Virus

My parents spirited me off to the place where they were staying, and I was assaulted with words. Apologies. Concerns. Warnings. I just sat there and soaked it in. “We didn’t know if you had the gene!” My mom explained. I wanted to feel happy about this, but I couldn’t.

“So… you’re saying sorry for neglecting me my entire life, until you discovered I have powers and suddenly I’m your precious child?” I remarked. “It doesn’t work that way.”

My parents looked stung. Serves them right. “We didn’t want to, Kira…” my dad spoke.

“But you did. And here you are. What would happen if I had never developed this ability?” I pressed. “Would you have kept on ignoring me my entire life?”

None of my parents answered that, and that was answer enough. “Thanks,” I retorted. “Don’t even know why I bothered tracking you down anyway.” I turned to leave.

“We never planned to hide this from you,” my mom wheedled. “we always knew you would develop.”

“Yeah, that contradicts the first thing you said.” I responded. “You’re supposed to care about your child! Not lie to her face and make excuses about your incorrect parenting. I’ll do without your help.”

My parents perked up. “Help? What help?”

“You know, only the killer synthetic abducting people and leeching away their personality, nothing to worry about.” I retorted. “You’re supposed to be the heroes, you know. Not moping around downtown France searching for shoplifters.”

My dad’s face blanched. “Has anyone died?” he demanded.

“Thanks to you, not sure. Except- did you really think I just got these abilities normally? The Amalgamation captured me, dad. He electrocuted me to the point that my ‘gene’ had to accept energy manipulation or I would die. And you two did nothing.”

My parents looked shocked. They should be. I had buried it well, but the pain… oh, the pain was tremendous. My eyes had seen only bright light, which had faded… stars seemed to circle around my head as I had looked at the destruction- my destruction- and wondered what had happened. But my parents didn’t know that. They would never. Suddenly, their faces seemed to seize up.

This is your quest, and your quest alone… the voice billowed from inside my parents. It wasn’t the raspy hiss of the Amalgamation- this was someone- or something- else. You had good intentions, child of lightning. But your parents had to do this as well. You must do this yourself, the voice ended.

Suddenly, my parents seemed to come back to life. “That was nameless one, who rules over all Hyper- Evolved. If he says so, that is his will. We cannot help you,” my mom said.

“Not directly, at least,” my dad added. “I got some help on mine, but it was extremely removed.”

“You see,” my mom continued, “we are not allowed to help you defeat the Amalgamation… but we can help you harness your abilities.”

“So… sorry we can’t help you because some weird voice said so, here, let me show you how to use this weird power than almost killed someone? Great.” I snapped.

“Kira…” My dad admonished.

“Thanks for the help, parents who are supposed to care but don’t,” I remarked. “Now, I have a world to save.” I started to stalk out again, then turned back. “What, you expected me to be happy about this shenanigan?”

“We care… and we can’t help.” My mom stated, albeit weakly.

“Yeah, right.” I slammed the door behind me as I left. Perhaps, when I was done, I could track them down again… but I didn’t have the time now, and if you could do something once, you could do it twice… Now, I needed to rendezvous with Eva- meaning I had a plane to catch.