Rogue Evolution

Discovery 1.3

Chinese was what was for dinner. A difficult find, Anna could at least imagine, for wherever the hell the three of them had ended up. What was even more strange, was how quiet it was. Normally when they all sat down, there was conversation, laughter, or at the very least one of them would ask how she was doing or how her day was. But instead, there was only silence as Anna munched on cold noodles and chicken out of her paper Chinese pint box. Her moms ate too, though not nearly as vehemently. Sitting on the bed opposite hers, as far as Anna could tell, the pair of them only had a couple of bites of their meal between them, before setting it aside and watching her finish.

Slurping up the last of her soy sauce-soaked noodles with a plastic fork, she wiped her lip with a flimsy napkin and looked up at them. Neither of her Moms met her gaze. Even Irene, who always wore her sunglasses, held her head in a position that made it clear that she didn't even want her head facing in Anna's direction.

Anna crossed her legs on the bed and rubbed her face up and down with both hands. "Will someone... please... tell me what in the hell is going on?"

"Anna - Raven and I -" Irene was cut short as Raven rested a hand on Irene's thigh. A strange secret language was shared between them, then Raven raised her head and looked Anna in the eye for the first time since she left for the dance.

"Anna-" She reached out and took one of Anna's hands. Anna noticed that both of her Mom's hands were gloved in sleek nylon gloves. "There are some things you need to know. Things we weren't sure when to tell you. Things... I wanted to protect you from."

Anna blinked rapidly "P-Protect me? Protect me from what?"

"Well," Raven looked to Irene. "We knew this would happen one day." She looked back at Anna. "Not like this exactly, but we knew at some point in your adolescence you would develop certain... unique abilities."

"Abilities?"

Raven ducked her head. She shifted seats and sat next to Anna on her bed. "I'm sure at some point in school they've mentioned evolution to you, right? How humans have developed from prior animals like monkeys and such?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, evolution hasn't stopped. The species continues to grow and try new things to see how it can better survive. Sometimes evolution gets a helping hand by modern science, and sometimes there are anomalies -"

"Where are you going with this exactly?"

Raven let go of Anna's hands and pushed Anna's hair back behind her ear. "There is... a new type of human now. It's not incredibly well known just yet, but the more ham-fisted types call them mutants. Mutants are people with special abilities that set them apart from the rest of the human race."

"And... this is what you think I am? A... mutant?"

"That word is crass and hurtful and full of misunderstanding. What people like me, and others like us, prefer is 'Gifted.'"

"Like... us?" The last word felt like dropping a bowling ball out of her mouth.

Raven smiled a low-watt smile and held Anna's hands securely between both of hers. "That boy at the dance-"

"His name was Cody," Anna said with a jolt.

Raven paused then nodded. "Cody... you kissed this boy. You said you had a sort of... melding of minds with him followed by a surge of strange power, correct?"

"Yeah, basically. I guess."

"It's what I told you," Irene said from the other bed. Raven looked at her, nodded her head once, and looked back at Anna. "You are one of us Gifted, dear. We knew for a while you would be, your Mah saw it because she's Gifted too. You, Anna, my sweet baby, you have the ability to touch a person and gain their memories and abilities."