The start

"Em! Breakfast is ready!" You can see a olive skinned woman in her late 30's is calling up the stairs of a two story house. Long greying brown hair. This is my mom. At this point and time, she is trying to wake me up right before she goes to her job. She looks down at her digital watch to see that it's currently 7:10 am. "I have to go to work sweetie! I'll be back later tonight, make sure to wash the dishes after you eat okay! Good luck at the ceremony! Love you!" She said as she rushes towards the door. She hears a groggy reply, "Got it Mom, love you too!"

Up the stairs and into the end of the hallway just across the hallway bathroom, you would see an olive skinned 17 year old who looked like they had stayed up all night playing games... which I did. Hehe, hi my name is Emrys Kalel, and boy was this day going to be an interesting one, I just didn't know it yet.

"Shouldn't have stayed up late," I said to myself. The night before, I was up all night playing my all time favorite rpg game with my buddy Kai. But that's besides the point because this day had started like any other day. With my mom waking up and making some sort of breakfast then leaving for work.

It had been that way since the beginning of my senior year, so it was routine at that point. Just me and my mom, going day by day. Coming downstairs I could smell the bacon, eggs, and pancakes on the table already made. Next to it, is always some sort of blended morning fruit drink my mom would always make, different for every breakfast.

I remember one time in the beginning of the year, on a Monday morning, I told her that I'm old enough to make my own breakfast but she would not have it. "I'm not going to be home a lot this year Em, that means you won't be able to have my cooking, and I want to cook for you. Now be quiet and eat the food," and that was the end of the conversation.

Thus marking the daily routine for the rest of my high school year with my mom. Which was fine. It just sucked because life was so good back in Hawaii and being able to spend time with her there, but she had gotten a new job working as a private contractor in L.A. Which was an hour drive from where we lived. I knew she loved the job so I supported her fully.

Anyways, it's good, that means I had the house to myself and could hangout with my friends and even have girls over. Yeah, right. I have "friends" but none of them are close enough to me for me to invite them to my house and such.

I got nothing special going for me, so no one really talks to me aside from my best friend Kai. We're part of the normal people in high school. That's right, normal. Not one of "those" guys and girls everyone like Kai and me want to be.

That's fine though, because that was all going to change. I was going into the program with Kai and everyone else like us. We were going to be given a chance to do something. After I finished my breakfast of course.

As I was finishing my breakfast, I pulled out my phone and saw that I had a message from Kai.

"Hey man, I'm so hyped for today! Wanna go over together in like 30?"

He wanted to meet at eight so that gave me enough time to wash the dishes, shower, and get ready. 'Today's the day,' I remember thinking.

I had put a good pair of jeans with a black t shirt and a all black flannel. Yes, I know. Not exactly the most fashionable but I wasn't one for fashion anyways. Looking in the mirror I saw the same face I had see since the beginning of high school. Albeit a bit more mature I guess.

I had a nice medium skin fade because of the program having hair regulations for neatness. My hair sticks up straight so without a haircut I look like a mess most of the time. Putting on my glasses, I could see even clearer. Looking at my face that had cleared up a lot. Maybe because puberty wasn't so much of an issue anymore now that I was 17.

All together I wouldn't say I looked bad but I never cared for my looks in the first place. What's the point of looks when you can't use it to do anything. Admittedly some can this day and age but that wasn't possible with me.

Putting on my backpack, my phone rang. On it was the caller ID for Kai. Sandman it said, which is a little inside joke for me and him. Picking it up, I said "I'm coming man, give me a mi-"

"Hurry up man, Luka said he'd get us there but he's getting close to the limit already," Kai said quickly.

Hearing that I grabbed my wallet downstairs and bolted out the door. Locking the door behind me, I turned to see my best friend. Kai is an islander himself but his moms german heritage really kicked butt and gave him white skin, although tan, but everything else was all islander. His hair was curly just like his dads. He even had the same facial features as him. His dad isn't exactly tall though but Kai got his height from his moms side of the family. All of them besides his mom are over six feet.

