Powers Awakened

Amora walked through the door first and asked Leon if he could watch her for a minute.

He put down his phone and looked, signaling to her that he was ready to watch.

She felt nervous and held her hand at a small box and shot air at it, causing it to slide across the floor.

He was happy and explained that her extra element was finally showing up, and she was happy that he didn't panic. She listened to Leon as he said that he could help her train with air and sometimes with fire. Reyon interrupted and said that she'll help with fire since she was better with it.

Leon turned around saying, "Ooooh no. There is no way." Amora began laughing as Reyon declared a small fight only using fire. Leon agreed and Amora left the house just as Leon got knocked over with Reyon jumping on top of him. Andrew smiled at her and asked, "So, did it go well?" Amora smiled back and said, "For me at least." Andrew looked inside and began walking away from the house.

"Well... Leon lost." Amora let out a small laugh and replied with, "I assumed so."

As they walked through the forest to the spot that they originally were at. Andrew helped her use her electricity and aim it. She wasn't perfect at it yet but got better thanks to Andrew holding her arm still. "The worst part is going to be the kickback from the shock. Your body isn't used to it."

Amora understood this but felt that it was taking too long already.

***

Jackson stood up from the bench and pulled out his phone.

"Yeah?" He asked his father, who was calling from inside the house.

"I gotta go somewhere. It's an Elemental attacking Police Officers, and he's trapped himself in a building. Are you coming with to watch the situation and learn or staying with your little girlfriend?" Cody asked as he began laughing.

"I think I'll stay," Jackson said, shutting off his phone without saying anything else to his father, who he was angry with. Aya began laughing at how rude he was being and said, "Well that's one way to hang up."

Jackson smiled and sat back down and continued to talk with her about stupid topics like who you would revive first if you could revive someone and Aya mentioned a list of celebrities with Jackson was just saying that he wouldn't revive anyone as to not mess with people who went to the burial or witnessed the death.

***

"Now don't even try to get involved." Tavan began walking away, but Shirley quickly asked, "Where is she now then?!"

Tavan once again stopped and stated, "With her parents."

Shirley's eyes widened and she asked, "You guys found who her parents were?"

Tavan sighed and sadly said, "I always knew... when she spent the night, she tried hiding the mark... on her right arm, but I saw it. I only knew that Darkness had her, I didn't know that she was Leon's daughter, so it's not our fault."

Shirley was even more surprised that Amora's parents were Leon and Reyon, but what disturbed her most was that her father was lying. Every time he lied his pupils would slightly dilate. When he mentioned not knowing Amora was Leon and Reyon's child, his eyes dilated a lot more than usual.

Shirley walked away and began wondering why her father wouldn't say anything to Leon about it. "He'd let her spend the night here and hang out around the house... but he'd never go to Leon and Reyon's house... did he not want to be caught knowing the truth?" Shirley whispered to herself once making it to her room. Shirley was sure she was just overthinking it and that his eyes may have dilated due to the light being bright.

Shirley picked up her phone and began to try to call Amora, but with no answer. "She probably left her phone alone. Great. Now I'll have to wait to see her. I just hope she is okay... her and Andrew, she must be going through a lot."

Shirley's door creaked and she turned to see Cal watching her. Now realizing he was caught he asks, "Are you talking to yourself again?"

Shirley became annoyed and embarrassed and replied with another question to top his, "Isn't it time for you to go to bed?"

Cal sighed and replied with an answer to her question, "No, I'm 15 so I can stay up all night. Especially since school is canceled because of your bus driver."

Shirley thought it was funny that he was acting like an adult. "Okay Mr. 15 year old. I'm 17 and so I can still kick you out of my room by doing just one thing."

Cal laughed and began saying, "You don't scare m-" when Shirley interrupted by jumping out of bed and sprinted towards the door, Cal shrieked in fear and ran. Shirley began laughing and closed the door, making sure to lock it. She then laid in her bed, lost in thought. She picked up her phone once again and viewed Amora's social media accounts to see that she started following an account by the name of Flowery_Springs.

***

Amora had trained with Andrew, Reyon, and Leon all day and was exhausted. She flopped onto her bed and even turned on the air conditioner, despite being a couple of days until December.

Amora yawned and sat in front of the air conditioner and after her sweat had dried she sat back down on her bed. After thinking over all of the training sessions she had that day, she began to think of how the Elements were affecting her. Using fire, she observed that it made her sweat easier and become hot. Using air, she felt cool and lightweight. While using electricity, she felt calm and energized.

