56 Campaigning

Jayce released a long sigh as he sat down in the luxurious seats. Jenira was already inside and offered him her hand. He grasped it and squeezed tightly for a second. She smiled at him as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the chair. Micu was already typing away on his watch as the cab zoomed through the much larger city. "Steve, did any buildings collapse in the reorganization of the hubs?" Steve processed his request for a moment. "It doesn't appear that any buildings collapsed. There are 53 damaged buildings and 194 partially damaged buildings reported so far. New reports are being updated constantly though and figures may not be accurate."

Micu continued to type away and Jenira leaned forward to see who he was messaging. "Tara Sourcurl?" She asked shocked. "We need to get Jayce on TV and not as a floating monstrous head. We're going to need as many of the races on our side as possible." Jenira nodded impressed. "You're already thinking that far ahead?" Micu said nothing and continued to type. Jenira heard faint snoring and turned her head to look at Jayce. His features were tense but it was obvious he was exhausted. "Can we do it tomorrow? I think Jayce needs some rest." Micu shook his head. "The sooner the better." Jenira said nothing and leaned her head on Jayce's shoulder.

Steve turned down a street they had never been to before. The neon signs here were all hanging haphazardly and debris littered the streets. Ahead of them was a large neon berry that was hanging by a few strained wires. "We're here," Micu said as Steve landed the car. Jenira gently pushed on Jayce's shoulder to wake him. He opened his eyes slowly. "Are we home already?" She laughed and opened the door, "Unfortunately your day isn't over yet." Jayce rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he stared at the neon berry. "We're getting dessert?" He asked confused. Micu brushed the wrinkles out of his clothes and nodded, "After your interview, we can get dessert. I need you to focus right now though." Jayce rubbed his head, "Interview? What the hell are you talking about?"

Micu grabbed his hand and started dragging him inside. "You need to save the simulation. To do that you need an army. To get an army you need people to join your team. To do that you need to get on TV. We are going on TV. Make sense?" Jayce nodded as he allowed Micu to pull him forward.

...

Ralnas was watching a particularly fat bird fly above the ocean when he felt his watch vibrating. Glancing down he saw that Jenira was calling him. "Where are you?" She asked as he picked up. "Uh at the beach I guess." He said hesitantly. She rolled her eyes, "Well turn on Tara Sourcurl's show somewhere a lot of people are going to watch. Jayce is going to be speaking." Ralnas raised his eyebrows. "Speaking? About what?" Jenira gave her brother a confused look. "Oh you know, the crazy shit that happened like 45 minutes ago?" Ralnas grinned, "Oh yeah." Jenira watched him silently. "What?" he asked. "Are you going to get up and turn it on somewhere?" Ralnas groaned, "Fine!" He hung up as he stood and headed towards the Royal Coliseum.

Isabel stood and hesitated, "Can I come too? This is all pretty exciting..." Ralnas shrugged, "If you want. I'm just going to warn you now that crazy stuff happens to us four." Isabel smiled, "I think it's pretty interesting." Ralnas laughed, "Interesting doesn't even come close to describing it." The two set off as Ralnas regaled Isabel with all the details of his recent adventures.

...

Jayce was sipping on an energy drink as cosmetic robots whirled around him. He sat silently as a production assistant wired him up with a microphone. "You know last time I was on a talk show things didn't go that well." He said as she continued to plug wires into a small metal box. She laughed, "Tara is a much better host than Leon. We have the ratings to prove it." Jayce smiled and allowed her to continue her work.

"All done," she said as she wiped a shimmer of sweat off her forehead. Jayce nodded as he stood to exit the preparation room. Outside he found Micu and Tara deep in a discussion with Jenira watching the set wide-eyed. "Pretty cool," he said as he walked next to her. She nodded, "I didn't realize how many people have to work on a studio to produce these little talk shows. Leon had everyone hidden from view." Jayce agreed with her as he watched dozens of people adjusting lights, cameras, couches, microphones, and audio devices.

"Jayce? A moment?" He heard from a buttery voice. He turned to see a floating fairy with purple and blue clothes smiling at him. "Of course Ms. Sourcurl!" He power walked over to her. "Please just Tara is fine," she said with a smile, "audience members like it when the guest seems to have good relations with the host." Jayce nodded. "Okay Tara, what can I do for you?" Micu spoke up, "Well we want this to be a slam dunk. So what angle do you think will get the most people to join our side?"Jayce pondered this in his head.

Tara smiled, "I have a couple of ideas if you want to hear them out?" Jayce nodded, relieved someone had an idea. " Well aren't the other three Overwatchers pretty nasty? So we could talk about why following them is a bad idea." She paused and looked at Jayce. "Or we can talk about how you're a great leader. And you do something inspiring." Jayce laughed, "That one sounds a little more difficult to pull off." Tara smiled, "Not according to your friends here, both said they would follow you into the depths of hell." Jayce blushed at the compliment. "Final idea, we talk about the future you'd create for the simulation."

Jayce considered all the ideas. "Can we do all three?" Tara nodded, "Of course, we can do whatever you want sweetie." "All three then," Jayce said happily. Tara whirled around to face her busy crew. "We're live in 3, this is the big one people." She floated away on tiny wings. Jayce watched her go. "I thought she would be taller," he whispered to Micu. "Why? She's a fairy. They don't get that big you know." Jayce shrugged, "She just seems taller on TV." Micu rolled his eyes, "Well try not to mention that to her." Jayce laughed.

...

