"Hey!" Ty called out to Steve, grabbing a pair of one hundred pound dumbbells and doing bicep curls next to the boy.
"Hi!" Steve replied as he finished a set and handed his own dumbbells off to one of his friends, "I'm Steve, nice to meet you."
"I'm Tyler," Ty responded between breaths as he finished his fifteenth rep in the set and put the dumbbells down.
"I'm Alex," a blond boy, one of Steve's friends, chimed in, "Steve forgets to introduce everyone else."
Alex, the boy in question, was as muscular as Ty or Steve or any other boy in the room, but was notable for having electric blue eyes. Ty wasn't sure he'd ever seen such blue eyes in his life. He also had skater-styled blond hair. Then there was the boy currently lifting the weights they were sharing who had spikey chestnut brown hair and brown eyes, and Alex said his name was Milton. Finally the final member of their small group was a boy named Ethan who had green eyes and dark brown hair. "Isn't it fun being a meta-human?" Alex asked.
"A what?" Ty asked.
"Didn't they tell you this when you started coming here?" Alex asked again, only for Ty to give him a blank stare.
Alex sighed with exasperation. "Meta-humans, us, we're smarter and stronger than normal humans. Do you really see that many five-year olds with muscles like these?" Alex asked, flexing his right bicep and pec to punctuate his point, "Or ones who can pronounce the word 'meta-human'."
"Oh... I guess not," Ty replied, still more than a little confused by this new reality he'd created. "Where do we come from?"
"Nobody's sure yet. Some say it's a mutant gene, some say it's simply evolution. What they do know is that our muscles are more easily stimulated to growth and consist of much tougher fibres so we have strength well beyond a normal human's, and our brains pick up on information much more quickly. We're all too smart for the normal school curriculum, even if not all of us seem to pay attention," Alex explained, and Ty felt the last comment was directed at him.
"So we have superhuman strength and superhuman intelligence and our muscles grow more quickly," Ty summarized, looking over his muscular young body with new admiration.
Quickly he wished for himself to be caught up with the new reality, and for this wish to not alter reality for anyone else. A torrent of information suddenly flooded his brain. Not only was this gym cut off from the regular school system, but it was part of a large government run facility for meta-humans. This gym was for four to seven year olds, or the Novices, and the one attached to it was for twelve to fifteen year olds, or Apprentices. There were other gyms in the physical fitness wing of the facility for the Juniors; the eight to eleven year olds, the Seniors; the sixteen to nineteen year olds, and finally one for the experts and masters, the former being graduates and the latter being teachers.
Since meta-humans didn't need much to stimulate their muscles, they didn't need the gyms for too long, since even within the ranking categories only people of the same age used a gym at the same time. The six-year olds would be taking over in about forty-five minutes, so Ty and his new friends decided to save their conversation, as well as another pose down now with Ty, for later.
So they returned to lifting their dumbbells and spotting each other for barbell exercises, among other workouts. Finally Mr. Irons called them to put everything away and to return to their dorms to shower.
Once again Ty had to reach into his newly acquired memories to learn that each age group, Novice, Junior, Apprentice, Senior, Expert and Master had their own Internal Housing Area. Each IHA was in turn divided into four sections for each age level in the age group all centered around a single pentagonal common room. Each Age Section had several stories of rooms and each room consisted of a bedroom with four beds and a large wardrobe, and a bathroom with a large four-person shower, two sinks and two toilets, the latter facilities being somewhat separated from the rest of the bathroom. Meals were eaten in the mess halls, of which there was one for each Age Group and most entertainment was provided either in the common rooms or various entertainment locations across the Meta-Human Training Facility. But it seemed they still had school of sorts, in the form of physical and mental training.
Wanting to ensure he was sharing his new friend's dorm room, but not wanting to alter reality anymore, Ty wished to be switched into their dorm. "Oh Tyler!" Mr. Irons called out.
"Yes Mr. Irons?"
"I was told to pass along a message; you've been re-assigned to Dorm Room 1515, the same room as Steve, Alex and Milton."
"Oh, thank you for telling me," Ty replied as he quickly joined his friends. "Hear that? I'm sharing your dorm now!"
"Yeah that's awesome!" Milton replied.
"Ethan's actually from the dorm next to ours, in case you were wondering," Alex explained quickly. "It'll be nice to have that empty bed filled."
The new group of friends left the gym and headed quickly for their dorm.