Still, maybe Andromida had a point.

  “Let’s say there’s the slightest chance that the prophecy is true, and the slightest-slightest chance that Kai is somehow the focus of said prophecy,” I said, turning back to face the team. “Well… how? I mean, that would imply that he needs to get powers, but what I’m seeing is a normal teenage boy. How do we get him from A to Z before time runs out and our universe is destroyed?”

  “Or at least ends as we know it,” Twitch said, then shrugged. “And good question. I’ve analyzed him with my screens, and… yeah, nothing there.”

  “Same,” I admitted, hating the idea of either of us violating his privacy in that way.

  “Maybe you’ve gone easy on him,” Shimmer said. Sometimes I almost forgot that she was a hardened soldier when she’d joined our team.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Push him. See what he’s capable of. You owe him and all of us that much.”

  “It’s possible that she’s right,” Andromida said, strolling over to me and taking my arm in hers. It wasn’t in a dainty way, but as if reminding me that I wasn’t completely in charge here. To my surprise, though, she turned and looked into my eyes, waiting to see what I had to say on the matter.

  A long silence followed. The rest all knew this decision was up to Kai’s mother and me, and she had already spoken her piece.

  “Okay, sure…” I said, putting up my hands in surrender. “But after this. Give him time to grieve, and then we see if there’s something hidden within him that we haven’t been able to coax out yet.”

  “Perfect,” Gale said, and Shimmer nodded with approval. I hoped they were right and that I wasn’t about to make my boy suffer for nothing. But if there was a chance he not only had latent abilities but could fulfill the prophecy, we owed it to him and the rest of the universe to find out.

  CHAPTER 3: KAI

  Earth, The Old Man’s House

  I stared into the old man’s eyes, wondering if he had the slightest idea what had become of his two sons. As far as I knew, this was the first time the teams had accompanied them to meet my grandpa. Was he so far gone that he didn’t notice Charm’s pink fox ears or her nine tails? Andromida’s blue skin? Harp’s wings? Unlikely.

  Then again, Shimmer was known to use her illusion skills from time to time, and I certainly wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she was making them all appear normal at the moment. Earth normal, that is.

  “Do you see them?” I asked, unable to take not knowing.

  Grandpa’s eyes moved toward me, then stopped and wrinkled into a smile. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Dammit, how could he have reached this state without me noticing?

  “Don’t worry, sugar,” Gale said as she came to a stop at my side and patted my shoulder. She leaned in so that her very ample cleavage was visible to Grandpa, then chuckled as his eyes went wide. “See?”

  “I don’t know if that’s appropriate, or good for his health.”

  Gale sighed, giving me a shake of her head. “Normally I’d comment on how Earth must’ve made you this way, because your dad and mom are much more… exciting.”

  “Ouch. My grandpa’s dying, okay?”

  She nodded. “And I’m sorry for that. But how do you explain the last seventeen years?”

  Of course she was trying to get me to react, but at the moment I really wasn’t in the mood. All of Dad’s teammates were like that—playful, too open with their sexuality. When I’d been just starting puberty I’d thought it was amazing, enjoying the sneak peeks of them walking down the hall after a shower and not bothering to cover themselves, but lately it only got on my nerves.

  How was I supposed to grow into a normal person with all those tits and asses in my face all the time? It set me up for unrealistic expectations, considering how perfect their bodies were.

  I let out a sigh, then laughed. Somehow Gale had managed to get my mind off the sorrow over my grandpa, even with the old man right there.

  Pulling out my phone, I texted Jenny and wrote, “Get me out of here,” along with the address. No response came, so I let out a sigh. Did I really want to leave? Maybe not. Maybe I wanted to be sad. My grandpa meant enough to me that the feeling wasn’t one I wanted to run away from.

  “Just… give me a minute, can you?” I asked.

  Gale nodded and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Sure thing, sweet cheeks.”

