25 Now We've Burned that Bridge

Jayce glanced over to Micu, "Who are Human Daily's biggest competitors?" Micu quickly opened his watch and typed into the holographic keyboard. "It says that they compete with..."The Inside Post" and "Simulation Weekly" for the largest share of human attention." Jayce nodded. "Do either of them have any reporters similar to Leon Roberts?"

Jenira spoke up, "Yes! I watch her show often. Her name is Tara Sourcurl, or at least that's her stage name. I watch her show every Sunday night!" Jayce raised an eyebrow. "I guess I should have just asked you for their rivals, Jen. Okay, everyone crank the charm up to eleven. We're about to make an enemy of Leon Roberts."

The three looked at Jayce and then to each other. "Don't worry guys. We don't want this glory hunter on our side anyway." They sighed. When Jayce made up his mind about someone it was infinitely hard to change his opinion. They pushed themselves to be more cheery versions of themselves and waited for Leon to return from wherever he had gone.

The lights began to flash again and Leon strode over quickly followed by Alba who was whispering in his ear. Leon looked like he was barely restraining a rage from exploding out from him. But the moment that he was back at his desk the charming man returned. He looked at the four and sneered. "Well, you four seem happy?" The four teenagers nodded contently and Leon felt something wasn't right.

The blue lights returned to their amber hue and Leon looked into the camerabot hovering right in front of him. "Welcome back to the Leon Roberts show! Before the commercial break young Mr. Jayce here asked us to further explain negative potential. Well you, the audience, are in for a treat. For the first time since we've been back from Earth humanity has produced a negative potential and not only that, but he's a negative ten! This is the highest level a negative potential can go!"

The camerabots swiveled over to Jayce as Leon continued. "Now the last human to have negative ten potential was the legendary King Arthur of Camelot. Many people may believe him to be a myth but this is not so! He was the human who won us the right to settle Earth." He turned to Jayce, "So we expect big things from you Jayce!"

Jayce beamed and smiled at the camera. "Well, Leon my team and I expect big things too! We've been talking about winning the grand prize since we were old enough to understand what it is. You can count on us to do humanity proud!" He gave the camera a thumbs up and a winning smile.

Leon was feeling progressively more suspicious. He was fairly certain that they had realized why he had asked them not to mention their potentials by now, especially if Micu had thought about it. So why weren't they being hostile towards him? In the script in his head, they were arguing and thus would produce more drama and therefore better ratings. Leon decided to poke the tiger.

He turned to face Jenira. "And I hear that there's something going on between Jayce and you?" Ralnas started coughing violently at this and Micu quickly started hitting his back. Jenira glanced at Jayce a confident smile on his lips as he looked back at her. "I hope you know what you're doing," she thought to herself. Smiling at Leon, "Jayce is my best friend, and my brothers as well. If by something going on then you mean we have been spending a lot of time together then yes. I've been around Jayce since I got to the Chiron school." She batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly at the camera.

"Well that didn't work," Leon thought to himself. He tried a different angle. "Ah! That makes sense. You know those people who comment online. Always making up crazy conspiracy theories." He smiled at Jenira and Jayce. "On a different note, I heard that you went to team Nuke's headquarters today. How was that?"

"It was fantastic! Those guys are truly fun to hang around. I can say that we all thought it could be a really good fit for us." Jayce replied letting his true excitement from the day filter into his words. "In fact, Micu was saying that their team culture would be a pretty good match for ours!" The cameras quickly cut to Micu who was nodding slowly. "Indeed, I think team Nuke has the kind of history that we would like to contribute towards. We are seriously considering their offer." Micu smiled calmly at the camera and then looked to Leon.

"I found the big story!" Leon thought to himself delightedly. "So you're saying that you may join an alien team? I thought Ralnas had a very low opinion of aliens?" Leon felt like he'd just won the lottery. This was sure to create a Firestorm on Ripple and in his opinion comments drive content. He smiled smugly at Jayce before turning to look at Ralnas.

Ralnas glared at Leon for a half second before he softened his face. "Well, actually the only family I've ever known has been these three weirdos." He laughed here and the other three quickly joined in as though it was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. Leon eyed them warily. "So if they decide that the best place for us to grow is one of the top elite teams then how could I say no? Plus have you met C-4?" Leon hesitated before replying, "Uh no, I can't say that I have."

"Oh, he's incredible! Super scary at first but I felt like he cares for his team. Sort of like our team leader Jayce. I'd have no problems taking orders from him!" Ralnas laid the charm on thick. Maybe too thick Micu thought to himself but he decided not to critique his friends acting skills. Jayce smiled at Leon before speaking. "It's true, no matter where we go we're going to go together." He then looked directly into the camerabot. "And if you want to hear where the first negative potential human's team is going to end up we're going to be announcing it live!"

