Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

“Do you remember any of those? Maybe they could work for me?”

“Whoo. That was such a long time ago. Since none of them worked for me, I’m probably the wrong person to ask. The other cadets would get mad at me as they tried to help me and their suggestions didn’t work. As if I wasn’t listening or giving their technique an honest try. I eventually figured it out, but I think that’s where I started keeping to myself. My suit and helmet already made it harder to connect with people, and that just complicated things. I couldn’t reveal I was a hybrid, so it was what it was.

“I have always been an outcast, hiding what I am from everyone. My parents gave me no choice in whether I wanted to be a hybrid. Who knows what damage has been done with all the tampering they’ve done with my DNA? I’d be lucky if I didn’t get cancer from the hodgepodge of genes they’ve inserted, deleted, and spliced.

“From somewhere in that tangled mess though, I must have gained some affinity that led to my powers. But if I could do it all over, I think I would still choose a normal life. No powers, just plain vanilla reg. And that would be enough.”

“You would give up your powers?”

“In a heartbeat. I’ve chased the lure of acceptance almost my whole life. By revealing that I am a hybrid, things will change for me in the Faction if I choose to go back. I would see less and less active missions and be given more administrative duties, until things become so miserable or boring that I get forced out or quit. A lot of people resent hybrids after the Rockland conflict.

“A few supers died, but regs don’t know how many hybrids were killed or hurt in the protests, but it was much more than any supers that were hurt. Still, I can’t blame the supers for trying to stop the abuses that were taking place. Experimentation had run amok, people harming themselves and others with no regulation or safeguards. It was a mess. It still is in sanctuary cities, it’s just gone underground.”

“Is that what Harmony was talking about, when she was talking about ‘down there?’”

“You don’t even want to know what has happened to those failed experiments with hybridization. People that were more beast than man, stripped of enough humanity and then abandoned to the lower levels of Hinansho. Confused and feral, fighting to survive. It’s horrible.”

“Yikes…” Gus shuddered.

“All most people wanted was a place to live their lives without excessive regulation. There was fault on both sides but no one hears the hybrids’ side of the story.”

“Then tell me. We’re going to probably be here for a while.”

“You asked for it, Gus…”

Chapter Forty-Five

Kitty

“I grew up in the Outskirts. Kind of the suburbs of the suburbs, where Faction influence is less intense. This was about ten years before the Rockland conflict came to a head. There were some hybrids in my hometown, but we were still a fringe group. Some people looked down on us, but it was nothing like it is now.

“I was painfully shy and when someone noticed me at school, it was a whole new experience for me. I always felt awkward with my ears and tail. Girls can be pretty cruel in high school. Hell, my track record has been abysmal regardless of age. I was always an easy target, but when one of the jocks noticed me, that’s when things really became better and worse. The pranks and mean-spirited comments and bullying escalated from there. But it was worth it.

“Harlan was amazing. I couldn’t wait to get a message from him or the brief time we had together. He was a year older, so we shared none of the same classes, and even our lunch periods were different. My parents didn’t like him because he wasn’t a hybrid, and I could tell his mother was hoping it was just a passing phase. A curiosity in Harlan’s life that he just needed to get out of his system. Her disdain emanated from her despite her phony smiles and polite conversation.

“Long story short, I got pregnant right after graduation and we got married soon afterwards. From there, my mother-in-law’s facade fell away. Shannon’s criticisms escalated, and there was always some advice I needed to know in order to take care of her precious son as he deserved. If we weren’t so damn poor that we had to live with his parents, we might have been better off, but that’s just how things worked out.

“But I loved him, so I put up with the insults and demeaning questions. Have you ever had anyone ask if you knew how to do something as menial as washing clothes, or making a simple meal? It was degrading, but I had been demure my whole life. So I accepted it as my fate. I was lucky to have Harlan, and that was just the price I was required to pay.

“When Madeleine came, I can’t tell you how glad I was to see she had no obvious hybrid tendencies. I didn’t want her to have to deal with any of those challenges. It was also a benefit that Shannon took to her so well. While I was still unredeemable in her eyes, this was her granddaughter and they showered her with all the praise and love they could. It was enough for me.

“I was happy for a time, until Harlan began to cool towards me. Either Shannon finally got to him, or the dynamic changed when Maddy came, but he became crueler and more dismissive. Eventually he asked for a divorce, and I relented as Shannon’s influence became more and more intolerable, and there was no reason to try to make things work if the relationship was over.

“At first things were equitable and we shared time equally with Maddy. Things were civil between us for a couple