Ch.31. T
I'm not going to bother with the usual boring message that I usually put in this spot. We're all far enough into this thing to know the rules by now, right? I still think you should donate to Nifty though, coz they're awesome. And please send me comments and reviews, it gets so lonely on the other side of this keyboard, and Kody is talking my ear off like you wouldn't believe. So, emails? Tack så mycket.
Exposure.
Waking up in my own bed, next to the man of my dreams, was magical, for want of a better word. It was actually a whole lot better than the 5 star hotel room! But while I may have been so incredibly comfortable that my bones felt like jelly, I really needed a coffee and a cigarette. I try creeping out of bed, so as to not wake my beloved, but that didn't really work. As soon as I moved, he telepathicaly asked me,
Where do you think you're going, stud?
Coffee and cigarette. You coming?
You betcha, baby!
So we both raced down the stairs to the coffee machine, totally ignoring the fact that we were all powerful, and switched it on, and actually waited for the machine to spit the coffee out. Old school, right? Haha. That's when I noticed that the TV was on. I went out to the TV room, and found Kory sitting directly in front of it, barely blinking. Ax came up behind me and started giggling.
"Poor thing. We forgot to warn the boys that TV can be addictive." This got me giggling, and we almost forgot about the coffee. We went out to check it, and it had spilled all over the bench, overfilling the cup completely. We had to laugh at that, and decided to just do it the easy way. A couple of seconds later and there were two steaming cups of coffee, next to a packet of cigarettes. We indulged our vices and went to check on the others.
Kody was fast asleep, making the sweetest little sounds. Ax purrs lightly while he sleeps, but Kody sounded like a puppy with a cold, growling. It was incredibly cute.
Dyl and Zayk's room was a couple of doors up, and we almost didn't go check on them. We were just gonna go back to the ground floor and whip up some breakfast, literally. It would have been simple, and the smell of food would have woken them anyway. But, we decided to check them regardless. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw next. Zayk was awake, standing by the side of the bed butt naked. And I'll tell you now, it was a sight to behold. My formerly evil brother-in-law is HoT! Dyl was just waking up, equally as naked, and spotted us in the doorway. He yelped a little, causing Zayk to look over at us. His eyes literally were glowing red, as was the rest of his face, and he had the most adorable look, like, 'oh shit, they can see me'. Ax and I quickly closed the door and legged it down two flights of stairs until we were sitting around the kitchen bench, smoking another cigarette and drinking another cup of coffee like nothing happened. We could hear Zayk coming from two floors up. He came tearing into the kitchen, still not wearing anything. Sort of defeats the whole purpose of getting angry at us for seeing him naked.
"What the fuck were you guys doing!? Don't you understand the idea of 'privacy'!? You could have caught Dyl and I fucking!" He screamed. I think the look on our faces angered him even more, because we didn't really see any problem with catching them in the act. It actually made us both blush a bit. Seeing this, Zayk turned even redder, then looked down. At that point, he turned white. Dyl came into the kitchen behind Zayk, and quickly zapped some clothes onto him.
"Aww, come on Dyl! I was enjoying the view!" I whined. "You could have left him nude for a little longer!"
"Nope, sorry Tobe. This one's mine. You've got the other one in the set, so just be happy with that." He quipped back. Zayk started laughing really loud, giving Dyl a high five.
"But I shared with you!" I whined. I would have continued, but Kody appeared in front of us. looking tired and irritable.
"For God's sake, just when you learn how to sleep and start enjoying it, you're woken up by loud voices!" This time, Ax and I were the ones laughing. This continued for a while, until Dyl's belly growled. Me and Ax quickly conjured heaps of breakfast food; eggs, bacon, toast, fried chicken, hamburgers, steaks... You know, the classics. We were just about to dig in when we heard a strange noise coming from the TV room.
Kory was there, still watching the tv, making growling noises. Or was he squeaking? He could have been yelping. I dunno. He looked distressed though.
