Chapter 1

"Megan!" A woman in a ruffled pink apron called up the stairs. "It's time for school! Wake up!" When this tactic failed, the woman put two fingers up to her temple and concentrated. "Megan, get up, now!"

Up the stairs, a girl sleeping in a messy blue and green bedroom stirred, hearing her mother's voice resonating in her head. "Mom" she grumbled "you know I don't like it when you use your telepathy on me!"

"Sorry sweetheart, but it's the only thing that actually wakes you up." Her mother said in Megan's head. "Now get ready and come eat breakfast."

Megan got out of bed, pushing her tangled brown hair away from her face. She was only about 5' 4'' but she looked strong from years of training. In elementary school, she had forced her parents to enroll her in martial arts classes and she had signed up for as many sports as her schedule would allow. Her powers gave her no advantages physically, so she compensated by becoming as proficient as she could in fighting and any other athletics she thought a superhero would need.

She walked into the middle of the room, ready to start her warm-up exercises. Her morning routine consisted of pushups, sit-ups, acrobatics, and various exercises that warmed up all of her muscles. She flipped around the room with an easy grace, avoiding the piles of clothes and the desk covered in a tangle of wires and bits of small machinery that were in her room.

Finishing, she walked over to the dresser and pulled out a plaid skirt and white blouse; her new school's uniform. The school had a uniform policy to make their private school facade look more convincing. Those on the Council had many security measures in place to make sure non- super humans never found out that the school was really a training facility for people with powers. It masqueraded as an elite private school that accepted only the cream if the crop. This kept many non-super humans from trying to enroll; you supposedly had to win academic or athletic scholarships to go to the school. In truth, you simply had to have a superpower, and you would be enrolled automatically to the school, or to one of the other secret training facilities around the world. Megan pulled a brush through her hair, put on a little makeup, then walked down the stairs.

"Hey, mom. What's for breakfast?" Her mom gestured to a plate with eggs and bacon on top, and Megan's face lit up. "Yum!" She scarfed it down, pulled on her shoes, gave her mom a quick peck on the cheek and ran out of the house. "Love you!" she called back over her shoulder.

She ran a couple feet, and then leaped forward, rollerblade wheels folding out of the bottoms of her plain white sneakers, seeming to come from nowhere. She had designed and built them herself, spending many long years' worth of babysitting money in the process. She had designed the shoes so that the wheels actually folded flat, then popped out when she wanted them, using pressure sensitive pads under her big toes to activate the wheels. The wheels where clear, and made the sneakers look futuristic and cool, or at least she thought so. She skated forward, dodging people on the sidewalk and jumping easily over obstacles, before stopping in front of a building that looked like a mansion. A brick wall with an iron wrought gate surrounded the beautiful building. There was a sign on the gate that read: Brighton's School for the exceptionally gifted, est. 1984. Megan smiled thinking: exceptionally gifted indeed, more like extremely gifted.

She had been waiting her whole life for this day, the day when she could finally go to a school filled with other super humans. She had always gone to regular public school, and she had never quite fit in. Her relatively weak mental power had never been very hard to conceal, but she still felt adrift in a sea of people who could never truly understand her. Now, she knew that she was going to keep her abilities as secret as possible at this school as well, she was embarrassed about how lame her power was. She would impress people with her physical prowess, and maybe someday they would find out what her powers were, but by then they wouldn't care if she had a useless ability, she would have already established herself as a competent superhero. Well, that was the plan at least.

Steeling herself, she walked into the courtyard, then into the school, along with a few other students. She had gone on a tour a few days before, with a group of other rising freshmen, so she knew where to go. A stream of students headed into the back of the school, ignoring all of the classrooms that they passed. Their journey ended in a door that was labeled "maintenance". One by one, the students stepped into what appeared to be a closet filled with cleaning supplies and closed the door. After a few seconds, the next student would open the door, step into the now empty room, and then close the door behind them.

In truth, the room was a teleport that sent the students up to their real school up in space. They learned in a satellite orbiting earth that was designed to be much like the Justice League's Watchtower. It was a state of the art facility with privacy so the students could be themselves while learning to become superheroes.

