Everyone dreams of having a superpower.  Whenever I meet someone new, and if I plan to develop a friendship with them, I ask them, “If you could have only one superpower, what would it be?”  Well, the amazing group of friends that I am about to describe, did not simply have to dream; they got to experience it first hand.

A group of teenagers, all around the age of 16, were involved in a near fatal car accident.  The teenagers’ genes were shuffled in such a manner that each member of the group developed a unique, powerful ability.  Maybe I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself.  Perhaps I should start by introducing each member of this unique group.  Eldest of the 5 members is a rebellious teenager who likes to oppose any and every standard placed upon him.  His name is Jacob, he is 18, and he is the leader of the group.  Emily, the next in line, is only a year younger than Jacob.  Her personality suggests that she was the ultra-quiet, passive youngest sibling of her family.  This suggestion would be correct.  The two succeeding Emily happen to be a set of 15 year old twins, Derek and Daniella.  Even though they are twins, these two could not be more different.  Derek is laid back and reserved, similar to Emily.  While Daniella is only similar to her brother in the fact that they both have golden blond hair. She consistently has something to say about everything.  Only rare moments in time have occurred when she didn’t talk. The youngest of the group is sweet, innocent Maggie.  Maggie has been shielded from the evils of the world by the previously described four close friends and her loving family; but little did poor Maggie know, all of this was about to change.

The crash killed Mr. and Mrs. Bennet on impact.  The group traveled home from a day at the local arcade.  The five friends sustained severe injuries during the crash.  A military caravan was rolling through their suburban community.  One of their trucks was lagging behind the group.  This truck, carrying a newly developed advanced weapon prototype that can remix a person’s genetic code, was supposed to be virtually impenetrable.  The truck ran the only stop light in their small town.  The Bennets’, being distracted by the children, broadsided the truck.  The weapon this truck was carrying was a newly developed serum.  This serum was a transdermal concoction.  This meant that it could be absorbed through the skin at the slightest touch.  The five children were drenched in this pale green serum, thus getting insane amounts of it absorbed through every square inch of their bodies.  This serum’s regenerative properties were the only thing that kept the children alive after the car accident.

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, parents of Jacob and Maggie, had been model parents.  They allowed appropriate amounts of time for friends, family, and privacy.  Jacob, having just turned 18 and freshly graduated from his senior year of high school, took responsibility for Maggie after the crash and the loss of their parents.  The group maintained their close bonds of friendship that had strengthened over so many hours spent together in physical therapy.  The friends started noticing strange symptoms during their time in physical therapy.  These symptoms included things such as hearing others’ thoughts like words from their mouth, items randomly falling off tables, body parts seeming to disappear from sight for set intervals of time, being able to change the colors of objects, and something that can only be described as extreme restless leg syndrome.  The group was eventually released from physical therapy.  They decided to get together at the local pizzeria.  Over this pizza, they discussed the manifestation of their strange symptoms.

Jacob rode in one of the front seats and got splashed with the serum first.  He was also the first to start noticing symptoms, followed by Derek, Emily, Maggie, and finally Daniella.  Jacob noticed items randomly falling off of tables if he focused on them.  Jacob was experiencing telekinesis, which was a relatively weak ability considering his strong, abrasive personality.  Derek, next to notice symptoms, found it extremely difficult to stop a twitching sensation in both of his legs.  Derek was experiencing the beginning of super speed.  This was also very surprising, considering his laid back, reserved personality.  Emily started to feel an emptiness emanating from her hand one day, only to find that it seemed to have vanished.  Emily could control this selective invisibility.  This trait was not surprising at all, considering her mild temper and shyness.  Maggie started to hear the thoughts of the attending nurses in physical therapy.  Maggie was beginning to experience telepathy.  This power was least shocking considering her never-ending quest for knowledge.  Daniella was the last to experience any symptoms, only a few days before being released.  She could alter the appearance of reality around her.  She could make herself feel as though she were on a beach in Florida, or in Siberia, just by concentrating on where she wished to be.  Daniella was experiencing selective reality alteration.  This trait came as no surprise, considering her desire to change people’s opinions of events occurring around her.

