On the street, Kiba looked at the delirious crowd. They were letting out miserable shrieks filled with indescribable despair and agony.
Kiba was certainly impressed by results.
He hasn’t used Happy Moments on them for a full ten seconds and yet, they looked like they have suffered a crushing defeat. They had no pride left.
The humiliation they suffered in those ten seconds was not something that could be easily forgotten. It was no less than depression that corroded their very souls.
Then again, it wasn’t surprising. After all, Happy Moments focused on the greatest weakness of a human being.
Relationships.
In the present case, it dealt with perhaps the most sacred and holiest relationship.
Mother-child.
A mother is someone who can take place of all others but no one else can take her place. She holds the hands of her child only for a while, but the heart forever.
Mother is the root, the foundation... the very essence of a child. The provider of the purest love her child can ever find.
Now, this same love was twisted and corrupted in the evilest way possible.
Perhaps, one can deal with infidelity of parents and subsequent developments without freaking out. But Happy Moments forced the child to become a willing participant in hiding the infidelity.
In Kala’s case, when he wanted to get angry at his mom, he recalled the greatest moments of his life with her:
Giving him life, nurturing him, teaching him, fighting for him, shielding him, and finally, loving him unconditionally.
This forced him to hold his anger back, preventing him from venting frustration. When later on, he decided to disclose to his father, Happy Moments reminded him of the repercussions.
Consequences which even a grown man like him didn’t want to face.
This made despair surge in the very depths of him, hollowing him from inside.
In the end, all he could do was helplessly stare, and unwittingly help his mom as she put a green hat on his dad...
"How could you do such a thing?" Kala looked at Kiba with intense hatred.
"Do what exactly?" Kiba asked.
He was puzzled by the looks of hatred on Kala and hundreds of others.
"Insulting the purest bond!" Gwen shouted.
"All I did was showing how happy your mothers were. There was nothing insulting in it," Kiba was surprised by their accusations so he inquired, "Are you perhaps trying to say - you don’t want your moms to be happy?
"Why? Because it goes beyond the scope of cultural conditioning you have undergone from your very inception? Or maybe, you believe that you and your father own your mother as a slave?
"Do you want her life to restricted to serving you, your father and family? " Kiba asked many thought-provoking questions.
"Answer me - Does being a wife and mother takes away her right to be a woman? Did she lost the right do experience the joys of being a woman just because she gave birth to ungrateful children like you?"
Kiba’s voice contained righteous indignation. Both his tone and facial expression denoted just how close happiness of mothers was to his heart.
Moms all around the world were tied by responsibilities. They were so busy and burdened that they didn’t get any time for relaxation.
Neither society nor the children cared about their happiness. It was as if a mother was created just for her children and her husband; with no right of her own.
World equated her responsibilities to her happiness... never thinking if she wanted more.
Kiba, a strict advocate for women’s happiness, wanted to change this mentality.
The crowd, on the other hand, was shell-shocked by his questions. They were silent only for a moment before erupting into curses filled with venom.
"Bastard!"
"What bullshit questions!"
"We are not ungrateful!"
"My mom is not a wanton slut!"
"She would never do such a thing!"
A few of them, who had barely regained some strength, jumped on their feet. They started attacking in order to crush him.
"Die!"
Kiba ducked streams of attack.
"Let me answer why you are angry," Kiba answered while dodging a plasma beam. "You found the very thought of your mom having pleasure insulting. Secretly, you want her to be chained by the rules laid by society. Reason? Because every single one of you, including females, is misogynist and patriarchal. "
Kiba was really disappointed with the culture and norms of this world. As he saw such unfilial children in front of him, he felt he should establish a non-profit organization for the well-being of mothers.
It wouldn’t be easy but then again change is always difficult to bring. He was fully prepared to sweat for (beautiful) mothers around the globe.
"Son of a bitch!" Banjo launched one air bolt after another. "What you did was evil!"
"Evil? I seem to recall doing no such thing," Kiba answered while retaliating with a golden arc. "But if helping a woman find happiness, and turning her bad son into a Good Son is evil, then I don’t mind being evil."
The golden arc swept forward, ripping through air bolts and turning them into misty air. It then moved forward to a dozen or so mutants who were pouncing on him.
Screech.
The air trembled and released a sharp sound of screeching.
Banjo crossed his arms and released a defensive shield from a protective device. The golden arc slammed into the shield and it cracked apart like a wall of clay.
Banjo and others were whacked by the golden arc and they were sent rolling through air. They crashed into a broken wall.
The others looked at Kiba with hatred, shock, and alarm.
"Sadly, I could only help your moms only in your brain and not in real life," Kiba said with a heavy sigh. "But you don’t have to feel sad or worried."
Kiba did his best to ease their concerns.
With a smile, he said, "Sooner or later, Happy Moments would show its true potential. Till then, goodbye."
After bidding them farewell, he turned into a stream of golden light and shot off.
Behind, hundreds of mutants have unsightly expressions. Their eyes were completely dazzled as their brains continued to repeat his final words.
’Happy Moments would show its true potential.’
The very thought of what this sentence implied made their bodies quiver. Goosebumps raised on their back, and their legs went limp.
"He surely couldn’t have meant that!" Gwen felt as if her heart was being ripped to pieces.
"Earlier, when he used psychic energy, I felt faint traces of reality-warping," A psionic mutant said absentmindedly.
He was from a metropolis where, from a distance, he has seen a mutant with abilities related to reality-warping. This was why he was able to identify the fluctuations.
"Thankfully, they were negligible and almost non-existent, but if he has reality-warping powers then..."
Everyone saw a tragic reflection of their nightmare playing out in real life.
"There is no way that’s possible!"
"Reality-warping defies science and logic," The psionic mutant said. "I only know one mutant with this ability... who is now in the State of Avalon."
The others trembled.
They were at either level I or II with only a few of them at level III. Such ability was beyond their understanding.
Everyone turned silent and their faces were filled with despair. They wouldn’t mind the existence of godly abilities, but they truly don’t want it to be possessed by someone like Kiba.
He was everything that was the definition of evil - profoundly immoral, wicked and corrupt.
What truly terrified them more than his powers was determination.
The determination his words carried when he said he wanted to make their moms happy; very happy.
It was like he was a man on a mission. His convictions for greater good were so strong that he would go to any extent.
It was a different matter that none of them believed in this greater good of their mothers.
"There is no way he has good intentions... he is pure evil!"
"How can a guy with such sinful thoughts even exist in this world?"
"He is a devil and Earth is no place for him!"
Many secretly agreed though they knew it would do them no good.
Just thinking about him and his promise made their skin crawl and bones numb. Every single one of them regretted participating in a chase after such a guy.
"Happy Moments," Kala muttered, his face deathly pale. "I hate them."
The others ruefully nodded.
They prayed for others to experience Happy Moments but not themselves...