Elementals

The First Battle - Egan

"Brook? What happened?" Terra asked the frantic girl. The phone had cut out a moment after Brook screamed her friend's name.
"Mira, she was walking towards our favorite clothing store and then I don't know, there were shouts and screaming and then the phone just shut off," Brook said. "We have to help her!"
"What we need to do is call the cops," Gale said.
"We don't even know where she is, by the time the cops find her something bad could've happened to her!" Brook exclaimed.
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" I asked. "Like you said, we don't know where she is."
"No, but I know our route from the bike rack through the mall and I know where she stops before going to the clothing place, she has to be there somewhere," Brook said. "Besides, we have superpowers, what else are we supposed to do with them?"
"Brook, we can't do this, we're teenagers, not superheroes," Terra said.
"Why can't we be both?" Brook asked. "Mira said we were." We all looked at each other. I had no idea who this girl was but she was obviously important to Brook.
"I'm in," I said. Gale and Terra looked at me.
"Me too," Gale said after a second. We all looked at Terra.
"Fine," she said. "But my truck only holds 3."
"We can take my car," I said. "I'll drive."
"Woah, hold up there Mr. Permit," Terra said. "I'm driving until you can pass that test." I made a face and then passed her the keys.
"Wait! What if someone recognizes us and finds out we have powers?" Gale asked.
"Would you recognize us right now?" Brook asked. I looked down at my attire.
"Probably not, no," I said.
"Exactly, Gale, put on some sunglasses and let's go, Mira could be in trouble," Brook said and ran out of the room. I made a mental note to lie my butt off about what happened to my room and then ran after her.
"Garage is this way!" I called and took a left, Brook changed course while the others followed behind me. I ran over to my car which was parked on the far side.
"Woah," Terra said. "That's a lot of cars."
"No time to gawk! Drive!" Brook said and pushed Terra towards the driver's door. She got in and started the car before I even closed the door. I pressed the garage button as Terra revved the engine and then we sped off. It was the most terrifying ride of my life. Brook was shouting out every direction. It was all Gale and I could do to keep her from grabbing the wheel from Terra. We ran 3 red lights because Brook figured out that blasting the car pedals with water at full force would make them go no matter what Terra had to say on the matter.
"Turn left here!" Brook screamed. Terra hiked a very hard left into the mall. I hope that that car we almost hit was ok because we sure weren't. The car was fine but I worry about the day when Brook can get behind the wheel of a car.
"Ok," Terra said, as we screeched into a parking spot. "That, was NOT my fault."
"Agreed," Gale and I said, mostly out of fear.
"Out!" Brook called, already out of the car, we followed quickly.
"Ok, where would Mira be?" Terra asked.
"Ok, she always goes to Claire's before she heads to the boutique," Brook said. "She was on foot and she said she was on her way to the boutique so she's somewhere in the stretch of stores between there. She was probably just leaving Claire's or another store when she called. I was trying to think when I looked up at Terra. She was looking straight ahead. I followed her gaze to a small building. It was brand new.
"Has that bank always been there?" Gale asked.
"No they just finished it," Brook said. "But I do know that Mira's mother has a card at that chain." We all looked at each other. Then ran towards the bank. I pulled up my hood and pulled the drawstrings so it covered my face more. I saw Gale pull his hood up and out on his sunglasses over his already existing glasses. Interesting fashion statement. He still had the umbrella too.
When we arrived at the bank, Terra pulled us out of view of the window. We had a clear view of at least three men with guns and what looked like another two in the back.
"How have the cops not been called yet?" I asked.
"They probably take anyone who sees them hostage too, why do you think we're hiding?" Terra responded.
"I am see Mira!" Brook said. Pointing to the middle of the hostage circle. On the center was a girl with long wavy blonde hair wearing a green summer dress, that I assumed was new given the fact that the tag was still on it, with a very scared look on her face.
"Green dress?" I asked. Brook nodded.
"What's our game plan?" Gale asked.
"Right now, more with the element of surprise," Terra said. They don't know that we have powers and I'd like to keep,it that way as long as possible."
"Terra, can you control the metal in those guns?" Gale asked.
"Probably," she said. "Maybe not all at once but I could probably get one or two of them away from them if need be. Does anyone know martial arts?" Gale raised his hand.
"Not a lot but enough to do some damage," he said.
"Good, then you and me are on hand to hand combat, I have some experience myself," Terra said.
"Brook, you're our range shooter," I said. "Can you control the temperature of your water?"
"I don't think I can yet," she replied.
"It's fine," I said. "I have an idea."
"So, we ready?" Terra asked.
"As we'll ever be," I said. Everyone else nodded.
"Here we go," she said. As soon as we said that we burst through the front doors of the bank. Immediately, two guns were drawn on us, one from a guard and one from one of the guys grabbing money.
"Oh look, someone trying to play hero," one said, he wore a ski mask like you'd expect a thief to. "Get with the others."
"Not until you drop your weapon," I said. He aimed his gun at me.
