Dinner was good, yet different. It was meat-free, consisting of a house salad; bulgur- and cashew-stuffed eggplant; pasta with peppers, zucchini, and smoked mozzarella; spinach and artichoke deep pan pizza; and black bean, corn, and spinach enchiladas. The mood was great, and people were laughing and joking.
Sal had been sat next to Seth and Orion. Sal had to ask, or he'd burst. “Orion, I feel like I have seen you before.”
Orion smiled and wiped his mouth on a napkin. “Why don’t you put your mind-hacking skills to the test and tell me?” he dared.
The rest of the table directed their attention to Sal, and he wasn’t sure what he should do. “I’d really rather not.”
Darwin came to his rescue. “You don’t have to do it, Sal. We all know what you're capable of. You're thinking about your friend who went away, aren’t you?”
Sal felt his heart pound in his chest, and his mouth went dry. He wanted to yell and tell Darwin to mind his own business, but he couldn’t because the words just wouldn’t come out.
Darwin continued, “The girl, Louise, was begging for help. That’s why you read her so clearly. It couldn’t have been pleasant.”
Sal managed to gather enough spit so he could speak. “Do you know where she is?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, and I know you want to help her; you and your brother,” Darwin answered, sounding blue. “Of course, we’ll help you. We help each other here.”
“Thank you.” Sal looked down at his plate.
The atmosphere around the table had tightened a little, and Sal grew annoyed with himself—he was embarrassing himself in front of all these people. Sal closed his eyes and sighed. When he spoke, his words came out in a gush. “You're the guy who rescued the cat that was hit by the car. I saw you when I was walking my dog.” Sal stared firmly at Orion. “And you can heal—you're a healer.”
Orion laughed out loud. The rest of the table joined in one by one.
“You all have trades, right? Seth told me you called it that.”
Darwin wiped his mouth and cleared his throat. “Well, we’re not the X-Men or the Fantastic Four,” he said.
“Thank God for that,” Dante said, raising his glass as if to make a toast. “But yes,” Darwin continued, “we possess certain skills." He looked around the table as to confirm it was okay for him to go on. When no one said anything, he continued. “Myself, I have lightning-fast reaction time, great flexibility, and excellent jumping capabilities. In other words, I move fast.
"Seth can blend in and create illusions.
"Orion can heal any living being.
"Dante can manipulate objects and matter with mind-telekinesis.
"Aaron can talk to animals, and he has night vision.
"Trent can breathe underwater and climb any wall like a spider.
"Walcott can hijack bodies and astral project.
"Hagan can communicate and influence nature with something we call eco-kinesis.
"Mack's super-intelligent, he speaks any language, and he knows pretty much everything. And we're all connected, telepathically. Plus, we possess great strength.
“So, we have the Flash, Shadow Cat, Catwoman, Spiderman, Poison Ivy, and whatever it is Walcott does,” Dante finished.
Walcott glared at him.
Sal was stunned. He couldn’t believe his own ears. “If you have a superpower, wouldn’t the government hunt you down or detain you?” he asked, overwhelmed.
This time, Mack answered. “The government needs us.
“Let me quote the National Geographic,” he said.
"'The human population will become more alike as races merge, but Charles Darwin's machine has lost its power. This is because natural selection—Darwin's survival of the fittest concept—is being sidelined in humans. The fittest will no longer spearhead evolutionary change because, thanks to medical advances, the weakest also live on and pass down their genes.'
"As we are the fittest, we are stronger than humans, and it is only right that we take responsibility. This is why we work so hard to find others like ourselves so we can help each other and help humankind. No government should interfere with that. They don’t know what the hell they're doing, anyway. We have a responsibility."
“To make a long story short, have you ever seen the movie The Abyss? That pretty much explains it.” Dante said, ridiculing Mack.
"Sarcasm is the refuge of a shallow mind,” Mack said without looking at Dante.
Dante squeezed his eyes together, said nothing, and left the table.
Mack continued after Dante had gone: “Human DNA was designed by aliens. Scientists believe that our species was designed by a higher power, an alien civilization that either wanted to preserve a message in our DNA or simply plant life on other planets.
"Humans were designed by a higher power, and with a 'set of arithmetic patterns and ideographic symbolic language' encoded into our DNA. Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations were engaged in creating new life and planting it on various planets. The sudden boom in evolution experienced on Earth billions of years ago is a sign of something happening on a higher level of which we are not aware.
"Scientists have discovered some DNA is not from our ancestors. They say it could change how we think about evolution. The study challenges the view that evolution relies solely on genes passed down through the generation.
"What's known as 'junk DNA' is actually some sort of extraterrestrial code. What we see in our DNA is a program consisting of two versions: a Giant, structured code and a simple, or basic code. The first part of our DNA code wasn't written on Earth. Secondly—and most importantly—genes alone are not enough to explain evolution and the abrupt process of evolution, and there must be something more to it.
"Human-like aliens could have provided some of the genetic materials necessary, for evolution could not have happened on its own, and also, there's something extraterrestrial about our entire species.
"The million dollar question is, therefore, if extraterrestrial beings did, in fact, create the human race and life on planet Earth, then who—or what—created these extraterrestrial beings?
"Some people feel they don't really belong here. Perhaps it's because Earth hasn't always been their home planet. Then there are those who believe some souls have been incarnated on other planets before coming to Earth. They're called indigos, star-seeds, star-people…the name doesn't really matter—those people are wankers.
"We're the real deal, and we have the DNA to prove it. We're one step above the human race; a new species."