The Tower

chapter 1

The world, our home. Sadly, it's had its apocalypse and is on the verge of being completely destroyed. But the world made a contingency plan. It created new super humans. Ones that can help stabilize the world. About 75% of the population was born with powers. But change is fearful for humans. Some believed that the elementals shouldn't exist. An organization was created to get rid of all elementals. And another was created to combat it. One organization was called the No Power Movement. The other, Elements Stand United, or ESU. A tower stands alone in a sea of homes, small businesses, and farmland. This tower, the base of ESU, stands not far from the old city, now abandoned and falling apart. In this new world, children are born with new abilities made for the new world. These children are called elementals. Their abilities are based on a tier list. This list starts with F, being the weakest. It then goes to G, C, B, and A. The highest being S. These elementals are extremely rare and tend to have little or no control over their powers. Oftentimes, children are abandoned in the old city. Most don’t survive. The few that do, often don't last long. Usually because they cannot fend for themselves from the wild that has overtaken the city or from raiders trying to find and kill any elemental.

Our story begins a hundred years after the apocalypse, most people have begun to rebuild, villages scatter the earth and the world has basically reset.

The sound of military grade boots hitting tile rang through the long hallway. A strong, steady thump of someone walking down the hall. A girl, with bright ginger hair, strolls into the counter intelligence office, waiting for her next mission. Inside the crowded room filled with files there was a desk; behind it sat the intelligence secretary, Margarette, buried behind piles of old files and stacks of paperwork with just enough room to see over the desk. In front of her sat perched on the edge of a nearly buried, old worn leather seat, was who seemed to be a young man, with a nervous air about him. The girl looked at him strangely, one eyebrow raised. What could a young man be doing here in the office she is supposed to be in to look into her next mission?
“Margarette, do I have a new file ready?” The girl asked. She actively chose to ignore the strange young man, focusing on the file she was about to be handed.
Both the attention of the secretary and the strange young man were drawn to the woman in the doorway. Margarette nodded in acknowledgement of her question and stood promptly, smoothing a wrinkle in her pinstripe satin pink skirt before stretching to grab a file precariously off of the top of one of the back stacks. She looked it over with soft orang-ey eyes and pushed up her glasses before stretching out a hand to pass the file to the agent.
"Miss Phoenix? This one seems… particularly troubling… I wouldn't want to bother you with other matters but, this young man, Mr. Kade, was it? Uhm… he's been assigned to your unit madame. He came straight from HQ."
Upon being addressed; the dark haired lad jumped slightly in his seat before standing up, very nearly knocking the stack of papers that leaned against his chair to the floor but catching it before it could. The air in the room got noticeably colder but; unless you knew his powers; it'd feel like a chilly draft or the AC had kicked on.
“That won’t be necessary, Margarette. I prefer to be alone.” The woman responded and stared down at the file she had been given. Flipping through the pages, she briefly read about a target. This target was one of the leaders of the No Power movement. It was a movement that had started when the new world was created. It stated that any advanced human should be contained to protect the regular humans. The target’s name was Alistor Chrone. While he wasn't one of the main leaders of the movement, he still had enough power over a certain portion to do major damage to the new society.
“I'll be able to handle this myself.” She said and began walking out the door. “You can send him back to HQ.”
"W-wait!" Margarette's fumbled words spilled from her lips "It's a direct order that he join you! F-from… the president of HQ miss, they say it's crucial you have… a counterbalance. They say that he is part of this division now, same rank as you. But you are still his superior until he's trained, you can't just send him back miss." Poor Margarette was trembling in her proverbial boots at this point, but she knew how fiery Phoenix could get when she was upset.
Lykian cleared his throat softly and straightened the sleeve on his shirt, before looking Phoenix dead in the eyes. "Boss's orders, guess you have to get used to me. Miss Phoenix." He said, with a soft smirk on his lips, he had imitated Margarette’s voice remarkably well when he said her name.
Phoenix stared at the young man, annoyed. While the man was taller than her, she drew closer to his face. “I don’t have to get used to anything newbie. I work alone so you can go back to Boss and tell her that I will not be working with anyone.” Her annoyance turned to anger as the room, which was once cold, turned warm as if someone had turned on a heater.
