Gen Z Ch. 01

Gen Z: The Origin Saga

A shout out to Demiurging, Alohadave and Pipesharp for their amazing editing skill and guidance...

Chapter 1: The Awakening of Gen Z

A young man was seated on a wooden bench beneath a giant oak tree inside the city park in New Day City. His name was Timothy Michael. Today was his birthday, but unlike other normal people he wasn't happy. He was in a gloomy mood.

A decade ago today, he lost his father. For the world, his father was Michael Luis, a Banker who one day suddenly disappeared, but he knew who his Dad was: the famous--now believed to be dead--Hero, Captain Cosmos.

He was a super powerful being who was always out there protecting others and helping those in need.

A decade ago, when the father-son duo was celebrating his ninth birthday, his Dad received news of the sudden disappearance of his team member near the Cynn Solar System. His Dad quickly left to investigate the incident but never came back.

Later, he was informed by Mr. Garrison that he had died, killed by a Cosmian Hunter. Both the Hunter and his Dad died due to him detonating a Cosmian bomb to kill the Hunter.

Since then, all Timothy had was his father's memory. And the most celebrated day of his life became the gloomiest one.

After taking a few more deep breaths he was about to walk out of the park when his phone started to vibrate. Even though there was no caller ID, he knew who the person was on the other side.

"Yes, Mr. Garrison."

"Happy Birthday Timothy. Today you turned nineteen and I was informed by Henry that you are up to participate this year for the joining process."

"Yes."

While Timothy loved his father dearly, he had no intention of living the same life that his father lived. No, he wanted to live his life for himself. Even his father had asked him to do so--actually that was the last thing they talked about before his disappearance.

But Mr. Garrison wasn't someone who liked to hear 'No'. While he behaved like an old parent with him, Timothy was well aware that the man wouldn't even think twice before ending his life.

That kind of attitude was what made him the best in the game. He was the director of Agency 51--an agency created by the government after super-powerful beings started to pop up around the world.

No one knew what the exact reason behind this was, but after a solar eclipse a few years ago, humans started to show a variety of abilities. Some could fly, some could run fast, super strength, durability, and many more abilities appeared.

Governments around the world decided to weaponize these powers and created teams and departments of Super Powerful humans. The US government also created a department. At that time, forty-year-old Garrison Hue was appointed as director of the department, and for the past three decades the man maintained the department skillfully.

His teams had averted many terrorist plots and performed many dangerous missions around the world. The Agency also played a key role in averting the Second Altarian Invasion. The government was happy with the results which was why the man was untouched on his post.

These humans with Super Power were called Mega Humans.

One may think Timothy's father was also a Mega Human being, but no that wasn't right he wasn't. He was an Alien. Yes, Cosmian to be accurate. He was a member of an Alien species which looked a lot like humans but after they reached 18 years of age they went through a growth spurt. Unlike humans, their growth spurt is not normal.

Their entire body goes through a radical transformation. Every bone in their body breaks to be created again, every joint in their body gets dislodged to be joined again, and every drop of blood get poured out of their body to be replaced by new blood. Their skin comes off only to be replaced by new skin, flesh melts away only to have it replaced by new flesh.

The entire process was extremely painful. Timothy himself had experienced it last year--every hair on his body stood up by just a thought of it!

The pain he had gone through was something he had known of and was prepared for, yet he passed out just halfway through the process.

Of course, the entire process happened in the presence of Mr. Garrison who had a team of experts with him. Advanced machinery was placed around him to confirm everything went normally.

While outside, Mr. Garrison would never express it, but Timothy knew that he was more important to the man than an entire team of Mega Humans, after all there weren't many Cosmiansin existence.

His father, along with five others, left the planet--once it fell into civil war it was about to be destroyed. All of them landed on Earth. At that time various governments and private players were collecting various individuals with different powers and abilities.

Since the powers humans had were limited compared to Cosmians--who had Super Strength, Speed, Flight, and Enhanced Senses--they were nothing less than prized trophies.

All of them who came had different beliefs and joined different countries and agencies.His father stayed in the US and joined Agency 51's Alpha Blue team: the team solely dedicated to space missions.

He was the leader of the Team for more than a decade, and a famous hero. He fell in love with a human woman, who died in an accident when Timothy was one year old and his father did his best to raise him properly and give him basic information about their species and the vast cosmos.

While physical evolution happens after age of eighteen, intellectually they are born evolved. Yes, the intelligence of a Cosmian is twice more than that of a normal human and that too from very young age. While his father had shared many details about Cosmian biology with the government, this was one piece of information that he had kept hidden.

So, from age of nine, while the agency was busy arranging a family and proper education for him, Timothy was far more grown up mentally than the people that were around him. Of course, he kept it to himself.

Even though his father helped humans and worked for the betterment of this planet, deep down he was well aware of how humans could misuse Timothy if anything was happen to him, so he kept many things hidden from the agency and also asked Timothy to do so and never trust anyone.

After walking back to his apartment, he sat on the sofa while waiting for his gift that Mr. Garrison was talking about.