  When the door closed behind her, I turned back to Grandpa and gave his hand a squeeze. “Don’t worry about them, Gramps. They’re just…”

  What had I been about to say? He didn’t seem to care anyway, eyes taking on that distant, far-off look. I held his hand a bit longer, then stood and paced, wondering if it was worth talking to him or if that was just silly. If there was even a chance it would make him feel better, then it was the right thing to do.

  “Thing is, Gramps,” I started, “I don’t even care that I don’t have powers. But now there’s this talk of the prophecy, and… what if I’m the one who is supposed to fulfill it, but somewhere along the line there was a mistake? One that kept me from developing any powers, which will in turn cause the whole prophecy thing to not come true… and we lose? That’s a lot to have on my shoulders, ya know?”

  Grandpa didn’t reply, but that was to be expected.

  “So I don’t know, maybe I don’t care, but… maybe I do. Not for myself, but for the universe. I don’t have many close friends, but even so, the idea of any of them having their lives ruined because I failed to live up to my potential is gut-wrenching.”

  With a sigh, I plopped down next to Grandpa and then went rigid at the sight of a pair of eyes looking at me through the fogged glass wall.

  “Who’s there?” I asked.

  The door opened and, to my surprise, my mom entered. Andromida to some, the Blue Lady to those who feared her, and simply Mom to me. She wore her blue and yellow outfit with lines of black down the sides—entirely inappropriate to wear around one’s child, by Earth standards. I’d been told over and over that it was different out there in the Oram System, but that never made it less weird.

  Nobody would believe she was my mom, considering that she looked maybe ten years older than me at most and had blue skin and yellow eyes.

  “I had no idea you felt that way,” my mom said.

  “Damn. Didn’t know you were listening.”

  “Not that I meant to, but I overheard.” Mom entered and sat on the two-seater couch opposite me. “How’s he holding up?”

  “Distant.”

  She nodded, letting silence linger.

  “There… might be a way.” Her eyes darted over to Grandpa, then back to me. “A way to find out.”

  “What?”

  “Powers. A way to activate yours, or even possibly give you some if you don’t have them.”

  “Mom, that… that doesn’t sound right. And why haven’t you mentioned this before?”

  “If it’s part of the prophecy, who are we to judge?” She stood then, approaching and lowering her voice to be sure nobody else would overhear. “Your father wouldn’t approve… would say it’s too dangerous.”

  “But you?”

  She pursed her lips before answering. “I think you’re capable of anything you put your mind to. It’s just that in recent years that ‘anything’ has become a whole lot of nothing. But let’s not be coy here—you could die. There’s no way I’d be able to live with myself if that happened, so of course you’ll have to make promises, agree to meet who I introduce you to, and travel with them. Are you okay with that?”

  I gulped, totally caught off-guard by the strange direction this conversation had taken.

  “What exactly are you saying? How?”

  “With some help. First from me, with my ability to create portals. Charm will give you some training, and when we feel you’re ready, Lamb will be the last one you need to speak with.”

  “From the Ex-Gods?” I rubbed my chin, wondering how well they all knew each other. As far as I was concerned, most of them were no more than acquaintances, certainly not people I trusted with my life.

  “Are we good? Do we have a deal?”

  Hell, what choice did I really have? Sit around on Earth hoping to get the occasional blowjob because a chick at school thought superheroes were cool and wanted to use me to get close to them, or go off on some adventure that could either get me killed or put me on the path to saving the universe? Guess which I chose.

  “Deal,” I said, and then wrapped my mom in a hug. That might have been the first hug I could remember giving her, and as I pulled back and laughed at the look of confusion on her face, I said, “Point me in the right direction. I’ll see to the rest.”

  She grinned wide and nodded to the door. “First, let the others say their goodbyes. Don’t be surprised if your cousins want to join. Fourd and Helena came along, but don’t let them get to you. Before you know it, you’ll be as powerful as the two of them, I know it.”

  I tilted my head in confusion. “Who?”

  “Ah, sorry—Glaze and Snapdragon, I mean.”

