The Four Chapter 1

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IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"Come on Andrew, it's a beautiful day. Are you going to just stay inside?"
Andrew nodded. "There will be other nice days. I have work to do." He shrugged. "Besides, what's so great about this day anyways. It's so hot, you can't do anything."
Romulus glanced out the window. "Oh it's not that hot. Besides, we've got plenty off cool drinks. Come on Andrew, everybodys out there. Julius, Katina, my brother Remus, Lauto, Boon-"
"I can't, I've got to finish this. I'm getting together with you guys tonight anyway for Roku."
"The four of us, yes, but theres other people out there now. Need I mention how hot those girls are? Have you seen Katina in a bathing suit?"
The idea enticed Andrew, and for a moment Romulus thought he had him. Andrew then wiped the interested look off his face and replaced it with one of seriousness. "I'm sorry, I have to finish this. Some other time."
"Andrew, you've had all year to work on this. Why did you leave it tell the last minute? I know you weren't doing anything yesterday."
"I was too."
"Watching television doesn't count. You could have least worked on this well you were watching it. What were you thinking?"
"I was just plain lazy I guess. I was procrastinating again."
Romulus looked at what Andrew was writing. Since The Watchers could replicate anything they wanted, it was customery on a birthday to give something you made yourself. Andrew was composing a poem for his sister, Cherry, whose birthday was tommorrow. "That wasn't very good planning Andrew."
"Yeah, well the only one I'm hurting is myself. I'm just going to have to buckle down and get it done."
Romulus shook his head, making tsk sounds. "But Andrew, your hurting more then yourself with your procrastination. Your hurting those girls, who are really suffering from your not being there." Andrew smiled briefly at the comment, Romulus could tell he didn't need much more convincing. "Come on Andrew, everybodys waiting for you." Andrew gave a worried look to the poem. "You'll have plenty of time to finish. So what if you have to stay up a little bit later tonight?"
Andrew smiled as he carried the poem to his nearby desk and set it on one of the shelves. "Sometimes I can't believe the things I let you talk me into."
Romulus grinned back. "You'll be glad I did. Come on, let's go."


Boon and Helmus closed in on him. Julius knew he was trapped, and scanned the field desperately for a way out. Seeing one chance, he hurled the ball towards Romulus. The ball veered off towards Romulus' left, and he had to run over to get it. Romulus barely got to the ball before it hit the ground. He had hardly started to run before Remus, his twin brother, tackled him.
Remus got to his feet quickly, smiling at the play he had made. Romulus was a little bit slower. He was covered with grass stains, and was bleeding slightly on his right elbow, having slid a little ways on it. Remus' tackle had caught him totally offgaurd, he had not seen Remus until the two made contact. Romulus lay on the grass for a few seconds, contemplating what had happened to him. Then he dusted himself off, and briefly examined his wounds. Remus extended his hand to him, and Romulus accepted it, letting Remus pull him up.
"Good try Rom," Remus said, still beaming.
"Thanks, but I'm not sure if that play was entirely legal. I didn't take my three steps before I was tackled."
By this time, the other players had gathered around the two. "I think you did," Boon responded."
"It didn't look that way to me," Julius said.
"I'm pretty sure he did," Helmus put in.
Katina laughed. "It's not worth arguing about, this is just a friendly game of focrosc. We'll give it to them."
As each team walked back to their end, Romulus gave Katina a light hearted shove. "Way to go, Katina. You knew I was right, but you let them have it anyway. Sometimes I wish you were on the other team."
Katina returned his smile. "I don't know Romulus. It looked to me like you got at least ten or twelve steps in before you were tackled."
Romulus laughed at this. He usually laughed at other peoples jokes. Turning to Andrew he inquired, "so Andrew, glad I made you come out."
"Yeah, I guess, but I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I knew that poem was done."
"Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time."
Lauto came up from her defensive position to meet Romulus as he walked back. She gave him a quick kiss, and then looked at his elbow sympathetically. "Oh, your bleeding."
Romulus shrugged. "Its part of the game. I'm sure you can talk to the other team if you're worried about getting hurt. They can go easy on you."
Lauto hit Romulus hard in the shoulder. "Very funny. Once you've been stabbed in the side or had your hand cut off, then you can talk to me about getting hurt."
"So you don't mind if you get tackled?"
"Well this is a friendly game, Remus shouldn't have hit you that hard."
"Next time he has the ball you can get him back for me." Lauto and Romulus started kissing, having the effect of making everyone else feel uncomfortable. Andrew did his best to ignore them, looking at the other players. He noticed Julius was watching the two quite closly, and his face showed anything but approval.


