"Welcome to this new world, Leon," it announced in his head.
"Your name is still Leon, though here you don't have a family. The story goes that you grew up in an orphanage. Weren't really good for anything. Stole from the supervisors, got expelled from school, made trouble for everybody.
When the Association for Extraordinary People, short AFEP, came by, it was your final chance. They came, tested you, and realized that you could turn invisible for exactly 5 minutes per day. No room for growth. Just 5 minutes of not being seen. Normally AFEP would offer an extraordinary person like you a position, and they did. Janitor. You declined. Saw it as beneath you. They bestowed on you your interface and left you be. Saw no real danger in you being a loose extra.
That's how you slipped through the cracks, so to say. Afterwards the orphanage lost all leftover hope in you and finally threw you out. So that's your starting point. Good luck."
It left. Leon felt it in his marrow. A shiver he didn't realize he was holding back went down his spine. He would never forget its presence, and never again would he take its absence for granted.
"5 minutes of invisibility, huh," Leon thought to himself. "Getting sent to a world with superpowers, and I get 5 minutes of invisibility. Deal with the devil and you get cheated."
Leon looked around. He was in some kind of alleyway, sitting on soaked cardboard with an umbrella with several holes in his right hand. The sun was shining through grey clouds, and Leon guessed it was around 10am. By the looks of it, it had rained a short while ago, with puddles everywhere around him. Glimpsing at his shaky reflection in one of them, Leon saw that he still looked the same, just… thinner. Not malnourished but close to it. Not a shred of evidence of his days of training was left. He did look younger, though. Around when he was 18.
At the end of the alleyway he saw a cat. It was old. It had come there to die in peace, to not be disturbed, so when it noticed him, its mood changed from accepting patience to being annoyed and…
"THE FUCK. HOW DO I KNOW THAT?"
With Leon's loud exclamation, the cat became even more annoyed, aggressive even.
"How do I know how it feels?" Leon thought to himself. "Is it another power? But it said I only had…"
"Hissss…" the cat hissed while arching its back with great difficulty.
"Ok, ok. I'll leave you in peace," Leon distractedly said. He grabbed his backpack with all his belongings from the orphanage and exited the alley, entering a busy street. To his right he saw a bench next to a tree. Making his way over to it, he sat down.
"Ok, calm down. You're in a new world, and this world has superpowers. I have powers myself." Remembering his welcome, he recalled, "People with powers here are called 'extraordinary,' or 'extras,' I think. And there is some kind of organization overseeing them. AFEP, huh. Sounds stupid. Could have at least been something cool."
"Let's take a look in the backpack first." It was an old blue backpack with two zippers, one big and one small. In the big one he found a gray hoodie, one pair of ripped jeans, some socks, a soda, a bag of bread, and some weed. "This Leon had his priorities straight," Leon sarcastically commented on "himself."
In the small pocket he found a switch knife, his ID, and around 500…money?
"Don't even know what the currency is called here."
Thinking back to… AFEP, he recalled, "They go around testing people for powers. Do they randomly test? Is it age-related, like "You're 18; we will test you now," or did they somehow know I was an extra and came to the orphanage because of that? So many questions. They apparently also gave me something called the Interface."
Suddenly a screen appeared in his vision:
#INTERFACE#
~This is the interface. Once extraordinary people lived in chaos. They didn't know their limits. An extraordinary could fly. Didn't know he could fly for only an hour. He fell to death. The founder of the association was an extraordinary. He created the interface. It catalogues the user's ability. Now the Association for Extraordinary People bestows the interface. Only the user can see it. The Extraordinary can always decide to broadcast his information to the Association. This may open job opportunities such as: extraordinary police work. Such as: Extraordinary containment unit. For more examples: ask.
Congratulations, extraordinary you are: Extra.~
"Ok, so basically you are a Jobcenter with extra steps."
~…yes…~
"Understood, understood. Show me my… catalogue?
~ Showing catalogue ~
~Extraordinary name| n/a
~Gender| Male
~Build| Ordinary thin teenager
~Ability| Turn invisible once per day for exactly 5 minutes. No potential for growth.
"Interface?"
~Yes, extraordinary?~
"Are you sure I can only turn invisible?"
~Yes, Extraordinary; every extra has one ability. There has been no recorded case of an Extraordinary with several....~
~ Re-scanning… ~
~Evaluating…~
~New catalogue~
~Extraordinary name| n/a
~Gender| Male
~Build| Ordinary thin teenager
~Ability|-Simple invisibility-|Turn invisible once per day for exactly 5 minutes.
|Potential for growth|- Nonexistent
~Ability|-Sense emotion-|Focus on a living being, sensing its emotions as long as focus is kept.
|Potential for growth|-Unknown
~WARNING=Unknown variables detected. Report to the Association immediately for consultation and advice.~
"Looks like I didn't end up empty-handed after all."