The next morning, we took a cab to Protonet HQ for our first day of training. Cy brought along some papers he had received from his meeting with President Lund and the president of Bionix. Brightly colored renditions of cyborgs filled the pages.

"I'll get to choose the final design," Cy explained, "You know, placement of all the visible wires and ports. Don't want to lose my good looks in exchange for a bunch of implants sticking out of my head."

I nodded absentmindedly, my mind wandering. Lulu would arrive on my day off, two days from now; I'd paid for her flight and hotel stay, which left me with more than enough money to experience New York and pay for whatever expensive things Lulu might feast her eyes on.

Two's the limit, I promised myself. Two expensive things or two-thousand dollars, I couldn't promise myself which.

When we arrived at the gargantuan Protonet skyscraper, a dignified-looking gentleman, with stern eyes and a pout that made him look angry at everyone and everything, escorted us into the building, past a welcome desk and dozens of sharply dressed businessmen and women, to a large glass elevator.

"Ninth floor." The man ordered, and I promptly pressed the button marked 9. I looked down at my feet and nearly jumped in shock. Even the floor was glass! I could see straight down into the abyss of the elevator shaft, a very disconcerting, heart-in-my-throat sight. I closed my eyes, which amplified every movement of the ascent, but it was better than the feeling of floating in thin air.

"Will Mr. Lund be there?" I heard Cy ask eagerly.

"Tomorrow." The man replied shortly. Well, isn't he a proper Mr. Huffy?

"Will we meet the other...participants?" I could tell Cy was trying his absolute hardest not to say superhumans.

"Seven of them have already arrived, including yourselves. The others are running late." His voice carried notes of vexation and storm clouds.

Note to self: Don't be late and don't frustrate Mr. Huffy.

The sound of elevator doors sliding opening reached my ears, and I opened my eyes, stared straight ahead until I was out of the elevator. I hoped there were stairs somewhere.

The ninth floor was one spacious room filled with equipment and a small group of participants. Two muscular men were busying themselves doing complex flips on sets of uneven bars. Two girls sat on a pair of tumbling mats, talking between howls of laughter that made them sound like hyenas. In a corner of the room sat a quiet, petite girl staring at the wall across from her as if nothing else existed.

Maybe she's going to be the invisible girl.

"Feel free to talk among yourselves, try out the training equipment," Mr. Huffy stated, "Training will begin when those other three join you."

With that, he returned to the elevator, the doors slid closed, and he descended and disappeared. I wondered what he would have to say to those other three whenever they arrived.

Cy eyed me and shrugged. "Well, what now? Exercise or talk?"

"Talk...I guess." To be honest, I hadn't exercised since I failed PE back in seventh grade. A month into PE, the coach pulled me aside and said my heart just wasn't in it. He was right. I couldn't care less about jogging in place, not to mention lining up on a court to shoot basketballs over and over again. A week later, I quit. No one missed me. Twelve years later, I was tall and thin, but by no means muscular.

"Catch ya in a bit then." Cy gave my shoulder a friendly jab, then we separated. He headed toward the two men, who had left the bars to stretch; I strolled past the twin hyenas to the quiet girl. She's probably just shy.

"Hi." I greeted.

"Hi." She mimicked, her eyes still fixed on the wall.

I sat down next to her. "My name's Xander. Nice to meet you."

"Brynn."

Curiosity swirled inside me like a million butterflies. "What's your superpower gonna be?"

"Reality warping."

"Reality warp-" I stopped myself. This quiet girl was joking with me. I grinned. "Oh, really now?"

Brynn shifted her gaze to me, but avoided eye contact. "You almost fell for it."

I chuckled; my face burned from embarrassment at my naïveté. "Almost. But really though, you're..."

"Flight."

Oh, so you're not going to be invisible.

"You mean you'll have wings?" I almost felt jealous.

"Yeah."

"Cool deal." She smiled the tiniest smile.

"You?"

"Immortality." The word suddenly sounded strange, unreal.

"Cool." Enthusiasm was lost in her voice, and I wondered what she thought of me living forever.

