Generation Why Bother

That next day after a sleepy day of school, Tegan and I drove to the band’s apartment. Even if we were both in desperate need of a nap due to all the hubbub that went down that last night, it was still a no-brainer that something was going on – something that we needed to be in on.

When we got there, Chance was the one who answered the door, forcing a smile as he let us in, but just beyond him, Shira was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed. She had her eyes closed and it looked like she was either meditating or sleeping.

“Yeah, we don’t know what she’s doing,” Chance whispered. “Come on in. Everything’s pretty under control.”

“Dude, Oshie – Andy wants to see you,” Mick shouted from the kitchen, putting dishes away from their dishwasher. Shira didn’t budge despite the volume of his voice. “He’s in the workout room. Said he wants to see your power.”

Despite the grin taking over his round face, my heart dropped. I hadn’t used my power since that previous night, and I’d been walking on thin ice all day trying not to let it overtake me. Call me a scaredy cat or whatever, but even though Shira walked out unscathed after I shocked the crap out of her, I dealt with humans all day who would either die or sue if I accidentally zapped them. Chance went a little overboard when he first discovered his power, but water dries. He could learn to control his power with ease. Mick’s plants were good for the world. If I got a little too much static in me, boom – I could wipe out a town. That was terrifying.

“Oh,” I said, trying to sound excited. “I’ll just…get on that, then.”

Tegan smiled sympathetically like she knew what was going through my mind. Hopefully after I got out of whatever Andy wanted to talk to me about, everybody in this apartment complex would still be alive.

I walked back to the homemade gym, and of course Andy was in there, sweating in gym shorts and a grey tanktop as he relentlessly punched one of the many punching bags dangling from the ceiling. The look of sheer concentration dissipated, however, when he saw me walk in, pulling off the gloves and even smiling a bit.

“Hey dude. Heard you found your power last night,” he said between breaths, wiping the sweat from his bushy brow.

I shrugged, deciding to tell a little bit of truth. “Yeah. Took me a little off-guard, though.”

“I guess you could say it was shocking.”

The power of that pun was enough to send my hand right into my forehead in secondhand embarrassment.

Andy laughed at my reaction, though, and with a towel around his neck, urged, “No, but seriously, you mind if I see your power? As long as you’re comfortable with it, I mean.”

I stammered for a few seconds, trying to see if I could worm my way out of this one, but I failed of course. “No, I can do it, no problem, just…uh…”

Backed into a corner. I hate myself.

I tried to focus my energy like I did the previous night. Last night it was all about emotions and how they had flooded over me, channeling the need to defend not only myself but my dad. Closing my eyes brought flashbacks to me, seeing my dad writhe on the ground right next to me. As uncomfortable as it was to relive it, I had to remember that everything had turned out fine – he just had a huge bandage and walked with a limp, but we were alright. I couldn’t let the emotions take over again.

My eyelids trembled even though I focused on being steady. Soon, I felt the tingling pricks of sparks emit from my fingers just like they did in the aftermath of the action, and after a few moments of just basking in it, I opened my eyes again.

The sight was a little surprising for some reason, or maybe I was just on-edge. The point is, I jumped when I saw the sparks get bigger out of my hands, and of course that cause a giant bolt to fling from my fingertips and right into the nearest punching bag – right next to Andy.

Andy jumped out of the way with a high scream. I grunted as I retracted the static back into my body, putting an end to even the little sparks flinging from my fingertips, replacing flying flickers with apologies.

He let out an airy laugh and put his hands on his hips. “God dang it, I can’t wait until I get a power at least half as awesome as yours.”

I shook my hands as if it would help block the electricity. “Kinda wish I didn’t electrocute that girl, though. That was a bad first impression.”

“She could’a killed your dad, dude,” he deadpanned. “Besides that, she’s pretty legit. She got on our monitor and did some crap to it that we didn’t even know was there – and that’s where those messages from her dad were hidden. Turns out, her dad is the king of this planet Daltia that’s populated by reptilian humanoids, but the place is becoming more and more of a wasteland because they’re all moving to different planets. Said he wanted to improve intergalactic relations.”

He paced back and forth, lightly tapping the scorched punching bag.

“So, he sent his daughter here to help us get our shit together. Compared to Daltia, Earth is a huge place – we’ve got eight guardians, but they’ve only got one. She was chosen by the stars just like we were, but she’s from a tiny planet. She’s a princess guardian. Ain’t that funny?” he continued.

I took it all in and decided to overlook the fact that it seemed like yet another bad comic book. “So…what you’re saying is that she’s not out to get us?”