She knew that she would need to improve her powers somehow and so she had decided to try using them for everyday needs. She shut off the air conditioner and began using the element of air. Air began lightly shooting from her fingers and blew her phone off of her stand and onto the rug laying on the floor. She picked it up and began fanning her face, the air blowing felt nice and better than the air conditioner. Next, she moved to the bathroom and held her hand in cold water. She then used her hand to heat the water and dry her hands. She began sweating and so she went back to the air trick to save herself from the sweat which was beginning to smell. Next, she tried the riskiest test yet. She held her finger to the charging outlet on her phone and attempted a small shock. It went into the phone and she moved her finger away to see her phone had gone up by only 3%. Trying to be optimistic, she told herself it was a great start.

Once again she yawned and looked outside to see that it was quite dark. She smiled at how calm it was in the house and finally Andrew and Aya entered the room. Aya sat on her bed next to Amora's and began telling Amora about how Jackson and she were talking about the craziest things.

Amora partially zoned out and after awhile and Andrew had begun snoring.

Aya turned and threw a pillow at him yelling, "Dang! That's loud!"

Amora giggled and laid her head on her pillow. Aya retrieved her pillow as Andrew turned to his other side and stopped snoring. Aya seemed to quickly fall asleep.

At some point, Amora had as well and was soon awakened in the middle of the night to hear crying. She lifted her head and walked over to the sound, which seemed to be Andrew. She leaned closer and saw Andrew was crying in his sleep. Amora's heart ached for him and while Aya would laugh if she was awake, Amora couldn't. She noticed that Andrew was also sweating a lot. Amora put her hand on his shoulder and his crying stopped. She then hugged him while he was asleep and said "It's okay... I promise it'll be okay..." Amora almost found herself crying and so she stepped back and began letting air come from her fingers.

She began fanning Andrew until his sweat was gone. She turned and could see that Aya was sweating too, but sleeping peacefully. Amora made sure to help Aya as well and after cooling them down she turned on the air conditioner and laid in her bed once again, this time wondering why it was so hot in the house compared to the other night.

Amora checked the time on her phone only to see that it was 2 in the morning. She looked down from the time and saw two notifications. She unlocked her phone and opened the social media app to see that she had a message from someone.

She opened the messaging tab and saw a message from Shirley's account. Amora's eyes widened and she quickly tapped on the message. The first message read, "Hey Amora, I have been sending messages to you and you have sent some back but we are never quick enough to reply to each other. When you get this, reply and we can talk about meeting again." Followed by a smiling emoji.

Amora was quick to begin typing and felt very happy that Shirley wanted to meet up somewhere. Shirley had sent the messages hours before, but Amora was sure that Shirley would see them in the morning. "I woke up next to the bus, and Andrew was there too! I had to help him, but he told me that he was an Elemental, I soon found out that the heroes I loved so dearly were my parents! I was surprised, but before that, I found out I was an Elemental as well. I thought it was just fire, but soon air showed up as well. I also have a quick question... you have electricity and water right?" Amora sent the message, and in a couple of seconds, she sent another message,

"Well recently I have been able to use electricity, and Andrew and I learned of Leon's ability to absorb Elements, but Andrew determined it was through blood touching the inside of Leon's mouth. So he's assuming I can absorb as well, but then again, how did I get electricity? I never drank any of your blood..." Amora sent that message as well and passed out staring at her phone.

***

She woke up at 7 AM and noticed she was the first one awake. Amora sat up and realized her phone had died because she fell asleep with it on. She sighed and put it on the charger. She waited, and when it turned on, she checked her messages just as Shirley sent one. It read, "You've always said you wanted to be an Elemental! It's just a little strange that your powers appeared now. Anyway, it's strange that you have electricity, but ask Andrew to give you a little of his blood and see if you can get his element! Let me know the results, and I'll keep begging my father to let me go see you!" Amora replied, "I'll pass, drinking blood would be gross! I wouldn't like that at all! Anyway, I know your dad can't say "no" to you, so I guess I'll see you soon!" and with that Amora turned off her phone to let it charge.

***

"No," Tavan said without batting an eye.

"What?! Why not? Come on dad! I haven't seen her for weeks now and things changed!" Shirley said, believing that this was extremely unfair and stupid.

"I said no because it could be dangerous. She is being targeted and so it's for the best that you don't go."