The conversation ended there because the elevator doors opened once more, and four people walked into the room. A man, middle-aged and bearded, and three women, two young with overjoyous smiles plastered on their faces, the third older with silver-streaked hair pulled back into a short ponytail. I correctly assumed the third to be our trainer.

Brynn and I stood and joined the group gathered around the trainer. I looked around our group, secretly doling out nicknames to the people I hadn't met yet. The two laughing girls were the hyenas. The bearded man, Lumberjack. The smiley girls, Sunshine and Rose. And the two guys from the uneven bars were Flip and Flop.

"Good morning," Her ringing voice greeted us, "Today is the first day of your seven-day preparation to become the first superhumans."

I glanced at Cy, who was already eyeing me with a satisfied smile.

"We will start with mobility today. Nothing difficult: a few stretches, breathing exercises, just simple workouts to loosen you up." She acknowledged one of the guys who had raised his hand, the guy I'd nicknamed Flop. "Yes?"

"I do that stuff every day," Flop crossed his muscular arms over his chest, "I want a challenge."

Flip nodded.

"Well then, your challenge is to follow my instructions and complete the workouts I give to you."

I heard the hyena twins snicker beside me. The director held up her hand for silence.

"Will that challenge suffice?" She asked. Flop gave one nod of his head, a scowl etched across his face. "Good. Now, everyone grab a mat from the rack over there."

From 10am to 5pm, we practiced breathing deeply, did lunges and squats, and stretched. Flip and Flop proved to be a handful, and the trainer, Paizlee, had to stop frequently to sort them out. All of the stretches we did were "too easy" for them. After the fourth correction, Paizlee took them aside and murmured a few words to each of them. After that, she had no more trouble with them for the rest of the day. Curiosity burned inside me, wondering what she had said.

By 5pm, I was ready to head back to my flat and veg out. The ten of us - Paizlee stayed behind to "clean up" - crammed into the elevator. I would have stayed behind to look for a staircase, but Cy dragged me in. I closed my eyes again, imagining the glass floor cracking under our weight. A shudder crept up my spine.

"I can't wait for tomorrow!" A happy voice exclaimed. I opened my eyes to see the owner of the voice. Sunshine. I snapped my eyes shut again.

"I can," Moaned one of the hyenas, "I'm sore all over."

Flip spoke up, his prideful tone wrapped in a light Russian accent. "Well, I'm definitely not. That was easy compared to the workouts I do."

"Sure," snickered Flop, "I can do a hundred push-ups in a row without breaking a sweat."

"No, you can't."

"Yes, I can."

"Prove it."

"I just might."

A whispery voice appeared in my ear, "Nice job today."

I opened my eyes. Brynn stood beside me, her eyes peculiarly fixed on the glass wall ahead of her.

"Thanks. You too." I lied. I'd been too focused on pushing through the thirty second planks and deep breathing to watch anyone else. I suddenly dreaded waking up to my sore muscles the next day.

The elevator door finally opened, and we piled out. The area that had buzzed with people that morning was now silent and nearly empty. I waved goodbye to Brynn as she walked out of the building and hailed a taxi by waving a dollar bill. Cy followed her lead and within seconds, we were in a taxi headed back to our hotel.

*

Back in my hotel flat, I lay sprawled out on the futon, watching a cooking competition on TV. I myself turned out to be a decent chef, having created and devoured a fruit salad for supper. I went heavy on the oranges, hoping the vitamin C would soothe my sore muscles. The jet tub had helped, but I was too drowsy to stay there longer than ten minutes.

I checked my phone before bed. My mom had called, left a message begging me to think about what I was doing. People aren't meant to live forever, she had urged, Every choice you make has a consequence.

I went to bed that night feeling excited and discouraged. On one hand, I was full of fire to be a superhuman and change the world. On the other, I had a family trying to extinguish that fire. Did they want me to be a hopeless nobody? I pushed the thought out of my mind. This was my chance of a lifetime. My future. No one was going to convince me otherwise.