The clouds above had slowly been gathering since morning. The sky was overcast, dark, and grey. The gloomy clouds were heavy with rain inside them. They would release it any minute now. Every few seconds, the sky was brightened by lightning, making false daylight, with thunder following it soon after, ringing throughout the world. The breeze started blowing harder through the dirty, empty streets.
I quickened my pace. It would be better if I got to the junkyard before rain was added to the storm. I moved my dark brown hair, which had some dust in it, out of my electric blue eyes while I looked ahead to my destination.
The junkyard was a spot I frequented, although I didn't particularly enjoy being there. The reason was that I could find some good stuff there, which was the only interesting part of my life. I looked back up at the grey sky. Grey. Just like my life.
My name is Max Storm. The world that I live in is not normal. Around a hundred years ago, a world-changing event occurred called the Shatter. The reason it was called the Shatter was that it broke the continents into floating islands, completely cutting them off from the rest of the world. Eventually, each island developed its own culture, rules, and beliefs. Some are ruled by tyrants, others by scholars. Some reject the idea that there was a world before the Shatter, and some just ignore it.
One thing stays the same between all these islands. No one knows what was before the Shatter, or what caused it.
The Shatter also caused something even wilder. After the shatter, most humans started to be born with Gifts. Gifts were abilities that allowed you to do anything. Some could control fire, others could read minds. An estimated 90% of the post-shatter world is Gifted. Just like the Shatter, no one knows where Gifts came from, but if you had a powerful gift, then you had a good future.
Unfortunately, my luck was not that good.
I stopped outside the chain-link fence that surrounded the junkyard. There was a part of the fence that had a hole cut out, and that was how I would get in. I didn't know who made the hole, but it sure was helpful. I climbed through it and entered the junkyard.
As you would expect from a junkyard, a lot of random and useless stuff was lying around. There was also an unpleasant smell, but I ignored it.
The island I lived on was called Dravern Reach. It was just about the most boring island you could imagine. It was dusty and dirty. No one had any ambition or drive. The children who did were eventually molded to be like everyone else. Boring, unhappy, insignificant.
But not me. I wasn't going to let myself turn into that. Dravern Reach was a backwards town that nobody left or entered, because it just wasn't interesting to visit, and not many could visit anyway, since travelling was extremely difficult and dangerous.
Most people used their mediocre gifts to make life easier for themselves, not to make life more interesting, or help others. If only I had a better gift, I could fill that gap.
I continued on, walking through the junkyard. There wasn't much space for me to walk because of the piles of junk and garbage all around me, but over time I had carved a path through the junk towards my secret hideout. The rain had started falling, but it was still slow. It was coming down one drop at a time. I waded through the path that I always took; the junk was less on the path, but still came up to my ankles. The path turned, and beside it I saw the life-size robot that I passed every day. It was too big for me to pick up, and it was stuck quite well in the junk, so there was no hope of moving it anyway. It was missing an arm, a leg, and an eye, but I drew a smile on it when I was younger. This robot was going to be one of the few things I was going to miss when I went on my adventure. I reached out and patted the robot on the shoulder.
"Hope you're doing well, buddy."
I opened the door to the small make-shift hut I had made from some spare parts. It was quite small, but cozy and sturdy too. I put my bag on a chair and sat down on another one.
The inside of my hut was decorated with many things that I had collected over the years. On the shelf, there were tons of items and small projects that I had made for practice. Some worked, others had failed. I kept all of them though, as they might be able to come in handy, whether for spare parts or for a problem. On the walls, I had hung many diagrams and blueprints of my projects and stuff I had seen I books. No one really cared enough to teach me, especially with my weak gift, so I taught myself how to build. I had put my latest project in the corner of the hut, covered by a cloth, since it was still unfinished. Only one more part. I couldn't find it anywhere, and building it would be very hard. I was taking one more chance.
I looked at my hand. Suddenly, a small electric blue spark flew from my index finger to my middle finger. I sighed.
My gift was extremely weak and lame. I had the power to give someone a small shock that was only mildly annoying, like when you rub socks on carpet. Utterly useless. I tried to get stronger every day, but nothing really helped. Everybody else got something cool. They could easily do whatever they wanted because their gift was good. Of course, they never had any sense of adventure either. Otherwise, they might have been able to change something, do something meaningful.