Kai stands three inches taller then me at six feet even but is just a little lanky compared to my bigger build . He's wearing his brown joggers and blue button up shirt. To the left of him is a guy with long brown hair to his shoulders. Wearing a jean jacket and a white t shirt with jeans, this guy is Luka.

Kai and I's usual drop off guy. Luka looks at me and impatiently says, "you're almost late man. I don't got much time left and I only have like four left." Luka showed his wrist to me so I could see his all black L-Bit. It works similar to a smart watch and looks like one but thicker as it looks like it is a wristband. On it you could see a timer indicating that there was 3 minutes left.

I felt sorry so I reached into my bag that I brought and gave him five bucks. "Sorry won't happen again after today. That should be enough for the vending machines back at school," I said to him.

Taking it, he shoved it in his pocket and said, "it's fine man, you're here now. Close your eyes and hold on tight."

Kai held his left shoulder while I grabbed his right arm. This was always my favorite part. Luka closed his eyes and opened them again. This time his irises glowed blue. He looked to his right as if spotting something and then jumped.

No sound was made. Yet a slight shimmer of blue energy can be seen as the three of us disappear from the front of my house to the front of rooftop door. The rooftop door of our high school to be exact. A high school that is 10 miles away from my house actually.

Yeah, that's right. Ten miles away. Crazy right! Luka has a limit of five uses of his ability a day at least. Which I don't have a clear understanding of because that's a big no no to ask. Luka had said that he can teleport three times max per use but then again no sane Limitless would truthfully tell how their abilities work. Only the school, government and some other organizations can handle that type of info and even then, they aren't fully informed as well.

But teleporting at any point and time within a five minute window is pretty useful. Maybe Luka would be a Scout or Lancer. He's even been contacted already from other academies to train his limit further. Luka is going places. He always was though as someone with a Limitless ability like that.

After having dropped Kai and I off, he looks at us and says, "last time I'll be dropping you guys here huh."

Hunched over and gripping my jeans, I answer, "should be. Never going to get used to that, man."

Luka laughed a jovial laugh and said, "yeah, sorry about that. I gotta jump, but I'll see y'all after the ceremony." With that and a slight shimmer of blue light, he's gone.

I pulled my phone out to check the time, and saw that it was 8:03 am already. Meaning that the ceremony was going to take place in about an hour.

Finally coming to a point where I didn't feel like I was drunk, I looked at Kai who also was struggling to deal with the after effects of Luka's drop off.

Chuckling, I said, " c'mon Kai, let's go help set up before it starts."

Kai straightens up and replies, "yeah, gotchu, just give me a mo-" and he doubles over like he is about to vomit, then doesn't and straightens up again.

"Okay, I'm good," he says then smiles wide. "Today's the day we become Specialists man!"

That's right. You heard correctly, Specialists. Just like the Limitless. Well not exactly, but it was for people like Kai and I. It all started 64 years ago in 2020 when the Limitless were finally revealed to the world. The world has changed a lot since then.

People with these abilities have always existed but they were always few in number. So few that any evidence that popped up about them, made it seem like a joke to people who were told about them.

So most of them would hide and only use their abilities if they needed to. Even then, they didn't know about their limits so it was hard for them to figure out their powers on their own.

But like I said, everything changed in 2020 when The Reckoning came. Turns out, humans alone weren't ones that had abilities. It was just even rarer for animals to have them, but yes it was possible. When The Reckoning happened, it was all at once.

Out of nowhere these creatures that were actually few in number showed up all over and started to attack. It had started in Africa with small tribes and such being razed to the ground. The most powerful one had shown up near The Middle East and it had came out from the Persian Gulf to bite off pieces of land. Everywhere there was creatures that had powers wreaking havoc on the world.

No one had even really believed it was happening until all the news networks were broadcasting it. Every news station were showing footage of these creatures that upon close inspection look like mutated versions of animals we know. Military was sent out to deal with these creatures but at the time, we didn't know how to deal with creatures that had these abilities.

