Chapter 1
I look around the empty street, at all the shops that won't open for another few hours, the cold light of the street lights shining down on me.
My frosty breath is barely visible as I rest my back against the cold metal of the street light. I look down at the knife lodged in my stomach. I stare at its exquisite beauty. The cold shine of steel reflects my bloody face.
"Well, fuck" My mind is starting to go blank, I'm dying.
"I miss you mom and dad" Tears run down my face as I remember the good old days when all I had to worry about was an algebra quiz or an English essay. What an easy life I had before all this chaos happened.
Crunch Crunch Crunch
Slow and steady footsteps come towards me. A man with a handsome face with light brown hair and cold piercing blue eyes. He's covered in wounds and is bleeding heavily as his act of strength disappears. He staggers and sits down next to me and we sit in silence.
"Never thought I'd see the day you would cry, Mr.Merian" Merian, my last name. A name I abandoned when I caused the death of my family.
"I'm only human, Mr.Karmen" The man next to me is John Karmen, the golden boy of the world. The idol that many strive to be.
"Human, what a funny word, are you even considered a human, Collin?" I start to chuckle.
"Of course John, If I don't consider myself human, what have I been fighting for?" I've been fighting for my freedom and rights for the last 4 years. I went from a clueless senior in high school to an "Insane Anarchist" as the media would say.
A few moments of peace and quiet pass. I look down and pull the knife out of my stomach.
"Here, it's a good weapon. Don't lose it" I pass the weapon to him and my hand falls lump next to me, my strength is fading.
"Remember when we used to play in the playground, two blocks from here? I always hated that damn slide. I would always get sand in my shoe." I start talking about our past when we were still best friends.
I look over and I see tears run down his face.
"I'm going to miss you, Collin, even after all that's happened. I will always consider you my friend" We both know I'm going to die. And I'm ok with that. I have no strength left, I can't fight anymore.
"Maybe in the future people like me could live a better life." My voice is only slightly louder than a whisper at this point.
"Do you really think that Collin?" No, I know this world. And this world would never let people cursed like me live after all the pain and destruction I had caused.
My eyes close as I finally lose my last bit of strength. Everything goes black and I can finally relax.
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"He's breathing! He's Breathing!"
What is that noise? Who's talking? Shouldn't I be dead?
I open my eyes and a blinding ray of light blasts me in the face. My eyes take a few moments to adjust before I can see clearly.
It's a hospital room, a huge hospital room. White walls and equipment all around me. But they don't look like normal hospital equipment. All the equipment is this weird glass-looking stuff, almost like crystal.
"Doctor, is this my son?" Son? My gaze moves from the crystals to the people around the room. I see a few people in blue garbs, as well as two people with golden blonde hair and blue eyes. Both are incredibly beautiful, but the look in their eyes is filled with doubt and confusion.
"Mr.Merian, it seems your son is a crystallyn. A black crystallyn in fact" I move my head and I see in the corner of the room my reflection. I stare at myself in shock as I realize that I am a baby. A baby with black hair and black eyes. There are black hexagons under my eyes. What the fuck.
How is this possible? How am I alive and a baby? Where am I? What's with the Hexagons?
Before I can clear my thoughts, I hear happy cheers from the two people I assume are my parents. Tears run down their faces as they smile with absolute joy.
"Gah?" I involuntarily make a noise and they both snap out of their stupor.
"Ah! What should we name him?" The man who I assume is my father asks my mother.
My mother stares at me, she looks in my eyes like she's searching for something.
"Collin Thomas Merian" Her voice gave no room for argument.
The doctor starts writing it down and seems to be writing other things down as well. He looks towards my parents after a while.
"Well Mrs.Merian, Collin is going to have to stay with us for a few days to get tested and have his information recorded."
Tested? I assume he is talking about me being a "Crystallyn" but what are they testing for?
My eyelids are starting to become too heavy for me to keep open and I fall asleep.
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After some time I wake up in a space that looks to be a mix between a capsule and a crib.
"Dr.Keratin! He's awake!"
Hurried footsteps come towards me. A middle-aged man with a clean-shaven face and light brown hair picks me up.
"Finally! Nurse, get the testing kits."
He carries me into another room that has 8 other babies. In the center of the room, there's a woman with deep red hair and a light complexion. There were also 4 small triangles side by side on her forehead.
"Is this the final one?" The woman asks the doctor in a cold tone.
"Yes, Lady Crystallyn" The doctor bows and sets me in an empty crib like the other babies.
A nurse walks in carrying several small slabs of opaque crystal and a long stone rod with 10 notches etched into it.
"Let's begin" the woman states
The doctor and nurses all file outside of the room.
She starts with the baby closest to her, a boy with white hair, he had several small lines under his eye.
The woman opens her hand and a small blood-red crystal needle forms from nothing. She uses the needle to poke a hole into the boy's finger.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The boy starts crying and screaming. The woman ignores him and lets his blood drip onto the slab of crystal and the stone rod.
The crystal starts to change and becomes opaque. It looked like the woman was holding a slightly more blurry crystal.
The etchings also start to glow one by one, they reach the second notch before stopping.
"A second grade light bender, you're going to have a tough life little Chris" the woman chortles before moving on.
She repeats the process 5 more times, coming up with what looks like nothing great.
A third-grade Sparkler
A fifth-grade Magnetic
A first-grade Shiner
A third-grade Fire Spewer
A second-grade Contractor
All of these were recorded with relative disappointment on a tablet next to her.
She comes to the seventh baby, a girl with light blue hair and eyes. She has a small vertical rectangle in the center of her forehead.
The woman repeated the process with her and the stone slab starts to shoot out spikes that seemed to be made of ice.
The woman covered her hand in red crystal and seemed surprised. The stone rod also lit up and went all the way to eight.
"Well, would you look at that? An eighth-grade ice shaper. Never expected a grade eight to appear here" the woman says as she notes it down in her tablet.
Then next was a girl, a sixth-grade levitate.
And then it was my turn.
The woman looks down on me with an apathetic glance and pokes my finger with her needle.
"Aaaa!" I cry out involuntarily as the sharp pain fills my mind.
My blood drips onto the slab and stone rod.
The crystal slab starts to grow black crystal pillars. The pillars are reflective and somehow I feel connected to them. The crystals start to grow out of control. They shoot out to 1 meter before the woman crushes the slab with her hands.
The blood on the rod also starts reacting, one by one the notches light up. They keep going until they reach the ninth notch and after a second, lights up the tenth notch.
"Holy shit! Holy shit! There's a tenth-grade crystallizer!" The woman is hysterical as she looks at me with fear and joy
She pulls out a phone and hurriedly taps on it. Soon a deep male voice rings out from the other end.
"Marisa? What happened now? Did the cults attack again?"
Cults? What is this world I've been reborn into?
"Captain! Send the specialists now! I just found a tenth-grade crystallizer, male, no major background!" I'm guessing that I'm an outlier if a baby like me requires a specialist team.
"What?! Where are you? I'm sending them now! If we lose him then both our heads will roll!"
"Marshal Bank Hospital! Sir, there's also an eighth-grade Ice shaper, should I give her to the specialists as well?"
"Yes give her over, Marissa, if this is true then expect an early promotion."
"Yes Sir!"
Beep Beep Beep
The woman carries me and the girl into a single capsule and presses something on the side.
Brrrrrrrr
The capsule starts to close and the capsule releases a small hissing noise. I look over and I see the girl sleeping peacefully. Knock out gas? Fuck.