Ah man, this sucks. A quick breeze brushes past me and hits my face directly, knocking me back a bit. Why'd this thing have to pop up now? I don't want anyone else to be around me when I do this, especially not that kid. Why am I even fighting at this point? Backup will arrive soon, hopefully anyway. I look around to see the Alpha Ethereal trying to impose its presence on me. I notice it has feminine features, but right now, this doesn't matter much—another attack. Catching myself before it can slice me in two, I recall telling Jake to leave, but I can still feel his energy around here.
"You done with these love taps?" I say while dodging the underwhelming amount of pressure coming from the wind. Pushing off with one hand, I flip, creating some distance between us, giving me time to think. The wind's not at my back this time, I guess. From out of nowhere, I scream suddenly, and I turn my back, leaving myself open. Flames?! A strong storm of winds crashes into me, sending me flying through the city. I smash into a ruined bedroom as my body gradually comes to a stop. Got distracted. That was very stupid of me. Scolding myself internally, my body takes some time to let the damage settle in. I feel a mind-numbing pain surge within as I look down. Oh. That's not good. The mangled and frankly unrecognizable state of my legs leads me to the conclusion that...I'm finished. Before my body can react to the pain, it shuts down, and I lose consciousness. Muffled screams along with light taps, quickly awaken me. I thought I finally died. Ugh..... Can't catch a break in this world, can I?
"Yohan! Get the hell up!" I groggily turn my head and look him in the eyes. Kid looks a little different now. He's got those same eyes. Although he shouldn't be here anyway.
"I thought I told you to run away." "The hell are you still doing here?" He picks me up as the next few moments manage to pass me by. All of a sudden, I'm on his back, running through a ruined city, decimated by corrosive winds.
"Hey! Are you listening there? I kinda expect a response to a dope ass plan, you know." His odd confidence intrigues me as he made it seem like a big deal. There's no way it could be that good.
"Run me that by me again? I kinda dissociated midway through." Expecting a grandiose plan with some actual thought behind it, I'm surprised by his plan as it is explained thoroughly. With such confidence that I honestly don't have enough heart to tell him how stupid it is. "Are you actually serious?" "If you contemplated this plan for more than a second, you would see why it's a bad idea.
"120%." His voice drops an octave lower, reaffirming his stance on the matter. I urge him to stop, slowly descending off his back.
"First off, I don't like being carried around like I'm some weak kid." Or more so by some weak kid.
"Look at your legs, man! You could barely stand even when I was carrying you!" Well, he isn't wrong, but I only needed his help because I got distracted.
"I can hold on without you babying me." I try to stand on my feet, but I stumble and nearly hit the ground as he catches me. I recollect myself grabbing my head, thinking back on all the times I've ever been in a condition like this. I can tell I'm getting rusty.
"Yeah, because you can stand up by yourself. Totally." The sarcasm drips from his voice like venomous liquid.
"Your plan needs a solid distraction, and I highly doubt an inexperienced brat like you could ever pull off something so sophisticated without some form of help." Hopefully, this time, the dumb Ethereal will actually finish the job. Rippling with hope, I can sense his excitement. And he has no idea what he's about to get himself into.
Jake's POV
Okay, okay, focus. If I can't muster any power right now, Yohan and I are absolutely fried. I look down at my hands and try to focus to form flames, but as the heat rises, I freak out. SHIT! It isn't working, but how come it was working a few minutes ago? Was it because I didn't really feel scared then? As I try again, my body seemingly rejects the use of my power.
"The hell, why ain't it working?" "The cuts on my face closed, but the flames won't come out! What kinda bullshit is this?" I feel a deep-seated fear well up within me; it feels like before I had gotten the powers, like when I had first seen it. It seems to be scanning around the area, but before it was able to immediately pick up on me? Why isn't it able to now?
"Hey. Why are you so tense?" You gotta get a grip if we're actually gonna do this." I look over to Yohan as he's trying to salvage whatever remains of his mangled legs.
"Yeah... I know, but I can't do it right now."
"Do what?" "Can't do the thing we're basically riding on to save us? WOW, very encouraging kid."
"Stop calling me a kid! And besides, I don't know what even happened, one moment I was flying through the air, and next I'm sitting here like an idiot who doesn't know what to do!"
"Correction. You are an idiot who doesn't know what to do. Plus, what even happened to you anyway? At first, I thought you were a non-elemental, but seeing as you use fire, that clearly isn't the case."
"Non-elemental? What's that even mean?"
"Your uncle must've been a shit teacher."
"He is..., but that's besides the point. And I already told you what happened, I got chased by those 2 monkey ethereals, they almost killed me, when I woke up, there was fire all around me, and I was able to shoot it from my body."
"Seems like you're skipping over a big part, but I won't question any further." "Anyways, when you were flying and doing all that chaotic shit, what were you thinking about?"
"If you're going to tell me to try and replicate those same feelings I already did, and it didn't work."
"Okay, better question then, why did you say you were scared of fire if it's your element?"
"Huh?"
"ELE is sort of its own living thing, although it doesn't breathe or speak, it has its own will, and it will affect people based on their nature and relationship to certain events." "Say someone was a very good swimmer and constantly connected to the ocean, they would become a water elemental, and that goes for every other element too. There are other factors like lineage and flow, but those mainly only happen if it doesn't manifest when you're young."
Looking back on it, I did see my house burn down again when I "awakened," so I guess that would be the reason why I'm a fire elemental, but why? I never asked for this kind of power and don't even feel a strong connection with fire. "Snap out of it." I look and see a look of distress on his face. "I think it just found us." WHOOSH! A direct blast knocks the buildings away as we are pushed to the ends of the ruins.
The Ethereal's superior presence dawns on me once again, making me almost want to bow to it, almost as if it were royalty. Unable to wrap my head around the sudden change. I try to create distance by backing up, realizing that I have nowhere to go as I hit a wall. "You got a plan?"
"Well, it's now or never to enact your plans! I'm going in first!" Yohan pushes through the violent torrent of storms as he heads towards the center, distracting the Ethereal for me.
Gotta think. Gotta think! Why won't this shit WORK! Then it hits me, in Yohan's explanation, he said that ELE has a will, maybe because we aren't in sync with what we want to do, I can't use it? But if that's true, how was I doing it before? Think Jake! THINK! Before, I was calm and focused, I don't know how, but I was ain't like it gonna happen again though. Yohan, pushing forward, screams, "GET THE HELL UP AND DO SOMETHING!"
I immerse myself in the moment when I used my powers, the fear from the encroaching flames, and the ones spewing from my hands, and discard it. With the weight of the trauma temporarily removed, the feeling of the rush returns and with it... the flames.
I look down at the ground, being able to comprehend the Ethereal with her presence, not being as intimidated as before.
"I guess it's time I began the counterattack," I say with a cocky smirk.