Shirley yelled in anger and said, "Well I'll just walk then!" Shirley ran outside as her dad yelled after her.

After walking for almost 10 minutes, a car parked next to her, she turned and saw that her mother had been following her.

"I'll take you, I just need you to promise that you'll be safe." Shirley stepped in the car and promised her mother that she would be careful. Shirley's mom then synced her phone to the car and started playing Shirley's favorite song. Shirley cheered up almost instantly. "Thanks, mom," Shirley said, and her mother just nodded.

***

Aya woke up and after showering, started talking to Amora. Amora then mentioned that Shirley should be coming sometime that day and Aya asked questions about Shirley. "Well, she's been my friend for the longest time." Amora stopped to think and then said, "I think you'll like her." Amora said, still feeling like she replaced Shirley.

***

After a while of talking, Andrew finally woke up. He said he had a bad dream and Aya laughed and said, "About what? How scary your face is?" Aya turned to Amora, still laughing when suddenly a pillow came from nowhere and smacked Aya on the back of the head. Aya turned to attack Andrew, but he created a huge paper plane to soar above them both. Aya chased Andrew out of the room, creating a bird that flew after him. Amora observed the bird fly so carefully and began thinking about ways she could float. She held her hands down, her palms facing the floor and shot fire out of her palms, it didn't even lift her so she tried air, it managed to get her up quickly, only for her to fall back down to the ground as she couldn't balance the air underneath her. She smiled thinking that with enough practice, she could easily float.

Aya and Andrew finally stopped chasing each other and Jackson was seemingly looking for someone. Finally, he turned around to face Reyon and asked calmly, "Have you seen my father yet?"

Reyon squinted her eyes as if in deep thought. "I don't think I have... he left for something yesterday, hadn't he?" Jackson sighed and told her that Cody had surely left yesterday. Reyon could tell that Jackson looked bummed out and so she reassured him, saying "I'm sure he'll be right back. And when he does, you should try showing him something new you've learned."

Jackson tried to think of something he'd done, but he had to reply with, "But I haven't learned anything new to show him... I don't think I'd want to show him anything anyways."

Reyon giggled and said, "I know you haven't learned anything. That's the point! You are supposed to learn something new to show him." Jackson sighed and smiled. "I guess you're right. If I don't learn anything new, I'll have nothing to show. So I guess I have to go learn something right now!" Jackson left feeling a little uneasy, but considerably determined to get his father's attention and approval.

***

Amora exited the room and walked down the hallway. She passed through the kitchen and walked down the three steps leading to the living room.

She sat down on the couch just as the front door opened and Leon lead Shirley inside. Amora's heart skipped many beats as she pushed herself off the couch, almost falling. She ran over to Shirley and threw her arms around her. They both sat still for a moment before Leon also joined in.

Amora was the first to step back and Leon followed after her. He walked to the kitchen and started to make something. Amora, Aya, and Shirley had to share a room, while Andrew and Jackson had shared another room upstairs.

Amora realized that she hadn't been upstairs much nor has she been on many of the elevator floors. She knew she was able to go wherever she wanted since it was her parent's home, but it didn't seem to hit her that she was the daughter of THE Leon and Reyon, it was just so sudden and-

"Amora?" Shirley asked, seeming concerned for her friend. Amora, now pulled from her thoughts replied: "Oh um... yeah?" Aya and Shirley began laughing and Amora felt embarrassed.

What seemed like hours had only been minutes as Amora explained to Shirley what had happened to her. After Amora had explained, Shirley explained what happened to her, Shirley was seemingly curious as she asked Aya a quick harmless question,

"You lived in the city right? What school did you go to then, if not to our school?"

It took Aya a while to remember her school's name but she finally replied.

"It's in the city, despite being quite far, I took the bus there and back and had no friends, I liked it that way since everyone in the city wanted to be... well... famous, always posting things for views. It was pretty funny. The things they did to become famous were funny, everyone was competing to become cool and popular on the internet. It was fun to watch until a kid who no one paid much attention to thought he'd get famous by climbing the school and doing tricks..."

Aya stopped and looked towards the window.

"He fell." she wouldn't continue speaking and Amora and Shirley, both very scared and concerned for the boy, asked simultaneously, "Did he... die?"

Aya sighed and continued, "Luckily, no. Unfortunately, he went into a coma from the damage to his skull. He recovered, but he wasn't there anymore. He was fine, but he wouldn't speak to anyone."

