Besieged (Book One): Rise of the Misfit

Ravenwood met an unprecedented change 2 years ago. Grey clouds, churning like that of a thunderstorm, suddenly filled every inch of the sky above the city. Everyone in the city was stunned to see this, as there weren’t any prior signs of a storm, but soon noticed that some people started to feel drowsy, and later drifted to sleep fell. The rest who were awake went into panic mode because no matter how hard they tried, they simply couldn’t do anything to wake those who were asleep. The clouds hovered in the sky for 4 hours and after, disappeared the same way they appeared. However, the real change came when afterward, the people who had passed out started to awaken to abilities. Under further study of this phenomenon, it was discovered that these people had their DNA’s altered granting them numerous abilities.

The incident heralded the dawn of a new era for Ravenwood. However, though some people had these new abilities, a slightly bigger number of them didn’t. Now, the city had to adjust to people and the super-powered people living together. Predictively, the rate of crime and clashes sky-rocketed during this period, and soon enough, it became a war between the regular people and these super-powered people, plunging the city into infernal chaos.

After months of deliberation, the authorities sought to control the situation by passing a directive to establish Ravenwood as a containment zone for these humans with abilities to further study this phenomenon. But before they could give the directive, a colossal organization, called Centurion appeared and appealed to oversee the affairs of these humans with abilities. However, the specifics of the discussion between this organization and the authorities remained unknown till today. Even the press was left in the dark of everything that occurred in Ravenwood, and the few that insisted on finding answers were met with various obstructions, even as some of them went suddenly went silent. The news released was that the authorities perceived Centurion capable of overseeing the affairs of the humans with abilities, thereby granting them full authority. The organization then gave these super-powered humans the code name, Cyph, and to avoid further conflicts, the ordinary people in Ravenwood were relocated to other cities to begin new lives, while Cyphs weren’t allowed to leave Ravenwood without a special permit from the organization and under heavy surveillance from the authorities, and that was if they could leave in the first place. In other words, they were isolated from the rest of the world.

…

11-year-old Gene Finnian was a young boy just like any other in Ravenwood, but the incident two years ago forever changed his life. He was among those granted abilities after the incident two years ago and being the only one in his family acknowledged as a Cyph, he had to remain in Ravenwood while his family was relocated. Since that time, though it could be said that Cyphs were being looked after, it didn’t change the fact that he was alone in Ravenwood.

Finnian had just joined Ravenwood High school this year, automatically joining middle school for the first time. It was a typical experience for every freshman, and one had to remember that the Ravenwood of yesteryear wasn’t the Ravenwood of today. But even at that, it was slightly more distressing for Finnian. The reason was unknown nor did he want to explain that to anyone, but his appearance was a tad more bizarre than usual. But this didn’t apply to his looks; rather, it was more of what he wore. From what anyone could guess, he always wore weights under his clothes and even stuffed some in his shoes. Being the slender young boy he was, this made him appear funny-looking, and his glasses didn’t make things any better, to say the least. He was widely known for this appearance and his signature clumping sounds that sounded out whenever he walked due to the weights in his shoes.

In such a school environment, it was customary for some people to have their opinions of him, but Finnian always tried to pay them no heed. Not long after starting middle school, they embarked on a school trip to the Centurion headquarters here in Ravenwood. This school trip had become a tradition for Ravenwood High to know more about the organization they were under and explore the numerous opportunities of being among the selected few who would be recruited by the organization someday.

Today, the kids made their way through the gargantuan halls of Centurion headquarters, staring blankly like lost sheep. It was possible that the words fit to describe this place were yet to be added to their vocabulary, so they could only ouu and ahh when they saw something fascinating. Finnian tried to avoid being socially awkward today by not making his presence known with his dragging footsteps and ended up behind the group. He wasn’t concerned about this though. At least, it gave him more time to see the detailed structures everywhere in the hall.

The tour guides and the teachers in charge of the school trip were ahead of the group explaining in detail what Centurion was all about; catering for the Cyphs. Finnian, on the other hand, cared less about the explanation and focused on something else.

The Ranking Board!

The Ranking Board was basically as its name served; it contained the different ranks Cyphs fell under. In as much as Ravenwood was now a city of Cyphs, they weren’t all equally strong. Hence, Centurion created a ranking system to gauge their strength.  Finnian drew closer and closer to the ranking board, but to his disappointment, there weren’t any names on it. Nonetheless, this didn’t stop Finnian from looking at the board with so much enthusiasm that his eyes welled up in excitement. If he was strong enough to meet the requirements someday, he could be among the new recruits of the organization! He was so immersed in this feeling that he didn’t notice when someone walked up beside him.

“Too bad there aren’t any names there yet.” He said.

Finnian wasn’t paying attention and so couldn’t perceive when this man walked up beside him. He jerked before calming down a bit. “I guess so,” He didn’t know who this man was, nor did he want to engage in any idle conversation. Hence, his straightforward reply. However, at a second glance, Finnian noticed something odd about him. Besides the trooper’s Centurion badge tied around his arm, one would think he was a beggar from the streets.