Mayne

9. A Bolt

                         "Ardor, Rime" lightning peeked out of her fingertips then sank back in. "What, that's not supposed to happen." Mayne started to panic "Somebody, please" despite her effort to get their attention the argument continued and Mayne could feel the surge starting up again "STOP IT!" She screamed as loud as she could. The panic mixed with her yelling had a negative effect on the lightning; it felt like it was dancing around inside her head. "Please help"

                        Everyone turned to look at her as the Lightning snuck out and began to dance across her fingers again. "Shit," Rime was closest and he dove, scooping her into his arms he rushed outside with everyone else right on his heels. He sat her down and backed away just in time to see a bolt of lightning shoot straight out of each of her hands and wind across the ground then race wildly to the sky where it lit up the sky as far as the eye could see with a loud crack that shook the neighborhood and set off alarms up and down the block. "Just stay still for a moment Mayne." Rime looked at Ardor, he shared the relief and half smiled back at Rime.

                         "What. Was. That." Mayne was surprised and out of breath. The dancing lightning sensation in her head was replaced by a dull ache of a tension migraine that was building in intensity fast. "Ow" she winced, wanting to rub her head but Rime had said not to move. She looked at Rime then Ardor, both shared the same dopey eyed look of admiration on their faces as they approached her cautiously.

                           "Well," Ardor raised his eyebrows and grimaced "that would be why you were in trouble," he nodded happily "You can move but slowly okay." She smiled in acknowledgement "the VARE organization has a way of determining who might become a high-level Elite. They prefer to get to them prior to their abilities surfacing and terminate them" he chuckled "they were highly suspicious of Elissa and apparently they are suspicious of you."

                             "That has to be why her visions were warning her, I just don't understand how we missed the fact that Mayne is on their radar?" Rime puzzled looking at Ardor.

                             "They were into Elissa right away." Ardor scratched his head in confusion. "Her ability was one they wanted to end but it seemed like they didn't care to much." He groaned "They were watching her anticipating something."

                             "For good reason" Rime folded his arms across his chest. "Elissa was already showing signs of what ability might be getting ready to surface. They must have thought that her ability was something else until they got onto Mayne's scent."

                          "But why did mine surface now," she huffed "and for it to surface this suddenly is extremely unlikely too" the answer to her question came by vision. She stiffened mostly from exhaustion as the vision started. This time it showed her an old, nearly forgotten memory...

She was 6, her parents had moved them temporarily into their Eido, Eido stood for Elite Inter-Dimensional Office, they were portable laboratories that were adrift in a bubble in between dimensions. The bubble is created naturally and adjusted and remodeled by expert Elites that then sell them to Labs. Only the owner of the Eido had the ability to access it, this is a fail-safe that is wired into the bubble as the Elite readies it for use. The Eido's are only allowed to be owned by Elite's, most of those are Elite's with weak enough abilities that they are not even looked at by VARE. Most owners rented them out to needy groups for high profit but her parents, were the rare exception; they owned one of the largest recorded bubbles.