The Star 2

With shaky hands, Sonny leveled the gun at his stepmother's general direction. Her teenage son rushed at the boy earning a clip to his outer thigh. Sonny hadn't even really meant to shoot the teen but he was so nervous that he squeezed the trigger when he swung it to his would-be assailant.

The woman started screaming and shouting for help as she ran out. In a panic, Sonny yelled that he'd shoot her son in the head if she didn't shut up. The teen's eyes grew large as he started begging for his life. Surprisingly the woman did shut up.

"Get in here. I-if you do that and move to the side, I'll leave." Sonny said in an adrenaline shaky voice.

Peering cautiously in, she saw that the trembling boy had his gun trained on her own. Doing as he asked, Sonny slipped around the woman who went to see how bad the wound was. It was little more than a heavy graze but it hurt enough to keep the scared teen on the floor clutching it as if he was afraid he'd bleed out and die.

Pulling the antique card table down in front of them, she said in a seething voice, "I'm going to make sure they put you away forever, you sick little mutant animal."

The deep sadness that had buried into the core of the boy, briefly fueled a rage, "For what, not letting you steal everything!?"

"Little monsters don't deserve anything but to be put down!" she said.

Under the stress, something broke free within the boy. "You're right. Thank whatever filthy god protects you that I'm not in the mood to kill thieving little monsters today... But I do think it's only responsible to cage them."

Sonny emphasized the proclamation by slamming the storm door shut and locking it. A cold numbness had settled over him as a faint headache sent a ring of red flashing at the edge of his poor night vision in time to his heartbeat. Taking a few bracing deep breaths, he loaded up the little electric cart that his mom used to use to go grocery shopping.

After that, it was a lonely but stressful drive. He wasn't big enough to reach the handles while sitting and didn't dare to use the lamp for fear the battery would die before he could reach his destination. Fortunately, other than a few smaller nocturnal creatures, he didn't run into any problems.

There was really only one place for him to go but he didn't know how long he'd be welcomed there. He had plenty of time to work out that there was only one logical outcome to any set of choices he could make. With that thought in mind, he tried to make it work for him as best he could with the maximum mental power of a bright, near seven year old and some extra power of intuition rare for any age.

Timidly at first and then louder, he knocked on Rupert's door. Eventually, a porch light came on for a few seconds as someone examined the child visitor on the stoop through the door's small glass peephole. The light went out and the door cracked open to reveal a bleary eyed middle aged lady.

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream as she fainted. Stuck between wanting to run away but knowing he needed to stay, his wobbly legs gave out and he sat hard on the porch. Curled up in a ball and lost in his own misery, it took him a moment to realize that someone was holding him.

Pulled into her lap, Sonny cried into his mom's chest while she gently rocked him. Occasionally, a warm drop of liquid spilled onto the top of his head as his mother's soothing murmurs took a rough warble of their own. He didn't really understand why she was apologizing to him but he reached out through his own suffering to tell her that whatever it was she was sad about, it was okay.

He didn't really believe anything was going to be alright once the night was over but he wanted it to be true. As for Rupert, what he really wanted was for them to get inside before someone called for a patrolman to investigate what had happened. Once everyone was sat down at the kitchen table and the poor maid had recovered enough to return to her room, the weary doctor asked Sonny to tell him what was going on.

It didn't take long to recount events. The first thing Rupert did was go outside and fetch the belongings out of the cart. The pistol was unloaded and stowed away quickly after.

Bert said, "In good conscience, I have to call a patrolman to let your stepmother and her son out of the emergency shelter. I can't take it on your word alone that his wound was minor. Even if it was, injuries like that can become complicated quickly.

"Don't worry so much, Cass. It's not like they're going to drag a child his age to a holding cell. With the rush those two were in to clean the place out, anyone with a pinch of common sense won't be that unreasonable about what happened as long as no one is seriously hurt."

After radioing their sector's patrol station, Rupert calmly explained the situation. He was adamant in expressing that Sonny showed no signs of sudden secondary mutation, which was all the dispatcher seemed to care about at first. When it was all said and done, a patrolman WOULD be taking in Sonny for a mandatory forty-eight hour observation.

Considering the child's age and a licensed professional doing the reporting, they would delay pick-up until morning. It was a poor compromise but it was the best the dispatcher could do. Had the hysterical woman released from the emergency shelter with her 'mortally wounded' bullet grazed son been able to keep her story straight or even remotely believable, the patrolman outside Rupert's home would have had to take Sonny immediately after tranquilizing him.

