Playing Super Hero, A Gifted and Talented Anthology

Origins (The prologue)

Odds fiddled with her pencil. One thing she did not like about her new school was the teachers' infatuation with the essay. They adored the stupid thing. Her history teachers in particular seemed to think they were the best way to torture their students. This assignment was for the new history teacher who taught once a week. It was fascinating to learn about the events that created the world she lived in now, but did she have to write about it?

She pulled out her Quickpad handheld device and copied the assignment: "Please give a history of the gifted and talented that explains how the first responder units were formed and explain how they operate today."

Odds groaned and added her name, Juniper Hansen, and the date to the top of the page. As an afterthought, under her name she added her nickname, Odds. She grinned. Many of the teachers were boring stuffed shirts who insisted on addressing each child by their birth name, but Mr. Jacobsen didn't mind using the nicknames that were so popular at the school.

Juniper fidgeted while trying to determine where to begin. As far as she was concerned it all started over a hundred years ago when the wonder drug was introduced. It was a drug that prevented birth defects and it was amazing. Some people touted it as the first "smart drug". Babies that, as embryos, were Siamese twins were born whole and healthy. Drug and alcohol babies showed no ill effects. The drug soon astonished the world to the point that after only a few years of being on the market, it was used as a preventative and was administered to all expectant mothers, regardless of what level of risk the pregnancy was in. It worked well for generations. Birth defects were nearly nonexistent, and for nearly a century it worked as expected.

It was quite a surprise to the doctors when the first child was born "different". The first documented child was a telekinetic, and Odds grinned as she imagined the reaction of the doctors to items flying through the room and a baby, unused to being held, floating in the air. Other children manifested abilities as well, and soon afterward a sprinkling of children throughout the country were showing unusual abilities. Other countries also started having children with abilities appear.

Odds remembered how much history teachers liked dates. After checking her notes she was prepared to write. "The gifted and talented started in the year 2020 when a drug was introduced that stopped birth defects. For a hundred years the drug did what it was supposed to. Then it started to work better than it should. That is when the first gifted and talented child was born in2124. Shortly after that more gifted and talented were born, changing the world."

Odds realized that the teacher had said she needed to explain everything as if talking with someone who had never heard of the subject before. She then added, "The gifted and talented is the name society has given to children with abilities. As more children were born gifted and talents, they eventually figured out that it was caused by the birth defect drug and made people stop using it."

She started to review her notes. Even after the child defect drug was banned in 2131, gifted and talented children were on the rise. Every school seemed to have a handful or two. While many children who had abilities were responsible, some took advantage of those abilities and used them to get their own way. Media started calling these child criminals rogues, and society accepted the name. With rogues causing havoc increasing, it wasn't surprising that some children formed groups to stop them. This seemed to be great fun at first.

Tragedy struck in the form of the death of one of these child vigilantes. The media had a field day and many of the child teams disbanded as a result. Those teams that continued tended to do it in secret, fearing the reactions from parents and authorities, but unwilling to do nothing.

Things changed when one of the groups was discovered by a retired police officer. The officer had a different perspective on the situation than other adults. He realized the best people to handle the rogues were other children with abilities. He also realized they were still children with the experience level, judgment, and maturity of children. He determined that with guidance the ragtag bunch could be an effective force for training rogues with training and guidance. He required certain things. The first was honesty. Each of the children had to have their parents' approval. The second was obedience. Each child had to obey him for their own safety and the safety of their team. The third was training. He drilled the team until they knew their abilities and those of their team seamlessly.