“Are you sure you want to do this?”

My eyes glazed over as I stared out the passenger window. A hazy fog plagued my thoughts, and I tried to organize them. I needed a clear head if my plan was going to see any sort of success. My gaze was fixated on the house across the street – my home – where my mother would undoubtedly be. I had put this off long enough, and she deserved to know what I was getting myself involved in.

“Most people like to claim that lying is the easy way out – the path that lets you dodge all the consequences. The truth of the matter is that lying is hard, especially when you're doing it to the people closest to you for reasons you believe are for a good cause.”

“It isn’t a good cause,” I replied bitterly, facing the Old Man. Francis sat quietly in the driver's seat of his truck, giving me a sympathetic look. He looked like he understood what I was going through, and maybe he did, but I didn’t have the guts to ask him to share his story. “From day one I lied to her because I wanted to. I didn’t want her to know because I knew what she’d tell me to do. She would tell me to keep my powers a secret – to never use them. Kids like us shouldn’t have this kind of power. It’s the same reason why you don’t give children more money than they know what to do with. We just…” I weakly waved my hands as if to shoo away an invisible fly. “...go and blow everything up.”

Francis had driven me home, through all the detours and blocked roads. I saw all the carnage that was wrought from the battle. Grim’s rampage, Pandora’s bloodlust, and the ECU’s ruthless attempts to keep the peace. It was horrific. There were families out on the streets, huddled in tents. Destroyed businesses were doing their best but failed to pull potential customers. People were without homes and going hungry.

I had no words to describe the guilt that rested on my shoulders.

“In a perfect world, children wouldn’t get powers. In fact, nobody would. You might think that adults are more suited for the responsibility that power brings, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Look at what happened to this city – that was not the result of a bunch of children playing games with powers beyond their comprehension. That destruction was wrought by adults with deadly ambition,” Francis explained with a heavy sigh. “That’s what a lot of people don’t seem to understand. It’s not the power you should fear, but the person wielding it.”

I involuntarily shuddered. Mirage had said something very similar. I could hear his voice echoing in my head as I looked away.

“A world with no powers…” I mused aloud. I tried to imagine what the world would look like. Humanity wouldn’t be as technologically advanced for one. Mechatech did a lot to accelerate our development in that department. Other than that, I figured the world would be a lot safer. “Sounds like a nice place to live.”

“You’d think,” Francis chuckled. “Even before Evohumans started popping out of the woodwork like weeds, we’ve always been a species rooted in conflict. Just look at our history. War after war after war. It never stops. No reason to expect things would be much different without Evohumans in the mix.”

That was an incredibly bleak outlook, but I conceded his point. The first two World Wars happened for a reason. The third only broke out because of the rising fear of Evohumans. It was in our nature to fight over power, and I supposed it might’ve been cynical of me to assume nothing could change that.

“How would you do it?” I asked.

The Old Man turned to me.

“Do what?”

“Stop conflict,” I laughed at the absurdity of my question. “If you could, I mean. Assume you had the power to do it – that it was within the scope of what you’re able to do. How would you go about it?”

Francis didn’t outright dismiss the question, his expression turning thoughtful. He looked through the windshield onto the road and seemed to lose himself as his gaze swallowed the distance. After a few moments, he gave a long, exaggerated sigh before turning back to me.

“That’s an interesting question, Maxis. I don’t expect children like you to ask such heavy questions. Consider me surprised,” he said with an impressed nod. His expression slowly turned somber, and his features darkened considerably. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you. Stopping all conflict would require a tremendous amount of power to achieve. There is no real clear-cut answer to something like that. There will always be people out there in the world who will disagree with each other. When those disagreements can’t be met with compromise, that’s when things turn to violence. It’s a balance that has become increasingly difficult to strike as the world advances.”

I frowned.

“You don’t know how, even under a hypothetical?”

The Old Man closed his eyes and sighed.

