I expected it to be a spam call, but was a little surprised to see Shelly's name on the Caller ID. Odd, usually she'd text me first. I answered the phone and was greeted with a shrill shriek that made my ears ring.
"Yeowch!" I cried. "Shel, what was that for?"
"Dude, the COOLEST shit is going down," Shelly practically shouted from her end. 'You're free tonight, right? Like, 10:30ish free?"
"Uh, yeah..." I said cautiously, a little weirded out at this point. "What's going o-"
"GOOD, I'll be at your place, clean your back porch!"
The line cut before I could get another word in. Staring at my phone in confusion, I heard Dmitri chuckling as he came up beside me. "Sounds like a fun conversation, who's mad at you?" he asked jokingly.
"No one, Shelly just wants to do some...thing," I said warily. "She's not on another DnD kick again is she? I like the game too but I'm not ready to be ambushed by a six-hour one shot again."
"No she roped Celeste into that the other day." Dmitri scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You don't think it has something to do with that asteroid do you?"
I blinked in confusion. "Uh...what asteroid?"
---
"Eleutherios, duh! How have you not heard of it?"
"I...don't follow astrology news," you admit weakly as Shelly shoves past you into the house, two long thin packages under each arm as she made a beeline for the back door.
"It's astronomy, astrology is the zodiac stuff." Shelly ripped the bag off one of the packages with one fluid motion, revealing a bulky telescope that she began setting up. "And if you read the articles I sent you, you'd know Eleutherios was an asteroid the size of a small mansion that was going to pass so close to Earth that you could see it with the naked eye. And in detail with one of these babies!" She smacked the telescope proudly, scrambling to catch it after accidentally knocking it over.
"I mean, cool? Then why the screaming phone call earlier?" I peered into the night sky myself, as if I'd be able to see it.
"Becaaaause, if you READ the news, you'd know that they're going to use it for a test!" Shelly said excitedly. "NASA has this laser that they're building in case a real big asteroid is heading for Earth, and they're going to use it on Eleutherios as a test run. And based on where they're testing it and where Eleutherios is headed, we should be able to see it go boom!"
Okay, that would be pretty cool, but I did have questions. "Wouldn't that be dangerous, blowing up a space rock so close like this?"
"It's not some massively huge asteroid, it's barely bigger then your own house," Shelly reminded me. "It'll be perfectly harmless. Well, mostly harmless anyway, apparently it's radioactive. But hey what's a little danger when you're on an adventure, right?"
"I'll get us some snacks," you say, feeling a little queasy about this situation. You weren't prepared to have guests over, but you manage to scrounge up some sodas and microwave popcorn to enjoy while you sit on the dirty deck chairs and wait for the asteroid to show up. Halfway through the big bucket of popcorn, Shelly suddenly stops laughing at your hilarious joke about the rhino and the chiropractor and points hurriedly at the sky.
"It's here, it's here!"
You run to your respective telescopes and train them in the direction Shelly pointed and...wow! You see it, a big glowing green rock hurtling through the sky! Shelly gasps as she finds the rock too, and the both of you stare mesmerized as it softly glides by overhead. And then...
Thooom
There's a sound like distant thunder and a flash of light, and the rock is gone, particles of green flying in every direction. It's quite the light show, and you catch yourself grinning at the shower of glowing color as it fills the sky with a green neon glow.
"Told you it was gonna be cool," Shelly whispered smugly.
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