Jessica and the rest of them barged through the huge mahogany doors like they were home. They strutted down marble hallway after marble hallway, until we came to an unmarked door. Jessica pressed her hand into a small palm scanner next to the door and the door slid open to reveal a huge, stainless steel elevator that was completely out of place in the old-style building.
"whoa," I said.
Angela smiled at me. "I know right," she twanged.
I smile back at her. We stepped onto the elevator as a robotic female voice said "identification please."
"Jessica Blackall, water. Justin Greenburg, Earth. Collin Rivers, air. Angela Johnson, mechanical invisibility. And Megan Taylor, undertermined." Jessica said.
We stepped into the elevator. The doors slid shut as the elevator shot several floors down. When the doors opened again, the five of us stepped out of the elevator and into a long hallway. Jessica, Justin, Collin and Angela began walking down the hallway and I followed, amazed at what I saw.
On the right side of the hallway was a window that to a full gym. On the other side there were windows looking into an assortment of rooms. I spotted two kids in alone in a room with nothing but a table and chair in, what looked like a mini-fencing studio, and what appeared to be a padded cell.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Headquarters," Collin responded as he flipped off a kid in one of the rooms on the left of the hallway.
"Can’t he see you?" I asked.
"One way glass."
"They're training rooms" jessica added.
"Why--"
"'cause they don't want onlookers to disturb the 'training process'" Colin said, adding air quotes. I raised an eyebrow.
"Colin doesn't exactly agree with some of the training methods" Justin explained. From one of the rooms, I heard the sound of breaking bones followed by a long wail.
"Can't say I disagree with him" I muttered under my breath.
After a crapload of walking, we finally made it to a set of ginormous mahogany doors. In front of them, stood a short, balding man in a too small, blue suit.
"Too ya long enough" he grumbled.
Jessica rolled her eyes while Justin answered "are they waiting for us, Travis?"
"hell yeah they are" travis answered "nervous looking as fuck too" he eyed me warily "whoever this chick is, she's sure as hell important.
He opened the doors to a--well the best way to describe it was a cavern. It was huge, and both beautiful and absolutely terrifying. Intricately designed chandlers hung from the ceiling and people at classic desk sat typing at high tech computers. At the far end of the room on a raised platform was a long table with two grumpy looking old men with different colored eyes sat behind it in chairs. The third chair between them was empty.
Floor to ceiling windows lined the entire room. Beyond the windows, lava churned and molten more seemed to breath as it rose and fell. We were inside of a volcano.
"it's beautiful isn't it?" A woman near standing beside the far window asked without turning around.
Outside the window, the orangish-red lava sizzled and popped as it moved through cracks in rock. It was probably ten times hotter than hell in there, and any normal human would probably would be crushed under the pressure, burned to a crisp in the heat, and explode as the water and gases inside their body expanded. But every so often, you could see the gleam of a precious metal that was being formed under the pressure, so tiny, but had so much meaning. It was beautiful, and terrifying, like the chamber, so I said so.
The women turned around, a smile on her pale face and here lavender eyes shinning. Her dark brown hair hung almost to her wait and her long white dress made swishing sounds as she moved towards me.
"What do you see?" the woman said as she stopped in front of me.
Her piercing eyes bored into me as I began to stutter "I-I um I" I swallowed and remembered where I came from. LA girls don't get scared. Especially not me.
"it would appear that we're inside of a volcano." I stated "which would be highly improbable--"
"What we see generally reflects our powers."
"Well what do you see?" I asked her. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jessica tense and behind her, Colin shake his head no.
The woman smiled slightly, "Let's just hope you don't have to find out" she said. Her dark green eyes darkened and narrowed."What can you do?"
"I'm an orphan, I can't do anything."
"Just try," Jessica encouraged.
I sighed, took a deep breath, closed my eyes and held out my palms. They instantly began to heat up like they do whenever I'm angry. As my hands got hotter and hotter, I hear gasps of amazement. I opened my eyes "See I told you I couldn't--"
I glanced down at my palms and would a medium sized flame dancing above each one. Immediately I tried to shake off the flames, when I realized that a) they didn't hurt, nor did they burn me and b) that they weren't simply hovering around my hands, but coming from them.
"Oh. My.God" Angela commented.
The woman openly gaped at me, but when she noticed me staring, she forced her mouth into a thin-lipped smile.
"You have been given the gift of firepower. Congratulations" she pronounced, though it was obvious she didn't mean it you're the first in many years."
"Yeah, great" I responded curtly "what the hell does it mean?"
"you're gifted" Justin answered.
"you're special" Collin supplied, with a snicker and air quotes.
"you have been blessed with a power, that could help save this country" She walked towards where I stood with tendrils of smoke still leaping from my hands.
"I suppose I should explain who I am, who we are, and what we do here," she placed a hand on her chest and said "My name is Francesca and I've been here since I was younger than you are now" Francesca gestures at the two men at the table "This is Romulus and Orpheus, together the three of us run the BGC, the bureau of gifted children, which turn young people such as yourself into weapons for defending our nation.
After about half-way into this this lady's speech it kinda started sounding like shit outta independence day or Battle LA or something, but I got what she was saying. My red eyes, the way fire constantly was arround me, they were all part of this gift that made me belong here. These people were gonna train me. I'd be a hero. That thought filled me with pride.
"Now," Francesca said "show us your gift again"
"With pleasure," I responded.
I hold my hands out again and without any difficulty, the left over smoke-trails swirling around me erupt into a blazing inferno. Angela Colin and most everyone else looked amazed. Jessica's face morphed into a look of pure terror, but Justin, Justin was grinning a huge, full toothed, slightly sadistic grin that took over his entire face and made the corners of his huge brown-eyes crinkle adorably.