They also seemed like they would only use their abilities for a short duration of time. But these creatures, just like the Limitless now, had bodies that were altered because of their powers. Making some smarter, faster, and stronger then before.

It was only when the world was falling into chaos because of these creatures that some decided to step up to the plate. Those with powers had shown up to take care of these creatures that were too difficult to handle. Many would end up getting sacrificed fighting these creatures but it worked.

It was quite evident that these people, albeit not many, held powers beyond comprehension but they were the heroes at that time. Just by sheer numbers, humans with powers had outnumbered the creatures.

Yes, I'm sure there was a lot of speculation after all that, where the government and every single country across the world viewed them as too dangerous themselves, but there wasn't much they could really do about it. That's not to say that the Limitless back then were all powerful and couldn't be stopped. No no, they could be stopped. Crimes with people that had abilities such as these started running afoot but, even these few who started doing so didn't last so long, since their limits were short. These criminals with abilities would still get killed by the greater number of people without these powers, with casualties. You have to understand, in the beginning no one had large limits like today.

No one had known how to strengthen their limits so most people just felt their limits were random. It wouldn't be strange for people who thought they had powers to all of a sudden believe they lost them because they would reach their limit for that day or even that week for some. No one understood anything.

The fear of not knowing about the fact that any one person with an ability being able to destroy a city, is what caused many governments to not be able to lay a hand on any law abiding Limitless. No one wanted the Limitless to just all band together and destroy the world just because the world decided to just kill them off. Just like how all Limitless that had good sense, didn't really want the whole world as an enemy.

It took a bit of time but the U.S., Russia, China, and Japan, were the first to start looking for these people with powers (although admittedly, history was never my strong suit, so there was probably a lot more that had happened before this point.) They had openly discussed with each other how to go about these special people. New laws and rights were set in place for these "few" people that had powers. Even within the government there were those that had abilities but didn't show them. With these officials unwavering support for equality of the Limitless with normal people, the governments were able to make laws that weren't outrageous towards how Limitless should be treated. They were all given benefits also, so long as they agreed to be studied humanely, to get a better understanding of how these abilities worked or what the limit was.

This was when other countries started to do the same thing. After a few years it had become clear that not many would have powers in the first place. Whether or not this was just something you were born with or accidentally gain was not something that anyone knew at first. Sometimes you can be born and maybe you will have the lights in the whole room shut off. Or maybe you are an 84 year old man who suddenly gained the ability to run faster then a cheetah.

It was only after intensive study that in the year 2029, nine years after The Reckoning, that the Mortal Limiter was discovered. The Mortal Limiter is just the coined name used by everyone but it is the key to becoming a Limitless. The Mortal Limiter or the ML is something that those with powers have within themselves.

The ML itself is like an extra organ that exists and doesn't. Don't ask me about it, I can't accurately explain it myself. Never paid much attention to Ms. Drotlig but I know even she didn't explain this in Bio. Anyways, somehow in 2029, there was a breakthrough with some sort of technology that allowed one to detect the ML. If you don't have it, then that means you would not be able to become a Limitless.

After finding the ML, you would be told the great news and be given instructions on how to work the ML, since it itself is like an organ that you can use. Now if you do it this way and your powers manifest through this, then you would be called an Awakened. Most Limitless now are Awakened ones.

Those that were born with their powers without having to exercise their ML are known as Transcended. Those that are born naturally transcending past their mortal limit. These ones are usually the most powerful kind.

With this knowledge and steady relations between Limitless and normal people, the world was on its way into new horizons. Of course, with great change, comes many things. As fortunate as it was to have Limitless, that didn't mean there were only good people with powers. There's always two sides to the coin.

Crimes, wars, and etc. were escalated to new levels. Fights between two Limitless could now involve military intervention and even small wars between neighboring countries would happen. It was a crazy new world.

Technology was advancing, along with medicine with the help of some of the Limitless. It's not that guns couldn't kill a Limitless but all out wars with Limitless on both sides could be very bad. Eventually some technology was developed to be able to handle some Limitless.