“I think it’s dangerous to even consider an answer under a hypothetical. The people out there that think they know the answer, do that,” he pointed in the direction of all the destruction. “People like Grim, like Gaea. Like Cyberspace,” he emphasized with a stone-cold stare. “They think they know the answers – and they’ll do whatever it takes to achieve their vision, even if it means crushing those that stand in their way.”

His answer ignited conflict within me. If he was lumping people like Grim in with someone like Cyberspace, why was he working for them? He didn’t exactly give me the impression he was under duress, and Cyberspace had been pretty reasonable speaking and dealing with us. I couldn’t imagine Grim giving me the same kind of courtesy.

“Why work with them then?”

“I’m no saint,” the Old Man replied bluntly. “I know what I am. I know what I’m good at. I make sure that those around me that I care about are well looked after and I live my life one day at a time. I’ve learned not to take any half-measures. So far, it's paid off,” he observed my curious stare and continued. “I’m still alive, as are the people I look after.”

“Except Natasha,” I said without thinking.

Francis’ eyes hardened.

“I like you, Maxis. Be careful how you talk,” he reached over me and opened the door. “Time for you to go. If you need us, you know who to call.”

As I unbuckled my seatbelt to step out, I felt like I had walked over someone’s grave. It had been a poor choice of words, and I vowed to take the advice. I wondered if Sam had anything to do with that influence on me. I felt like I had always been a bit quippy, but never to my detriment.

As Francis pulled out and drove away, I watched the mundane-looking truck disappear, leaving me standing on the street outside my house. I turned my gaze and looked down the driveway before heaving a sigh.

I was not eager for this conversation, but it needed to happen. I couldn’t live with the idea of hiding this from Mom any longer than I had to.

Even staring down the driveway filled me with apprehension.

Maybe this isn’t a good idea?

I was already aware that I would lose my nerve. I had no preparations to counter it, but soldiering through was my only option. Part of me wanted to continue with the charade I had been putting forth, but my gut told me I needed to bite the bullet and get this over with. The sooner she knew the truth, the sooner I could move on and start making serious improvements to the future.

First and foremost, getting her out of her wheelchair needed to be near the top of my list – and I had more than one idea on how to do it myself. All I needed was her cooperation because we could sort out an alibi and keep our stories straight. With Cyberspace’s help, that sounded achievable, assuming they would be willing to help.

Something told me they would if only to help solidify my loyalty. I could use that to my advantage.

With renewed resolve, I strode up the driveway toward my house. It looked like it always had, with nothing out of the ordinary. It was just another house belonging to a middle-class family. I unlocked and stepped through the door without any hesitation and looked around. I could hear the TV blaring, but it turned off when I shut the door behind me.

“Max?” Mom’s voice called out. “Is that you?”

“Right here,” I stepped through the framed entrance into the lounge and smiled when I saw Mom wheeling herself toward me. There was a look of relief plastered across her face, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to surge forward and wrap her in a hug. I could save that for later after I had spilled the truth. “I see you managed just fine.”

It was small talk, and we both knew everything was fine from the calls, but it helped lighten the mood.

“Yes, well… outside of my concern and the noise, the basement wasn’t as uncomfortable as I believed it to be,” she rolled up the sleeves of her sweater and smiled. “You’d think with all the wheeling around I do, my arms would be enough to carry me up and down those stairs,” she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It’s good to see you all in one piece with my own eyes. You sounded so serious on the phone I couldn’t help but wonder if something really did happen!”

I suppressed the urge to flinch and fought down any lurking desire to groan.

“Well, see, here’s the thing…” I trailed off, trying to capture the courage I had only minutes ago. It fled so quickly facing Mom that I knew I would be stumbling over my words if I didn’t find it quickly. “A few things have happened. I’ve been debating on how to tell you and now that things have calmed down, I figured now would be the best time.”

I watched Mom’s eyes closely, and there was a flicker of sadness in them as she looked down.

“You’ve been lying to me.”

It wasn’t a question.

