He was sixteen when the man who would become my father received a visit from a menacingly powerful man. The man said his name was Sebastian Shaw and he was a distant blood relative. He explained that he had a deep interest in his family tree but there were only certain people he tracks down to meet.
Dad was curious and asked why he was chosen. Shaw said that Dad was gifted and, like Dad, he was gifted too. He told Dad about his philosophy and his plans to make the world a better place for people like them. He asked Dad to join his cause. Dad didn't look back.
Dad jumped head first into being Shaw's supporter; when he was eighteen he changed his last name to Shaw. He asked several times if he could be a full-fledged member of Shaw's group The Hellfire Club, but Shaw said Dad's telepathy wasn't strong enough. But whenever he could use him he would. Shaw never asked for Dad's services and Dad was too lazy to strengthen his telepathy. Yet Dad was still one of Shaw's biggest supporters.
Dad met my mom when they were both seniors in college and got married two years later. They moved to Commack, New York together. Two years after that, in 1996, I was born.
Dad always told me stories about these amazing people with special powers before I went to bed. He would tell me about people who could read others' minds and a man who could manipulate metal with a twitch of his hand. But the man he told me the most about was a man who he told me was "the most powerful man alive." He could absorb the energy of anything, making him completely indestructible. And the energy he did absorb he could throw back as his own by wiggling his finger. Dad also told me he used the excess energy to stop aging.
I was always fascinated by the energy man. I wished that I could be like him one day.
When I was five, I was in my backyard one afternoon when the wind picked up, blowing my toys away.
"No wind, stop!" I waved my hands in the air and suddenly the wind blew in the opposite direction. I paused, then waved my hands toward my face and a gust of wind knocked me off my behind and I flipped onto my stomach. It was then I realized I was gifted too.