"What's that lassy? Did Timmy fall down the well again?" I joked. Ax and Zayk started laughing. Dyl had his eyes glued to the TV too. Just then, I heard a news reporter speaking.
"These images were sent to us from witnesses to the recent 'fire storm' in Stockholm this week. They show two young boys stopping the flames that were raining down, while levitating 15 metres in the air. Another witness reports seeing a group of six boys, two of whom fit the description of the levitators, simply vanishing. Dozens of other stories are coming in as we speak, and there is still no word from authorities. We're asking anybody who saw these boys, or who knows anything about them, to call us as soon as you can. These... Creatures... whatever they are, saved thousands of lives, and perhaps even the entire world. We have a lot to thank them for. We've never seen anything like..."
And sure enough, there was Ax and Zayk, floating 15 metres in the air, difusing the plumetting fire. More footage of the 'fire storm', as they called it, was being shown but it always came back to Zayk and Ax. This was not good.
The video went on to show the moment when Dyl and I teleported to the hotel room, and looked out at Ax and Zayk. They've got all four of us on camera using magic! This is sooo not good. I looked over at Ax, and he was as pale as a ghost. Kody didn't look phased, like he knew what was coming. That is seriously too strange, but totally not the main problem right now. We've been exposed as magical creatures! They're going to find us and dissect us and put us in museums and....
"Dad, stop. It will be ok. I have to show you all something." Kody said. Then his eyes started shining a bright green and I kind of fell into a trance. Apparently everyone else did too.
It was like falling asleep and waking up on an entirely different planet. In fact, it might actually be exactly like that, because we were all there and shocked at what we saw. Dyl was tied to a strange tree, with fire slowly travelling up his body. His screams were chilling. I don't know how I knew it was Dyl, because he was an entirely different species. I look around at my family, and Dyl, the regular Dyl, was right next to me. Then Kody started explaining.
"This is what usually happens when the native species of any planet you are on find out that you are not like them. It's a natural universal instinct to not trust anyone or anything that is different to oneself. The pattern is always the same. First they do not know about you, then when they find out, they love you. Then they grow jealous and wonder why you can do what they can't. Then fear kicks in and they destroy you, by any means necessary. What you see right now is how it always begins. I was hoping to warn you before you were exposed, but it seems to be accelerating this time. Which is why we had to come here. You are safe here, and cannot be found." Then he returned us back to our time. "Dad, do you remember why you picked this spot to build your house?"
Way to put me on the spot kid. I'm sure a couple of seconds to try erase the horror of that scene would do me well, but if you need to know now... Is what I would have said, if I wasn't still suffering from minor shock. "Umm, not really. I just felt drawn to it, it kind of just felt right..."
"And Dad Ax, you only put temporary security charms on the grounds, right?"
"Yeah, but Toby put a mega strong one up after Zayk attacked, so I didn't really think to strengthen them." Ax replied, confused.
"Well, you didn't have to anyway. And you would have never kept Uncle Z out, no matter how hard you tried. This location is one of the greatest concentrations of power on this planet. It always has been, nobody knows why. But Dad, you were drawn to it for that reason. Because even if you didn't know it, you were preparing this place for the arrival of the other three, and eventually Kory and I. Another weird paradoxy type thing."
"And what's the point, how does that have anything to do with the pattern, or whatever we're trying to avoid." Ax asked, still confused.
"Everything. In the past, you have rarely been in a place, together, that has the concentration of power required to contain you. What you saw before was your most recent life. It ended with more death and destruction than there has ever been seen before, you took out an entire galaxy. After Dyl was killed, Zayk went into a rage and destroyed everthing in his path. Dads, you were caught up in the eventual witch hunt, and either burned or beheaded. When you were killed, Dad T, the entire galaxy kind of collapsed in on itself. This is what we're trying to avoid now. You are closer than you have ever been to finally completing your mission. To bring about universal peace and properity.This exposure risk is just another step to your destiny."
