Twenty years ago the town of Rebirth, Kansas was founded by a few thousand people who dreamed of a place where everyone, powers or not, regardless of genetics, could live together in harmony. It's a fairly average town. They celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, and even the nations Birth-day. Once a year since the town's founding, on July 4th, the town gathers together for a massive barbecue at which the town's newest citizens, twenty newborns, are introduced to the rest of the town, given their Birth name, and given to their new parents. All of these Birth-day children are special in some way, and most of them have powers.
---
Tony Karts, 17, walked down the street at 9 PM, having spent the last several hours in the high school's machine lab working out some of the kinks in the exoskeleton suit he was working on. A few more nights of work and it should be ready for its first test drive. As he approached his house, though, he heard movement in the tree above him. Looking up, he noticed his next door neighbor hiding up there with a pair of binoculars. "Kurt" he said at a normal voice, but in the quiet of the night Kurt was startled by the the sound and lost his footing.
There was a puff of acrid black smoke in front of Tony and a blue kid appeared there. "Oh, uh, hey Tony."
"You're peeping on Clarice again, aren't you?" Tony asked. "I thought we talked about this. You can't go around creeping on girls."
"Yeah, I know but Clarice is... well you know. Purple girls are hot."
"Dude," Tony said, shaking his head, "I told you, she's 17 like me. You're 15. She'd never date you, and creeping on her's just wrong man. You do realize that if you're caught Sheriff Wilson's going to throw you in jail and have you cleaning the jail with a toothbrush." Kurt nodded. "Besides, I gave you a reason not to. Did you talk to Hank?"
"Yeah, he got me into the adult server, but the women in the archive... well, there aren't a lot of mutants."
"Hey, I don't know what else I can do. You've got to quit."
"I do." said Kurt. "You can get me through the Firewall."
"You mean the town's firewall? No way. You know we aren't allowed to contact the outside. Only the Adults are, since they're from there."
"Yeah, but I overheard the Sheriff mention Outside sites to Barber John."
Tony sighed. "Fine, but you've got to swear to me that you're done creeping on girls. All Girls. Understand?"
Kurt hesitated, but soon nodded. "Fine. I Swear. Write a program to get me through to the outside 'net, and you have my word I'll stop being a creep."
Tony nodded. "Now, you might want to go home before Clarice looks out her window."
A few days later Tony entered the last few lines into the code and compiled the program. He'd tried to works his way through the firewall on his own, but the firewall adapted and closed the holes faster than he could find them. He needed to create a program to find the holes in the wall for him and exploit them. Now that program was complete.
He loaded the Open Door app onto his cell phone and activated it. Soon the program told him that it was through the wall and he opened up his browser. Might as well test it, he thought, opening up Google, the one Outside site he could remember, and typing in what he was searching for. M. U. T. A. N. T.
The search autocompleted and he was shocked by what it suggested. 'Mutant terrorist. Mutant terrorism. Mutants aren't people. Mutant X Gene.' were all the top suggestions. Curious he searched for the first one and clicked on a news article.
"Are the X men terrorists?" it said, and at the top of the article, which detailed a battle between two groups called "the Brotherhood" and "the X-Men" was a picture of Kurt, only much older and wearing some sort of armor or uniform, possibly both.
---
The "Birth-Day Children" are clones of special people. They just didn't know that until now, and now that they've discovered that fact their worlds are about to come crashing down.
We are those children.
---
Tony Karts, 17, walked down the street at 9 PM, having spent the last several hours in the high school's machine lab working out some of the kinks in the exoskeleton suit he was working on. A few more nights of work and it should be ready for its first test drive. As he approached his house, though, he heard movement in the tree above him. Looking up, he noticed his next door neighbor hiding up there with a pair of binoculars. "Kurt" he said at a normal voice, but in the quiet of the night Kurt was startled by the the sound and lost his footing.
There was a puff of acrid black smoke in front of Tony and a blue kid appeared there. "Oh, uh, hey Tony."
"You're peeping on Clarice again, aren't you?" Tony asked. "I thought we talked about this. You can't go around creeping on girls."
"Yeah, I know but Clarice is... well you know. Purple girls are hot."
"Dude," Tony said, shaking his head, "I told you, she's 17 like me. You're 15. She'd never date you, and creeping on her's just wrong man. You do realize that if you're caught Sheriff Wilson's going to throw you in jail and have you cleaning the jail with a toothbrush." Kurt nodded. "Besides, I gave you a reason not to. Did you talk to Hank?"
"Yeah, he got me into the adult server, but the women in the archive... well, there aren't a lot of mutants."
"Hey, I don't know what else I can do. You've got to quit."
"I do." said Kurt. "You can get me through the Firewall."
"You mean the town's firewall? No way. You know we aren't allowed to contact the outside. Only the Adults are, since they're from there."
"Yeah, but I overheard the Sheriff mention Outside sites to Barber John."
Tony sighed. "Fine, but you've got to swear to me that you're done creeping on girls. All Girls. Understand?"
Kurt hesitated, but soon nodded. "Fine. I Swear. Write a program to get me through to the outside 'net, and you have my word I'll stop being a creep."
Tony nodded. "Now, you might want to go home before Clarice looks out her window."
A few days later Tony entered the last few lines into the code and compiled the program. He'd tried to works his way through the firewall on his own, but the firewall adapted and closed the holes faster than he could find them. He needed to create a program to find the holes in the wall for him and exploit them. Now that program was complete.
He loaded the Open Door app onto his cell phone and activated it. Soon the program told him that it was through the wall and he opened up his browser. Might as well test it, he thought, opening up Google, the one Outside site he could remember, and typing in what he was searching for. M. U. T. A. N. T.
The search autocompleted and he was shocked by what it suggested. 'Mutant terrorist. Mutant terrorism. Mutants aren't people. Mutant X Gene.' were all the top suggestions. Curious he searched for the first one and clicked on a news article.
"Are the X men terrorists?" it said, and at the top of the article, which detailed a battle between two groups called "the Brotherhood" and "the X-Men" was a picture of Kurt, only much older and wearing some sort of armor or uniform, possibly both.
---
The "Birth-Day Children" are clones of special people. They just didn't know that until now, and now that they've discovered that fact their worlds are about to come crashing down.
We are those children.
