Rising Stars is the story of the Pederson Specials, a group of 113 peopleempowered by a single event. In the late Sixties a fireball struck the townof Pederson, Illnois granting fantastic powers to the 113 children who were inutero at the time of impact. They grew up as the world watched. Labeled the"Specials" by the Media, their powers were monitored and catalogued by theUnited States Government. Public perception of them changed often. Were theythe future of mankind? A scourge? A random occurrence? Heroes? Villains? Rolemodels or simply caricatures? What would be their impact on culture and society?They were a waried as kids and adults ever are; some were more powerful, someless. As adults they became many things: a policeman, a corporate symbol, asinger, an assassin, a writer, a painter, a thief, a preacher. Some foundcelebrity, some notoriety, while others simply went to work and raised familieslike everyone else. But they all carried inside them a seed of something great.Something special. Something that made them stars. As their epic storiesunfolded, there were other stories as well...of their lives and the lives ofthose around them. This book is about those stories. Collected here are theshort stories about the Specials, a bit about their beginnings, a bit abouttheir middles and just a little bit about their end.