Chapter Four: A Tremble of Tremors

Come on. Pick up the fucking phone!

I press the call button again and I hear the phone ring for a few agonizing minutes. Then, there was a break in between the rings. He finally picked up?

Recruiter: What do you want?!

Nebula: Recruiter, where are you?! I’ve been calling you for-

Recruiter: You fell for it! HAHA! This is a voicemail! Don’t leave a message.

The phone hung up and I sat outside of the Ballroom while the party continued inside. I’m not dealing with everyone in there without my right hand man.

Nebula: Where is that old man?

I reach into my pocket and pull out my cigarettes. I take one out before looking around and sighing. My nerves are all out of whack tonight.

I slowly raise my arm and my thumb starts to deform. The very top of it flips open, like a lighter, and a flame bursts out. The only good thing my dad ever gave me was a way to get high.

I light my cigarette and I’m about to put it in my mouth when someone snatches it away from my mouth. A spike of anger surges through me as I’m about to absolutely kill whoever this is, and my cybernetic arm starts to spark with electricity.

Nebula: Who in the he-

Star: Hello, cousin.

No. No. No. No. Why did she have to be here?

Star: I don’t know why you would desecrate that wonderfully built body you have.

She throws my cigarette away and I feel the urge to kill her spike again. Stupid cousins. She should be in Sector-6 bragging about how much richer she is than me.

I slowly kneel down and have a seat on the concrete. She groans before pilotley kneeling and sitting on the “dirty” ground too.

Star: Why are you out here, cousin?

Nebula: Why are you here, Star?

Star: The entire Tremor family was invited. Nobody wanted to come, except your nephew.

My eyes widened.

Nebula: Pluto? Why is Pluto in Sector-9? Where is he?

Star: Don’t worry. He’s inside with his other chaperone. I don’t like that brat’s company.

Nebula: Watch your mouth.

Star: You spoil him too much. Extravagant gifts every single birthday? If Nova saw you now-

Nebula: Don’t mention my father.

Star: My Uncle will be mentioned whenever I so choose.

I roll my eyes at her. I hate my Auntie, but her kids make me hate her even more.

Star: Eclipse worries about you. Being all alone out here with no help. She says you’re losing your mind.

Nebula: Tell my sister that if she really worried about me, then, she’d actually leave that palace in Sector-4 and come down here and talk to me.

Star: You know she can’t do that. She and Pluto are the only Tremors left in Sector-4. And, you know the rules.

Nebula: Fuck the “Always One” rule. It’s stupid and meant to isolate us from one another.

Star: Not if we have a lot of children.

Nebula: I’m not having kids.

Star: Here we go again. I know you can’t have kids after the Nova Procedures, but-

Nebula: But, what? My dad just took away the only chance I had to go anywhere in my life when I was nine.

Star: He sensed potential in you. He acted upon it.

Nebula: Yea? Then, what happens if I leave and there’s not a single Tremor in this sector?

Star: You know what happens, Nebula. You’ll be disowned and everything you ever worked for will be absorbed by the Tremors in Sector-8!

Nebula: That’s bullshit!

Star: It’s a rule that has been in effect since Salvador killed our great-great-great-grandfather.

Nebula: That was a century ago!

Star: It’s still true! You hired, worked with, and conversed with an enemy to our entire family line.

I look away from her. What she’s saying is true, but it’s still bullshit. I can’t leave, I can’t escape, and the only way for me to live any type of freedom is to ignore the boundaries around me.

Star: Maybe this is why Eclipse left.

That’s it.

I quickly grab Star by the neck with my right hand and slowly lift her off the ground while standing. The electricity is arching off my arm as it strains to pick her up and it illuminates our faces brighter than the lights around the ballroom. She struggles around my grip, but it’s futile. I tense my left arm and I feel it straighten out and transform into a blade etched with plasma at the end of it. I point the blade at Star’s chest.

Nebula: Shut up! You don’t know anything.

Star: Even so, you’re just a traitor. You allowed your mother to be killed, you rip off our games, and you hold your own family at knifepoint. Face it. You’re pathetic Nebula. Always have been, always will be.

I had no words for what she was saying. What she’s saying is what I tell myself everyday. But, I’ll be a fool if I show her that she’s right.

I drop her to the ground and transform my arm back to normal, and stop the electricity from flowing. She grips her neck and coughs hoarsely, trying to catch her breath, before standing up and dusting herself off.

Star: If you want to prove yourself, live by the Tremor’s motto-

Nebula: “Take the spoils, return the scraps.” It’s a dumb saying that only enables us to be more selfish.

Star: You’d learn a lot from it.

Star scoffs and scowls at me one last time, before walking away and leaving me alone outside. The quiet is deafening. But, I can hear something. Muffled screaming.

I look around and hear it coming from around the ballroom’s corner. I walk around it and the sound is coming from the bushes. Someone’s gagged in the bushes? I walk over and see someone gagged and tied up in the dirt. Wait, that’s not just someone it’s…

Nebula: Number four?!

Crow: HBHBNH

Nebula: One second. There. Now, speak.

Crow: We need to get inside!

Nebula: Why?

Crow: Because-

Then, from inside, a loud scream erupted. More screams followed suit and I was left speechless.

Crow: That’s why.