Generation Why Bother

Shira didn’t mince words or lighten up. “Yes, that’s what this is about! It’s about your disgusting lack of passion, your horrifying inability to detect danger, and the fact that you’re not only endangering yourself – you’re endangering the entire planet!”

Chuck still looked absolutely terrified. His elbows that held him up were trembling in fear, and he stammered as he spoke, “Look, I understand you’re angry, b-but I have to get to Riley’s house – he’s my ride to school…”

“Don’t worry, I have to speak to him too,” she grunted, standing up and facing back towards the street.

She yanked him up by his arm, and as he yelped at the force she used, she led us around the neighborhood yet again by the street behind Chuck’s house. Just like her, Chuck seemed to know where she was going, and the perplexed expression never left his face. He looked back at me and Tegan a few times as if he felt like we were familiar to him, but it was only us who had seen him and stalked his blog relentlessly. He probably hated us. I wouldn’t have blamed him, but I just rubbed my head to avoid any awkward eye contact.

Again, Shira pulled us up a driveway and led Chuck up with her, Tegan and I falling behind. We kept closer to her than before, and when she knocked on this door and a little girl answered instead of a grown woman, Tegan definitely sensed the danger and took over, leaping in front of Shira.

“Um, hi there,” she said, crouching to the little girl’s height. “We’re Riley’s friends from school. Do you know where he is?”

The little girl stood on her tiptoes and saw Chuck and his scared-out-of-his-wits expression, and she waved. Chuck just nodded back at her and said, “Hey Alex….” with his jaw wired shut.

She turned back and ran into the house, shouting, “Riley! Chuck is here for you!” in a high voice only a seven-year-old girl could have. Soon enough, turning the corner behind the staircase, Riley walked out, putting an Atlanta Braves baseball cap on, obviously not expecting much.

But when he saw all of us, he stopped dead in his tracks. Then he slowly backed up.

“What in the hell…” he started, looking mainly at Chuck.

“They got us, man,” Chuck gasped, his face breaking.

Riley just rubbed his face for a while and groaned, leaning in the doorway. “Christ, Chuck…I told you to return that movie…”

“No, it’s not that, it’s -” our captive began.

Shira cut him off harshly. “You’re not going to skip out on your responsibilities. Like this useless puddle of a coward, you were given the duty of defending your planet, and there is no way I’m going to let you shirk that. I’m not even from this planet and I give more of a shit than you. That is disgusting.”

Riley was busy staring at her like she just got dropped off by the loony bin. Before long, he started laughing, snorting chuckles until he stepped out of his house and walked right over to Chuck, putting a hand on his shoulder like they were one in the same.

“Good God, you’re all thinking that was real?” he said incredulously. “Here I was, thinking I was tripping balls in a hospital bed right alongside Siege here.” He hung an arm around his pal’s shoulder, who still looked like he was having a heart attack despite Shira letting go of his arm. “I’ll tell you what. Once I see an actual superpower, I’ll believe it, that’s what I’m sayin’.”

Like it was some kind of cue, Shira and Tegan both looked at me. For a moment I had no idea why, thinking we were all just supposed to revel in the stubbornness of those two; then I thought about what Riley had just said.

If he wanted to see powers, well, I was his dude.

I tried to bring the sparks back to my hand just like I did when Andy told me to. Keeping Shira in my mind and how she had caused my dad such pain, I thought about the dire situation we were stuck in at the moment and how desperate we had to be in order to convince the final two guardians that we were legitimate.

Closing my eyes and keeping that in mind, I felt it. The sparks were flying short distances from my hand before popping in midair and disappearing. This time when I opened my eyes, I didn’t let myself get surprised and accidentally fire a bolt at anybody or anything. The sparks only slightly intensified, getting thicker and sprouting from each of my fingers while never going anywhere.

The two opposites we were trying to wrangle had mirrored the same expression of awe and fear. Folding my hand back up and putting an end to the sparks, I had to smile. That was the first time I had successfully controlled my power, and miraculously, it was at the perfect time.

Shira even smiled. That’s how incredible it was.

When I stopped, Riley shook his head and snapped out of his own daze. “Okay, I’m either somehow stoned out of my mind, or you guys have some kind of weird movie-magic going on here.”

“You just witnessed powers belonging to one of your fellow guardians and that’s all you can say?” Shira snorted, again trying to stand tall but falling short a few inches.

While Chuck twiddled his thumbs in a neutral attitude, Riley rolled his head and sighed, “Yeah, whatever.”

I think that’s what snapped Shira, though, because right after he said that, she grabbed him by the collar of his Flogging Molly t-shirt and hissed through gritted teeth, “Listen here you little shit, you’re coming back up to Chicago with us whether you like it or not, both of you are gonna get the complete scoop, and you’re gonna deal with it. Got it?”

She let him go and while he was busy reeling from the fear, Chuck put a hand on his shoulder in a feeble attempt to comfort him. Almost hesitantly, he said, “Okay. We’ll bite.”

Riley glared at him from the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Okay, fine. But only because we…get to miss school.”

“You’re damn right it’s fine. Now get your asses over here. You’re coming with us.” Shira scowled at them and violently jerked her hand to signal them over. As if she trusted her own intimidation tactics too well, she turned around and started to lead us out of Riley’s property, out of the neighborhood.

Chuck and Riley, looking disgruntled as hell, walked past Tegan and I shoulder-to-shoulder. I remember being in their shoes for a little while, but we had the benefit of living close to the original four guardians who had a sizeable chunk of proof that it was all real. They could get by on playing it off like it wasn’t gonna happen because they really didn’t have a valid reason to believe it.

So I felt for them, in a way. I understood where they were coming from, and the reasons for the defeated spring in their steps as they trudged forward, Tegan and I bringing up the rear.

That’s why I walked up between them and whispered, “Hey, sorry about all this.”

Chuck squeezed out a constipated smile, and Riley hooted out a forced laugh, crossing his arms.

Falling back again, Tegan elbowed me gently and mouthed out, “You tried,” to me. I shrugged. Well, it was the least I could do to at least attempt an apology. It was more than Shira did, basically threatening them into cooperating, though I have to admit that her little Daltian assertiveness ended up working.