The roundtable that had housed the elite team leaders now only had four occupants. Little Blue, C-4, Baneberry, and the leader of team Eternity Alpha. Alpha was wrapped in a long dark cloak that obscured his entire body. A gleaming golden helmet covered his face. Through the helmet gleamed two yellow orbs. "Who are you going to choose?" Little Blue asked a distressed looking Baneberry. "How could I follow one of those things? The kid is probably our only hope anyway." He sighed deeply, "Too bad a lot of my team feels differently." Little Blue understood his pain, "Most of my team seems to want to follow Ahti. It will be uncomfortable fighting them." Baneberry offered his condolences as the four sat in silence.

A few minutes passed before anyone spoke again. "So what do we do now?" C-4 asked cautiously. Little Blue shrugged, "For the next five days we can't really do anything I think." A raspy voice spoke, "We can prepare a headquarters for Jayce. If nothing else he will need our help in this campaign." Alpha spoke slowly as if every word was painful to utter. C-4 jumped up in delight. "That's right! We can set up our base!" Baneberry also seemed to find some solace in having a purpose and the energy returned to the room. "Let's use the Royal Coliseum. It's close to the beach and pretty well equipped to hold an army." Little Blue nodded with delight. "Let's begin immediately." The four stood and exited the room in far higher spirits than they had entered.

...

"Soundcheck," a voice from the studio said. Jayce coughed from surprise. "That's perfect." Everyone laughed at him and Jayce found himself blushing. Tara floated down next to him, "Ready?" Jayce nodded confidently. "That's the spirit." She winked at him and then waved her hand at one of the other people in the studio. The lights dimmed everywhere but where the two of them sat.

"Hello world, you know who I am and I would love to know who you are. This is the Tara Sourcurl show and you already know it's the best show in town." Jayce was struck by how different this opening was compared to the interview with Leon. He quickly found himself smiling at the over the top attitude of Tara. "Now today has been crazy crazy. Super crazy. I have neighbors now and they're from major hub three!" She paused as she smiled at the camera. "But this guy's day has been even crazier!" She turned to look at Jayce. "So Jayce we're all super interested in all the gossip from your date with the other three Overwatches. Spill all the details."

Jayce smiled at her, "Believe me, Tara, it's been one heck of a day." Tara laughed, "I believe that! How did you even end up in the same room as those other guys?" "Well I got killed off in the exam I was in, some of you may have been watching?" "Of course we always tune in to see the handsome Jayce Good! Jayce blushed deeply from Tara's teasing as he tried his best to continue. "So I appear in this huge dungeon of a room with the three Overwatchers. One is the bird guy and the squid guy but the evilest looking one was the insect guy." Tara nodded, "Those are the forms that they spoke to us in." "Exactly! But they changed their form to look like humans as we spoke, except their skin was weird colors." "Weird colors? Like what Jayce?"

Jayce paused as he caught his breath, "Tatewari was red, Ahti was blue and Zcerneboch was purple. It was pretty strange." Tara nodded, "They can shapeshift to look however they want and they still chose to look so freaky when they talked to us! I don't like that at all." Jayce laughed, "I guess so. They don't think much of the lower races, as they call them. Zcerneboch even said he doesn't ever think about us." Tara feigned shock, "The monsters that used to torture us for laughs don't think about us very often? That's truly unbelievable." "Well, they consider this whole grand competition a game. They just want to crown themselves king over the simulation. They don't care about who follows them." Tara gasped.

"Actually they weren't going to let us pick which side to follow. I had to convince them to let us choose who we followed." Tara appeared to be fuming, "You mean I might have had to follow that horrifying squid?" Jayce nodded, "Yep. They were just going to assign you an Overwatcher, or me, to follow and fight for. They don't care who joins them." The camera zoomed in on Tara's face which was a blood red. "The nerve of those Overwatchers! Why did they ask us to follow them then?" Jayce shrugged, "They already have armies. They don't even need us really." Tara pouted and flew in a circle. "But I need all of you. If we have any chance of getting justice for all of those of us who have died at the careless hands of the Overwatchers then I'll need every last one of you to be on my team."

Tara pumped her fist triumphantly, "I'm on your team Jayce!" Jayce grinned, "It won't be easy, but when we succeed it will be worth it. No more simulation. No more grand prize or needless deaths. We would get to decide our own fates." "That's a future that I would be willing to fight for!" Tara smiled and cheered. "Everyone who joins up with me is also picking the team with two separate Overwatchers. Tohil and Neith who created the hubs and gave us the opportunity to actually win the grand prize. If they are on my side then you can be assured they have the best intentions for all of the lower races."

"That's right," Tara was pumped up with visible excitement, "Two Overwatchers for the price of one!" Jayce laughed and nodded. The two continued to spin their story of why choosing Jayce was the right decision and joining anyone else the wrong one for over an hour. In commercial breaks, Tara would coach Jayce into where he should take the conversation. Jayce gradually became more clear on his selling points and hammered them hard. The two worked themselves into a frenzy numerous times but each time managed to pull themselves off the edge of getting too fervent.

Micu smiled to himself as he watched his friend develop his public persona. "She's honestly really good." He whispered in Jenira's ear. "I told you that didn't I? There's a reason I always tuned into her show." "You have more than proved your point," Micu said approvingly. "Think it'll be enough?" A nervous Jenira asked. Micu shrugged, "I hope so. I also don't really see any of the other Overwatchers going on TV to sell themselves to us." Jenira covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed. "Just imagine it, would be quite a strange sight." Jenira laughed harder but continued to effectively muffle herself. "I know who I'm following at least." A confident Micu said.