Megan stepped into the closet and waited as a red laser scanned her body, verifying that she was a student. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was transported up to the real Brighton's. She looked around, smiling excitedly. It was amazing, futuristic metal hallways filled with other superheroes in training. The halls were lined with huge windows, giving the students a beautiful view of the stars and the Earth far below them.

Looking down at her schedule, she didn't see the big wall of students blocking her path, and ran straight into the back of a guy who was only a couple inches taller than her.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly, looking up into his brown eyes, "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." He smiled at her, and she grinned back- he was kind of cute.

"Don't worry about it. I'm Henry; it's nice to meet you." He extended his hand, and she took it rather reluctantly. Her power was always amplified when she touched someone, and she always felt like she was intruding, although her gift was still weak even when amplified. The minute their hands touched, she felt a tint tingle, then she sensed his emotions. While they were faint, she could tell that he was excited about the first day of school, and also excited about meeting someone that he thought was attractive. He thinks I'm attractive? She thought, blushing. Well, at least he seems nice, even if he is delusional.

"I'm Megan. It's my first year here, if you didn't already notice that. What's all the commotion?" She was referring to the large crowd gathered in the hallway, looking at something she was too short to see over all of their heads.

"It's Luck and Chance Luthor, king and queen of the underclassmen."

"Wait, Luthor? As in President Luthor?" she said incredulously. "I didn't know he had children, let alone super- powered ones."

"They're illegitimate. He had this fling with a table games dealer at a casino, long before he became president. She had the power to influence people's luck, help them to win or lose."

"Thus the names Luck and Chance." Megan said.

"Yeah, she named them. President Luthor didn't know about them until they were 8, when the mother died and named him as the father in her will. Suddenly, he was stuck with twins he definitely didn't want."

"I'm surprised that I've never heard about them."

"Don't be. After the initial media feeding frenzy, President Luthor has kept them out of the public eye. It's bad for his ratings, and he probably wants to be elected for a third term in a few years."

"He must have had to pay off a lot of people to keep the story quiet for all these years."

"Probably, but he's pretty rich, so I doubt it was much of a problem for him." They turned back to the crowd, hearing murmurs rippling through the group. "They must be passing by here."

Megan activated her rollerblade wheels, but even the extra 3 inches didn't allow her to see over the wall of people.

"Cool shoes." Henry commented. "Where'd you get them?"

"Oh," she said distractedly, still craning her neck, "I made them." Looking impressed, Henry offered to lift her up, and blushing again, she agreed.

"I have super strength, it's a pretty boring power to have." He told her, letting her step on his hands as he raised her above the crowd.

"Super strength is way cooler than my gift." She replied, before finally getting a look at the supposed "king" and "queen" of the underclassmen.

She looked surprised- these two looked nothing like the President. They looked like stereotypical superheroes. Chance was tall, heavily muscled, and square jawed, with bright emerald eyes. Luck was just as tall as her twin, with muscles and lots of curves. They both had thick, jet black hair and beautiful features. They looked like the kids Superman and Wonder Woman would have if they ever got together.

"Wow." She said, and Henry nodded, looking a little resentful. He put her back on the floor, and she turned to him questioningly. "Why are they only the king and queen of the underclassmen, why not the whole school?"

"Well, they would be, but the third and fourth years don't allow it. Even those two, president's kids and all, have to listen to the fourth years."

"Well, thanks for making me feel that much better about coming to a new school- now I'm scared of the fourth years." She joked.

"Don't worry," he said "I'm a first year too, youre not alone."

"Huh, I kind of assumed you were at least a second year, what with all your knowledge."

"Nah, my older brother is a third year, he told me all about it."

"Well, It'll be good to have a friends who's in the loop." A bell rang, telling them there was 5 minutes until class started. "What's your first class? Mine is The Origins of Evil with Professor Small."

"Same! Wanna walk to class together?"

"Ok." She smiled shyly at him, and they walked down the hallway side by side.

In case it wasn't clear, the Luthor twins are 15, in 2nd year, while Henry and Megan are 14 and in 1st year. Chance and Luck were 8 when their mom died, meaning that Megan was 7 when their story was in the news, explaining why she wouldn't remember reading about them in the news. Lex Luthor has been president for 6 years, 1and a half terms, meaning he was probably campaigning for president when he got stuck with the twins. Obviously, he still got elected president even with the scandal.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked the first chapter! Please review, I would love to hear some feedback!