NOVEL FROG CHAPTER 64: 6 days till Portals
Atlas, sipping on his third cup of coffee, and pondered the week ahead. "What did Past Atlas do to deserve this?" he groaned, feeling the weight of last night's decisions. Alicia’s call interrupted his thoughts.
“Gooooood morning, Atlas! How are you feeling?”
“Ugh... why, Alicia? What prompted Past Atlas to drink so much? And now I have to pay for it!”
“Hahaha! I don’t know. Why don’t you travel back in time and ask him?” She laughed.
*That’s not how time travel works,* Atlas thought.
“Anyway, what can I do for you this fine, fine morning?” he asked, trying to sound more awake.
Alicia suggested setting up interviews with TV networks eager to cover the Portal Crushers' win. They had been calling her since the victory, but even the normally workaholic Alicia had taken the night off.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Atlas replied. “But let’s schedule them for seven days from now.”
“Why a week from now?” Alicia asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, not exactly a week. Let’s say, six days and twelve hours from now.”
Alicia found the timing odd but shrugged it off, putting it all into the "ATLAS IS CRAZY” file. That file had grown thick since her first meeting with Atlas.
“Did you have any network you particularly wanted to talk to?” she asked.
“Not really, the more, the merrier. You can send out a general request. Seriously, invite anyone who is interested—from ESPN to backyard bloggers who want beauty tips. Tell them this interview will be the biggest they will ever have. And that anyone missing it will regret it for life. Also, we will be screening the end of the season of Hong Sha’s microdrama. We will be covering all the expenses too, from food to flights.”
“Wow. Sounds a lot more exciting than most press conferences.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be huge. I’m also going to ask everyone from the gym to be there.”
“Really? Everyone?”
“Yeah, from Papie the janitor all the way up to your dad Maxwell and the board. Bill Watt too.”
“That’s going to be a lot of people. Are you going to be holding a press conference or an event?”
“Alicia, if my plan works this will be the biggest event on Earth, and the Portal Crushers will be the center of it.”
After that statement, even the "ATLAS IS CRAZY" file seemed like it was saying *insufficient storage.*
“Give me a list, and I’ll help you with the calls to the sponsors and to people who might ignore you. In fact, if you know anyone that has ties to the government, call them too.”
“The Canadian government?”
“Not just the Canadian government, but all the big ones. USA, China, everyone who may want to come.”
Atlas was a busy, busy beaver. His first call was to Lily.
“Lily, I need you to get together with me and Bill Watts from the arena. We’ve got something big to put together.”
Lily, who had been enjoying the fact that the scenery she had made for Hong Sha's microdrama had been really popular, was excited to hear that Atlas was calling her.
“Ooh, something else? Something new? Something big?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s big,” said Atlas. “Biggest on Earth.”
“Wow.” She thought he was exaggerating, but wow.
Atlas made the next call to Bill.
“Bill, I’ve got a big change to make to the arena.”
“Atlas, hello, nice to talk to you too,” Bill replied dryly.
“Haha, sorry, I don’t have much time for small talk. What I need you to do is come meet me with Lily. Can you come by in 10 minutes?”
Bill said, “Why don’t we all meet in my office?”
“Can’t do that,” Atlas said. “I need you to come meet me in the portal room.”
“Oh, where you guys do your training?”
“That’s right,” said Atlas. “It’s really important that we meet there.”
*Okay,* Bill thought, *now I know exactly what they mean about Atlas's crazy file.*
Ten minutes later, Lily, Bill, and Atlas met at the portal room.
“All right,” said Atlas. “You see that circle?”
“Of course we do,” said Lily.
“From the outer edge of the red ring, I need you to make a 1-kilometer circumference of a bigger yellow circle.”
“What?” said Lily. “You understand that the scenery is all in place. If we go for a straight 1-kilometer yellow circle, it'll destroy a lot of it. And there are walls!!”
“Well, that’s why Bill’s here,” Atlas said. “Bill, I’m going to be messing up the arena.”
Bill said, “Are you sure about this?”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Atlas said. “This is the biggest thing we’re going to do in our lifetime.”
“Okay. You understand we’re just getting back to black. This project will put us back a bit,” Bill said.
Atlas said, “Have I let you down before?”
“No,” said Bill, thinking about the fact that only a couple of months ago, he had been thinking about selling the whole arena.
“All right, you’ve got that, Lily? I need that big yellow circle. And then when the circle’s made, Bill, I need seats there. I’m talking stadium-style seating. Big rows, tall as you can make them. But the key is they all have to be inside of the yellow circle.”
“What do you mean stadium style? You mean you want me to actually put in a mini arena within the arena?”
“That’s right,” said Atlas.
“A mini arena within the arena. You know, that’s probably not within our code,” said Bill.
Atlas said, “Fuck the code. You have no idea how important this is. If there are any fines or bills, I’ll pay them. We are only going to be using this mini arena for one day anyway. And it’s all got to be up in six days.”
When Lily and Bill Watts heard that last part, their minds seemed like they were going to explode. They had heard a lot of ideas from Atlas, a whole bunch of them were super crazy. But this was the craziest of all.
While the two of them were still making sense of this logistical nightmare, Atlas called Hong Sha.
“Hong Sha, how’s the microdrama going?”
“Great! We are filming season 2, and it looks really good.”
“Wait, you’re filming season 2 already? I haven’t seen the end of season 1. Weren’t they fighting in the wasteland?”
“Yeah, they’re fighting, and now I’ve gotten deep into the arc where people are being rescued from slavers.”
“Ok. I’m going to need you to make some edits. End of season 1, they all need to come home safely.”
“That makes no sense, Atlas! That cuts the whole drama into bits. I won’t do it.”
“Hong Sha, believe me, I get that this messes with the story, and that it’s going to be a rush. But, this ending will literally be the most important decision I’ve made.”
“Are you kidding, Atlas? The show’s good, no—damn great—but your edits will kill my ending. You could kill the whole show. Dead! My vision! Dead!”
“Hong Sha, buddy. I’m dead serious….hahahaha, see what I did there….dead serious….you might not like it but I’m the producer. Make the changes.”
Hong Sha knew Atlas wasn’t kidding when he saw the old contract pop into his email highlighting those exact terms.
“Oh, and Hong Sha, I need the revised end of season one in six days. Don’t James Cameron me, it can’t be pushed to seven days. Six days. Not a minute later. This is going to be the most watched event on the whole fuckin’ planet. Oh, and here’s a season-ending theme song I need in it.”
Hong Sha now had his own personal *ATLAS IS CRAZY* file. And it was full of thoughts about how he hated Atlas for forcing the changes.
---
**SEASON ENDING THEME SONG**:
People from Earth see the sky change,
Portal opens wide, time to rearrange.
Monsters waiting on the other side,
A year to survive, nowhere to hide.
Fight for all our lives, creatures call,
They’re eerie, they’re strong, they pull us through.
With hope in our hearts, we follow the clue.
One year in this land, fight every day,
Monsters around us, crying to slay.
But we will be back from the black,
Hold on, stand firm, stay on track.
Time drifts slow as battles rage,
Each sunset marks another page.
Hope watches from heights unknown,
It’s the beacon guiding us home.
Through the struggle, through the night,
We gather strength, ready to fight.
Time nearly up, we feel the shift,
Hope’s hand gives the final lift.
Don’t worry and don’t you cry,
For we will not give in, not even if we die.
***
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