Earth Elemental, Lillian Smith

  Watching Will leave, I feel a sense of fear I can't describe. It's multifaceted, digging at me in multiple ways as I start the car back up and continue driving, the soft dumble of the vehicle doing little to calm my nerves.

  On the one hand, it's fear that he might die. He's my friend. We haven't known each other for long, but I can tell he's a genuinely good person. A little boastful, and a bit pushy at times, but overall a kindhearted, thoughtful guy. I'd been suspicious for the first while of him, and I’m slightly ashamed to admit I still am. I know he's suspicious of me.

  And that's the second reason. What if he finds out? What if he learns about my work with the government? What if he thinks I betrayed him and his trust, and rejects me?

  I clench my hands around the wheel tighter as I pull up to Selena's house. My house too, I suppose. Temporarily. I’m afraid. Afraid of being rejected yet again. Not after everything. I need this. But most of all, I hope Selena doesn't hate me. I like Will, sure, but Selena is absolutely amazing. Charismatic, kind, understanding. She's a friend I haven't had in a long time. Perhaps it's weird to think of her as my best friend so soon. Kindergardeners call people they met a few days ago their best friends. Well, I don't exactly have any other friends, so there's not much competition.

  I stop the car, leaving the vehicle on. I'll have to drive it over to Will's house, and starting the car again uses up more gas. I step out of the vehicle and open the back door, where Selena sleeps with her face tainted by her own drool. With a weary smile, I reach over and lift her up in my arms, hoisting her over my shoulder. My face scrunches up like an empty balloon as drool trails down my back, making me shudder. I walk up to the door and open it as quietly as possible. I feel around. From my very weak sense I can feel in the air, the only movement comes from the heater in the heater room. I move quietly, carrying Selena down to her bedroom. I nudge the door open and lay her down on the bed.

  Now that she's where she needs to be, I need to hurry. I move as quickly and quietly as possible back out of the house, closing the door with a soft click that sounds all too loud in the silence of the night. I rush back to the car and pull out of the driveway, turning onto the road and driving for a solid 10 seconds to pull into Will's driveway. Then I turn the vehicle off and get out. I immediately run over to the small park across the street and press my hands into the ground. The earth is full of minerals and is soft. Malleable. I could absolutely move through this quickly. I close my eyes, then dive into the ground. The earth flows and molds around me like water as I sink into it, the frills of my cheap princess outfit being messed up by the dirt I move through.

  My eyes remain firmly shut as I move, yet I can feel more than ever. I move deeper before I start moving in the direction of the heat I feel. The wiring, piping and sewer systems of the city are seemingly up to 8 feet below the ground in general. I have to avoid the sewers the most, which are built below the frost line. Basements would have been a problem too, but they're pretty noticeable blank spots in my earth sense. I most easily relate my ability to sense through the ground to the tremor sense that one blind girl from Avatar has. The last airbender, not the blue people.

  As I move, I can feel the hot, smoky feeling mixing and clashing with the damp, wet feeling in my senses. I feel the wet overpower the heat. Then the hot overpowers the wet. Then I feel the heat explode out. Then I feel that heat get smothered. Then I feel the wet, damp feeling get slammed down by the overpowering heat. Panic surges to the forefront of my mind and I speed up. More, and more, and more, until I'm right beneath them. I can feel Will now, I can feel his heartbeat against the concrete of the road. Concrete rises up at my will and blocks a blast of heat to the face. I explode out of the concrete, landing on my feet, and raise a hand. The road warps, and a thick chunk of concrete slams into the man attacking William, launching him away.

  I then turn and move over to Will. I create a dome out of concrete around us and crouch beside him, allowing only a small hole for light. A little bubble of water rises up to the hole, refracting the light all about the dome to let us both see more clearly inside.

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  “That was impeccable timing.” Will comments, not moving from his position lying on the ground.

  “Are you ok?” I ask, worried.

  “I'm trying to heal myself with water right now. I saw Tory do it with fire, and it's working. It's slow going, though. It'll be a half a minute longer before I’m good to go.”

  “What broke?” I frown, looking him over. I can't tell with the costume o- oh. There's a hole in the armor in his back, of which I can see scorched flesh. I wince at the sight, mentally recoiling. I should've gone with him at the start.

