The Elementals

“You have thirty seconds before I throw you off the boat.” I say, “Aaaand, go.”

The guy opens his mouth but the woman punches him. I could get used to her. “I understand you haven’t had the, um, greatest experiences with the government-”

“You could say that,” I mutter.

“Anyway,” The woman clears her throat. “We’re a different branch off of the government, a branch meant specifically for people like you. We’re here to help.”

Again the man goes to add something, but she stops him with a hard sock to the shoulder. That and the fact that she did keep it under thirty seconds makes me have a small liking. Slowly, the ice melts and the crew shakes off their feet, returning to their previous jobs.

“So where are my friends?” I ask, still a bit apprehensive.

The lady smiles at this. “Way ahead of you.” She gestures to a trap door leading below deck.

I follow as she descends down the ladder. My caution disappears for a moment as I see Oh’Rian, Sparky, Maple, Terra, Steel, and Stella looking eagerly towards me.

“They found you!” Oh’Rian cries and we’re enveloped in a suffocating group hug. I feel Coal go stiff next to me and I snicker. I smile sweetly as he glares at me.

“My name is Audrey Morgan, and that is Owen...Jacobs.” Owen shoots Audrey a glare when she quietly says his last name. It doesn’t take long for me to put two and two together.

“Agent O.J,” I sound out, trying not to giggle immaturely. “Catchy. Has a nice ring to it.”

“It’s better than Tide.” He scoffs, though I can tell my jab has hit its mark.

I tense. “How do you know my name?”

He points to the others. I roll my eyes on the inside. Of course Oh’Rian would immediately trust some random people that just happened to be around when our boat crashed. This leads to my next question;

“How did you find us?”

“You flooded an entire town, and then put on a water works show of a lifetime. Anybody could find you.” Owen says petulantly.

My jaw drops. “I flooded the place?”

“No, you just-”

Audrey cuts him off. “Yes, you did. Whether you meant to or not.”

I scan her face for any hint of a joke. Audrey has strawberry blonde hair, but it has all these darker red and golden brown tones in it. As it dries off it falls in front of her amber eyes occasionally. She has a thin face, sharp; I can tell not much passes below her attention.

Owen has chiseled features that make him seem like he’s always frowning, like a hawk. His short, brown hair is messed up from the wind and salt water, sticking up in random spikes. He surveys the room with observant green eyes, but quickly returns his attention back to Audrey as she continues talking.

“So, in short,” She says, and I’m glad she’s summarizing because I wasn’t listening. “We think you could be assets to the government, to help fight natural disasters, and bring in more people like yourself.”

I look at her wearily. I glance around and see the others nodding in agreement, and realizing my caution is being overruled, I say, “We’ll try it.” Owen seems almost annoyed that I agreed and now I’m positive about my decision.

“Great,” Audrey says, continually cutting Owen off before he can say something that will make me sink the boat. “We can start your first assignment now.”

“Right now?” I ask, slightly disbelieving, and Audrey nods. “We need food first.”

Sparky’s head pops up from under the table at the mention of the word. Everyone nods vigorously in agreement, if not a little guiltily. Audrey smiles indulgently and points a finger to a small closet at the other end of the room. I can’t see through the hungry mob of people rushing towards it, but I assume it has some form of food related contents.

“I thought the usual thing was we had to be trained or whatever before going on a mission,” I say to Audrey.

She smiles and shrugs. “We’ve found that learning on the job works the best. And you’re not really the “usual” case.”

“So where are we going exactly? And what are we supposed to be doing?”

“We’re already here. A large shipping boat carrying some very important things just went down twenty minutes ago. We were the closest vessel to respond their S.O.S call so we headed over as soon as we could. And it’s just you.” Audrey says like it’s nothing.

This news doesn’t really go over well with me, and I don’t really have any real desire to go back outside into the shrieking winds and booming thunder, but I still tensely follow Owen up the stairs, with Audrey coming behind, tying her hair in a ponytail. As soon as we step out the door, we’re blasted in the face with freezing water.

I watch Audrey close the door against the wind, and I lean forward so I don’t have to shout. “You might want to lock that. And get insurance on anything flammable.” She looks at me quizzically. “Coal doesn’t really like it when I go AWOL without telling him.”

Audrey looks kind of worried and I smile apologetically. “Or you could let him come.”

I see her try to lose the concerned expression of her face, and she shakes her head. “The rescue boat only holds two people if we need room to have the package.”

“I thought you said it was just me.”

