When my mother first figured out my meta-ability, she took control of the underworld in a matter of months. She called it Mind Control and at the age I was, I was hard-pressed to disagree with her. My meta-ability was never documented in the hospital thanks to my mother’s invention and as far as the world knew, I was essentially powerless. A minority in this world filled with meta-humans, calling themselves superheroes and supervillains.

“Kill yourself.” My mother ordered me to say to the brainwashed rival underworld leader captured in her hideout.

“Fuck y-” His words were caught in his throat as he suddenly froze up.

The bald man filled with tattoos all over his face and naked body didn’t hesitate to blow his own brains out with the gun thrown near him by my mother. I didn’t flinch at the boom of the gun. This was just one of many ways of utilizing my meta-ability that my mother figured out I was capable of. Weeks upon weeks of testing and experimenting went into utilizing my meta-ability for my mother’s gain and for me to use it to its most efficient value.

“Mother. I would like to become a hero.” I spoke of my own desires for the first time in seven years.

“A hero, you say?” She smirked, completely amused.

“Yes.” I nodded without saying more.

“Do you know what it means to become a hero, Rey? To be a hero?” She asked.

“It’s the opposite of a villain. Instead of using one’s power for one’s own gain, it is to use it for others. To be selfless, kind, caring, and helpful. To promote society's positive values and enforce them on others in situation where it fits.” I explained.

“Pfft! Hahahahahahaha!” His mother held no restraint as she laughed at him.

“I’m not laughing at you or your desire to become a hero.” She quickly refuted his thoughts. “It’s just that no one would take you seriously if you answered that way. Don’t forget, you might be different from other kids but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act like them. Remember our family’s motto.”

“Use everything and anything to further our dreams.” I repeated the mantra drilled into me since I was a baby.

“If you want to become a hero, do everything it takes to become the greatest hero of all time! I won’t stop you even if I'm a criminal myself. In fact, I'll be looking forward to the day you prove yourself capable enough to send me to jail!” She laughed loudly.

“I will do my best, mother.” I bowed toward her.

“Before you start on your hero career, isn’t there something you need to learn first?” She was testing me.

“The laws?” I responded.

“That’s one but what’s the most important thing for a hero to be able to do?”

“Save others?” To this answer, she laughed in my face.

“If only the real heroes were as sweet and kind as my baby...” She walked over and gently cuffed his face. “Yes, you’re right sweetheart but at the same time, you’re wrong. You have to know how to fight and know when to cut your losses and run.” She ruffled his messy wild hair with love in her eyes.

“We’re going to spend the next few years turning you into a little fighting god. Mommy is going to hire tutors around the world to train you into tip-top shape. By the time you’re ready to go to high school, none of those other brats will be able to stand a chance against my baby.”

“Am I going to a high school for heroics or a normal one?” I asked in curiosity.

“Normal. Since medically, you’re powerless, you’re going to fast-track through the high school curriculum and get your diploma as fast as possible. After that, you can start your hero career or, if you’re talented enough you can start at the beginning of high school.”

“I understand.”

“Let’s return home now. Your father must be worried out of his mind wondering why we’re taking so long at the grocery store.” Mom kissed him on the cheek and led him outside of her office as her employees went to clean up the mess inside.

My father didn’t know about Mother’s secret life as an underground crime boss. He didn’t know about my meta-ability. He didn’t know I've indirectly led to the death of probably hundreds of criminals. Probably the only thing my father knew about me was my love for heroes. I never told Mother this but it was because of my father that I gained an interest in heroes. One time after picking me up from school, we nearly got into a traffic accident from a hero-villain fight that broke out in the streets. The villain’s meta-ability allowed him to shift his limbs into large plant tentacles and one of those vines was headed to knock my father’s head off his shoulders.

I promised Mother I would never show anyone my meta-ability but I was willing to break this rule of mother’s if I could save my father. I loved them both and couldn’t think of a world where I had to live without one of them. Thankfully, I was spared from having to act as #1 Hero: Uni appeared in a flash. My father and I were spatially displaced on the sidewalk as Uni took down the out-of-control villain with a smile on her face.

“My mom’s the best, huh?” A child with startling similarities to Uni proudly spoke next to them.

“...” I nodded as my father held me in his arms to perhaps comfort me.

“I’m gonna become even better than her.” She vowed.

“Good luck.” I responded.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Sambo, Krav Maga, and Muay Thai, are just a few of the martial arts my mother thought were necessary for me to learn. With a hired underground healer as my aide, my mother didn’t hold back in teaching me several methods to defend myself no matter how many times I nearly died or actually died. It was also through this training that I learned another way of using my meta-ability. If I used my Mind Control to order someone to teach me their martial arts, they wouldn’t hold anything back in doing so. So, I learned, suffered, and died multiple times until the time came for me to enter high school.

Of course, I begged several times over and over again to my mother that I didn’t want to become a hero anymore but she wasn’t hearing any of it. She ignored my tear-filled pleadings and instilled in me the basics and advanced teachings of heroics along with martial arts. I hated my mother for several years. I even used my meta-ability on her in an attempt to escape. But of course, she didn’t become the merciless underground ruler by chance. Mother was always prepared. A trait she ruthlessly beat into my mind and body.

The underground healer hired by my mother wasn’t any ordinary healer. She was a surgeon expelled from any and every medical occupation for her tendency to experiment on anyone she could get her hands on. My mother decided to hire her out and use her meta-ability in bringing us to the limits of humanity. I dearly wished she decided this before my training but she deemed it only necessary for herself. Mother forced me to use my meta-ability on her to force the truth out of her in regards to exactly what enhancement she put in her body. Luckily for her, she didn’t plant a biological bomb or anything of the sort inside Mother.

Now with both Mother and I experimented on, there were few things we weren’t capable of. Nothing to the level that made us something higher than meta-humans or anything like that. Imagine it like a video game where our basic stats were increased two or three-fold. Neither of us would be capable of going toe-to-toe with any strength-based meta-humans, outsmarting a mental-based meta-human, etc. A simpler way of thinking of it is the peak of humanity's potential.

With Mother’s experiment, she joined me in learning several martial arts for herself despite her love for guns and other such weaponry. And by joining me, I mean aiding the teacher in beating me half to death or all the way to death. With her enhanced body and mind, it only took a few times for her to get the basics of any martial art down. Then a few days to become extremely skilled. And a month or two to completely master it. I was envious.

After being experimented on as well, I recalled all of my lessons and could put them to use at a moment's notice with my body and organs leveled up. Mother was ecstatic when I was finally capable of defeating her in a fight for once. When that happened, she considered I no longer needed my teachers anymore or any further training. I was free to do as I pleased until it was time for high school to start. Then I was to fast-track my way through high school while illegally heroing around.

Now that I was finally free from my mother’s training, I sunk myself into a relaxing heap at home.