Power Revealed (The Elementers) (11 page)

Justin knew Raven meant what she said. Her complete confidence in him made him feel stronger than he had felt in a long time. Other than Henry, no one had ever believed in him like Raven did. His mom definitely loved him, but she loved him despite his problems. He had only known Raven for about a week, but he was beginning to feel closer to her than anyone else. He took a step closer to her. The urge to touch her face suddenly surfaced, but he quickly pushed the thought away. She had a boyfriend. But the impulse returned. He figured it was time to leave.

“Well, I’d better be going. The prison warden will probably kick me out if I go past visiting hours. So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, our training session will be great. You’ll see.”

Chapter 15

“Justin, we’re going to send some things your way. I don’t want the seats in my jeep to get dirty on the ride home, so deflect them.”

“Why do I need to be the target? Rex treated me like a bull’s eye too,” Justin said.

“Sorry, but thousands of years of training have proven that the most effective way for Elementers to learn control is in defensive mode. Rex took it too far earlier this week, but your powers are a danger to yourself and others if you don’t learn control quickly, so we have to use the quickest method. Ready?”

“Ready?” Mr. Hamilton asked.

Justin wasn’t sure what was coming, but with Mr. Hamilton being a Water Elementer, he had a pretty good guess.  “Sure.”

“Okay, stop whatever I send your way.”

Justin connected to the water element and felt the energy flowing through him. He could sense Mr. Hamilton connecting also. It felt like they had each thrown a rock in the water and the ripples from each rock were colliding with each other. The energy waves Justin affected were also being influenced by Mr. Hamilton. Following his teacher’s gaze, which moved toward the creek, Justin saw a sphere of water the size of a baseball lift up out of the creek and fall back down. “Sure you’re ready?” Mr. Hamilton asked.

Justin focused on the area where Mr. Hamilton had moved the water and simply nodded a yes to his teacher. Another ball of water shot out of the creek and toward Justin’s chest. The speed surprised Justin so much that he forgot about using the energy and instead quickly dropped to the ground to avoid being hit by the water ball.

“You stayed dry, but the purpose of this lesson is for you to develop your Elementer abilities, not your athletic ability,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Justin stood up and dusted off his pants. “Yeah, yeah. It just surprised me. Do it again.”

“Be ready this time,” Mr. Hamilton raised another ball of water out of the creek and shot it toward Justin. He tried to push the oncoming energy to the left, but that just seemed to stretch the ball out into a long strip of water making it a wider obstacle to avoid. Justin had to lunge down to the right to avoid being hit.

“Another one’s coming,” Mr. Hamilton warned. Justin jumped back up on to his feet. This time, he maintained the ball’s shape and began to move it, but not enough. At the last moment his arms instinctively shot up in front of him as a barrier to block the water. He got sprayed, but at least it wasn’t a direct hit. By the fourth and fifth balls, Justin finally began developing a feel for manipulating the water and redirected the balls away from him. “Well done,” Mr. Hamilton said. Justin began to relish in his triumph, but realized Mr. Hamilton wasn’t stopping. “Get ready!” His teacher warned.

This time, three water balls rose up out of the creek. “Three?” Justin exclaimed. The balls suddenly exploded into mist above the creek. Justin hadn’t done it. He looked at his teacher. “How’d you make them explode?”

“I just directed the water molecules apart because you seemed scared of three little balls of water. If this is too much for you, we can stop,” Mr. Hamilton teased.

“Bring it on!” Justin said with confidence, but his eyes grew wide as the three new water bombs shot toward him.  Justin only had time to deflect one of the balls. The other two hit him in the stomach and chest. “Not fair. I can’t connect with three balls at the same time.”

“Don’t try to connect to them separately. They’re all part of the same energy. Connect to the water element as a whole. You can theoretically influence all of the water around you at once,” Mr. Hamilton said.

“Theoretically? Can you do it all at once or can’t you?” Justin asked.

“It’s possible. You’re only limited by the amount of energy you can manage. Some Elementers can handle more than others. I suspect, with training, you’ll be able to manage quite a bit. Now let’s do that again,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Justin continued to serve as target practice for Mr. Hamilton until he could regularly deflect five water balls at once. He ended up being hit by seven or eight, but at least his shirt was the only thing really wet.

“Okay, Raven. Now I need you to see if Justin can stay clean. Why don’t you send him some mud pies?” Mr. Hamilton said.

Raven stood up with a hesitant look on her face. “Are you sure?”

“He needs more practice with the earth element.”

 “Okay.” Raven turned to face Justin and asked, “Are you ready?”

Justin nodded and noticed the mud near the water’s edge begin to move. It reminded him of a big brown slug. A lump of the mud seemed to leap up and fly toward him. He focused on the energy and pushed it to the side so that it landed a couple feet away from him. Raven lobbed a few more mud pies toward Justin, but he easily protected himself by pushing them to the side.

“Raven. He’s ready for the next level. Send more at once and shoot them faster,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Raven didn’t say anything. But she clearly was uncomfortable throwing mud at him. Justin found her hesitation funny and couldn’t help but tease. “I thought you were experienced at this, Raven. But I guess that’s all a girl can do.”

Raven’s eyebrows raised and she smiled, “Oh, I’ll show you what a girl can do.” Without warning, four lumps of dripping mud shot out one after another from the creek’s edge aimed directly at Justin. He quickly pushed the first one back in the direction from where it came causing it to collide and stop the next two shots. He just barely redirected the fourth causing it to careen within inches of his waist and hit a tree a few feet behind him. But before he had time to gloat another pack of mud bombs shot toward him. He stopped the first four coming at him, but the fifth large glob of mud hit him. The surprise caused him to lose his concentration and also his connection making him temporarily defenseless against three new mud pies already heading straight for him. He dodged the first, but that just placed him in the precise position to catch the second with his face and the third with his chest. The shock of the hits caused him to lose his balance sending him to the ground.