If there had been more time, the boy would have witnessed a mother's wrath unleashed on Rupert for the man's lack of foresight. Instead, she was glued to her son like wallpaper, trying to comfort him when she was really the only one who needed to be comforted by that point. Sonny had already figured out how things would probably go before he'd even reached their home. Still, it healed a piece of his damaged heart to know how much his mom cared.

"I'll be with you every step of the way. When it's over, you can come live with us," she said.

Although Rupert didn't contradict Cass, Sonny could see the frown lines and thin lips forming on the doctor's face.

Although he didn't want to, the boy said, "You can't, mom. Vincent and Uncle Burt will have problems if you do. Let the state take me. You can help me more that way without making things hard for them."

She wasn't ready to hear that and even less able to accept it.

Rupert let her have her passionate words out before he said, "Of course, we'll do everything we can for Sonny. I don't think things are as dire as your boy's painting them to be but we have to prepare for the worst even as we hope and believe they'll be better than that."

Sonny struggled to keep his eyes open. Letting his mom wind down before trying to get out some vital questions had taken a lot of the precious little time they had.

He said, "Mom, I need to talk to Uncle Burt about mutant stuff. It's really important."

She wanted him to get some rest and didn't see how getting him worked up over unpleasant matters usually reserved for adults could be more helpful than that when he could barely keep from nodding off. Fortunately, the sad but serious look her tired son was giving her coupled with Rupert agreeing to the boy's request had her unhappy and uneasy consent.

"What do you want to know, Sonny?" the doctor said calmly.

The boy said, "What's in my charts? I need to know what it is about me that makes people scared and how people can tell I'm... different."

After Cassandra assured the boy that there was nothing wrong with him and that there was no good reason why anyone should be scared, Rupert said, "I'll try my best to say this in a way that you can understand. If you don't, let me know and I'll explain that part more... In truth, you aren't that much different at a casual glance. I think that makes some more nervous than if you were more easily identified. They're more scared of how easily you could blend in."

Seeing that Sonny nodded in understanding, he continued, "Do you remember how you told me you have a hard time seeing things as well as we do when it starts getting dark? Well, outside of living things and electrical currents, at least... That's because you have ocular luminosity. That means your eyes glow a little."

"It's pretty and not scary at all," Cass said.

Sonny wanted to retort about how the maid reacted but held his tongue so that Rupert could continue. "Since you have shown no signs of being able to do more than passively observe these energy fields and only possess a slightly stronger than normal one yourself, no one with authority is overly concerned. Many are worried about what you COULD be able to do and that's why they keep a close watch over, not only you but even the most harmless of meteor touched."

Putting on his professional doctor smile, Rupert added, "Other than that, you have an enviable amount of intelligence and a glowing health record. It's nothing outside of the bounds of what you should or could have compared to other children your age. Although, if you're still seeing and conversing with Cole the Cat, I'd suggest that you keep that to yourself."

Cass interrupted. "It's just an imaginary friend, Burt. Lots of kids his age have them. My mom said I had one when I was four. He hasn't mentioned it for quite some time, anyway."

Both Rupert and Sonny had things they wanted to say about that but wisely chose not to. Sonny had began seeing a shadowy cat around the age of four. A few months later, it had gotten more solid looking to him and was capable of speaking to him with emotions. By the time he was five, he could have conversations with Cole and that's when he brought up a story the cat had told him to Rupert.

A little investigation by the doctor had revealed that there was a small child, a meteor touched one that had died under 'mysterious circumstances' where Cole had told Sonny it used to live. Not that there was anything mysterious about blunt force trauma to the head in Rupert's mind. But, people would rather forget about unpleasant incidents involving meteor touched children.

The doctor had left it out of his reports and told Sonny to not share information about Cole with anyone else, especially his mom who didn't do well with even goofy ghost stories. The boy had agreed. It hadn't mattered much anyway. Cole had fell asleep on Sonny's chest one day while the kid dozed outside. After that, Sonny could feel Cole's slumbering presence within him but hadn't been able to talk to or see him after that.

"What about the-" The boy's mind clouded.

There were so many more questions to ask and the doctor was a wellspring of useful knowledge but Sonny was just too tired. He fell asleep in the middle of trying to ask about the colony's state program for underage mutants. When he finally woke, it felt like he'd been out for some time. Somewhat cold and mentally sluggish, he became aware that he was in a clear plastic tank filled with a slightly viscous but clear solution that didn't sting his unprotected eyes.

