1 Prologue

The year 2025, in a world where, unbeknownst to most of Earth's population, various forms of supernatural entities exist, such as Angels, Demons and Monsters, along with humans with special powers, known as Meta-Humans.

These Meta-Humans belong to one of two opposing organizations...the first, known as Harmony, aims to peacefully coexist with regular human society and deal with any supernatural threats, such as the various types of Monsters, or the other non-human races known as Demi-Humans, which include Elves, Werewolves and Vampires, among others, while remaining in the shadows and concealing the existence of Meta-Humans and the supernatural.

The second organization, known as Eden, sees normal humans as inferior beings and aims to overthrow regular society, in order to establish a world where the super-powered reign supreme. Thus far, they've failed to do so, as Harmony has long been an obstacle to that goal.

Thus, Eden's prerequisite to world conquest was to first eliminate Harmony...but since both sides have long since been evenly matched, they've failed to make much progress in their objective. These two opposing sides have been fighting for many centuries, with both major and minor conflicts scattered throughout history.

And in recent years, as the world entered the era of digital technology, making it harder to act without being noticed, both sides went further into hiding, laying low and biding their time, waiting for the opportunity to turn the tables on the other.

Both sides desire to keep their existences hidden from regular human society, but for vastly different reasons. Harmony because they've witnessed the results of human fear towards the unknown throughout history, such as witch trials and racism. Eden, on the other hand, conceals their existence since world conquest would be a lot harder if the people saw them coming.

The power balance between the two sides had remained relatively even for a long time, and in order to tip the scales in their favor, Harmony began a certain project in the year 2016...the creation of orbs made using pure, natural power, known as Meta-Orbs.

These orbs could grant their users incredible powers, far beyond what could be naturally obtained. The creation of these orbs was completed on the 5th of May, 2025, on an unmarked island off to the south of the coast of Africa, in a hidden Harmony facility...

"It's finally done!" Exclaimed one of the researchers triumphantly, "Nine Meta-Orbs, one of each Skill type! Now, with these, we can finally put an end to the war against Eden!"

"Yes! There were several times where I thought it was going to be impossible, but we actually did it!"

"Man, I wanna celebrate so hard after this, can't believe it's completed, at last! I'm gonna get so wasted!"

The door to the lab then opened, and a man stepped in. He was currently among the strongest Meta-Humans in existence, one of Harmony's best. As for why he was on the island, it was in order to protect and bodyguard the researchers.

His name was Neo Cronje, twenty-five years old. He had long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, a small mole under his left eye, dark green eyes with a slight lazy look in them, a bit of stubble on his sideburns and chin, and lightly tanned skin.

He wore a dark purple and black coat then went down past his knees from behind and was open in the front, with no undershirt. He had on black fingerless gloves with steel knuckles, black trousers and wore dark brown sandals on his feet.

"Hey, fellas, I'm hoping all the commotion in here is good news?" He inquired with a stifled yawn, rubbing his left eye drowsily.

"Yes, sir, we've completed the task at long last!"

"Oh, for real? That's great news, good work, all of you," He remarked with a nod and slight smile, "This definitely calls for celebration, I'll be treating you all to-...," He abruptly trailed off as a loud blaring echoed out, the lights turning red, his eyes widening in surprise before calming himself and stating grimly, "Not good...the alarm is going off, which means...we've been infiltrated."

"Impossible! Barely even twenty people are supposed to know about the existence of this island!" Exclaimed one of the researchers in a panic.

Neo took out his walkie-talkie urgently and contacted the guards...

"What's happening out there?"

"It's Eden! They're in the facility, I repeat, they're in the facility!" Came the alarmed reply, as the sound of gunshots rang out.

"Calm down and speak clearly...how many are we dealing with here?" Inquired Neo with a grimace.

"At least twenty...maybe more...I-...!" He began to reply, before the feed abruptly cut off.

"O-oh no, what do we do!?" Exclaimed one of the researchers, as fear began to set in amongst them.

"Calm down, this is why I'm here, I'll get you guys and the Meta-Orbs to safety. Hurry up, we don't have any time to waste," Remarked Neo authoritatively, before using his powers and opening a portal, "Go through, I'll transport each of the Meta-Orbs to a different hidden base."

