MAY — GARNER HOUSEHOLD — 1:02 PM

"Here we are today at the sight of President Letterman's press conference on the subject of what has been called supernaturals, a race of advanced humans," a news reporter said, looking directly at the camera with a mic under her mouth, the stage where two American flags and a podium stood behind her in the background. "According to multiple witnesses, these new super humans were kept hidden and taken to camps for several years, where they were taught to control their abilities—"

"Oh, bullshit," Rylie muttered, sitting on the couch in Tyler's living room. Monica, Marcus, Tyler and Pepper were sitting there with him, eager to watch the press conference.

The president the stepped up onto the stage, and there was a chorus of camera flashes. He waved, with a small smile, but the bags under his eyes told a different story. His brown hair was slicked back, revealing the receding hairline. He wore a prim suit, and stood proudly.

"Hello, everyone. My fellow Americans, and any others who may be watching," he said. "Today, we will be discussing the recent reveal of supernaturals." He cleared his throat. "To all those who are not aware, supernaturals are humans just like you or I, but have special abilities and enhanced healing. For the public's safety, they were kept in camps across the world so they could control their powers and do their country good. The... Methods scientists and trainers used on them, however, were torturous and cruel, and will forever be one of our country's greatest shames."

He barely looked up from his script that was on a paper on the pedestal and read with barely any proper emotion. He was nervous, Rylie could tell. "With the creation of supernaturals, the Advanced Military Operations was included. This branch of the FBI included the best of the best, and with the development of our SNs—an acronym for supernatural—, they were, too, placed inside when they became their best in the camps. The branch was then more focused on SNs, and capturing rogue supernaturals.

"Supernaturals were created by scientists half by accident," he explained. "They were trying to make what you could call an advanced version of Captain America. However, they discovered this was only possible when the subject had a certain mutation in their genes—it was what they named the SN Factor. The SN Factor is only present in those under twenty-five, and disappears afterwards unless activated.

"The scientists accidentally spread an invisible concoction over our country, which activated in some young adults, teenagers and children. It was decided to take them in, as I said before, for their safety and the public's and to continue with the plan to make them weapons, which was an unfortunate ideology that is now regretted. We made agreements with other countries and used some of their forbidden places to make camps for the supernaturals secretly.

"Now, Joey Magnom—a supernatural involved with the rebellion—will be speaking to you," President Letterman said, stepping aside and allowing Joey to step up to the podium. Joey wore a crisp black and white suit, with a piece of paper with what he was going to say on it. He placed it on the podium and cleared his throat.

They all eagerly cheered in support from behind the television, even though he couldn't hear them. "My name is Joey Magnom, as President Letterman already said," Joey began, and by the neutral expression on his face and his somber voice, they knew the speech wasn't going to contain a trace of humour. "I'm a level fifteen teleporter—that's on a scale of zero to fifty, the lowest being most powerful—and I'm twenty years old. Three years ago, I realized my powers.

"I thought it was cool. I thought I was the only person in the world who could teleport, and I kept it to myself, only using it when I was alone and lazy. Still, though, they found me. They took me from my home and fed my family lies that made them fear me, and threw me in the third supernatural camp in the Syrian desert. They gave me the number 2812." His voice suddenly got sharp, meant to impact. "They took away my name, my freedom and my basic human rights, and had done the same to many less than half my age.

"For one and a half years, which is an estimate, they trained me how to use my powers and fight without them. They tortured me, and was doing the very same thing to many kids in five different camps, hundreds in each. A little less than a year after I got in the camps, I met one of my best friends, Casper Hill." He smiled briefly. "He was a level seventeen pyrokinetic who, out of everyone, didn't deserve the life he was forced into. We'd find a way to get together one night, and we kept each other sane.

