"Ahh, I forget. You-you haven't had contact with other mutants have you-you?"
"Mutants?" Taylor repeated.
"Sure. I'm a mutant, Z's a mutant."
"Z?" Jess asked.
"Ahh, that would be Zella. Sorry. Goblin's also a mutant." Oscar continued, brushing quickly over his explanation.
"How'd you become mutants?" Taylor asked. "And who's the Goblin? And why does she want Zac?"
"Wish we knew." Oscar replied. "Don't worry, we'll find him. Goblin is part frog. You'll probably hear her being called a few other things too-too, but they're not necessarily very flattering. How we became mutants? During puberty partly, but there are heaps who-who are born that way."
"Born?" Jess questioned.
"Sure. You-you just might be surprised at how many of us there are out there. Some of us - like Zella can easily pass through-ooh the human world. Others, like me, are not so, uhh, fortunate. We've built up our own societies."
"Awesome."
"Yeah, I think so." Oscar grinned. "But I have to say, you-you Hansons are a huge mystery. I've never known kids to mutate before puberty before, nor so much after it."
"We didn't mutate." Isaac said plainly. "Zac has this electricity power which he use to trigger our powers. Zac doesn't go to the trouble of telling us the whole story, but basically what we know is that there's some kind of anomalous gene in humans, and that gene is the source of our powers."
Oscar stared.
"Well! It's been suspected for a long time now that genes were involved but wow... electricity used to-to trigger it huh? And you're able to-to do-do... to-to do-do all that?" he asked, gesturing towards the kitchen, where Isaac was still exercising his telekinesis. "Fascinating. How do-do you-you know all this?"
"Zac made friends with aliens." Taylor replied with a completely straight face. "What's with all the repeating of the 'ooh' words?"
"Oh... part of my dear owl mutation. I've gotten used to-to it, and so have the people I work with, so I don't really notice it much any more. Forgot you-you wouldn't be accustomed with it." Oscar gave him a broad grin. "I used to-to get teased about it at school all the time when it started. Of course, not long after I started sprouting feathers and wings and was able to-to turn my head 180 degrees."
"Cool."
"Ahh, we both say that now, but I hated it back then."
"As you would." Walker nodded.
"Very interesting, about this triggering thing." Oscar went on. "And the aliens... how'd that happen?"
"All we know is that some alien screwed up the timeline and then her bosses had to clean up the mess." Isaac replied. "That's pretty much the gist of it. For further details, ask Zac. Not that he's telling us much."
Oscar nodded thoughtfully as Isaac brought in the drinks and set them down in front of their recipients. He could tell that Oscar was still amazed at his telekinetic abilities.