Prologue

Fires, explosions, general chaos.

That’s what the world was like. Chaos everywhere. Ever since the gang appeared. The gang that called themselves the Flames.

They would gather together in small groups and wreak havoc. However, this gang was different from any other ‘conventional’ gang. Very different.

Their weapon of choice . . . was themselves. They didn’t use firearms. They didn’t use bats. They didn’t use knives. They used fire. Fire that theycreated.

They were extraordinary. In broad daylight, a Flame would go out in public and create a fireball out of nowhere and toss it at things. People. Homes. Cars. Anything.

These Flames were different from other humans. They had powers. They could manipulate fire. They could create fire. And they had no physical difference in appearance than any other humans.

Then, there was the second gang. They called themselves the Thunders, the rival gang of the Flames.

Like the Flames, they would cause general chaos. The only real difference between the Flames and Thunders is their power.

Thunders emitted electricity from their body. They could literally shoot lightning out of their hands if they wanted. They could shock people, they could destroy electronic equipment, they could kill people.

Finally, there were the others. The people who had these powers, but weren’t in the gangs. The ones that just wanted to live their life as normal people. As normal as they could, anyway.

The powers of the Flames, the Thunders, and everyone else, were unexplainable. Was this a new stage in human evolution? Or perhaps this was just a random anomaly in the universe. Nobody really knew. And these people didn’t like being lab rats, so it was difficult to try and find out.

Most governments of the world didn’t differentiate the fire-creators and the lightning-creators. Some governments had them locked away on sight. Others had them register to keep them out of trouble. But what did the United States do?

They thought, and they debated. Was it morally right to lock away these people if they didn’t do anything wrong? Was it morally right to have them register to keep them out of trouble? Was it right to have them do this in the land of liberty? In the land of tolerance? Where all men are equal?

Apparently, it was.

All of these ‘special’ people. They were registered with the US government the second they revealed their powers. Even those who had not done anything wrong . . .

Chapter 1

Awakening

Just another normal day.

I got up at 8:30 in the morning, brushed my teeth, ate, watched some TV, then went to football practice.

Ah, football practice. It was summer now, but for some reason, I hated going to practice. Well, I didn’t really hate it, I just hated the timing. I mean, it’s from Monday through Friday, 1PM to 6PM. It took away my entire summer.

“Liz! Liz!” the defensive backs yelled.

The rover and safety went into motion.

“Hit!” our DB Coach yelled.

We all dropped back for the pass. The ball was tossed towards our strong safety, Jacob Lertz. He dropped it.

“Shape up!” Coach yelled at Jacob.

“Sorry Coach.” Jacob ran to the sidelines and did ten pushups.

“Jason!” Coach called me, “Get in as corner.”

I ran in and replaced the corner that was already in.

“Hit!”

I shuffled back, backpedaled, and covered my receiver.

The pass went towards me.

I jumped up for the catch. I felt it hit the top of my fingers. Then, POP!

I landed on the ground, slightly dazed.

As I stared into the sky, lying on my back, I started to come to my senses. What had happened?

“What happened to the ball?!” Coach yelled at me.

I was confused. “I don’t know . . .”

One of the DB’s, Jake Winstrum ran up to me, took my hand, and started to help me up.

“What’d you do to the ball, man?”

I just shrugged in return.

“Ouch!” Jake quickly let go of my hands. “What the hell was that?!”

“Huh?” I had no idea what the heck was going on.

“You shocked me.” he replied.

I looked at my hands. Small sparks were emanati