Into the Kipo-Verse

A Long Dream

Jamack woke up again to sunlight on his eyelids, streaming through the window. But somehow this light seemed more stale and dead. It was a pale light shining through blinders. 'Blinders?' he thought. 'But Kipo put up new curtains just the other day.'  As the thought escaped him, he noticed that he couldn't feel Kipo's warmth or smell her perfume. "Kipo" he mumbled, still coming to his senses. He reached for her under the covers, but soon realized it was just the lumps formed by his quilts. So he got out of bed and walked down the stairs to look for her and the kids. 

As he walked, it registered to him that the house was eerily quiet. No TV blaring cartoons, nobody preparing flapjacks or cereal. At the thought, his stomach grumbled and it came to him that he was pretty hungry. He thought that if he grabbed something to eat quickly, everything would become clearer. He opened the refrigerator, and to his surprise he saw expensive bottles of liquor, but he hadn't been able to afford drinks like that since the kids started going to school. Sure they were upper middle class, but he always went that extra mile for his kids. The couple weren't planning to have any more, although Jamack remembered a conversation he and Kipo had with Mr. and Mrs. Oak when they went to visit.

"Nana! Papa!" exclaimed Rachel as she ran to hug her grandparents. They had a modest little home at the border of the human city. They had planted a beautiful garden in the front and had a greenhouse and lab where they ran all their experiments, which were now leisurely pastimes in their retirement. Roger and Roland followed suit and hugged their grandparents. 

"Kids! Oh come here you!" said Song, pulling them in for a hug "I made tteokbokki!" 

"Mmm I love Nana's Korean food!" said Roger, licking his lips

"Yes, come inside everyone!" said Lio. "There's plenty for everyone!" 

When everyone was full of Song's delicious tteokbokki and the kids had gone out in the garden to play (Roland was running his own little experiments in the greenhouse), Lio and Song sat Kipo and Jamack down on the couch for a conversation. 

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about?" asked Jamack

"Well, we don't want to come across as those grandparents  who ask about grandkids, but we were just curious if you were thinking about having more" began Song. 

"Mom, we have three bundles of joy already. What more could we want?" said Kipo

The two Oaks looked at each other, and then Lio continued. "Well...your mom and I can't express how happy it made us when we had you. You were a complete success! In fact, you were able to lead us to victory against Emelia, twice!" 

"You saved everyone Kipo!" interjected Song. "Because of your powers" 

"Yes Kipo, you're special. And speaking of powers, your mother and I have been thinking, maybe its time to create a new generation, to carry on your legacy." 

"Mom...Dad..." said Kipo, the cogs turning in her brain "You're not saying what I think you're saying are you?" 

The two stared at her eagerly.

"You want to experiment on my baby?" She exclaimed

"YES!" they cried in unison 

"See, I knew she'd understand!" said Lio 

"What?" said Jamack, still trying to process everything. 

"Look, I appreciate everything you did with me mom and dad! Because of what you did, I was able to save everyone! But...you experimented on me because you had to! You didn't have another choice. The difference is, now we do have a choice and...I don't want to...I don't want to even think that things could go wrong if we had another baby that way."