I ran, I was running as fast as my legs could go, but the sirens just got louder as the police cars chased me down and across each street. I was on the run from the cops because of two reasons; one reason was because I stole some food from a grocery store, but I can’t help the fact that I’m homeless and I have no money and the other reason is because I’m a weirdo. The term used to mean someone who wouldn’t conform to the same behavior as everyone else, but now it’s used as a term to mean someone with special powers. About ten or so years ago, a scientist invented a new kind of drug that would have been the total cure for every disease, it was a drug that could alter DNA and restore the body to a perfectly healthy state. This drug would have cured every ailment and disease from the common cold to asthma to obesity to cancer; in fact this drug was announced to be tested on children with life threatening diseases and I was one of those children. The tests took place on an island that was used to store old military weaponry, but the problem was that this drug and these tests were all illegal and when the police found out they arrested the scientists and doctors who were performing the tests, but the scientist who invented the drug broke free and when the police fired their guns they shot through a wall and hit a nuclear reactor hidden within the building. When it exploded, everyone on the island was killed except for the children and adults who had taken the drug and somehow the radiation given off by the explosion reacted with the drug and fundamentally altered the DNA of the survivors. When I woke up last year from a nine year coma, I discovered my powers and that I had no memories of anything, not even my own name. 

	The cars chased me into what I thought was an ally way, where I was faced with a huge brick wall and no way out. “What?! Dead end!!” I cried just as I touched the wall. I looked to my sides and saw two doors on either side of the walls. I tried the first door, but it was locked and when I tried the other door it was locked too. I coward next to the large brick wall as the police pulled up and got out of their cars with their guns pointed right at me. “Freeze you Weirdo freak!!” the head officer yelled at me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your friend I was just scared!” “Well, too bad freak, you’re going down and then every Weirdo freak like you is next!” Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere and said, “Just try you fucking Norm!!” I turned around and looked up to see three kids about no older than myself appear as though something eclipsed over the scenery to reveal them. 

	They jumped down from the top of the brick wall and landed right on their feet like three cats holding each other’s paws. The one in the center was a girl wearing a dirty pink sweatshirt, a white shirt with light blue writing on the front,  light grey pants that hung a few inches above her ankles, and a pair of old converse sneakers. Her eyes were blue and her soft, brown hair went down to her neck in a way that looked like she cut it herself. On her right side was a boy with scruffy blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sweet tan, and he wore a green fleece jacket with a hood, navy blue soccer shorts, and black rubber sandals. The last person on the left, was a black girl with her hair in a messy bun with pieces of her black hair in her face and a pink head band, she wore a navy blue jacket with a light blue inside, a white shirt, pants like the first girl’s except they were black instead of light grey, and a pair of pink converse sneakers. 

	“Well, if it isn’t little miss Houdini, the wizard of weird, and the fastest girl on the block. Drop dead loser, you know how to pick em. The Weirdo’s club.” The head officer said in regards to them. “I have  orders to put the three of you in jail, but I’ll give you the day off if you give me him.” he said pointing to me. “No, get out of here and leave the dude alone.” the girl in the middle said. “Who’s gonna make me?” “We are.” The boy said. “What’d you say Weirdo?!” the officer bellowed. “Hey just shut up and leave.” the other girl said. Without an answer, the officer and his back up held out their guns again and I shut my eyes and braced myself for the bullets that were about to rip through me like fingers through tissue paper. I heard the guns fire for a full minute, but I felt no bullets hit me and when I opened my eyes and put down my arms I saw a some kind of purple wall made of energy between me and the police officers and hundreds bullets on the ground right next to the energy wall. When I turned around, the girl in the middle had her hand held out like she was waving at something and when she let down her hand the wall of purple force disappeared. 

	Suddenly a huge blur sped right past me and spun each of the officers around as it passed by them. When the blur stopped right behind me I saw the girl in the blue jacket with her hands in her pockets. The officers held up their guns once more to shoot us, but when they pulled the triggers, nothing happened. “What happened?” one of them screamed. “The magazines are gone!” another yelled. Then the girl took her hands out of her pockets and held the magazines in her hands. The head officer scrunched his face in anger and screamed, “Beat the shit out of these freaks!!” The officers took out their sticks and charged at us. The first girl disappeared again and when one officer that was charging at her stopped in confusion, his stick was suddenly pulled from his hands and was floating in mid air, then it started beating him up and when he was on the ground unable to get up the girl reappeared with the stick in her hands. The boy held out his hands, which turned into what looked like the hands of a giant mole and with a few waves of them he sent huge amounts of deep brown rocks and dirt breaking up from beneath the concrete and charging at the officers who ran for their lives in fear. The last few officers were taken out by the last girl turning into a blur again and sending them on their backs with some super fast punches to their faces and balls. Finally the head officer was the only one left standing. 

