Sequel: Earth to Me

Generation Why Bother

Play Along and Get Along

Riley and Chuck joined us in sitting backstage on the numerous trunks of equipment nobody needed to use, and like us, they were wordless and terrified. As Put’emup, Put’emup trudged onstage trying to mask their fear while glancing at us as they walked past with forlorn faces, the crowd had no intimation that anything bad was going to happen. Time was running out. Late afternoon was blooming through the sky, and not a single cloud had littered the air.

Instead, the audience burst into applause like they’d done for every other band, and they all forced their smiles as they took their places. Lucky Mick didn’t even have to smile, sitting behind his drum kit, though he glanced back at all of us through the slight opening in the side stage and winked.

Andy yanked the microphone from its stand after adjusting it to his height, and he shot the crowd a satisfied smirk, hiding his nerves well. “Ah, beautiful, sunny, warm Miami. I missed this place. I forgot how nice it was down here. We got snow up in Chicago.” He laughed anxiously and then went back to business. “Anyway, we’re Put’emup, Put’emup, and we’re gonna play a set for you guys.”

The audience roared with applause before any music had even began, and neither Chance nor Anthony had started strumming a coherent song. They had something else in store for the crowd that day – something that had manifested itself ever since their rather ambiguous announcement a while back.

“Anybody who’s following our band sort of knows that we’re taking a break from touring and publicity for now. However, I can tell you right now that those rumors about us breaking up are the farthest thing from truth that you can get. We’ve come too far as people, too far as a band, to break up right now just because of some personal pressures. You don’t have to worry about us breaking up – hell, we’ve only got an EP and one album out. There are much bigger things we’ve got planned for our future. We’re here today to take time from our time off and let all of you know that we’re far from over. We’ll be back soon, I promise,” Andy announced, carrying himself so eloquently it didn’t even sound very rehearsed.

After another cheer had fizzled out, he turned back to smile at the rest of the band, and that was a cue for them to explode into the opening track to their most recent album, “Well I Don’t Love Ya and I’m Proud of It!”

The four of us, the other guardians who had again travelled with Put’emup, Put’emup under the guise that we were contest winners (they said that the “contest” had given us access to three concerts), just sat there. We listened to the way they performed their hearts out even with danger striking at any second. For all we knew, the shelled alien beast could’ve struck at any moment – and any moment included during their particular grouping of songs.

“They’re great people,” Chuck said randomly, catching our attention. He said it out of nerves. I could tell because he went right back to twiddling his thumbs after we all nodded in agreement.

For some reason, and probably a good one, it felt like my whole life had been leading up to that point. All those years of standing in the corner and never making the first move were basically forced to get thrown out the window for some kind of heroic act I really was not prepared for. It was probably a clever plot thrown together by the universe to get me out of my ever-present comfort zone, and I had to say, it worked. I met a few people who changed my whole life. I found new heroes to look up to rather than just one comic book character.

And that made me think back to what Andy told me that last night in his little monologue: just because something isn’t real, it doesn’t mean it’s fake. I mean, as dumb as it probably sounds…if Johnny could fight through monsters and find himself in a topsy-turvy world, couldn’t we all get through this as a team? With the out-of-this-world crap we’ve experienced already, a fabricated world that all came from Andy’s mind didn’t even seem too far out of our reach. Anything was possible; I’d figured that out when I saw Chance pour water from his hands for the first time. I knew it for sure when I shot lightning from my own body.

If it meant stepping out of my little sleeping bag of familiarity, then, well, I was already forced to quite a few times starting that summer. What was a little more novelty?

After their opening song, however, something happened that made my heart absolutely plummet into my stomach in panic.

It was Andy’s voice and what he said as the applause cut down.

“What the hell is that thing way out there?” he’d said, partly sounding genuine while still keeping a façade to not show his nerves. “It’s like a giant…a giant horseshoe crab floating in the sky over there.”

He pointed up ahead at the horizon over the sea, and the crowd followed. We all rushed the opening and stared where he was looking. And as if my heart couldn’t drop any further, I felt like spewing vomit everywhere and passing out from the anxiety. There it was…a huge roach to end us all.

“That doesn’t look too good, you guys,” Andy continued. God, they had theatrics down to a science. Just spontaneous enough to be exciting, but just rehearsed enough to make everybody think it was fake.

The four of us were gawking at that point. We didn’t even care if the crowd would see us; they’d see us at some point anyway, and they were all following Andy’s finger and staring at the faint brown bug that was indeed flying from the horizon. Just when I thought it was just a distant speck, it was coming closer. No matter how slowly, it was growing in size as it approached land.

My heart wasn’t just pounding at that point. It was palpitating and fluctuating at dangerous rates and freaky patterns, and the sweat pouring from my palms certainly didn’t help hide my terror. The sounds of confused backstage bands had blurred when they entered my ears as I tuned them out. I knew what was going on, and so did the rest of us. From where we were standing, we were parallel with Mick and his drum kit, and he looked over at us and let out a sheepish grin.

