22 Chapter 22

"Ok, with that out of the way. Why did you call us posthumans? Aren't our kind called mutants?" Grandma asked

I know that they will ask that sooner or later, and I'm ready to make them understand the difference between mutants and posthumans.

I answered her "Grandma, we are not mutants, we did not mutate out of something, our kind evolved from being a simple human into a human that adapted to the changing world. That's why I called our kind posthumans, we are the evolution after the 'simple humans' or if you want my less harsh word for it, 'default humans'. Posthumans evolved from the mainstream population without any extraordinary abilities into becoming something like us who have this kind of incredible capabilities."

I'm looking at grandma's extremely focused eyes, not wavering even a little bit.

Not waiting for any reply, I continued "Being called mutant just doesn't sit right with me. Mutant is often linked to cancer and such things, and we're not cancer, we are just a step ahead of human evolution. We are not problems that need to be removed, we are what humanity is supposed to be looking forward to. Imagine a future, where humanity, with or without abilities, work together to be productive. I know it's idealistic to think that way with the greed and selfishness humans have, but just imagine what we all can do."

"I guess you're right. But with some of our kind acting as a literal cancerous tumor to the society, causing chaos and death, your ideals will be hard to achieve." Dad said.

I know I'm being naive thinking that humans will join together just like that, without any ulterior motives. And with some posthumans like Magneto terrorizing humans, it will be much harder to achieve.

"Ok, posthumans, it is a much better word for our kind. Not exclusive and not at all degrading." Mom said while nodding.

"Yep, and it is much more positive than mutants!" My ever so hyper sister said.

Then I saw Grandma smile, and that causes me to smile too.

Then Grandma said, "Now, enough about this and help me packing my things so that I can move to your house as fast as possible and start to create some protections around it."

We all stood up, and I and Ivy cleaned the dining table while our parents are helping grandma packing her stuff.

====================

It's Monday today and it's time to go to school. Grandma planned to move today so Mom will stay and wait for her in the house while I and Ivy will go to school.

"Hey, Ivan! Are you sure you didn't forget anything?" Mom reminded.

I answered "Yes Mom, all inside the bag"

I waved at her and got out following my younger sister, who's getting ready to just run to school.

"You know that's a bad idea right? One slip-up and your speed will overload and without mom there, no one will put a limiter at your ability." I said.

Ivy's speed is overwhelming, and unlike the other posthumans that need a stressful situation to awaken, she naturally awakened hers.

But with naturally awakening your posthuman ability comes with a problem. It will overwhelm the user and they will not be able to control it.

And that's why after a long talking to Ivy, and the feeling of loneliness that she felt moving so fast, Mom decided to put a mental limiter in her brain to limit her speed and give it something like an on and off switch.

But in rare cases where she overused it, the mental limiter will overload and she will not be able to turn off her speed, and she will become so fast that the world will be at a pause.

One time, when she's about 5, her limiter is overloaded and we need to call Grandma just to catch her. And that says a lot about her speed when you need to call a reality warper just to stop her.

"Ok, I will not run then," Ivy said dejectedly.

I ruffled her hair and said "Let's just be a little safe ok? In time we'll be able to use our ability without any eyes that will judge us. But for now, be just a little careful"

She nods and we continued our way to the school.

===

At the school.

"Hey, Ivan!" I turned around and looked at the girl that called me.

There she is, Gwen Stacy, my girlfriend. Yep, we got together in the last 2 months.

"Hey, Gwen! How are you?" I asked, knowing that her father is getting busy at the moment because of a certain arachnid's enemies popping up.

She linked our arms and answered, "Well, it's kinda lonely at home because dad is always on an emergency because of those villains roaming around"

She looked ok, except for a little bit of eye bags under her eyes.

"You need rest Babe," I stated with concern.

"Nah, I'm good! A little bit tired because I'm almost the only one doing things at home right now, but I can still manage." She said while swinging our linked arms.

"Want me to cook for you later?" I asked her one of her most favorite questions, only second to 'what do you want me to cook?' Question.

I immediately saw her eyes brighten and she looked at me "Really? I'd love that. Oh God, I still can't forget the taste of that chicken cordon bleu last time!"

I just chuckled and rub her hair with my other hand.

"Let's go, we're going to be late if we walk this slow," I said and we continued our way to our classroom.

===

"Ivan! You're almost late, Ms. Emma will be here anytime now." Said Ned as I enter the classroom with Gwen.

We sat down in our respective places, me at the protagonist's desk/chair and Gwen directly in front of me, sitting beside MJ.

I looked at Ned and say "You can't blame me for being almost late, I rode public transport this time to come here to school."

I looked at Pete, who's busy looking at some equations in his laptop and mixing some white goo in a beaker, his spider web solution.

"What's that Pete? You keeping your you-know-what in a beaker?" I said jokingly

He looked at me, scandalized by what I said, and replied "What?! No! What the hell are you thinking?"

I and Ned just laughed at him but we need to stop our laugh immediately, which almost choked me because Ms. Emma entered the room.

Just as Ms. Emma positioned herself in the front of the class, her eyes immediately darted to me, and as I was controlling myself not to laugh, my face is kinda scrunched up.

"Is there something wrong Mr. Phage?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and stop my impulse to laugh and answered "There's nothing wrong Miss."

As she's scrutinizing me, I felt something that brushed the wards that my mom put in my mind, and because of that I unconsciously frowned because I know the only one who can do that right now. Emma Frost, I looked straight into her eyes and mustered all the fierceness that I can. Who in their right mind will appreciate it when someone tried to invade your thoughts.

"Miss, I think what you're doing is inappropriate," I said with a neutral tone in my voice.

I saw the look on her face change from shock to shame and finally intrigued.

'I just gave her another reason to target me, didn't I? *sigh*'