Patriarch Carson Stevens hesitated for just a moment when he saw the massive army the United Nations had assembled to attack him and his people—no. His children. Every single member of his race had gathered to protect Grand City, the capital of their country, Neoland. And every single member of his race was either directly one of his children, or one of his grandchildren. The world had rejected the neo humans, or novus homo sapiens, and after five years of trying to take the world for themselves so none could treat them like monsters or freaks, they’d been driven back onto their own soil, which they had raised from the ocean with their own powers.
A look back at his children who were all dressed in various civilian outfits, themselves ranging in size from young children to young adults, and a hand on his shoulder from the one normal human woman who accepted him put an end to his hesitation, and he gave the command:
“Our children! This is for our homes! For our large family! This is for the future of our race! Everyone! Attack!”
With that, the unarmed masses charged the supposedly superiorly equipped army of tanks, foot soldiers, aircraft, etc., and Carson turned to face the woman standing beside him: his wife, Matriarch Alissa Stevens, a normal human, and the only one who didn’t reject him when his strange and frightening powers began to manifest themselves.
“Our children, will they be okay?” he asked.
“You’re the Prime Being of all neo humans,” Alissa assured him. “Every power you have, they have. We’ll turn this around and retake the offensive. As you said five years ago, there is no other option but to conquer the world to ensure fair treatment for your offspring.”
“Thank you, my dear,” Carson said before kissing his wife deeply. “We’ll win this, and I shall aid in this fight, for as the original, I am the strongest.”
That said, Carson utilized one of his myriad of superhuman abilities that all of his children shared with him to change the atomic structure of the air around him, quickly altering atomic nuclei to change the elements in the air into human flesh and bonding it to his back. The mass of flesh quickly was filled with his DNA and the bones in it bonded to his spine before taking the shape of massive batlike wings the color of human flesh.
With his means of flight completed, Carson took to the air and flew towards the battle where his children were giving their all.
Some of his children faced the footsoldiers armed with machine guns, who suddenly dropped their weapons, tried to pick them back up, but suddenly found that their guns seemed as heavy as tanks. Carson smiled at the display of their strength manipulation to sap their foes’ physical strength. They’d probably increase their own next and give the invaders a sound beating.
Some others had managed to disarm their foes through melee attacks, and were currently overpowering the frantic soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Combat-specialty came naturally to his race, so they were absolute masters at hand-to-hand fighting.
Others were firing blasts of magic, another wonderful power Carson had developed, though it could only be used for attacks consisting of magic energy. Of course, they had another power to make up for that: dark elemental control.
The elements a lot of video games mentioned, such as earth, air, fire, water, light, darkness, lightning and so on all had sinister sides to them. Control over such things was something that all neo humans had as well. Some summoned lightning from the sky to kill soldiers or fry the systems of vehicles, while others caused the water vapor in the air to condense into a wave of poisonous water, which swept over a group of soldiers.
Carson cringed when he saw one of his children, a young girl, get shot in her pressure points by a spray of rubber bullets, rendering her unable to move. But Carson’s fear turned to pride when the little girl demonstrated the self-puppetry power they all possessed and got back to her feet with jerky yet controlled motions, got back into a fighting stance, and went to town on the soldier who shot her.
Then, one of the self-proclaimed “superheroes” showed up to ruin Carson’s day: A man called Sonic Boom, who could both fly and use all sorts of powers involving sound.
“Surrender, Carson Stewart!” Boom ordered.
“Ah, you’ve never fought us before, have you, Mr. Boom?” Carson answered idly.
“No, but no evil can stand up to my sonic powers!” Boom proclaimed.
“Ah. Well, it’s too bad that we’re not actually evil,” Carson replied. “All this is for my children. The ends justify the means. You’ll all understand in the end.”
“SHUT UP!” Boom shouted, sending shockwaves at Carson, who didn’t even flinch.
“Huh?” Boom said in surprise. “How’d you—”
“YOU CHILDISH FOOL,” Carson shouted back. “WE’RE IMMUNE TO SOUND-BASED ATTACKS, AND ANY POWER ANOTHER BEING USES AGAINST US THAT DOESN’T KILL US, WE COPY AND BECOME IMMUNE TO. THAT’S WHY MOST SUPERHUMANS STOPPED ATTACKING US AFTER THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF THE WAR. I DON’T COPY POWERS VERY OFTEN, BUT MY CHILDREN HAVE HAD THEIR SHARE OF COPIED POWERS.”
Sonic Boom tumbled backwards through the air from the continuous sonic barrage.
“Curse you, Carson Stewart!” Boom shouted as he started flying away. “You’ll get yours somehow!”
With that nuisance taken care of, Carson touched down among his children in the middle of battle and turned his wings back into air and undid the change to his own physical makeup, as well.
Many soldiers were either dead or dying, so Carson let the final power he shared with his children activate: death empowerment. Simply by being around the dead and dying, he and his children grew more powerful from absorbing the necrotic energy.
However, this was cut short when the air suddenly started to spark with purple lightning.
Looking around in panic, Carson saw four trucks with large satellite dishes on their backs, which were emitting the energy.
“Children! Retreat!” Carson bellowed as a swirling vortex opened about ten feet above the ground.
