Newfound Fame

Their friendly robot taxi driver zoomed through the crowded streets of the human safe zone. Micu polished his glasses with his shirt tail. They were excited to arrive and change into the clothes that Micu's parents had picked out special for them. Since the four of them had been so excited about being on the news they totally forgot about going out to dinner with his parents. Instead, they had bought all four of them nice clothes for any of the scheduled media days that the capability exam hosted. No one thought that they would be getting interviewed so quickly after the first exam but no one was complaining either.

Coasting to a stop a smartly dressed woman opened the door for them with an umbrella covering them from both the rain and the gathered photographers who had arrived to steal a picture of the highly ranked human team. "Hi all, I'm Alba Canal. We spoke earlier to set this up?" Jayce nodded and then pointed to his friends, "This is all of us, we need to change though. We've been at the shooting range all day." Alba smiled, "Of course, this way please."

She led them through the crowd towards a door with two burly security guards standing in front of it. Jayce tried his best to not look at the cameras like he had seen the famous people on TV do but Ralnas had no such intention. He waved and smiled at the gathered reporters thoroughly basking in the attention they were receiving. The reporters seized on this and were constantly calling out, "Ralnas over here!" To which Ralnas would turn and wink or wave with a large grin on his face.

Jenira was experiencing her own personal hell. She couldn't get Ralnas to stop in front of so many cameras but she also couldn't look like she wasn't enjoying her brother being happy. Her face was stuck in a middle ground of pain and forced happiness. This created a rather scary look and many reporters stuck to Ralnas for their initial photographs.

Micu walked slowly behind them. He was trying to see if he recognized any of the gathered reporters from other news stations. After their conversation with C-4 today he was beginning to suspect that they were quickly going to become some of the most famous humans in the simulation. He also suspected that many of these reporters would become constants in their lives and he tried to remember their faces as best he could for later interactions. His mysterious face drew much attention from those gathered and he was easily their second favorite target to shoot behind Ralnas.

They finally escaped into the building and the two security guards blocked the reporters from following them inside. Alba twisted her head while still walking purposely towards the end of the hall. "I think you four better get used to that." Jayce was about to ask why when they stopped in front of two rooms. "Jayce, Ralnas, and Micu can change in here, Jenira this room is all for you." She smiled politely and then walked off. Looking at each other they untucked their clothes from their bags and entered into the rooms.

"Jayce, she's right you know. If the elite teams know about your potential already it's only a matter of time before everyone else does. I think we should invest in some media training with whatever team we sign with." Micu spoke quickly upon entering the room. Jayce raised an eyebrow, "Why do you say that Micu?" "Because having a potential of negative ten is a far bigger deal than Chiron knew." Micu pulled on his crisp black pants. "If team Nuke is willing to offer us contracts for life after ONE day then this is obviously a much bigger deal than we thought it was."

Ralnas nodded, "There is no way they would've offered that otherwise. I bet they didn't even offer it to that bird or rock team." Micu scowled at him. "They have race names you know." Ralnas waved him off, "I know I know, I just like to see you get angry about it." His smile was evil and he continued getting dressed. Jayce wasn't moving his mind too busy considering everything that had happened today. "What do you guys think Leon Roberts knows about negative potential?" The other two looked at each other and then back to Jayce. "I have no idea," Micu admitted. "Yeah he could know tons about it, he's been living in major hub two for like seven years." Ralnas chimed in.

Jayce toyed with his hair. "This interview may be even more enlightening than our time spent with Dynamite..." He continued not to move until he received a kick to the butt from Ralnas. "Well while you daydream keep getting dressed you, idiot." Jayce rubbed his backside mournfully before returning to changing to his nicer clothes.

The boys were finished getting dressed slightly before Jenira was so they lounged outside the rooms they had been while they watched the crew bustle around the station. Alba sauntered back to them. "Almost ready? We're going to do mic checks in five minutes." Just go down that hallway and turn right at the room with all the flashing lights in it. She smiled again and then disappeared down another hallway.

As she left Jenira opened the door. Jayce turned to face her and was stopped speechless. He had rarely seen her dressed up. Graduation had been the first time and he had quite a few things on his mind so he hadn't really paid attention. A sleek black dressed hugged her tightly and she had done her makeup in a very stylish way. Even her auburn hair seemed a more radiant shade with the earrings she had replaced her usual ones with. She looked up at a starstruck Jayce and blushed softly. "Why are you staring at my sister like that Jayce!" A quick punch to the back brought Jayce back to reality before he too blushed.

