1 The Delinquent

Earth-420; an Earth which shared the most similarities to our Earth in this multiverse. However, it did have its fair share of dissimilarities as well. In those, the one thing that pops out is the existence of super powered humans.

It wasn't always that way though. It all started many years ago on December 25th. A kid born on that day started throwing fireballs left and right the moment it was born. People labelled that news as a Christmas miracle.

Soon, this event started occurring all over the world. Kids with unique abilities started sprouting from left and right. People got shell shocked by this development. However, when such a large scale event happened in quick succession, scientists from all over the world gathered together and held a conference, where they concluded that the said event is a new form of mutation in human beings that gives them said power.

People pleased with this hypothesis started calling this new generation as mutants. However, soon enough, it wasn't just the kids who grew these abilities. Several adult humans started gaining their own share of abilities as well. And at that time, the scientist held another conference in which they came into a conclusion that those humans who gained their abilities in adulthood are late bloomers, whose mutations took time to develop.

Yet again, people were pleased with this explanation, so the world went with it. However, things started changing again when people started gaining inhumane abilities. Like, people before had power of elements and stuff. But now, when a certain person had an ability to create ready made products like television and computers, people had no choice but to turn to the scientists for their explanation.

This time, the scientists were truly stumped. The third conference of scientific minds were adjourned without a clear explanation, unlike the last two ones. When more and more people started developing such unique traits and the scientists were asked about this phenomenon, they had no answer to give. Instead they gave out random explanations and pitted them all as mutants.

However, people just weren't satisfied with this answer and they didn't like how these scientists named them as mutants. Somehow, it seemed weird to name them that, so the people called themselves as awakened, because it seemed cool.

So, the number of awakened people grew in number and in the end,almost seventy percent of the population were awakened. So, with the increasing number of awakened people, rose the mutant control initiative (MCI), an awakened controlling governmental body which garnered people's hatred because of the way it was named. Anyhow, with all that, new job opportunities and possibilities arrived for mankind. And people gradually forgot the phenomenon's origin as a Christmas miracle… well, almost everyone.

Jimmy Higgins; born as the lone child of the Higgins household. His parents were minor awakened people with elemental abilities. Ever since childhood, little Jimmy was mesmerized by those who were awakened. And he for one always wanted to have a cool superpower. However, he wasn't born with one. When he voiced his concern to his mom, she told him that Santa's the one giving out these powers to good kids. So, if he wanted to get these powers, he had to be a nice chap.

Little Jimmy believed that would be the case and every time Christmas came around, he wrote a letter to Santa saying that he wanted a cool superpower. And every year, he ended up with nothing. However, he didn't give up on his hope. Every year, when Christmas swung by, he diligently did his part, yet ended up with nothing, while his peers ended up gaining awakened abilities.

Finally, when Jimmy noticed that it isn't just the good guys who received these powers, he realized that it isn't a Christmas miracle after all. If it was, wars and terrorism and the misuse of these powers wouldn't have happened. This was a turning point in Jimmy's life, since he decided that it was time to go against the norms that he had set previously. Since he was not gonna gain abilities anyway, Jimmy gave into the dark side. Well, he started being a delinquent at least.

However, even being a delinquent was difficult for a guy like Jimmy. Since every single one in the delinquent gang were awakened people, he stuck out like a thorn. In the end, he ended up in the bottom of the hierarchy; he ended up being an errand boy to those above him.

While his peers of the bottom brass harassed their classmates to get their momentary relief, Jimmy couldn't even pick on them because they were all awakened people and ended up harassing him instead.

This changed when a kid named Piers Hendrickson enrolled into his class. Similar to him, Piers was also a non-awakened human. And Jimmy found his first and only prey in the class to pick on. He harassed him on every off chance he got and he found great enjoyment in doing so. While Piers' new friends tried stopping him from doing so, he just called in his delinquent gang members, so they ended up getting harassed instead. Hence, they never interfered in Jimmy's path anymore.

And if we're talking about Piers, he felt genuinely sorry for Jimmy because he was the butt of the jokes in their class. Piers understood why Jimmy acted the way he did and let him do his way. He learned about Jimmy's past behavior and about how he was the harassed one when he was the good guy and sincerely hoped that he would turn back to his usual self someday. While Jimmy knew how Piers thought of him, he genuinely didn't care as he could pile up all his frustrations on him.

Then Christmas came by. Piers started acting all too nice around Jimmy since he heard that it was Jimmy's favorite holiday. However, he didn't know that Jimmy hated it these days. So, once he ended up talking too much about how glorious Christmas was, all the pent up frustration in Jimmy's mind boiled down into pure rage and he pounded Piers' face like mashed potato. Normally, it would only end up in a wedgie or something. But for the first time, he raised his hand on his fellow classmate.

This deed didn't go under the radar, as his classmates reported on him and his parents were called. They apologized so hard that the principal, who was considering his dismissal, ended up suspending him for a month or so.

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Back in Higgins household. Jimmy was circled by his furious parents. "What the hell is wrong with you? How could you raise your fist against a kid like that?" Jimmy's mother, Martha Higgins asked.

"Why do you even care, bitch?" Jimmy scoffed.

Jimmy's father, Jamie Higgins, did not condone such kind of language and gave out a tight slap on his right cheek. "How dare you call your mother a bitch? Is this what we taught you, huh?" Jamie raised his hand to give out another slap, when Martha stopped him.

"Jamie, don't!" She pulled back his hand and sat across Jimmie. "What happened to you, Jimmy? You used to be good! You used to be better than those delinquent kids. Then how did you end up like this? Is this our fault? Did we do something wrong? Tell me." She asked.

Jimmy sighed. "What if it was, huh? What will you do? Die? Fuck off!" Jimmy screamed.

"Okay, that's it, you're done! I don't wanna see you anymore. You're not even our son anymore. Just get the hell out of here." Jamie grabbed his son by the collar and dragged him out of their house and closed the door on him even while Martha protested.

"Sure! Fuck off! I don't wanna see you too either. I'mma get as far away from you two shitheads." Jimmy dusted off the snow and got up. He slowly walked away from his home. With each step he took, he realized how much of a mistake he made. "Damn, why did I talk like some edgy teenager? Well, I guess I am one. Shit. I just shouldn't have done what I did. I was kind of like an asshole. However, I'm just not gonna go back and apologize, as it would hurt my personal pride." For some reason, he was too prideful to give out a simple apology to his parents. And this pride led him forwards.

However, he had to crash somewhere that night! So, he called upon his delinquent gang. However, none of them were available. Some were busy with their girlfriends, while others were having a nice family dinner with their parents. Neither of those groups wanted to take in Jimmy on such a joyous occasion. Therefore, he ended up on the streets.

"Fucking hell! No money and no place to crash on! Thrown out of my house, that too on a Christmas night. Oh, the irony! It's as if I'm being punished for every single bad shit I've done throughout these years. I've been a really bad guy, eh? Somehow, it kinda hurts… It really hurts…" Jimmy cried in the corner of a street as the snow fell into him.

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