Adrian's walk from home to school was always the same. A simple 5 km walk every day.
Cross the street, greet the neighbors, occasionally cross paths with some of your colleagues who also went on foot and stop to buy an apple at Mrs. Fisher's fruit stand. It was always like this, every day, every week, every month.
But Adrian wasn't complaining about the repetitive and simple walk. In fact, he even liked that he was always like this, without surprises or unforeseen events, because he was always someone very inflexible. He didn't like sudden changes.
Even with the changes in his personality and the new strange world he found, this little trait Adrian had from his old life did not change. They may even call him hard-headed, but he was just a methodical person.
But this time, his walk has undergone an unexpected change.
' Should I buy fish today or tomorrow? Um... better buy today, so I avoid the queue on Tuesdays '
'I'm sure John is cheating on me! He never lets me look at his cell phone! I'm going to clean it up with him today! '
' Sometimes, I wonder if it's still worth living... '
Those strangers resounding in your head, just like it happened to your mother earlier. At first, Adrian thought they were talking or that he was listening too much, but his situation was a little funnier than that.
Telepathy. He was unconsciously reading the minds of the people around him. It was simply amazing.
Despite the initial shock, joy soon took over. Telepathy was one of the most versatile and useful powers of fiction, and now he would no longer have to worry about someone entering his mind and discovering his secrets.
On the one hand, it was simply electrifying and fantastic to have such a power. On the other hand, situations like these that Adrian was facing were a real headache.
During his journey, he did some tests with his new power. Activating and deactivating periodically, increasing and decreasing the range, getting deeper and deeper into people's minds, things like that. Overall, even though it was his first attempt, he proved to be very competent.
Now, he just decided to leave the power activated during his head, trying to get used to having more voices besides his in his head. And maybe discover some interesting secret about one of the inhabitants of Jump City.
After a few more minutes, he arrived at his destination, Jump City. Looking at his watch, he saw the hands marking 7:40, and the school only opened at 8. As always, he had arrived 20 minutes early.
Next to him, there were a few more children sitting on the gate stairs or scattered on the sidewalk, just waiting for the time to enter. Nothing new or unusual for him.
Adrian then sat on the stairs and continued using his telepathy to enter and search the minds of children and adults around, continuing his tests with his powers.
While "training" Adrian also began to think about some important things about himself, leaving his power on the automatic so that he could focus on other things. You could say that he had a very divided mind.
Returning to the subject, Adrian began to think about what he would do with his skills, or rather, he began to think about what he could do as soon as things began to move in the direction of an unprecedented catastrophe.
He knew where he was, he knew the dangers he would have to face, he knew the threats that would shake the earth and he knew that sooner or later, like it or not, he would end up in the middle of these events either as an active figure or as a victim.
Before gaining his powers he lived constantly in fear that some villain or giant monster would appear and he would end up dying again. When he discovered that he had powers, this fear decreased but did not disappear. Now with telepathy, he wondered what other skills he had and if they would be useful for his survival.
Not despising his current powers, but he didn't even know his limits and still had doubts if he could face the heavyweights of the universe, even if his powers continued to grow over time, he was still no Superman.
Another thing is that Adrian never had a fixed goal in that universe. How could he? He died suddenly in his world and ended up in another without warning, without explanation or any advice on what awaited him. In short, it was as if he had slept and woken up in the middle of China from one day to the next.
All he had were his powers, his memories and his knowledge about DC, which were limited to the old comics and movies he saw. And of course, knowing about a character doesn't mean being able to defeat that character.
He wasn't in the mood to be a hero, but he knew he would get involved with them willingly or not in the future. He didn't want to get close to the villains, but he knew that some of them shouldn't be treated as if they were normal people. And if he tried to stay in the gray zone if he was discovered, he would only end up drawing more attention to himself.
And Adrian also had his mother to worry about. She was a normal woman, a normal human fragile and weak. She had no powers like him, she had no way to defend herself against the dangers that would come soon. And Adrian couldn't abandon her in the midst of chaos.
She was his mother, the woman who took care of him, and for whom he had a special affection. He could never abandon her, he had to protect her in some way. But how would he do that if he can't even protect himself?
There were too many things to think about. Things a child shouldn't even be thinking about. But he wasn't a child, he was an adult in a child's body. And like every adult, there were things he just couldn't leave for later.
He needed to learn about his own powers and get stronger quickly. Strong enough to defend himself, strong enough to defend his mother, strong enough to defeat anyone who tried to attack him or his family.
It would be difficult, but it was necessary for yourself and those around you. He wouldn't be a hero savior of all and defender of all, but he wouldn't be the one who would stand still doing nothing either.
Telepathy was just the beginning. Maybe soon he will unlock more unique powers. But even if not, nothing would stop him from getting stronger.
While thinking about it, Adrian felt it through his telepathy. A presence, a mind. Someone approaching him. And after taking a little look at the person's mind to see who it was, he let out a sigh and rolled his eyes when he saw who was approaching.
Then, less than a few seconds later, a shadow began to project on him, and Adrian exchanged glances with one of his most detestable colleagues.
Preston Prester Descendant of the founder of the city and son of the mayor of Jump City, also one of the most annoying people Adrian knew.
They knew each other since they were little, because for some stupid joke of fate, they always ended up in the same class. And since then, Preston has made the goal of his life irritate Adrian.
It wasn't like it was bullying or anything like that, he was just annoying. Annoying in levels that he never thought possible for a child. He played roles on Adrian, laughed loudly in his ear, went to where Adrian went just to bother, etc.
The worst of all was the height difference between them.
Both were tall for age. Even at only 10 years old, Adrian was already the height of someone 13, but Preston was still taller than him by at least 10 cm. And he always called him a "dwarf" due to this difference in height.
In a nutshell, they were like Tom and Jerry, they hated each other on a deadly level that didn't even need words to describe.
As for his appearance, apart from his enormous height that made him look like a pole to the other children, Preston had straight black hair, brown eyes and dark skin. Besides obviously the vibe of a spoiled boy, son of mom and dad.
"Good morning, my dear Adrian" Preston greeted with the clear tone of mockery he always used.
" Preston " Adrian said with a dry tone.
"I was a little too focused for a short time. What were you thinking about? Let me guess, were you thinking of ways to be like me? " Preston asked with false concern and curiosity.
"Please, let's not do this at this time of the morning. I already have a lot to think about and you don't help either " Asked Adrian trying not to stress in the morning.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't care" Preston replied with the same mischievous smile as always.
A vein jumped from Adrian's forehead, but no one noticed.
Before any other of them said anything, the school signal rang and the doors were opened, with the students starting to enter one by one.
"Um, our time has come" Preston said patting a little too hard on Adrian's shoulder "See you later little dwarf! "
Adrian just got up and started going towards his room, following well behind Preston, because as said before, they were from the same class.
Mentally, Adrian was already preparing for another annoying day next to Preston. But with his new powers, he decided to see what would be the next annoying joke Preston would make with him today.
But he certainly didn't expect to see what he saw.
'Oh my God, he was so cute when that vein jumped out of his forehead. I had to control myself not to freak out, especially with that red on my face that makes it even more beautiful '
Adrian stopped walking, stared at Preston and tried to reason what he had just heard.
' What the hell was that? ' Questioned Adrian mentally completely confused.