Tension built in my chest, and it took every bit of willpower I had to stop my legs from shaking. There was only one way to get rid of this feeling. I could not leave her out of the loop anymore, not with who I was involved with now. It would come out sooner or later, so it was better to fix things up now while I had the chance, before things could get ugly.

“I have.”

Mom closed her eyes and took a few long, controlled breaths. When she opened them, she was the picture of composure. She wheeled herself back into the lounge and gestured for me to take a seat. I found my usual spot on the couch and sat, unable to get comfortable. My gaze locked with hers, and I squashed any feelings of fear. Mom didn’t look angry or disappointed, only patient. It was a strange reaction. I expected anger, for her to chew me out for being a stupid child. Instead, she just waited for me to speak.

So, as I spoke, I started with the one thing I knew would explain why.

“I’m a Super.”

Mom’s eyes flicked to the floor before meeting mine again.

I wasn’t Sam. I didn’t have the same kind of cold reading Gold did, but that was another strange reaction I had not expected. The calmness was unnerving enough that I felt compelled to ask, but I restrained myself. Any questions I had regarding her unusual behavior could wait till the end. There was every possibility that Mom was giving me the chance to explain – to help her understand why I had done what I did. That was part of becoming an adult, learning from your mistakes. If she started yelling at me, we’d start fighting, and things would devolve into pointless bickering. I wanted to avoid that, and I hoped that was the reason for her patience.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“More specifically, I suppose I should say I’m a Mechakinetic,” I idly scratched the back of my neck. I hadn’t given much thought to my classifications, so I got caught up in finding the appropriate terminology. I could not affect anything biological – things that weren’t living. Technically, I didn’t build like other Mechakinetics did. I only improved things. That didn’t mean I was incapable of building. I had been referring to myself as a Mechakinetic until now, and I guessed that was everyone’s preconception of me. There was no point changing that now. “Though, my powers would be considered unusual for what Mechakinetics are normally assumed to be.”

Mom’s expression was blank, but her lips moved as she spoke.

“I… see.”

I coughed and cleared my throat, eager to move on to the rest of the explanation. Mom needed the complete truth, but I didn’t feel like sitting here and spilling the details of every little thing I had done over the last two months in excruciating detail. I planned to tell her the critical parts. From there, she could fill in the blanks.

“I haven’t had my powers for long. Just a couple of months,” my lips curled a little as I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I’m sure you can probably figure out when, given my behavior lately. I’ve been made aware… that I haven’t been as subtle as I would’ve liked to think I was.”

There was another long breath from Mom as she leaned back in her wheelchair, her eyes distant as her mind worked.

“I got into a bit of trouble and a friend helped me out. You’ve met her. Sam, that girl that was here on Sunday. She’s a Super like me, and we’re… working together, along with some others,” I rubbed my hands together to stave off the growing nerves. I looked up at Mom to see her just as expressionless as ever. “We’ve been establishing ourselves, growing this base of… power? Influence?” I frowned as I said the words. It didn’t feel quite right. “We’ve been surviving.”

Yeah, that seems better.

“This trouble…” Mom said, speaking her first words since I started my confession. She spared a glance at the TV. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with The Cains and Grim, would it?”

I wanted to deny it – to explain my issues were with another individual called Mirage. Grim was something I had been dragged into by happenstance. However, I knew that would be arguing semantics.

“They were involved, yeah.”

Mom nodded slowly.

When her silence continued, I decided to keep going.

“Since we got dragged into the conflict, we sought to find a solution to end it. By doing that, we’ve come into contact with someone very powerful and influential,” I braced myself, squeezing my hands together. “We met Cyberspace… and as of now, we’re cooperating under some kind of beneficial partnership,” I shook my head and grumbled under my breath. “I know I’m out of my depth here, which is why I’m telling you. I just… I need you to understand—”

“I understand,” Mom said with calm ease. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, removing her glasses to clean off some stray smudges. “The life of an Evohuman is not an easy one, Maxis.”

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

It can’t be…

“Are you…?”

