The Gifted

Fire, More Fire, and Some Lightning

Taylor woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm going off, as usual. Taylor ate breakfast, as usual, and then went to the corner of Union and Walter street, and waited for the rest of the group to show up. A purple oval took shape in the air above Taylor, and as he stepped over to the side, Jace dropped lightly to the ground in front of him. Jace gave a curt nod to Taylor and leaned against the stop sign. Taylor and Jace waited, and Analise and Jack walked up, one after the other. Everybody exchanged their pleasantries, and Jack said "Shall we get going? School starts soon." Everybody agreed, and they all stepped back away from each other, saying their names and grades, all erupting in their own multi-colored lights, vanishing an instant later. They got to the doors of the school as the bells rang and the doors opened, and they all went their separate ways to first period. Mr. Brautigan greeted all of his students at the door, and since none of the previous classes yesterday had given any homework, the study hall was really a chatting hall until the bell rang, upon which the students all went to the gym to work on their powers. When Taylor walked through the doors, a bird swooped down, draped in gold, heat radiating from its wings, almost hitting him had he not ducked. It flapped its wings a few times, and then flew over to Analise, alighting on her arm. She stroked it a few times and then dropped her arm, the bird disappearing in a flash. Jace was off on his own again, sitting on the benches. Coach walked in, shouted "Everybody gather 'round!" and stood at the center of the gym floors. "Now," he said. "You know what your powers are. Today, we are going to test them on each other. Jace has graciously volunteered, you all will try your best to break through his defenses and hurt him." Isaac, also known as Midas behind his back, said "isn't that dangerous and, you know, illegal?" Coach looked at him and said "Good question! Answer? Yes and no! We have somebody on standby who is one of the most proficient healers in the country!" He nodded to a corner of the gym, where a taller woman strode out of. She had long, golden hair and bright green eyes. Coach said "Now, Pierce, since you seem nice and confident in your own abilities, you go first." Pierce looked a little uneasy at the thought of facing off against Jace, but he got into position nonetheless. Coach said "Now, before we begin, does anybody here get hurt by their own powers?" Not a single person raised their hands. "Good!" He said. "Excellent. Well, gentlemen, you may begin." Jace got off the bleachers and got into position, keeping his hands loosely to his sides. Pierce rubbed his hands together and then held them out at right angles to his body as they lit up and started dripping with flame. Pierce started gathering the flame into one hand, fashioning it into a ball, and then he threw it at Jace like a baseball. Jace simply raised his hand, and the baseball of doom flew into a freshly made portal, coming out behind Pierce and hitting him in the back of the head. Pierce wiped his head off and gathered more fiery goop into his hands before lobbing it at Jace again. Jace raised his hand again, and this time the ball hit Pierce in the face, covering it with fire, drooping onto his clothes and the floor. Pierce snatched it off of his face, and threw tow more, which just came back and hit him in the face one after the other. Isaac leaned over to Taylor and said "You think he would have learned his lesson by now." They both laughed at this, drawing attention to themselves from Pierce. Coach stepped in before Pierce could throw any more fireballs and said "That's enough, Pierce. Next up, Analise." Pierce sulked off back over to his group of friends, as others made way for Analise to walk into position opposite of Jace. Analise turned side-on and raised her hands into a defensive position as if she were about to fist-fight Jace. Her hands were open, and she closed them suddenly, erupting a ring of pure flame around Jace. He looked around himself, nodded thoughtfully, looked back at Analise, and disappeared through a portal he had opened at his feet. He came out directly behind Analise, and as he strode forwards, Analise turned around. Jace reached out, and was a few inches away from grabbing her arm when she started burning brightly. The fire was all around her, in her hair, coming from her face, her body, everywhere. Jace recoiled, unburned even though he was most certainly within the flames when they came out. He just frowned slightly and opened up a portal underneath her feet, sending her crashing to the