The Great Calamity

An hour after they arrived at the bar, Alex was bored. All he could think about was Morcai.

Chet was having a great time chatting up the bartender. He was using all of his "moves" as he called them. She seemed to genuinely be enjoying his company, rather than a bartender just trying to be polite.

Alex could've used telepathy to read her mind, but he didn't like to do that to people he wasn't enemies with. Alex noticed there was something similar to a pool table in the middle of the room, except it was shaped like a six pointed star.

There was a hole at each point of the star, and each hole had a colored rim. And all of them were different colors. He noticed there were only as many colors of balls as their were colored rimmed holes.

As they were getting ready to head over to Amirilia's house, the bartender said to Chet, "Would you like to be my date to the festival tonight?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Chet said, sounding all cool and calm.

As they were walking over to Amirilia's house, Alex said, "You know it's not going to last. I mean, aliens will be attacking the town tonight."

"Who knows, man. Maybe it will. She seemed really nice, and I haven't met a woman who was actually interested in me in a long time. It'd be nice to settle down. I'm getting old, man. I don't have many dating years left. I don't want to grow old alone," Chet said.

"What is she going to do? Move into Olympus with you?" Alex said.

"She could. Or I could stay here," Chet said.

"You just met her," Alex said.

"Sometimes you just know, man," Chet said.

"Ok. I believe you," Alex said.

They got to Amirilia's door and knocked. Father Doren opened to door.

"Come on in," he said. "Don't be shy. I'm not that scary, am I?"

Alex and Chet walked in.

"This is a nice place," Chet said. "You even have crown molding."

"We put that in just a few years ago," Doren said. "It was Amirilia's idea."

Amirilia came down the stairs with a pretty dress on and her hair all done. The dress had fall colors.

"Dad! Don't bore them with talk about the house," Amirilia said.

"Yes, sweety," Doren said. "Now let's sit down for dinner. Marigold just finished cooking."

They had a nice meal that consisted of a large bird, mashed potatoes, and a massive chunk of something orange they said came from a carrot, but the chunk itself was bigger than three carrots combined. Everyone sliced off pieces of the chunk and put it on their plate.

"So my wife tells me you're here to save us from some great calamity. She has visions of the future, gifted to her by the orb. And Amirilia can speak to animals, also gifted by the orb," Doren said.

"The orb did that? That's fascinating. I didn't know it could do that," Alex said, actually surprised. The dimensional cores seemed to hold a lot of mysteries. "And we'll do our best to prevent the calamity, but only time will tell if we can."

"Oh yes! It can even heal the sick! Sebra couldn't walk his entire life, then the day after he drank from the bowl, he was healed like he never had the affliction in the first place," Doren said.

"Interesting. This orb sounds miraculous," Alex said. He had a suspicion about Sebra's healing that wouldn't make it seem like as much of a miracle as they thought it was, but that would only upset them.

"Do you know of the calamity about to befall us?" Doren said.

"Yes, we do, but it will require a great sacrifice to prevent. A sacrifice you may not be willing to make," Alex said very seriously.

"What sacrifice would that be?" Doren said.

"They want to take the orb," Marigold said. "I've seen it."

Doren looked very upset. "Is that true?" he said.

"Yes. Some very bad people want it, and they will kill as many people as it takes to get it. The only way to prevent them from attacking your town is to show them you don't have it and make them chase us instead," Alex said.

Throughout this whole conversation, he had been choosing his words very carefully. He tried to use words that would most resonate with Doren. That was why he sounded nothing like he usually talked.

This was a very delicate situation and it required a very delicate approach to resolve. He couldn't tell them the orb was just causing dimensional interference and awakening latent psychic powers.

That it wasn't anything to be worshipped anymore than you should worship a slow cooker. If anything, a slow cooker was more worthy to be worshipped. It made food taste delicious!

"I won't give it up. I can't. It means everything to this town," Father Doren said.

"They need to take it or the calamity will befall us all," Marigold said.

"It means too much," Father Doren said.

"That is your right to choose. I'm not here to force you to do anything. Chet and I will do everything we can to protect this town, but we aren't all powerful. Eventually, we will fail," Alex said.

They finished their meal in silence. When they were getting ready to go, Amirilia said, "Will you be my date to the festival?"

"Sure! Is a platonic date fine? I'm kind of already in a situation." Alex said. "I'm sorry if I upset your father."

"Oh. Ok. Yeah, that's fine. And it's ok. I understand. You're just trying to protect us," Amirilia said. "The festival is starting soon. Do you want to go together?"

"That would be nice," Alex said.

Amirilia held his hand as they walked back to the town square. They had been setting things up all day, but it was finally finished. It wasn't anything crazy.

There was food, a dance floor, a petting zoo, horseback riding, and carnival games. Chet saw his date on the dance floor and branched off to spend time with her.

"Just be ready," Alex said.

"I will," Chet said.

Alex and Amirilia walked from carnival game to carnival game and talked in between.

"What are you planning to do when you save us?" Amirilia said.

"I have to go back to where I came from. There's a war going on there that I have to help fight," Alex said.

"With the bad people?" Amirilia said.

"Yes," Alex said.

They arrived at a darts game. It was the one where you have to pop the balloons to win a prize. Alex cheated. He used his telekinesis to aim the darts where he wanted them to go.

[New skill created: Redirect]

He won the big prize and gave it to Amirilia. It was a stuffed animal of a horse with wings and three horns. A tri-corn.

"Can you take me with you?" Amirilia said.

"I can, but you may not like the real me. You may not want to participate in a war. It can be horrifying at times," Alex said.

"If I don't go, will the same amount of people still die?" Amirilia said.

"Yes," Alex said, unsure of where this was going.

"If I do go, will I be able to save lives?" Amirilia said.

"Yes," Alex said.

"Then me going is better than me staying," Amirilia said. "Don't you think?"

"I do think that," Alex said.

"Are you not the real you, right now?" Amirilia said.

"No. I am. But I'm also not. My mission is to prevent the orb from falling into the wrong hands. So I've changed my personality a little bit to increase our chances of success. Specifically, around your dad," Alex said.

"How so?" Amirilia said.

"Well, I'm being a lot more polite than I normally am. I'm usually a lot more sarcastic and argumentative, but that's not what your dad needs," Alex said.

"Oh. I can do sarcastic. I can do argumentative," Amirilia said. "Tina! Why are you always leaving the stove on? Are you trying to kill us?"

She paused for a moment. "See?"

"Yes, I see," Alex said. "You're very good." Alex laughed.

They got to the next carnival game. It was the one where you have to get the ball in one of the floating cups. Just as Alex was about to make his shot, a corrosive ball of goo hit the game attendant in the side of the face. It sizzled on contact.