Mom laughed.

“No. It’s not what you’re thinking,” Mom gestured to the wheelchair. “I wouldn’t be much of an Evohuman looking like this, now would I?”

I begged to differ.

There were an untold amount of powers in the world, and being in a wheelchair didn’t exempt you from receiving them. My mind raced with possibilities. Mentalist was the first to leap into my mind. They didn’t display any physical changes and could often fly under the radar if they kept their egos in check. Sam certainly couldn’t keep her mouth shut as Gold, and I doubted anyone with even a hint of that kind of power would.

There were a lot of classifications that could get away with looking ordinary if they really wanted to. Only Morphers tended to have that problem, especially Transfiguration Cases.

“You can be disabled and still have powers, Mom,” I pointed out with a suspicious glare.

Mom just shrugged it off.

“Well, I don’t,” her light amusement melted away, taking on a more melancholy look. “Your father on the other hand…”

My blood froze, and my heart stopped. Goosebumps formed on my arms, and I couldn’t repress the violent shudder that crawled up my spine. The topic of my father wasn’t something Mom or Alex liked to discuss. They knew him far better than I did, and I hadn’t even met the guy. He was out of my life before I could form solid memories of him. They were very dismissive of the details and gave me vague answers to all my questions.

Eventually, I stopped asking, and I stopped caring.

Until now.

“You said he left us because family life wasn’t for him,” I said with a cold edge to my voice. “What is—” I stopped myself, trying to stop the chaotic whirlwind from carving a trench through my mind. I couldn’t decide if I was angry, happy, shocked, or sad. “Who… why?”

“I never lied,” Mom said simply. “He found it difficult to bond with Alex, and when you came around, it was the wake up call he had been trying to avoid. We both decided it was best if he left so he could focus on his work. He’s an Evohuman – a Biokinetic. His views on life are… complicated. Clinical, and quite disturbing. I never held it against him. We both decided it would be better if he wasn’t involved with us.”

The explanation twisted my stomach into knots. Mom probably thought that it was sufficient, that I would understand, but I didn’t.

“You never—” I shook my head, trying to dismiss the festering uneasiness inside me. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

Mom picked at her fingers as she thought about that. Just her thoughtful expression told me enough. She considered never telling me because what use would that serve? It would only give me more questions, perhaps even endanger me. If I had known and gone around running my mouth as a child, someone would’ve taken notice. Mom, Alex, and I could’ve ended up as hostages in an attempt to blackmail him into cooperation.

Just knowing a Super was enough to put anyone in danger.

“When you were older, maybe. I don’t suppose it matters all that much now,” Mom heaved another sigh. “I’ve always been aware of the possibility that you or Alex could develop powers of your own, with him as your biological father. I had hoped…” she gave me a look of pity. “But I guess I should’ve seen the signs. I was willfully ignorant.”

I half expected her to break into tears with how quiet her words were. I was surprised again when I saw just how resigned her expression was. Mom still seemed just as calm as she was before. Something didn’t feel quite right. I wanted to believe it was because I was still reeling from the fact that my father was a Super – a Biokinetic at that – but my gut told me it wasn’t. There was something off about her, but I couldn’t place it.

Mom cleared her throat and continued.

“So, you’ve been involved in everything that’s been happening recently?” She asked. I nodded slowly. Mom let out a shaky breath and composed herself. “You were out during the lockdown too, weren’t you? You were involved in fighting Grim?”

“I was—” I swallowed, biting my lip. “I was part of the group that brought him down. He’s gone and nobody will ever see him again.”

Mom’s eyes widened at that.

“You and your friends— your group?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We found his weakness and used it against him.”

“No wonder why Cyberspace wants you working for them. It’s hard to believe they’re still around after all this time,” Mom muttered under her breath. Her expression turned more sympathetic as she met my gaze once more. “Why, Max? Why do all this? Why get involved? You know what I’m going to say. You could have avoided this if you didn’t use your powers so brazenly.”

