Then the creature came forth from the ship, and Theo's mind went wild. 

[i]This guy looks like he stepped right out of Middle Earth. Totally Tolkien-esque. I do like that word, Tolkien-esque, that's a word right? 

It's totally a word.

What is this thing? He's like a centaur, kinda?

But centaurs don't have knives on their tails.

And they don't have four eyes. What are those, ugh, on stalks? 

Okay, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! He's got no mouth! How can he not have a mouth? Everything has a mouth of some sort.

He looks like the Silent Hill girl. Fuck, that game was awful, I had nightmares for a week.

So, is that what this is? A nightmare? Nah, nightmares are for little kids, I stopped having nightmares when I was nine.

Okay, so not a nightmare. And I know I'm not crazy. 

Then it has to be...

Oh, maybe its...

Yes, I think it is...

[b]IT'S THE MOST AWESOME VIDEO GAME TRAILER EVER![/b]

No, really, think about it. The technology's there, it could certainly be done. Holograms, makeup, animatronics, special effects. I'll bet that centaur-thing's not even real, it's probably a robot. 

The ship? Well, we didn't exactly see it crash did we? It could have been here all this time. 

So what about the voice in my head? Duh, omnidirectional speakers, probably using ultrasound or something to vibrate the bones in our ears instead of using sound in our hearing range. Boom, instant-telepathy. 

That's it, that's gotta be it. 

But why would they do it out here? Wouldn't it be cooler to do in New York or Boston? 

No, I suppose there'd be too many people there. They'd go crazy. Better out here where you can control the media better. 

So are there cameras around here? Mics in the bushes? 

Hmm, I don't see anything, but that doesn't mean they're not there. There's no telling how small they could be. Wireless mics and cameras can be hidden easily.

This is so cool, I'm going to be on TV. I'm going to be on the Internet! Maybe I'll even get a free copy of the game. Jeremy's going to be so jealous.

I'll bet people will actually know my name in school again. 

Hey, maybe I could use this to convince my parents to move back to New York. I mean, this place is sure to get flooded with crazy tourists now. New York would be no different. 

Oh, that centaur-thing's speaking again. Oh, now he's issuing a warning. Ooooooh, we're in danger, oh boy, how terrifying. 

I'll bet it's aliens. It's always aliens, right. No doubt about it. 

How cliche.

Next he's going to ask us to take him to our leader. 

Maybe he should have landed in front of the city center, he could have asked the mayor. If he wasn't hurt, I'd say he should gallop on over there.

Does anyone have the White House on speed dial? Or maybe as a Twitter follower? 

I'll betcha half the army shows up before they figure out it's a fake. 

I mean, it's gotta be fake. It's cool, but it's fake.

It's so fake.

I can even see the wires![/i]

From his place at the edge of the group, the freshman boy could be heard chuckling softly. The chuckling grew louder, and eventually he was full-out laughing. Theo stared at the centaur-thing, the War Prince Nierefiem-Istriff-Shaylik, ignoring everything else, and laughed. He glanced around, turning to each of the others in turn, and asked, "Don't you see? Don't you get it?"

"It's all fake!"