Throughout the years, on his birthday Mr. Garrison would deliver him a gift which his father had asked him to. For normal eyes it was just a birthday card or a letter from father to son, but for Timothy it was secret message.

It was due to the Cosmian language which his father had taught him. If anyone saw it the letter would appear to be written in English, but a person who knew could read what was also written in there.

The Cosmian language was very difficult language and it could be placed along with any other language.

Yes, the language was so sophisticated that it could be merged with English Language; for example if there was no dot with 'i' then a normal person will think it's a grammatical mistake, but for Cosmian it meant an entire sentence.

Same goes with the size of the dot. The language was also read from top to bottom.

A knock at the door broke his chain of thought. He opened the door to find a young man the same age as him wearing a delivery boy uniform. He was holding a small parcel in his hand.

While the agency and Mr. Garrison was always keeping tabs on him, they tried to hide him from prying eyes. The man was well aware of how important Timothy was and that was the reason why there was no actual mention of Timothy in the agency database. Everything that happened with Timothy Michael was so 'Natural' that no one would make the connection.

After closing the door Timothy opened the box to find a letter which read how proud father he was and how he wished him luck.

After reading the letter Timothy started to read the letter from the bottom.

'Timmy if this is the first letter to you from me than that means I am not there with you anymore but if you have gotten this kind of letters in the past, well then you have obviously known that I am not there for a very long time.

"There is also a diary with this letter which tells you the story of our Origin while I have told you many things there must be many questions that might be still unanswered."

From a very young age, his father had told him many things about thier species, he had also received a similiar diary that guided him through the evolution and the changes he experienced afterwards.

"While I am not sure how much this information will be helpful to you but at least you will know your Origin."

The letter ended there, so Timothy placed the letter on the table and picked up the diary. It was a diary that humans write.

Nothing was special about it but he knew how the information inside the diary was very important.

He opened the diary and found the notes written by his father about how he met his mother. How their dates went. How he married her, and how he was devastated after her death, and how he was hoping for his bright future.

The diary ended at the mention of Timothy turning at the age of six but he had seen how his father had applied Cosmian Language just like the letter.

He started to re-read the diary from last page.

"Our species had long history of wars which go back to millions of years. While every other Cosmian believes that the evolution that happens after age of eighteen is normal for our species, it wasn't true in the past.

"The evolution that happens after age of eighteen is considered to be normal on our planet since it was believed that it's natural evolution. But I have my doubts, which were confirmed when I was on our birth planet Sonnet 32yv.

"This planet is believed to be our Origin planet, but past wars have destroyed the planet.

"During my research I found many remains of the Cosmians, one that dated more than millions of years back. The Cosmian bone structure was such that there was no way possible for that dead Cosmian to have ability of flight. I confirmed this with simulators in my lab.

"Then I found another dead husk of a Cosmian and from his body structure I confirmed that he didn't have the super strength that we have now.

"If that wasn't enough to raise red flags, I found remains that dated more than tens of millions of years. These remains had same DNA as the Cosmian body and even being thirty-two years of age, had never gone through any evolution.

"Of course, I wanted to do further research, but our team was attacked by Cosmian Hunters. Some team members died, few survived.

"I presented my research before the government that the evolution that was happening with Cosmians wasn't natural and it has something to do with an outside force.

"Of course, the government rejected the research and stopped funding us.

"I kept researching on this matter. After a decade, I found out from another visit to the Origin planet that there was a Breeding program that was started by Cosmians at least twelve million years ago. Of course, the program wasn't in work anymore but that program could be the reason for our evolution.

"Before I could present my research to the government a huge blast destroyed our entire galaxy and the shock waves were about to reach the Origin planet so I used my spaceship to escape.

"While floating in the vast cosmos I encountered a few other Cosmians who belonged to different fractions.I let them ride on my spaceship and we landed on a blue planet called Earth.

"The native species called humans looked a lot like us and they are what I think we were before the evolution happened.

"Since my lab was destroyed, I failed to complete my research. Just like on our planet, all of us who arrived on this planet picked different sides.

"While helping others was my choice, I don't want to impose my decision on you, nor do I want you to be turned into a weapon. So, if I am not there, and if Garrison and the agency are taking care of you then cooperate with them. Bide your time until you find a better place where you can live a better life.

"Having a Cosmian is nothing less than a treasure for any agency or organization so they will take care of you, but don't waste your life for their silly matters and try to be powerful. While my research was incomplete, and I have lost all of it, if my calculations are right from my centuries of research then you are one very important individual in our species.

"I don't have the exact coordinates of it, but if possible try to find our planet of Origin. It holds all the secret of our species.

"Also be wary of others. Don't trust anyone, especially another Cosmian.

"Take care and this is my last message to you. Now you must plan your actions according to the knowledge that you have of our species and your Origin."

While his mind was processing all this information, a single tear fell from his eye. He looked at his watch. It was just a few hours before twelve, the start of a new year in his life. Memories of the time he had spent with his father resurfaced.

He was spending years in various locations while learning about the powers that he would unlock at the age of eighteen. Once he had gone through the painful evolution, he was again relocated to New Day City.

During the First Altarian Invasion, a big chunk of New York City was destroyed. After their victory, the government had built this new city called New Day City.

