Apocalypse Parenting

It looks like the Threat on that northern hemisphere island has reached its maximum size, and there are two more that are on track to match it in a few days: one in the southeastern region of the largest continent and one within sight of a southern-hemisphere mountain chain.

– Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

“Meghan! Would you please tell Vince to stay back! His continued interference is stealing Points and important learning experiences from Cassie and her brothers.”

“You can tell him yourself,” I said, amused.

The rustpile in front of Vince faded. He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I heard her! And I know! You’re right…”

“Then let us fight, Daddy. You’re being dangerous. I was trying to hit the monster with my super tail, but I almost hit you!” Gavin had one hand on his spear and the other on his hip as his tail thrashed behind him. “When I get my level 10 ability, I will have to take super speed too, to keep you safe.”

The look on Vince’s face as he was lectured by his six-year-old was priceless. He cast an embarrassed look at the aide who'd been following us around at a discreet distance, but she was examining the sky with a studious expression, even as her mouth twitched with a suppressed smile.

I decided to help Vince out a little, changing the subject. “What’s your Point total, Gavin?”

He scrunched up his face. “Uhhh… Seven two three…”

Pointy took pity on him. “He currently has 72,322 points. He needs another 1,262 to get his next ability.”

The mega treezilla had given each person who had fought against it close to 40,000 Points, enough to put the boys over the threshold for their ninth ability - or, as Vince was calling it, level 9 - and well on their way to their tenth. Vince had gotten his tenth ability. Gavin had lobbied hard for him to take extensible limb so they could be “monkey twins,” but I’d asked Vince not to do that, at least not while we were riding with two dozen other people in the cramped back of a semi truck.

“It took Gavin a long time to get control of his tail, Vince. If you take it right now? As strong as you are? You could rip the truck in half by accident!”

Gavin had been disappointed, but had rapidly switched to lobbying his dad to take Natural Weapons, so they could be “claws twins!” as well as “king twins,” a designation Gavin had decided on as soon as he’d realized that both he and Vince were rulers. It had frustrated Micah, who had argued long and loud that wearing the same thing didn’t make you someone’s twin, but Gavin had remained unshaken. To Micah’s frustration, Vince had solemnly agreed to be “claws twins” with Gavin.

I’d been a little surprised Vince went along with Gavin’s suggestion so quickly, but apparently the ability was something he’d previously been considering. He’d broken and lost numerous weapons on his journey across the country, and he liked the sound of a permanent backup that would grow in strength as he did. He’d snagged the augment, then started quizzing Gavin about his own abilities… revealing that Gavin had been repeatedly breaking his own bones since he’d taken Enhanced Musculature at “Level 8.”

“Gavin! How could you?!”

“What? It’s not a big deal. It hurts but I always fix it.”

That argument hadn’t held much water with me. My baby had been breaking his own bones? Every day?! Vince had seemed upset too.

“Gavin. Take Biological Augment: Reinforced Skeleton,” Vince had commanded.

Gavin squirmed. “Why? Super ears or eyes sound more fun…”

Vince frowned, then paused. “You don’t want to be skeleton twins with me?”

“We can be skeleton twins!? King skeleton claw twins!?”

He’d needed no further convincing.

Micah had continued diversifying his energy types, taking an ability simply called Light. The basic behavior of the ability was creating a moveable light orb of modest brightness. With Micah’s synergy, however, he could flare it brightly enough to disrupt enemies’ vision and even shape it so that it didn’t hamper us.

Cassie and I, of course, hadn’t even come close to earning our 13th ability. 40,000 Points wasn’t even enough to put us 20% of the way there, and I wasn’t in any hurry to go through a fight like that again.

Thank God I won’t have to… at least against the treezillas.

Redstone Arsenal had continued connecting with authorities across the country, a process that had been hugely accelerated by Vince’s assistance. It took a sort of high-stakes game of Telephone, but we could now pass messages all the way from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, California. We still needed to expand to the northern US, Canada, and Mexico - not to mention the rest of the globe - but we were well on our way to re-establishing a communication network across all of North America.

Locally, the story was even better. We had volunteers reporting in regularly about every corner of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and we had about half of Florida and Kentucky covered as well. Any nearby treezilla should be spotted and dealt with long before it got to the size of the behemoth we’d fought.

That should be enough.

If a treezilla got out of control in Arkansas or Indiana, it would be a tragedy, but not one that would threaten Huntsville.

We’d heard from the radio broadcasts that the aliens from Voices for Non-Citizens expected the Threats to have some kind of growth limit, but it hadn’t been clear what that limit would be.

Horribly, we now had an answer: a treezilla had apparently devastated more than half of the British Isles before finally reaching its maximum size.