"Oh, smart guy, I think I'll shoot you first," he said, getting ready to pull the trigger. Then Terra lurched forwards and made a pulling motion with her hand. The gun flew from his grasp and landed in hers.
"He said, drop your weapon," Terra said. Then removed the bullets from the gun and threw it on the ground. Then she dropped the bullets with it but they dropped from her hand like goo. She apparently knew how to change the state of metal. The gunmen and even the hostages gasped.
"Now, would you kindly put the guns down or would you like me to remove the rest of them." A shot rang out. A gunman in the back had aimed a shot at Terra but the bullet moved mid air and shot pastthe right side of her face. Terra didn't do it. Gale had taken a fighting stance next to her. Just closing his mouth from the rush of air used to change the bullets course. More shots rang out aiming at all of us and none of us.
Terra started dodging the bullets by cartwheeling and doing the splits while Gale would shoot up into the air every time a bullet came near him. Brook and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off until we smashed into each other right in front of one of the men. He aimed his gun at us.
"Water!" I exclaimed. I didn't need to tell Brook twice. She pushed her hands forwards and two strong streams of water shot out at him. He was stunned and dropped the weapon. I lit a fire in my hands and pressed it into the water. After a moment the water started to become scalding and the man screeched in pain. Then Terra appeared behind him and hit him over the head with his own gun. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
"One down, four to go. I think they're out of bullets," Terra said. Sure enough, the men had ditched the guns and we're now coming towards us. One had already grabbed Gale but he was struggling to get out of the grip.
"Ok, we might go down for this, but we're sure as hell taking you with us," another man said. Terra jumped forwards and kicked one of the men in the stomach. He tried to grab her foot but Brook and I tacked him before he could. Then Terra took control of Gale's umbrella and bent it into a pair of handcuffs and then locked the guy to one of the support beams.
Meanwhile, I surprised the guy holding Gale but rushing at him with fire hands so he lost his grip on Gale who immediately flipped the guy and did something with his foot that looked painful. When he let go the guy was unconscious. Then I felt someone grab me from behind followed by a screaming Brook who then jumped on his back. We all fell over. While Brook and I were trying to keep our guy down, Terra and Gale were double teaming the last guy but using their martial arts skills and then Gale blew him into a wall and Terra used did a motion to use the rocks to lock him to the wall.
Then they hurried back to us. I had just finished getting Brook out from underneath the man when he jumped back up and tried to hit me. We were quicker. We all blasted him with our powers and once and knocked him over the counter. He his head and passed out while we stood there panting.
Behind us, the hostages slowly started to clap. Then the claps got louder. We turned around.
"That was incredible!" someone said.
"Thank you so much for saving us and the money," a lady wearing a name tag said. I assumed she was the bank teller.
"I think they would've shot us no matter what," another one chimed in.
"Who are you guys?" someone asked.
"How did you do that?" another asked.
"Short answer, we have superpowers," Terra said. "Long answer, we're the...uh...Elementals and we did that by each of us having our own individual superpower based on one of the original four elements."
"Sorry, she says stuff like that," Brook added.
"Since when are we the Elementals?" I whisper asked Gale. He shrugged. I heard sirens in the distance.
"Oh, well, that's our cue to leave," Terra said and walked out the door.
"Thanks again Elementals!" was chorused from those left in the building. We smiled and waved goodbye as we ran back across the mall to the car, ditching our outfits in the bushes.
"Is Mira ok?" Gale asked Brook as we got in the car.
"Yeah she flashed her call me later sign," she replied. "But wow, I can't believe we just did that!"
"Yeah, Terra, how the heck did you melt those bullets?" Gale asked.
"I have no idea, I just thought it would be cool and then it happened and I just went with it," she replied.
"Cool name too! How did you think of that?" I asked.
"I said the first thing that came to my mind and that was the four elements," she said.
"Makes sense," Brook said. "Also, we should probably get out of here because they can probably still point the cops in the right direction and I don't think they'll be too happy."
"Right," the rest of us said.
"Where are we going?" Terra asked.
"I say we go back to Egan's house so we can return him and his car and then switch back to Terra's truck," Brook said.
"Wait, why do I have to be left out?" I asked.
"Just for today," she replied. "We can regroup tomorrow, I just think we all need time to be normal."
"I didn't think we'll ever be normal again," Terra said as she buckled her seat belt.
"Well, let's just get home and go from there," I said.
"Fair enough," Terra started the car and took off at a much safer pase than last time. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and pulled it out. It was a news update. I clicked on it in curiosity as the link to a local news station pulled up.
"Oh my god," I said.
"What?" Gale asked. I turned up the volume.
News Anchor: -security video shows the four heroes fighting off the would be thieves with what looks like some kind of superpowers. Now we go live to out field reporters on the scene where cops showed up only five minutes ago.

