Shards: The Best Kept Secret

Shards: The Best Kept Secret
By Invader-Hime

2078 AD
Kenneth Tennyson had never seen anything like it.  The Levisons were having a press conference.  They had invited to media onto their front lawn to introduce their son, Aidan.  The mystery child no one has ever seen.  His existence has been an Internet 3 rumor for the past five and a half years.  Today, the world will get to see him for the first time.  Well, Ken would see him for the several hundreth time.  Being an uncle had that kind of benefit attached to it.
The conference was a media circus that Ken personally could not wait to get away from.  Part of him wondered just why Devlin and Kate had decided to introduce the world to their son now of all times.
Countless people were swarming to even catch a glimpse of the boy.  The Galactic Enforcers had even had to show up to work the crowds, it has gotten that insane.  Kenny realized he can’t really blame them.  The child captured the imagination of the world.  The other seven Tennyson/Levison children, the children of heroes, have grown up in the public eye.  Well, sort of.  They aren’t really celebrities like their parents, but they also aren’t secret either.  The world can’t help but wonder why this one is any different.  The theories Ken overheard were as varied as those in attendance.  The hero bit his lip to keep himself from saying something he shouldn’t.
“I’ll bet he’s seriously deformed or something and they are all too embarrassed to let anyone else see him,”
“You idiot.  Did you even stop to think that he might be severely disabled?”
“Or Terminally Ill?  Maybe they came up with a cure for his condition,”
“I bet they don’t even have another kid.  I bet it is a a publicity stunt,”
“He’s probably adopted.  You know celebrities...he’s probably some alien from an impoverished planet,”
They were all wrong.
Ken shrugged and made his way to the back of the stage where he found Devlin waiting for him anxiously.
After a brief speech from Kenneth and Devlin, mostly Devlin since he is the one unveiling a child, two little feet stepped out of the large house behind them.  A hush fell over the crowd.  Thousands of beings leaned forward in anticipation.
The boy was with his mother, whom he appeared to favor.  While the older Levison children heavily favored their father’s side, the boy obviously took after his mother, after Kate Levison.  He was very small, even for a boy of his age.  He had a tangle of mousy brown hair like her’s and his cheeks were rounded, not angular like his father’s.  He looked around warily with large, blue eyes.  Those were his father’s.  He had his mother’s face combined with his father’s large blue eyes.  When his father reached for his little hand, the boy took it.  Only Ken and Kate noticed that Devlin momentarily winced when the child took his hand a little too hard.
Devlin took the time to explain everything.  The child was born with a contagious skin condition that was and still is spreadable through physical contact, but through physical contact only.  The family is unaffected by a unique genetic mutation that makes them immune.  It was a colossal, detailed lie, but the world trusted Devlin, so if he said it, it must be true.  He would not be questioned.   Only Devlin could feel the hard crystal grip of his son’s hand on his.
Aidan looked uncomfortable and fidgeted.  His father, picked him up and held him lovingly.  The little boy seemed to relax, if only a little.  He looked back at his mother who nodded affectionately from the back of the makeshift stage of their front stoop.  When Devlin asked if Aidan had anything he’d like to say to the thousands of people watching, the child buried his face in his father’s shoulder.  The world squealed in delight.  After a few more questions and several thousand camera flashes later, the family members went back inside and let the circus dispel itself.
As soon as they were inside the house, Devlin sat Aidan down on the ground.  The child quickly reached for his face.  Ken pulled the door shut.  In an instant, Aidan had the photonic displacement mask off and his real form flickered back to visibility.  It was the body his family knew and readily accepted.  Aidan had a slightly less mutated body than his father had when transformed.  He had three eyes, but his Galvan eye was a piercing blue.  Four small arms, a pair of insectoid wings and a striped blue tail indicated he was his father in miniature.  Everything about him was small.  Everything mutant about him was shrunk down to be human sized.  His face was round, even in this form.  Devlin sighed inwardly.  His son’s appearance indicated a substantial lessening in the contaminated DNA the males in their family exhibited.  It was a relief and a worry.  When he was Aidan’s age, he could already shift easily between forms.  Aidan never changed once.  The boy has not heard this about his father, Devlin has never had the heart to tell him.
Aidan huffed out of his gills.
“I don’t like that.  It makes it hard to breathe,” he mumbled, his voice slightly metallic.
Devlin ruffled the Aidan’s brown hair and brushed it away from his lure.
“Hey, sport.  You did a really awesome job out there.  I’m proud of you,” he says, honestly.
Kate hugged her son from behind.
“Hey, little man.  You are famous,” she laughed.
Aidan was her surprise baby.  Devlin and Kate  both thought they were done having children.  Fate decided otherwise.
“Mom,” Aidan scolded, then tried to pull away from her.
“Don’t worry, hun.  You won’t have to do that again,” Kate promised, her fingers pinched at the tips of his gills.  Aidan was frightfully ticklish there.
The little boy squealed and she picked him up.
“Let’s get the little hero some ice cream, huh?” she asked.
Aidan trilled in his throat.
Devlin stayed behind with Ken.  He could sense his cousin was just waiting to ask him the question that was on everyone’s mind.  Sure enough, he did.
“Devlin, why did you do this now?  You couldn’t wait until he shifted?  Until we found away to make him shift?” Ken asked.
“No Kenny, I couldn’t”  Devlin said, sounding exhausted.
“Why?” Ken asked, very sharp.
“Because someone broke in last night.  A Photographer.  If Didgit wasn’t working late in the East Wing on one of Mimzy’s projects, no one would have heard them sneak in.  Gen left the door to the garage unlocked and the scum let themselves in.  Thank God Didge was there to stick that son of a bitch with enough toxin to keep him knocked out until tomorrow,” Devlin growled huskily.
Ken’s throat went dry at both the story and at Devlin’s voice.  Ken knew that voice.  He knew that when Delvin used it, he was feeling defensive.  So defensive, he himself might transform and tear apart whatever was threatening them.
“Kenny, I can’t let them ruin what we have here.  Aidan doesn’t really know how hard things are out there...how cruel the world is.  So help me, I’m going to keep him from that forever, even if it kills me,” Devlin said, his voice slightly tinged with a metallic echo.
Ken saw a haunted look in his cousin’s eyes.  He frowned.  As a child, he had never thought twice about Devlin’s mutated form...or even much about Aidan’s when he was older.  It was all part of being in their bizarre family to him.  However, now he could see just how much it had hurt his cousin.  Something from long ago still tormented him.  Ken realized it had never been his children in that position.  They hadn’t had anything like that ever happen to them.  They were always normal...if a bit eccentric.  Ken realized he would do the same thing in Devlin’s position.  He put a supportive hand on Devlin’s shoulder.
“Hey.  I’ll help you out with that.  We’re family, right?” he said, mostly because he really didn’t know what to say in a situation like this.
Devlin looked tired, but grateful.
“Thanks, Kenny.  Say, you want to join us for ice cream?  I think Kimeya and Alexia made it, some kind of Pisciss Nori flavor or something,”
Ken smiled.
“Sure,”
It really was great to be part of the family...and to be in on the world’s best kept secret.