Burning Slow

The fine art of threats.

The teenagers, excluding Grace, had managed to create a rough outline of their plan only within two weeks. Even though they settled on going through with the head on thing, the feeling of charging ahead left an unsettling feeling within each of them.

Now it's a couple days later and the group stood in front of step one in their plan.

The Presidential House.

"Are we seriously going to go through with this?" Kenneth uncertainly looked at each of the friends he was with today.

"It's just an act. Chill out, dude. Alex and Greyson should be here by the time we're done negotiating." Nathan reassured. "They'll handle the rest. We're just here to make sure that those two adults will get entertained."

"Alright," Ember sighed, "let's get this over with." She held onto Nick's arm.

The President fell off his seat, seeing seven teenagers suddenly appearing in his office in the midst of him sorting through paperwork.

He quickly regained his composure though, standing up and fixing his tie. His face covered with those special masks.  "Who are you?"

"I have absolutely no idea why I was expecting a plant sitting on the president's chair." James' eyes darted to the plant on the table and to the president, not at all fazed that he looked about as tall as Ember.

His twin quickly slapped his arm with the back of his hand, the others narrowing their eyes at him.

"You kids are clearly here for something and you know something that the government does not." He said, ignoring James' previous statement. "Tell me now before I send guards here."

"I'm afraid your guards will be useless against us, Mr. President." Nathan's voice was deep, a trail of ice from him creeped up the big oak door, preventing anyone from getting in. Locking them in the huge room.

"Let's start over," Ember cleared her throat, letting go of Rocco's hand and walking a couple of steps forward. "We need your cooperation in saving the Earth."

The President burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, Miss-"

"Agapov." Ember tried to keep her cool. This wasn't the time to lose her temper.

"Miss Agapov," The President paused and Ember nodded, "are you telling me that our planet is in danger and none of my personnel know about this?" He snorted.

"You obviously have no idea who you're dealing with." Nick mumbled, crossing his arms and turning his head to the side.

"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear," she took long strides, stopping in front of the President, staring at him eye-to-eye, "my team and I will make things very hard for you if you do not cooperate-" cue the flickering lights- "helping us is the only choice we're offering.

"In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a pandemic and none of us are wearing any of those special masks unlike you. We were there when the outbreak started and we are the reason why not much people have died due to the virus. We gave you the plans, all those ideas and we let you take credit in momentarily saving the human race. Now you need to pay us back."

The President was only an inch taller than Ember but she intimated him, he was practically shrinking- add to that the taller boys that were ready to pounce behind her.

"Stop, stop, no, please." He took a step back, giving up, "I'll listen to your terms."

Ember backed down, smiling at her friends over her shoulder before looking back at the President. "Our terms are pretty simple, be at our beck and call."

"What's in it for us?"

"Look, buddy-" Rocco stood behind Ember- "we're trying to save the human race here."

"You lot have been saying that since you arrived, what exactly does that mean?"

"It's a long story." The teens chorused.

"I've got time."

"We don't" Ember responded, pertaining to their group. "I'm sorry but details will follow. For now, do we have a deal?" She put her hand forward, expecting the President to shake it.

A couple of minutes passed before he caved, shaking Ember's hand.

"If you go back on your word, Mr. President, I'm afraid you'll be seeing blood." Ember threatened, gripping his hand hard before letting go.

"I suggest you tell your personnel about our deal right now. We'll be back in a couple of hours." Ember and Rocco walked back to Nick- them disappearing again, leaving the President scratching his head.

The man shook his head, seeing the ice on his doors slowly thawing and the guards that were stationed out plus a couple more were finally able to enter.

"Mr. President, are you all right?" They asked, panting- they've been trying to open the door since Nathan froze it.

"I'm fine. I'm scheduling a meeting. Get your superiors."

*****

"Honestly?" Nick let out a breath of relief. "That went better than what we were expecting." He plopped down next to Astraea, kissing her forehead.

"So how did it go?" Astraea asked, her eyes focused on the TV still.

"As I just said, it was better than what we were expecting so it went pretty well. Alex and Greyson will discuss the rest of the details with the government. They should be there by now."

"By the way, why did you not just take them with you?"

"We were supposed to go as a group but dad was too traumatized by teleporting that he didn't believe us when we said that the third time wouldn't hurt as much as the first and second time so they took normal transportation."

"So now what?" Kenneth asked, coming back from the kitchen, taking a bite of his cookie.

"Now we watch some movies. We can't plan without the government." Ember answered, shrugging.

"Alright, then. What movie?" Jacob asked, running a hand through his black hair.

"Easy A." Ember's eyes gleamed, taking a seat next to Astraea, and Rocco took a seat next to her.

"As much as I love old movies, I'm getting sick of Easy A. Can't we watch something else?" Nathan groaned.

"Don't question my decisions, dude."

"Last time I didn't, you got beat up. And that was only three weeks ago."

Ember rolled her eyes, reaching over Rocco, touching the armrest. "We're watching Easy A and everybody agrees."