Reporter: Hello, I'm here at the scene of the break in and almost robbery at Westfield mall. What do you have to say about what you saw?

Nora Chester: I was just taking some money out of my account so I could have some cash for the mall to day when these guys came in wielding guns and telling me to get down. I was so sure I was dead when these four people burst into the room a few minutes later and start fighting them with what can only be described as magic powers. The girl in the beret shot water out of her hands and the other girl started controlling the guns and melting bullets. Then the one guy made a mini tornado and was practically flying and the other boy was shooting fire out of his hands! When they were done we asked them who they were and they said they were called the Elementals.

Reporter: Well, there you have it Claire.

News Anchor: Thank you Kelly. Well, you heard her folks. It looked like there's a real life superhero team out there called the Elementals. I know I'm going to sleep safer at night knowing that they're out there to protect me.

I stopped the video. Terra had gotten quiet and was staring at the road very intently.
"How on earth do they already have a news story on us?" Brook asked.
"Uh, superheroes showed up in real life. I would've been surprised if they hadn't gotten it up this fast," I said.
"Questo non è buono," Terra said.
"I'm assuming what you said wasn't good," Brook said.
"Sì, perché ora tutti sanno che noi abbiamo poteri. Questo è poi così male!" Terra said.
Uh, Terra, we don't know what you're saying," Gale said.
"Scusate, sono in preda al panico, e quando ho il panico, ho il panico in italiano," she said, gripping the wheel tightly.
"I think she forgot how to speak English," I said. She nodded.
"Ok, well, hopefully she didn't forget where you live because we have to turn left here," Brook said. Terra turned left quickly then we pulled to a stop in front of Egan's house.
"Just leave it here for now," I said. "I'll have someone pull it back in later." At this point I thought Terra was going to pass out from hyperventilating.
"I'll watch her," Brook said.
"Ok, so we meet tomorrow to discuss next steps?" Gale asked. We all nodded.
"Ok," Terra said, finally back in English, "Elementals on three?" She put her hand in the center of our circle. We all piled our hands on top.
"One, two, three. Elementals!" we all said, throwing our hands up.