“Justin!” Raven immediately ran over and knelt next to him, “I’m soooo sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you in the face. Are you okay?”

Justin wiped the mud from his cheek. Her face stopped close to his, reminding him of his desire yesterday to touch her. Part of him wanted to reach out and stroke her cheek, but the mischievous part of him had something else in mind. That part won. He directed a stream of water from the creek dumping it on Raven.

Raven just knelt there with her mouth wide open gasping for air from the shock of the cold water. “I said I was sorry.”

Justin stood up and reached out his arm to help her up. The look of shock on Raven’s face caused him to start laughing. Suddenly, he felt the earth shaking beneath him. Did they have earthquakes here? Justin reached out to grab the branch of a nearby tree, but another furious shake caused him to lurch forward and fall onto his hands and knees.

“Raven. Stop that. We’re here to practice,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Wide eyed, Justin stared at Raven. “You created that earthquake?” Raven nodded. “Cool!” Justin said. Raven’s frown slowly turned into a smile.

“Justin and Raven, we need to get back to practice,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Justin looked at his teacher and whispered to Raven. “I’m thinking Mr. Hamilton is looking far too clean. We need to fix that.”

Raven’s jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide. “You wouldn’t.”

Justin smiled mischievously. “Wanna bet?” He turned toward the creek and simultaneously shot a stream of water and mud balls at Mr. Hamilton. His teacher deflected the shots of water, but he yelled as the globs of mud hit him.

Raven just stood there with her mouth wide open waiting to see how Mr. Hamilton would react. He just stood there with mud dripping off of him staring at his two students not saying a word. Finally he spoke. “Justin Wilder,” Mr. Hamilton paused, causing Raven to cringe and suck in her breath, “very impressive. I expected it to take some time for you learn how to control two elements at once, but it seems that it won’t be difficult after all. All you needed was the proper motivation.”

Raven exhaled her breath and her shoulders relaxed. Admittedly, even Justin was relieved and grinned. He often did impulsive things and they sometimes got him in serious trouble. But he couldn’t seem to resist despite the consequences.

 “Raven?” Mr. Hamilton said in a serious voice causing her to cringe again.

“Yes?”

“We came here to learn. Did we not?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Well then, why don’t you teach Justin how to reverse this mess?”

Justin watched wide eyed as he saw the mud on Mr. Hamilton seem to lift off from his skin and clothes and fall to the ground.

“Wow! How’d you do that?” Justin asked.

“It’s all earth, just spread over a larger area. It’s really no different than what we just did before. Try it.”

Justin envisioned all of the mud molecules vibrating and lifting free away from his skin and clothes. It took a few tries to get all of the dirt off of his clothes, but he did it. Next, he did the same with the water. It was a little trickier, but after a few tries he was fairly dry.

“Umm. Can someone help me?” Raven asked shivering now in her wet clothes.

Mr. Hamilton nodded toward Justin. “Go ahead. This is practice time.”

Justin connected and agitated the water molecules trying to separate them from Raven’s clothes. Some of it separated, but he caused much of the water, including Raven’s clothes, to vibrate. Raven started to twist around giggling. “Ahh! Stop that.”

“What?” Justin asked.

 “That tickles.”

Justin grinned, “Really?”

“Don’t you dare! Just get the water off of me.”

Justin was tempted, but he figured he had already pushed his luck dumping water on her. He focused on pulling the water away from her and let it fall into puddles around her feet.

After practicing for about an hour, Mr. Hamilton stepped toward them. “Okay, that’s enough for today. We’d best head out while we’re still clean.”

***

Raven picked up her jacket off of a fallen log and began to walk in the direction they came from when she paused and turned to Justin. “Race you back?”

“You’re on,” Justin said. With that, Raven bolted, taking advantage of her head start. She scrambled over large boulders and fallen trees. Justin’s footsteps were closing in on her, but then she thought she heard him slip. There was no time to turn and look, so she continued forward. A massive fallen trunk, whose diameter was as high as her chest, blocked her path. She decided to climb over it rather than take the time to run around it. She saw stubs of old branches that would provide footholds and decided to go for it.  The improvised steps allowed her to reach the crest of the log rather quickly, but after sitting on the top and swinging her feet over, she saw that there were almost no footholds on the far side for climbing down. Analyze, plan, then act. Raven heard her dad’s voice in her ear.

Twigs broke to the left signaling to Raven that Justin was about to pass her. She stepped on the best foothold she could find and leaned forward, but a loud crack sounded and Raven slipped. With nothing to grab onto except wet, slimy moss, Raven tensed herself for the worst. But before hitting the ground, she collided with something else and she grabbed on tight. It was Justin.

He must have run around the tree and reached the bottom of her makeshift slide at the same time as herself. Her heart was racing from the run and scare, but suddenly a spike of energy drove into her with such intensity that it pushed the air out of her. The energy frequency was unfamiliar and alarming. She would have let go of Justin due to the shock, but she held onto him to keep from falling over.

The power passed through her and then she felt another kind of energy rush into her, but this one pulled her toward Justin. She felt drawn toward him like negative and positive charged atoms. Raven looked at Justin’s face and the pull felt even stronger. She couldn’t look away. She didn’t want to look away. She noticed how much she liked his smile. The urge to run her fingers through his brown, wavy hair was nearly irresistible. She stepped closer to him and released her grip on his arm to reach for his hair, when suddenly, she felt like she had been caught up in a river and had washed up on shore. The hold was gone. She gasped in a breath and noticed how close she stood next to Justin. Their faces were only a few inches apart. She quickly stumbled backward to re-establish more personal space and noticed that Justin had a dazed look on his face.