Turning on her heels, she stomped out of the small room, seething. Why couldn’t HQ understand that she worked alone? She let the sound of her boots soothe her anger as she walked back down the hallway and to the garage where her car waited. She grabbed her phone from her back pocket and dialed a number. Raising the phone to her ear she listened to it ring.
“Reign speaking.” It said.
“Boss, we need to talk. Why would you send someone to partner with me?” Phoenix asked.
“Phoenix, you need to understand that the No Power Movement is stronger than ever. This new partner of yours can help you if you get out of control again, now don’t bother me. I’m very busy, you know.” The phone clicked, signaling that Reign had hung up.
Lykian tipped his hat to Margarette, exposing his curly hair, and gave a light bow of thanks before strolling out of the room after Phoenix, he followed the sound of her footsteps silently and hid, unbreathing. Behind a pillar next to her car. While she was busy on the phone, he froze the soles of her shoes, and her car tires, to the ground, and was preparing to douse her with water if she tried anything funny.
Phoenix placed the phone in her back pocket and tried to take a step forward. Instead of stepping, she nearly face planted the pavement. Catching herself with her hands in the nick of time.
“What the hell?”She asked herself. Turning she saw that her feet were frozen to the ground. She noticed the man behind a support pillar, staring at her.
“Did you do this?” She asked angrily.
Lykian stepped out from behind the pillar, taking off the hat he was wearing and setting it on her car before standing right in front of her.
"What if I did? You can try your best to get out of that but you'll never beat me, miss. Not with your fire anyway, ah yes, did I forget to mention I know about that? Right… you never asked did you?" He let out a soft chuckle.
"Are you going to play nice or do I have to keep playing the bad guy, I can be pretty stellar at it sweetheart." He said, taking a happy little skip backwards.
“You snot-nosed brat. How dare you condescend me?” Her fury rising, steam began rolling off her body in waves. “I told you that I don’t work with people, I can’t. Why does no one understand that?” Her voice grew louder as the pavement below her began to soften. Panicking, she tried to wrench her feet free. Fearing hurting the man in front of her.
“If you know so much about me then you must have read the file. You know what I can do."
"I know more than you think, if you would have listened to the boss or poor sweet Margarette, you'd have realized…" He stepped closer to her, the air around him growing colder and condensing into water droplets that started falling and freezing upon contact with the ground. "I'm your opposite, a counterbalance. There's nothing you could do by going out of control that would hurt me." He said, the pavement cracking as it rapidly cooled against the heat she was creating, the water droplets stopped falling as he sent a huge icy cold wave of water down on her, soaking her where she sat, using the bubble he had prepared earlier behind the pillar. And at the same moment heating up the permafrost that held her feet to let her loose, figuring she had gotten the point well enough.
Phoenix froze as she was doused with cold water, more steam began rolling off her body as the water quickly became warm and evaporated.
“Just because you’re my opposite doesn’t exactly mean you’re safe. What makes you think you can stop me from going out of control? And I mean really go out of control? That there was only a small demonstration of what I can do. You really think that just because you can control water means that you can control my fire? Well guess what, buddy? You’re wrong. I can barely control my own power, nevermind someone else trying to control it.” She stood up, shaking water from her sleeves and ringing out the bottom of her shirt. She stood in front of this water-bending man. Could he really help her?
Accepting defeat, she sighed, “Get in. We’ll see how your power holds up to mine water boy.” Opening the driver side door, she slid in, her wet clothes cooling her temper and calming her down from the earlier panic. She removed a picture from her front pocket, now soaked through, and placed in a folder in the glove compartment.
He unfroze the tires from the pavement and slid into the passenger seat of the car, beaming at the fact that he had actually gotten her to listen to him instead of blowing him off this time.
"You know.. while water boy is a cute nickname and all, my name's Lykian." He noticed the picture she had grabbed that was soaked.
"Oh, sorry about that. I could dry that for you if you want." He offered, as he could, in fact, just suck the water molecules right out if the pictures like they'd never been there in the first place.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll just get a copy of it later.” Phoenix replied. She pressed the button that started the car and drove out of the garage on their way to the target’s suspected whereabouts. She changed the radio to the bluetooth feature and connected her phone. While driving, Phoenix liked to play all kinds of music, from pop to country to orchestra covers.