"Then, Casper encountered Morgan Carter a couple months after we have met each other. We all became friends quickly, and as she was a new trainee, we prepared her for what she was getting into. However, our friendship didn't last very long, because the scientists at the camp discovered she was a zero." The crowd murmured quietly, the silenced completely after a few seconds. "For all those who are unaware, a zero is the highest level a supernatural can have. It's the maximum power, and basically utterly impossible to defeat. They were obviously excited, because zeroes are rare, but then they realized the issue: Morgan had so much pure power that her body couldn't contain or control it. If she were to use her powers for an extended amount of time, or access the impressive, maximum amount of power she could use, it would be completely uncontrollable and would kill her in the process. This was, obviously, not to the camp's advantage, so they made a stabilizer, thus making her power level a one and a half instead of a zero, but still good enough to be made into a solider.

"If someone's power is under ten, they are put in the ASTs, also known as Advanced Supernatural Training. This is a much faster, harder and more soul-crushing way of getting a powerful SN to be a solider. She endured it for six months, and afterwards, she was a completely different person. She was emotionless, ruthless, bloodthirsty, loyal to the people who had tortured her, and not herself at all. She had adopted her number as her name, 2832, and truly believed it was her name. She was forced to forget her past and made to think her purpose was to be essentially a machine. We thought she had become just like all the other supernaturals who had gone through the ASTs, and I think she thought so, too, but the camp saw one loose end. That loose end was myself and Casper, because they clearly noticed our friendship somehow."

He paused, and the crowd waited in silence and anticipation. "Every Saturday at the camp was shower day. We'd get to shower, but in the process, two trainees would be trapped in their stall as a gas filled in. We thought the gas was deadly and killed them, and that was what the camp wanted us to think, but instead it only simply knocked us out, leaving us for other purposes, which I'll get to later. Casper and I were put in these stalls to make Morgan think we died, and that would make her the perfect solider, which she was for some time. She was taken to the AMO to do so.

"The fate of those 'killed' in the stalls wasn't much better than the camps themselves. We were either given to Michael Hill, a rare supernatural who could take supernatural's powers out of them and keep them for himself, or sold at Square One club to the highest bidder. Michael was, in fact, Casper's older brother who was being blackmailed by the AMO to do their bidding. Casper and I were to go to the human trafficking route, but he couldn't handle being trapped again, and made a guard shoot him dead.

"I will forever miss Casper. The world was working against him, and he didn't deserve to go that early in his life, especially that way.

"The owner of the club decided to buy me as a bodyguard. For a couple months, I did this, and then I found out about Rylie Garner, who the people of Pennsington City know as Light Glider," Joey continued. "I discovered the camps had taken his little sister, Alexis Garner, who was only around seven years old, and also happened to be a zero, although she didn't have the issue with her powers as Morgan had. I knew we had Alexis in custody, ready to sell soon, and I wanted to help. That didn't work out, unfortunately.

"I got in contact with Rylie and his friends Marcus Yild, Pepper Telloh, Monica Fidden and Tyler Fidden. Meanwhile, Morgan had been assigned with a team to Rylie, to take him back to the AMO to go to a camp. However, in the middle of this, she swapped sides." For the first time, he looked up from his paper, looking hard into the camera. "Morgan was so incredibly strong. Nobody could have made it through that hell and still have some sanity. But she risked everything and began to help Rylie.

"Soon, however, we faced a complete failure. Michael Hill had captured Morgan on the authority of the AMO, and had also taken the powers of Rylie days prior. Rylie, powerless but not to the knowledge of the AMO, was captured by the AMO and taken to a camp. Alexis was soon to go to camp as well. Monica, Pepper, Tyler and Marcus went into hiding. After all this, I, like a coward, did nothing to help and remained radio silent.

"Not long after, Morgan was set for an execution, and soon, Rylie was as well, after they realized he was without powers. I worked together with the others and we got them out the day of, but still were a little too late. You see, the AMO's version of execution wasn't a swift death. No, they tortured her for hours, giving their agents free rein on how they could injure her. Then, she almost died as we just got her out, as they tried to electrocute her slowly to death." The crowd visibly shuddered.