“Well, you and Owen,” Audrey walks swiftly over to the latches holding a small, but sleek looking life boat thing. “He used to be a Navy SEAL.”

I have a growing distaste to this situation, and as Owen comes up next to us I can see he hates it as much as I do. Why am I even doing this? Before I can find the answer, the boat drops with a splash and Owen is glaring at me impatiently to get on. Slightly ticked off, I don’t get on the boat, but instead leap off the deck and land lightly on a piece of ice beneath my feet. It rises and falls with the waves, but I manage to keep my balance.

“Lead the way,” I gesture for Owen to move ahead with mock politeness.

He rolls his eyes and starts the motor. It springs to life faster than I expected, but soon I’m skating along next to it, watching as the waves thin out right in front of me in a clear path. I love the feeling. It’s as close to flying as I’ll ever get, next to Caelum.

Don’t think about it.

I set my jaw and focus on gliding smoothly across the water. It only takes a minute before we reach the boat. Like ours, it’s been smashed up onto another patch of rocks. The frame of it looks like a broken skeleton in the brief flashes of lightning.

“So what am I looking for?” I call over to Owen, as we circle the damage.

“A big, black, box inside of a big crate.” He responds and I have to bite my tongue from saying anything that could be considered snarky.

“Well,” I try to find a place to start. “I can breathe underwater but it’s too dark and clouded for me to see anything.”

“Can you echolocate?”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“Um, I don’t know. How does it work?” It annoys me that I don’t understand this. I feel like I should.

“If you make a sound underwater, it will hopefully bounce back off an object and tell you at least a rough estimate of its size, shape, and distance from you.”

“Oh yes, that clears everything up.” I say to myself. Louder, so Owen can hear me over the noise, “I’m gonna try it.” Without waiting for a response, I dive off my safe little ice block.

The currents tug at me, but it’s not as hard to keep them at bay this time. Again, it takes the tight ache in my chest to remind me that I don’t need to reach the surface for air, I can breathe right here.

Experimentally, I shout into the water. A stream of bubbles leaves my mouth but I don’t hear anything back. I pull the memory of some documentary on dolphins from years ago at the orphanages. I try to make a clicking noise, and with still no response, I scream in frustration. I can’t see anything. I’m the water Elemental trying to fix a water centered problem and I continue to be a failure. I swim around, trying to feel for the box.

There’s a rock over there to the right with barnacles. Avoid.

Wait.

I slowly extend my hands and sure enough, I touch the rough crustaceans growing on the rock. I still can’t see it though; I just somehow know it’s there. It worked. It actually worked. I try shrieking again and suddenly my brain is filled with a layout of the path before me.

The rock with the barnacles continues in front of me rising into a one of the first rocks that trapped the shipping boat. I’m about seven feet from the sand, and there’s lots of debris buried in it. I catalog, among the broken chunks of boat: a lawnmower, about fifty six packs of Coke, lumber, two refrigerators, four stoves, a camping tent, and lots and lots of cinder blocks and bricks.

Finally, I find something that fits the ever so descriptive guidelines of a “big, black box inside of a big crate”. It is in fact big, and it does in fact have another box inside of it, as I figured out after punching a hole in the crate boards.

Only problem is that it’s holding up the lower half of the ship.

I speed to the surface. I shoot out into the air and spin a few times before landing on a spontaneously frozen piece of ice. Looks like the hateful gymnastics course the kids at Parkers were forced to take finally paid off.

“Finally,” Owen says sarcastically. “Find anything Shamu?”

“Sure did O.J.” I shoot back. “We got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

Owen is soaked, and I try not to laugh at how much he seems to hate it. “Bad news.”

“Yeah,” I say, leaning against the rim of the boat, feeling pretty proud of myself. “That wasn’t really a choice. Sorry.”

Owen clenches his teeth. I smile obnoxiously, brushing my tangled wet hair out my eyes after the wind almost knocks me over.

“So it turns out I can echolocate, and I found this special box you’re looking for.” He nods. “But, it’s holding up the boat, and if I pull the box out, the boat will crush me.”

Owen says something that sounds like “rookie” and I glare at him. “I’m sorry, can you breathe underwater?”

He pauses, deciding whether to get into an argument with me, then turns around, digging around the bottom of the boat. I peer curiously over the edge and see him pulling out two car jacks and a coil of steel cable.

“I like how you just have that lying around,” I say as he hands the supplies to me. More like shoves them into my arms. I have come to the conclusion that Owen always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.

“We’re prepared,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Or paranoid. I mean, what situation could possibly require a two car jacks in a boat?”

