Cyrus
4 AM. Cyrus stared at the harsh red light being emitted from the digital clock in the dark of his assigned bedroom. He had been trying to sleep for a few hours now, having set an alarm for 5 AM. The first Spider attack begins at dawn. How frustratingly non-specific. When was dawn, exactly? He rubbed his temples – he had a throbbing headache. At this point, he might as well just give up on sleep, because there was just no way it was going to happen. Even if he did manage to somehow fall asleep, there was a risk that he might oversleep the alarm and still be sleeping when the attack began.
Cyrus had just come to this decision when suddenly a brash, loud, frighteningly familiar voice boomed over the intercom:
“HOW DOES – WORK – I – BUT IF YOU – OH, I GET IT! YOU JUST PUSH THIS BIG RED BUTTON OVER HERE. AWESOME! AM I LOUD ENOUGH? CAN EVERYONE HEAR ME?
HELLOOOOOOOOO! MY NAME IS BRIAR UNDERWOOD. I AM AN AWESOME THREE STAR PSYCHIC THAT CAN SET THOSE STUPID SPIDERS ON FIRE!
I HOPE I DIDN’T WAKE ANYONE UP OUT THERE! BUT YOU GUYS SHOULDN’T BE SLEEPING, YOU KNOW! MY BROTHER, CYRUS –”
And suddenly all hope of pretending that he didn’t know Briar was gone – “HE WAS ALL LIKE ‘WE NEED TO TRY AND GET SOME REST, BRIAR,’ BUT COME ON YOU GUYS, I MEAN, WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! DON’T YOU THINK SLEEP IS FOR LOSERS? DON’T YOU THINK WE SHOULD HAVE A MEETING? I THINK WE NEED TO HAVE A PLAN! I MEAN, OBVIOUSLY I WILL BE AT THE FRONT LINES OF THE BATTLE KICKING ASS, BUT LIKE MY BROTHER WOULD SAY, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN –”
Cyrus had a headache, which meant that he really didn’t want to use his abilities. But Briar left him no choice. He opened up a mindlink, somewhat violently, snapping at Briar:
Dear brother, you really don’t need to talk so much about me in your amazing speech.
Briar had always fanboyed the mindlink ability. He gushed back, his thoughts so strong that it came across as yelling: IS IT AMAZING? REALLY? DO YOU THINK SO? DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WILL BE INSPIRED? I WAS REALLY NERVOUS, ACTUALLY, BUT I’VE BEEN TRYING SO HARD –
It’s wonderful. They will definitely be inspired. To punch you in the face. Now please wrap it up.
OKAY, BRO!
“ANYWAY,” continued Briar on the intercom, “I THINK WE SHOULD ALL HAVE A MEETING IN THE AUDITORIUM SO IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A MEETING PLEASE GO TO THE AUDITORIUM. IF NO ONE SHOWS UP, THEN I WILL HAVE TO SING 99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL ON THIS INTERCOM THING. I LEARNED THAT LAST SUMMER ON A ROADTRIP WITH MY BROTHER. HE LOVES THAT GAME. 99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 99 BOTTLES OF BEER – 98 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 98 BOTTLES OF BEER –”
And suddenly Cyrus recalled mental trauma that he thought he had previously buried deep, deep within.
Briar
Briar stood on stage in the auditorium, clutching at the microphone. A fair amount of people had shown up, which, to be honest, he hadn’t expected. It looked like about a hundred people, which would easily be half of the students. He felt skahy and nauseous, which was an inappropriate reaction for a three star leader. He had to buck up.
Briar spotted his brother standing in the crowd, his hands in his pockets and a familiar frown on his face. Briar waved enthusiastically. His brother gave a lukewarm wave in response.
“OKAY,” said Briar into the microphone, pausing briefly in order to clear his voice. “THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING. SO LIKE I WAS SAYING ON THE COMM THING, I THINK THAT WE NEED A PLAN. IS THIS LOUD ENOUGH? CAN ALL OF YOU HEAR ME? SO DOES ANYONE, LIKE, HAVE A PLAN?”
He looked nervously around the crowd. Somewhere, crickets chirped.
Fortunately, his big bro stepped on stage to save him.
“What my brother means,” said Cyrus, taking the microphone from him, “is that, in the event of an attack as described on the posters,”
What did Cyrus mean? Of course there was going to be an attack!
“In case of such an event,” continued Cyrus. “We need to know everyone’s abilities. For example, my brother here can start fires. Like that girl in Firestarter.” Briar thought he was much cooler than her, but whatever. “I can read minds, and I can also open mental links between myself and other people. So, hopefully, that will be useful in terms of communication during an attack. I mean, obviously we won’t have the intercom or microphones then,” finished Cyrus, chuckling to himself. Briar chuckled along, somewhat nervously, feeling like he’d missed the joke.
Wednesday
What a farce. Wednesday had been getting plenty of beauty sleep before that loud, droll boy had just about burst her eardrums. Looking around, Wednesday could tell that many of the other psychics were scared. It was because they had been given inferior abilities. No matter how the battle went, Wednesday did not have to worry. Nothing could pierce her force field. She would live, that was for sure.
And now – now she had a chance to stake her claim in the group. Stars be damned. It was obvious that no one would follow that annoying little boy, regardless of how many stars he had. But his older brother…he had a calm, confident presence…
Wednesday had to stop that immediately.
She raised her hand. “Excuse me,” she said, pushing past the people in front of her and climbing onto the stage. She motioned for the microphone.
“My name is Wednesday Williams,” said Wednesday into the microphone. “I’m able to create force fields. I should be able to keep a lot of people safe in the event of an attack.” Provided that they’re good at groveling, snickered Wednesday mentally to herself. “However, I’m not so sure that we need to focus on individual abilities right now. Isn’t the question of stars more important? I understand that this boy has three stars, but how many stars do you have?” She looked meaningfully at Cyrus.
“That’s not – the star system isn’t – I don’t think that’s what we should be focusing on right now is – I mean, in the event of an attack…” Cyrus trailed off, his voice suddenly small.
Just as she’d suspected. He didn’t have three stars. Hell, judging by how nervous he suddenly got, he probably didn’t even have two stars. A one star jockey. Or even a no-star plant. Who the hell did he think he was, getting on stage and giving everyone orders like that?
“I only have two stars,” said Wednesday. “But I’m not claiming to lead us, either.” She could feel Cyrus glaring at her, which she gleefully ignored. “I think what we need is all of the three stars on stage, here, now.”
She handed the microphone back to Briar, who looked very, very confused.
It doesn’t matter who they officially call “leader”. Soon enough, people will realize that the only way to survive is to befriend me and to get included in my force field.
And that will be true power.