The Elementals

Steel wasn’t quite sure what to do. Terra was curled on the ground in a ball, rocking back and forth, Owen was nowhere to be seen, the helicopter was blown up, and sparks were falling down from the sky like searing hot raindrops as the pyrotechnic Elemental raced away.

To be fair, the day had started out normally.

Well, as normal as you can get with two part human teenagers with super powers and a rogue field agent all stuck in the same aircraft for over twenty hours. By the end of the ordeal, everyone was tired.

But rest became impossible when unplanned fireworks started lighting up the sky in front of the chopper, causing Owen to swear and jerk the controls right. The helicopter tilted sickeningly and before he could stop himself, Steel had gripped and bent a part of the door.

They were just outside of Alpine, Texas, a small town with a population of less than six thousand. The place had been experiencing “strange phenomena” of “alien lights” going off at random times. Sometimes they looked extraterrestrial: blue, green, and purple sparks lighting up the sky, and sometimes they looked like normal fireworks, like the ones surrounding the helicopter.

“Terra?” Steel called as Owen tried to level out the chopper and dodge the explosions. Steel’s voice wobbled with the jerky shudders of the cockpit. “Are you okay?”

It was a stupid question. Terra did not look okay. She hadn’t looked okay since they got on the helicopter in Nepal. Her face had gotten steadily paler with each passing hour, and she had steered clear of the windows and doors.

“Terra!” Steel tried to move to her, and then had to uncurl his fingers from the metal. He immediately regretted that decision as an explosion made the helicopter lurch to the left violently, causing him to fall to the floor. Still, he made his way over to the shaking earth Elemental and asked again, “Are you okay, Terra?”

She didn’t answer, just gave a sharp cry as the floor shook beneath them.

“Steel.” It was a shock to hear actual fear in Owen’s voice. Steel stopped trying to calm Terra for a moment. “Jump.” was all the former agent said, and Steel didn’t need an explanation.

“Terra!” Steel snapped, slightly louder than intended but it had the desired effect and she looked up. “We have to jump. I need you to help break our fall.”

Steel gave her time to process that, but not enough for her to answer and he grabbed her hand, pulling her up to the door of the helicopter.

“No!” Terra screamed, finding her voice. “I’m afraid of hei-”

She didn’t get to finish, because with a massive explosion, this one larger than the previous ones, the helicopter started in a nose dive and they both fell out whether they wanted to or not.

There was a thunderous boom that shattered any silence within miles and along with it Steel’s vision went black for terrifying moment.

Steel felt heat. Hot metal, scorching burning, he had to get away from it now-

Terra.

Steel took in a smoke filled breath and felt around for another arm. He grabbed Terra’s wrist and started dragging her out from under the helicopter. He just made it out himself and then pulled Terra’s limp body too when he collapsed from the lack of oxygen.

When he came to, his first thought was that he could not feel his hand. Visions of amputated stubs flashed through his mind before he realized Terra was the culprit as to why his blood was no longer circulating to his fingers.

Steel shook the dirt off his body and looked around. He was blinded by the blazing inferno that used to be the helicopter, now on the ground, bent and mangled. Terra had sufficiently prevented them from dying by breaking the fall with destructive yet functional methods.

They were in a huge rut carved into the middle of a field outside of Alpine, leading from where they hit the ground, to where they were now: Terra quivering in a ball next to him, sparks burning Steel’s hair, Owen AWOL at the moment, and a shadow of an Elemental dashing off into the now not-so-dark night.

Steel heard sirens wailing and snapped out of his dazed state. “Terra.” He nudged her gently. “Terra we need to go. Now.” He added more urgently as he heard car doors slamming and the sharp yelps of German Shepards. ”Terra!”

“Are you okay, son?”

Crap.

Steel kept his face in the shadows as he saw TV cameras and reporters. He looked up and saw a large policeman with bushy eyebrows and sideburns peering at him, shining a flashlight at his face. Steel squinted against the bright light, mind racing to figure out a lie.

“Hello? Kid, is the girl okay?” The policeman got slightly more impatient, his southern accent coming out more with stress as Terra didn’t move.

Steel ran out of time. “No...English?” he tried, attempting at some sort of accent and ending up with something like a cross of German and Swedish.

The officer swore under his breath and then offered a hand. Steel didn’t take it, motioning to Terra emphatically. More swearing and shouting over walky talkies later, Terra was in an ambulance with Steel’s hand still in her iron grip.

