Morgan Langley

<p>Beep…Beep…Beep…Be-<br/>Smash! A fist slammed into the top of the alarm clock. The clenched knuckles belonged to a seventeen-year-old boy with blond hair and blue eyes lying in the messy bed beside the nightstand. Though the youth had accidentally used all his strength to strike the annoyance, only a few thin cracks had appeared on the screen, occasionally making the numbers glitch.<br/>"…Damnit, it's too early for this… I broke another one." The teenager massaged his temples while groggily lamenting the loss of his third digital timepiece.<br/>The boy slowly sat up from his bed and began his morning routine. He changed from pajamas into a pair of khaki pants and a white sweatshirt. The seventeen-year-old sauntered toward the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair when the door leading to the rest of the house was slammed open by a girl who looked about six years old with similar-looking golden yellow hair.<br/>"Morgan!" the little girl shouted toward the teenager.<br/>"What is it, Charlotte?" Morgan responded while walking around his room with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.<br/>"Are you excited for the bestowment ceremony later?" The little girl giggled in her response, seemingly giddy over their family's plans for the day.<br/>"Not exactly… In fact, I'm quite stressed, but I'm glad you came to check up on me." Morgan answered with a half smile.<br/>***<br/>Nearly two hundred years ago, the world faced an apocalyptic event. In every continent, a few rifts opened, leading to an earth with ancient animals, mythological creatures, and fabled locations that were thought only to be from children's bedtime stories.<br/>The creatures flooded the areas plagued by the rift's presence leading to the fall of many large cities. Paris, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, and London, to name a few, were overrun by the strong beasts, leading to a global emergency. Every country's government immediately began gathering its military and reserves to rescue the victims of the takeover while also reclaiming the infested lands.<br/>In most of the heartwarming superhero stories Morgan has read, miracles happen only in the direst of circumstances. The disaster two hundred years ago was no exception to strange cliche. When fear began to take hold of everyone's emotions, riots started, neighbors were killing each other, and the government could do absolutely nothing. Morgan had heard the situation compared to a movie made before doomsday, where all crime became legal for an allotted time.<br/>When all hope was lost, about twenty-five percent of Earth's population heard a multitude of voices. Some listened to a mature woman's beautiful, soothing voice, and some were forced to listen to something akin to the ramblings of an older man, while others heard the cries and complaints of a child. If one heard any of these voices, they attained special powers, and if someone heard the same voice as you, they would gain the same ability.<br/>Humanity later discovered that these voices belonged to deities and other figures belonging to ancient and mythological epics. It was relatively easy to find the origin of the speakers because once they speak, the recipient subconsciously becomes aware of their deity's moniker. Of course, some of the gods' epithets are abstract, making it difficult to pinpoint their origins completely. It was also later determined that the higher existences chose their so-called apostles based on their similitude.<br/>The closer their appearance, character, attitude, personality, and attributes are to their sponsor, the higher the comprehension an apostle will have toward their powers. In other words, the more you are like your sponsor, the more powerful you become until you develop abilities yourself.<br/> Those chosen by a higher being will sometimes have body mutations to resemble their patron more. For example, around one hundred years ago, there was a Chinese man supported by Sun Wukong. When he first heard the monkey's voice, he grew a tail to better accommodate the warrior's fighting style.<br/>After the higher existences bestowed their powers to the mortals, humanity could combat the monster's takeover of significant global landmarks. In the last two hundred years, the spots of the outbreak had become even more prosperous because they were rebuilt with state-of-the-art technology and the new materials found in the mirror world. Earth was even able to expand into the dimensional rifts setting up small cities and military outposts.<br/>However, only ability wielders and military men were permitted to live there due to the dangers the neo-planet offered. Even today, only about twenty-five percent of the mirror planet has been discovered. Still, those lands produced rare materials and could become new landholdings of their respective homeland. Every single world government saw this as an excellent opportunity to expand their wealth and influence, pushing for them to create and strengthen new apostles.<br/>Those unable to gain a god's favor were given mundane and low-paying jobs, while apostles were painted as the nation's most honorable men and women. The rush resulted in the creation of the bestowment ceremony.<br/>The bestowment ceremony is a quadrennial event in which teenagers between fifteen to twenty years of age attempt to attune themself to one of the many existing supreme beings. Of course, only a third of the children are capable of making a connection with a daemon or god. Of the many inventions created with the new materials found in the rift world, the one used during the bestowment ceremony is the link orb. Apostles can use the link orb after cementing a bond to seek help, advice, or training from their connected mythical being in rare cases.<br/>Churches and temples are transformed into testing centers for the rite of passage. On the day of testing, February twenty-ninth, festivals are held to celebrate the attuned. A family being able to produce an apostle is a great honor, so every family highly anticipates the day their child will walk down the aisle, between the pew chairs, and grasp the link orb. The Langley family is no exception to this excitement.</p>