  Fire engulfs the outside of the concrete dome. I frown, then seal up the tiny hole in the roof and turn on my phones flashlight. I pull out a water bottle I'd grabbed just in case and pour its entire contents on his back.

  I expected a hiss of pain, but Will lets out a sigh of relief bordering on ecstasy as the liquid seeps into the skin, visibly healing it. Another 10 seconds later and he sits up, practically good as new.

  “Thanks a ton.” He says honestly, offering a smile. I blush, more in embarrassment than anything else, then nod.

  “Sorry I wasn't here. I got Selena home though.”

  “Good. ready to tag team him?”

  “Yeah. Ready.”

  With that I force the concrete to rapidly expand. Tory, who'd been trying to melt the concrete, stumbles back, giving us a chance to attack. He'd actually been getting rather close too. The concrete was over a thousand degrees celsius, and I felt unsure about putting it on the ground, so I just flung it at him.

  Concrete wrapped around his limbs and encased him tightly. He grit his teeth in annoyance as he tried to force more heat into the concrete to melt it, making the concrete sinter and dehydrate rather than actually melt like a metal.

  Will raises an arm and sends a bolt of water at him, full force. Then Tory… vanished. He exploded in a blast of heat, then was gone. I whip my head every which way, trying to see where he had gone.

  “Look out!” Will roars, sending an ice javelin right behind me. I duck just in the nick of time, falling into the ground as Tory, who'd appeared right behind me, swings a fire-drenched fist at my back, likely just hot he'd done to Will. His fist misses. The ice javelin does not. It pierces clean through him, leaving a 4 foot long ice javelin going in his right side and out his left.

  He screams in pain, rapidly melting the ice- wait, no. The ice isn’t melting as fast as I would have thought. The heat in my earth senses is lesser than even my own energy. Will's damp energy is below half what I normally feel from him. That leads me to form a conclusion.

  I dive into the ground and come out right beside Will. he glances to me, but immediately turns back to Tory, who's alight with fire, finishing melting the javelin and starting to heal.

  “He's running out of energy.” I tell him. “Just a bit more.”

  “Yeah, well, so am I.” Will hisses, frowning. “I'm at around 30% right now. If I pull water out of more trees, I'll bottom out.”

  “That's bad-” I pause as Tory turns and runs. Fire gathers around his feet, trapping air inside and pressurizing it to create and explosion, launching him away at truly tremendous speeds. Not as fast as me underground, but fast nonetheless. He's running?

  “We have to go after him.” Will says, but there's a grin on his face. “Can you take me with you underground? I think I can still use my liquid sense under there.”

  “Sure, but where do we go?” I ask, confused.

  “I'll guide you. I've got a fire hydrant to drown him with.” Will grins, and holds out an arm. I grip the arm, and the ground below us sinks down before enveloping us. This time, unlike the last, I leave a pocket of air around our heads so we can speak.

  “What do you mean, fire hydrant?” I ask as we begin moving quickly. I move as deep as possible with Will still able to sense the water above, hoping to be less noticeable by the fire elemental.

  “He had some lady hostage. I told her to go to the nearest fire hydrant and break it open.” Will explains. His breathing is slow and shallow, trying not to take up too much air. Interesting. I guess he still needs to breathe. That's one thing I have on him.

  “Ah, ok.” I nod, understanding dawning. “You plan to use the cities water supply to smother his fire until he's got nothing left?”

  “Bingo.” He says with a nod. “Though I think you could kill him.” I wince at the thought.

  “I guess… but he's slippery, and trapping him is hard. Also… I don't…”

  “Want to kill him?” William finishes, and nods. “I get it. Neither do I. But I'll do it so you don't have to. I don't think any prison in the world could keep him.”

  I take a moment to think that over. I'm going to be assisting in a murder, huh? I guess I already knew I'd have to fight and possibly capture or kill Tory, but dragging Will into it? I know he is doing it of his own volition, but I'm still dragging him into it. But… Some selfish part of me takes comfort in knowing I don’t have to do it.

  “20 degrees left for 5 seconds, then go up.” Will says suddenly, and I immediately glance up with my earth sense, noting Tory's position relative to where he's pointed out. I nod.

  “Alright.” I say a little shakily. “Let's do this.”