Grandma knows about Super-Soldiers
"So, Grandma, when I asked about mutants and super-soldiers, why weren't you surprised?" I asked, my voice still a little breathless from the earlier revelations.
"Why should I be surprised?" she countered, a slight tilt to her head.
"I mean... aren't they, like, super-secret stuff? Top secret?"
"Are they?" Her eyes twinkled.
"I think so, yeah."
She feigned a look of pure shock. "Oh! I thought they were common knowledge!"
I narrowed my eyes. "Why would you think that?"
"Well, about ten years ago, one of them broke into the temple. Tried to steal some of our artifacts, you know? We had to take him out. He was a pain, though. Hurt a few of us."
My jaw dropped. "Say what?! And how did you even know he was a super-soldier?"
"He was incredibly strong, so I asked an acquaintance of mine. She told me it was an experiment from something called the Super-Soldier Program, and that some snakes kept him in a refrigerator." She said it as if she were talking about a trip to the grocery store.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. My mind was reeling, but a single thought managed to surface through the noise: Who on earth is this acquaintance of hers?
If our family is trained to be strong, why is dad dead?
"So, you said our family's been around for a thousand years?" I asked, trying to get my head around it all.
"Yep. Give or take a century," she replied with a shrug.
"And we have a tradition of training in literary an martial arts?"
"Yes."
"Then why is my dad… dead?" The question was blunt and a little hurtful, but I couldn't help it.
Grandma sighed, sith slight sadness, but with the weariness of a parent explaining something obvious. "Because he couldn't fight."
"But it's tradition! It's what we are supposed to do!"
"It is a tradition, Rudra, not a tyranny. We don't force a square peg into a round hole. His aptitude was… not good.".
"How bad?"
She paused, searching for the right words. "Imagine asking a gorilla to become a physicist. It's theoretically possible, but the effort required is simply not worth the result."
"That bad?"
"His reflexes were like a sunflower tracking the sun."
I blinked. "That's a plant. It can't move."
"Exactly. He once tried to dodge a butterfly and sprained his ankle." She said it with a completely straight face, and I couldn't tell if she was joking.
A long pause followed as I processed that image. "Okay. That... that makes a lot more sense now."
The aquaintance
"That acquaintance of yours—the one who told you about the super-soldiers... who is she?" I asked, my curiosity burning.
"Oh, just an old family friend," Grandma said with a shrug, as if that explained everything.
"How did you even meet her?"
"Hmm... a long time ago. Someone in our family helped build her house."
I stared at her. "Her house? Is she close?"
"Not exactly," she said, a small, knowing smile playing on her lips.
"Grandma, tell me about her."
Her smile widened. "Another time, my child. Some secrets are best saved for later, when you're ready for them."
May your wish come true
"So your parents and my great-grandparents were super-strong, right?" I asked, a sense of wonder in my voice.
"Uh-huh. More than you could possibly imagine."
"I wish I knew more about them," I said with a sigh.
"You can learn all about them. Soon enough."
"Really?" A spark of hope ignited inside me.
"That's amazing! But... I still wish I could've met them."
Grandma, who was walking ahead of me, stopped and turned. The enigmatic smile on her face was a little too knowing, a little too intense.
"May your wish come true, my child," she said, her voice a soft, chilling promise