A medic offered to sit in the back with them, but Steel shook his head and tried to remember any second language he might’ve learned. His bilingual abilities only went so far as hola, gracias, bonjour, and merci.

The reporters got stopped at the town hospital doors, but Steel couldn’t escape the questions circling the air.

Who are they?

What happened?

How’d they survive?

What were those explosions and the giant dirt hole?

Steel had only a minor concussion, and Terra was fine, just in extreme shock. She came back from the daze she had been in after about an hour of coaxing from Steel, mostly consisting of him pleading her to let go of his hand so it could return to a healthier shade of pink.

As soon as she noticed she dropped his hand like it was on fire, opening her mouth to pour out apologies, but Steel quickly covered her mouth.

“We’re in a hospital.” He whispered softly. “As far as the police know, we’re from Siberia or something and don’t speak English.”

Terra nodded, though there was something on her face that Steel didn’t recognize. Her eyes flicked to a spot behind his head and she stood from the bed she had been on. Steel followed her gaze and saw an open window.

“Terra, don’t.” he hissed, glancing out the door, where few staff were walking, but still enough to cause trouble. “Terra!”

She climbed out the window and was gone. Steel had no choice but to follow. The hospital, being in the small town, was small itself, and had only two floors. Luckily for them, they were on the ground level. Steel checked behind his back and then dashed out after Terra.

He tracked the sound of her footsteps into the darkness, and eventually found her where the lights from the medical center were blending in with the stars on the horizon.

“I hate this!” she shrieked into the still night air. “Why can’t we be normal? Who gets in freaking crashes on a regular basis? No one does!” She waved her hands and with her movements the dirt and rocks swirled and moved with her. ”I wanted a family, not this!” She kicked a rock and it went flying. "Why. Can’t. I. Die? Why can’t I just die like Breeze? Why did she get to leave this freak show?”

Steel stood there, dumbfounded at her words as Terra collapsed to the ground in tears. He had been able to ignore the pain of Breeze’s death for a little while, but suddenly it came back to him like a railroad spike ripping itself through his chest. He could picture her smiling, laughing, always positive and ready to help. She didn’t deserve to die, especially not like that.

“What, you think she wanted to?” Steel found himself yelling back at Terra’s sobbing form. “At least she never wished to be dead! She never wanted -”

“You didn’t even know her!” Terra screamed.

“I knew her enough to see that she could appreciate little things like oh I don’t know, your friend not leaving you to get killed in helicopter crash for instance!”

Terra stopped and turned to him. “Friend?”

"Yes, you -” Steel took a breath, not sure why he was so worked up. “I am your friend. Tide is your friend. Stella, Maple, Sparky, Audrey, Owen, Coal...they are all your friends Terra! You. Are. Not. Alone. We’ve been through this. Why can’t you see that?” His voice had grown to shout, continually breaking the night silence and disrupting the chirping of crickets.

There was a pause. Steel could barely see Terra and he momentarily lost her figure in the dark until she whimpered, “Why are you yelling at me?”

“Why am I-? You-” Steel pinched the bridge of his nose. He heard a sob and stooped next to Terra’s shaking form. Awkwardly, he reached out a hand and patted her shoulder. “There, there.”

The crying stopped. “That’s it? There, there? That’s all you can do?”

Steel rolled back on his heels, glad she was talking again but annoyed at the criticism. “Well, what do you want me to do?”

“Have you ever heard of a hug?”

“You want a hug?”

“Well I want something more than “there, there”.”

Steel remained silent, then after a pause he haltingly wrapped an arm around Terra. “Better?”

“You suck at this.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Here.” Terra shifted and then Steel couldn’t breathe. Needless to say, other than the lack of oxygen, having someone squeeze the living daylights out of him wasn’t unpleasant. He had never really been hugged before, or anything remotely close to human contact. He lived in a junkyard for most of his life, until the government took him. And in a junkyard, you lived off what you could get, and your only friends were the dogs.

“That’s a good hug.” Terra said. “None of this “there, there” pat on the shoulder stuff.”

Steel smiled. It quickened to a frown though. “We need to find Owen.”

Terra’s body stiffened. “He’s not in the hospital?”

“No, the police searched the wreckage.” Steel said. “They didn’t find him, or a body.”

Terra let go of Steel’s shoulders. “Well, where is he? And what about the Elemental?”