How could it all come together so fast? How was I not completely losing my head? Despite all of the amazing things I’d witnessed, the truths I’d had to face, suddenly it all didn’t feel so foreign. It was scary, downright terrifying, but I should’ve been used to it at that point.

Our time was coming. We had to be ready, no matter how much we weren’t.

With one hand on his hip and the other holding his microphone, Andy kept staring into the distance along with the rest of Put’emup, Put’emup. “That’s really weird, you guys.”

It was hard for Anthony to put on a not-disinterested act, but he tried anyway. “You’re right, Andy. What are we gonna do about it?” (He was a man of few positive words in interviews.)

“Well, it’s getting closer,” Chance added, still strumming aimless tunes on his guitar.

Mick pulled his microphone over. “What even is it?” Even from the back of the stage, he still liked to sing backup.

Hearing Mick’s voice made Andy turn around, and thus he caught sight of Tegan, Riley, Chuck and me huddled at the side stage entrance. When he saw us, he winked. I had no idea how much of this was improvisation and how much was just either dumb luck or pre-planned stuff they left us out of.

Mick whispered, “Pssst,” and moved his hand in a signal for us to walk over. The four of us walked onstage – albeit, the back of the stage – and slunk over to Mick, who gathered us around the back of his drum set. “We planned for this, just play along.”

“You’re not even gonna try to hide the fact that we’re about to use fucking superpowers on that thing?” Riley deadpanned, no room for fluff.

Mick laughed and put his drumsticks on one of the toms. “Frankly, that would be stupid. How would we even hide it? Might as well make things a little more entertaining here at least.”

Meanwhile, Andy was talking the audience through it and kept making comparisons to bugs, dinosaurs, anime characters, and various forms of fecal matter. While he did that, Anthony and Chance took off their bass and guitar and set them aside, leaning against their amps, and Mick had stood up from his seat on the stool behind his kit. Telling us to stay behind because we’d move to the front on cue, he grouped up with the rest of his band at the front of the stage.

The truth was, it was getting closer, and by the looks of it, Shira was right. It was huge. If it hit land, even though it still appeared to be a few miles out of the coastline, there was no telling how big it would grow to be. I heard Tegan let out a slow groan and mutter a few choice words under her breath; my throat was so dry I couldn’t afford to say anything.

From the back, I saw the backs of the four members of Put’emup, Put’emup, the original four guardians chosen to go through this ordeal. Because the bug had blocked out the sunlight from where we were all standing, they were simply silhouettes. So cool and collected, calm and composed. The audience had even stopped clapping. What good was an alien invasion if it interrupted one of the most anticipated concerts every year? This could either go really well for their publicity, provided if they got out of it alive, or it could’ve turned out to be the most confusing and contrived stunt ever.

Andy and Anthony looked at each other and nodded, and then Anthony had taken the mic from his stand and shoved his other hand in his pocket. “Well, folks, it looks like we’ve got a little problem on our hands. Whatever that thing is, it’s getting closer, and it looks like it’s getting even bigger. We’ve ‘recruited’ a few hands to help us out with this.” He held his hand back to point at the rest of us, waving to signal us to move forward. “They’re standing at the back of the stage right now, but they should probably come closer.”

Riley took the lead and we all just kind of followed him even though the crowd was still dead silent and it was adding to the scariness of the whole situation. The band looked back and smiled at us knowingly; Chance was hunched over with his arms crossed, though.

“Well, this is creative,” Riley snickered to them.

“We’re gonna die,” Chuck warbled, forcing a smile.

The band turned away from the front of the stage and looked to us, and Andy told us to huddle together. With our heads in a circle looking down, I felt like I was in a stupid high school football movie, and that certainly didn’t help me feel any better. This was normally the part of those movies where they shouted commands at you and expected you to perform them at your best. I didn’t know what my ‘best’ was – I didn’t even know if I had a ‘best.’

“Riley,” Andy said first. Riley’s head snapped up at attention and surprise. “You’re going on first. What you’re gonna do, is you’re gonna manipulate the sand and make sure you get some good strong ground surrounding those people where the fence closes them in. Don’t worry about the fences, you’re gonna make fences from solid ground – not wimpy sand. Make sure you keep in everybody you can. The beach is closed, so don’t worry about the rest of the area. We’re gonna keep it contained to here.”

Riley’s eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly parted, his jaw slack, and he gulped and nodded. He was given the responsibility of being the first person to show their power in front of all of these people, and there was no time to fight back. He leaped offstage and landed on his feet, jogging around the stage barrier and raising his arms as soon as he got on the ground.

On cue, great big clumps of ground sprouted from the sand and covered a good few feet with each of his motions. The audience screamed at first and backed away from the walls, though as he went on, circling around the cluster of people, the screams gave way to applause. The entertainment factor was back, and man, it was a good way to set things off.

Chance took Anthony’s microphone as he did it, since it was taking up some time. “Our friend Riley is just building up some walls to keep any potential debris from hurting anyone.”

At that, Riley looked back up at us from where he was standing at the edge of the crowd, and he gave two big thumbs up before continuing to raise those walls.

