"Dad!"
Malcolm groaned as he took a look at the alarm clock, then buried his face in his pillow. His daughter was knocking on the door to his bedroom in that rather persistent way seven year old kids knocks on doors.
"Daaad! Come on, wake up!" Kory went on without mercy. "You promised that I could have pancakes today! You promiiiised!"
"Malcolm..." Aleea yawned as she pulled the duvet away from her husband and buried herself under it. "Get up. Your daughter is waiting for you."
"It's five at the morning, so she is YOUR daughter."
"No, it's Wednesday, so she is YOUR daughter."
"You just made that up."
"DAAAAAD!"
"Coming, coming..." Malcolm pulled himself together and got up. He got dressed in a hurry, found his glasses under the bed (god knows why he left them there to begin with) and opened the door. Kory smiled so that he could see the two black holes where her front teeth had once been and where they would eventually be again. She was dressed in her favorite green sweater with yellow stripes. Her purple hair looked like a mess since she was still scared of letting anyone but her parents cut her hair, and neither Malcolm nor Aleea were that skilled with scissors.
"Can we make pancakes now?" She asked, as she looked at her father with her completely black eyes. It looked like she had two small onyx gem stones for eyes.
"Goodmorning to you too, sweetie." Malcolm picked Kory up and gave her a hug. "What happened to the magic words, hmm?"
"Sorry, dad." Kory giggled. "It's just that your pancakes are sooooo great. And mom can't cook. How come you can but mom can't?"
"That's because dad is human, Kory. We are the greatest chefs in the universe." Malcolm kissed Kory on the forehead then sat her on the kitchen table. "And mom is from Smorhar where they can't boil an egg without somehow burning it to ashes."
"I heard that!" Aleea yelled from the bedroom.
Malcolm opened the refrigerator and he took out the bowl with pancake dough he had prepared before he went to bed. As he began to prepare the pan, he noticed that four more tiny yellow dots had appeared on his daughter's pink skin. It happened sooner than expected, but Dr. Tolittle had told them that Kory's body developing could be unpredictable because she was half human, so things like extreme hair-growth might happen years before it would on a normal Smorharian. Meaning that Malcolm had to make an appointment with the doctor and go buy a new electric razor so that his little angel wouldn't end up looking like Cousin Itt from the Adams. He had to do it since Aleea wouldn't have time for it.
Later...
After getting Kory to school, Malcolm drove to work. On the way to the factory, he passed by a sign about some sale at a supermarket because of some Cebebian holiday or something and it reminded him that he had to find time to buy those feathers Kory needed for her school presentation about her family heritage. That... and that his mother-in-law was coming for a visit next Sunday.
... Crap...
It wasn't that he disliked Shayera... But she sort of disliked him. She kept looking at him in that... weird way. And she did anything to evade talking to him and when she did, she didn’t use much more that 20 words before “having to go to the bathroom.” It made him rather uncomfortable. Sure, she tried to be nice, but he couldn't ignore it, even though Aleea told him that it was nothing personal. That her mother had been a little girl when the Bollers had invaded her planet. And the Bollers happened to look a lot like … well… Black people.
It didn't make Malcolm feel that much better about it... But Shayera had to travel for god knows how long from Smorhar to Earth just to see her daughter and grandchild, so he just had to deal with it.
Another thing he had to deal with? Traffic.
The road had been blocked due to some jerk that ran a rampage in Downtown. It was the usual "earth for humans" crap. Somehow, the idiot had gotten himself a giant robot that controlled smaller robots, and now he trashed around, demanding that all aliens should leave.
What was it with these people? When would they get that contact to other planets was the best thing that had ever happened to Earth?
Back in the 70s, when magic was invented... or discovered, maybe?... Malcolm couldn't remember the details... Other planets now saw our world as an equal and began to make contact to Earth. Sure, some wished to take over the planet, but most alien races wanted to trade natural resources and make cultural exchanges. Most of these visitors from beyond the stars had a surprisingly huge interest in Bollywood movies and chili con carne. This was a good thing since most of the planet had been affected by the Elf Crisis. The trade with other planets was what helped us rebuild.
