Powers

Chapter 1: overheard

"Hey Jack?" Mark came through the vines I had just revived. I moved around my sink, using the water to aid the flowers I grew in my hand. I placed them in the vase I got.
"Yeah?" I turned to face him. He put his hands around my arms.
"I was just wondering if you could fix the tree out back?" His face turned red.
"Now what did you do?" I pulled one of my arms away so I could push his blue hair out of his face. I liked seeing his face.
"I may or may not have been messing around and accidentally broke a branch"
"It's alright. Some branches just need to go as well." I looked out the window into our wooded backyard. A small branch lay on the ground at the foot of one of the mighty spruce trees. I snorted.
"What?" He wrapped his arms around me.
"You feel bad about that one little branch?" I adored his honesty though.
"Well yeah. After all, you did grow that tree"
"With your help" suddenly I felt water dripping down my legs. I looked down to see my pants were soaked, making it looked like I peed myself. "Ack! Really!?" I laughed, pushing Mark off of me.
"Ha! You should know this by now!" He laughed as he dodged a large stick being thrown at him.
"You're a jerk! I should grow a Venus flytrap made specially for getting you" I chuckled.
"Well you know you still love me" he came up to me. He planted a kiss on my nose before he frolicked out of the house.
"Yeah. I do" I mumbled to myself. I had to go to work. The way it worked in the island, was everything was free. But of course, you had to take part in building, growing, and fixing everything. I was a gardener. I grew the trees, only to my height though, because that's all I'm capable of on my own. Then I would grow the fruit on them. If we needed cooler weather for certain plants, Felix and I would work together. His barely blue hair gave him the power of cold. Not ice, just cold.
Today happened to be recruitment day. Meaning dozens of more poor innocent children would be joining us on the island. They would be assigned to an adult with a similar gift to them, and would stay with them until they grew older. I never had been paired with a child. Nor Mark. Mostly due to the prejudice of Leader. He didn't like gay couples, finding it despicable, but Mark and I didn't care. We were happy in our little house. Quiet, sensible, and not big enough for a child. Perfect.
I walked outside to join the rest of the community walking towards the air strip. An airplane would bring the children. They had such weird technology. Nothing like ours. Well we had none. Not even electricity. I can barely remember what it was like to even have such a thing. A curfew kept us in our homes at night and talking by candle light.
"Hey earth boy" Felix called. He slammed his hand down on my shoulder, sending a rush of cold air around me.
"Hey" I smiled. His girlfriend, Marzia joined him. She had the power of floating. It was barely noticeable, but she never had her feet on the ground. She always wore graceful dresses that flowed behind her as she floated along. I guess it was enough for her to be sent. With them was a little girl from last year. Her name was Marie. A stunning blue-blonde hair colour gave her the power of frost. She loved frosting my flowers. She kept them all. Her favourite were morning glories.
"Jack!" She squealed. She skipped over to me, using her ice to grow stairs so she could get up to my height. Felix must've been teaching her. "Can I have another flower?" She out stretched her hands. I smiled. As I was about to make one, Marzia glared at me.
"Marie, what do you say?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Oh. Can I please have another flower uncle Jack?" I adored her. Since Felix, Mark, and I were pretty close, Marie named us as If we were family. I loved it.
"Well sure you can" I put my hands together. In it, a morning glory sprouted from my hand, growing until it was fully sized. I plucked it, then putting it in her tiny hand. She took it, crystallizing it instantly.
"Thank you!" She ran off behind Marzia then.
"You're so good with children, Jack. I don't understand why the council won't allow you and Mark to have one residing with you" Marzia spoke. She floated to my side.
"I think it's because they don't agree with Mark and I being together" I shrugged. Up ahead I spotted Mark's impossibly blue hair.
"Nonsense. They shouldn't be prejudice towards such a thing. People of the modern world certainly do not treat gays like such" what? What does she know about the other world? None of us had been there since we were taken.
"You know about the world?" I turned towards her.
"Well of course. I don't just idly use my powers." She giggled.
"You've been there?" I raised my voice.
"Shh. No one can know of my adventures! I'd be convicted of treason of some sorts" she hushed me.