“This one,” He says tersely.

Looping the cable around my shoulder, I pretend to think. “So your little team of specialists came up with the circumstances that this specific cargo boat would crash in this exact spot and you would just happen to have a girl who can breathe underwater...”

“Just take the jacks to support the boat, then attach the cable to the crate and yank it when you’re ready.” Owen growls at me.

I salute to him, over exaggerating the movements. “Can do Agent O.J, I shall not fail.” I say and fall backwards off the ice and into the water.

The jacks drag me down to the bottom faster than I expected, and my ears pop a little. The echolocation comes naturally this time and all I have to do is make a sort of underwater whistle and the sound bounces back. I make my way back over to the crate, and wind the cable around a couple times. It’s about a five by five foot cube. I wonder for a second what could possibly be inside it.

I try to strategically place the jacks, but it’s hard with the shifting sand. Nervously, I tug the cable and get out of the way. After a second, the line goes taught and I feel the vibrations as the box shifts. I’m surprised the little dinghy has the horsepower to even budge the crate. Then again, it is the government.

The box is yanked harder, and then it’s pulled free. I want to pat myself on the back, but then the boat falls downward a bit. If the box moves any more, the boat will smash it. I clench and unclench my hands nervously, debating with myself. The boat groans horribly, and I make up my mind. I hurriedly swim over to the crate and position myself behind it, back against the soggy wood. I dig my heels into the sand and push. The box moves, but so does the boat. I freeze some of the water under the hull to hold it steady.

I shove harder and the crate slides forward suddenly. I feel a chunk of ice smack my shoulder as my makeshift support system crumbles. I close my eyes against the clouds of dirt, and then scramble away as I feel the hull closing down on me. The sand and shells scratch at my hands. I wince as a loose piece of metal digs into my cheek, and I taste blood in the next mouthful of water I take in. I whistle, jaw stinging, and get my bearings. I pick my way through the rocks and come more slowly to the surface.

“What took you so long?” Owen asks impatiently.

“I almost got flattened beneath a boat so your precious cargo wouldn’t be.” I mutter, climbing into the boat, too tired to show off any more. I wipe two fingers down the scratch carefully, trying to stop the bleeding. It’s deeper than I thought. “Happy now?”

Owen doesn’t answer, and instead guns the engine and we roar off. It’s hard to see, with the box sitting in the bow, blocking our view. I lean off the side and see the lights form the main boat approaching quickly. I motion for Owen to slow down. As soon as the dinghy pulls up, I jump off and find Audrey.

“We got it,” I say, and she smiles in surprise, as if she didn’t really expect us to come back. “Care to tell me what I got?”

She waves her hand dismissively, rushing over to haul the crate onto the deck. “Blueprints to secret buildings, hospitals that treat the enemy, other facilities.”

Not caring about that stuff for now, the question of how blueprints could take up that much space in the back of my mind, I head to the door downstairs. I’ve barely opened it when I can already tell Coal is going to kill me. The room has been heated a few degrees, and the tension is palpable. I leave the door open, letting it cool down.

No one gives it any real interest that I have returned; they probably accepted the explanation Audrey gave them without another thought. I move into the kitchenette thing and scrounge around for something that resembles medical supplies. Finding nothing, I sit on the counter, leaning against the cabinets.

“Where did you go?”

I blink my eyes open and see Coal meeting my blue eyes with concerned grey ones. Smiling slightly, I lean forward. “How did I know you’d ask that?”

“How’d you get cut?” He ignores me and searches for medical things and, like me, comes up empty handed.

“Because I know you,” I answer my own question. “And you always ask that, even though I can handle myself.”

“If it was metal, then it could be rusty-”

I cut him off. “I’m fine, stop worrying.”

He growls, but quits pestering me. “I thought I told you to stop randomly running off.”

“And I thought I told you to stop worrying.”

“I’m not worrying, I’m just making sure you’re okay,” He mutters.

“I am,” I say firmly. I shiver, regretting leaving the door open because now the wind is sweeping in and cooling the room down too much. I try to stop, because Coal will notice, but it’s hard.

“You’re not okay, you’re cold and bleeding.” Dang it.

“If you really want to help, you should leave the medics to Stella.”

He crosses his arms. I do as well, though more for the heat than stubbornness. We sit like that for a while. I try not to yawn. Eventually I give up, and my head tilts back against the wood and my eyes droop closed. I have a vague memory of being lifted and carried by something really warm, then placed on a bed gently, before I fall fully asleep.