The vortex started to pull on them, making escape impossible.
Children started crying, parents tried to console them, and Carson started to cry in defeat.
“My children! I’ve failed you!” he screamed as the vortex pulled him in.
Matriarch Alissa Stewart watched in horror as the people who were her adopted children were pulled into the vortex that could take them anywhere, possibly even into the void of space, where they’d all die.
“Madam, come with me,” a voice said from her right, but she didn’t heed it and started to run towards the vortex.
After hearing her husband’s cry of defeat, she redoubled her pace and ran as fast as her normal human legs could go.
Soldiers tried to stop her, but she slapped them away. Carson was unable to turn her into a neo human, but he was still able to teach her about his infinite knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, and she’d learned quite a bit over the past five years. Twisting wrists and attacking pressure points, she was able to make it to the vortex, which was beginning to close as the last neo humans were pulled in.
Leaping into the portal herself, Alissa found herself in some kind of warp tunnel. But before the tunnel could pull her along to join her family, something grabbed her ankle and started to pull her back out.
“No!” She screamed. “My children! They need me! I can’t leave them without their mother!”
“Ma’am,” a voice said from outside as she felt herself being dragged out. “That portal could lead anywhere. Besides, you’ve been declared mentally ill for claiming to love such a brutish creature as Carson Stewart. We only want to help you.”
“If you want to help, then let me go!” Alissa screamed, kicking out with her free leg. She lucked out and kicked the man in the jaw, causing him to release her. “Carson needs me! If my family’s going to die, then I’ll die with them!”
And with that, the portal closed, and Alissa was pulled along through the tunnel, unsure of whether or not she’d just thrown her life away. But either way, her family needed her. Even if that meant joining them in death.
Further along in the tunnel, Carson continued to apologize to his children, who tried to console their father, but even four thousand caring voices couldn’t console a man who just wanted his people to be treated fairly.
“It’s all my fault. All my fault.” Carson blubbered, not even noticing that his body had begun to glow gold like it did once a day.
His children all fell into a hushed silence, watching as the one power their father had that they didn’t started to activate: the power of the Prime Being of the neo humans.
Carson continued to cry as the aura left his body and hovered in front of him, finally bringing him back to reality.
“So, one more child before I die,” Carson whispered. “One who never knew the conflict we had to endure. One pure and innocent, and they’ll quickly be snuffed out. How tragic.”
The aura continued to shift in size and shape until it finally decided on a form: that of an adolescent girl.
For modesty’s sake, the other children averted their eyes from their newest sibling as their father drew her into an embrace.
“Welcome to our family, Emily,” Carson said as he stroked her blonde hair. “I’m sorry we don’t have any clothes for you, but you can wear this for now.”
The other children gasped when their father removed his signature black and gray cloak that marked him as Patriarch and helped his new daughter put it on to maintain her modesty.
“The Patriarch never removes that cloak!” One neo human whispered.
“Does taking it off have any special meaning?” another wondered quietly.
Whispers and theories were exchanged among the other neo humans about why their father would remove his cloak for their new sister. Surely he could’ve found another way to clothe her, right?
Carson ignored all of it as he held Emily close. “I am Patriarch Carson Stewart, leader of the neo humans and your father. Many sub-families have formed in our young civilization, so you may join whichever one you want. I’m sure they’ll adopt you. Or, you can start your own new branch and come up with a last name all your own.”
Emily looked like she was about to ask a question when the tunnel ended and spat the neo humans out into some kind of wasteland. There was nothing but dry, cracked earth as far as the eye could see. Not even a dried-up river to break the landscape.
“We’re alive,” Carson whispered in disbelief. “I don’t know how, but we’re alive! My children! Here, we can begin anew! Whatever world we may be on now, let’s make it our own! Let’s take it for ourselves and ensure that we’ll never be mistreated!”
The other neo humans cheered, and Carson began working on altering the atomic structure of a portion of the soil into that of fabric. He couldn’t make anything fancy, but Emily needed clothes.
Soon, Carson had completed transmuting some of the soil into a polyester dress, which he gave to Emily.
“Thank you, Father,” Emily said before changing into the dress under the cloak. Once she was finished, she returned the cloak to Carson, who put it on again.
“Father, why is the portal still open?” a neo human boy asked. “All of us already came through. Shouldn’t it have closed?”
“Hmm… I wonder,” Carson muttered to himself as he watched the portal, which suddenly ejected the woman he thought he’d never see again before finally closing.
“Alissa!” he cried, wrapping her in an embrace. “Thank the heavens you’re alright!”
“I couldn’t just leave you and our family,” the Matriarch said as she hugged Carson back. “And we all survived! This is perfect!”
“Oh, Alissa?” Carson interrupted as he released her. “Our family now has one more member.” Turning to Emily, Carson made introductions. “Alissa, this is Emily. She hasn’t chosen a sub-family yet. Emily, this is Matriarch Alissa Stewart. My wife and your mother.”
Unknown to the neo humans, they were being watched through an incredibly powerful telescope that had been enhanced by magic. A quadrupedal figure watched from a town miles away, ready to raise the alarm if the new creatures did anything that might appear dangerous.