She stopped and asked, "Can you guess why?"

Amora and Shirley were stumped and couldn't figure it out, and so minutes later Aya continued to finish her story. "Nobody helped him, everyone just pulled out their phones and recorded his fall, so they posted it and it went viral. People thought it was fake and loved it, and so his reputation would have been good since people would have just believed he was good at special effects or stunts, but that wouldn't even last. His "stunt" appeared on the news and was spread around, his reputation sank so far he stopped coming to school."

Aya stopped the story and Amora and Shirley were so immersed that they had to sit up and ask, "Is that it?" Aya smiled and then proceeded to frown as she replied with: "Yeah, I think he moved away... no one has seen him since, and nobody felt bad either."

***

Andrew set up his bed in the second guest room on the second floor, and flopped onto his inflatable mattress, only to fall straight to the floor. He let out a groan and said, "This damn thing won't inflate!"

He was almost ready to give up when Jackson got off of his perfectly inflated bed and started helping Andrew. Andrew's mattress finally expanded with Jackson's help and this irritated Andrew so he threw a snide remark to Jackson. "I didn't need your help." He said beginning to sit down.

Jackson seemingly stared at his phone, although Andrew could tell that Jackson was bothered by something, Jackson then responded, "I know." softly.

Andrew began to feel guilty, so he shifted to his side to look away from Jackson. It took him a while but he was eventually able to say: "Thank you."

Jackson smiled weakly as he switched off the light. The rest of that night was quiet for them.

***

Aya and Shirley were talking about things they have in common when suddenly they began arguing. Amora stepped in and asked what was wrong, but they wouldn't budge.

"What happened? Aya? Shirley? If you don't tell me I can't help you!" There was a brief and annoying silence before Aya turned and asked,

"Who do you think you could trust more, Me or Shirley?" sounding very frustrated.

Amora felt frozen, the pressure of the choice and their intense glares escalating.

"It's me right? I've known you longer!" Shirley yelled while Amora began to beg her to calm down and be quieter.

"I trust you both! You can't make me choose between you guys! Shirley, could you choose between your parents? Aya could you choose between Jackson and Me?" Aya and Shirley both looked surprised that Amora yelled at them, and Amora could tell they were surprised so she sighed and sat down on her bed.

"I'm sorry, but please... let's not fight right now." After that they all went to their beds, falling asleep at different times.

***

The Next Morning, a tragic event began to unfold a series of catastrophic disasters.

***

"This morning, a tragic event had occurred in downtown Salvador. Continue watching for more details." said the TV Reported for Salvador's most-watched News Station.

The female reporter continued talking about something else as Leon and Reyon watched intensely.

"Cody... Cody was downtown... wasn't he?" Leon asked, feeling sick to his stomach.

"Yeah... maybe he is just investigating this new problem?" Reyon said, coming up with anything as to not think of Cody as dead or missing.

"No... he wouldn't stray away from the original plan... he was supposed to follow him. We were meant to meet up with him today... The kids weren't meant to know of this..." Leon and Reyon were both felt worried and assumed the worst.

"Well, we have to go. We have no choice. We have to go to his cabin."

***

After a long drive with Shirley, Amora, Andrew, Aya, and Jackson all stuffed into the back five seats of the car, they arrived on a long road to Cody's house.

Reyon and Leon could see that Jackson was very scared of what could be ahead, but Leon and Reyon were just relieved to see that Cody wasn't on the list of victims of the incident. Which had been an explosion in an underground parking lot. They walked into the cabin and looked around.

"So... does Cody live here?" Shirley asked Jackson in an attempt to cheer him up.

"No... he'd bring my mom and me when we wanted to camp out. Sometimes we'd take tents outside and just camp in those, I got my own so it was pretty nice."

Shirley was surprised that it actually seemed to help Jackson. After finding no signs of anything, everybody left the cabin. Jackson decided to sit next to the building and Leon and Reyon went to another side of the cabin to begin talking. Amora, Aya, Shirley, and Andrew all headed into the nearby woods, since Andrew, Aya, and Amora were used to talking and messing around in the woods.

Leon takes his phone out of his pocket and puts it up to his ears to listen to the phonecall from Hexcorp. (Hexigan Corporation)

The person on the other end announces to Leon a sentence before hanging up. "Cody's body has been found, report to Hexcorp."

Leon's eyes widened and Reyon asked what the problem was.

