1 The Coffeeshop

The world collapsed on January 1, 2021.

After the onset of a wave of galactic radiation - Chaos Day - struck the Earth in previously unheard-of quantities, the world's electronics systems failed. Everything humanity had come to take for granted, useless. And yet, there was more.

With Chaos Day came the Supernaturals: Supers, for short. Every person born on Chaos Day inherited a form of the cosmic power that had washed over humanity. Some were blessed with the minor ability to manipulate heat, and others were gifted with control of starfire.

Eighteen years after Chaos Day, these Supernaturals were trained by their governments, replacing traditional special operations units and becoming each nation's trump cards.

Among these new elites, there were those who were dissatisfied with being treated as human weapons for their governments. These Supers betrayed their governments, becoming rogues. Branded as Traitors, these rogue Supers began launching terrorist attacks aimed at destroying the social order.

Though humanity had long since rebuilt itself, returning to its former glory, the world was not the same after Chaos Day. Not for the average person, nor for the 400,000 babies born that fateful day.

This is the new era. The Cosmic Era.

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Charlie blew into his hands, desperately trying to heat them up despite the frigid air around him. According to his dad, the world had been even colder before Chaos Day, but Charlie had never known such a world. The older Bostonians around him didn't even seem fazed. He shook his head, speed walking into the nearest coffee shop.

"Black coffee, please," Charlie ordered, paying attention to the TV in the corner of the room. It looked eerily similar to some of the pre-Chaos Day relics, clearly the designer was going for some kind of nostalgic look. It was more creepy than nostalgic to Charlie, but he was only eighteen. What did he know?

A couple of days before January 1 - New Year's Day and the anniversary of Chaos Day - all the TV channels were doing specials honoring the scientists who managed to reconstruct modern technology from the ashes. Right now, the lady on the screen was regaling the entire coffee shop with the incredibly… interesting… tale of a man who had rediscovered the computer. None of it was stuff Charlie didn't already know, so he tuned the TV out, sipping his coffee in silence.

Had he more time before he needed to get to school, he'd probably have stopped in by Giorno's, the best coffeeshop in town. This stuff was weaker than Giorno's, and Charlie missed the boisterous old man and his stories. Maybe he'd drop by after class; his paycheck had come in yesterday and he had more than enough spending money, for the moment.

As he got up to leave, the TV switched channels. "We're sorry for disturbing your regularly scheduled content. There's a terrorist warning for the city of Boston. A group of three Traitors have made their presence known. All civilians are to remain indoors. The authorities are on the way," the message went. It repeated itself, the man speaking the words sounding somehow even more urgent as the recorded message looped.

"Well, fuck. That's that for making it in time for exams." Charlie sat back down, ordering a second coffee to tide himself over until the Supers resolved the situation. With any luck, this group of Traitors was as stupid as the last.

The last time Boston had any trouble with a group of Traitors was a couple of months ago, but they were relatively weak. The strongest of them could make fire materialize from out of thin air, and the other three could reportedly make someone feel uncomfortable if they were overdressed for the weather. The idiots thought that they could blow up a government facility by planting C4 at its foundations, but they hadn't accounted for the Supers at the base.

A single guy with the ability not only to summon fire but to fling it with the speed of a professional baseball pitcher was able to disable the Traitors. Charlie supposed that the Traitors were really just a bunch of kids, like him, who had been rubbed the wrong way by the government. After Chaos Day, many of the world's governments collapsed and formed larger, unified nations.

After the United States fell, the entirety of North America formed a single nation. The North American Unified Government, or NAUG for short, was notorious for cracking down on crime. It had to be. The two great powers of Asia, China and India, were not only able to survive collapse but come out on top. With larger populations, more Supers were born in those countries than anywhere else. Most of the world was already under the influence of one of them. Europe and South America sided with China, while Africa, Australia, and the rest of Asia were on India's side. Only the NAUG was unaligned, and that was due solely to the harsh training and regulations imposed on the Supers.

The coffeeshop's clock ticked, minutes passing by before an explosion rocked the city. Charlie's eyebrows raised. These weren't your run-of-the-mill teenage terrorists. He had just barely processed that thought when a person zipped past the window Charlie sat beside, using fire as a propellant. Another person followed quickly, utilizing a similar technique.

Charlie tracked them as far as the window allowed, watching the pair leave scorch marks on the pavement as they played a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Against his better judgement, he exited the coffeeshop, interested in the fighting in the streets. Though the flying duo had long since passed by, the other Traitors were engaged in a brawl on the street. Apparently, they had made it pretty far from wherever that explosion had come from.

These Traitors were much more powerful than the previous group. All of them wielded flames as if they were whips, holding the government Supers back as they covered their retreat. The odd building had been licked by the flames already, but only one of them had truly been set ablaze: a small single-family home. Its residents were exiting the building, rushing for a neighboring building while trying their best to avoid the flames dancing in the streets.

An angry red whip raced for the family, but the government Supers were too far to be able to counteract the errant attack. Charlie drew in a sharp breath, furious with the Traitor who had dared to attack the innocents. With a flick of his wrist, the flames went awry, almost as if they were stopped by an invisible shield.

Charlie returned inside the coffeehouse after he saw the family enter the apartment building next door, sighing. His dad would be furious if he ever caught wind of this. That said, it's pretty hard to catch wind of something when it's invisible. Deciding that worrying about an impossibility was, well, a waste of time, Charlie brought out a study guide, brushing up on some of the more obscure history trivia that he knew his teacher would opt to put into the test. Seriously, who cared about the pandemic of 2020? Wasn't there a bigger event to worry about in that same year?

To the tune of explosions and the shrill noise of the alarm being broadcast on TV, Charlie studied his hardest to prove that procrastination was a valid way to get through school. He had enough excitement for the day. Any more and his dad would know. That man was a seer or something.

Only when the fighting died down and the streets lay smoldering did Charlie hazard a look up from his books. The streets had seen better days, but they were still usable enough. It might be a bit hard to notice which lane you were in if you were driving, but people drove like that anyway. The Traitors were being rounded up by the blue-uniformed government Supers, being handcuffed and placed into the backs of armored cars.

Before long, the whine of the TV had died down, and the news about the computer scientist returned. The patrons of the coffeeshop were, by and large, frozen in horror at the damage the city had taken. Charlie was not among them. He had a test to get to! The sound of a bell accompanied his departure and subsequent flight from the shop.