and pumped up pixie cut and skin that kept changing colors, from bright red to soft pink to a muddy green. There was a guy with broad shoulders, completely dressed in black with glowing green eyes behind Dawn. Every time she looked at the guy, he gave her a cocky grin that made her slightly uncomfortable. There was a girl ahead of her who had teal, scaled skin and gills who kept on pouring water on herself. And the most intriguing of them all was a boy with flaming hair and golden glowing eyes just two people ahead in the line. He was wearing a leather jacket, his hands were shoved into his ripped up jeans pockets. Dawn suddenly got the intense feeling that she wanted to get to know him, wanted to say hello, wanted to know his story and wanted to hear his voice talking to her. The line jumped forwards suddenly, and the flame haired boy went up on the machine. Predictably, his light flicked green for good and he was sorted into the elementals group. Dawn gulped. There were two people in front of her, soon it would be her turn. What if the machine read her wrong and dumped her into the abyss where they kept the bad kids? What if she got paired with someone who hated her? What if she got in a dorm with someone who couldn't control their powers at all? Worries and fears swirled through Dawn's head. Apparently, it showed, because the green eyed guy behind her tapped her on the shoulder and smiled.