- Takeoff

Gus sat down in one of the seats at the end of a row.

The interior of the ship was wide. Inside was covered with rows of seats, thankfully leaving enough room between each row for legs to be comfortable. Along the walls were multiple windows, allowing the people inside to see out across the spaceport and eventually across space itself. Above the windows were multiple screens, each similarly installed into the ship. For the moment, they were inactive and displayed nothing but a deep blue.

'A system?' he thought to himself, remembering the altercation in the alleyway. He had gotten into a fight, one in which he was outnumbered and unarmed. The system deemed it an 'emergency' and had activated as a result. But why? For what purpose did it activate, and of all of the people in the world, no, in the galaxy, why did it have to be him?

'Could it be?' he began thinking, before immediately dismissing the thought from his mind. He was a blood type O, just like a little over a quarter of the twenty Evolved that were tested on. They had all awoken their powers just like the rest of them, without a problem. If anything, Gus was the anomaly in the data, not the control that he should measure others from.

He continued to wrack his brain for answers as the space around him in the ship began to fill up. As more and more people found their seats, conversations started to erupt all around, as the new students of the academy met their fellow classmates.

'Maybe I picked up some sort of virus from outside of Earth?' Gus thought. 'I have been spending a lot of time around the spaceport, planning my route here in case things went badly.'

"Hey!"

'Maybe I've developed some sort of neurological condition? Something that causes words to appear before your very eyes and tells you to do things? Ah, that sounds like a terrible defence for a homicide case! What am I thinking?'

"Hey!"

'Back in the alley, I thought about the system being like something from an old video game, like some of the stuff the adults in the lab used to talk about. I'm sure they would mention things like levelling up. Nowadays, we have nothing like that, so maybe I'm wrong.'

"HEY!" the voice repeated, this time louder than before. Originating from right next to his ear, the sudden loud noise made Gus jump from surprise.

"Do you happen to have hearing difficulties or something? Because you can get that sorted out, you know?" Looking across, Gus saw a blonde girl looking at him from the seat next to his.

"Sorry. I was wrapped up in my head."

"No worries! Is this seat taken?" she asked, pointing a finger down towards the seat she sat on, as though it was unclear exactly what seat she could have been referring to.

"Uhm, no. It's not," Gus answered. "Well, I guess it is now."

The girl chuckled slightly at his answer, taking it to be a joke. Once she stopped, she stuck out a hand to Gus. "My name's Claire. Nice to meet you!"

"Gus," he responded, taking her hand.

"So, Gus, do you have any abilities?"

"Abilities?" he asked. His heart rate suddenly increased. As of right now, he barely knew anything about this system that he had obtained. The last thing he wanted was for someone else, especially not a stranger, to know about it.

"Yeah, abilities. Like, some people choose to have certain cybernetic implants to give them cool stuff they can do."

"Uh, no, I don't. I tried to keep away from the cybernetic frenzy, myself."

Years ago, scientific advancement granted humans the ability to graft various synthetic parts to themselves. While at first purely cosmetic, items with abilities eventually entered the market thanks to medical and military advancements. This improved life for the average person tremendously. Previously unbeatable diseases and afflictions were wiped out from consideration overnight as cybernetics carried out the bodily tasks that people could not do thanks to whatever condition they suffered from. Human expansion became faster than ever before, as people increased their physical capabilities by simply adding a new part to themselves.

"So you're just a regular guy?" she asked him.

'Not at all.'

"You could say that," Gus nodded. "What about yourself? Anything I should keep an eye out for from you?"

"Not really," she answered. "I have a small implant in my right eye, but aside from that nothing."

"Does it do anything?"

Claire nodded. "It's a little outdated at this point, so it doesn't do any of the cool stuff the newer ones can do. It only enhances my vision, and allows me to see about ten times further than usual, at least if I really focus with it. But don't be expecting me to shoot lasers out of my eyes, or start analysing people with X-ray vision."

Gus opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped himself. He wanted to ask her why she had it, since a small cybernetic implant into the eye was an uncommon procedure. It did not have the cosmetic flashiness of things like a new arm, nor did it have the critical abilities of something like a synthetic heart.

Noticing this, Claire reassured him. "You can ask."

"Ask?" Gus questioned.

Claire nodded. "Everyone does it. It's not a noticeable one, nor does it have any obvious benefits, so people get confused as to why I have it."

Gus thought about how to ask for a moment before responding. "Is it because you want to see places without having to visit them?"

Claire laughed. "It's actually because I like watching people from afar. You never know what they're going to do when they don't know someone can see them."

After a brief pause, Claire spoke once again. "When I was younger, I had condition that made my eyes really itchy and irritable. Naturally, I would rub them a lot. Before my parents had noticed that something was wrong with me, and before I could get medical help it was too late. I'd already scratched my eye very badly, permanently damaged the tissue in there. When I had the chance to regain my eyesight to full in that eye, I leapt at the opportunity."

Gus nodded his head in understanding. "So, how does it work? Does it just go into the eye and then back to normal?"

"It's a little more complicated. Cybernetics that do something with the brain have to be linked through to the brain, so that you can use it like it's actually your body. It's a delicate procedure, but very safe. I'm surprised you didn't know about this stuff."

"I never bothered to learn," Gus said. "I never saw the point of learning if I wasn't going to get one."

The ship shuddered as the doors closed and takeoff began. Warning signs illuminated the interior of the ship from the screens, telling the people inside to remain seated. With a loud bang, the ship suddenly lurched forward, and thrust itself into the night sky.