I don't know how many times I blinked in succession, but my eyes were watering by the time I could process all of that. This shit is heavy, man. I can't even begin to comprehend the level of destruction it takes to destroy an entire galaxy, but it sounds pretty hectic. And our destiny? I'm 18 years old for fuck's sake! How can I possibly have a destiny? How does this destiny thing even work? Well, I guess, you can't really be all powerful without having some reasonong behind it. But why me?
"Dad, it was always you." Kody said, reading my mind again. "You're the patriarch, the head of this family, you have a more important destiny than the other three. You are the leader, the one that has the ability to get your entire species behind you, with your music. Music is the language of the universe, and words are the most inexhaustable source of magic."
Well, that kinda makes sense. And sounds familiar. "Didn't Dumbledore say that last thing in the last Harry Potter book??" I asked, eying my son suspiciously.
"Ummm... well... the thing is... I kinda read the books when you weren't doing anything interesting... And... Took a couple of 'phrases' from them... J.K. Rowling knows what she's talking about, ok?!" He blurted out, blushing furiously.
"Where did you get the books from?" Ax questioned. "Don't tell me they've got a library service in purgatory." He added, giggling.
"We had the choice to read or learn anything that you read or learned growing up. Harry Potter is just my favourite..." Kody replied, looking at the ground and trying not to turn purple. Poor boy, he thought we were mad at him.
"Holy shit! I always said that I'd read the Harry Potter books to my kid if I had one. You went ahead and did it for me! That's pretty cool." I say, grabbing him into a hug. "Which book is your favourite?"
"Deathly Hallows, straight up. I've even done backgroud searches all over the planet to see if the Hallows actually exist. No luck." He says, with the cutest look of 'you're the coolest Dad ever' on his face.
"'Hallows' is great, but I think 'Half Blood Prince' is the best. You learn about how Voldemort keeps getting away with his life. And Dumbledore dies, which was pretty epic."
"Yeah, you're right, that is a pretty good part..."
"Ok, ok, we get it, there are two Potterheads here, and how many non-Potterheads?" Zayk drawls, sounding chillingly like Draco Malfoy. He didn't really get the reaction he was expecting, because nobody jumped up to admit to not liking the series. Proving that Zayk is the most alien out of the six of us. I mean, even Kory was trying not to make eye contact with his formerly evil Daddy. Which was aided by the fact that he was still obsessively 'attached' to the television, but was still a pretty damning sign that Zayk is the only one out of the six of us that hasn't read Harry Potter. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him. No wonder he's evil.
"Come on! It's a children's story! It's infantile and inately inaccurate! Witches don't use pieces of wood to make magic, that's just hearsay and fantasy. And riding brooms? Like, seriously?" Zayk petulated. He never sounded more like a child before. It was actually a little endearing.
I was about to shoot Zayk down in his tracks, but Kory piped up. Well, Kory yelped again. We all turned our attention to the TV.
"And now, reports are in about mass riots in many parts of the world, calling for the catalogue and registration of all beings with supernatural powers. Anyone who has a supernatural power is being asked to report to a local military base for registration. We cross now to the Australian Chief of Police for a live press conference.
"In light of recent revelations, there is a question about how many super powered people there are worldwide. We hope to connect with these people and truly understand the source of there gifts. A registration process has been implemented to safely investigate paranormal humans. Any unregistered 'super-human' will be incarcerated for registration and cataloging. We don't want to make this into a war, we just want to understand what is happening."
"That is bullshit, " Screamed Ax. I've never seen him so fired up. "This is just like Auschwitz! They're going to test and then exterminate innocent people! History's repeating, what can we do?"
"Probably nothing. No one could ever do anything before, but we're safe here. Why should we care?" Zayk added, in his best impersonation of someone who doesn't care about anyone on this planet.
"This is happening because of us! We have to do something!" I say. I mean, I have no idea what we can do about this, but something is better than nothing, right?