SERENA

PART II: Chapter 9 - Show-Off

While Alison and David, in their free time, study and learn about Serena's broken spaceship, she takes advantage of the time to practice her magic. She especially practices with fire and air. Fire because it is her core element, and it's the one she's most familiar with, as well as being the easiest for her to manipulate. And air because it is the hardest for her to manipulate, especially on Earth, where it's denser than in her home planet. And Serena wants to get better at it. In addition to that, air is the only element she can come by in great quantity in the desert where her spaceship broke down, and fire she can create by herself. In order to practice with either water or earth, she needs to be elsewhere, which is always riskier. Once she moves into her own apartment, she has the privacy she needs to practice with her magic, but she still needs to be careful to keep the water and vegetation contained inside of the apartment.

Serena has, on some occasions, used her magic outside. And even her super-human strength and healing abilities. Whenever she finds someone in need of help, she steps in and does all she can while being as discrete as possible. After she absorbed the fire that started at the café, she realized she could protect the fragile humans and be helpful in ways she never imagined in Elementia. And she has been doing it ever since.

Four Earth years go by, which is almost no time by Elementia standards, and Serena, Alison and David spend that whole time hard at work with their respective tasks.

Despite living by herself now, Serena still visits Alison all the time after work. They gather to speak about the progress they have all been making, of course, but also just because they enjoy each other's company. Mandy, who still lives in the same apartment as Alison, also joins them sometimes. She seems to have come around and warmed up to Serena. Enough for Serena to trust her with her real identity and powers, although she hasn't told her about the effort being done to repair her spaceship.

Today, as soon as she leaves work, Serena heads for Alison and Mandy's house. There are two specific things she has been practicing for over two Earth years, and she has finally mastered both last night. And she can't wait to show her friends. She had already mastered one of the skills some months ago, but using both at the same time was much more of a show. And, as Serena got more powerful, she found she liked to show off.

She rings the doorbell, and Alison is the one to open the door.

"Hey." She smiles.

Serena's smile is even wider as she exclaims, "Hey!"

"Someone's in a good mood," Alison says as she steps away from the door to let Serena into her house.

Serena waits for Alison to close the door before saying, "I have been waiting all day to show you something. I have been working on this for ages, and I finally figured out how to do it right last night."

"Is it a magic thing?"

The two girls turn towards the voice and see Mandy standing in the hallway.

"It is," Serena says, nodding. "Prepare to be amazed."

Alison chuckles. "You're giving me some high expectations. You better deliver."

"Yeah," Mandy agrees. "This better be the most incredible thing I've seen in my life."

Serena sets her bag on the counter and starts going through it as she replies, "It will be." She takes a dress out of the bag, which she also places on the counter.

Alison frowns. "Is that part of the show?"

"If all goes well, I'm gonna need it. Ready?"

"I was born ready."

Mandy nods. "Go for it."

Serena steps away from the counter and stays as far away as she can from any object in the house. She relaxes her body, letting her arms fall on her sides, and takes a deep breath. As she closes her eyes, she flexes her hands, placing them parallel to the floor. She can feel the air particles around her hands, and then all around her body, and she focuses all her attention on them.