  The whole naming convention confused me too, until I realized that I too would need to take on a superhero name someday. What an exciting thought! My mind raced with ideas for one as I exited the room and let the others enter to say their goodbyes to the old man.

  “Are you in?” she asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Perfect. After this is over, we’ll get you started.” She gave me a nod, then started to walk off. Goodbyes and hugs weren’t her thing, but she glanced back and gave me a half-smile before adding, “You’ll do all right, kid. I believe in you.”

  That was about as loving as I could expect from a dangerous superhero type, so I smiled wide and asked myself what would be a good way to both celebrate my upcoming journey and get over the grief over my grandpa.

  An answer came in the form of a blonde head moving along outside the window. She’d come to save me!

  I stuck my head out and glanced around, seeing Jenny’s curly blonde hair. It was just the two of us, alone. “Sent you a text but didn’t think you’d make it.”

  “Still never got to see that not-blue cock of yours,” she said.

  “Where you wanna go?” I grinned, excited to take her up on the offer.

  “Honestly, I gotta hurry. I was on my way to work but I just couldn’t stop thinking of you. So…” She nodded to the cover of trees nearby.

  I gulped, looking back at the house, and shrugged. It wasn’t disrespectful as long as the old man wasn’t dead yet… right? With a quick nod, I ducked down into the hiding spot and watched with anticipation as she joined me. Pressure in my pants told me I was ready, and when she knelt down and grinned up at me, nothing else but that moment mattered. Her fingers found my zipper, undid it, and then pulled me out.

  “Not blue,” she said, then bit her lip before taking me fully in her mouth.

  CHAPTER 4: SNAPDRAGON

  Earth, Berserker Compound

  “They can’t be serious, right?” I called out from my uncle’s bathroom as I checked my makeup, adding finishing touches to my lip liner—purple to match the streaks in my hair. We were preparing to join the others at the old man’s house. Noticing a bit of dirt under one of my fingernails, I slid my knife from its sheath at the back of my pants and used the tip to clean out the dirt.

  “About what?” Glaze asked from the other room. When we were younger I’d referred to him by his birth name, Fourd, but he’d thought it was stupid so insisted we all call him Glaze. What, like a damned piece of ham? Or was he the layer you put on a clay pot? The name made me laugh, but whatever—he was my half-bro and I loved him, so I agreed to use it. We all had our superhero names, after all.

  I slid the knife back into its sheath, then adjusted my shirt to show off my cleavage in case I met anyone interesting. Satisfied and ready to go, I strolled back out to him.

  “They can’t be serious that Kai could ever have any chance of fulfilling the stupid prophecy,” I said. “Or that any of us could, for that matter. You know?”

  Glaze turned to me from the couch where he analyzed a hologram star map. So many times I’d caught him staring at those virtual stars, and every time it had been the same—dreaming of finding the Supreme Leader and being the one to fulfill the prophecy and put an end to this fighting. I knew he wanted it, but the idea was preposterous. He was my brother and I cared for him deeply, so I hated the idea of this dream eating at him.

  “Don’t tell me you’re buying into it again,” I said with a groan, then popped down beside him. His eyes noted my cleavage and then quickly darted away.

  “Gah, put those things away when you’re around me.” He turned away with a frown and dismissed the hologram.

  “What?” I glanced down to see that he clearly meant my breasts. “Give me a break. Compared to half the supers out there, this is nothing.”

  “Half the supers out there aren’t my sister. That’s only you. Imagine if I walked around with my balls hanging out, or—”

  “Dude, stop. Soooo not the same. And you’re avoiding the question.”

  He shifted to face me. “When we’re out there fighting those fuckers, no, I can’t seem to find myself believing. But then it’s one step at a time, and we’re just a couple of supers among many others. But whenever I get a chance to sit with my own thoughts… yeah, I wonder.”

  “Except the loophole is bullshit. We might look seventeen, but we both know better. And that brings us back to Kai… who HAS. NO. POWERS.”