	“Get out.” the first girl said. “Or what, freaky bitch?!” he responded. “Well, I think the three of us could turn you into a bloody mush in less than ten seconds and think nothing of it.” In a moment of comfort and confidence that I haven’t felt in years, I said, “Actually, the four of us could.” The others smiled at me for standing by them and I finally felt like I was among friends. The officer got up and pointed his stick at us and said, “I’ll kill you all…” and then he pointed his stick right at me and sent my short black hair standing on end and my pale white skin crawling as he finished his sentence, “…and I think you’ll be the first.” Then he charged at me with his stick, screaming his head off in anger, and in a rush of self-preservation I activated my power. I dodged his attack and sent my bare hand slapping down on the back of his neck and I held on until I saw the glowing rush of energy flow from him into me and his memories of childhood and adolescence and his adult life as a Weirdo hating police officer spilled into my mind in a flash and I knew almost every detail of his life. I let go when I heard him gasping as though he had trouble breathing. 

	“Whoa! What did you do to him?” the other boy said. “When my power is active and I touch someone with my bare skin I can absorb their memories and physical abilities and if I touch another Weirdo, I can absorb their powers for a certain amount of time.” I told him. “Whoa!” they all said together instantaneously. “Oh, by the way, thanks for helping me.” “Anytime.” the boy said. “Who are you guys anyway?” I asked. “We’re kind of like a club, the people on the streets call us the Weirdo’s Club.” the speed girl answered. The invisible girl then asked me, “Hey, do you want in?” I looked at them for a minute and said nothing. I never had anyone ask me to hang out with them or be part of their group, I was just speechless. Finally I smiled and said, “Yeah, I’d love to.” 

	I ran up to them and gave them a big group hug, which they returned one by one after they got over the awkwardness. I was so happy to be among friends and so relieved to know that they were Weirdo’s just like me. “So, what are your names?” I asked them. The invisible girl said, “We don’t know, we can’t remember our real names.” “What?! You guys too?” I responded in a bit of surprise. I figured that other people would have had some amnesia, but I didn’t think everyone else would forget their names too. 

	“Although, we do give each other like code names based on what we can do.” the speed girl said breaking the tension. “Okay, well then what are your code names?” I asked. “I’m called Eclipse.” the invisible girl said. “Why?” I asked. She made herself invisible again and I heard her voice say, “Because people say that when I disappear, I disappear like the moon during a lunar eclipse.” “Nice!” I said. She reappeared and said, “I can also generate nearly invisible force fields and I can make other people invisible too.” “Cool!” “Wait until you take a ride in one of my force fields, anything inside them becomes virtually weightless and if one of them hits a power line or something, it’ll absorb the electricity and I can turn it into an explosive lightning ball!” she said. “Okay, enough about you, time for our introductions.” the boy said. “You can call me Avatar and here’s why.” he said. He stepped back and scrunched his face and grunted like he was angry. Suddenly his face became covered by thick reptilian scales and bony spikes grew out of his jaw area and large horns grew from his upper forehead, then he breathed into his hand and fire came out of his mouth and floated as a fire ball in his hand. Finally he threw it at the brick wall and it exploded, leaving a scorch mark shaped like his name on the wall. “Whoa, wicked!!” I yelled n excitement. “Wait, there’s more.” he said. Then he changed back and turned his hands blue and scaly with webbed fingers and scaly fins grew out of the parts below his ears and when he pointed his to a puddle near us, a ball of water came out of it and floated in mid air. Finally he changed back and his hands grew slightly bigger than usual and they turned grey, then his face turned lavender-colored and slimy and his neck bulged out like a frog’s. Then he let out a big burst of wind which sent the police cars still parked near us moving quickly across the street and into the abandoned building across from us.  “OMG!!” I yelled with delight. “Yep. I can bend the four natural elements, water, fire, earth, and wind and any other elements related to them.” he said. “Awesome! Now what can you do exactly?” I asked as I looked at the last girl. She ran at super fast speed from across the street and back again. “Isn’t that explanation enough for you?” she said. “I suppose so. Can you do anything else?” I asked. “Yeah, I was the one who found you. I knew what your power was all along and I know that there are about 20-30 Weirdoes in this city and almost none of them are as powerful as us.” “So you can sense other Weirdoes and their powers?” She nodded her head. “Oh, by the way, I can read people’s thoughts as well, I just forgot to tell you.” Avatar said. “Nice! Also, what’s your name?” I asked the speed girl. “You can call me Speedy-T.” “What does the T stand for?” I asked. “Well, that’s all I know of my real name. It’s something beginning with the letter T, but I can never remember what it was.” she responded. “Oh, cool.” I said. 

	“So what are we gonna call you?” Eclipse asked. I thought about it for a minute and then blurted out, “Vamp! Call me Vamp!!” “Why?” Avatar asked. “Well, other than my black hair, pale skin, and slightly fang-like teeth making me look like a vampire, I’m pretty much just like one. Except instead of taking people’s blood, I take their energy and powers.” I answered. “Okay, that is definitely a good reason for that name.” Eclipse said. I nodded with joy and then Speedy-T said, “Even though I’m not the leader, I’ll say it. Welcome to the Weirdo’s Club, Mr. Vamp!!” “Thank you Madame Speedy-T, Madame Eclipse, and Sir Avatar!!” I said in my crazy fake British accent. As we laughed at our little joke, I felt my body tingle with the warmth of happiness as I realized that the disappearing sweetheart and the elemental jokester and the speed she-demon were now the closest thing I had to what I’d craved since I woke up from my coma. A family that I could actually relate to, both in personality and in DNA.   
Weirdo’s Club, 11-12, p.1