"Jason! When you're done taking out the trash, come help me with the next order! They want a burger and fries!"
A loud voice echoed through a small diner as a woman carried two large plates of burgers around the table and toward the customers who ordered them. The woman looked to be somewhere in her mid-forties, but she moved with the grace of a much younger woman, and when she smiled, it was beautiful to make anyone else smile back at her.
Her name was Mira Marc, and she was a single mother and owner of the Marc Diner. Her son, Jason Marc, helped her out in the diner whenever he wasn't at school, and he was currently taking care of a group of boys that had been causing an issue in the diner.
The boys were taking TikTok videos and making loud noises that were bothering the other diners, so Jason immediately went over to talk with them. And when the boys didn't listen, Jason took them outside for a more 'physical' conversation.
The bell at the top of the diner door rang, and Mira turned to see Jason walking back inside. Jason was a seventeen-year-old boy with dark hair and eyes. He was tall, well over six feet in height, and he towered over basically everybody that came close to him! His face was set in an impassive look as he cleaned his hand on his apron and nodded at his mom while walking towards the kitchen.
"You said they wanted fries and a burger?"
Jason spoke up curiously, and Mira smiled as she saw some dirt on his cheek. Mira came closer and used her thumb to clean the dirt off. She then looked outside the glass door of their diner at the boys that were hurriedly running away down the street.
Mira spoke with a tired sigh.
"I hope you didn't hurt them too much. You know the kids these days aren't very strong; they never go to the gym."
Mira patted her son's broad chest happily, and Jason just chuckled at his mother's joke.
Jason hadn't hurt the boys that badly. When they went outside, he just told them to leave and never come back, and when one of them tried to attack him for insulting them, he smacked the boy hard enough to make his ears ring for a few seconds. If anyone asks, then Jason would say it was self-defense. The boy attacked him first.
It was enough to make sure they never thought of coming back. Jason knew that the boys were all older than him, but with his tall frame, it didn't really matter. They were acting like children, so he was also going to treat them like children.
"Don't worry, mum. I just talked to them. They said they were sorry, and they promised not to try it again."
Jason smiled innocently, and his mother just patted his cheek with a laugh. She knew that Jason wasn't telling the truth. There was no way those boys would just leave without putting up a fight, but she was glad that she had her son here to help her whenever she was in trouble.
"Just like your father—oh."
Mira suddenly put a hand over her mouth when she saw Jason's face turn dark once she mentioned his father. Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair before he turned and began walking towards the kitchen.
"Jason, wait—"
"You said fries and a burger, right? Is that to go?"
Jason suddenly cut his mother off before she could say anything; he didn't want to talk about his father at all. Not after everything they'd been through because of him.
Mira sighed tiredly while cleaning her hands on her apron, and she nodded. Mira wished she could talk about Jason's father more, but she knew that it hurt him whenever she mentioned his father.
Jason's father hadn't been around for the better part of Jason's life. It was more than ten years ago when Jason's father simply vanished from their lives one day. The only thing that he left for them was the diner and a note telling them not to come looking for him.
Mira was obviously devastated by the fact that he would leave her like that, but it was a lot harder on Jason since he was so young back then. Jason had to take up the role of the man from a very young age, and Mira could do nothing but watch as her son forced himself to mature far beyond his years in such a short time.
Mira, Jason, and Jason's little sister, Maya, were the only people left from their initial family of five, and they were doing everything they could to stay afloat amidst the difficult situation plaguing the country at that time.
She couldn't even remember the last time Jason asked her to do anything for him. Jason lived on his own and sent money to her from his other part-time jobs to help with the household expenses and Maya's schooling. And whenever he wasn't needed at his part-time jobs, he would come around after school and help her in the diner.
They didn't have a lot of customers since it was only a small unknown diner, but having Jason there just made things a lot easier for her, and she was always grateful for what he did.
She just wished he would express his emotions more. It was killing her on the inside to see him bottle everything up and act like he needed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"Mum, order up."
Jason spoke from behind the counter as he placed the order of burger and fries on the table, and Mira came over and gave him a smile as she took the order to hand it to the customer. Jason smiled back at his mom and sighed while watching the people move by on the street. It was another slow day, and from the looks of things, they weren't going to get more than thirty customers before closing time.
'I might need to get another job.'
Jason clicked his tongue in irritation as he thought this. Things were already hard enough as they were.
[And in today's news. Reports coming in show that another Red Gate has opened in the heart of Los Angeles, leading to the complete shutdown of the city. The gate appeared at 12:21 pm today and unfortunately claimed the lives of fifteen passersby before the surrounding area was evacuated. Our reports also show that the C-ranked Black Falcon guild, led by the B-rank Superhuman, Red Lightning, has arrived on the scene. We have Ferrow Wheeler on the ground to give us a rundown as things unfold—]
"Another one opened already? Didn't we have two of them last week? What's happening in this world?"
Mira spoke up tiredly as she saw the news reports showing on the television. The news showed a bird's-eye view of the city with a large red gate swirling ominously in the center of the main road. There were large police barricades and military tanks parked around the gate as they prevented anyone from getting close, and it could be clearly seen that a strange sort of energy was trying its best to suck in anything in the vicinity, basically forcing anyone that came close enough to enter the gate.
This was a Red Gate, one of the strange phenomena that appeared in the world ten years ago.
Ten years ago, the entire world underwent a massive change. Gates of various colors began to open in many cities worldwide, and these gates forced people inside by suctioning them with their weird energy. People were curious about the gates and they wondered what could have possibly caused them, but no one could fully understand. The government had to quarantine the gate because they didn't want anyone getting sucked inside.
But that turned out to be a mistake! Because after a certain amount of time without anyone going into the gate, the gate went through what is now known as a Burst.
The gates exploded outward, and creatures that were once thought of as fantasy poured out of the gate and flooded the cities.
Giant Lizards, Goblins, Kobolds, Hounds! They all charged against the many soldiers and policemen that had been guarding the gate, and the policemen were completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of them! They were easily defeated, and the monsters then began to terrorize the city, killing hundreds of thousands in their rampage.
But before they could overtake the entire city, they were suddenly confronted by a group of humans that possessed extraordinary abilities known as Gifts.
These humans possessed enhanced strength, speed, durability, and the ability to use magic of various sorts to fight against the monsters.
These people were referred to as Superhumans, and they were praised by all humans as the next protectors of humankind.
The Superhumans easily pushed the monsters back, killing most of them and forcing the rest of them back into the gate. Then, the Superhumans headed into the gate and took care of the monsters in there.
From the stories told by the news channels that day, the Superhumans continued killing the monsters until they eventually faced off against the main Boss of the Gate, a monster that was far stronger than all the other monsters there. And it wasn't until they finally managed to kill that monster that they could exit the gate and close it down.
The five Superhumans who participated in the first-ever Raid were given the moniker: The Five Rulers, and they are hailed today as the strongest Superhumans, with each of them heading their own S Rank Guild.