The Elementalists

JAMAL

You know what I love most about being an Elementalist? It's not being able to manipulate air currents, or creating tornadoes, or making blankets fly...

   I love being able to read minds.

   For example, right now, Cooper keeps looking at me weird, and he's thinking, "Why is Jamal staring at me?"

   I really need to work on the 'reading-people's-minds-without-staring-them-down' thing...

   Anyways, I'm sitting next to Cooper and John, who are both arguing about whether we head straight to Washington D.C. or whether we find Angel and Daemon and try to get their help. Peter joins in with, "I think we should wait here, in case they're looking for us," which starts a whole new argument.

   I look up at the sky and watch an airplane flying. I almost laugh out loud when I imagine flying up there next to the airplane, and I wonder how the passengers would react.

   "There they are!"

   I turn around immediately at the sound of the unfamiliar voices, and the others look at me quizzically. "Didn't you hear that?" I hiss. "Someone just said, 'There they are!'"

   Peter shakes his head, and the others stop arguing. Emma asks, "Are you sure you heard that, Jamal?" I nod, and Emma states, "We need to get away from here, then. We aren't safe."

   "We have to be quiet, they don't know we're here," the voice says again. "We can take them by surprise!"

   "Stop it!" I yell. I blink and realize that I'm covering my ears with my hands. I remove them and say, "They think we don't know that they're here. They're going to ambush us." I add, "How can you not hear them?"

   Emma lets out a cry of, "Ah-ha!" She looks at me with a grin and says, "Jamal, you're reading their minds. Duh."

   I moan and slap my palm to my forehead. Facepalm. "No duh," I say. "How did I not know that? They sounded like they were right behind me."

   "That's because we were," the voice says.

   I sigh and state, "They apparently were right behind us."

   Emma's eyes widen, and she takes a step back. "Uhm, Jamal," she tells me as she points behind me, "they said that out loud..."

   I turn around and nearly scream. Two policemen stand behind me, their arms crossed and their mouths set in a triumphant smile.

   "Well, looks like we found the runaways," one of the cops says. He reaches for my arm and I thrust the palm of my hand out. I shoot up into the air and flail my arms as I fall to the ground with a thud!

   "Oww," I moan. "Robin made that look so easy!"

   The policemens' mouths hang open in shock. I grin and take advantage of this; I thrust my palm out towards them, but I just end up blasting myself backwards and smashing into a tree. I cry out in pain, and several swear words escape my lips.

   "Wow, this kid has a mouth on him," one of the cops says with a laugh.

   "Shut up," I growl, and Cooper conjures up a cactus in front of him. He stares at it blankly and sighs.

   "I'm useless," he moans, and he hides his face in his hands. As the cops laugh at him, his head snaps up and vines shoot up around the two men. Soon they're entangled in vines, unable to move or even speak. Cooper grins and says, "Never underestimate kid!"

   I laugh and yell, "Yeah! What he said!"

   Emma rolls her eyes and states, "I'm the only mature one here."