When your world begins to crumble, no one is prepared for how that begins to happen. There has never been a moment in time where humans have been able to predict how and when it was going to happen.
While people have predicted meteors for years, or war weapons, missiles, atomic bombs, or mutually assured destruction, that was not what happened. No one anticipated that the world was going to fall apart the way that it did.
Gates, wide portals, in varying shades of toxic, swirling colours opened up. Exploding, expanding, and covering the world with monsters and creatures previously only told in storybooks.
Devouring, destroying, consuming everything and everyone in their way. Gates originally were something that people looked on indifferently. Until they began to crack open, spilling out onto Earth. Governments crumbled, cities were toppled, and countless lives were ruined.
The chaos that followed swallowed the lives of millions of people.
During this time, when hope was lost, and fear consumed every human being on the planet, something magical began to happen.
People began to be born with powers that had only been heard of in stories. Previously only read in comics or fairytales, they were unsure how to wield their powers at first. Anyone would be surprised that they could suddenly move water, fly, or heal others with the touch of a hand.
In moments where all hope was lost, tension was high, their fellow humans would watch on as powers exploded out of them and suddenly they would be able to fight back, to push back against the monsters hunting them, or the gates that wanted to swallow Earth whole.
Slowly, as more and more of these people were found or created, hope began to return to the general public.
That was, until the first person with powers exploded, decimating a camp of survivors, and fear ran wild once more.
The powers, as everything does in life, had a cost. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a way to relieve it. Over time, the person with powers would begin to lose themselves to insanity, until they would finally snap, break, and explode. Like a bomb, causing chaos and destruction in their wake.
It became common practice for them to take themselves out before endangering others, tears running down their faces as they held guns to their heads. Those who couldn't do it themselves would hire others to do it, creating a fucked up cycle until one day, another type of power was found.
A person who had been on the brink of explosion, of a power surge, had taken someone hostage. In the hostage's fear, they had placed their hands on the person, their previous brown eyes going blue, and in that moment, everything changed.
People had awoken with powers to curb the other.
The human race finally had a chance to fight back.
Over time, classifications began to be formed. Those who had fantastical powers, akin to the super hero stories of old, were called Espers. Those who were born with the powers to calm the insanity that grew inside of the espers were called Guides.
Both of these groups began to be ranked, since it became clear, over time, that there were different ranks among those who awakened.
F Class Guides and Espers were barely better than regular humans, with slightly enhanced basic characteristics of strength and senses, along with powers.
While the cream of the crop, SS Classes were feared as monsters. Their powers made them akin to gods. Walking weapons that inspired fear and awe anywhere they went.
SS Class Espers were always teetering on the brink of insanity, never quite fully sane. While SS Class Guides were serene, peaceful, beautiful creatures protected by the remaining countries for the sheer fact that they could tame and control the monstrous Espers around them with a simple touch.
The world of Espers and Guides felt miles away for the regular people, and those who ranked lower in these systems couldn't even dream of the lives those higher than them lived.
The worlds separated as time moved on. As normalcy reared its old, complacent head, soon Espers began to have the same status as celebrities, along with their Guide counterparts.
Many forgot the old days, the struggling, the fear, the sacrifice and relied on the Espers and Guides to keep them safe. Forgetting what it was that had changed their world. Forgetting what it had cost.
No civilians wondered if the cost was worth it. They never had to.