Electoral 2072 - Round 29

Three Weeks to the Sixth Attraction

It was hard to describe the strange feeling surrounding the latest game. Most channels had tried and failed to rebuild the excitement. The previous game had been somewhat of a buzzkill. First, the young girl had worked her magic and warped everyone to the future by a couple of days. Then, instead of a real competition, the round had been more of a lesson on the meaning of life. Emilio found love, what Marilyn described as the meaning of life. There were waves, people, and many worlds yet. To the computer, a kiss weighted more than the death of races. Mankind tried and failed to “reboot” in an amusement mindset.

Sophie, silent in her room most of the time, was mostly powering this blase attitude. Electoral knew it, and despite her earlier inner-monologue about the limitations of human beings, she was determined to put a stop to it. Forced by either curiosity or a desire to help, humanity signed up and watched, incredulous of what would come next.

Electoral cracked her digital knuckles, ran through her studies of the human brain, pulled an algorithm from deep storage, and rebooted humans and the Attractor. Billions were plunged into a strange colorful world.

Began Round 29. Marilyn’s intellect was now off any chart, today she would show it.

“Woof!” barked Electro, Marilyn's famous golden retriever character. Normally only children had access to this smiley creature. “Hi,” he continued on every screen, a large smile appeared as he spoke to over three billion pleasantly surprised humans. The glasses-wearing dog was Sophie’s favorite character in the digital world. Millions of children around the world immediately recognized the bark and stood to attention. Each was trying to get a parent’s attention, but things went too fast. Adults were puzzled as to why, instead of the grandiose realistic introduction promised by Marilyn, they had tuned the Cartoon Television Network.

The dog was happy and started licking the camera, forcing it to pan out, revealing the creature’s charming new outfit. On its head was attached a pair of deep red aviator goggles. All four paws were covered by tall Velcro-wrapped black and white boots. A large black and golden line separated the colors. Over his cute vest, a large backpack was partly opened and held dozens of little red balls.

“Listen everyone — specifically you little Sophie, it’s clear, we all need a break from all the boring adult stuff.” He shook his body as to repel water. Pokémon Balls jumped in every direction. “This game will be fun.” The creature had the full attention of the young Attractor. Sophie had stood up from her seat next to her father’s cradle. She was wearing the glasses and ignoring Laurent and the hundred other disqualified players in her back. Fourteen remaining players were in a trance in the tubes on stage as cameras buzzed around her trying to capture any emotion hidden under the Orbison glasses.

This was, as the proverb went, precisely what the doctor ordered. The creature on stage scratched its ear, and from the backpack fell different color balls. One rolled on the floor and shook as if it contained a gremlin trying to escape. It clicked, and in a blast of light, a vortex of glowing dust and color were released from it along with a funny looking monster.

The amusing green goblin materialized three feet above the ball and grimaced at the dog. It made obscene gestures with its tongue. Electro anchored down and blew twenty sharp barks at the creature. This wasn’t working, but Electro was a dog and kept barking. Large white letters appeared at the base of the screen.

— Tell Electro What to Do —

Sophie needed no more. “Get a new ball from the bag!” She yelled alone in the large room. No one had ever heard the girl yell, much more at a digital dog. On the screen, as if in response to her words, a black and red ball fell. “The ball!!” yelled Sophie. Electro looked her way and looked down at the bag. “Yes! The ball!” She returned. The sight was wonderful to watch. The young lady did not care. She was wearing the glasses and participating.

Electro grabbed a ball with his mouth.

— Point to Monster —

The Attractor needed no more. Sophie pointed with both hands. Her body jerked. She truly was into this, much to the amusement of most. Electro spit it out at the goblin. The ball rolled under the creature, and a flash of light blew up in the direction of the grimacing creature. The ploy worked, and it was sucked feet first into the ball, clawing at mid-air in futile resistance. The ball began rocking around; the creature, once back inside the ball, was trying to free itself.

“Did you see that?” yelled the Attractor to everyone who could hear her. Thanks to the live CNN broadcast, that was pretty much everyone in the solar system.

On the screen, Electro caught his breath. “Today, you all get to catch little and bigger monsters. The more you catch, the better the points. It’s that simple. They are everywhere around here, we hunt, and they bounce into view if you help the players navigate.” There were maps in the shape of balls below Electro’s feet. “The player’s backpacks are filled with a limited number of balls and some special items. You won’t run out, they also are everywhere around here.” A large golden triangle appeared several feet away. Electro positioned himself under it, and an object materialized. It was an animated head of Sophie.

“Wow,” she exclaimed. “That’s me!”

“Yes,” answered the dog as if he was playing only with Sophie. “This one is called an Attractor. You throw it, and the closest ten monsters come rushing in.”

Sophie was pointing at her chest and pointing at the screen. She was speechless and enjoying this to no end. Marilyn had long ago purchased long ago all rights to this famous franchise. The dog went on to explain in great detail the way this game worked. People had a stock of balls of different power. They also had different ingredients that could be thrown at the creatures.

