The Elementals

I saw Maple dashing to the plane as we landed, and then she skidded to a stop as I got out. Cringing, I looked behind me. Sure enough, Caelum was right behind me, with a despondent expression on his face. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

“C’mon!” I motioned for Owen and Caelum to hurry up.

I broke into a sprint and rushed over to the others, who had gathered by the door of an old brick building. What is it with these people and warehouses?

“What is he-” Coal asks.

“I don’t know, but he said Izila was here.” I cut him off.

“But-” He steps forward.

“Not now.” I interrupt. “We have to get inside.”

Coal scowls, but turns heel and stalks to the doors, torching a hole straight through the metal instead of letting Steel bend it. I wince, because I’ve obviously upset him, but there are more pressing issues here.

I run into the warehouse with the others hot on my heels. I turn a corner to a fancy looking door and then someone grabs my shoulder and drags me back.

“Who-” I stop as Stella emerges from the shadows.

“They have Audrey and Rian.” She hisses. “We have to find them.”

I see her eyes go past my face and to Caelum. She looks at me questioningly before letting go and starting down another hallway. I turn to Caelum and see his face is white. Without a word, he sprints down some steps and into what looks like a basement.

“You.” I gesture to everyone. “Follow Stella and find Audrey and Rian.”

With that, I dash after Caelum. I push through the doors to a room backstage. Set tools and props are scattered everywhere. I can hear a smattering of clapping as someone walks onstage. The crowd is situated in a large room, where each row of seats is higher than the one before so they can see. About half of them are occupied.

“She’s doing it. She’s doing it now, early, why early?” Caelum is pacing around, right behind the curtain. He spots me and rushes over. “Tide! Whatever you think, it’s not true.” He shoves me into the shadows and out of sight without a word more before I can say anything.

“Caelum here is what we call special.” I hear Izila’s sickly sweet voice through the curtain. “He can control gravity.” There’s a short wave of disbelieving laughter from the crowd of fat, government people in suits.

Caelum walks nervously on stage and I peer around as far as I dare to get a better view. Why is he going over to her? Izila smiles, expecting him. My jaw drops at my stupidity. He was just betraying me again. Is this what he was talking about? Because it sure looks like I can’t trust him.

Suddenly, I hear rattling. To the crowd’s astonishment, all the empty seats start to lift from their bolts, floating in the air. There’s a shocked quiet.

“W-what does this have to do with us?” Some brave soul questions.

“Well,” Izila smiles. “You all want the clones, don’t you?”

The room is dead silent for a solid ten seconds. Izila walks forward.

“Imagine an army of people like him, with his abilities.” She spreads her arms out as if to encompass the world. “You would be unstoppable.”

To my horror, there are nods of heads and murmurs of agreement from the crowd after a moment of thought. They can’t actually think they can clone Caelum’ powers, right?

“How much?” Someone else calls.

Well, apparently they do.

“The bidding will start at fifty million dollars.” Izila says in that stony way of hers.

And that’s when all of the chairs in the air came flying at the stage. They crash into the wood, splintering it, and I rush onstage. I can barely hear over the terrified shrieks of the people, and I search for Izila. I see her blonde hair disappearing on the other side of the stage.

“Get the people out.” I order Caelum and chase after Izila.

I burst out of the exit door. There’s no one here, just the empty fields. Why would Izila not have a plane, or some form of escape? Then it hits me. I break into a sprint around to the front of the building, where Owen landed.

Oh’Rian and Audrey are getting shoved into our plane by some of Izila’s men, and the Royal Witch herself is jumping after them. I run faster, but the door is already sliding closed.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!” I shout in hopeless frustration. The plane starts to take off and my chest feels tight.

Then I make one of the stupidest decisions of my life. I pick up a rock off the ground and leap onto the wing, jolting the cockpit with my added weight. My face comes narrowly close to being chopped to bits by the two propellers on the wings. I have time to briefly curse the design of the aircraft, because I had thought the motor was in front, like normal planes.

I take the rock and smash it down on the cockpit, cracking the glass and scaring the heck out of the pilot. The plane jerks to a stop and I break the glass, cutting my hand in the process. I crawl past the petrified pilot and into the back.

“Open the door.” I order Audrey. Then I turn to Izila, clenching my fists. “Any last words?”

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to kill her if it really came down to it, but the threat sounded good. Audrey rips the door open, and jumps out. I shove Oh’Rian out, because she’s paralyzed with shock. Izila’s eyes glint from the corner she’s in, like a trapped animal.

“You’re so naïve.” Izila hisses. “Your friend hasn’t told you.”

“Told me what?” I ask carefully.

“You really don’t know!” Izila cackles in delight.

I take a step forward. “We’ve established that. Now tell me!”

Oh’Rian and Audrey are shouting my name, but my focus is on Izila. What do I not know? How does she know it and I don’t?

“Why would I?” Izila shrugs. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”

“Yeah, well-” I don’t get any further because the plane jerks up, and starts to swing.

I race to the door. The plane is lifting off straight off the ground. I look over my shoulder and see a helicopter above me, a cable stretching from it to the plane. The ground is getting smaller and smaller, Audrey and Oh’Rian now specks.