Steel went to shrug but then Terra tapped his shoulder silently and pointed. He turned and saw the faint illumination of buildings as fireworks and explosions erupted into the night. The sound reached his ears and he looked back at Terra.

“We could try over there.” Steel said.

~

When they reached the spot, the explosions had ceased and only a faint trail of smoke drifted up from the cluster of buildings. All the houses had closed their windows and drawn their curtains in an attempt to ignore the fireworks. Steel wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that that the police hadn’t come yet.

No one was out. It was as if the town shut down at night due to the strange Elemental occurrences. The people had adapted, and their adaptation was to cower in fear of the unknown and try to tune out the problem.

Steel wondered how the rest of the world would react to the fact that there were even more powerful kids living in a mountain together.

Everything was sparse here, the houses small and spread out. Seemed unlikely that an Elemental could survive here for very long, but somehow the pyrotechnic had done it.

Terra and Steel crept around through the empty streets. The place held echoes of an old Midwest pit stop, verging on a ghost town. The only thing that signified settlement was the flickering street lights.

Steel shivered. For him, the yellow glow wasn’t welcoming; it was cold and held the potential of enemies lurking in the shadows. Robbers tended to frequent his junkyard, and there wasn’t much a five year old could do against them. It was almost a relief when the agents came to “collect” him. Until they dumped him in a cell for experimenting, of course.

“This place is creepy.” Terra said, just as someone burst out from between two houses and slammed into her.

Steel jumped back in surprise but recovered quickly. “Hey!” he reached out and grabbed the person’s arm, pulling Terra up with his other hand. “What was tha-”

He stopped as the person turned to face him. It was a woman, mid-thirties maybe. Her red hair was frizzed up and tangled, she had circles under her brown eyes and they were wild with fear. She was breathing hard, chest heaving under her dark clothing.

“Let go of me!” She hissed, tugging against Steel’s grip. “He’s coming!”

Steel didn’t loosen his hold, acting on a hunch. His theory was confirmed when Owen came sprinting out from the same spot the woman had. The agent had acquired a limp, though he still ran, and numerous cuts and scratches on his arms, showing through the fabric of his clothing. His eyes flicked from Steel and Terra to the red-haired lady. He was gasping, the crash taking a toll on his endurance abilities.

“Owen!” Terra exclaimed, rushing up to him and giving him a tight hug. “Oh my gosh, I thought you were dead when Steel said he couldn’t find you! Then we saw the explosions and the fireworks and thought we’d come over here and we were right and you’re here and this is great!”

Owen looked down at Terra’s short form clinging to him, and then stared at Steel with confusion. The earth Elemental seemed to have a thing with hugs. Steel shrugged, amused by Owen’s reaction, though his had been similar, and suddenly the woman tugged herself away and started running again.

Steel whipped around. “Wait!” he called, but it did nothing. He dashed after her, quickly catching up. He’d always liked running, and would’ve joined the track team had he gone to school long enough. “We’re here to help you!”

The woman paid no attention, until Steel sprinted ahead and grabbed a telephone pole. He felt the cool metal underneath his palm and without effort, he pushed the thing so it was bent at a ninety degree angle.

The lady skidded to a stop, the light grazing her head of unruly hair. She ducked and stood in the middle of the street, watching Steel cautiously.

“Hi.” He said.

She narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”

“I’m Steel.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, this is gonna sound weird, but we’re looking for you.” He replied, trying to keep his voice light.

The lady took a step back.

“Wait!” he held out his hands in a stop motion. “It’s because you have powers. You know, like me.” He rapped his knuckles on the pole, accidentally denting it and causing the entire structure to creak ominously. His face must have been quite surprised, because the woman gave out a short laugh before returning to her wary state.

“I don’t think I’m like you.” She said, her hands clenching and unclenching.

Steel tentatively stepped forward. “Well no, not exactly, but you can control explosions and stuff right? Pyrotechnics? Fireworks?” Her eyes were still in slits so Steel gave a weak half smile. “You blew up our helicopter, remember?”

“I blow up a lot of people’s stuff, kid.”

“Because of your powers.” Steel continued. “She has them too.” He pointed to Terra and Owen down the street. The lady spun quickly, seeming to just remember their presence.

Terra held her hands up in surrender. “I’m not going to hurt you. At least, not on purpose,” she added, and Steel cringed. “I mean, sometimes I don’t mean to, it just happens, you know?”