Remus motioned to Julius. "Pass the chips please." Julius handed him a bowl of chips, as Romulus looked at his hand. Examining it carefully, he laid down a card. The four sat briefly with nothing happening, before Remus tapped Andrew. "It's your turn," he said.
Andrew looked up from the poem he was writing. "What?"
"It's your turn," Remus repeated.
Andrew smiled sheepishly. "What's the score?" he asked.
"Oh Deka, haven't you been paying attention?" Romulus asked.
Andrew turned a little red, his face grew more sheepish. "Sorry guys, I guess I wasn't."
"Andrew, come on I want to get this game done," Romulus urged. "Lauto is coming over at nine."
Julius frowned. "Watch yourself Romulus, that woman is posion."
Romulus laughed. "Poison is she? If she's posion, I want to become intoxicated. She isn't poison, she's more like honey."
"She tried to kill Hans and Kyoko," Julius said. "My sister was there."
"Don't you go jumping to conclusions on me Julius, it was Livius who tried to kill them. Lauto would never do anything like that, you really don't know her like I do."
"Just watch yourself Romulus, I don't trust her."
Romulus laughed again, to the frustration of Julius, who was wondering what he would have to do to be taken seriously. "Okay Julius, I'll watch myself if it will make you feel better." Romulus glanced over at his brother, Remus, who was busy explaining what had happened to Andrew. Seeing that it would be a little while longer, Romulus grabbed a handful of chips, and ate them as he looked up at the monitor.
The four were meeting in Romulus' house. Romulus and Remus used to live with their parents, Rhea and Mars, both of whom were killed in the invasion. The boys, nineteen at the time, were looked after a little bit by their grandfather Numitor, but for the most part were on their own after that. They had each moved into seperate houses. Now they were twenty one.
The four were right now in the living room of Romulus' house. There wasn't a lot of furniture in the room, just a couch, a desk, a couple book shelves, and a big monitur, about four meters by four meters. Right now, Romulus had programmed the monitur to randomly depict images from Fabulae, switching about every thirty seconds. He did this often, figuring it would give him a good idea of what was going on down on Fabulae. As he looked up at the monitor, something caught his eye. A picture of a child, looking barely seven years old, terribly hungry. The child was sickiningly thin, his ribs stuck out and he seemed too tired to move. Romulus glanced up at the image in horror, and then turned to Julius.
Julius was watching Remus' explanation, but when Romulus tapped him on the shoulder he looked up at the monitor. "What happened to him?" Romulus asked.
"Oh, he must be a victim of the famine," Julius answered.
"Famine?"
"Yeah, there's a pretty severe famine going on in Kalka right now. I was just talking about it this morning with my sister. It's a barren region to begin with, but this year is especially bad. It hasn't rained in monthes, literally monthes, the people can't grow their crops. Everyones starving."
"Starving to death?" Romulus was amazed. "That's unbelieveble."
Julius nodded. "Since we've lived in the city all our lives, that is hard to imagine. I don't think I've ever gone even half a day with out food, how long do you think it's been since that child was fed?"
The monitor changed images, but Romulus quickly ordered it back to the starving boy. He could not take his eyes off the boy. "What a horrible, slow way to day."
"It's a shame," Julius agreed. "Even without the famine, though, there are people who starve to death everyday."
"There's that little food?"
"Well, you know how it goes, the very poor can't afford anything to eat, and the rich aren't always that sharing."
"We can't just sit here and watch it," Romulus decided. "We have to do something about the hunger."
Julius smiled. "You're beginning to sound a little bit like Jistap." Romulus did not return the smile, in fact his look clearly showed he didn't think this was the time for joking. Julius' face quickly sombered.
Remus tapped Romulus on the shoulder. "We're ready to start again," he said.
Romulus held up his hand. "Hold on a sec."
"What's the deal. I thought you wanted to be done by nine."
Romulus pointed at the screen. "Look at that kid," he said. "That boy can't be more than seven, and he's starving to death."
Remus nodded. "It's a shame alright. Not a whole lot we can do about."
Romulus turned around and stared at Remus, not believing what he heard. "What do you mean we can't do anything about it? We can deliever food to him."
Andrew looked at Romulus nervously. "Your not talking about leaving the city, are you? The Renegades specifically told us-"
"Fuck the Renegades," Julius responded. "Who do they think they are, ordering us around? Us Watchers are intelligent people, we can make are own decisions."
This kind of talking increased Andrew's anxiety. "Yeah, but-"
"The Renegades aren't going to be able to do anything from twenty light years away," Romulus said.
"They threatened to return and destroy us," Andrew reminded them.
"I'm not afraid of The Renegades," Julius responded. "They don't have the guts to come back and risk another confrontation with the gods."
"The city voted to follow the Renegades orders," Remus reminded everyone. "Do you think you can change their minds."
"Not by myself," Romulus responded, "but possibly with your help."