Help Needed

Alex had walked into the room and Vito was stunned at the sight of him. He truly didn't expect to see him here right now.

"Hello there Vito, Cyrus. It is nice to see you again, though we last saw each other only two hours ago. It seems you have made acquaintance with a friend of mine. Her name is Ariel and she is from Russia. She was tasked with testing you for this." Alex was now standing beside Ariel with his hand on her shoulder as she smiled and looked at the boys.

One was shocked while the other was unsurprised at all.

"I had a feeling it was you behind this Alex. You better have an explanation for putting us through all of this in the first place. Weren't we supposed to go home? Terra has already left the planet." Cyrus asked with his arms folded unamused by the shenanigans of the adults in front of him.

"Don't worry Cyrus, I have a reason for why all of this is done. But I feel like everyone should join us first before we begin." Alex nodded to the man by the door and he gave a slight bow before opening it.

And in walked Edith who had been waiting on the other side.

Vito currently was flipping out in his mind. The same people he thought he would never see again, who had argued with him just this morning were now together with him in this room after just saying bye to him. And this whole ploy of some sort was constructed by Alex to test them about something? He felt like he had been through enough. How much more would the world mess with him?

He actually thought he was going to die.

Edith walked in awkwardly as she made her way to stand right beside Vito. She then smirked as she pronounced the name, "Edward."

Vito screamed in his mind but remained composed as he didn't wish to embarrass himself in front of people. He merely replied, "S-shut up!" as he turned away from her.

Ariel seeing this action couldn't help but smile at the sight of the two of them acting so cute with each other. "You guys really do get along~," She said in a cheerful tone.

Vito looked at her with an attitude, "Didn't you just try to kill me?"

"No, I didn't silly, look I don't even have a gun," she said as she raised her hands upwards to show that she truly was defenseless here.

Vito wished and wished that he would argue with her just to prove a point. He felt like after all he's been through this morning he should at least win at something right? But then he just gave up. It seems like everyone in this room is acting as if nothing big happened.

He let out a *sigh and then closed his eyes and opened them. "So what is this about Alex?"

Alex who was waiting for everyone to have their fun and settle down finally decided that now would be a good time to explain the matter at hand.

"Vito, Edith, Cyrus. You and a few others have been chosen to help lead the future generations to come." He said.

'What!? What is this man saying? Lead? Lead what!? What type of matter is this that it would concern us?' Vito thought to himself and his face portrayed a confused look. He was in denial that an opportunity like this would fall on his lap as if it were nothing.

Cyrus on the other hand remained quiet. He was thinking like he always does.

Alex spoke up again. "Normally we don't choose this early, but you see this isn't a normal situation. Our planet is at stake and with it, our lives. If Terra was to lose in that tournament then it would mean the death of our planet. We have no way to contact him or check up on him, henceforth at any moment this world would cease to exist."

"Before that would occur, if it were to occur that is, we've decided that we would select people from the group of possible representatives available to allow you guys to work with us and eventually take over. We can't live forever. We can only pass along our experiences to you." Alex finally finished.

The room remained silent. This was a lot of information to take in. They had basically been asked to live a new life where they would try to help the earth as much as they could. As to how and what type of missions they would be given, they didn't know. As to if they would even be given anything aside from sweeping the floor.

They all knew how serious a matter like this was. The entire interrogation just now was a test to see if they would ever rat out any information that would lead people back here and compromise the organization.

Alex seeing how quiet everyone was being decided to ask a question. "Cyrus, while you and everyone is taking this offer into consideration I would like to ask of you, how did you figure out this was all a test?"

Cyrus let out a soft chuckle, "There were many factors but I couldn't be absolute. I needed to be as certain as possible. For instance, when I woke up I didn't feel drugged and Edith who was in the same room as me wasn't tied up. Neither was I."

"Wait!" Vito interrupted, "You saw Edith? Matter of fact, you didn't tell me she was here?" He was somewhat annoyed that his friend never told him about this.

"Cyrus turned to him and asked, "When did I ever say that we were the only ones in this facility? Besides we were having a bro moment so it wouldn't matter if I told you or not," he said.

 Vito then threw his arms about in stress as he was tired of all of this. It felt like Alex wasn't the only one messing with him, so was Cyrus. Purposefully too.