"Rylie was also hurt. Since he didn't have his fast healing, all the times he was whipped at the camp had consequences. His back was completely in deep wounds with infections. Monica, who was our nurse, couldn't do much without proper equipment, and even so, it would take time we didn't have for him to heal. So, we made a new plan.

"Morgan, Pepper—our technological genius—"

Pepper whooped.

"—and I took a trip to Syria while Monica, Marcus and Tyler stayed behind to take care of Rylie. We had a mission, and that was to liberate the Syrian camp and enact revenge on our tormentors. We also hoped to find a healer for Rylie, and knew Alexis was being held in the camp. We succeeded," he said. "Afterwards, we took care of over two hundred kids, making sure they were fed and cared for. This all became overwhelming for just a small group of young adults, so the ones who were either too young to fight or didn't want to were placed with some trustworthy foster families who would protect them from being captured again. We kept over thirty who said they wanted to help us in our rebellion.

"With our group now expanded, we freed camp after camp, and from each one, we got many more revenge-seekers to help form our army. Now with almost two hundred and fifty supernaturals, we were ready to fight back. The AMO had many more people, but now all of them had powers as we did, and thus we had to advantage. Halfway through the battle, we learned Michael was Casper's brother and was unaware his younger brother had died. After we told him, he fought with us, but was killed by a small group of geokinetics.

"Morgan had learned she was a zero before the battle, but we had given her a stabilizer we had stolen from one of the camps. However, we began to lose, and she somehow broke through the stabilizer and used her zero side, taking on every agent left, which was still more than our army. She was the reason we won, and though she died in the process, she died a hero. The AMO surrendered, and we got what we wanted.

"Among Morgan, we also had some other tragic loses on our sides. They had known what they were getting themselves into and willingly fought to the end. I'd like to take a moment to remember Jessica Palsy, Ben Remer, Issac Wadren, Simon Addhert, Amelia Orhold, Emma Don, Gregory Usaver, Faith Jordan, Michael Hill and Morgan Carter. I'd also like to remember all the fighters on the AMO's side who fought and died. They had many more loses because of Morgan and I do not know all their names, and they were mostly bad people, but still people who deserve to be respected and remembered even if they stood for such a bad cause." For one minute, everything was completely still. Joey stood still and sober, and even back in Pennsington, they all hung their heads and didn't speak a word. His voice broke it. "Supernaturals are still human. This should have never happened, and all those people, during the battle and during their time at the camps, shouldn't have died. This tragedy should be remembered and not repeated."

He took a step back and drew a sharp breath, then the president, still overwhelmed by the speech, took his place at the front back.

"An excellent and powerful speech. Thank you, Mr Magnom. I will now be taking questions," he said, taking a deep breath.

"Mr Letterman! Is it true you knew about the horrendous acts of the people inside of the camps, yet did nothing about it?" A reporter called out quickly, eager to get the first question, as they all recovered from Joey's speech.

He hesitated. "Yes. I did know vaguely what they were doing to the teenagers in those camps. I did not know they were doing it to children as well, though. I regret not doing anything about it now."

"What will be the fate of supernaturals now?"

"All supernaturals will be liberated and free to go back to their families if they haven't already," he said, seeming to feel better about saying so than the other statement, "and supernaturals will be free to live among us, though with some reasonable restrictions, such as not being able to use their powers against an innocent individual."

"Can we truly trust these superhumans, when they can very easily take us down?" Another journalist blurted.

"Well, that's a difficult question," he replied, chuckling nervously. "There are some that are less dangerous and meant for good, such as healers, but others like telekinetics—" he cleared his throat, and they knew he was thinking about Morgan and regretted referring to it, "are less so. We plan on having every supernatural required to go to their town or city hall and register as a supernatural. Every supernatural must wear a bracelet on their wrist that shows they are in fact an SN, as well as a power prevention bracelet we will be making soon for the protection of the public. They must wear it at all times with some exceptions."

"That's bullshit!" Rylie exclaimed angrily, throwing popcorn at the television.