He'd been completing his senior high schooling at Centre High and working as waiter in a restaurant. He was also going through vigorous training with a retired Hero--The Wall, whose human identity was Henry Smith, an Old man who ran a boxing gym.

As a favor, Mr. Garrison had asked Henry to help Tim in learning how to control and use his powers. Since Henry was an old teammate of his Dad's, he agreed.

Now Tim wouldn't break furniture by sitting on it, neither would he give a handshake that would break the receiver's hand.

He had also mastered his speed and was also grasping his flight properly. If you ignored the Airbus incident that happened with his first try at flying, nothing bad had happened with his flying.

He was lying back on his sofa when he felt his eyes became heavy, he was sure he wasn't asleep. Actually, Cosmians didn't need that much sleep, just a few seconds once in a while was enough.

He also noticed his sense of smell deaden. The noise of vehicles passing by started to dull, and then disappeared altogether.

He started to panic. He knew something was wrong, but his mind wasn't active enough react.

Cosmians had natural defenses against psychic attacks, so he knew he was safe from any telepath. Yet he knew there was something wrong with his mind: it wasn't functioning properly.

It was like he had lost connection with his body and went into some kind of coma.

He was thinking about reasons that could push him into this state but nothing came to him. He tried to move his hands but they didn't move. He tried to speak, but his throat and tongue didn't budge. He tried to open his eyes but they didn't open.

He pushed all his might to open his eyes. So much that they physically started to hurt. He knew it wasn't much with his Cosmian healing powers. He could practically have a new eye within hours.

But instead of stopping, the pain kept increasing. It slowly moved deeper. It felt like his eyes were being stabbed by a knife that was being pushed deep.

The areas of pain kept increasing, it covered his entire mind. His entire brain was aching. He was failing to understand what was happening when he felt like every cell in his mind was being broken, suddenly realization struck him.

This was the same pain that he had experienced last year as part of his Evolution. But why was it happening again, why inside his brain?

It's like he was going through Evolution again, but this time it was focused around his brain.

-

While Timothy was reading his father's diary a monotone voice spoke in the vast darkness.

No creature was visible due to the darkness, but the way the voice spoke it was clear it belonged to an AI.

"Gen Z_ Subject 1B9c has completed Evolution for Phase 1 and the subject is perfectly healthy to trigger Phase 2."

After a brief moment, another voice spoke which was equally monotone and emotionless.

"After Eons...Initiate Phase 2"

"Initiating Phase 2"

Again, the AI spoke to confirm the command.

-

Timothy was going through extreme pain. It felt a like burning spike was being plunged into his brain; such was the intensity of the pain.

All he wished for was this pain to somehow leave him. He knew barely minutes had passed, yet it felt like he was suffering for an eternity.

Finally, his consciousness let go and he lost himself to vast darkness.

He wasn't sure where he was. He was floating in the vast darkness. He knew he was still inside his room or at least his body was inside his room but he wasn't sure what could cause this out of body experience.

Suddenly, he felt a pull. He couldn't do anything but let himself be sucked into a vortex-like structure that appeared before him.

His eyes were open suddenly. He found himself still lying on the sofa. He roamed his hand all over his body to confirm he was fine.He slowly tried to stand up but a sense of vertigo made him sit back on the sofa.

He took few deep breaths while trying to stop the sudden urge to throw up.

He started to think about the things that had happened in past hour.After reading his father's diary he felt a sudden pain which slowly covered his entire skull. The pain was sudden and extreme, similar to what he had felt last year but that started to raise multiple questions in his mind.The biggest one was why?

Not only Agency 51, but other agencies which had a Cosmian had also confirmed that the evolution only happens once. Even his father had told him it happens only once.

Again, he stood up and started to walk toward his bedroom. He was barely three feet away from his room when he felt a lurching sensation in his stomach. This time it came suddenly and everything that he had eaten and drank the night before splattered near his bedroom door. Again sleep took him over.

-

"Gen Z_ Subject 1B9c has completed Evolution for Phase 2 Base 1. The Subject is perfectly healthy."

There was no response except for a loud laugh.

-

Timothy woke up around sunrise, his brain wasn't aching, and his stomach organs didn't feel like they would come out from his mouth like the night before. His body was fully rested.

But he and his house stank of vomit. After taking a long, relaxing shower he cleaned his house of all the dried stains.

Once he was sure everything was clean, he took another shower and had a quick breakfast. After locking his house, he walked toward his high school.

The high school was in the centre of the city, less than a mile from his house, so instead of driving his old car he would walk to the school.

It was ten minutes before the start of the first lecture when he saw the gate of the high school campus. He entered the high school and started to walk toward the school building.

Many professors and students passed by him, but none of them paid any attention to him which was normal since that was what Mr. Garrison wanted. The man had asked him to lie low.

He was walking through the corridor when a voice stopped him.

"Timmy." Without looking he knew who it was

"Hi, Nina," he said, while waving his hand at her.

He had avoided making any friends throughout his life. While he'd had a few flings, he never had a girlfriend since the Agency wouldn't let him stay at one place with one family for a longtime.