floor where Jace was earlier. She stood up, clearly fuming now, her face and the fact that she was literally on fire reminding Taylor of good old Mrs. Sprick, who tried to tag-team burn and blast him with her daughter at the warehouse not 4 days ago. Taylor was still pretty shaken up about that. Back to the matter at hand, Analise raised her arms, hands splayed out towards Jace. She pulled them back, and pushed them forwards again, sending streams of fire that burned a beautiful, deadly blue right at Jace. He simply raised one hand, and instead of a portal opening up in front of him, an opaque purple wall materialized in front of him, acting as a shield from the flames. The Flames shot out to either side of the wall, almost hitting a group of girls that were a bit too close to the duel. Coach yelled "Stop this! Analise, stop before you hurt someone!" Analise cut the flames off suddenly and dropped to her knees. Before anybody could react, Jack was at her side, helping her up. The healer that had been watching from her corner of the gymnasium took a few long strides, and started checking Analise to make sure nothing was wrong. "Look into my eyes," she said. Analise looked, and the woman's eyes flashed brightly. "She'll be fine," the woman said. She strode back over to her corner and sat down into a conveniently placed chair. Coach said "I think that's all the time we have left today, kids. Well done." The bell rang just a few minutes later, which to Taylor and Isaac, were long and filled with hateful stares out of Pierce. The next few classes were uneventful, with teachers finally assigning homework just like any other school. Taylor met up with Analise, Jack and Jace outside the front steps of the school in the courtyard after classes were over. Taylor said to Analise, "wow, that was a pretty impressive display you put on there." Analise blushed a bit and said "thanks. I kind of wish I had done more than nothing to Jace here." Jace simply smiled and said "better luck next time." Taylor turned as Pierce yelled out "Hey sparky!" from across the courtyard. Pierce was walking towards Taylor and his group of friends as he shouted "You think you're funny? Huh, sparky? Laughing at me earlier?" Taylor took a few steps forward and said "I mean, it wasn't not funny, the way you ate your own fire." A few people around him laughed at that, but quickly stopped and averted their eyes when Pierce shot them glares. He said to Taylor "I think you need a little lesson, sparky." Taylor grew agitated and said, "don't call me that." Pierce said "why not, sparky? Don't like the name sparky, sparky? What if I do something else you don't like? His arms lit up with liquid fire, dripping onto the grass and burning. "What if I send a little fire into your little group of friends? What if I-" Taylor's voice boomed across the courtyard, and a thunderbolt crashed in the clouds overhead. The skies grew dark as he shouted "THAT'S ENOUGH!" His eyes were glowing a brilliant blue, and electricity was arcing between his fingertips, his hair on end. "YOU WILL LEAVE MY FRIENDS OUT OF THIS." More lightning flashed across the sky in a thunderous roar to match his voice, sending some people running for what little cover there was. A few even left in their flashing colored portals to the ground. Pierce extinguished his flames and backed up so fast he almost fell over. He muttered "this isn't over" and sulked off to the edge of the courtyard, disappearing in his own flash of dark, muddy red. Taylor was vaguely aware of the fact that his feet had left the ground a little bit, and when he turned around, everyone was standing there gaping at him. Everyone except Jace, of course. He only nodded approvingly. "That," said Jack, "was amazing." Analise crossed her arms and said "Sparky indeed." With that said, they all teleported back down to the street corner and went back home.

Up in his office, Principal Windonson had no need of his seeing glass. He could not have had a more perfect view than from his office window, which overlooked the courtyard below. This was a very interesting turn of events. Very interesting indeed. He turned from his window and sat down in his chair behind his desk. He said to Miss Hays "there will be no need to follow any of them tonight. Have a good evening." She turned smartly on her heel, and stalked out of his office in her vulture-like stance. Avery Windonson sat leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled under his chin, lost in thought for hours on end. 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Hopefully I'm back for a bit so I can keep this story going. Don't forget to leave a like and maybe even a follow!