When Layla walked through the door and announced her return, Dennis was cuddled up to Alesha on the couch while she colored in a coloring book. In reality, she was helping Dennis with some math questions while only occasionally making progress on her current coloring page.
Layla was a lot more perceptive than Dennis had been. Jaw dropping, Layla's left hand went to her mouth as her right slipped off the door handle, forgotten. "Alesha?!"
Alesha turned her head to her sister, setting down her coloring supplies and pushing Dennis off her as she stood. "Yeah, I'm back! Mom and Dad brought me home while you were at school."
Layla just stood there, dumbfounded. She had not expected this at all. But when Alesha came up to her with her arms open, Layla snapped out of her shock and seized her with gusto. "I'm so glad you're awake! I've been so worried about you, there were so many things that went around the PlanetNet that day, I just couldn't believe it! They took it all down so fast, though. You've got to tell me what really happened, alright?" Layla extended her arms, gripping Alesha's shoulders with a worried but intense look in her eyes. This girl wouldn't take no for an answer.
Sighing, Alesha decided to give in without a fight. When Layla wanted her to talk, she talked, and that was that. "Kay, but let's go to your room to talk. Dennis here needs to focus so he can play games with his friend."
Dennis protested at first before Alesha convinced him it wouldn't be fun to join them, reminding him that the longer he took to do his homework, the longer he'd have to wait before getting to join his friend in VR.
With that, Layla and Alesha retreated to Layla's room.
"Alright, so to start, tell me what you already heard about the attack," Alesha prompted.
Layla sat down on her bed criss-cross, motioning for Alesha to do the same. "Well, I happened to be on ViewTube at the time, so I was able to watch a few different livestreams before the Alliance started shutting them down. Did you happen to see any?" Anyone living in the Alliance knew that social media was a more accurate source of news than any official source. In a crisis, one could always count on the livestreamers to tell the truth. Or, their versions of the truth, at least. It was harder to fabricate things live.
"Yeah, just one before I got knocked unconscious," Alesha answered, leaving out the part where she caught on fire. She hadn't been burned for some reason, and she didn't want to be asked any questions that she didn't have answers to. "I was on Zapchat, saw the link and clicked it, the guy was in a zebra tank top with a green mohawk and tattoo sleeves on both arms. Don't remember the channel name though."
"Ah, ZanyGreen. His was one of the most popular that day, since it cut off before the Alliance could take it down, it wasn't on their top priority list to remove. I saw it too, after the fact. Do you know anything more about the alien beast he saw?"
"No, not at all. It wasn't even five minutes after his stream ended that I got knocked out."
Layla took a deep breath, then slowly released it through puffed cheeks. Her look became serious as she met Alesha's gaze and spoke in a furtive whisper. "Well, get ready for a ride then, because you missed all the craziest parts about that day. Only a few streamers caught this stuff, anyone who got close enough died, some of their streams kept going afterwards though and the stuff it showed… the Alliance even passed an emergency law making it illegal to discuss. Anyone caught is fined ridiculous amounts. So what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room, got it?"
Alesha's eyes widened. What had happened was so serious that they had actually made it illegal to even talk about?! What in the Milky Way's name could it have been?!
Knowing she already carried a System the Alliance might kill her for having, and hoping that what her sister shared would help her find answers, Alesha nodded her agreement. She needed this information.
"From the various streams I saw, this is what I think happened. Some gargantuan alien beast that breathes strange rainbow-white fire attacked Faxton. But here's the thing: Faxton wasn't the only city that was attacked."
"What?!"
Nodding, Layla continued. "At least 3 other cities were destroyed that day, though they weren't attacked by the same kind of creature. All of them were on our planet. Genovia was torn apart in a stampede of huge, orange-and-blue creatures with 6 legs and powerful tails. Ethelwood was overrun by an army of wildly multicolored humanoid snake-creatures. As for Tapas, it disappeared as if into thin air. Nobody even noticed it was gone until the Intercity Monorail got into an accident when it went off the rails that got cut off where the city should have been. There weren't any streams of that one but I did see photos before they got taken down."
"Anyways, though Faxton wasn't the only one that was attacked, Faxton's attack was definitely the most noteworthy. Not only was it the only one that got destroyed by a single alien, but none of the other cities caught fire. Not a big deal right?"
"Right."
"Wrong. Whatever that fire was, it was NOT normal!! Nowhere even near it! I don't know how ZanyGreen's stream didn't catch this, maybe it was because his stream was so far from any of the fire, but the fire didn't necessarily burn everything it touched. No, instead, it changed things. It was pure chaos wherever the fire went, I've never seen or heard of anything like it."
The mention of "pure chaos" piqued Alesha's interest. Wherever the fire went, it was chaos? It brought to mind a crazy theory. But she wanted to hear more before she solidified it. "Go on, what did it do? How did things change?"
"It was the weirdest thing. One stream showed how a truck caught on fire. Inside, the steering wheel, just the steering wheel, was suddenly wrapped around with thick, thorny vines. When the fire transferred to a person nearby, the person and fire alike disappeared, replaced with a bunch of bubbles that floated away and popped like the ones kids play with. Moments later, all the fire within range of the truck solidified into porous black rock. While still shaped like flames!!
"In another stream, the guy was talking into his camera, and I watched as an ember lit his hair on fire. The fire quickly covered his entire head, but instead of screaming, he became all loopy and happy, he was totally fine!
"At least, that's what I thought until the fire spread to his shirt, which grew a bunch of snake heads that bit him to death. His was one of the streams that kept going for a while after he died, and the selfie-aimed camera pointed upwards so we could see some things. The fire then spread from his body to a bookshelf he'd fallen against. And something different happened to every book. One dissolved into water, another hardened into diamond, several grew miscellaneous body parts from a variety of creatures, a few even turned into pieces of ancient technology, but I didn't have time to process what happened to all of them. I didn't see all of what happened but from the crackling sounds I think the phone caught on fire and changed into something that couldn't stream anymore. That isn't all the things I remember the fire doing, but I think that gives you a good picture."
As Alesha listened, her expression went from intrigued to captivated to horrified. What in the Milky Way was that fire?! Stunned, Alesha spoke without thinking. "Layla, I… I caught on fire, before I fell unconscious I caught on fire…"
It was Layla's turn to be shocked. "Wh, what?! You're joking, right? Nothing-- wait, your eyes are different, woaahhh they're so pretty!" Seizing Alesha's face, Layla peeled one of her eyelids back with her thumb, examining her eye. "How did I miss this before? Your eyes are gorgeous now! What vibrant hues, how is this even possible? Wait, nothing else changed, right? Just your eyes?" Layla asked as she stopped gushing over the makeover Alesha's irises had undergone.
"Well…" Alesha hesitated. Should she tell her about the System?