“I would’ve been found eventually,” I commented off-handedly. If Mom knew how everything worked because of her relationship with my father, she should have known that her argument was fundamentally flawed. “I could have hidden all I wanted. It would have changed nothing.”

“Changed nothing?” Mom looked like she wanted to laugh. “What were you trying to change?”

“I wanted to help you,” I said bluntly, looking down at the wheelchair bitterly. All this time, I could have just gone straight to the root of the problem and worked on it directly. It could have prevented loads of headaches and pain, but then I wouldn’t have met Sam, and I doubted I’d know the things I knew now. “I did the things I did in order to help you. I wanted to get you out of that chair – to make enough money to skip the waiting list for a Biokinetic.”

It sounded even dumber now that I knew my father was a Biokinetic. It made me wonder if they were still in touch. If they were, then that prompted another question. Did Mom even want to be fixed?

“Money isn’t…” Mom trailed off, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Maxis, money can’t solve this problem.”

“Yeah, I realized that pretty quickly. Sam helped me on that front, and made me realize how short-sighted I was being,” I wrinkled my nose at my prior stupidity. “It’s partly the reason I’ve decided to come clean with you. I have an idea, and it’s only going to work if you understand what I’m doing,” I saw her open her mouth to say something, but I held up a hand to stop her. “One question first, before we go there.”

Mom looked skeptical.

“Okay.”

I had to know.

“Are you still in contact with him?”

Mom read my intentions instantly.

“He’s not that kind of Biokinetic. He’s unable to heal me,” she explained. “I last spoke to him six years ago. Our conversation was brief. We didn’t speak about much,” Mom’s expression changed to something akin to longing. “I called him. I wanted to see how he was doing, how he was coping with work,” then she giggled. “I suppose… I wanted to hear his voice again.”

The uneasy knot in my stomach returned.

“What’s his name?” I asked. Years worth of suppressed curiosity reignited, and knowing he was a Super only added more kindling to the fire. “Can you tell me that much?”

“His name is Victor,” Mom replied without a shred of hesitation. “Unless you’re looking for his Evohuman designation, which I’m sorry to say I don’t know. He’s never had one as far as I was aware. He’s managed to remain incognito because of the contacts he made prior to his Awakening. Unfortunately, he never shared that information with me.”

“Did he ever tell you what kind of Biokinetic he was?”

“He shared his work with me on occasion. Esoteric Accelerated Organisms, he called his speciality. A bit of a mouthful, I’ll admit,” Mom said with a laugh. “As to what it actually means, well, your guess is as good as mine. He wasn’t the kind of Biokinetic that liked to do a lot of cutting and replacing. He was obsessed with starting from square one, watching and noting the different evolutionary factors he put in.”

“He… grew things?”

“All sorts of things. Plants, mostly.”

“Right…”

Mom gave me a soft smile.

“Enough about that, what about this idea you have?” She spoke softly, redirecting my thoughts back to the initial topic. “I would like to hear it. Color me… intrigued.”

I stared at her, conflicted. I wanted to smile – to grin with pride. It had gestated within my mind over the last couple of days. I had more time now – time to develop more sophisticated technology along with my understanding of it. There was a lot of ground to cover, and the resources I had at my disposal would only accelerate that.

It was an incredible development that could open up so many opportunities.

But all I could focus on was the knot of doubt in my stomach. My father was a Super, and one that was still active to boot. I understood this world better than Mom did, and there was no way he was as incognito as she suggested. He was out there somewhere working for someone.

Not only that, but him being a Super meant that I was second generation Evohuman. That wasn’t a fact I could ignore. There were implications that I needed to consider now, namely the evolutionary rate at which second generation powers tended to evolve.

Regardless, I needed to keep my thoughts on track. Researching my father could come later. Right now, he wasn’t particularly relevant to the discussion.

“I’ve decided to expand my area of expertise,” I said, looking up to meet her gaze. “Tell me, how do you feel about cybernetics? If you ask me, I think you could do with a new spine.”