After moonlight became an energy source (only good thing Twilight City had to offer the world in years) Earth had gotten quite the status and respect from other planets. Creatures from other planets even came to the Earth hoping to find a home. Sure, not all of the Earthlings was comfortable about the spacemen immigrating to the planet and there had been plenty of anti-alien protests (“they're gonna take our jobs!”). But Globetropolis had always been a city that was proud of its many cultures and acceptance of diversity, so that’s where most of the spacemen and women went. And now, after 20 years, 12,5% of the citizens in Globetropolis were either from or had family from another planet.
Unfortunately, it also meant that some anti-alien moron would appear now and then.
Malcolm was stuck in his car until the authorities and local superheroes had taken care of him. So he called the office and explained to them why he would be late. Wanting to know how the robot thing in Downtown was going, he opened the internet on his phone, trying to see if there was anyone who filmed the crisis right now.
It was on the news. The guy in the mecha (Oh irony! An outer-planet product) ordered his small gang of humanoid robots to cause destruction. The words “Earth for humans” was written on the mecha’s chest (?) with green graffiti. On the scene was Rodeo, the cowboy-themed hero of Globetropolis and their first masked champion, who appeared to be about to use up his arsenal of trick-bullets to either keep the robots from destroying the buildings or aim for the mecha’s legs, attempting to make it fall. The newcomer, some guy who called himself Starchild, glowed like a Christmas decoration, flew from building to building with superspeed, as he got as many people out before the buildings collapsed and buried them alive.
And then, Valor arrived.
The Madam of Might, the Master of Telekinesis, Globetropolis’ favorite adopted citizen and greatest protector. This alien had once been a highly respected soldier on her home planet, but left her home in order to live and serve our planet.
Dressed in a white toga and wearing the blue cape only given to those of the highest rank in her homeworld’s military, she flew with high speed to the crisis in order to put an end to the rampage. By the might of her mind, she ripped the right arm of the giant mecha, and then made the arm attack the mecha like a battering ram. Finally, the machine fell. It wasn’t functioning anymore, meaning that the small army of robots seized to move as well.
The police and city’s meta-human cleanup unite arrived. The officers arrested the culprit behind the whole disaster who, to everyone’s surprise, was actually a green slender alien with big oval eyes. A Cebebian. The poor creature was apparently under the delusion that he was a human who loathed aliens for taking their jobs. The three heroes assisted in cleaning up the mess as the police began to direct traffic so-
HONK HONK
“HEY! GET MOVING, YA BUM!”
Malcolm closed the screen on his phone as he realized that cars were allowed to drive again and that he was in the way for anyone behind him. He checked his mirrors and saw a very angry Surian who raised four of his seven tentacles in a threatening way.
As he finally reached the factory, he wondered when Kory would begin to show signs of telekinesis. He knew that his daughter wanted to be a hero, just like her mother. Malcolm was unsure how he felt about it. Not that he had anything against his wife being one. In fact, he was pretty damn proud of her.
But he was worried, too. No matter how powerful she was. But anything else would just be weird, he guessed.
…………………………………….
“Hello, Rainbow Factory’s complain department. How can I assist you?... Ah, I see, that sounds like a very simple problem… No, I didn’t mean that… But.. Ma’am? Ma’am, please- Yes, but have you… Ma’am. Ma’am, please, calm down… Calm down… Ma’am. Please calm down. I’m just doing my job… Please calm down?... Thank you. Now, first of; have you tried to turn the batteries upside down?... No, the-… No, the ba… the batteries. The batteries, ma’am.”
As Malcolm sat in the office, getting calls from complaining customers and solving 2/3 of their problems by asking the callers to turn the batteries upside down, he accidentally giggled.
“WHAT’S SO FUNNY!?” The irritated and ill-tempered customer on the phone asked.
“Oh, sorry ma’am. I meant no offence. I just came to the sudden realization that life is wonderful.”
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