But as they left on their separate ways home from the pizzeria, they individually realized the responsibility that had beset them all.  They realized that their powers must have been given to them for a specific reason, rather than by random chance.  The type of responsibility that takes moral commitment to fulfill.  The responsibility that police officers take oaths to uphold, the responsibility to protect and serve.  The group met at Jacob and Maggie’s house to discuss how to fulfill this newly realized responsibility.

The group’s discussion did not last long.  It was soon brought to their attention, via local news, that a local brother and sister had been kidnapped in the middle of the night by an anonymous white van.  The group had decided that there was no chance that this could be a coincidence, considering the serum’s arrival only a few months earlier.  They decided to fight the military contractors that produced, and was now running test trials for, the serum.  Possibly, these trials could be run on the kidnapped children.  The group brainstormed ideas how to best destroy the contractors with revenge as the major form of motivation.  Someone suggested that the group run a rescue mission.  The plan consisted of the group infiltrating the base, rescuing the children, and destroying as much of the serum as possible.  It was decided that the plan would be executed in a week’s time once their powers had gotten stronger and their control over them had bettered as well.

The time had come.  It was the morning of the raid, and everything was to be set in motion by nightfall.  Jacob used his car as transport, disguised as a military truck using Daniella’s ability of reality alteration, to get them to and inside the base.  Maggie’s powers were used next.  The group needed her telepathy to place the correct thoughts in the gatekeeper’s mind and allow them free passage into the base.  Once inside, Derek was next on the roster.  He used his super speed to incapacitate two thirds of the guards on the base while Emily used her invisibility to subdue the other third.  They then used Maggie to concentrate and listen very closely  for any thought escaping either of the two kidnapped siblings minds.  Eventually, while roaming the halls in search of them, Maggie caught an almost silent whisper of a thought.  She pointed Jacob in the right direction, and he started tearing away at the wall using his telekinesis.  He burrowed through four different solid steel walls before finally coming to the vault style door in which the siblings must have been trapped.  Derek’s power was used to run through every possible numerical combination the vault door could possibly have.  Once it was opened, the siblings came running out.  The team had only one more task to complete before taking the children home to their family.  Emily had seen the silos in which the serum was assumed to be stored and guided Jacob their now.  The entire group began work on the silos.  It was quickly decided that the best place for the serum was to be buried deep underground, beyond the grasp of human technology.  Derek was set to work digging and mining as much dirt as he could, in an attempt to make a hole deep enough and wide enough for 2 large silos.  Emily, Daniella, and Maggie were set to work trying to find a safe way to seal the silos and a decent way to detach the silos from the earth.  Jacob sat down, trying to relax his mind, trying to focus on the monumental task that was upon him.  Once the silo seals were engaged and Jacob was given the O.K. from Derek, Jacob had the final role that needed to be filled.  Jacob stood, and with the ground rumbling under his feet, began to lift the first of the two gigantic silos.  The silos rose slowly, only two or three feet off the ground.  Jacob prepared himself for the eight mile descent of the silo.  Once the first of the two had reached the base of the hole, Jacob relaxed his tired muscles.  But, seeing the sun peaking over the horizon, set to work on the second silo.  This silo drug across the ground as he struggled to move it to the edge of the hole.  The silo was then lowered, quickly, to rest on top of the first.  Maggie then used her telepathy to clear the thoughts of the silos and of the entire group from every guard’s mind.

The group could finally enjoy peace and quiet, except for their tremendous abilities.  But one afternoon, while all we’re eating a pizza at Jacob’s house, Derek turned on the TV.  They were all shocked to see the news reporter interviewing the parents of the ninth child that had been kidnapped in the past week.  The friends looked at each other, sighed, put their half-eaten pizza back down, and went off to pursue these new developments…