A BRIEF HISTORY OF ESPER ABILITIES

A few years in the future, all adults at the age of 21 are fitted with their own personal computer. The advancement of mankind is such in the field of science and medicine that we are able to insert what are basically quantum level computers into our brain with minimal risk of brain damage, stroke, neuronal death, etc.

There was much grumbling from the religious folks when it was first proposed, but after countless successful operations, and the obvious benefits of having said piece of machine, their voices has been drowned out by the majority who were willing to take the risk.

With said technology, humans are able to connect to the web with just a thought. Computations, experimental models, simulations, and basically everything you can think of that involves computers can be done at the convenience of your own head.

This technological feat has obviously improved education and basically all industries that would need the use of a computer. The job market has completely restructured itself, and jobs that can be done remotely has been made remote; jobs that would need repeated testing and calculations has a significant drop in expenses, due to the simulations that can be done and the hyper-accurate computations and derivations. Because people now had more time for themselves, and their loved ones--they now also have more time to dwell on the sociopolitical and environmental issues that plagued the planet. In short, what has once been problems of the past like uncontrolled deforestation, pollution, racism, terrorism et.al., have been reduced to the minimum. It still does happen in some pockets of the world, but overall, majority has adjusted well to the changes brought by the collective efforts of scientists, engineers, and millions of workers who have achieved the impossible.

When it was first introduced in the year 2102, a tenth of the world's population underwent the first process of transplantation. With the sheer number of reference materials and skills they can learn at the speed of thought, scientists have observed that these people transplanted with the device has an unprecedented increase in their thinking speed; their speech pattern has grown more refined; general intelligence levels have grown rapidly, and because they were so much more learned than their previous self--personal biases and prejudice like racial discrimination and whatnot has almost been eradicated from these people.

A majority of the population that time was hesitant to undergo the procedure even with the positive results shown after repeated testing and observation. It wasn't until a few years after the first subjects manifested abilities beyond the norm that people have clamored to be transplanted themselves.

These manifested abilities have been renamed ESPER abilities, and ranged from enhanced reaction time to super strength, telekinesis, light manipulation to the rarer ones like telepathy and clairvoyance. It wasn't understood at first how people manifested these abilities, but it has been found out that after the implantation of the device to the brain, it activated areas that have once been dormant, and with the activation came a cascade of reactions including the mutation of genetic materials within the body. It has also been found out that these mutations can only manifest a single ability--no matter how much experiments they have done to artificially copy the mutations in others. It seems like your unique DNA will generate ONLY a single ability and if you have great luck, then you'd receive a grand prize in the genetic roulette of Esper abilities.

My name is Rory Solo, I'm in my mid-twenties, and fortunately and unfortunately, I have developed the esper ability of MIMICRY. I had the ability to copy the powers of others, but was limited to three: telepathy, psychokinesis, and shape shifting. Fortunately, because more powers; unfortunately, because I have been at the mercy of the powers that be--being prodded and experimented on, in their quest to understand how I can mimic these abilities when their previous tests specifically show that only a single ability should manifest.