“All I needed was to stall you!” Izila says, smiling like the living Satan. “And you fell for it! You’re so predictable!”

I make another not so smart decision here.

Before Izila can keep talking, I take a running leap out of the plane. Apparently she did not predict my suicide and I hear her shouting after me angrily. Her voice is soon lost to the wind. I start to plummet once again to my death.

It’s still not fun yet.

“Caelum!” I scream, praying he’s there. “I swear, if you don’t stop me-”

The wind rips past my ears, drowning out any other shrieks. I’m sure I’m just about to go splat when I hit a force field of invisible pillows. I slide slowly to the ground, and then crumple as my legs hit solid earth.

“Are you okay?” I hear someone run up and then feel Caelum lifting me up.

I stumble a bit, wobbling around, but I’m alive, which is good. “Yeah, thanks to you.” He smiles, and after a pause, I give a brief one back.

“We have to get the others.” Audrey says in a fearful voice. ”Now.”

They’re just coming out the door, and when they see us, they start to sprint. I do a head count. Assured everyone is here, I turn to Audrey.

“Izila said there was something you weren’t telling us.” I cross my arms.

“And you believed her?” Audrey challenges, but it’s all over her face. She sighs. “Can we go inside?”

I nod and start walking. We reach the meeting room and it looks like a tornado came through. Broken chairs are littered everywhere, as well as forgotten shoes and coats left in the mad struggle to get out. We settle down on the stage and I look pointedly at Audrey to explain herself. She shifts uncomfortably.

“So you know how Izila said she could clone you?” She asks, and I nod, interrupting.

“But you can’t clone our powers.”

“Well...” She says and my eyes widen. “Actually you can.”

“What? How?” I demand.

Owen shifts, and I look at him. “You’re powers are a virus.”

“I’m sorry?” I ask, and shake my head as if it will make me understand. “Like a disease?"

“Sort of.” He says, and this time I’m sort of glad for his extremely blunt way of putting things. “So in the Russian area, some scientists wanted to make a biological weapon that could work on anybody. They planned to make a serum that could be injected into a random person and make them have your powers.”

“And it worked.” Audrey jumped in. “In a way. Instead of a formula, they made a virus that had the same effects. People would catch it, and then be able to control whichever element it was for. But-” She dropped her head, not meeting my eyes.

“But every human subject that they tested it on died within twenty-four hours.” Owen says.

Everyone gasps, though obviously we’ve survived more than twenty-four hours. It’s the way Owen said human subjects that scares me.

“So...” I prompt, motioning that we are still alive.

“So you’re not fully human.” Owen concludes and my face drops. “You’re... super humans. Your cells have been genetically enhanced to be able to resist the side effects of the virus. You have enhanced strength, reflexes, and recovery rate to just name a few.”

Well that sounds lovely.

“We believe that Rian and Breeze were distantly related - meaning carrying similar DNA - so when Breeze died, the virus had to move to another host body that could support it, probably transmitting through blood. The whole thing is instinctual.” Audrey says. Oh’Rian looks less than pleased by this information.

“You’re all related to the original subjects in the lab, you’ve inherited the traits to survive the virus, but with Steel, Sparky, Maple, and Stella, the virus had to change a little to fit.” She looks at me, Coal, Caelum, and Terra. “You are the originals. That’s how you’re all the same age.”

So, I was made in a lab, and then tossed into the ocean to be swept up by a tsunami. Wonderful. We’re all mutant freaks here.

“How,” Stella looks thoughtful. She’s soaking this all up calmly, while I’m just over here freaking out. “How then am I able to see other people’s dreams?”

Owen takes this one. “We think you’re specific virus can connect with the brain waves of other people’s minds, and that people who have the virus are connected on a mental level where you all hallucinate the same stuff.”

“Like mass hysteria.” Coal says and I jab him roughly. The last thing we need is his cheerful input. He flashes me a cheeky grin, but thankfully stays quiet.

There’s the expected silence that comes with being told that you’re alien, lab-made, genetic ‘marvels’ that have superpowers and are suffering from the same mirages, and then Audrey coughs.

“And Izila now has your DNA and blood samples and stuff from the lab in the plane she just took.” She says in a small voice.

So she can clone us. Well this day just keeps getting better and better.

“So call back-up.” I say and Audrey squirms. There’s a silence and my shoulders drop. “You ticked off the government didn’t you?”

“We were technically not supposed to be here.” Owen says. “And now we technically disobeyed a direct order and are technically MIA, so...”

“So now the government is after us.” I finish. “Fabulous.”

Izila now has the capability to clone me and everyone else. The government is back to hunting us down. We’re all inhuman freaks. My life has gone from a steady downward drift to a nosedive.

“What now?” Coal asks, and I’m reminded that not everything is bad. At least I have my friends.

“Now,” I look around and see Maple yawn. Sparky’s eyes flutter closed briefly. “We spend the night, and figure it out tomorrow.”

Everyone looks grateful, though a little wary of my vague instructions. Soon, I count eight heads settling down to sleep, and I wait till I hear snoring to give me the okay to close my eyes myself.