A voice issuing from a device installed in the mask on his face said, "You shouldn't have awakened yet.- His toxin processing ability, perhaps his entire physiological parameter set, has been underrated by an entire factor- Don't squirm around so much. If the oxygen mask on your face loses its seal, you might drown before we can remove you... Yes, doctor. I've already applied a second dose of sedative."

He wanted to respond, ask why he was in a tank instead of a holding cell for the observation he was supposed to be under but his vision began fading yet again. He could feel his heartbeat throughout his entire body. It felt deep and powerful but was a trick of hyper focus on the strongest sensation and whatever sedative they were using.

When he woke for the second time, he felt weak and nauseous but was in a simple room with bars. It was what he had expected the first time but things were already so far out of his depth, he chucked whatever remaining expectations he had out a metaphorical window. The situation was a lot more complex than he thought and he didn't know enough to try to predict anything.

Trying to reorient, he missed the moment when his stepmother had entered. "Who's in a cage now, little monster?"

He ignored her provocation. Pushing her anger down, she waved a brass container in front of her to grab his attention. It was a strange mixture between something solemn and the inherent quality possessed by spittoons and bed pans.

Putting on a saccharine smile, she said, "It's been three days since you shot my son and locked us inside that...room, with the obvious intent to murder us, but you failed. Being the kind and forgiving woman I am, I came running the very moment you were cleared for visitation... Guess who's in here?"

He looked the object and her over but didn't respond.

Unable to help herself, the fake smile twisted to something a little more sinister. "That's right. It's your dear father, my sweet sugar bear. Whatever shall I do? With two husbands in the ground, I'm going to have a hard time finding a third. Don't you feel sorry for me?"

Seeing him continue to treat her presence as air, she called him a few vicious insults under her breath and pulled out a wet pad from a place that wasn't polite to keep things. "These ashes are so dry. I should water them."

Opening the top of the brass container, she squeezed the pad into it. As a faint scent of ammonia sifted through the silent room, murky drops from the pad hit the powdery contents of the brass container with a distinct sound. Doing her best to put the pad back where it came from comfortably, she looked at him expectantly.

"So, you spent the emergency relief request to turn my father's remains into a diamond? I'll be sure to report that so I can claim it in restitution. My real mother plans on suing you and has Uncle Rupert's support... They're going to win and you really will be crying then," Sonny said with a saintly smile.

Producing a loud laugh that did little to hide the nervousness in her eyes, she said, "What a funny little story your delusional psychotic brain has made."

Getting closer to the bars, she whispered, "You're not going to say a word and pretend you didn't know that. Even if you are right, that would make you a mind reader. They get executed as soon as they're discovered."

"That would make me a person who can see energy signatures and people leave them on their things. Seeing how weak those are in that pot, I'm guessing that's your first husband? You really are a sick person," he said in disgust, going back to ignoring a renewed burst of her ravings.

When a patrolman came to fetch her out, she 180'd and turned on the waterworks, accusing the boy of being cruel and hurtful among other accusations that made the patrolman glance at Sonny with a disturbed and wary expression. If it hadn't been clear before that anything he said and did would be turned against him, the patrolman made it clear that doing nothing at all could be turned against him too. What he didn't expect was that as soon as the patrolman opened the door, a snatching hand pinned the woman down and frisked her til a small, blue diamond on a white gold chain had been confiscated from her.

The woman in a action ready battle suit said, "Verify the claim made in the security footage. If it's true, hand this over to Cassandra Reed."

The blond woman was cold and rather plain looking but she wore authority like a second skin.

The patrolman looked at the woman in shock. "The subject's mother requested a private visit."

The woman sneered down at the sobbing stepmother. "Her marriage was invalidated several hours ago. The reasons are classified. Cassandra is the biological mother and the only living relative capable of requesting private visitation... Well, why aren't my orders completed yet? Waiting to hear the good news of how you'll be busting ground for cabbage in the second ring next month?"

The man took off like the devil was chasing him as the woman gave one last dismissive glance at Sonny. Her gaze lingered when she caught him examining the eclipse badge on her uniform.

"See something you like, brat?" she said.

Raising his eyes, he locked them with hers and said, "Yes, a few things."

As her eyes widened dangerously, he quickly added, "B-but not, I mean... I'm not even seven!"

She let out an amused snort as she slammed the outer door to his room.