Four

The sudden glare from the fluorescent lights was the first thing Hibis saw when she came to.

The quite oblivious girl tried to shield herself, eyes seeing black spots as she squinted, but then realisation hit her when she couldn’t move her arms. She was gagged and bound against a chair, a chair you’d find at a dentist, with a syringe filled of some subtracting substance inches away from her, sitting on a metallic tray.

Where am I? Hibis was flooded with fear and had the urge to scream, loud like a cry for help, until a silvery voice stopped her. “Oh, Hibis, you’re awake. Calm down.” the voice laughed.

Footsteps slowly approached her and Hibis side-eyed to see a girl with raven-coloured hair whose golden dusted eyes seemed to stare back at Hibis with a strong intensity, as if she was a lab rat.

From the scene she was in, Hibis probably was.

The raven-haired girl settled down next to the chair, playing with the syringe as she checked the liquids contained inside it. The aura given off by her seemed dangerous. Hibis gulped, feeling goosebumps from a sudden shiver.

Raven-haired girl spotted the poor girl’s unease and laughed rather…wickedly. “Calm down Hibi! It’s just an injection to find out the power of oneself,” and without hesitation, plunged the syringe into Hibis’s arm. Hibis watched as the transparent liquid seeped out of the needle, too numb to react, and to her horror, the girl added another liquid to the syringe and poked it into Hibis again before retracting it out, this time with force.

Hibis yelped, crying out from the sudden pain as Raven-hair placed a cotton bud to stop the bleeding. Despite that, a shade of dark red seeped into the snowy-white material. Hibis’s bounds and gag fell off just like that and the poor girl laid still, nausea washing over her.

Still she watched the Raven-hair waltz out, and not quite before examining the liquid that had been Hibis’s blood in the syringe with glee.

“Enjoy your time here while you can…”

Hibis staggered out of the chair, her arm burning like hell could have burned. It felt as if she would ever recover, but as soon as her vision became clearer, the dentist room dissolved into the laboratory that she had fainted in. The girl couldn’t make sense of it, and because of whatever substance it was that was injected into her, all she could think of was to leave the room and head to the last place she left Ace. The Scene.

Hibis made it there in the nick of time, somehow barely getting lost just as her brain fogged up. She stumbled into the thin glass panel, which teleported her into a circular room with 360 degree glass view of the world in the clouds, except it wasn’t Capital Jevin… it was a whole new world.

Her daze and flurry dissolved and she gaped in amazement as flying saucers filled the air. Futuristic buildings towered above the clouds and walking further, she could also see trees that twisted into a full canopy forest. Looking down, Hibis’s lips eased into a smile as minuscule catfishes swam beneath her. Whoever had built the place was creative, really creative.

“Hibis?” Ace’s familiar voice echoed from behind Hibis and the girl whipped around to see the boy, relief flooding her before guilt seeped in. “Oh, Ace, I’m so so sorry-” to her surprise, the worried lad gripped onto her shoulders tightly, shaking her. “Don’t be. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have argued. Just don’t. Ever. Leave my sight again.” His hands trailed down her arm and Hibis yelped as it brushed against her injection.

Ace jumped, for he felt something different, but was alarmed by the girl’s reaction all the same. “What happened?”

Hibis showed him the slight scar and explained how she was bound to a chair and injected, not once but twice. If Ace thought the second injection was puzzling, he didn’t show it. However, he seemed to understand the injection scene well.

“Yeah, we have to do that to track the rate of your element. It can either decrease its power or increase, so we have to keep track in case of emergencies. Oh, and Raven-haired girl, she’s Raven, one of our brains,” Ace smiled at the thought. “She helps out with everything here. Keen girl she is…” Then suddenly snapped back. Suddenly, he realised what he was supposed to do.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone else.”

~

Ace hadn’t meant to anger Hibis, or himself. He hadn’t meant to make her leave like that. He just had a tight schedule and all the adrenaline from the fact that he was finally going to fulfil his parent’s prophecy had made him impatient.

Why did he even indirectly state that Hibis didn’t have common sense? From all she had been through, the girl certainly had the brains and brightness to conquer anything, even a villain’s heart.

Wait, what?

Ace shook his head, cheeks heating up. He had to get Hibis to start training, and help out with whatever it was that she was supposed to help with. Leading her to the training sector, the lad felt his pride bloom as Hibis exhaled with a breathless “woah..” as she took in all the training equipment and sections for the various elements.

Ace clapped his hands, and watched as his fellow trainees stood at attention. “Could the executive 13 to 16 year olds come to me, please?” Almost at once, a bunch of trainees were by his side.

The lad jolted Hibis away from staring at a 8 year old boy. He was gathering a ball of fire from a piece of lighter with such ease and concentration, before he lunged his arms back and flung it at a dart board with all his might, causing it to erupt into flames. Ace couldn’t help but spot Hibis’s eyes sparkle at such a simple trick. He felt his lips turn up at the thought of surprising her further. He manoeuvred the girl to face the trainees gathered around them.

“Go on,” he nudged her gently and she stepped forward to greet her future colleagues.

A chubby boy, 15, with Asian features was picked first, a packet of opened chips in hand. Seeing as he was deliberately stared at, he muttered “Gimme a sec,” and disappeared before appearing again, this time his hands empty and clean. He grinned, and Hibis returned the smile. “I’m Maximam, with the elements of eatin-woah, I mean teleportation.” Maximam, or Max, gave a sheepish grin to something he had almost said. Hibis laughed along with the others at his silliness, and Ace smiled, too, glad it hadn’t ruined anything.

Once Max stepped away, a girl with beautiful damp blonde hair bounded into his place, seemingly balancing a glop of water floating inches away from her palms. The girl met Hibis’s eyes, and started splitting the translucent liquid into segments, slowly turning it into dancing figures that changed from solid ice to water repeatedly.

Hibis watched, elated, as the figurines spun and twirled around her. Having entranced the girl in front of her, blonde haired exclaimed “I’m Lily, and I’m 13. Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too,” Hibis replied, marvelling at the figures one last time before it dissolved into thin air by another girl, probably 2 years older than Hibis herself, with flowing dark hair and dazzling stormy eyes. “Hello,” the girl must have whispered, blowing a gust of wind with each breath. “I’m Flow, element of weather control and disaster. Really can’t wait to work with you, aye?”

“Aye,” Hibis smiled, surprised by the Scottish accent, as she and Ace watched the trainees return back to their bases. “Are there not anybody else?” The girl asked, puzzled. Ace shook his head. “The rest are busy for now. Don’t worry, you’ll meet more later. Come on, we’ve gotta get you trained up.”