An hour after Nick left the room I was still thinking about what he had said.

Why everyone keep saying that I am obsessed with my powers. I’m not obsessed with anything. But then, why I’m feeling the need to use them so much since we are here. It’s something about this place? Nicky is right, we have spent time in other planets with orders of not using our powers before, and I have always accepted it. After all my powers are still something new. Man. I can still remember the day I learnt about them…

~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~× ~ × ~ × ~

“Why couldn’t we stay with Stuart and Jimmy?” an hyperactive AJ asked as he kept on walking across the kitchen of the ship that a couple of days earlier had become their new home.

“AJ, stop it. I’m starting to get tired of your constant whining.”

“I don’t whine. It’s just a reasonable question, Howie. Why didn’t we go with them? We could have afforded a bigger and better ship and I wouldn’t be stuck with Brian and Nicky in the same room.”

“You probably would, AJ, considering that it would mean more people in just one ship. And don’t say that you are stuck with them. You have the biggest room. If the other rooms were a little bigger I wouldn’t mind share a room with you like we did it on the base. If you want you can have my room and I will sleep with Frick and Frack.”

“Thanks. It’s okay, I think. I do like to room with Rok. The only problem is when he’s acting like Nick. Then they just laugh about everything and they get on my nerves. But you didn’t answer my question. Why couldn’t we stay with Stuart and Jimmy? They are your friends. Stuart is Kevin’s best friend and those other guys are probably with them too. It’s not like we have a different plan. We are not going anywhere special. We are just going to try to avoid planets with too much presence of the Empire forces, and that’s what Jimmy and Stuart had planned too. Why Kevin wanted us to be on our own?”

“You are going to know it right now AJ, so stop complaining,” Kevin said entering the room and making AJ jump. “I want you all take a seat.”

“Don’t do that again, Kevin, you scared me. Hey, who’s flying this thing?”

“There’s something called automatic pilot, AJ.”

“This ship is old. Are you sure it works?”

“Shut up, Alex. And take a seat,” he commanded after taking a seat at the table. “Nick, Brian, sit down,” he added speaking to the other two boys who had just entered the room behind Kevin.

Everyone took a seat but a couple of minutes passed without Kevin saying a single word.

“Jeez Kevin, that’s really interesting. Keep talking,” AJ joked making Brian and Nick laugh.

“Shut up, Alex,” the young man replied before taking a deep breath and continued. “Alex, Nicky, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Alex and Nick?” AJ’s eyebrows rose after hearing those words “Then why are Brian and Howie here. What is it?”

“Already?” Brian asked at the same time.

“What you mean by already? AJ interjected “Come on, what is it? You guys are making me nervous.”

“Me too.” Nicky murmured.

“Calm down Nicky, it’s nothing bad,” Brian said putting one arm around his little brother who was sitting beside him.

“Alex” Kevin spoke up. “You were complaining about not going with the other guys. There’s a reason for that and it’s time for you to know it.”

AJ sat back on the chair and folded his hands behind his head. A couple of minutes more passed and he checked his watch “Are you planning on telling me this century?”

Howie smacked him on the head.

“Ouch. What did I do to you, man?”

“Thanks D. I was about to do that.” Kevin shot AJ an angry look “AJ, are you going to let me talk?”

“You are the one who is taking forever to tell us whatever you want to say.”

“Is just that there isn’t a simple way of telling it. I have no idea where to start.”

“You did it well when you told me.” Brian tried to help Kevin.

“When he told you what?”

“Yes, I know, but for some reason it looked simpler then.” Kevin took a deep breath.

“When he told you what? Would somebody say anything to me.”

“That we are different,” Kevin spat.

“Different?” Nicky whispered.

“Okay there’s no easy way of saying this so I’m just going to say it. We are different from any other humans.”

“Are you guys drunk?” AJ laughed but seeing the serious look on everyone’s faces he started to feel uncomfortable. “Okay guys, it’s not funny. You are scaring me.”

“Our families were different, bro.”

“In which way?”

“We have powers.”

“Powers? Like super heroes? Yeah right.” AJ was laughing again.

“Are we super heroes?”

“No, Nicky. We are not super heroes. We are just special.”

“Yes, you are special. You are special group of morons if you think I’m going to believe that.”

“AJ! That was uncalled for.”

“Just let Kevin talk, AJ” Howie interfered watching Kevin lose his patience.

“I’m letting him talk, but he is making no sense.”

“What I’m trying to say is that we belong to a different group of people who….”

“Are insane?”

“AJ!” This time it was Brian the one losing his patience.

“This is too much.” AJ started to stand up.

“Sit down!” Kevin ordered and the tone froze AJ. “I’m trying to explain it to you, AJ. You are just not making this easy.”

“Are you guys hearing what you are saying? Powers? Special? It’s something on the air here that’s making you say all this crap.”

Kevin just moved his head. It seemed like the kid wasn’t going to let him talk so maybe he just had to show him.

“Oh my God, AJ!” Nicky stood up quickly without taking his eyes away from AJ whose chair was floating on the air.

“What the hell is happening?” AJ yelled, grabbing the chair.

“Are you going to let me talk?” Kevin asked him with a big grin on his face.

“I don’t know how you do this Kevin but put me down. Now!”

“Are you going to listen to me?”

“Yes, yes, just put me down.”

The chair came back to the ground and AJ started to check it.

“That was a trick. Wasn’t it? This has to have strings or something like that.”

“Why would we want to play a joke like this on you?”

“Revenge? Pay back for all the headaches you are always saying I give you?”

Brian pulled Nick and made him take a seat again. The little kid was looking from one brother to another, not sure what to think.

“Okay, fine. You want to see more?” Kevin spoke up “You will see more. Howie would you show them?”

Howie just smiled and then disappeared.