After the researchers went through the portal, he walked over to the orbs and opened nine small portals, tossing each of the orbs through them, using a cloth to make sure not to touch them with direct skin contact.

"Alright, now to calibrate the drop off points-...," He began, before his powers were suddenly cut off and he exclaimed in alarm as his eyes widened, "Oh, no...damn it, no, no, no! Shit, they all just got dropped in random locations all over the world, this is bad..."

The door then swing open with a loud crash, and a teenage-looking girl with purple-dyed hair tied in twintails, purple eyes and pale skin walked in. She wore a black tank top and dark blue jeans, with a band around her neck, and had several scars all over her arms, shoulders and chest.

"Oh, you're here, you asshole...what a nuisance," She sighed in exasperation, before a bloodthirsty smirk spread out on her lips, "Heh, but I've already activated my power, you can't use any of those annoying tricks of yours. This time...this time, I'll finally kill you!"

"You're still alive, huh, Fake? That Aberration Skill of yours is as inconvenient as ever, I see," He replied with a frown, acting calm in order to hide his panic over the Meta-Orbs being randomly scattered throughout the world.

"Tch, don't call me that, you bastard! I have a name, it's X!" She snapped, drawing out a hidden dagger from her belt.

Meta-Humans usually develop their powers naturally, and all the bloodlines that do are a part of either side, Eden or Harmony, it's been that way right throughout history. But she was a rare exception to that rule. X was an Eden test subject of unknown origin, a normal human who was experimented on.

The result of the torturous experimentation she went through was the ability to nullify the powers of other Meta-Humans within a fifty meter radius. Due to the severity of the experiments, she lost most of her past memories, including what her real name was, so she chose to go by the designation 'X'.

"Yeah, not gonna call you that, Fake," Responsed Neo, attempting to provoke her.

"Fuck you, asshole! Everyone in this facility is about to be dead, pretty soon you're gonna be outnumbered, but before that, I'll-!" She began to declare.

Before she could finish her sentence, Neo interrupted her by swiftly tossing a tear gas grenade in her direction. It exploded upon impact as it landed in front of her feet, she let out a scream of pain and stumbled back, clutching her eyes. Her nullification ability then ceased for a brief moment, Neo swiftly used the opportunity to open a portal and jump through.

"You fucking piece of shit coward, get back here! Get back here or I'll-!"

.

.

.

.

.

Neo let out a strained sigh as he emerged on a beach, flopping down on the sand with a worn out grimace.

"That was too close...I'm lucky that I kept some weapons on hand, way to go, me. But this is bad, really bad...," He muttered to himself, continuing, "First off, my power got cut off so abruptly that I have no idea where any of the nine Meta-Orbs ended up. And second...the fact that we were found could only mean that...we have a traitor among us...or should I say amogus? No, that's a dead meme..."

He then stood up and slapped the sides of his face with a huff.

"I suppose I oughta report this to the higher ups, no sense in panicking over what can't be changed. We need to figure out a way to recover the Meta-Orbs as soon as possible...we were supposed to use them to give nine of us more powerful Skills...but if a normal person finds and touches an orb, they'll gain its power...this is bad. Really, really bad...damn it, I'm saying the word 'bad' so much that it's starting to lose its meaning," He mumbled anxiously as he paced around the beach.

The Meta-Orbs respond to direct physical contact, and if touched with exposed skin, they person who made contact with it will gain the power of the orb they touched. The nine Meta-Orbs had all been randomly scattered across various parts of the world, and inevitably, it was only a matter of time before they would be discovered.

The powers displayed by Meta-Humans are called Skills, of which there are nine primary types...Pyro, Aqua, Aero, Terra, Electro, Dark, Light, Space and Physical, along with a rare tenth type called the Aberration Skill, which classifies abilities that don't fall under any of the nine primary types. X's nullification ability is an Aberration Skill. Additionally, attacks that combine two or more separate Skills are simply known as Combo Skills.

A Meta-Human can, at most, possess five Skill types. However, those who develop a Aberration Skill, which is a Skill that doesn't fit into any of the other nine types, will not develop any other Skill types...not naturally, anyway. Aberration Skills are powerful, but extremely rare, the only such known case currently in existence is X, with her nullification ability.

Once a Meta-Human manifests their Skill or Skills, more often than not, they develop their own fighting style and way of using said Skills...for instance, two Meta-Humans with equally powerful Water Skills are still likely to have completely different fighting styles to each other.

