Generation Why Bother

It’s funny what happens when you’re in the middle of whatever you’ve been worrying about. Even though your heart pounds a thousand beats a second and your hands are shaking to hell and back, your throat’s gone completely dry – there’s still so much control in your jurisdiction. I couldn’t say a word for fear of screwing things up at the worst possible moment, but I found myself containing my anxiety, not letting an ounce of lightning escape prematurely. And God, did I have to work to maintain that temporary bout of control.

This was everything my dad was worried about and everything I was dreading for the past six months, and for that, when I turned back to Tegan to see her for what could’ve been the last time, I could hardly even smile without it looking completely contrived. She managed a little wave, her lips tightly pressed together to show fake happiness just as well as I did.

If I looked any more, I’d lose control, and with all the static raising the hair on my arms and legs, I really didn’t need that. So I looked back at Andy and the rest of our group, trying to focus again on the task at hand. Trying not to think of it as the last time I could ever see Tegan.

“Wait, why am I coming along?” Chuck wondered out loud.

Chance had his back. “Well, we gotta see what we’re hitting when we get under that thing, right?”

I hated cockroaches, and that thing was starting to look more and more like a huge one. A good old flyswatter wouldn’t kill it, either.

Andy grabbed Anthony’s shoulder and said, “Anthony, it’s piggyback time. Get on my back and I’ll get us over there.” He nodded. “Chance, you keep an eye on Chuck and Oshie and get them there too.”

“W-wait, how is he gonna get us over there?” Chuck questioned, so nervous he was asking questions for once.

“I figure I’ll get enough water to freeze and keep us in constant motion and lift us in the air, and I’ll follow them until we get over the ocean and I’ll just freeze a big platform for us to work on,” Chance answered, shrugging the whole way. He stared into the sky as he said it.

My first words of the ordeal were surfacing. “We’re just diving headfirst into this, aren’t we?”

Andy punched my arm gently. “You bet your ass, Oshkosh. Let’s go.”

Like it was the most natural thing to ever exist, Anthony hopped on Andy’s back and held on tight as they looked back at us when Chance tried to get his footing.

He shot water from his hands that landed on the hard floor of the stage and lay in a puddle until he gathered enough to freeze and keep solid under our feet. He manipulated it into a big flat puddle before squeezing his hands shut and groaning, causing it to freeze. As it froze, it crystallized and hardened so much that there wasn’t even any condensation. With one hand steady aiming at the base of the platform, he raised the other, and a fountain erupted from his fingertips, swirling underneath the disc in a constant contained motion that kept it in the air.

Chance was a soft-spoken guy when he wanted to be; maybe that’s why he spent so much more time than everyone else near the water when we were hardcore practicing. Whatever he had done, it paid off. When Andy helped the three of us onto the platform as the water rushed under it, the ice was solid and the ride was smooth.

He held Chuck and I by the arms and kept his hands pointed below, grunting as we were airborne yet again, lifted a few feet off the ground by the swirling water underneath the icicle.

The gaggle of audience members was absolutely silent when Andy’s legs were surrounded by whooshing air that propelled him off the stage. The lack of action was even more prominent when Chance led us off as well, despite a few gasps sounding from a few astonished folks.

Either this was one hell of a sick joke to them, or they weren’t entertained. Oh well. A job was a job – we had to do something.

We picked up speed and sailed through the coastline air and I had an unholy grip on Chance’s bicep – Chuck likely did too – although he didn’t care. He just focused on guiding us nearer to that beast. Andy didn’t look back at us very often and instead kept his legs tucked under him, keeping a tight rein on Anthony to make sure he didn’t fall.

When we dodged the flaming trees courtesy of Mick and Anthony, that’s when I saw it up close. And I don’t really like using swears when they’re not necessary, but I mean it when I say that holy shit, it was huge. Think of the biggest building you know, and then lay it on its side – that’s how big this disgusting mutant cockroach was. Its tail trailed off into the distance, and we were approaching the dark underbelly of the bug, full of creepy crawly legs that looked like sinister hooks dangling and wiggling from the oblivion.

We had heard its growl from full-on, and I started shaking even more than I already was. Shadows had shrouded us all in an inconvenient darkness from cruising underneath its smelly entrails, and of course that meant that it was Chuck’s time to shine. Pun intended.

Andy shouted at him to light the way, and then Chuck flung an arm up, still hooked to Chance, and with a powerful thrust, a beam of light shot from his hand and illuminated the disgusting multitude of legs and organs that lay underneath the shelled alien’s exterior.

Chuck groaned and opened his eyes that had been wrenched shut in lighting the darkness, and like the rest of us, he audibly grimaced at the disgusting and slimy nature of our findings.

“That motherfucker should’ve been extinct years ago,” Anthony had shouted, sticking his tongue out.

Right after Chuck had lit the way, that’s when Chance got to work to give us all some footing. Still with his arms occupying Chuck and I, he focused on the water rushing underneath us, pulling his arms up slowly to create a massive cyclone of pure, solid fluid, quite a few feet in thickness. He was even juggling keeping us afloat on our little surfboard of ice, and he managed to do that – and as the water rose, he morphed it to platform out, looking like a sturdy hourglass standing up against the rushing ocean tides.

With a powerful squeeze of his hands, the water-tornado froze, emitting chills as it stood in place. His face still riddled with concentration, Chance sloshed up even more liquid and set it around the huge platform in a ring, freezing it in place to give a lip that would prevent us from sliding around on what didn’t even look like slippery ice.

All of us were completely floored by his work, suddenly thankful for all the time he’d spend near the coast to get away from us and practice.

Andy and Anthony were the first to set foot on the ice, gaining their footing. Almost immediately after getting onto it, Anthony jumped off his back and started throwing fireballs at the monster, right at what we assumed were the weak spots on its tender underbelly.

As the first few collided with its legs, Chance had guided Chuck and I to the ice, helping us over the edge and off of our own portable icicle and onto a much larger ground to stand on. After getting off, we heard the bug hiss, and when I whipped my head around so fast I thought I’d get whiplash, I saw it quiver in on itself, pulling in a few of its legs while two or three fell off and were headed straight for us.

I, for one, hated bug legs enough when they were attached to bug legs themselves. They were even worse when they came hurtling down at our humble abode, threatening to smash into us.

Andy came up with a plan on the fly, and with a flail of his arm, wind picked up and threw the falling legs in the opposite direction of the coastline.

Anthony shouted at his teammate, “Keep doing that, I’ll keep frying its legs!” and Andy nodded in assurance.

Like he was getting triggered to let out all his anger, Anthony kept throwing flames at the beast, setting it on fire and causing a barrage of thin, pointy legs to fall down at us. To keep them from hitting our little base, though, Andy had prepared a shield of wind to whip the appendages out far into the sea, too far for anybody to ever see.

They had their system of doing things, and with the help of Chuck and his illumination and Chance with his water magic, I tried to think of something I could do – anything – to contribute. As much as I dreaded doing something, I had to. There was a reason I was dragged along into this and not left at the stage – I had an offensive power.

I just had to wait for my time, I guessed.