Just as I meet the disapproving eyes of Asher, Vivian, Kass and Alex, a wave of shame and guilt washes over me. I instantly drop my eyes to the floor and shamefully make my way back around the circular table. I feel the weight of 8 eyes following me back to my seat at the far end of the table. The slow walk to my distant chair feels like an eternity. Just as I slump into the hard wooden chair, Vivian clears her throat and breaks the shameful silence.
"Great of you to finally join us, Ava." she smirks. The way she sarcastically spits my name out makes my blood boil.
I avoid any eye contact, and obliviously continue to fiddle with the golden locket around my neck. My mother gave it to me when I was a child. That is...before she left. My mother was one of the scientists that worked on keeping this underground shelter running smoothly. One day, they said they said they needed her on a top secret experiment that required traveling to an unidentified location. And, she never came back. And that's that I guess. Ever since then, Kass Petrova, had taken me under her wing and had become a big sister to me. She's been my best friend for as long as I can remember.
We all wait there for another moment. Me day dreaming, and them watching the color in my cheeks redden with embarrassment. This time, Alex is the one to break the awkward silence.
"Ok, so um...anyways, Ava, we were just discussing the matter of our planets current condition." He suggests with a kind smile and bright eyes. He is always one to avoid awkward situations.
I stare at Alex for a moment, getting lost in his deep blue eyes. After a moment, he shakes me from my daze by saying:
"Well...any thoughts?"
I quickly shake my head as a signal for the rest of them to continue chatting away about their plans on how they are going to save humanity. As for me, I just slump back in my chair and daydream.
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This all started about 8 years ago. It was 2054, and I was 8 years old. At that point, I didn't fully understand what was happening to the Earth. All I knew was that life as we knew it was about to change...big time. They said the stages began because of an atmospheric nuclear reaction to a flammable solar flare.
At first, the skies began to fill with thick, heavy, black smoke from the volcanic explosions occurring all over the world. In the second stage, ash began to rain down like black snow, non stop, for weeks on end. At one point, I remember the government had allowed the people to be outside a very limited amount of time each day, so they would not inhale too much of the incredibly polluted air. Then, when I was about 11, the third stage occurred. One day I was just playing outside during my allowed hours and suddenly, I began to feel the humid winds strengthen, pulling me in every direction. With all of the uneven heating in the Earths atmosphere, the winds began to pick up, as did the waves. I remember there were massive hurricanes on every coast of the world in the year 2059. It caused an incredible amount of damage. Luckily, my family and I were safe in our titanium underground shelter we had put in when the first stage occurred. And ever since then, the stages have gotten worse and worse, all leading up to the impending end of the world.
Now, obviously if we wanted to salvage man kind, the only option was to save planet Earth. So a couple years ago, the ancient prophecy came to pass. It had stated that "there were five people on this Earth, who were sent here to save it from itself. Those five people possess incredible dormant abilities, one with the most powerful of all. Without them, mankind will perish." After hearing the prophecy, the government searched for months trying to find these five people in order to save mankind. Eventually, after months of searching, they found them. And apparently, one of them is me.
They call us The Five.
There is Asher Colt. Asher is 1 year older than me. His "power" or abnormal ability is enhanced strength and speed. He could easily lift 2,000 pounds, and could sprint 100 miles in under a minute. I guess you could say he's kind of the bad boy of the group. He's very unpredictable, then again he always had been.
Then there is my best friend Kass Petrova. Kass is about 10 months older than me. Her abnormal abilities are invisibility and molecular kinesis. That means that she can turn invisible at any moment and she can move things with her mind. Kass is a very sweet girl, but she is also extremely smart.
There is also Vivian Rochelle. Vivian is also a year older than me. She is only 17 years old and yet she thinks she's the queen of the universe. She is always sticking her nose in people's business and trying to mess up people's lives. Vivian is definitely an evil genius. She's very cunning, deceiving, and clever. Her abnormal ability is being able to turn things to ice and shoot ice through her fingertips. I am staring at her now, and when she catches my glance, her ice blue eyes penetrate into me, causing me to jerk away.
Then there is the legendary Alex Pierce. Alex is only a few months older than me. Alex is compassionate, kind-hearted, caring and patient. He has always been a complete gentleman and he always takes the opportunity to brighten your day or put a smile on your face. All it takes is one look and his deep blue eyes could melt me into a puddle. His abnormal ability is force field protection.
He is legendary because of the day he unlocked his dormant abilities. See, each of us only unlock our abilities when we are "forced into action". It is like a trigger that occurs when there is no other choice but to use your newly found ability for drastic measures, like needing to save someone from a burning building. In Alex's case, it was a train.
Rumor has it, that one day he was just going about his normal daily routine when he heard an odd and distant scream. He was confused at first and a little surprised because nothing bad ever happened in his small town. He rushed outside and noticed that the spine chilling screams were echoing from the nearby train tracks. As he walked out towards the tracks, he noticed that something was definitely wrong. The train tracks were about to end at the edge of a cliff and the train wasn't slowing down. The color was drained from Alex's body and he gulped hard. He knew he had to do something. He knew that he couldn't just stand there and let these innocent people's lives be stolen from them as they went over the cliff. So out of pure instinct, he heroically tried to throw himself in front of the hurdling train, in an attempt to slow it down, but expecting to be crushed on impact. To his surprise, when he opened his eyes, he was perfectly fine. To an even greater surprise, the passengers' screaming had stopped. He looked up and realized that he was in some sort of impenetrable "bubble" that had just magically appeared around on him its own and had saved his life.
It stopped the train.
He had stopped the train.
He let out a nervous breath he didn't realize he was holding, and heard...cheering. For him.
He was the hero.
At the beginning of that very day, Alex had been just an ordinary teenager, with an ordinary life and an ordinary future planned out for him. All of that changed when he made the decision to step out in front of that train. His life forever changed when he unlocked his ability.
Everyone has their own special story as to how they triggered their powers...except for me.
It is because I haven't unlocked them yet.
I have no idea what my powers are, or when they will be triggered, but I do know that the prophecy chose me for a reason. It is said that I may be the "one with the most powerful ability of all."
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
