My Love, My Hero

3: Family

"Hello their Elaine, It's good to finally meet you."

"I am not your daughter, I don't even know who you are."

"Oh my sweet child," as he got closer to the table the better I could see him. He was clearly a Japanese man, he had thinner eyes, darker hair, and he was also taller then most. "You know not of your history, or your family. Your mother, and the man you call your father have been lying to you."

He sat down, "Explain?" my curiosity was getting the better of me.

"Your mother was once my wife, but she see believed my ideas, my very life's work was evil. So she left and took you, my child, to America. Where she met her current husband and told you that he was your father." There is no way this is true, Mother would never lie to me.. right?

"I don't believe you, I think your a crazy stalker who has attached to the idea of me and of my Mother," I took a breath and stood up, "I am going to leave, and I will see you in court."

"Oh I don't think you want to leave yet my dear Elaine," he pulled out his phone, "One push of a button and your friend Peter is dead." He turned the screen to me, it was live footage of Parker through his window from the next building over with a sniper pointed to his head. "Please sit back down."

Hesitantly I did, "What do you want?"

"I want you to know the truth of your family." He set an old photo on the table, "This is me, your mother, and you as a baby. We were in Okinawa on our way to the dragon boat festival." A nostalgic smile appeared on his face, "I cared for you both deeply, but your mother took you away from me. Your name wasn't even Elaine."

"Then what was it?"

"Rai.. Rai Inazuma." The nostalgia shifted to despair. "I have never forgiven her for taking you away from me, but I also never forgot how much you meant to me. So  I searched for you, it took me fifteen years, but I finally found you."

This still seems insane, but the longer I listen to him, the more truthful his words appear. "Lets say, theoretically, I am your daughter, how would I know this for sure? Words only mean so much in this world. "

"If you would like, we can take a paternity test and I will have the results mailed to your house. I understand your doubts, any sane person would have them, but I am your father. All I want is my daughter back."

"Then it's settled, we will take a paternity test, but where can we even get one?"

"I figured you would react this way, so I have one ready to be used," The host man came back into the room with several waiters, all with plates of food in hand.

"We have your meals Sir," All the waiters set the meals on our table.

"Go get the paternity test." He was very authoritative with all his employees.

"Yes sir," and with a bow they were all gone. It only took about a minute for the men to return with the test. I took the swab and put it in the tube and he did the same. 

"The results should get to your house in about four weeks," He motioned to the food, "Why don't we eat?"

"If you care about me, why threaten my best friends life?"

"Because I needed you to stay," he picked up the chopsticks, "I would never have hurt your friend, even if you left, but the illusion is enough to get someone to stay." This still doesn't seem right.

His manipulation tactics were extremely well thought out, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Nonetheless I ate dinner with him, no way I was gonna pass up free Japanese food. There was no way I could eat here on even a months salary. 

After the meal I stacked up my dishes and stood up, "Thank you for the meal Sir." I bowed and he shook my hand.

"It was good to see you Rai, I'll contact you after you receive the test."

I walked back to Parkers house, a little shook by everything that happened. I still have so many questions but every time I would ask one, three more would arise. I walked up the fire escape stairs up towards Parkers room. I still felt a little on edge.

I knocked on the window, "Aye Parker! Let me in."

He rushed from his desk to the window, "Thank God you're ok!" He pulled me in the room with a hug, "I was so worried, you were gone for five hours!"

"Really? Five hours? It sure didn't feel that long."

"Dammit Aph, you and your ADHD,"

"I'm ok Parker, Nothing happened."

"Thats good." We both took a minute to calm down, him from the panic and me from the walk up the stairs. I really gotta work on that. "Well, what happened?"

"So.." I told him every thing, and he too was extremely confused. Glad I'm not the only one.

"Lets just be thankful he didn't want to hurt you, or me."

"Yeah," 

He checked the time, "I know its like twelve in the morning, but we should totally do some power tests."

"Yes!" I did a little happy dance and he grabbed some equipment, "Gosh we are such huge nerds."

"For real," we both laughed, "Ok, I'm going to hook this machine to your arm and it's going to test the electrically levels in your body."

"Sounds cool"

"So the average person has about 300 ish watts of energy in their body at a regular time, and this machine says you have.... ten kilowatts! Thats insane!"

"That is!" He took the machine off and picked up a phone and its charger, "I'm not putting that in my mouth again."

"Thats not what we are doing," he handed me the charging block and plugged everything up, "Concentrate on sending power through the plug,"

I put all my thought into and then I saw it, electrical sparks in my veins and and the power going through my fingers and into the phone. "I'm doing it!" We both started to get really excited, until the charger caught on fire.

"Shit! Shit!" I dropped the cord and he tried to smother it with a blanket. That did not work. I ran out of the room the get the fire extinguisher form the kitchen.

"I got it!" Now that the was fire was out we could celebrate out victory.

"This is awesome!"

"I know right!" 

Unfortunately, there was one variable we completely forgot about, May. "What on earth is going on in here Peter!"

We both looked at her and our mouths dropped, "Uh, May, I swear this isn't what it looks like!"

"Elaine!? What on earth are you doing here at this hour?" She stood in the doorway for a moment, "Are you two..?"

"No May! We were just running some experiments!" With a quick look around the room she saw all the equipment we had out. 

"You guys, I swear. Just.. don't do this stuff in the middle of the night anymore. I love you both, good night."

"Love you May," We said in sync as the door shut behind her.

"Sorry about that, you know how May is."

"Its alright. Its just because she loves you." 

"Well I think this was a success, minus the minor inconveniences such as the fire." we both laughed

"Well I should probably head out, its late and I got a shift first thing in the morning."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow, bye Aph."

"Bye Parker," Back out the window I went.

As I walked down the fire escape I felt something pulling me somewhere, so I followed it. It took me to a small junk yard on the edge of Queens, and then I saw something.. Is that the machine that gave me my powers?