Not even waiting for the applause to die down, Andy held his mic to his mouth and continued to give orders. “Now I’m gonna ask Mick here to conjure up the biggest tree he can in order to stop that bug dead in its tracks.”

Mick looked like he’d seen it coming, and for that, he rolled up his sleeves, unintentionally showing his sky blue lightning scars. He licked his lips, and like Riley, shot up his arms after a few moments of concentration.

A mere distance away from us in the ocean, the biggest oak tree I’d ever seen in my entire life had shot into the sky, water falling from its healthy leaves as it climbed higher and higher. Taller than any building surrounding us, it obscured the sight of the alien itself, and for that, the crowd had paused for a good thirty seconds before deciding that the feat was breathtaking and responding accordingly.

Mick was tickled pink from the reaction yet again.

However, a growling noise shook the eardrums of everybody standing there, especially the eight of us. Even if he was a hundred feet away, Riley did a double take back at the monster and only continued his work hesitantly. Everybody onstage looked at each other in fear – even Andy, who had taken this by the reigns.

“I’ll, uh – I’ll make another tree,” Mick said, gaining a face of concentration again.

“Good thinking,” Anthony replied. For once he didn’t sound sarcastic. “I’ll see if I can hit the treetops with fire and try to deter it. Hopefully it doesn’t see the other abundance of coastline and try to land there…”

I didn’t even try to process that thought because I may not have been able to concentrate on anything else; I may have missed Mick pulling yet another huge tree out of the ocean – this time a palm tree, fitted for Florida – and after that, I may also have skipped over Anthony igniting his hands and throwing flame balls at the leafy tops like a professional baseball player.

The training paid off for Anthony – with a good amount of control under his belt, the flames shot exactly where he’d thrown them, and despite the damp nature of the trees coming out of the ocean, the fire stuck. Soon, the trees were engulfed in them. Here was hoping the bug would either be deterred, or move too slowly to avoid the fire.

It had gotten close enough that it was so huge that we could see it expanding past the trees that had formerly obscured it. With a low growl that we could all feel rattling our bones, the beast slowed down. Fire was bad – even it knew that.

During that long moan from the alien horseshoe crab, Riley had successfully blocked off all of the people and given them high walls to shelter them in. As he ran back towards the stage to join us all again, Mick turned back to Tegan and clapped his hands together.

“Tegan – you need to lift the tarp covering this stage and somehow cover the crowd with it,” he instructed, pointing to the big blue plastic wrap that sat above our heads at the moment. Though she looked scared outta her mind, he put both hands on her shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile. “It should be big enough. You can lift it with no problem if you were able to lift me.”

She nodded, tentatively at first but then picking up speed. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the tarp and closed her eyes, focusing all of her telekinetic energy into her hands and making sure she had a grasp on it before trying to lift it. There wasn’t any rain so there was no need to worry about any equipment getting water damage at the moment, so a minimal amount of yelling at Put’emup, Put’emup would be reasonable after this all ended.

The crowd was stunned when she separated the tarp from the metal railing that gave the stage its structure. Flying and flapping violently against the sea breeze, the covering sailed through the air at Tegan’s command as she laid it on top of the walls that Riley had built. As he stood on the edge of the stage and watched her add to his creation, he took the hint and further manipulated the ground to seal the edges of the netting against the earth as she held it in place. She relaxed her grip – the tarp stayed put.

Her face broke out into a huge grin when she saw what she’d done, covering everybody in an extra security blanket, and of course the cheers that came from it were an added bonus.

Andy, still grinning back us but shaking due to panic, took his place at his microphone again and addressed the audience again. “Feel free to watch the upcoming action, but please do not leave the canopied area. The tarp is semi-transparent; you can see plenty from it. Things are about to get nasty, and who knows what kind of bug juice is gonna get thrown everywhere?”

He whirled around, and then things got really down to business.

“Tegan, Mick, Riley,” Andy started, pointing at the three, “you guys need to stay here and stand watch. Make sure nobody gets hurt, block the debris, put up more walls if you have to.” He then turned to the rest of us, addressing us as well as himself. “Oshie, Chance, Anthony, Chuck – we’re gonna go out there, and we’re gonna squash that bug. You hear me? Whether or not the ninth guardian is coming – I swear to God I’m never trusting another fucking alien again – we gotta get out there and destroy it as quick as we can.”

Everybody listened to him, and everyone except Tegan, Mick, and Riley grouped together on one side of the stage to prepare for whatever was in store – because I didn’t know about the band, but I sure as hell had no idea and I’m pretty sure Chuck didn’t either.

Andy grinned at us wickedly and mustered up the power in his voice to echo even without a microphone. “In the immortal words of Ren Hoek, ‘We’re not hitchhiking anymore – we’re riding!’”

Well, if he was gonna quote cartoons…how bad could it have been?
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This was originally two chapters - but I've put off the actual "action" for long enough. (Also, this is the first story I've written with actual "action" of this nature. Like, fighting and stuff. I'm sure it shows. xD)

Ahh, aren't 3,000+ word chapters just great? (...I deeply apologize. I know a lot of people hate long chapters, haha.)