Year 2028...
Vaxton City.
"Man, I hate my life."
He just left the junkyard after his scavenging today bore no fruit and now he was into the worst situation he could have ever wished to be in—stuck in the crossfire between two super freaks, as he called them.
They fought without a care in the world, like there was no one around them, or was he just the only one stupid enough to be there at such a time?
No, of course, people were screaming.
Leo crawled over to the wall, resting his back against it, his breath coming in short uneven gasps.
He pulled back his threadbare hoodie, revealing a bloodied face twisted into a bitter smile.
His red eyes went to his legs, a fractured ankle on his right and the left completely unresponsive.
He sat there watching the two morons fight—throwing fists, energy beams and anything they could grab—at each other.
A thrown car went wide and slammed into the building Leo was leaning on. He tried moving away from the spot but the rubble from above fell onto his already destroyed legs.
"AAAAAAARRGGHHHHHH!" Leo screamed as he heard his bones snap. "Ackk! Damnit!" he muttered with a cracked voice, tears gathering in his eyes.
He just wanted to get some scraps he could sell to by medication for his ill sister and then this happened.
These "super freaks" were normal people once, until they got Ginxes—techs that gave humans not just superhuman abilities but actual superpowers.
It was introduced by a company named Triston Corp, as a means of creating "protectors of the world." Heroes who would be able to save humanity from disasters to come.
Was an alien invasion predicted? No. Absolutely not. Triston Corp's mission and vision was too vague, but the concept of normal humans having powers gave them a shade to hide under.
Humans were the disasters themselves anyways.
Ginxes were neural chips implanted in the brain that forces genetic modifications that make one tap into true human potential and the framework of reality itself, creating powers that were once believed to be childish imaginations or fictional.
At first, the world government tried to fight against this thing, but greed got the better of them when prices were named.
It simply was a means of world domination, but everyone up there was blind to it.
They never wasted time in exchanging blows, wanting to show superiority over each other by any means possible, not caring who gets hurt in the process. Today was a sound example.
These Ginx users split themselves and decided to play the good old Hero Villain game.
The sudden rise of the Dawn of Shadow hit the world unexpectedly, and these guys actually had enough might to put the entire world into a state of apocalypse.
The heroes took as much time as they wanted, before deciding to stand up to the Dawn of Shadows.
Through three months of war, the Dawn of Shadows were pushed back and the world was now quiet, save for their minor attacks.
The reconstructions, fixes and repairs were quite slow. Though such could only be said for these parts of the world where the "new government"—led by the board members and CEO of Triston Corp, plus a select few from the old government—never decided to fund and fix properly.
These parts of the world were basically modern day slums that were out of the fortified advanced cities. Unsafe places considered battlegrounds for any couple of fools who chose that it was the right time to fight.
They had successfully taken over the world and the only time when humans had the chance to actually speak up to stop this, they decided that was the best time to keep their eyes shut.
Now people like Leo had to suffer, passing through this kind of life.
Leo lay on the ground, losing blood in large amounts. After his parents' sudden disappearance when he was just twelve, Leo had been the one to take care of his sister who suffered from a new sickness known as Cersil.
It was a mix of seizures, partial paralysis, hair loss, memory disorientation and weight loss. It came as a pandemic that forced people to either by drugs that stabilized the effects or get some new ice capsule made by Triston Corp to fully cure it… for free.
This was a plain method of controlling humans Leo knew too much to fall for, because once you take it, you become a slave to the organization. You literally just can't say no to their demands.
Leo was among the minority who didn't get infected, but never planned on losing his younger sister to such, so he decided to get money by all means so he could keep on buying her drugs.
But these few days had been unlucky and at some point he wondered if he should have just let her get the capsule for free.
Despite being sick, his sister hadn't eaten for two days because he couldn't get her anything. Leo swore he was going to go back today with something, even if he had to take more debts—if they would agree to give him again, that is.
But how?
He was bleeding out now, for a reason he wasn't even involved in to begin with.
Another empty promise made.
Leo's dams broke and the tears streamed down the side of his eyes. His face looking ugly and utterly pathetic. "I'm sorry,"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was a bad big brother. A really really bad one. Look at the state you're in just because of my own made-up fears." Leo's shaking hand clutched the dirt as his vision started to fade. "Please… please forgive me."
Then blackness.
… …
"Shut up, his vitals are picking up. He's awake."
"It was a success?"
"We can't confirm."
"Did someone eat my burger?"
Leo could hear the noises but he was unable to open his eyes.
First of all, wasn't he supposed to be dead? And what were these people talking about? Was it him? Where was he?
His mind fired several questions he had absolutely no answers to.
Then everywhere went quiet. A sharp pain went down his entire body, and when the sound came back, he jolted awake. "Aahh!"
He was in his room.
The first thing he looked at were his legs, slowly taking off the blankets to see them whole and in good shape.
He touched his face—no bruises at all.
Was everything earlier all just a dream? But it felt too real to be a dream.
Either ways, if it was, he needed to go scavenging or trying to get a job again.
He was about to mark today's date on the calendar when he paused. "This isn't the calendar I was using," he muttered.
That was all he thought, until his eyes landed on the calendar's date, causing him to freeze in place.
Year 2032...
"What tha," Leo squinted, wondering if he was seeing things, but then his view got interrupted by a sleek glowing interface and sharp sound.
[ Ding! ]
[System Initialization Complete!]
[Welcome to the Ascension System!]