Elementals: A New Era: Book One

Chatper Three

Matt scoffed as he watched Mikaido reach into the large plastic bin that housed hundreds of small sour peach gummies, the young man pulling a few out and tossing them into his mouth as he scrunched up the paper bag filled with gummy gators and began walking down the aisle.

"Why are we stealing?" He asked, looking around to see if anyone noticed them. "We have the money to pay for them now."

"Money ain't the issue, Matt," Mikaido replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they walked past the towering metal shelves that housed all kinds of food and wares. "Stealing from the rich will always be correct."

"These aren't the rich though, this is a cheap supermarket, and you're stealing from them," Matt walked in front of his friend to stop him.

"If it's so cheap, then they ain't losing much. And just yesterday, you stole an ATM."

"Keep your voice down, people might hear you," Matt shot his head around once more as Mikaido pushed past him and grabbed a bag of chips.

"And what are they gonna do?" Mikaido replied, using his free hand to conjure a small blue spark. "We're just lowly street rats to them, we ain't important. Look," he ushered over to a group of black and yellow uniformed workers all looking in their direction. "They think we're up to no good."

"We are." Matt turned his head as the boy began scanning his items.

"Well yeah," Mikaido shrugged. "But we're on the right side of morals, and they're treating us like monsters because we live differently than them." Mikaido finished scanning his items, put money into the machine, and unwrapped a lollipop before putting his hands in his pocket and walking out. Matt stared for a second before grabbing the food and chasing after him. As the two exited the building, they were greeted by a large brick like man that stood with his arms crossed, wearing a suit and thick black sunglasses.

"Mikaido Susahara?" The man boomed.

"Depends, who's asking?" Mikaido folded his own arms and leant backwards.

"I come on behalf of Him, He requests to see you," the man opened the door of the towering black car in front of them.

Matt looked concerned but Mikaido simply smiled and stepped forward with bravado. The two of them were grabbed and thrown in the back seat of the car, Matt found the cramped space was unnaturally dark, the windows tinted to the point he couldn't see out. Two blindfolds were handed to them by the big men as they climbed in the front, Matt wore his look of concern but Mikaido quickly covered his eyes before sitting patiently. Matt followed suit and they took off. The drive was just long enough for Matt to lose sense of time and direction.

The two of them were pulled from the car and walked through what sounded like a large crowd at a festival or carnival, everyone was tightly packed, there were noises all around them, from stalls selling things, to people talking. The boy's found themselves thrown to the ground and on their knees as their blindfolds were taken off.

Matt examined the area around them, a soft sand coated the ground beneath his knees, dozens of string lights ran across above them between the stalls, illuminating the strange area. He couldn't make out a roof above their heads which struck him as odd. Two large men in black coats stood beside them while a crowd gathered behind a bent metal fence behind them, most of the crowd looked disheveled and poor, damaged clothing, dirty faces and hair. A fat man sat atop a throne of twisted metal which sat on what looked like metal scaffolding, he was voraciously munching away at some kind of meat, his belly swelling out of the stained white dress shirt he wore. The man burped before noticing them, rubbing his greasy hands on his shirt as a smartly dressed man in a purple suit took away the carcass. Another figure stood on the grotesque man's right, this one stood with their hands behind their back, their entire body covered in Metal. The only way Matt could tell that there was even a person behind the suit, was the persons heat signature beneath the cool Metal.