"Here is what makes us all part of the Nlightened, the source of our power. Well, people like us... aren't exactly human. Or at least, not physiologically similar to the ones around us. Kind of like Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, some may even say we are the next step of evolution. Though at this stage there is usually only one distinct difference - nestled between the lobes of your brain is an additional region that has never been seen in traditional Homo sapiens before. Future Ned studied it and termed it "The Nedder-Region". Yes, that is the official scientific name sanctioned by Ned. That is thought to be what grants us our superhuman abilities. Every individual who has powers possesses the Nedder-Region.

          It is also what Katie connects to when she uses her powers, that is why she isn't able to to use her abilities on everyone, not those without the Nedder-Region.

          It is not confirmed what sparked this mutation to occur but it is speculated that it only began recently from this point in time, as when time went by the mutations and abilities simply got more drastic. There is a classification for us in terms of generations - which is not particularly anchored in ancestry. For example, the Nlightened like us are all considered Gen 1 because we still look like normal humans on the outside. Gen 2 are those with parts of their body evolving to have wings and claws etc. And those with abilities changing their entire physiology such as cloaking themselves in flames or morphing into beasts are termed Gen 3."

          Curious to get a deeper insight into things and corroborate Evan's words, Ned decided to look into his own body himself. He proceeded into the NZone and realised there was now a new tab on the screen that read "Body systems". Lowering the tabs, he chose to open the Nervous system and a hologram appeared before him once again, this time without the muscles but all the nerves and the brain.

          Ned examined the structure of his brain and ignored all the warnings of the damage on his body. The abstruse scientific names that made no sense started to pin labels onto different parts of the brain. He rotated the structure and noticed a very dense throbbing region sandwiched between the Cerebellum and Occipital Lobe. It was labelled "???", but almost instantly, the characters shuffled around to form the word - "Nedder-Region".

          A wave of excitement came over Ned as things finally started to come together and make sense, and also in admiration of the great man he was supposed to become in the future. He exited the NZone and carried on listening to the lecture.

          "From 2038 to 2044 came The Great Age of Nlightenment. There was peace, unprecedented advancements in technology and a great relationship between the two species.

But that was just the fairytale-like beginning to a complete nightmare... Understandably, the governments around the world recognised the dangers and threat the new powered beings would pose, and established a "Peace-keeping Force" of their own. And their fears were rightly justified. While some were harmlessly living "illegally" without registration, others had amassed considerable power on their own - bent on accomplishing their own agendas... And god forbid, those assholes were the ones who fucked up years of our struggles, protests, downright begging and deaths that would have likely lead to eternal peace and co-existence.

          And they were why I had to risk it all to come back to the past, that I had to give up on my own past and future. To risk tampering with time and space, so that you may create a world where we don't all have to live in hell. It's time for us to obliterate them before they destroy the world."

          The trio remained unmoving in their seats. The sudden change in tone from Evan abruptly grew more fears and doubts in their hearts which were just settling down. How similar would their futures be to the ones they had just heard? How were three teenagers going to change the world? What's with the last thing Evan said about obliteration, were they going to fight? Who? It sounded more like an all-out war. However unsettling the news was, nobody wanted Evan to stop talking.

          "When the world knew about the appearance of the Nedder-Regions, extremist groups started to call us 'cancers of society, tumours, sarcoma'. The government must've liked the last one; cause they started a military subdivision called the Sarc Squad. They were armed with Anti-Nlightened equipment they developed on their own. They didn't cause much trouble for us, mainly going after rogue Sarcs (Colloquial term for unregistered people with abilities) that didn't want to come out and be identified, or simply didn't know about the procedures. Their main concern, as well as ours, was the underground syndicate who called themselves the Ewing.

          These devils seemed to have been around since the second world war. Their founding members were thought to have been one of the first few on this world to develop their powers and they remained very well-hidden. Some think it was pure coincidence they got their powers, while others speculated it was from their own secret experiments. But as time went on, their agenda became extremely clear; Especially after the Nlightenment went public and powered-individuals were easily identifiable. They were a bunch of power-hungry beasts that hunted down the Nlightened and Sarcs alike. After they got you, there were only 2 options - Join them, or have your Nedder-Regions forcefully ripped out of your heads."

          Sweat started trickling down their necks and palms, at the back of their minds was a tiny hope that this was all an elaborate joke, or a dream they could wake up from. But Evan was not done with the devastations from the future, he walked over to the bar counter and took a strong gulp from an open bottle.

          "It only gets worse from here."