There is no textbook method on how to train using Skills, it varies depending on the individual and is a task that is usually done through repetition, trial and error. Every Meta-Human is born with a limited capacity and maximum output of the energy used to power Skills, known as Aura.

The nine Meta-Orbs each contain heavily concentrated energy of one of the nine main Skill types, meaning that those who touch the orbs will gain the corresponding Skill type, and in much stronger amounts than what Meta-Humans would naturally manifest. For normal humans to suddenly gain such immense power could potentially be disastrous...

...

Neo then arrived at the headquarters of Harmony, before rushing to talk to the higher-ups of the organization, in order to report what had happened on the island facility.

"Hm, this is quite dire...," Remarked one of the higher-ups with a frown, following Neo's explanation.

"Indeed, this is a really problematic situation."

"Yeah, that goes without saying. There are two primary matters of concern...," Replied Neo grimly, before continuing, "First, how do we locate and retrieve the Meta-Orbs? And second, how did Eden find out about what we were doing?"

"Hm, regarding how to find the orbs...I think that's impossible. We have no way of detecting the orbs, they do not give off any detectable energy signatures, after all. We had them made that way to prevent Eden from detecting them. Simply searching for them blindly will be completely pointless."

"That won't do, we cannot afford for those orbs to remain lost! If anyone were to happen across them...," Spoke up another of the higher ups with a frown.

"This is definitely a worst case scenario...and regarding Eden, the fact that they breached the island is extremely troubling...it could mean that we have a traitor in our midst, spying on us for Eden."

"That's what I think too. Both locating the orbs and this matter are equally compelling priorities, but we have no leads on either. Well, except that only a select few of us knew about the Meta-Orb Project...but then again, someone outside of that list might have been eavesdropping, in which case we'll only end up pointlessly suspecting each other, and that could be exactly what Eden is after," Frowned Neo, scratching his head.

"Good point...damn it, this situation really couldn't be worse."

"Regarding locating the Meta-Orbs, it isn't impossible...we need to pay close attention to social media and news reports, for sightings of people with super powers."

"What are you saying...do you mean we're gonna let normal humans come into contact with the Meta-Orbs and then recruit them or something!? Based on the reports from the research team, once someone absorbs the power of a Meta-Orb, it can't be transferred to anyone else, and the power disappears if the person dies, isn't that right!? We can't let normal humans gain that much power!" Protested another of the higher ups.

"But there's no way to prevent that from happening, so we just have to let it happen. We have no choice but to accept that fact that we'll be stuck with whoever comes into contact with the orbs first," Surmised Neo, before adding, "But if Eden gets their hands on someone who comes across a Meta-Orb and we don't, they'll have an advantage over us. So we don't really have a choice in the matter, we'll have to focus on capturing as many of those that come into contact with the orbs."

"With the exception of Eden's lab rat, X, all Meta-Humans throughout history till this date have been from certain clans who are all affiliated with either us or Eden, and they were all naturally born with powers. There are no unaffiliated Meta-Humans, not that we're aware of, anyway. And normal humans have never-!" Another of the higher ups began to protest.

"It's as Neo said, we don't really have much of a choice, do we?" One of the others interrupted and pointed out, before inquiring, "Now, then, Neo...you have no idea where the Meta-Orbs landed, correct?"

"Well, yeah, that's true, my power was cut off too abruptly...," Trailed off Neo with a grimace.

"Hm...alright, then, since it's technically your fault that the orbs are scattered the way they are, you should be the one to find them!" Remarked one of the higher ups that had protested the recruitment of the potential artificial Meta-Humans.

"Huh? H-hold on a sec-...," Began Neo in alarm, before he was cut off as most of the others voiced their agreement, though some added that they'll have to assign others to this task too, to minimize the possibility of Eden capturing any of those that come into contact with the Meta-Orbs.

However, in the end, they all agreed that Neo would be in charge of the assignment, without really giving him a say in it. And just like that, it was decided...

"Then, it's settled...Neo Cronje, you'll be in charge of finding those that absorb the power of the Meta-Orbs, and you will also be responsible for training and teaching them how to use their powers. Is that understood?"

"B-but, I-...wait, what?" Responded Neo incredulously, his eyes slowly widening in dismay and horror...

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