At this Leon bolted upright before settling back into his chair. "Wow! That's incredible Jayce! I would be honored to have you four on my show for your announcement!" Leon was already seeing his name in lights with people clamoring for his attention. He could taste the fame and quickly reversed his strategy to one of appeasement. "I'd be more than willing to have you all by yourselves for the entire show just like this interview!" He smiled as earnestly as he could at Jayce.

Jayce frowned, "Oh Leon I didn't know you wanted that. You see we talked to another reporter and we mentioned my potential to her earlier. So she asked us to do our announcement on her show..." Leon was stunned. He looked at Jayce and he seemed genuinely sad about this turn of events. He was about to say he had asked them not to tell anyone their potential before he caught himself. Looking dejected he asked Jayce, "And who is this mystery reporter we will have to tune in to watch for your announcement?"

An evil grin was desperately trying to break through Jayce's frown but he held firm. "Her name is... oh what's her name... Jenira? What was her name again?" Leon felt a mixture of rage and panic fill up inside of him. He's not talking about Tara, is he? Anyone but that damned fairy. She consistently beat him by the slimmest of margins in viewing statistics and everyone on his show knew how mad it drove Leon. He forced his face to remain passive as his eyes slowly roamed over to Jenira.

Jenira looked over at Jayce and smiled, "You can't remember? It was such a pretty name!" A bashful Jayce rubbed the back of his head. "For the life of me, I just can't remember it." He started thinking out loud. "Laura? Sara? Tera? No none of those sound right..." Jenira playfully patted his shoulder. "You're so close Jayce! Keep guessing!"

The mood in the studio turned tense. Every one quickly figured out exactly what those two brats were doing. They were going to announce the biggest news in human history on their biggest rivals show. Now they were just dragging it out to torture Leon.

Leon was bursting at the seams and his face was slowly turning red with rage. He was struggling to control himself through this extended ridicule. "You mean to say that you're going to announce which team you're joining on Tara Sourcurl's show?" He asked as politely as he could muster, which frankly, wasn't very polite at all.

Jayce snapped his fingers. "That's it! Tara Sourcurl!" He smiled at Leon, "thanks for the assist, Leon!" Jenira couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped her lips but she clamped a hand quickly over her mouth. Ralnas and Micu felt dazed. Jayce's pranks had certainly escalated since they were kids but this was evil, just pure evil. The only ones laughing were them and they were playing the cruelest of jokes on one man. Micu and Ralnas looked at each other and then over to Jayce.

He seemed to delight in Leon's misfortune and the grin on his face was evil enough to make them shudder. Leon was shaking with rage. "Well won't that be a show to remember. Thanks for coming on my show Chiron's Chosen. We're done here." As soon as he said those words his crew sprung into action. Camera bots zoomed away and the light went back to their blinding white. Leon stormed off into his dressing room. He sent assistants scurrying out of his way as to not get caught in his rage.

Alba walked up to the four of them with a grimace on her face. "Please follow me." She walked briskly and the polite smiles of before were nowhere to be seen. She deposited them at the door they had entered from. "Goodbye to you all." She slammed the door closed behind them and walked quickly towards Leon's room.

As soon as they were back in the taxi Jayce exploded with laughter. Jenira soon joined in and the two filled the cabin with their riotous laughter. Ralnas and Micu still felt uneasy seeing such a ruthless side of Jayce for the first time. Micu leaned over to Ralnas, "maybe this is why Chiron always got so annoyed with him?" Ralnas nodded back slowly and looked back at their two friends who had tears streaming down their faces.

Their interview with Leon quickly went viral. Not only for the ending but because most humans didn't know anything about the team of humans who had finished third in the first round of the exam. Even the sulking Leon perked up when he heard the initial viewing figures. On Ripple people were more occupied with the fact that some humans might actually play for team Nuke than anything else. Though there had been impressive humans in the past ten years there was only a handful with the potential to get scouted by the elite teams. Even fewer of them had a good enough showing at the capability exam to get an offer. For an entire team of four to get an offer after the first exam was unheard of.

Chiron's Chosen had no idea about any of this though. On the taxi, they floated through the human safe zone softly talking about the events of the day. It had been quite a lot for them to handle and they were all feeling exhausted. Micu and Ralnas had already fallen asleep leaning on each other, which caused Jenira to steal a photo of them for use later. Jayce was also about to close his eyes for a quick nap when his watch buzzed.

"Hello?" He answered softly as to not wake his friends. A face illuminated with jewelry looked back at him. She had a pinkish tinge to her skin and sharp eyes. Her light blue hair was neatly bound in a bun. A high pitched voice answered him back. "Mr. Jayce Good I presume?" Jayce wondered how these people kept getting his watch number. "Uh yes? That's me." The face smiled with delight. "I think you and I just became best friends. I'm Tara Sourcurl."