Crossing Lines

Prior to the grouping protocol, many of the city's residents lived with their families, with their friends, with their loved ones. That was, until, twenty-three years ago. The government finally decided that people with different abilities were no longer allowed to interact past a certain age, because of infighting and civil wars. The city was divided into eight sectors, and the government enforced the segregation of these with the punishment of having your abilities neutralized, and being placed outside the city walls. A might-as-well-be death sentence.
Any children may stay with their families as long as they wish, as long as they have the same abilities as their parents. The divergent children and teenagers are forbidden to use their powers until transferred to the sector they belong in, at the age of 18. These children are usually bullied, outcast, or completely and outright ignored by peers and instructors in school or most other social interactions. The higher powers that be don’t do anything about this, because frankly, they don’t care.
At the end of every year, one the first Saturday in December, the 18 year old divergent adolescents are moved from their birthplace to their new homes in the sector in which they belong. They are normally small, barely decorated dorms in the universities in the inner ring of the city. After finishing school at 21, or dropping out, the students are able to leave the inner ring and find more permanent work, and make a living, or a name, for themselves.
This is how the system works. And, it’s kept the peace. But, with the rebel groups forming inside the sectors and over the deep web, it can’t won’t last forever.