1 Mutation (1)

"JASON! DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE, BOY!"

Bang, Jason smacked his head off the floor as he tumbled out of bed. 'God damn it, old man! You could have given me a heart attack!' Jason grumbled as he struggled to get his bearings. The thin blanket that served to keep him warm at night was tangled around his legs, agitating him as he tried to get loose.

"JASON!"

"I heard you, gramps! I'll be down in a minute!" Jason called back to the elderly voice. 'Anyone would think he's deaf with the way he's always shouting!'

Jason let out a sigh as his struggles caused a new tear in his blanket. 'Great! Fucking fantastic! One more thing I have to fix around here!' He tossed the brown rag back on his creaky bed as he stood up to stretch out the pains in his muscles. Not that he had much of them anyway. Dust fell on his head from the crack in his bedroom ceiling as his upstairs neighbour moved about.

"Oh, fuck. Here it comes!" Jason groaned.

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A scruffy girl appeared out of thin air right next to him. A huge grin was spread across her face as she stared at Jason in his baggy brown cargo pants and faded white vest.

"Ah, no luck again today, I see." She nodded her head as she took in the sight of Jason standing there.

"Dani, you've really got to stop doing this! I'm already in trouble with gramps! What do you think he'll say if he finds out there's a girl in my room?" Jason threw his arms in the air as he attempted to make his point for the seventeenth time.

That is right. Every day, for the past seventeen days, Dani had chosen to teleport into his bedroom first thing in the morning. This was the reason he had taken to wearing clothes to bed. The trauma of that first day was still too much for him to bear.

"I'll stop when you can make me stop." Dani grinned wolfishly at him, flicking her matted chest long blonde hair over her shoulder as she did so.

"Ugh. You think you're all-powerful just because you're a few days older than me!" Jason complained as he lobbed the first thing that came to hand at her.

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The screwdriver he just tossed embedded itself in the old wooden door frame as Dani reappeared at his side and leaned on his shoulder. "Don't worry. You'll be an adult one day."

"Just you wait until tomorrow! I bet I'll awaken with an even more incredible power than yours!" Jason replied with some resentment in his tone at being treated like he was a kid. He knew his best friend was just teasing him, but it still stung. She was like this every year. For the seventeen days that separated their birthdays, she would always find a way to wind him up.

However, this year it was worse than ever before. That's because, at the age of sixteen, you would develop a power. If your genes held the potential to do so anyway. There was one thing that every teenager feared. That was being deemed a normie for their entire lives!

Jason was anxious because this unfortunate fate could happen to him if he does not develop a power of his own soon. Or, if he only acquired a useless one. Then he would never be able to leave Highrise. Every kid had heard about the world outside of the rusted metal and nailed together wooden walls. If you lived on one of the upper floors of the buildings that made up the town of Highrise, then you would even be able to see it from your window!

Jason and Dani's families were nothing, however. They did not earn much from their daily jobs. Jason's grandfather worked as a scavenger, just like his own father. It seemed to run in their blood. He spent every day searching the area in the vicinity of the town for anything even remotely useful. Half of the time, he came back with stuff labelled as junk.

That was the problem with being a scavenger. Not many people knew what uses a lot of the stuff from the Old World actually had. Such people like his gramps had to pick up whatever they thought looked valuable at a glance. Jason had a forlorn look on his face as he remembered his parents. Both of them had been normies and scavengers to boot.

They died a few years ago when they took the risk of searching for treasure further out from the town. When they had been missing for longer than they should have been, Jason's grandfather had gone out looking for them. Unfortunately, after a long and arduous search, he only returned with two mauled and half-eaten corpses. Ever since then, Jason had been raised by the old geezer.

Dani saw Jason's struggle to hold back the tears in his eyes. "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure you'll get an awesome power!"

Her soothing voice as she wrapped her arms around his small waist helped him to overcome his emotional state. Dani knew everything about him. She understood how important it was for him to become powerful. It would give him the means to do more than just survive in this shitty world. He wanted to provide a comfortable life for his gramps, who was the only family he had left. But, his ambition went beyond that. He wanted to see the world outside of these walls!

"Yeah, I hope so," Jason replied as his gaze turned to look outside his window. Or rather, the hole in his wall.

The building across from theirs was bustling with activity as people quickly got ready to head out to their jobs. A breeze entered his room as someone flew past at high speed. 'Flying. Now that would be a cool power.' Jason did not even mind if his power turned out to be nothing flashy. As long as it gave him the freedom he yearned for.

"Right!" Dani slipped free from their embrace and stared into his eyes with a serious expression. "You better get downstairs before the old man kills you."

An awkward silence descended between them. 'What the fuck! Were you just delaying me to get me into more trouble!' Just as he was about to give her a piece of his mind…

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She was gone. 'That witch! I'll get her back one day! I swear! See how she likes it when someone just appears out of thin air to ruin her day!' Jason grumbled as he stomped around the room while he began preparing for the day ahead. He slid his bare feet into the old, black military boots that were a size too big for him. He was meticulous in folding the ends in on themselves, wrapping them around rubber bands to hold them in place over his boots.

He swung his arms into his bomber jacket, which was more patches than the original material. The fleeced interior and collar gave him a feeling of warmth. The jacket used to belong to his dad, so it was an essential item to him.

"JASON! COME ON! WE'RE BURNING DAYLIGHT!"

"I SAID I'M COMING!" Jason roared in response.

He quickly rummaged through the junk that he had personally collected, looking for his tool belt. 'There you are!' He thought as he shoved aside a few half-ruined teddy bears and pieces of electronics. 'Come on, its time for work!'

He slid the belt around his waist as he headed for the door, not forgetting to remove his screwdriver from the frame on his way. Sliding it into its holder on his belt, he grabbed his goggles, fingerless grey woollen gloves and his gas mask from the desk.

He pulled open his bedroom door, only for the rusted hinges to finally give way. He quickly leapt out of the course of the falling door as it slammed down on the floor. 'That's the third time this month.' Jason shook his head at the sorry sight. 'I'll need to see if I can pick up a couple of hinges that are in better condition this time.'

He ran out of his room and took the stairs two at a time, leaping over the hole from where three of them had collapsed years ago. As he reached the bottom, a stinging pain crossed his cheek, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood as he waited for the shock to pass.

His grandfather's monkey-like tail hung in the air in front of his eyes. The old man standing behind it was short and stout with muscle. His grey facial hair had been styled into mutton chops.

"Took you long enough!" The man gruffly snorted at his grandson. His thick arms were crossed in front of his chest. "I'm docking ten per cent of your pay for wasting my time!"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead. I bet we won't even make anything today either!" Jason angrily replied.

"And who's fault is that! You dropped half the loot when you spotted that Banka! The only thing you kept ahold of was that useless piece of junk!" His grandfather replied while pointing to an old car battery.

Jason rubbed his cheek as he looked at the item, still sitting on the rickety kitchen table. Neither of them had been able to work out what it could be used for when they returned home last night. If they could not find a use for it, they could not sell it to any junk stores.

Jason's grandfather whipped his tail through the air, gripping the handle of the front door and opening it to let the noise from outside fill the room. "Ah! Never mind! Let's go!"

"Where are we headed?" Jason asked with a curious tone as he slid his gloves and goggles on. He had no desire to meet with that Banka again.

"Hm, well. I thought we could check out those big buildings across the river. " The old man replied, referencing an area that used to house industrial factories. "With any luck, we might find something good."

Jason sighed as he noted the glint in his gramps's eye. 'It's always the same with this old coot…