“Not as far as we can tell. And she’s even got an idea to recruit Chuck and Riley down in Florida,” he explained, brightening at the second sentence. “Of course, it’ll require a little more effort on the part of you and Tegan. And by ‘a little more effort,’ I mean…travelling across the country…”

“Well, as long as it’s on a weekend…” I weaseled, already hearing objections from my dad.

“Yeah, she said it’d be quick. Knowing how quickly she got you to learn your power, I wouldn’t doubt that,” Andy assured.

The conversation took an awkward pause at that point since I didn’t really know what to say after that. I just kind of smiled and laughed a tad. I still hadn’t gotten over the sheer amount of talent this guy had in so many areas and the fact that he could be so casual, talking to me like I was just maybe his kid brother or something. There are a lot of musicians out there who people say are friendly when you first meet them, but this band was friendly at first and then continued to be that way. I didn’t even mind if it was all just for the sole purpose of cooperation. A talk with Andy was still a talk with Andy.

Desperate to not be the uncomfortable loser in the room, I asked, “You ever think about how crazy it is that three of us have already found out our powers? That’s something, isn’t it?”

His stance got all stiff and I could see him tense up. The smile he had turned into one that made him look constipated, and right after I asked it, I regretted letting the words fly from my mouth. “Yeah, it’s something,” he said, clearing his throat. “Uh…let’s go check on Shira real quick.”

He walked in front of me out of the workout room, and I found myself looking at his leg for the tattoo that the others had mentioned that night when we talked about nicknames. On the inside of his right calf was faded ink some weird shape (he was walking too fast for me to get a good look at it) encircled by thick rope with a wave pattern whooshing behind it all.

I almost asked about it, but I didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable than I think I already did. Let sleeping dogs lie again. Out of respect, I looked up at his back rather than his leg as he went in front of me. He may not have even realized he was wearing shorts for the first time in my company; he normally just wore baggy jeans. Besides, one of the songs on their most recent album was literally called “Anchored (I Will, In Fact, Sink),” and God knows they were never afraid to use ocean imagery in their music. That was the meaning behind it, I guessed.

When we got back out to the main room, Shira was fixing her hair on the couch, sitting across from a visibly shy Tegan, who looked relieved to see us walking in.

Shira’s eyes widened upon seeing me, and pointing one of the same fingers that injured my dad right at me, she said, “Ah, good! I was just about to tell your female friend about our mission plan.”

Tegan looked at her funny.

“We’re going to fly to this Gainesville place you say the other two live,” she explained, folding her hands together. “Rather, I will fly you, we will recruit the leftovers whether they like it or not, and at the very least, we will make them discover that the danger is very real from all sides.”

“I’m assuming your planet has the same problem too?” Tegan asked, leaning back.

Shira only looked at her for half a second before explaining things from a more Daltian standpoint. “All planets that are large enough to be economically significant are having this problem. The stars are watching all of this and they’re seeing planets get destroyed by ruthless land-hungry creatures, and that’s why they’ve been calling upon guardians from each planet to step up and defend their homes against this threat. That is why I cannot stay here for very long periods of time; I have my own planet to defend.”

Tegan was biting her neatly manicured electric blue fingernails when she asked, “Well…why do you need me and Oshie?”

“They’ll feel less threatened by people their own age. Trust me. And if all else fails, you can just pull out the powers of your own to show them for real,” Shira answered.

Andy, dripping sweat onto the hardwood floor, threw his two cents in. “Well, judging by some of the ways I’ve seen those two act on social networking sites, Riley’s gonna be the more difficult one. Chuck’s probably just gonna ignore you guys.”

“Oh, they won’t be simply ignoring us after tomorrow,” Shira smirked evilly.

“Ugh,” Tegan whined, “we’re gonna have to miss school for this?”

Shira got on her defensive high-horse again, sitting forward on the couch. “You’re worried about missing a measly day of schooling when your planet is in grave danger? I fear for humankind if the rest of the fools roaming this planet are just like you, dismissive of the future.”

Mick, leaning against the counter with a cup of yoghurt in his hand, snorted and shot her a nasty look behind her back. “Whoa, chill out there, freakazoid.”

Shira turned around and gave him the same dirty look. Then she looked forward again and sighed deeply, staring at the carpet. “I do not wish to stay here for the night, but I have no other accommodations.”

She mumbled something else, but I wasn’t paying attention. Mick was stealing the show, sneaking up behind her, rolling his eyes and puffing out his cheeks to make him look like a fish. Flailing his hands behind her head, he held his breath to keep from laughing. Shira didn’t see a thing.

Hence her confusion when Tegan couldn’t hold in a little giggle, covering her mouth.

Shira probably didn’t mean to say it so scarily, but when she barked, “You find me funny?” so suddenly, Tegan was shocked into putting her serious face back on.

“Er, no,” she coughed.

“Oh,” Shira said, becoming less animated and sounding just a bit disappointed.