The Elementai

Chapter 12

Concerned faces stared down at Lexa as her eyes fluttered open. "What are you all looking at?" she snapped at the teachers, sitting up. A sudden pain shot through her head. "Ah!"
"Are you alright, dear?" Mrs Heather, the Healing teacher enquired, worry in her eyes. She gently pushed Lexa back onto the infirmary bed.
"Yeah, I'm good. A-a-achoo!" she sneezed, releasing a snot-rocket of fire, burning Mrs Heather's clothes as she yelped and staggered back. The teachers stared at her. Lexa's eyes widened. "Oops."
"You stuff fireworks up your nose in your spare time, rookie?" Coach D commented.
Lexa glared at him. "As a matter of fact, yes. It's a favourite pastime of mine, Coach."
"That's Instructor Dawson to you!"
"Of course, Coach."
He rolled his eyes as Commander entered, walking purposefully towards Lexa. She scrambled off the bed and stood opposite him. "Lexa," he began, "It appears that you and Alex have both fully accepted the connection."
"And what does that mean?"
"It means you must now improve and develop it. You must learn to harness each other's power permanently, share thoughts and create a deeper understanding of each other. And remember, this is bigger than just you," he added, noticing Lexa's defiant expression, "It will not stop this war, but it will create a dent in the Dakai's plan. In these times of desperation, we need to do as much as we can, even if it is a minor threat to them."
"But Carter isn't here."
"You must manage from a distance. That is what the connection is about, after all," Mr Pascal notified her. "I could help."
"No thanks. I still don't understand this whole thing." Lexa crossed her arms, frowning.
"And you do not need to...yet. In time."
"But I want to know now!"
Commander shook his head. "In time," he repeated, more to himself than to Lexa. Oh no, Lexa thought. He's got his thinking face on.
"So..." She waved her hand in front of Commander's face. He blinked and looked down at her. "Yes?"
"May I be dismissed, or whatever?"
"Yes," he said, gazing into the distance again. Subsequently, he called the teachers in for a meeting, leaving Lexa alone.
She strolled outside, staring at the rubble again. Beginning to feel angry, she turned her eyes towards the forest. She wondered what Alex had been doing in there that day. She walked slowly towards the Plants classroom located in the forest. She noticed a figure coming out of the class. Coming closer, she recognised him. "Sup', Tony," she greeted the Elementai as she entered the class. He smiled at her as they walked past each other. He paused, considering something. He looked back and called, "Yo, Lexa?"
"Yeah?"
He jogged back to her, observing her expression. "You okay?"
"Nah, not really. You?"
"Eh. This whole Dakai business, you know? It's gettin' hella annoying."
"You couldn't have said it better, man."
He nodded. Tony Carzolli was a scrawny 15-year-old with purple-streaked black hair that was always greased back. He usually wore something made of leather-leather jackets, leather pants, probably even leather underwear, though Lexa could imagine that would be quite unpleasant, to say the least. He was very proud of his element: air. He was the first at camp to have figured out how to make mini tornadoes, though not, as Commander informed him, the first in the world. Not by a long shot. However, it was quite a useful skill, as Tony also figured out a way to translate the tornadoes into the other elements. Recently, a lesson in Fighting/Protection had taught this.
Commander still wasn't impressed, but Tony made it a point to brag about it to whatever poor chap would listen.
"Sucks being an orphan, right?" he asked.
"Not exactly sunshine and daisies," Lexa agreed.
Tony stroked his chin, thinking, then lowered his voice. "You bored?"
Lexa perked up. "What did you have in mind?" Tony grinned with delight. "Follow me."

On their way, Lexa received a message on her watch. All Elementai and Lupusi were issued with standard hologram receivers, in the form of a watch, ring or earplug. Mechanics were working on more designs, especially for Lupusi, who tended to lose them during transformations.
Her watch dinged. She pressed a button and heard loud static. No hologram of the person appeared. Instead, strange rays emanated from her watch. "What the hell?" Tony mumbled.
Lexa shrugged. Words started forming out of the static, but they were stunted. The person on the other end seemed unable to breathe, let alone talk. "Lex..." She knew immediately who it was, even if it did sound like a robot.
"Ex? Ex! Are you okay?"
She heard a constant mild buzz in the background. Something was wrong with Ex's watch.
"Dude!"
"Lex...help...alley...near...house." He inhaled sharply before every word, as if it hurt to speak. Lexa tried to suppress her panic.
"Ex, I swear if this is a trick-"
"Not...trick...please." He yelled with such pain that Lexa swore she could feel it through her watch.
"Ex. EX! Come on, buddy. Talk to me."
He breathed heavily. "Help." He managed one last time, before a high-pitched screech sounded from her watch, static hissed and the line went dead. "Ex?" She tapped her watch repeatedly.
"The line's dead, man," Tony informed her.
"Thanks, I didn't notice. I had no idea!" She stomped the ground. "The line's dead alright, and so is Ex!"
"Whoa, calm down, alright? He's only almost dead. We were gonna play a prank on Ernie Casta, you know him? But anyway, the situation's changed. Let's grab your XX-5 and get there."
They climbed into the ship. Lexa was making her way to the pilot's seat when Tony stopped her. "Uh, maybe I should pilot, you know what I'm sayin'?"
Of course, everyone knew about her 'questionable' piloting skills, as they called it. Tony switched some controls, and smoke billowed out from under the ship, curling into the air as they took off. Lexa indicated where Ex lived on the built-in GPS system map. She promptly slumped down on a chair which automatically released a seat-belt across her and buckled itself in. "Fast, Carzolli. Go fast."
"On it."
The XX-5 was a high-tech spaceship/aeroplane/hovercraft with room for comfort. The seats were leather with specialised controls. Either side of the ship was occupied by a large window, tinted so that nobody could see in. The front consisted of a large window as well. There were a total of six seats in sets of two, arranged behind the individual pilot's seat, which was bigger than the rest. In front of this were the controls, systematically placed on a dashboard taking up the width of the ship. Towards the back was a small snacks cupboard, and downstairs (yes, the ship had a basement) was the bathroom and the weapons storage. They had a motto for the basement: Flush while you train.
"How much longer?" Lexa asked. Ex lived about an hour away, but with the speed they were going at, it should've taken them only twenty minutes, tops. The ship was high speed. "Patience, Miss Lexa." Carzolli suddenly yanked the wheel, narrowly avoiding smashing somebody's mansion roof.
"And they say my flying is bad," Lexa noted, grinning.
"Hey, that was a grande house! Blame the architects."