Jackson who was originally uninterested in their conversation, leaned his ear onto the corner of the cabin, listening for news of his father. Leon began telling Reyon the news, "Cody... they found his body... he's dead."

Reyon held her stomach and turned, she began shaking as she replied: "He was right... that person is a huge problem for us right now... we have to keep everyone safe... if he killed Cody, it won't be long until he gets the info on where everyone else is..."

Leon and Reyon walked the other way around the cabin and Jackson ran inside, he felt tears welling up in his eyes and he kept slamming his hand onto the cabin's walls as he ran to the bathroom, locking the door and throwing up.

"Dad... no... this can't... be real... no..." Jackson finally slouched down to the ground next to the toilet.

The cabin front door was suddenly blocked by someone who just entered. They then begin spilling a liquid out of a container and throwing a match down into it.

They head for the bathroom and use a tool to get the door to unlock. Jackson looked up from the toilet and could see two glowing purple eyes peeking through the now slightly opened door. Looking directly into the eyes, he felt insane fear, but it was too late as the figure walked slowly towards him, brandishing a rusty knife, it's edge bent ever so slightly.

***

Amora almost tripped over a tree root and only managed to catch herself by shooting out air and using the force of the air to push herself back up.

Andrew instantly began clapping and Shirley gasped.

"I almost forgot! I assumed that since you were the child of Leon and Reyon that you had some kind of element, but did you get both of theirs? Or just air?"

Amora looked at Andrew as if asking if she should tell Shirley about it. Andrew looked down for a couple of seconds, only to look up and do an unnoticeable nod that it was okay.

Amora turned back to look at Shirley and said, "Well I have fire as well... so I guess I'm like you and got both. It's quite strange how Elementals are getting both of their parent's elements now, more than they had before, it's really weird."

Shirley smiled. "I just hope-" Aya began talking when suddenly they all could smell smoke from somewhere nearby.

***

They all followed the smell through the forest to see Cody's cabin on fire. They could see Leon kicking at the door. Aya gasped as if realizing that Jackson was inside.

Everyone else caught on and began running up to help. Leon turned and used an air blast, which pushed them all off of their feet and backward down the small hill.

"Hey! What the hell you old man?!" Andrew screamed over the sound of the loud fire. Leon finally broke the door down and he ram in, about 20 seconds later he cane out holding Jackson in his arms. He rushed away from the cabin and Reyon also followed, leading everyone away.

Hexcorp planes flew overhead, dropping large amounts of water, but to seemingly no effect. Amora watched as the cabin collapsed and the walls crumbled down.

She noticed that everyone else was running away, and so she began running as well as a sudden explosion came from somewhere within the cabin. The blast pushes Amora and everyone further away, Amora tumbled and rolled and went unconscious as she slid against the ground, finally stopping the painful tumble.

***

Amora's eyes briefly opened and closed. She could see bright lights and could breathe fresh air. She opened her eyes wider to see Leon and Reyon sitting next to her. She noticed that she was in a hospital bed and attempted to climb out, only for her parents to both nudge her back.

"You can't move yet. It's only been a couple of hours." Amora turned to look around the room and noticed that she had been burned on her neck somehow, and there were now bandages wrapped around her wound. She could barely talk well since she had inhaled smoke, but she managed to ask,

"Is everyone okay?" Leon sat up straight and replied with, "Everyone else is, yes. We brought them back to our house and Shirley is going home soon. We made sure that Aya and Andrew were okay, but Aya was just too worried for Jackson."

Amora took a minute to process everything and then asked, "Is Jackson okay?"

To which Reyon responded, "He is just barely holding on. He had inhaled a lot of smoke and was stabbed once in his chest. The doctors don't know if he could survive everything... Cody is dead. We went to Hexcorp when they were taking care of you here and they showed us his body. His face was full of fear, and he had a stab wound in the same spot as Jackson."

She stopped to let Amora speak, "Is someone trying to kill everyone now?"

Reyon responded very honestly. "Maybe. Cody was supposed to monitor the person, but we couldn't get any info on their name. We believe he targeted Jackson because he is related to Cody, and if Jackson were to become the new owner of Hexcorp, Jackson would be able to get info on this person."

Amora turned on her other side and began silently crying, her feelings overcoming her and causing much heartache. The man she saw reading a newspaper, Cody... was dead... his son... who was kind to her and who she shared memories with... was very close to death.