Psych You Out in the End

1

I genuinely could not believe this man. We moved from Santa Barbara to New York City to get out and see new things, and what is he doing? Watching some stupid spelling competition thing that happens to be taking place back in Santa Barbara.

"Gus, we moved out here to explore and do new things. It's New York City, man! The land of opportunity." I said.

Without looking away from the TV, he said, "America, in general, is usually used as the land of opportunity, but if you're going for the state that's 'the land of opportunity', it's Arkansas, not New York."

I gave the only dignified answer I could think of, which was a lip smack. Gus promptly shushed me, which lasted about a second before I started talking again.

"What even is this anyway?"

"It's the regional finals of the American spelling bee." He answered.

"What?" I asked, confused as to why such a thing existed.

"Don't mock me. It's a huge event."

Somehow, I found that very hard to believe.

"Really? Did they bump the car washing championships for this? And is it over soon? 'Cause I'd like to get back to the woodcarving finals." I said with sarcasm.

"It's being held in Santa Barbara this year, down at the Cabrillo. It's huge. Sold out. Before we left, I tried to get tickets, but you got to know somebody." Gus said.

"Somebody lame." I sassed. "Dude, I can't believe you're watching that."

"I'm taping it," he said, like that changed literally anything, "and I don't care what you think, (y/n). I watch The Bee Semis every year."

"Okay, for your sake and mine, stop giving the spelling bee hip little nicknames."

Before either of us could say anything else about 'The Bee Semis', breaking news popped up on the screen. It showed a video of a dude in weird armor holding Gandalf's staff.

"Gus, turn that up," I said, paying attention to what was happening.

Gus complied and turned the TV up enough for me to hear it.

"... a man in Stuttgart, Germany demanding people to kneel to him." The broadcaster said.

"Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation."

"I'm missing the Bee Semis for some crazy guy pretending to be Loki?" Gus interrupted.

Loki, the God of Mischief, Loki? Loki, the brother of Thor, Loki?

This time, it was my turn to shush him.

"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." The guy said, pointing the magical stick to an older man.

Suddenly, a guy wearing the American flag came out of nowhere and fought with the other guy.

"Oh my God," Gus said. "That's Captain America."

"Gus, don't be a silly goose. Captain America's been dead for years."

Back on the TV, Iron Man, or Tony Stark, decided to join the fight. After his appearance, the crazy man made his armor disappear into thin air. They slapped some kind of handcuffs on him and that was it. This man demanded that everyone kneeled to him, fought with Captain America, and magically made his armor disappear. There was no way that those handcuffs would hold him, yet there he was, thwarted by them. I squinted my eyes at that. He wanted to get caught. Iron Man and Captain America didn't seem to think about that as they started talking to each other. The news cut off and went back to whatever it was that Gus was watching.