After about five minutes, they were flying over the town where Ex lived. It was a community made up of mostly Lupusi, though the normal, every-day humans were still dominant. "What the H-E-double toothpicks?" Lexa said, gaping at the houses below her.
Tony processed what she had said. "Hell," he figured out, then looked down at the scene in front of him. "Oh, H-E-double toothpicks."
The houses looked like they'd been bombed. Everything was reduced to rubble, stacks of glass, cement cracked like the earth had opened its maw to let out the demons from within. They landed near an area where the GPS insisted Ex's house had once been.
"What happened here?" Tony asked as they climbed out. Lexa almost sobbed, and that was saying something. She hated crying. The house was nothing more than a bunch of bricks. It seemed to be the worst wreckage out of them all. Why would they target Ex's house specifically?
"I bet the Dakai did this," Lexa said bitterly. Tony nodded, his face contorting into anger.
"That means they killed the regular humans too," he guessed.
"Yeah," Lexa whispered, barely audible. They shuffled through the mess half-heartedly. "He said he was in an alley, right?" Tony asked. Lexa nodded. They started walking around, staying close to Ex's house, since he'd said he was near there. There was a fire in the distance, smoke rising into the air ominously, a dark wall blanketing the sky. It seemed to say, 'There is no escape.' Lexa looked away.
She poked her head into many gloomy alleyways, but only saw more debris and ruins, sometimes a few bodies. She had to force herself to examine them, terrified and yet anxious to find Ex among them. She was starting to get agitated. All these innocent Lupusi, killed. All these people who knew absolutely nothing about this war, dead. Murdered in cold blood. Mutilated. Dead, dead, dead.
There is no escape.
"EX, WHERE ARE YOU?" she shouted desperately, kicking a block of cement. "YOW!"
"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Tony Carzolli ran up to her.
"Nothing. Everyone's killed, probably being killed right now, and I'm doing nothing. NOTHING!"
Tony shook his head, walking away from her, checking the alley for bodies. "What can we do, man?"
Lexa breathed, trying to calm herself. What could she do?
She heard something. A mumble, a soft voice. A crushed, hopeless, soft voice. It was impossible that her ears could pick up on it, but they did.
"I mean, we'll get killed whatever we try," Tony was saying, "Better to-"
"Shh!" Lexa hushed him. He looked at her curiously, and picked his way towards where she was walking. She hurried into the next alley, then slowed down in front of broken wood that must've been a door. "Help me lift this."
"What?"
She didn't reply. She slid her hands under the wood and began to force it up with Tony's help. They thrust it up and before it fell back down, Tony lifted it into the air, using his powers, and tossed it aside. It landed with a thud, splintering into more pieces.
Lying where the door had been was none other than Xavier Fletcher.
Lexa and Tony quickly knelt on either side of him, checking his pulse. "Alive," Tony confirmed.
"Barely," Lexa added. They heaved him up and dragged him back to the ship.
"Man, this guy's heavier than my Papa Antonio."
"Man, that's 'coz he's so big-headed," Lexa added, and they both laughed.
"I can hear you," Ex mumbled. Lexa was so surprised she almost dropped him, but he'd gone unconscious again. They dropped him in the seat and Tony started the flight back to the camp. He went slower this time.
Halfway through the flight, Ex woke up. "Hey man," Lexa said, offering him a bag of chips. "We're almost there."
He nodded and fainted again. Lexa shrugged and continued to eat the chips. His shirt was caked with blood, and it kept flowing, soaking him. Blood dripped onto the floor of the XX-5. Lexa kept her expression neutral, trying not to panic again, seeing his dishevelled hair full of blood, his dazed expression for the brief seconds he'd woken up. His face was full of welts, like someone had hit it with a hammer repeatedly. Lexa had a disturbing vision of Whack-A-Xavier. His arms were full of deep cuts and burn marks. And the pain. She could almost feel the pain radiating from him. She had to look away.
When there were about 10 minutes left, Ex woke up again. "Hey," Lexa said.
He looked at her. "Alex."
"What?" Lexa jumped off her chair and leaned down to him. "What about Alex?"
"Killed...dad. I-tried...but too...strong..."
"Whoa, wait," Lexa tried to process this, but Ex was out cold once again. Tony looked back. "He's sayin' Carter did this?" He whistled, surprised. "Must be a messed up dude."
"Yeah," Lexa said, clutching her chips packet and narrowing her eyes. "Real messed up."