The curly haired man shook his head slightly and shrugged at what she said, looking around the car to see if he could tell anything about her from her car, which was really rather untelling, so he just settled back and looked out the window. "So… who's the target Red? If you don't mind-"
“Call me that again and you're dead.”
"Okay okay jeez, who is our target? What's the plan?" He asked, fiddling with his shirt cuff.
"His name is Alistor Chrone. He's been an active member in the No Power Movement. Moving up the ranks to be a leader of a large faction. He was supposed to be in the mountains area but the file doesn’t say exactly where. We’ll have to ask around without drawing too much attention.”
"The No Power Movement?" He asked, more of a statement than a question. "That's nothing to sneeze at…" Lykian hadn't really been on very many missions at this point, so he was actually nervous about going up against such a high profile enemy.
“It's fine. It’s not like we're going after the big wigs. We’re not a high enough rank for that. We are, however, high enough to go after one of the faction leaders. Which is what our guy is. But first, We have to find him.” Phoenix responded. “Our sources say that he's somewhere hiding in the mountains. Now, whether he's hiding below it in the tunnels, or among the people is what we have to find out. Noticing his sudden demeanor change, she reached behind her in a hidden cooler behind her seat. She opened it and brought out an ice cream cone. “Want one?” She offered.
His eyes locked on the ice cream cone for a bit before looking down at his hands.
"No thank you." He said, the temperature in the car was growing lower and lower as they went further down the road, tendrils of frost started creeping along the passenger side window. He loved ice cream, but he was very cautious on who he took food from, especially people he just met, assigned teammate included. He didn't realize that his hands were freezing together clasped in his lap as he thought over the potential ways this case could go and his anxiety grew. He didn't want to make a bad impression on his first day afterall.
Phoenix leaned forward and started to wipe away the thin layer of frost that was slowly creeping to her side of the car. “Dude, calm down, it's not that serious. You’re gonna make us crash if you keep going like this."
She leaned back when she was done wiping the windshield and said, “If you don’t like ice cream just say so. But be warned I don’t share easily. That may have been the only chance you got at getting into my stash.”
Adjusting the rear view mirror, her eyes narrowed. “Heads up, we're being followed.” She turned down a narrow road and continued driving. Occasionally looking in the rear view.
Lykian let out a long breath and the frost receded from the windows, the cab slowly going back to its original temperature.
"I do love ice cream. I'm just wary of things I'm handed." He said, glancing back at the headlights behind them.
"Two of them in the car, looks like, think they're part of the organization?" He asked, closing his eyes to focus.
“Most likely, they must know we’re after one of their guys.”
"If you slow down and roll the windows a bit I might be able to create a smoke screen with your help, think you're up for it?" He asked, not looking directly at her since they had gotten into the car.
“Absolutely not, do you realize what my power could do in a small space such as a car? Not only that but I have to keep focus on the road and I can’t focus my power and drive at the same time.” She burst out.
"I just need you to help me warm it up a little, I'm not asking you to melt the car, I can use the help to vaporize the water in the air going out of the back windows, creating a fog behind us that they'll lose us in, it shouldn't affect your vision." He said, studying the car behind them.
“It’s not my vision I’m worried about. I’m worried about blowing us to bits because I heated the air too much.” Phoenix gripped the steering wheel tighter. Panic started to rise in her chest.
His eyes snapped over to her, noticing her nervousness. "Phoenix, you won't blow us up I won't let it get that hot I promise." He said, noticing the other car gaining on them.
She glanced over at him for a moment and back at the road, the alley was ending and if they left it without losing the car, they would have no way to lose it. “Are you sure about this?” She asked quietly.
"I promise you, you've got this okay but we have to do this now or it won't work." He said, flipping himself around in his seat to face the back of the car and focus on concentrating the water in the air.
She sighed heavily and started radiating heat from her body, moving the molecules in the air faster and faster until the whole car was filled with searing heat.
Once water got hot enough he used heat already created in the car to accelerate the evaporation of the water molecules creating a heavy fog, and opened the windows a bit to let it flow out behind them and to let new particles of water in to create more steam at the same time, the process of creating the steam was cooling off the car enough to feel comfortable.