Limitless everywhere that were so keen on causing trouble were given a wake up call when they saw how much technology had advanced to be able to counter them if they were unprepared. There was even a sensor by 2034 that could detect the use of an ability within a four mile radius, much less the sensor that could sense miles and miles out now.

So yeah, not all Limitless were like Superman and the Flash, but that didn't stop them from training to become it. Which no one really knew how to do but the top organizations, government, or academies. To do any of these trainings, that would mean you would have your limitless identity registered.

The use of abilities can be used outside freely without being registered so long as it maintains accordance to the laws. (You know like don't kill someone, steal, all that good stuff)

Regardless, the world is in a new age. Although fewer in number compared to the majority, Limitless existed and coexisted with the rest of the world. Now the world has national sports and competition for Limitless. Even world events for them also. Hell, even parts of the world now changed since the amount of Limitless are growing in number.

With the growing number of Limitless there are those that registered their identity. Those that registered are allowed to join top academies the moment they register to train their powers and become part of the top one percent of this world. Of course this is if they are young enough to joint the academy. If you are old, you can directly join the military or government. You'd be compensated well.

That's not to say their isn't a chance for us normal people though. Every Limitless, no matter how powerful, are just like us normal people when they have used their powers to the limit. Making it important for them to work with people like me and you (if you are like me -_-)

It's not that we can't stand with them to fight a good fight if it comes around or even just compete with them in sports. We just have to prepared. But for that to happen we would have to become the best of the best within the majority of normal people.

That position that gives us a chance to stand along side the Limitless, is to become a Specialist. Becoming a Specialist means that you are willingly leaving the life of a normal person to experience a glimpse of the life of a Limitless. It would mean that you are willingly joining a reality where you would be a mortal among people similar to demigods or gods.

But hey that's fine isn't it? It just sounded like an adventure to me. Boy was I so excited. So excited that I didn't even realize I had arrived in the main hallway of my high school. Running straight into someone and falling onto my ass.

"Hey, that's my bad I wasn't paying attention," I said as I see papers falling to the ground. I hurriedly bent down to pick up the papers and look up.

"I'm sorry, I should've-" and rest of my words fell out of my brain and ran away.

Right in front of me was a slim girl, maybe hispanic, who had maybe an inch or two on me in height. She had a slender but impish face and her black curly hair was it fell like waves past and over her shoulders. She had piercing hazel eyes that's seemed gold underneath the blaring bright hallway lights and thin eyebrows. Her skin was a light tan color.

Just about the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. But the thing that caught my attention was her uniform. A familiar black collared long sleeve with grey sides from the waist to the arm. The black uniform pants and black combat boots.

The combat uniform for the top training academy in the nation.

"Exceed," the name of the school left my mouth unknowingly as I stare at this girl in front of me.

Stunned, I tried to formulate words but failed utterly when I heard, "are you okay?"

"Huh?" Yeah, Em. A proper educated response from an AP Lang student. Just… great.

"Are you alright? You look like your head is somewhere else," she said.

'Mhm, it's on how pretty your voice sounds,' I thought as I stood up with papers in hand. I reach to give her the papers as I hear her say, "does it?"

"What?" I ask, seeing her scrunch her face as she questioned me.

She stares at me for a moment longer then what would be considered normal before reaching her hand out to grab the papers.

After doing so she nods her head, says "thank you," and turns to walk down the hall.

'Uhh okay?' I thought, scratching my head at the strange encounter. Great job Emrys, first time impression on a probable important senior for one of the best academies in the world. Just my luck.

"Hey! What you doing? Ceremony prep is already started," Kai's voice pulled me out of my unintentional staring at the figure walking away from sight. I guess somewhere along the way we had separated.

Kai comes up to me and looks down the hallway confused. "You good? I thought we were headed to the gym," He said. "Yeah. Let's go," I replied to him.

We headed in the direction of the gym, not knowing that there was a pair of eyes looking at our backs through a school camera, as we walked away.