“Oh my God, where did he go?”

“I’m still here AJ”

“Cool!” Nick said “You are invisible.”

“I’m not invisible.” Howie replied becoming visible again. “I was just playing with your minds. You saw what I wanted you to see. Kevin and Brian were looking at me all the time.”

“Can I do that too?”

“No, Nicky, not now, but who knows, maybe in the future.”

“What can Brian do?” the kid was so excited.

Before Brian could answer Kevin spoke again “We all have different powers, guys. Right now each of you has only one power but with the time you will develop new ones.”

“And Kevin has all of them,” Brian added.

“You have all of them? How is that fair?” Nick complained.

“I don’t have all of them, Brian. If you would let me explain it.”

“But you have them. The telekinesis is my power and you just used it,” Brian continued.

“Tele what?”

“Telekinesis, Nicky. I can move things with my mind like Kevin just did.”

“Cool!. What’s your power, then?” Nicky addressed to Kevin again.

“I guess you can say I have supernatural strength.” Kevin grinned.

“That’s lame.” Nicky made a face and everyone laughed.

“Would you just shut up!” AJ who had spent the last minutes quiet finally exploded. He stood up and started to walk the room. “You guys are talking like this was the most normal conversation ever.”

“It's part of our lives Jay”

“No, you can’t come here and tell me that I have powers like it isn’t such a big deal. You can make Nicky all excited about this but not me. I’m, not 11 years old like him. I’m almost 15.”

“Hey, I’m 12 and going on 13.”

“I don’t get it. Why you guys are doing this? This is a sick joke.” AJ kept talking ignoring Nick.

“AJ, you already know it's not a joke so quit that. You needed to know it.”

“If all this is true, then why didn’t I know it before?”

“It was a decision I took. You could say I bound your powers. I will be able to do that until you turn 18.” Kevin firmly replied. AJ just looked him into his eyes from where he was leaning against a wall, far from the rest of them, who remained sitting around the table.

“What’s my power?” he finally asked.

“There are other things I need to tell you before talking about that.”

“Like the fact that we are not humans?”

“We are humans, AJ”

“Humans with powers? That’s not normal.”

“That’s more common that you would think. It would surprise you to know how many people on Earth had powers.”

“Kevin why don’t you tell them the story.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do Brian,” Kevin growled.

“Sorry,” Brian muttered.

“No, it’s okay. I know you are trying to help.” Kevin gave him a smile and placed a reassuring hand on his wrist. “Guys,” he continued looking at AJ and Nick. “We come from a race called the Alomegas.”

“See, I told you that we are not humans.”

“Would you let me finish, AJ?”

“Yes, shut up AJ!” Nick growled out.

“Don’t tell me to shut up you little…”

“Alex!” Kevin slammed his hand on the table making everyone jump.

“I didn’t say anything.” AJ defended himself. Kevin just glared at him. “Okay, I’m sorry,” the kid finally whispered.

“As I was telling you,” Kevin continued, “we are descendants of an ancient race called Alomegas. The Alomegas went to Earth thousands of years before our time, AJ. We are just their descendants but we are humans in every sense of the word. Before going to Earth they lived in a little planet not far away from the Milky Way. Lots of Alomegas sought refuge on Earth when their planet was destroyed. They lost their sun so life in their planet became impossible. Since they looked pretty much like humans and had lots of the same needs and the same way of live, Earth was the only logical answer. This happened many centuries before men discovered life in other planets, therefore the Alomegas tried to go unnoticed and, in a way, you can say they fulfilled it. They kind of became humans and not many years after that they had already formed families, they married humans and had kids, who then had kids too. Some of their kids had powers, some lost them. And some of their descendants keep all this knowledge and for the years to come Alomegas descendants tended to form groups.”

“So our parents were Alomegas descendants?”

“Aha. There were lots of Alomegas descendants on Earth. Practically all the people with special powers there.”

“I don’t remember Earth having people with special powers.”

“Telepathy and telekinesis are just two of the powers that you could find on Earth. And what about the witches and wizards?”

“Those are not true. Witches and wizards are legends.”

“All legends had a bit of reality somewhere.”

“I guess.” AJ shrugged.

“But there are bad witches too.”

“Those are children’s stories, Nicky.”

“No, AJ, Nicky is right in a certain way. The Alomegas didn’t go to the Earth alone. That star, their sun, was the source of life for a second planet too, so they help the inhabitants of that planet, their neighbors, and they went together to Earth. But something happened and some of the descendants of the Tracons used their powers to cause damage. They just wanted power. The Alomegas and the Tracons were never real enemies though. But that’s another story.”

“So we are descendants of the Alomegas, the good guys, and we have powers.”

“Yes, you are going to become acquainted with them with the years. I share some of these powers with you because, well, because I’m the leader of the group.” AJ rolled his eyes “Yes, AJ, either you want it or not that’s the way it is. I guess it is a form to guarantee that someone in the group will teach the others how to use of their powers, but the powers I share with you are not my powers, and I will not be as good with these powers as you guys. As a matter of fact, I only share with you your first power. I can’t do what Howie did before. That’s part of the second power he acquired some months ago.”

“Are you going to tell us what power we have?”

“Yes. Nick has the power of….” AJ opened his mouth to say something. “What AJ?”

“Nothing, just that, well, you have to agree that this is a pretty fucked up story.”

“AJ!”

~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~× ~ × ~ × ~

A knock on the door brought me back to reality and Kevin showed his face in my room.

“Alex, we have to talk. Meet me in the main room.”

Why in the main room? He usually just yells at me here, in my room.

It took me a few minutes to make up my mind, I really wasn't in the mood to hear another lecture, but realizing I couldn't avoid Kevin any more I finally stood up and went to the main room.

----
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