I was so frustrated. Why was I the only one who thought to do these things, who wanted to actually make a difference? And why was I the one who got stuck with such a ridiculous gift? It wasn't a gift to me, it was a reminder of what I wanted to do and what I could never hope to achieve.
I got up and opened the door. I'd better get a move on before the rain speeds up by a lot. Today I would go to the part of the junkyard I never really went to. The western side. Unfortunately, I didn't have an umbrella, and the rain was slowly but surely getting faster. I would just have to be quick or deal with it.
I hurried over to the western side of the junkyard. I rummaged around, looking in many different piles for anything that could be useful in any way. I wanted to get off this island. I only needed one more part to finish building what I needed.
Then, I could finally be off on the adventure I wanted. I might finally be able to make a difference. As I thought this, I saw something interesting out of the corner of my eye. I went to see what it was. Did I finally find what I wanted?
Then something heavy suddenly hit my head.
"Ow...what the hell...?"
I started to say as I rubbed my head and looked up at the sky. The rain had definitely gotten faster. The wind was blowing harder too. I looked at the soaked ground, searching for what had hit me.
I knelt down and picked up this weird crystal. It was dark blue, with a bright neon blue symbol etched onto its surface, resembling a lightning bolt. It was glowing, too. Then, suddenly, my gift started going berserk.
Sparks and static electricity flew around me and the crystal. For some reason, it burned, it felt like a billion volts of electricity was trying to escape my body all at once, I could barely move. I yelled in pain, but I couldn't let go of the crystal. My body wasn't letting me. The crystal started to change shape, turning almost liquid as it curled around my hand.
Then, I blacked out.
I opened my eyes, and safe to say, the scene in front of me was certainly not what I was expecting. I was floating in a weird, swirling mass of purple cosmic dust, with lightning all around me. It was like a giant purple storm frozen in time, and I was in the middle of it. It was weirdly cold, and there was a feeling like buzzing all around my body. I felt a bit overwhelmed. The place was so beautiful and mesmerizing, and yet I could feel so much power around me. Then, 7 objects, similar to the crystal I found appeared in front of me. One of them was the blue one I picked up.
There was a red one, a purple one, a pink one, a green one, a white one, and a cyan one. Some had some sort of energy swirling inside it. When I had picked up the blue one, it was empty, but now, in front of me, it had a weird energy inside it too, like sparks. They were all circling a blinding white light. I couldn't make out what was inside the light, but it seemed to be circular. Then, I heard a voice that I can't describe. It said:
"Seven shards, one storm."
Then I felt a sudden pulling force. It was so strong, I had never felt anything like it. It felt like I was being pulled out of this strange world, and suddenly, I awoke.
When I opened my eyes, I was looking up at the dark sky again, now slowly clearing up. The rain had stopped, but there were puddles all around. I sat up, groggy and tired. I looked at my hand. There was no crystal, but covering my hand was a sleek glove with subtle blue lightning designs engraved on it. When I tried taking it off, it wouldn't move at all. It didn't feel like there was anything on my hand, it felt like it was a part of me. On the back of the glove, the same symbol as the crystal was present.
What did my dream mean? Were there seven more 'shards' for me to collect? What was the end goal? What was happening?
I did not have any answers. I stood up, my dizziness slowly backing away. I held my head with my gloved hand, and the headache slowly disappeared. I looked around. I hadn't gotten what I was looking for. Then, I suddenly saw it. A wheel. More specifically, a ship wheel. I grabbed it and, with great difficulty, managed to bring it back to my hut. I put it in a cupboard.
Right now, it would have to wait. I didn't know how long I had been out for, but I needed to get back to my actual house.
Before I left, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like the average 13-year-old, maybe a little bit skinny, but the rest was okay. My dark brown hair was still messy, my electric blue eyes still sparkled, and my hoodie still had a few stains that I needed to clean up. But something had changed. Not just the glove. It was something invisible, but I could sense it, deep inside me. I had a feeling that my life was going to change radically from now on.
I climbed out of the fence that surrounded the Dravern Reach Junkyard and started walking.