The Federation

When I felt two hands roughly grab my upper arms a few inches down from my shoulders, I assumed that it was simply Carter dragging me from my sleep so I could get dressed and we could go skip and lollygag around the Legion for the day. He’d taken pretty well to the Legion as I took him on a tour—I’d been expecting an excited awakening from him. It surprised me that it took him this long.

“Just a few—” I began groggily, trying to rally up just a few more minutes to lie in bed that I might wake up enough to not stumble like a drunken idiot around the room for five minutes trying to get my clothes together. The hands cut me off short as they wrenched me violently from the bed. My feet found the floor as my eyes snapped open with a loud exclamation of, “Good God, man, I’m up, I’m up!”

I was met with an extremely unfamiliar bouncer-looking guy.

“Who the fuck are you?” I snapped unkindly. I’d been expecting my fiancé, not some big bruiser. And he’d woken my lazy ass up! This would not go down well.

The man completely ignored me. He released one of my arms and turned away, dragging me quickly across the room. A string of profanities poured from my lips as I punched and clawed at his fingers. As he paused to pull my door open, I shot out my leg and caught him a good kick right in his thigh, hard enough to at least get a grunt from a normal person. The guy just kept ignoring me, pulling me out into an empty hallway that was usually bustling with activity at this time in the morning.

Something wasn’t right here. What the hell had happened? And most important—where was Carter? He didn’t even have Legion training yet. He’d be worse than defenseless in this situation.

As I fretted about this, worrying more about my fiancé’s safety than my own, the bouncer guy dragged me into an elevator. He punched the lobby button and the elevator shuddered into movement. I still struggled, however feeble it was to this huge dude. My “struggling” mainly consisted of trying to pull my arm from the guy’s hand and simultaneously shoving my elbow into his ribs at every chance. He wasn’t affected, so I decided to just save my energy.

I gasped as we stepped out into the lobby. All the Legion agents were sitting on the marble floor in the lobby. They were all cross-legged and organized into neat rows. Instead of shoving me down into an empty spot, the bouncer dude dragged me around the edge of the giant rectangle made by all the rockstars. About twenty or so men holding very large and fatal-looking guns stood around the perimeter of the lobby, obviously keeping order. I searched frantically in the rows for Carter. I saw the Avenged guys and Amy—even Joan and Ozzy mixed in the rows—but no Carter as of yet.

The man dragged me around behind the desk. I hadn’t even thought of looking towards the desk. I could’ve saved myself a lot of worry—Carter was standing right there behind the desk, facing the rows and rows of rockstars looking silently back at him. Strange, standing here, he looked as though he was the leader of this...capture, or whatever it was called. But how was that possible?

Carter turned around to look at me. I opened my mouth to talk, to tell him how glad I was to see that he was alright, but then I saw the look in his eyes and my trap instantly snapped shut. There’s almost always a smile on Carter’s face—he’s just a happy guy like that—and if there’s not a smile on his face, then there’s one glittering in his eyes. Except now, his gorgeous blue eyes, the first thing I had ever noticed about him, looked manic and triumphant. He looked like a crazy mad scientist whose latest experiment has finally worked. It was a little frightening. Where had my Carter gone?

“It’s so nice for you to join us, Asher, my lovely,” Carter said, his voice carrying all around the lobby. The bouncer guy shoved me forward, and Carter hooked an arm lovingly around my neck, pulling me against his side. I stared out at the rockstars, my friends and comrades. Each wore a mask of calm and fearlessness. I knew my expression wouldn’t be nearly as composed.

“As you can see, I’ve taken quite well to this Legion business,” Carter continued, still speaking much louder than normal so his voice echoed around the lobby. “I’ve taken so well to it...well, I think I’d like to keep it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped, the flames of rage licking at my body. They began to melt away the ice of shock and surprise. Anger was good. It was secure, unlike the uncertainties of shock and surprise. I could use anger.

“Asher, baby, I’m not who you think I am,” Carter said. “CompleteAnnihilation isn’t even a serious band—it’s nice to have a band as a cover-up to get into an all-rockstar agency such as this one. Instead, my band and I are members of an organization called The Federation. I founded it myself, as a defense against the Legion of Rockstars.” He snarled the name like it caused him great pain to say it out loud. “And as of now, you and all your little rock buddies are pretty much fucked.”

His arm moved around my neck. Now, he wasn’t holding me against his side, but pinning me against his body with a chokehold. He exerted no pressure on my throat. I could still breathe easily. Instinct brought my hands up to his arm, my fingers clenching against his skin in case he did decide to cut off my air for a bit.

“I’m sure you’ve all noticed my guards.” Carter motioned with his free hand towards the guards stationed at regular intervals around the room. “I have instructed them to shoot any and all who resist. They are great aims; I would not test them. Even rockstars aren’t invincible against flaming metal.” Carter nodded slightly, and all of the guards stepped forward simultaneously, stepping closer to the rows and rows of rockstars. “You know what to do.”

Carter’s arm tightened around my throat as he dragged me out from behind the desk. I think it was merely a precaution to keep me from running away. We stepped backward into an elevator, and the last thing I saw were my comrades in arms being prodded to their feet with the cool barrels of guns.

In that same moment, I realized that my Carter no longer existed. More than likely, he had never existed.