Sophie was all excited for her father. She soon saw him appear in cartoon animation on a corner of the screen. He was selecting his outfit and the types of balls with a set number of points. Sophie really wanted to play. On cue, next to Electro appeared Laurent dressed in nothing short of the best outfit she had ever seen her dad wear. She was smiling from ear to ear. Everyone in the room was flooded with the purest of joy. Laurent wore aviator goggles matching Electro’s. The leather outfit was painted in the franchise’s red and white colors. He was even wearing gloves with the fingertip cut.

Sophie marveled openly. “You look great, Daddy! You will love this game, it’s easy and so much fun.”

“One strange rule,” said the dog on the screen as the game was about to start. “To guide the players in the maze, they will hear voices if enough of you yell out directions. I mean this has to be loud, real loud. Sophie got it. Look at the little map on the corner. Only you can see it.” Sophie needed no more. Sophie, the mature Attractor, was gone, buried under juvenile excitement. She was twelve, and inside her head, Liam too was overwhelmed with pure excitement. Sophie needed this so badly. As the game was ready to start and large numbers were counting down on the screens, she was literally bouncing in place. God, she loved this dog and this game. Her father was playing, how awesome was that? Liam knew better than to talk. He just enjoyed seeing Sophie so happy. Besides, this whole "fun" concept beat sitting on a cave floor in a brown universe, endlessly thinking about mathematics and philosophy.

Marilyn checked her progress, taking a peek with her Rho wave monitoring equipment. The Rho waves the Attractor was generating were colored with her joy, a deep yellow. The blending of Sophie's reality, Laurent's, and the rest of humanity's was going well enough, too. In a matter of seconds, everyone down on Earth was flooded with the youthful bliss. Sophie’s father placed one knee down and took the time to give Electro a good scratch. The dog loved it, and his glasses almost fell as Laurent scratched a sweet spot.

“This is going to be great!” said Laurent winking at his daughter. Around him, images and flashes gave this the feel of the video game. With both index fingers, Laurent’s animated character shaped a large heart in the air and the Electoral platform gladly lit it up in red. What happened next was shockingly refreshing. Laurent and Electro, as if animated by an invisible player began to run and bounced around on top of walls and down wooden paths. On the corner of the screen, a radar showed where the creatures appeared as points of lights.

Each time a dot appeared, Sophie began to yell at the screen hysterically as if nothing else in the world existed. No one had ever seen the girl this happy. She yelled nonstop. Her father and the dogs clicked the balls, zapped the creatures on the path, and grabbed floating coins. Behind Sophie, the players were shocked to see the joyful metamorphosis. Between two breaths, Sophie turned, lifted the glasses, and yelled at them. “What are you waiting for, help my Daddy!”

Flooded by the Rho waves, the group needed no more. The entire Electoral Control room exploded. Adults were acting like children. Even Doctor Shin and the journalist Wong were trying to help the girl. In a matter of seconds, the entire room was engulfed in a state of deep, healthy chaos. “A dragon ward to the left!”

In the game, sometimes the energy of the balls wasn’t sufficient, and the creature was able to escape the cone of light. When that happened, the entire room burst out in loud cries. “Another one!” Everyone had a different strategy. The cheering was infectious, and soon, even Georges was unable to contain himself. Laurent and Electro scored point after point in the most childish game imaginable. This wasn’t complicated, in fact, it was as stupid as they come. But everyone in the Multiverse needed joy.

On cue, after about half an hour of collective hysteria, the maze and dancing monsters stopped, revealing a large arena surrounded by the forest. In the center stood a very large monster the size of a house. It held a long whip with spikes of diamond. It was long enough to touch Laurent or Electro. This was the final "boss."

Before Sophie could understand what would be next, the whip hit the floor between Laurent and Electro and sent both fifty feet in the air. As they flew upward, all of the balls from their backpacks that they had collected were released. Each of the monsters escaped lining themselves behind the monster like his army. The next fifteen minutes were crazier than the last hour. Laurent jumped and moved between the creatures throwing hundreds of balls around. One by one, each goblin was recaptured. That did not appear to please the large monster.

Once all of the small creatures were back in his backpack, they vanished. It was time to capture the large dragon. In a corner appeared a large ball the size of a car. This time the dragon threw away the whip and began breathing out streaks of fire. The game continued another five minutes as Laurent avoided the fire and move carefully to push the large ball toward the back of the dragon. Balls of flames rained, and Sophie felt If was her duty to warn him. Her face was puffed red.

As Sophie now ran in the room, dodging fireballs and yelling. Marilyn used her tremendous power to move things around and even move the floor under her feet.

After nearly an hour of frenetic excitement, the moment the father and dog team rolled the giant ball until it touched the large dragon, it opened, and music filled the screen as Laurent was showered with points. Electro was jumping and barking. Everyone was hugging each other in the Command Room as if their favorite team had won the World Cup of Soccer. The game ended, and Sophie was both sweaty and happy. She turned and just launched herself over her father’s body. She hugged the body. “You were so great.”

Back on the screen, Electro winked, “see ya next week!” The broadcast ended as suddenly as it had started.

***

Liam was perplexed. He watched Sophie’s raw joy and felt like she had just generated enough Rho waves to power the destruction of this world. There wasn’t one way to grab the Rho waves from the Attractor. The Oldest did not have the courage to rain on the girl’s parade and knew Sophie would have none of it.

Sophie, Marilyn, and the Sixth Attraction were, and that was clear to all, absolutely unpredictable.