The young man probably could have gotten away with being an alien, and was probably trying to. He had bright red eyes with black orbs, an outfit that no normal human would be caught dead wearing outside a Powered cosplay convention, and was eying the crowd as if looking for his next mark as he spoke to the woman next to him.

Both of them looked up as the four of us came up to their table. The two of them definitely recognized me.

“Oh, it’s the famous Dynamo, coming to join her lessers for lunch!” Felicia purred without a second’s thought. “And she even brought an entourage!”

“Thanks for the invite,” I replied without hesitation, hooking a chair and bringing it up around the small table. TK reached out, and dragged over three more chairs, which all three Summers men promptly turned around and sat down on around me, rather crowding the small place.

The young man with Felicia put on a charming smile. “Hey, now, there, we be not looking for any trouble,” he said, raising hands with gloves over the two middle fingers, a really odd fashion choice.

There was a flash and discharge against his head, and he jolted and nearly fell out of his chair. Felicia’s arm flashed out to grab him before he could fall out of it, his nose now bleeding.

“Don’t do that again,” I warned him coldly, as he blinked his roiling red eyes. “That was the absolute minimum I could do to someone who tries to get into my head telepathically. The maximum would have blown your head apart. Do not try to fuck with my head again, or you’ll be lucky to wind up a drooling idiot on the floor, permanently.”

“Warning received, chérie!” he muttered, throwing up his hands and tossing off Felicia’s support. “No harm meant, I promise on my name!”

Not moving my eyes from him, I brought up the holo display, ran through the menus, and hit the genetic scan button, keeping it focused on this room.

There were dozens of families here, each given unique hues to denote their relationships. Parents were a shade off from siblings, for instance.

The cluster of four related people at this table was totally obvious... and Remy was half a shade off from both Corsair and the two brothers.

Half-brother. Corsair’s eyes flickered as he figured it out, no doubt trying to remember how it could have happened.

Felicia looked at the display, and the Remy LeBeau name off his registration, along with Corsair, Dynamo, Cyclops, and Havok. The Black Cat got up, patting his shoulder, and said, “Come find me when your family business is done, Remy,” before gliding away.

I was pretty sure she pickpocketed at least three wealthy aliens eating below their means on the way out, too.

“Family?” he asked faintly, as the three Summers men scooted up to surround him, staring at him. Now that we were looking at him, the family resemblance was increasingly obvious.

“Scott? Show him your eyes,” I said, without moving mine.

Scott closed his eyes, and there was a flicker of psionic movement in the air, if you were sensitive to that stuff. Remy’s eyes flashed, showing he definitely was, even as Alex’s eyes began to glow yellow.

Scott opened his eyes, and they were cycling through five different colors, red through blue, a hard iridescent edge to them as they did so. Dark particle effects glittered at the edge of Alex’s eyes, not all that different from Remy’s black orbs, and the Cajun gawked at the pair of them.

“You want to do this where everyone is watching us, expecting a brawl to break out, or somewhere more private?” I asked him calmly.

He looked back and forth between Alex and Scott. His hands dropped to his tray. “Private sounds good, chérie,” he said, grabbing it and rising. “This is a tale I’ll be in’trested t’ hear.”

----------

We were in the back room, and if Remy was new, he still scanned the room and realized there were a whole lot of Powered people there, what with all the outfits and costumes and everything. If his gaze lingered on the table of young women, they certainly weren’t too shy to check him out, too.

I elbowed Corsair. “Now we know who inherited all the roguish stuff,” I muttered to him, and he looked both hurt and amused as I sat down at a table with all of them once again.

“I’m here as a moderator and level head, not a member of the family,” I informed Remy, pointing. “By the gene scanner in this place, Corsair here, Christopher Summers, is your father. Scott and Alex here are your half-brothers. The tech here is alien, at least a thousand years beyond that of Earth, so there’s no mistakes here. You are all family.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“We’re not going to let this fester, as I’m sure could happen if you decided to run. You’re in no danger here, this isn’t your fault, and nobody’s going to go into a mad fit for what’s gone on.” I glanced at Corsair. “You got a probable?”

“You from Orleans?” Corsair asked after a reluctant pause.

“Aye, born, bred, an’ raised there!” he declared proudly. The free city was a rollicking place of old traditions and new blood, lively energy and decadence combined. “I belong t’ the Thieves’ Guild there,” he admitted carefully, glancing at us all to gauge our reaction.

“Hmmph!” I was the only one who responded.

“You’re about eighteen?” Corsair asked, somewhat grimly.

“Three months shy,” Remy admitted. He definitely looked older than his years. He was older than Alex, younger than Scott.

“Sordid story, Captain?” I asked directly.

