Awoken by Alex South

impressed by anything. He has never complimented my abilities, no matter how many times I save us with my ice shield.”
    “I don’t think I could ever be ready for a bunch of Awoken to go to war for me,” Oa said with relief. He turned to Ohm as curiosity temporarily diverted his attention away from more pressing questions. “So you can control water’s shape, but all you ever make is a sword and shield? I can think of a bazillion other ways you could use that water.” He let his mind wander to all the amazing things he could picture Ohm creating.
    “I agree with Oa,” Fred chimed in. “You used to be much more liberal with your skills. Limiting yourself to use a mere sword and shield is grossly inefficient. For instance, when facing the Marauders, we should have fired the water in the form of ice project—”
    “I resent that!” Ohm interrupted haughtily. “It’s my skill so I will be the one deciding in what way I will use it.”
    “It is pointless to try to change his mind, Oa,” Fred said.
    “Fine, I will keep my amazing ideas to myself,” Oa teased. He returned to the topic of his number, bombarding Ohm with his questions. “So if I am number One, how come I took so long to wake up? Hasn’t there already been a number One? Also, what’s your number? How long have you been around?”
    Ohm slapped his palm against the side of his head.“I forgot how many questions young minds can conjure,” he complained. “I am not sure why it took you so long to wake. It could have something to do with your power or Eol’s power. Perhaps it was just some insane weather. Your number might not even be One . Maybe it was misprinted when the Creator made it. Who knows?” He gave a flippant toss of his hand. “As for me, my number probably has a One in it somewhere; and it has been a very long time since I woke up.”
    “But, do you even know how long? The Marauders measure time in cycles. I heard you use the term ‘weeble’. Are you referring to the cycles as well?” Oa asked, pressing for answers.
    “No. Cycles are too simple. Who can say that a cycle’s duration is constant? What if the mind moves through time at varying speeds? So I invented the weeble. Well, I suppose Fred helped a bit. Weebles are much shorter than cycles. They measure time as your mind perceives it. Thus the number of weebles in a cycle generally fluctuates, but I don’t keep track of how many I go through. Fred does. You can ask him,” Ohm said, bored with the topic.
    “Since the invention of the weeble, 9,564,353,343,324,432 weebles have passed and 54,345,843,492 cycles have occurred,” Fred recited.
    Oa was silent for a moment as he tried to comprehend the amount of time Fred’s numbers represented. “I’m not quite sure I understand how your weebles relate to cycles,” he said, giving up.
    “Don’t try to figure it out, Oa. Accomplishments can be made in one weeble that would outweigh all the cycles I have lived through,” Ohm instructed. “Although I just remembered a trend worth noting. Fred likes to measure my weebles per cycle. According to his data, cycles are getting shorter; or time is moving faster, as if it is accelerating toward something …” he trailed off, pondering his old findings with renewed interest.
    Oa nodded, trying to process all the new information Ohm was feeding him. “I must be one of the last Awoken to wake up. I’ve got to have a purpose with all this significance surrounding me. Besides, Seeker is way more interesting than your ice nonsense.”
    “I will grudgingly concede on that last point, but don’t get too excited. Being a lower number is not that great; too little of this world remains to worship you,” Ohm joked.
    “That’s not what I meant. I just think that we can do something impactful. The coincidence of our meeting and the fact that we both are unique makes me believe all the more that we are meant to change things in this world for the better,” Oa said, turning