  “I get it.” He stood, heading for the door. “But that doesn’t change how I feel… right here.” He tapped his gut.

  He opened the door and startled at the sight of my mom, Navani, standing there.

  “You two ready?” Navani asked.

  “You scared me,” Glaze said. “How’d you…?” He laughed, and I shot him an annoyed look. There wasn’t any hiding from my mom. Her powers allowed her to locate supers, which could come in quite handy. I hadn’t inherited that power, exactly. My ability was something I called “Power Resonance,” which let me sense what superpowers others had, if they were close enough. From there, I could take one nearby super and apply her power to someone else, thus creating chaos. I’d had to learn martial arts to still hold my own in a fight, because as fun as my power could be, it wasn’t directly offensive.

  “Come on, it’s time we get moving,” Navani said. “The others are already gathering at your grandfather’s place.”

  “This shit’s depressing,” Glaze said, so I hit him.

  “Have some respect—that’s our grandpa!”

  He shrugged and motioned to my mom. “You can’t say you care about this. I mean, this guy is just some Earther at death’s door. We’re not even technically related to him.”

  “And yet he raised your father, the man I love,” Mom said. “For that alone, I say we owe him respect. You know, sometimes it’s more than just your looks that make it seem like you’re still seventeen.”

  “What, I’m immature?” he asked. “In the last sixteen years I’ve been off on the other side, fighting Nihilists and all manner of alien fuckheads. Me, immature?”

  “Perhaps that’s the problem,” I said. “You think maturity is gained by fighting.”

  “Let’s get it over with.”

  He headed for the door, but paused next to my mom. “You really believe in this prophecy? That one of us three will see it through?”

  “When a super sees the future and gets every single prediction correct, you give those visions your full attention. I’d be dead a long time ago if I’d done otherwise.”

  “So this super who made the prophecy, you knew her?” I asked.

  Mom nodded, a distant look overtaking her eyes. “Before her death… And yes, she foretold that, too. We simply weren’t able to stop it. That was the moment that left the Citadel in a problematic state, but a state that your father and his brother helped to put right. If I ever meet that son of a bitch Ragnor, I’ll do everything in my power to see him dead.”

  “Well, shit.”

  She led the way outside, and as we exited I asked, “Is Dad around?”

  “Actually, he’s driving,” Mom replied. “Thought it would be fun to take one of the old-style hover crafts, just you two, your father, and your mothers.”

  I was surprised to see Threed leaning against the vehicle with a hand caressing our dad’s thigh, moving up toward his package. Threed was a wild one. She was just whacko enough to think making moves on our dad in front of us was fine.

  “Ahem.” I cleared my throat as we approached.

  “Seriously, Mom. Pick your moments,” Glaze added.

  “What, you scared you’ll get another sibling?” Threed gave me a wink, as if somehow I’d think that was funny.

  Our dad moved her hand aside and grinned. It was weird seeing him in Earth clothes, but sure enough he wore his Marine Corps dress blues, complete with medals on one side.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Are you allowed to wear that?” Glaze asked. “I mean, you’re not technically in the Marines anymore.”

  Dad laughed. “As far as they know, I’m dead. I mean, probably. Hell, maybe I am and all of this has been my purgatory.”

  “Fuck that,” Threed said, giving him a slap on the ass before strolling around to the other side of the vehicle. “You’re in heaven, if anything. I mean, look at me!”

  She wasn’t wrong—she looked damn good. It was hard to believe she was Glaze’s mom.

  We all piled in, and the drive was actually kind of fun. Especially when Dad pointed out a corner he said he used to skate at, then indicated an ice cream shop and said it had been his favorite and that we had to stop by. None of us protested. As I licked my scoop of mint chocolate chip, I had to wonder what growing up here would have been like. Sure, I’d heard the stories of how tough Earth had been, what with it nearly collapsing under poverty and corruption. That didn’t mean the people were in constant fear of a supervillain arriving to wipe them out, though, so I’d say my deal was in many ways worse.