Colombia, 11:00 a.m.
Juan Camilo woke up late.
It wasn't the classic jolt of someone who has overslept, but something different: an uncomfortable calm. His body felt light, rested in a way that didn't match the previous night, but his mind was awake, alert, as if he had slept too well.
He lived alone, in a small house on the outskirts of a large town, where routine was the only constant. The days were all the same, and that had always seemed like enough.
He got up, went to the kitchen and turned on the stove. He put water on to boil to make coffee.
While he waited, the memories came.
The family New Year's gathering.
Loud laughter. Old music. Glasses that never stopped being filled.
He remembered saying goodbye at 12:20 in the morning, stumbling home, convinced that the next day he wouldn't be functional.
But here he was.
No headache.
No nausea.
None of that typical heaviness that comes from excess.
When the water boiled, he grabbed the pot with his bare hand and poured the coffee.
He went still.
He had felt absolutely nothing.
The heat, simply, did not exist.
He frowned. With bread in one hand and the steaming cup in front of him, he turned on the television.
A headline filled the entire screen, white letters on a blue background:
"SUPERPOWERS?"
The presenter, serious, spoke with an unusual gravity:
—In the last few hours, witnesses claim to have seen a young man in the department of Cauca capable of lifting objects impossible for any human being. The images are low quality, but they clearly show a person dragging a vehicle as if it were made of paper.
The video appeared: shaky footage, early morning lights, nervous shouts, and a silhouette lifting structures too large to be real.
Juan Camilo bit into the bread without noticing.
A few drops of coffee fell onto his bare foot.
He felt nothing.
The presenter continued:
—What is most unsettling is that these cases are not isolated. Similar reports have come in from Brazil, India, Nigeria, and the United States. All of them share one thing in common: the events are occurring in countries with populations close to or exceeding fifty million inhabitants.
Juan Camilo went completely still.
Cauca.
His department.
He turned off the television.
He went to the kitchen, lit the burner and, without thinking any further, placed his hand directly over the flame.
Nothing.
No pain.
No burns.
No reflex to pull away.
Only silence.
He stared at his hand for several seconds. Then he understood.
He was one of them.
Over the next two hours he experimented in secret. He didn't try anything spectacular. Just small, controlled tests.
He discovered he could fly. First a few centimeters, then meters, then disappearing into the clouds.
He discovered that from his eyes came an invisible heat capable of melting metal.
He discovered that his mind worked at an absurd speed.
In just an hour and a half he had memorized two hundred words in English: meaning, pronunciation, correct usage. It wasn't mechanical memorization. It was total comprehension.
His breathing became deep and powerful.
His hearing picked up distant sounds.
And his skin… his skin no longer seemed to be damaged by anything that came from human force.
Then the inevitable thought appeared:
If I have powers… someone else does too.
And that idea led him to an even more unsettling conclusion:
This is going to be chaos.
Important notice: This work is a work of fiction. The characters, events and dialogues described herein are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, including public figures such as presidents, political leaders or institutions, is used solely for narrative purposes and is not intended to reflect real events or opinions about such persons or entities. It should not be interpreted as a faithful representation of reality, but as part of a fictional universe.