"Maybe you should make more of a mess, because they can definitely hear you," Pepper remarked sarcastically.

"Hey guys," Joey said, suddenly appearing in mid air, dropping down on the couch next to Rylie and Pepper, having just teleported away from Washington and back to Pennsington.

"Jesus," Pepper muttered, startled. "Warning?"

"Nonexistent," he replied. "How did I do?"

"Amazing," Monica said, grinning. "You told the entire story perfectly."

"I liked the part where you payed tribute to everyone who died," Marcus noted. "It was an awful thing."

"Yeah..." He thought back to Morgan, wondering how she might have delivered the speech if she'd survived. Then, he shoved the thought out of his head. It would only make him sadder, and it had been a few months since she had passed.

After the battle, they had gotten help from child services to get all the kids back to their families. As for Rylie's, Monica and Tyler's, Pepper's and Marcus' parents, they were all overcome with worry and concern, then anger. Rylie had gotten an earful, telling them he should have told him he had powers like his little sister—they had known about her as the agents who took her all those years ago had given a brief explanation—and shouldn't have paraded as a superhero, and not done something so ridiculous as going against the government and forcing change.

Long story short, they were all grounded for the rest of their lives, even Marcus and Monica who had moved out.

"Hey, all's well that ends well," Monica reassured. "They died for the great good, and now supernaturals won't have to endure what you guys had to."

"Thank you for coming, everyone," President Letterman closed, then walked off the stage. Tyler got the remote and changed the channel.

"... Armed robbery on Helfin street at a local restaurant," a different news reporter said, standing in front of a restaurant where police cars were parked.

"Well, that's my cue," Rylie said, standing up. In a blur, he had run out of the room and came back with his suit on, all in a few milliseconds. He was so fast that a faint breeze whooshed their hair back.

"I still find it hilarious that your slow ass has superspeed now." Tyler laughed.

When Michael died, the powers he had taken were returned to those who were living with their powers removed. However, the powers were misplaced, and somehow Rylie ended up as a speedster instead of the atmokinetic he used to be. The name Light Glider was slowly disappearing and was replaced with Bolt. Even though everyone now knew Rylie used to be Light Glider and then lost his powers, they didn't know he got new ones and was now this new superhero.

"You know, you can still join me," he said, directing the suggestion to Joey. "It's a supermarket near the edge of the city being robbed. How does the name Shortcut sound?"

"Unappealing," he said dryly. "Now, hurry! They aren't going to save themselves."

He smiled, then sped out of the door. However, when he opened the door, he almost ran into two strangers. "Uh, hi?" Rylie said, uncertainly.

"Hi, sorry for intruding, Mr... Er... Bolt," the boy said, with a nervous laugh.

"Do we know you?" Joey asked, standing up.

"No," the girl admitted. "I'm Andrea, and this is Carson. We were friends with Morgan before everything. Can we, uh, talk?"

***

Even after the Supernatural Rebellion, this is hardly a happy ending.

Supernaturals were no longer forcefully taken into camps and made into weapons or killed, but 'freedom' was restricted:

It was quickly discovered that new supernaturals were created after a supernatural mated with another supernatural, or with a non-supernatural human. So soon, doctors were able to discover the level of the supernatural child in the womb. If it was discovered to be a zero, the mother would be forced to by law abort the child.

All supernaturals had to wear a band on their wrist that read, 'SUPERNATURAL'. This was done so that in public, the supernatural could be refused service or forced to leave an area if 'nons'(humans who were not supernaturals) felt uncomfortable or unsafe, even if all the supernatural had done was walk in.

All supernaturals had to wear a dampener on their wrist that restricted their powers. Those with a power level under ten had a dampener that would restrict their power completely.

This was heavily protested by supernaturals, becoming almost a second rebellion. However, this second time around was not nearly as successful. The conditions of supernaturals remained the same, and no one could change it.

Monica Fidden stayed in Pennsington and left the Light Glider team, though she came back every now and again when Rylie got badly injured. She