"Chiron's Chosen to mic check please!" A voice shouted from the down the hall. Jayce and Jenira swiftly walked towards the voice. Micu tried to calm a fuming Ralnas who's face was far redder than the two of them combined had been. "You know he's had a crush on her forever Ral, don't take it personally." Micu was pulling him back with all his might. "That doesn't make it okay! And look now their both in there alone!" He was carrying Micu forward like he weighed nothing at all. "Please, Ral! Bring it up after the interview! The elite teams are going to be watching this!"

This seemed to pierce the red mist Ralnas had been inside and he breathed in and out slowly. "Micu I swear I will fight him if he hurts her." Micu nodded with relief, "Don't worry I'll help you do it." Ralnas nodded seriously and then walked into the mic check room. Inside Jayce and Jenira already had palm-sized robots zooming around them connecting their mics to internal audio recorders and doing tests far more rapidly than any human could. A thin man quickly pointed to two spots with footprints taped to the ground. "Stand there and don't move until I tell you to." They nodded and Micu made sure he stood in between Jayce and Ralnas.

Jayce was doing his best to not make eye contact with Jenira or Ralnas. His thoughts were scrambled. He had never before felt so struck by Jenira and hoped that it wasn't going to cause a fight with Ralnas later. At the same time, he really wanted to spend more time with Jenira at the moment no matter how hard he tried to shake the feeling. He tried to side eye glance at Jenira but couldn't get an angle good enough to tell what her face looked like without making obvious movements. Deciding to bring it up later he closed his eyes and did his best to think of questions for Leon Roberts.

Jenira's mind was also racing. She had never seen Jayce look at her that way so obviously before. She had long suspected that he had a crush on her but never brought it up to not make their friendship awkward. Especially since her brother was his best friend she didn't want to cause any conflicts between the two of them if she could help it. She was always grateful to Jayce for being the first kid at their school to make them feel welcome. Ralnas had been such a shy kid back then he barely said a word to anyone. She credited Jayce and Micu for his transformation into the confident, if slightly temperamental person he had become. While she knew all of this in her head, her heart was telling her that she had liked Jayce looking at her like that and this was the part that had her mind going in circles.

The thin man then spoke, "You two," pointing to Jayce and Jenira, "You're done. Go to your left into the room with waiting room written above it. You four are going on in 20 minutes." Ralnas was about to follow after them and the man shouted. "Not you! Gah! Now we've got to start all over!" Ralnas scowled and glared after the departing figure of Jayce. Micu stifled a laugh, "Looks like you've shot yourself in the foot eh Ral?" Ralnas shot him a look to tell him to shut up before closing his eyes and cursing his fate.

Jayce pulled the door open and held it for Jenira to enter. Following in after he the two sat in two plush chairs that faced a wall covered in pictures of previous interviewed people on the show. Jayce glanced at them but his heart was already racing from being in the same room as Jenira alone. He chastised himself, "relax dude this is one of your best friends." He looked over at her and noticed a similarly conflicted look on her face. "Jen, you okay?" She jumped slightly at his words. "Oh yeah, sorry Jay. I've just got a lot on my mind." Jayce nodded and smiled at her, "Hey don't worry about it. Can I help?"

She smiled at him and looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. Jayce eagerness to hear whatever it was she was about to say made him slide closer to her. Jenira closed her eyes and opened her mouth just as Micu walked in the room. He looked at the two of them and then closed the door and backed out as quietly as he could. Jenira turned a deep shade of red seeing Micu and looked at Jayce who was also as red as a lobster. "Micu come back in! Nothing was happening!" Jayce called out quickly. Micu opened the door again. "Oh hey, guys. Didn't see you two there." He smiled and they could tell he didn't want to talk about it as much as they didn't. Laughing Jenira patted the chair next to her and Micu sat down heavily. "You two better be careful around Ral is all I'm going to say about it. Anything else you decide to do you have my full support." Jayce smiled, "Thanks Micu." Jenira looked at him suspiciously, "and what are you thanking him for Jayce?"

Jayce hadn't expected this attack and was again found speechless in front of Jenira. She laughed and leaned back into her chair not saying another word. Micu watched them with amusement. Having had Jenira tease him so much about his previous crushes, Isabel in particular, allowed him to take the full amount of joy in how uncomfortable he had made both of them earlier. The door then flew open and Ralnas stood outside with suspicious eyes glaring at them all. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary he relaxed and plopped down next to Jayce. "You ready for Leon Roberts big guy?" He looked at all the pictures with awe. Jayce followed his gaze and smiled, "I think the real question is, is Leon Roberts ready for us?"