The army thought it was better to keep an eye on everyone, since the changes caused by the radiation seemed to be quite random. So we were still at the hospital. The three of us were on the bed watching a movie. I felt something wet by my leg and raised the covers. Mom was bleeding. Really bad. Dad yelled to the nurses. One of them picked me up and mom was taken to the obstetrician. There was nothing to be done. My little brother’s heart simply stopped beating. The autopsy would tell that his DNA was all messed up and his body was producing some weird and toxic proteins. All of the other expectant mothers also had miscarriages. Then it was the adults having a variety of symptoms. And lastly was me.

I started throwing up everything I ate, having seizures, asthma attacks, my heart was beating irregularly. I think everyone was at least half-expecting me to die. I remember my mom stroking my hair one afternoon and we were playing “I see with my little eyes”, it was my turn and I described a tiny spider that I was seeing through the window. She couldn’t find anything like that within view, so she asked me what it was. I pointed to the spider, but she couldn’t see it, I insisted it was there, she went to the window, opened it, put her head outside and forced her eyes until she saw it. It was way too far for her to see clearly, but I could.

When dad returned to the room mom had a weird expression and explained what has happened. Dad went to the corridor and told me to go by the window, he took something small from his pocket and asked what it was, I described a little medal with wings. They called the doctors and examined my eyes. There was nothing wrong, in fact it seemed like they were more sensitive than they should. Then they examined my strength, my hearing, my senses of smell and taste, how high I could jump or if I could fly, and determined that all the things humans could do, my body could do better. So they took my DNA and understood why. Much like my little brother’s, my genes were all messed up and my cells were responding to it by producing more or even new substances. Among those substances were some proteins that my body simply didn’t know what to do with, so they were stocked up inside my cells and eventually that would cause my symptoms, finally, during those crisis, my cells would eliminate those proteins and I would eliminate them through the way we eliminate anything, ceasing the attacks.

They studied if the proteins increased faster or slower depending of any factor, but couldn’t find any conclusive results. Mom and other geneticists tried their best to create some vaccine or something to stimulate the proteins to not accumulate inside my body, they weren’t successful. Eventually the army invited us to be part of a special task force and in return, aside from all the standard benefits, they would let my parents research whatever they thought could help me. And that was how I became a superhero.