"I'm home Jacelynn!" Marco Dionnis called out, shutting the door to their apartment behind him.

Normally, she'd have already bounded around the corner and launched herself at him before he'd opened the door the whole way.

Instead, he was greeted with silence and a mostly dark home.

Marco couldn't help but feel a little concerned. He ditched his coat and slowly made his way into the space. "Jacelynn? Are you home?"

He flicked the light on and was met with just the furniture of their living room. There weren't even the usual tiny specks of popcorn on the wood coffee table, a tell-tale sign that his daughter had been there.

He started to wonder if something bad had happened, his steps becoming quicker as he made his way around their space. "Jacelynn?" He tried again, reaching for the kitchen light switch.

As he flicked the switch; two things happened. One, unsurprisingly, was that the lights turned on. The second was that from out of nowhere he felt someone jump onto his back, clinging to his shoulders and shouting "Boo!"

He stumbled forward on the impact but kept his footing, and despite the fact that he was now supporting another person, he felt the tension evaporate from his shoulders.

"You're getting too good at surprising me, topolina," he laughed. "I had no idea where you were."

"I've been practicing!" His daughter chirped back, jumping down onto the floor. "And I'm getting better at hiding my eyes too.

He turned and got a glimpse of the blue eyes illusion she had been using on herself before it fades into the uncannily bright violet eyes that he knew she could make glow like a light in the dark. She used to scare the shit out of him when she woke him up in the middle of the night when she was younger.

"That you are! I bet it won't be long now until you can disguise your whole self," he replied, ruffling her hair some.

She grinned. "Hey, mom is back too, right?"

"She'll be here in a few minutes. You should go wash up though, she's bringing home dinner for us."

"Oooh, from where?"

"It may or may not be a place that rhymes with 'Ronald's'."

"Hell yeah!" She pumped a fist in the air and scampered off to the washroom. He shook his head, a smile on his face. The boundless energy of his twelve-year-old never ceased to amaze him

Six Months Later

Jacelynn is sprawled across her living room couch, eating popcorn with one hand, and the other pressing hard on her remote's fast forward button to skip through the commercials at the start of her DVD of Romeo + Juliet.

She hadn't been home for that long, and the ache in her muscles from a rather gruelling gymnastics practice had yet to go away. She had been doing gymnastics for what felt like forever, and it was only a year or so after that she was put into mixed martial arts classes twice a week. Her mom had always stressed the importance of being well-rounded, and that was her reasoning for putting in these types of activities at such a young age. But Jacelynn was pretty sure it was to keep her busy, and occupied. To fill in some of the time her parents were gone.

It would be for a few days sometimes, or even a full week or two. Sometimes, they would call her nightly, to ask about her day and see how she was doing. Other times, she was lucky to get an email. That was just the nature of their work.

That work was... less than legal. They never went into details, but she had pieced together not all that long ago that they were, in fact, criminals. Thieves. Experts at breaking into places they shouldn't be, and taking things that weren't theirs.

Her parents had been equal parts concerned and impressed when she confronted them about it. They did their best to lie, of course, but considering that she had overheard them planning, they didn't exactly have a great case. But that didn't matter.

Jacelynn thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Sometimes, her dad would regale her with the stories of their epic heists and breakneck getaways. Her mom would watch action movies with her and point out the inaccuracies. She wanted nothing more than to join them on a mission one day, when she was older.

So that made two large family secrets her parents entrusted her with keeping: their profession, and the fact that they were all mutants.

That was never something they could hide from her - and they often had to remind her that while people used the phrase "glowing eyes" a lot figuratively, people would still find it strange to see them. Her mom, who shared the trait with her, would know, as she often wore contacts when going out to mitigate the effect. So it was no surprise when her powers began to manifest at the age of ten. That was evident the day her parents came home to find their daughter appearing to be blonde and blue-skinned.

Her mom could melt into the shadows - and she cheated wildly when playing hide and seek when Jacelynn was a kid, and her father could make bolts of lighting jump from his fingertips. Not that she got to see it often, he was very reluctant to use what he deemed very destructive around her.

Which was lame, if you asked her. But her parents were nothing if not stubborn and she never made much ground on the matter.

As she reached for another handful of popcorn, her eyes glanced over the clock. The screen displayed 6:59 in digital red font.

An hour late? She thought to herself. They'd better be bringing home dinner.

They'd been gone what, a week now? She was running out of the pre-cooked dinners her mom had made for her before they left, and Jacelynn tried to avoid cooking herself as much as possible. No matter what she tried it never tasted right.

Finally, past the commercials and at the opening scene, she pushed the topic from her mind as she nestled into the couch. They'll be here soon. Might as well just enjoy having the whole couch to myself.

Just as Mercutio and Tybalt were trading blows, there was a knock at the door.

She jumped up, pausing the movie and bounded over to the door, long black hair swinging wildly behind her. If they're knocking it means their hands are full of food!

Jacelynn pulled open the door, only for her excitement to be replaced with confusion. "Mason?" She questioned.

Mason was a familiar sight in her life. He was her godfather and a longtime friend of her parents. He wasn't all that much taller than her, but his dark brown and exceptionally curly hair added a bit to his height. He looked at her through thick-framed glasses, a deep sadness in his features, made all the more apparent by his puffy, red eyes, glistening with unshed tears.

"Mason? What - what's wrong?" She asked, a pit developing in her stomach. " Is everything okay?"

He shook his head, a shaky arm coming to rest on her shoulder. "Jacelynn… I'm so sorry. Something horrible has happened." His voice was hoarse and raw.

It felt like there was ice in her blood. The horrible sense of dread crept up to her, and she could barely get the next words out. "Where are my parents?"

"I'm so sorry," he repeated, and Mason, who hated even standing close to other people, enveloped her in a hug.

He didn't have to say anything more.

She realized.

Pressed up against his shoulder, Jacelynn started to cry.