"Sorry"
"It's alright. Why don't you go catch up with Mark. There are less and less parents that do not have children yet" she ushered me off. I waved goodbye to them before I went up to Mark. We were to be put in the 'expecting parents' section. Or basically whatever housemates hadn't had a child yet. It was illegal for two of us to have a biological child, as there were plenty.
Then how could any of us come to be you may ask? Well it's locked in the genes of only a lucky certain strain of families. Only about six. Each had an element that had a series of different ways it could be represented by. There was nature, like me, water, wind, levitation, fire, and ice. Nature wasn't like the earth element though, it was proven. All revolve around being able to grow plants of any kind. Some can only grow shrubs, others only trees.
Powers can also be combined. For example, Mark and I's powers combined give me a great advantage. Plants nearly grow five hundred times their size, but only if I allow it. Mark and Felix make the scariest of combined powers that I've seen yet. Together they can make water that freezes anything it touches. Meaning it actually needs to be touching something as it goes along. I've made contact with it once, and it is not pretty. The way powers are combined is a difficult thing to explain, but it's our forms coming together to become one entity.
We watched child after child being assigned to their new family. As every year before, Mark and I left the boarding station empty handed. Sure I was disappointed, but what choice did we have. As we left the main gates, I over heard a couple of officials speaking to one another.
"There's a huge uprising happening on the mainland. I'm afraid our people here only have so long" one mumbled. I pulled Mark off to the side, wanting to hear more.
"What are you doing?" Mark asked. I shushed him before I grew a bunch of vines around us. They wrapped themselves around us until we couldn't move and were secure in the bush.
"I dunno. Last I heard they were boarding boats coming towards the island" the same official spoke.
"And what might their plan be? We have nothing to offer. We have nothing on this island besides a bunch of freaks"
"They said they've changed. The people coming are supposedly on their side. Here to save them from the island. But I don't see how. These poor people would only be made slaves"
"Good. Let them."
"Oh for fucks sake, you aren't helping the issue here. We have an uprising coming from the enemy's side here! This cannot be good!" My heart was pounding. I thought soon they would hear it, causing us to be found out.
"What's a bit of ice power and wind going to help them, huh? We're all but useless"
"I've been overhearing rumour about that boy with the nature powers"
"What? McLoughlin?" I nearly gasped out loud.
"Yes. Something was said he's the most powerful of them. He's got the most of their powers combined. A normal nature can only do one thing, or is assigned one tiny power. Such as growing fruit. But not him. He has no limits" I looked over at Mark, who was just as wide eyed as I was.
"Agh. You'd be wrong. Half his powers are missing. Haven't you seen his hair? No other one has half their colour gone. I heard he chopped it himself as a child!" Whoever this was, was not a fan of people like us.
"You don't say.. Well if you'd seen him combine with that Fischbach boy, you'd be surprised"
"Don't worry yourself, Frank. He's just another disposable one, like the rest. Nothing will come out of him. Hell, he can't even grow anything unless he's touching dirt. Cmon, it's break" I felt sick to my stomach. I released Mark and I, but still using the plants to hold myself up. An uprising? Coming here? How? Why?
"Okay, let's get you home" Mark took me on his back. I didn't care, I didn't protest as I usually did. I needed his support right now. I didn't know how to feel, or how to act in such a situation.
I let my power sink into Mark. It was like combining our powers and our forms at the same time. But only if we allow it. A strange thing, sure, but it was helpful, and fun at the best of times.
"Aww did you have to?" Our form spoke. Mark didn't enjoy it when I joined him without telling him.
"Yeah. I did" he led us home.
Our form had brilliant teal hair. Our height only grew a foot, while our facial details combined.
"Hey, uh...?" There was a pause behind us. We turned, seeing our neighbour, Judith. We usually didn't combine our forms in public so I wouldn't doubt it if this was strange to her. "Mark? Jack?"
"Yeah" we responded.
"Um there's a meeting going on, and they were just wondering if Jack would attend?" She shook  her head. Immediately I separated myself from Mark.
"Um, okay yeah I'll come"