It was May 7th, 2028, and almost the entire 13th grade of the Augsfeld Gymnasium was sitting in three travel buses on the way to Prague. The ride started off normally—until everyone on the bus began to change. Some grew wings, others suddenly became muscur, some hardly changed on the outside—but everyone developed some kind of superpower.

  They ranged from invisibility and super strength to elemental control.

  What about me, you're asking?

  Well, I changed too. I used to be a pretty average-looking boy—short blond hair, blue eyes, 18 years old.

  Now, I’m a 1.5-meter-tall girl with shoulder-length jet-bck hair. I’ve got fox ears and a fluffy fox tail, all covered in the same jet-bck fur streaked with sky-blue highlights. My left eye is sapphire blue, the right emerald green.

  Whether it was the shock of what we were seeing or the fact that everyone got something they secretly desired, the bus remained oddly calm at first. Only the two teachers riding with us seemed completely lost. They hadn’t changed and quickly contacted the teachers in the other buses. They arranged for us to stop at the next possible rest area and informed the school administration about the situation.

  It wasn’t until we stopped that reality began to sink in. My cssmates started testing out their abilities. Things got chaotic pretty quickly—because let’s be honest, flying fire, water, electricity, and chunks of rock aren’t exactly safe.

  Others specuted or chatted about what to do with their powers and where they might’ve come from.

  I pyed around with my new abilities a bit, too. I can now control shadows, move through them, and shape them. With all the chaos, I decided to step away for a bit.

  Just as I was about to sit down on a bench, a group of bck-armored vehicles appeared on the highway. When they stopped, three muscur women and five equally muscur men in dark suits got out—accompanied by several soldiers in standard uniforms. The people in suits scanned the students before walking up to the teachers.

  That piqued my curiosity. I tried to move closer, but the soldiers kept me back. Not far enough, though, to stop my new sensitive ears from picking up a few words—like “take into custody,” “train,” and “…”

  One of the soldiers noticed my twitching ears and told me to join the other students. We were about to be briefed on what was going on. Reluctantly, I went over and sat next to Tom. He was the only one from my friend group who hadn’t left after 12th grade or gone on the Amsterdam trip.

  We chatted for a bit. Tom was still reserved, but his power was hard to miss—he could gather heat around himself, compress it, and generate extreme temperatures while freezing the area around him. The tree near his first test was still completely frozen even half an hour ter, despite the strong sun.

  But before we could talk more, the people in suits addressed us students, and the expnation began.

  Apparently, an experiment had been conducted that was originally supposed to affect only two test subjects in a special facility. Despite a supposedly near-zero chance of failure, something had gone wrong—and instead of those two, our entire css got hit.

  The goal? To give the struggling German military a "new leg" in the form of super soldiers. And after—cue sarcasm—a “highly advanced, well-targeted decision-making process,” it was decided that we would simply take on that role.

  Each of us was to be assigned an operator—a kind of supervisor. Basically, like we’re the dogs and they’re the handlers.

  Needless to say, none of us were okay with that. Even the few who had pnned to join the military weren’t thrilled—just slightly less freaked out than the rest.

  As they started assigning us, some tried to resist—but in the end, everyone was pced with either a soldier or one of the suit-wearing agents. When the soldier assigned to me reached out to grab my arm, instinct took over—I snapped at his hand with my now sharp canines and growled.

  One of the suited men—a tall, older guy with nearly silver hair and the build of someone still very much in shape—noticed. He came over and, before I could react, grabbed me by the scruff like a cat and held me in the air until I calmed down. He told the soldier to take a different student and said he’d take responsibility for me.

  Once I stopped struggling, he put me in the front seat of one of the jeeps and got in the driver’s side.

  I don’t know if anyone else continued resisting—I was too caught up in my own situation.

  As we drove, I sat there sulking while the older man rambled on about manners, discipline, and responsibility. If I heard correctly, his name is Franz Grand.

  Eventually, the exhaustion of the day caught up with me. I tried to stay awake, but ended up dozing off.

  When I woke again, we were driving up to a rge estate. Besides the old but well-kept main building, there were several smaller buildings scattered around. A thought crossed my mind—could Grand really be wealthy enough to own something like this?

  My tail started wagging with excitement as I imagined how many empty or unused rooms might be in the house. Grand stifled a ugh. “So, a little fox after all, huh? Curious and cheeky.”