Elementals: A New Era: Book One

Chapter Thirteen

Matt was flung backwards as a Lightning charged fist connected with his face, he rolled along the street before coming to a stop and groaning. He stood and wiped the blood from his mouth, looking across at Mikaido, who stood with his fist raised and Lightning dancing around it. The boy looked at him with a ferocious hateful glare, his chest moved heavily with breaths.
"You doing okay, Mikaido?" Matt asked as he stood up and smiled.
"Fuck you. You damned traitor," Mikaido began, his eyes filling with more and more anger. "You betrayed everyone. Your family. Your friends. Me. We wanted to help you."
"Oh save the bullshit. I saw what you did to your family," Matt remembered back to seeing the scarring and burns on the two other people that Mikaido had found along with him. "You hurt them, you tossed them aside when they weren't useful to you."
"Like you did to us?" Mikaido's eyes dropped slightly, as if part of the hate had been replaced by pain. "Like you betrayed the Undercity for the very people that failed you?"
"You sound like him."
"The revolutionary?"
"The cult leader." Matt had had enough talking, it was time to fight.
Matt launched himself forwards, coating his fist in Fire and aiming it square at Mikaido's face. The boy replied in turn by bringing his fist back and readying to strike as Matt approached. The boys connected, their fists slamming into each other and sending a pulse of Fire and Lightning in all directions. The two of them stood locked for a moment, Matt straining against the calm anger that pushed Mikaido forwards.
"Without me, you would be dead," Mikaido spoke through his teeth.
"You're right," Matt slammed his foot down and created a small pulse of Fire that pushed the boy back. "I would be dead. I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be stopping you from destroying the city and everyone here. So thank you. You're the reason you're going to fail."
Mikaido raised his fists high before slamming them downwards and sending a pulse of Lightning forwards, arcing towards Matt. The boy created small Fires at the base of his shoes to launch himself over the pulse in a flip, he landed and brought his leg around, kicking up an arc of Fire that flew towards Mikaido. The boy ran forwards and skid beneath the attack, copying Matt's movements and sending a vertical pulse towards him. Matt kicked off and ducked around the pulse before bringing his fist up and slamming it into the side of Mikaido's head, sending the boy sprawling.
"I saved you," Mikaido spat a wad of blood onto the concrete as he sat up.
Matt remembered back a few weeks. He thought to Luke's story of being kicked out for having powers, Matt would've been lucky to have someone to kick him out of his home. His mother and father didn't even know he was alive. He had lived with his aunt and uncle, sent there because his father didn't want to handle looking after a child, he'd chosen his job over his son. He thought back to the night everything changed.
It was a cold winter's night, the world was silent as snow fell and the world slept. Everyone but Matt, who had been tossing and turning in bed, his body overheating. He had thrown off all the covers as his body burned an uncomfortable heat. He had itched. He had screamed in pain. He remembered his aunt running into his room to check on him, she yelped as she placed her hand on his head. Matt remembered lashing out, trying to push her away, instead an intense Fire shot from his hand and had hit her face, sending her reeling and screaming in pain and collapsing against the desk that had been in his room. His uncle had come into the room and started screaming at him. Matt had cried, feeling a searing pain as tears rain down his face, he had no idea what was happening. Next thing he'd remembered was standing out on the street, looking up at the burning house, hearing the screams from his family as they'd burned alive. The neighbors had run out to help, calling the fire service to help. But Matt knew it was already too late. He just stood there, as snow and ash fell around them, watching the dancing Fire consume everything he'd grown up with.
Everyone had been too preoccupied with the house burning to notice him just turn and walk away, leaving his old life behind. No one had come looking for him, he had simply wandered into the cold night, surviving on his heat alone, and walking in a single direction. He remembered collapsing from exhaustion and hunger a few days later, he had not slept or eaten since that night, and his senses were becoming more and more dull. Until one day he found himself waking up with a beautiful girl standing over him, he hadn't remembered anything. It took days for the memories to return, with the girl's help. The two of them had lived in an underpass near the supermarket, they'd beg for money during the day, and scavenge for food at night. One night, another boy had appeared, covered in scars and burnt tissue, he'd been running from a crazed madman that had used him for target practice. Matt had told the boy that they would look after him, and so they'd moved to a nearby neighborhood, living behind a school cafeteria. Until the man had found them and attacked. The girl had urged them to run, he had wanted to stay and help her fight him off but the girl had pushed him.
"What was her name?" Mikaido asked, clearly able to tell what he was thinking about.
"Madison," Matt muttered under his breath, clenching his fists as he thought.
She hadn't made it. Mikaido had. The two of them had walked back to the school and found her dead body, beaten and disfigured. The man's body had been burnt beyond recognition with Mikaido standing over it. And from that day on, he had been in service to Mikaido.
Matt knew that if he had stayed, Madison wouldn't have died. He knew that he had an obligation to learn his Powers and use them to save people from others that could hurt them. Mikaido had taught him that everyone topside was like that, that they had to prove to the Undercity that they were worth joining the fight against the topsiders.
But after being in the Undercity, and meeting Luke, Matt knew that he had been brainwashed, he had been misled, and lied to. And it all came from the boy standing in front of him.
He didn't hate Mikaido for the lies, or the propaganda. He was upset at himself for trusting the boy. But he knew that without him, he wouldn't be here, saving a city that didn't even know him. Helping out a father that didn't know he was alive.
"Thank you, Mikaido," he smiled as he wiped a tear from his face. "You did save me. Now it's my turn to save this city. From you. And once I'm done with you, I'm finding my dad."
"Not if he's already dead."
Matt's body exploded in heat at the thought of his father dead. Ever since that night, he'd felt a raging heat deep within him, sometimes it burned him from inside, other times it was a small annoyance. Right now it was a Firestorm, his body burned, every fiber within him ached and screamed. He roared and launched forwards, the fist by his side focusing every drop of Power that overflowed from within into a single punch. He wanted to end it. He closed in on Mikaido, who stood there and waited. Matt swung his fist like Luke had taught him, but Mikaido was ready, the boy pivoted and used his hand to push away the punch, forcing it upwards and an explosion erupted from Matt's hand, firing into the sky. Matt looked on, shocked, as Mikaido grabbed the boy's chest and began sending Bolts into him.
"You'll die a traitor, just like-"
An explosion came from behind him as a searing heat burst through Mikaido, he looked down to see Matt's other hand balled into a fist with wisps of smoke billowing from it. The fist had not made contact with him, but a hole had been made through his chest and out the other side.
"You're lucky I didn't hit anything important," Matt spoke, looking at Mikaido through tear filled eyes.
Mikaido let go of Matt and fell backwards, coughing up blood as he struggled to breathe. Matt knelt down next to him, pulling his goggles on and began cauterizing the wound.
Mikaido wrapped his hand around Matt's. "Just kill me," he begged. "I don't want to live to see the Undercity fall."
"It's not going to fall," Matt replied as he tried to save his friend. "We're going to save it."
"Matt. Please."
Matt wiped his nose as more and more tears flowed. He grabbed Mikaido's hands and straddled the boy, smiling down at him.
"Okay. If you want to die so badly. We'll go together." He smiled as he began drawing Energy, converting it into Power, and feeling it travel around his entire body.
"Sun's Prominence."