Morning came with explosions.
Not real ones—at least, not "city-leveling" ones—but the kind of soft, colorful booms that meant another hero was testing his firepower over the skyline. Smoke trails spelled advertisements in the sky.
"Today's heroes are struggling," the news anchor said cheerily. "According to anonymous sources, several were injured in the Devil League's latest rampage."
In the reflection of a convenience store window, Lean Drai chewed a half-cold sandwich and watched the broadcast. Heroes zipped through the air, sparks flying. A crowd below recorded everything on their phones.
"Crazy," Lean muttered and wiped sauce off his chin. "Whole building gone, and they still call that a good day."
He turned away from the TV and pushed open the store door. The automatic chime sang its little song of consumer loyalty.
Outside, the streets of Drive City pulsed with life.
Taxis hummed as they drove by. Kids on skateboards trailed after dogs. Someone with a cape jaywalked.
To most people, it was normal.
To Lean, it was background noise—the same way some people ignore pigeons.
He slipped his hands into his jacket pockets and sighed. "Another day of being spectacularly unremarkable."
The extraordinary had nothing to do with him. He was just an ordinary high schooler who hadn't awakened his X-Gene yet.
The all-powerful and mysterious gene hidden inside human DNA, X-Gene. After years of research, humanity had come to the conclusion that it was this special and unique gene that allowed for all the incredible superpowers we had today.
There was still a lot unknown about this mysterious X-Gene. No one knew when humans had evolved this gene, how long we had, what the conditions are to activate it, or how to predict what kind of powers were born after the X-Gene was activated.
Where there is a mysterious and the unknown, there are people who seek to find answers.
Lean wasn't one of them he wasn't interested in knowing how the X-Gene worked. He just wanted to have his unlocked.
He wanted to be able to fly, to shoot lasers out of his eyes, and he would even take just super strength. He wasn't greedy.
Unfortunately, he still hadn't awakened a single superpower yet.
So he was just your ordinary high school student going to your ordinary average high school.
The ordinary and average high school that Lean attended,known as Drive High, stood like a fortress. The school walls were thick, and the protective wall had plenty of guards patrolling for any suspicious individuals, criminals, and villains.
The inside of the school was covering in murals of superheroes, positive thoughts, and paintings of famous former students.
Plastered everywhere are posters:
Join the Hero Course! Find your X-Gene!
Every wall seemed to shout, "You're not special yet, but you could be!"
Lean yawned through the morning bell. Math was always his weaknesses and having it in the morning didn't help.
He lazily stood up from his desk and felt glad to get out of this hell hole. The next period was going to wake him up for sure. He had PE next.
Once his blood was flowing and body hot, he would be back to his glorious energetic self. Until then, he planned to quietly exist.
But fate had a younger sister named Ryn.
"Big bro!" a high-pitched voice squealed before something small and determined crashed into his back.
Ryn Drai, half his size and twice his energy, hugged him like a bear trap. Her twin pigtails bounced like exclamation marks.
"Sign this!" she said, waving a sheet of paper under his nose.
"Ryn, if this is another petition to get better cafeteria pudding—"
"It's not pudding! It's destiny!"
She tapped the form again. Letters shimmered across the white surface:
Spooky Slayers Club
Defenders Against the Unseen
Motto: If You Can't See It, We Can Probably Still Punch It!
Lean stared. "...You made a ghost-hunting club. In a school with kids who can shoot lightning from their eyes."
"Exactly!" she beamed. "We're different! Everyone chases villains. We chase what villains fear!"
He sighed. "You mean a good therapist?"
Ryn puffed her cheeks. "You promised to join one club this year!"
"I was thinking something normal—like the Computer Society."
Before he could escape, she wrote in his name and signature on the form.
New Member Registered: Lean Drai.
"Welcome to the team!" she chirped. "You're in charge of logistics!"
"Logistics? Of what? Salt supplies?"
"Blah. You're in charge of getting us snacks, obviously!" Ryn rolled her eyes as she stuck out her tongue.
She didn't give Lean any more time to renegotiate the role. She waved her hands and skipped to her next class.
"We meet after school. Remember we meet in the basement."
"Basement?" Lean muttered under his breath.
"Wasn't it formerly a shooting range. I wonder if I can find a gun left there." Lean quickly dismissed that hope.
With a gun, he could use it to protect against any Rouge villains who snuck into the school.
He could imagine the headlines:
Highschool Student Saves the day!
Ordinary Student Admired for Heroic Deeds!
The Villain Beater, Lean Drai!
Lean couldn't help but smirk, but he knew that it was better that it never came true. With his luck, if there was a leftover weapon, it would be found by Ryn.