Phoenix held her breath as the plan that Lykian had was working. Outside the alley she abruptly turned left and sped down the road. Stopping only when she knew that the trailing car could not find them. She jumped out of the car and leaned over, clutching her chest as the panic faded and her breathing returned to normal.
The green eyed man let out a sharp breath he didn't know he had been holding and leaned back against the dash for a moment before opening the door of the car and stepping out of it. He glanced over at Phoenix to make sure she was alright before just leaning against his side of the car.
"That was… intense. I'm glad it worked. Are…. You okay?" He asked, not wanting to step on toes or anything, as he wasn't sure how she took all of that and also? It was kinda nerve wracking for him too, it was the first time he's tried to make steam like that, normally he lacked the heat to do so, but he didn't know what toll that took on his new colleague either.
After catching her breath, Phoenix darted around the car and shoved Lykian against the car. “Do not ever make me do something like that again. I could’ve set the car on fire. There are so many things that could’ve gone wrong in that plan.” She shouted, tears streaming down her face. “I could’ve seriously hurt you. I could’ve… You could’ve…” She crumpled to the ground, head in her hands, bawling her eyes out in front of a man she barely knew.
Lykian's body skipped off the car as he was shoved into it, making him slide firmly down onto his ass next to it, he looked up at her in both shock and bewilderment as she scolded him and fell to the ground crying. He gave her a second before gently touching her shoulder. "H-hey, It.. it worked didn't it?" He said softly. "It was scary, yeah, but it worked. I told you I wouldn't let it get too hot. I'm not worried about me, if you seriously are afraid of hurting me, why don't you try to? Right now." He said, trying to smile to somewhat comfort her. "I don't want that to be a fear for you Phoenix."
“That’s not the point, Lykian.” She cried. In the back of her mind, she relished in the way his name slid off her tongue. “I have this fear for a reason, and you should know it too, since you read my file and all. This is why I don’t work with people. I hurt people, whether I mean to or not. There have been other water users like you and they all fear me, so why don’t you? They knew I could vaporize them in an instant. Why can’t you understand that? And I’m not going to intentionally try to hurt you to prove a point.” She shook his hand off and stood up, walking back around to the driver side.
"Phoenix, you can't vaporize me. I've been trying to tell you-" He used the car to pull himself back to a standing position and looked over at her, letting out a breath and running a hand through his dark curly hair. "I did read your file, they chose me specifically because of your file, hunted me down in the arctic circle mind you-...don't ask-, but they should have sent you a file on me right?"
“Yeah, well they sent my brother to me too and look what happened to him. They did send your file to me but I didn’t bother reading it. There was no point. You weren’t supposed to come with me.” She said, ducking into the car again.
He ducked his head down to look through the window at her. "I'm sorry about your brother, truly, but..  maybe you should read that file…" He said, before opening the door and getting back in his side of the car.
“Don’t you get it? It doesn't matter what your file says. If you're a person born in this world, then you aren't safe around me.” She sniffled.
"Listen." He snapped slightly "Read the damn file, you'll know everything you need to, you don't want to be around me. That's all well and fine but maybe if you listened to people when they talked to you you wouldn't feel so alone, Phoenix."
Phoenix turned away when he snapped. “It’s not that I don’t wanna be around you.” She whispered, “I’ve never been able to get close to anyone. I haven't had a friend since my brother died. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never had any kind of connection with anyone in my whole life. The one connection I had burned up in that fire that took my brother. I was the one that caused it and I was the one that killed him.” She didn’t turn to face the man sitting next to her in the car.
"I've hurt people too, Phoenix. My… mother.. for one.. I understand that kind of loss… just… read the file." He said, "I'll give you some space and head further down the road." He stood and shut the car door and started walking ahead a bit, needing to clear his head a bit himself.
As he walked away, Phoenix sat in silence. Suddenly she slammed her fists into the roof of the car, relishing in the pain she caused herself. Leaning back she looked over at the glove box. The file was in there. She opened it and snatched the envelope out. It had sat in her car, unopened since it was given to her two weeks ago. Flipping open the top she pulled the papers out. One by one she read: