Generation Why Bother

As if getting struck by lightning the previous night, almost dying again in the tiny car of a famous frontman, being told that we were basically going to control elements, and not even meeting an awesome band under normal circumstances weren’t enough to pile on to that crappy day, more information was being shoveled into me and Tegan’s heads, and at that point there was really no other reason as to why I ended up with an enormous headache that day.

After Mick’s remark, the rest of the band shared a little laugh with him, and Chance pointed to the couch, still with his other hand on the back of his head feeling for blood. “You’re gonna wanna sit down for a little while. It’s a doozey of a story.”

“That I will narrate!” Andy boasted, throwing his arms in the air and strutting to the monitor, posing like an over-the-top fashion model next to the glowing machinery. “Come one, come all! Free admission!”

As Tegan and I walked to the couch nest in the middle of the living room, I caught a brief glimpse of Anthony rolling his eyes at Andy’s boisterous voice, something he seemed to do often, even in the interviews I’d seen on CoolTube. Surrounding Andy in front of us, the rest of the band seemed unrehearsed, like they truly weren’t expecting us to be there and they were just following along with Andy, the ringleader.

Even though there was plenty of room, Tegan sat as close to me as she could.

“Anyways,” Andy began, folding his hands behind his back, “this all started about a year ago. We went through exactly the same crap you went through last night – it was at a really shitty show in Mississippi where it was raining cats and dogs, and even though we were under a tarp, the stage was made of metal because whoever was in charge of the event was an idiot. But I digress.”

Tegan leaned forward and rested her chin in her hand, biting her nails. Mick was smiling to himself and also at Andy, but Andy couldn’t see it; he was so immersed in his own storytelling.

“Everybody backstage was off the stage and packing their crap up into our tour bus, so we were completely alone when it happened. And we all knew we’d have to pack up and get outta there as soon as we finished the song we were on, but we figured finishing it at least wouldn’t do any harm.”

Anthony let out a rude laugh, but that didn’t slow the singer down.

Andy stepped forward and glanced at the ceiling, as if channeling something inside of him, and then he burst back into the narration. “Suddenly! A blinding flash of lightning struck the stage and flushed all through the metal in it to reach us, effectively knocking us out instantly and landing us in the hospital.”

I nodded, remembering seeing that as a news headline a while ago. “Yeah, I saw that in the newspaper.”

“My mom threw the paper at me when she saw that and said, ‘One of your bands is dead!’” Tegan shuddered. “One of the worst false alarms ever.”

“I guess you could say it was pretty shocking, then,” Mick winked. Everybody groaned except for Chance, who let slip a bright little giggle.

“Okay, bad puns aside,” Andy continued, “we were all knocked out for the night, and so the concert stopped and we refunded the tickets, etcetera etcetera, you know the deal. Pretty similar to what happened to you two last night. Remind me to give you your money back before you go, by the way. Wait – okay, so yeah, we were in the hospital and we were kept in the same room because we all had the same case and we were a whole group package, but what was funny about our case is that when we were unconscious, we were dreaming. Except we really weren’t dreaming, but whatever.”

Anthony stepped in, probably without Andy’s approval, but he still did anyway. “The thing was, the dream we had was shared between all of us. We could clearly see each other in it and interact. All of us were floating in space, not a planet in sight – just stars in the distance. Gravity wasn’t tying us down and we weren’t suffocating without oxygen, either.”

“And when we saw each other, we just kinda stopped and stared and wondered what was going on. I remember asking Chance if he was real or if I was just having a really weird dream, and he said he felt like he was real,” Andy took over again. “We all confirmed it with each other. But before we could really dig deep, the stars started talking to us. It was this big humming noise that got louder when we tried to talk louder to drown it out, and then eventually English words started coming out. The stars were telling us about how our universe was in grave danger – about how the inhabitants of this one huge planet galaxies away was making its way through the universe and destroying planets in order to make way for its own livelihood and to destroy civilizations who couldn’t keep their noses in their own business.”

“Killer aliens,” Tegan gasped, looking absolutely entranced. “That’s so cool.”

“Damn straight, it’s cool. But it’s also hella dangerous for us, because that’s when the stars went on and told us about how we were the first four guardians to be chosen by the heavens to defend Earth from the beings, protecting the planet from their plan on getting rid of us. When we woke up, we just stared at each other for a long time until Mick broke the silence and asked if we all had the same dream – which we did. And our apartment had this stupid monitor in it when we got back, taking up half the living room – that sealed the deal and made us pretty much certain that something was going on. But see, when we were chosen, there were four more guardians to be chosen – but now with you two on board, there are only two left,” Andy finished the basics.

“How do you know we’re truly chosen, though?” My voice felt weak and a bit shaky to me, but thankfully, nobody noticed or made fun of me for it.

Mick took it upon himself to point out the monitor and one of the radar screens occupying the corners. “This radar right here shows the proximity of the next galactic lightning strike,” he stated like it was the most normal thing ever. “The thing is, it’s so vague that it’s kind of useless and only shows the general area of the next guardians if their recruiting time is close. We knew the next two would be in Illinois and that they’d be rounded up last night, since there were two pulses on the radar, but it was lucky that it happened right in front of us. Minus the dream, you two went through the same situation we did. I mean, look at your scars. They haven’t gone away – they’re even darker now.”

Out of instinct I rolled up my shirtsleeve and took a peek at the scar; Mick was spot-on. It was like my veins were on top of my skin and left the discolorations a deep brown, almost black against my already-tan skin. Tegan’s scar stood out bright pink against her ginger skin, and as we both checked at the same time, we shared a look of slight shock.

“That’s awfully convenient that the next two guardians just happened to live in Chicago,” Tegan smirked, folding her arms.

Chance shrugged and said, “Well, we’re not complaining. Easier roundup.”

“So…” Tegan started, trying to articulate her next question. “…What do we do now?”

Andy smiled real big. “We wait for the last two. Then we get our elemental powers, one by one.”

“We don’t even find out which ones we get yet?” I said in disbelief. Call me impatient or say my head was in the clouds – when it was implied that we were getting superpowers, I kind of wanted mine at the moment. Even if it was all a big joke.

“’Fraid not, kid,” Mick sighed, shaking his head. “Yeah, I felt kinda robbed too.”

“It’s only a matter of time, though,” Andy said, ever the optimist. “The radar hasn’t given us any ideas yet, but it’s bound to, sooner or later.”

“That leaves so many gaping holes and hurry-up-and-wait situations, but that’s the way it is. It was the way we handled ourselves until you two came along, and I guess that’s the way it’s gonna be until we find out who the last two guardians are,” Anthony groaned, letting some of the hair tucked behind his ear fall loose over one eye.

The gloom in his voice caused a bit of an awkward silence. I twiddled my thumbs and adjusted my hat, wondering how long it would be until we’d be able to get out of our doldrums and experience excitement for maybe the first time in my life. Even if it all ended up being some elaborate trick pulled by the band, heck, it beat sitting at home.

Of course, though, Tegan’s airy laugh pierced the air and caught everybody’s attention, but she paid them no mind when she poked me in the side and whispered excitedly, “Oh my God, we’re literally gonna be Johnny Cool now.”

It was like she could read my mind. “You know, that was one of my first thoughts, too,” I smiled back.