If Ryn found an empty gun rather than being able to protect them, she would probably get him shot somehow.
Lean instinctively yawned, getting reminded by his body that he was supposed to be lazy. And Lean agreed. He tossed the Spooky Slayers Club out of his mind and made his way to the gym.
A few hours went before the bell signaling the ending of the school day rang.
"Finally, we can go home!"
"I wish that was the case for me, but I have to go to a club." Lean sighed as he chatted with his friend Alex Adams.
He and Alex had been friends since elementary school. So they were close.
They even lived close together.
If Alex wasn't so crazy, he would even be called Lean's best friend.
Alex laid on his desk and looked at Lean with amazement.
"Damn, did you get a girlfriend before me? Dude, I thought we made a pact to not settle this year."
Alex looked hurt. He gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on his desk.
"As revenge, I will have to up my game. I will have had three girlfriends before the end of the school year."
Lean pinched his eyes and quickly explained before Alex continued to go off into the deep end.
"Obviously not. Ryn signed me up for her dumb ghost club." Lean explained.
Alex perked up and had an excited look on his face.
"Ghost club. Why didn't you say so? I'm in."
"I wasn't trying to convince you to join." Lean said helplessly.
"You don't have to convince me anymore. I'm ready to lay my life on the line. There will be no ghosts that will touch a single strand of Ryn's hair with me around." Alex said righteously.
"Bruh, what are you saying?" Lean asked before sighing in defeat.
He could only think about how the world would have been a better place if Alex's mom hadn't dropped her baby on the head.
"Whatever, let's go. Just don't act weird this time."
The Spooky Slayers met after-school in the school basement. Crates and bins filled with supplies were littered everywhere.
But what Lean found interesting were the large human shaped figures covered in wrapping.
"Are these-gulp- corpses?" Alex, Lean's friend whispered softly as he grabbed Lean's arm.
"Get off me." Lean cursed and pushed Alex off of him.
"Aahh!" Alex fell to the ground dramatically and teared up.
"Lean, how could you treat me like this? I thought we had something special."
"Special my ass! Get up before someone sees us."
"Where was that courage you had before?" Lean was speechless at how Alex was acting. One minute, he was courageous. The next, he was spineless.
But he didn't know why this still surprised him. Alex was just like this.
"Hehehe, do you think we could hide under these?" Lean asked as he had a devious plan to get back at Ryn for volunteering him against his will.
He examined one of the human figures closely. It had a curvy shape and clearly was supposed to take on a feminine figure.
"Boo!"
Just then, the human figure jumped on Lean.
Pushed him to the ground.
"Aaaaah!" A high-pitched scream escaped from Lean's mouth.
"Pfft!"
"Hahaha!"
"I-I-I can't. This is too funny!"
Lean froze as he realized that he had been pranked.
The female figure was laughing so hard that her eyes got dark because she was crying from laughter.
"Bro, you're too funny. I never heard you scream like that. Hahaha!" The female took off the wrapping and revealed herself.
She was Ryn.
The other human figures fell to the ground laughing, some of them holding their stomachs and rolling around.
Lean's face darkened. He was embarrassed and flustered.
His face turned red before he coughed and pushed Ryn off of him.
It was only several minutes later that the laughter stopped. But all the members of the club were still struggling not to laugh.
"I'm leaving." Lean growled with his lips tightly sealed.
Ryn, who was still laughing, quickly grabbed his arm.
"Bro, it was a prank, chill."
"..."
"At least before you go, we need to do the ceremony." Ryn said with a smile on her face.
Alex quickly helped to convince Lean.
"Since we are already here. Lean, let's do it."
After much convincing, Lean reluctantly stayed and went along with it.
The ceremony was simply getting their hero names by drawing random cards. What they drew would be their new hero name.
A table in the center was set up to hold a deck of oversized cards labeled Endless Hero Cards.
Each member took turns pulling one, shouting their new identities with pride:
"Spectral Saber!"
"Lady Holy Light!"
"Captain Salt!"
When Lean's turn came, he drew lazily from the deck.
The card shimmered from its holographic design.
Absurdity
The room went silent—then erupted in laughter.
"Absurdity?" One member wheezed. "Is that even a noun you can be?"
"It fits him perfectly!" Ryn said with way too much enthusiasm. "He's already absurd!"
Lean slumped. "Perfect. My heroic debut, and I sound like a knockoff energy drink."
"Don't mock fate!" the club leader said dramatically, pointing a candle at him. "The spirits choose who they fear most!"
"Uh-huh. Spirits and student loans. Terrifying."