"Just go on," Vito said.

"Alright, before I was so rudely interrupted," Cyrus pointed at Vito with his thumb and Vito simply groaned with angst, "I had checked around for cameras, and to my surprise I had found none. I thought to myself that maybe I had a tracker placed on me or a restriction of some sort was around me but there was nothing or no one who came about to cause problems."

"I separated from Edith and found that there was a huge wall with no gate that surrounded us. That was my biggest concern and led me to believe that that was the reason our captivators were so laid back. Because they knew they could take their time with us."

"That was until Vito walked up to me. And I thought to myself, 'When did he get here?' I never saw him in the building and there was no helicopter to drop him off. And if he really did wake up in the same room I did which makes sense because Edith did too, then that would mean you teleported us in here Alex." Cyrus said as he pointed his finger toward where Alex was standing.

Vito and Edith started clapping at how serious and proud Cyrus was taking this moment.

"Hey! Why are you clapping? I'm not done." Cyrus said.

They put their hands down and signaled for him to continue. He looked at them for a moment before going back to it.

"Anyways, when that man standing by the door called us I was truly believing there was a tracker placed on our body, but I hadn't yet had the time to remove it. And then finally my heart had dropped when I saw her sitting in that chair," he placed his hand in the position in which Ariel was sitting but didn't exactly point at her. He felt it would be rude if he did.

"She can be very intimidating when she wants to be. I believe she has a long history to have gotten this good." Ariel had placed a hand on her face shyly after Cyrus had said this, but underneath it, she was smiling in a way that would scare the kids. She knew better than all of them that what Cyrus was saying was true. The only one who knew as well as she did was Alex.

"There was no torture for some weird reason. Almost as if she wasn't allowed to harm us. And then there was the issue that you brought us in at the same time. That was a turning point. Why would you let us meet together and then bring us in at the same time? You basically allowed us the chance to have our stories sorted out and the only other reason you would do that was if you planned to hurt one of us to get the other to talk. And you didn't"

"With this conclusion, I assumed that Alex was watching nearby and I no longer felt my life was in danger so I decided to play along. I was only worried that someone here wouldn't pass the test. *cough, cough EDWARD cough" Cyrus had finished his deduction.

Vito was astonished until the last part which had caused a frown to appear upon his face. He continuously stared at Cyrus who was admiring the ceiling above them.

"Well, I am impressed, Cyrus. All of you actually passed this test and if you are willing then we would be more than happy to have you join us." Alex then gave a small bow to them. He has never once seen people as lower than himself and understands that even kids can have the biggest impact that this world desperately needs.

"Well Alex," Cyrus spoke up again, " I have some questions if you wouldn't mind answering me. You said us and a few others had been chosen, didn't you? Where are these others?"

"Well Cyrus, I would be happy to answer every question you have. Starting with that one. Yes, a few others have been chosen but due to their busy schedule they could not be present with you right now but they have been adequately tested as well. And passed." Alex replied.

"How so?" Cyrus asked.

"I couldn't tell you now. That is a secret between them and us." Alex replied.

Cyrus considered this before his next question. "What type of tasks will we be involved in if we say yes?" he asked.

Alex with a smile on his face said, "From something as difficult as busting a drug heist to something as simple as planting a tree. Whatever helps the planet thrive. Next question."

Cyrus could see that Alex was so relaxed as if everything was planned for properly. So he decided to bring out the most difficult question he could think of to see how Alex would explain himself.

"Ariel had said that others who were considered before us had lost their symbol after not being chosen. And this was all before the representative was selected. But now that Terra was chosen to represent and has left this planet, tell me why we still have this symbol on our shoulders, Alex."

Cyrus had asked a very important question. Vito and Edith who simply watched their back-and-forth question-and-answer banter were now closely enticed by this. This was a question that was heavily on their minds as well.

Alex didn't just answer immediately as before. Instead, he kept quiet for a moment as he was considering how best to answer them.

"Alright, this one is going to be a bit of a longer explanation but do bear with me, please." He said.

They all stood there waiting patiently. Alex nodded to the man by the door and he opened it to reveal TERRA VIAN who was waiting patiently behind it all this time.

All three of them turned around when they heard the door swing open and they couldn't believe their eyes.

"Hi guys," Terra said, "The funny thing about that is that I never left."