His eyes were cold, but he just sighed and let it pass. “Went down there on a Fat Tuesday lark, back in ’60. Woke up the next morning minus most of my clothes, in a room I didn’t remember going into, and all my money and watch missing, too. I was careful not to get drunk, so I know it wasn’t that, but I had the mother of all headaches regardless.

“You were roofied, raped, and robbed by someone.” His face twisted at the blunt words, but he slowly nodded. Remy’s lips were pursed as I looked back at him. “Do you know for certain you were raised by your birth mother?” I asked him.

He slowly shook his head. “I was adopted by the guild master,” he answered slowly. “No blood relation.”

“And positioned in a place of high birth by someone, relatively speaking,” I noted, unamused. “So, who did this is probably someone your adoptive father knows, although not the circumstances, why, or how.

“Again, you aren’t to blame, and we aren’t blaming you, Remy LeBeau. But this is blood calling to blood. Scott, shoot Alex.”

Without hesitation, Scott turned his head and let go a blast of ruby-red light, thin and very distinct. It slammed into Alex... and all that happened was the light in Alex’s eyes jumped a little brighter.

“Alex, shoot Scott.”

The blond Summers son lifted a finger, which lit up with golden light and particle effects. He shot his older brother in the chest, and all that happened is that Scott’s eyes went white for a second.

“We all know you’ve got mental powers. Can you manipulate energy of any kind?” I asked Remy shortly.

He looked back and forth between us, and then slowly and carefully delved into the pocket of his coat, lifting out a deck of tarot cards. I lifted an eyebrow at him as he flicked up a two of swords, and purple-red dots began to dance about it.

“Minimum power. Does it detonate on impact or command?” I inquired shortly.

“Command?” he responded hesitantly, as if surprised I knew what it was supposed to do. The particle effects faded down.

“Give it to Scott, and blow it up in his hand.” Both of them only hesitated a moment, then Remy offered the glowing card, and Scott reached out to pluck it from his hand.

He held it a second before Remy’s finger twitched, and the card detonated, atomizing instantly in a small explosion, like a firecracker going off.

For a second, Scott’s eyes went purplish-white.

“Toss one at Alex’s chest.”

His lips pursed in an O; he did so, the particle effects notably stronger as he deftly sent the three of swords spinning into the blond teenager’s chest.

It blew apart, and didn’t even ruffle his shirt. Alex’s golden eyes also blackened for a moment.

“Scott, shoot him. First three colors,” I pointed, as Corsair watched all this with great interest.

Scott pulled out his travel visor, very slim compared to his combat form, and set it on his nose. The red circle opened up, and he zapped Remy once. The central circle rapidly cycled to orange and yellow, and he followed up with those blasts swiftly.

There was no reaction, except for Remy’s irises glowing pure red, orange, and yellow in turn before fading back to normal.

“Alex?” I prompted him. There was a short, sharp flash against Remy’s chest, and we could feel some air pressure displacement, but again it didn’t even ruffle Remy’s shirt, although for a moment the black orbs were glowing with golden light.

“We’ve found that Summers brothers are completely impervious to one another’s powers, the best they can do is charge one another up. You probably can’t affect them with whatever mental tricks you were trying to pull, either.” I turned to look at Corsair thoughtfully. “I know you’re a normal human, but do you mind testing something? I can fix you up if there’s something wrong.”

“If he was using psi, I didn’t feel any push earlier,” Corsair stated firmly, holding out his hand. “Give me a card.”

Remy carefully laid a barely-charged four of swords on Corsair’s palm, and detonated it.

Corsair’s gloved hand didn’t twitch in the slightest. He looked at it thoughtfully. “Scott, Alex, see if your old man can tolerate you.”

There was a quick zap of hard ruby light, and a pulse of minor explosive force. Corsair didn’t move at all, but there was nothing around his eyes, either.

“Well, that is incredibly reassuring,” Corsair mused, smiling faintly as he brushed nothing off himself. “You’ve also a younger half-brother named Gabriel, who is currently in the hands of the bloodthirsty Imperial Family of the Shi’ar of the Andromeda Galaxy a million light years away, led by that woman’s stark looney brother.” Everyone turned to look at Lilandra over in the corner, talking with Xavier... and now Comet and Lantern of the High Guard had sat down at their table.

Corsair was about to go on when the table beeped again. “The Hell?” all five of us said together.

I brought up the genescanner in some disbelief.

Out in the restaurant, surrounded by a bunch of Powered, was a fifth figure who was synching with Remy, but not with the Summers.

Even Remy stared at what was going on, looking at me in disbelief.

“Corsair, finish part of that tale you were telling your boys earlier. Remy can hear it later. I think he wants to see who the heck else he’s related to here.”

He got to his feet with real speed. This was turning out to be quite an interesting day for him!