And I never got to visit!

It was an inane thought, but it kept surfacing. I think, to some extent, I couldn’t process the vast numbers of deaths the Maffiyir was responsible for. “A million deaths is a statistic,” and all that. But the fact that I could never see the town J.R.R. Tolkein had grown up in? That, I could understand and take personally.

Upsetting as the news was, I was grateful that we’d found an upper limit to the danger. It helped me sleep at night.

“Go hug Mom or something! We’ve got this, Dad!”

Micah’s voice pulled me back to the present, a slime aflame on the pavement behind him.

Vince sighed and trudged over, throwing his arms around me as he rested his weight on my back. “How are you handling this, Meghan? You’ve always been the overprotective one.”

“Hey!” I shifted, trying to keep the haft of his spear from pressing uncomfortably against my elbow. “I wasn’t overprotective.”

I felt him shrug. “Compared to me! But now you’re taking them to fight Godzilla’s lawn ornament and standing around as monsters make them bleed.”

I stiffened. “I had to-”

“I know. I’m not trying to criticize. I just don’t understand how you’re doing it. I know I should be standing back and letting them fight, but I keep leaping in front of them anyway.”

I relaxed back against him, thinking. “It’s probably just… time? You call me overprotective, and I guess I was a little more protective than you were, but I don’t think we were that far apart. It’s not like you were trying to take them to knife-juggling practice while I was bundling them in bubble wrap. I’ve had more than two months to get used to this, and you’ve only been back for six days, and we haven’t been out fighting for all of those. Give yourself time.”

His arms tightened. “I spent most of that time worrying you were dead, too. I was so relieved to find you all alive. It’s hard enough to let go of you guys long enough to let you eat lunch. Seeing you or the kids in danger? I just… panic.”

In front of me, the kids took down a stabcrab: Micah using his flames to draw it closer, Cassie sending out Bigkitty to slow it down, and Gavin flicking his tail beneath it to stab its weak point.

“Wow! He didn’t even flip it over this time. He’s getting really good at that,” I commented.

“Hm?” Vince asked.

“You didn’t think… Hey, wait. Are your eyes closed?”

“I told you! I don’t like seeing you guys in danger!”

I laughed, and I heard a snort from the nearby aide. “I thought you were being figurative. Besides, the kids had that one! They were never close to getting a single cut! I should get Gavin back here to pin your arms to your side while you watch Micah and Cassie take some down by themselves.”

“I’m pretty sure I could break out of Gavin’s grasp,” Vince muttered.

“Maybe, but not quickly. Still… I don’t know if I want to make Gavin do that to you.” It seemed like a cruel way to get Vince used to the situation. “We’ve got to do something, though. We’ve been back home for three days and you’re getting in the kids’ way today just as much as you were on day one. There could be a new monster at any time, and a new duodenary isn’t that far away.”

“I’ve got an idea, Meghan!” Pointy called.

“Oh?”

“I’ve got plenty of recorded footage of you four. Let’s do a movie night tonight. I can project them for all of you to watch.”

“That’s a great idea!” I said.

Vince nodded thoughtfully. “I can’t say I want to see that, but it’ll be easier to see you guys fight while I can hold you, and know that you came out the other side safely. Thanks, Pointy.”

When we got in that evening, we did just that. I’d lived these moments, though, so I let my mind drift, thinking about my guys’ ability choices. Pointy was busy projecting the videos, but my perfect memory let me recall their numbers without issue.

I sighed. We were as ready as we could be.

Vincenzo Moretti

Synergy

Powerful Blow

208.3*%

Biological Augment: Sprinter

708.3%

Biological Augment: Reinforced Skeleton

691.6*%

Biological Augment: Infrared Vision

633.3*%

Biological Augment: Rapid Regeneration

733.3*%

Healing Touch

650%

Biological Augment: Enhanced Musculature

725%

Biological Augment: Oxygen Reservoir

625%

Biological Augment: Resilient Skin

683.3*%

Biological Augment: Natural Weapons

608.3*%

Gavin Moretti

Synergy

Healing Touch

633.3*%

Touch of Decay

591.6*%

Biological Augment: Extensible Limb

608.3*%

Shapeshift

683.3*%

Cure Disease

550*%

Biological Augment: Natural Weapons

650%

Biological Augment: Rapid Regeneration

675%

Biological Augment: Enhanced Musculature

650%

Biological Augment: Reinforced Skeleton

608.3*%

Micah Moretti

Synergy

Conjure Flame

608.3*%

Freeze

600%

Shockwall

633.3*%

Channel Electricity

625%

Heat

608.3*%

Sonic Blast

491.6*%

Charged Surface

508.3*%

Force Shield

375%

Light

408.3*%