Shut up Terra, we need her to like us, Steel thought. Her chattiness was becoming a real problem now.

“Like, I’m not concentrating enough and I slip so I just have to be careful and -”

“You lose control too?” The woman asked.

Terra blinked at the interruption, and then nodded. “Well yeah, it’s hard, keeping it in and you gotta let it out somehow and if you coop it up then it just kinda explodes and stuff.” Terra bent down, placing her palm flat against the ground and closed her eyes. After a moment, the ground gave a slight shudder, and a spider web of cracks appeared in the pavement.

The lady jumped, but soon crept forward, in an almost feral manner. Terra smiled warmly. “We’re Elementals, you, Steel and I. I’m earth, he’s metal, and you’re pyrotechnics. A sort of...sub element of fire.”

“I’m just the pilot over here.” Owen said after the woman gave him a suspicious once over. “Used to be government, but um...”

“Then he met us.” Steel helped out. “And now he’s MIA. Owen’s cool, you can trust him.”

The woman straightened, her posture still rigid but less apprehensive. “I’m Kate.”

Steel walked forward. “Okay, so we should probably get out of the street. And Owen looks like he needs coffee.” The agent nodded wearily in agreement.

Kate shook her head. “Last time I was under a roof I blew a hole in it. Not on purpose,” she amended. “I can’t control my um, powers very well. And I didn’t mean to total your chopper either. It’s just that I’ve had some...bad run-ins with the government before.”

“Well we’re not dead.” Owen shrugged. “So you’re good.”

Kate’s mouth lifted in an entertained smile.

All of them froze as the sound of sirens came into earshot. Steel glanced at Terra. She avoided eye contact guiltily. Owen noticed and sighed as the wailing grew closer and the flash of blue and red lights could be seen on the windows of the houses. “We’re going to be running more, aren’t we?” Steel nodded and started moving, Terra falling in behind him.

“Go right!” Kate called and then Steel let her take the lead. She brought them down a few side streets and then they were kicking up dust in the desert.

Steel looked at Kate for guidance when suddenly the ground started disappearing under him. He barely had the chance to shout in surprise before he was falling in a mass of dirt.

He landed, coughing, on something metal. Eyes closed against the dust, he felt a bar, and also the roughness of broken wood. Confused, he forgot to breathe softly and sucked in a mouthful of dirt and started choking.

“Steel!” Terra’s voice said in his ear. “Are you okay?”

Yeah, just coughing my lungs out, he thought, and then fell forward onto his hands as Terra smacked him on the back.

“I’m...fine.” He wheezed before she could hit him again.

“Oh good. I was worried because you were coughing and I thought you were dying and it was my fault and I mean, it wasn’t on purpose or anything, like, I just felt the mines under us and figured, you know, we should hide and so then I just let us drop and I didn’t mean to have you choke,” Terra grabbed Steel’s arm and lifted him up. “And Kate and Owen are okay, I checked, and I couldn’t find you so I started looking but I couldn’t see anything and then I heard you coughing and got worried and then yeah.”

Steel opened his eyes carefully. The dust was settling and therefore revealing a dimly lit cavern that had old, dilapidated mine cart tracks running through it. Moonlight filtered sparsely through small holes in the roof of soil above. Pounding started to shake the dirt from the ceiling, and Steel could hear voices of policemen above. He looked back at Terra. “Thank you.”

She smiled, wider than she had in a while.

Owen walked over, still with a limp, Kate following. “I’ll come.” She said.

“Huh?” Steel said intelligently back.

Kate smiled in faint amusement. “To the Himalayas. Owen explained it all.”

“That’s great!” Terra jumped in happily. “That’s what we came here for and it’s so nice that we didn’t have to, like, knock you out and drag you ’cause that would be hard, and unpleasant for you, and all around bad and - wait,” Terra stopped, taking a breath. “How are we gonna get there?”

The cavern was silent, until a rally of clicks sounded from both mine tunnel entrances. Kate’s eyes widened with panic, Terra’s smile was wiped off her face, and Owen just closed his eyes and grimaced.

Steel just turned to face the lanky figure sauntering towards them. As they came into a shaft of moonlight, Steel recognized the face, even if it was scarred.

Shylock smiled, though it looked more like he was baring his teeth. “Oh we’ll get you there. We’re just taking a little pit stop in Hawaii first.”