Water Shaper (World Aflame) (10 page)

The husband reached over and smacked the window with his hand. Begrudgingly, the wife rolled down the window once again.

“What is it?”

“Get out of the car,” he said.

The distant figures were growing closer, approaching the accident. Panicked people raced past their car, roughly pushing the husband aside.

“What’s going on?”

The husband opened the back door and reached through, unbuckling his son’s seatbelt. Confusedly, the wife climbed from the passenger’s seat and looked toward the accident. As she watched, the two wrecked cars exploded into flames. She screamed and opened the back passenger’s door, nearly yanking their daughter from her seat.

The family turned and ran back toward Los Angeles.

General Kobal laughed maliciously as he threw a ball of flame through the windshield of another car. The windows burst outward, showering the area in glass, and black smoke billowed from the car’s core.

“
General,
” the Fire Elemental said, watching its minions gleefully burning the rows of abandoned cars.

“My Master,” he said, stepping away from the burning car.

“
Lead the march into the city. I’m flying ahead to… soften the city for your arrival.
”

Kobal smiled and nodded. “It will be done.”

The Elemental held its arms out wide and opened its mouth. Smoke poured from between the full lips, dripping sickly down the woman’s chest and spilling onto the ground at the Elemental’s feet. From within the dark cloud, flames grew and sparked, illuminating the heart of the dark smoke. Starting from the ground, the smoke burst into flames. Like a living serpent, the fire rolled around the Elemental’s ankles, wrapping itself around its form as it coiled up its legs and over its narrow hips. The Elemental leaned its head back as the flames consumed its torso and arms before it rolled over its head.

The flames pulsed, and each throb of power enlarged the circling flame around it. The aura of flames grew larger and larger, spreading wider and wider. From within the core of the flames, a guttural growl rumbled. Large, leathery wings burst from the back of the mound of flames. With a shiver, the flames fell away, revealing the massive red dragon beneath.

The giant orbs of its eyes scanned the cars beneath it. The Elemental snorted and flames rolled from its maw. The dragon spread its wings and launched into the air, knocking humans and Fire Warriors aside with the downdraft created. With its eyes set on the remaining skyscrapers of Los Angeles, the Fire Elemental soared toward the city.

The water rushed back into the void as Xander released the whirlpool. As the ocean collapsed into itself, the pressure shot sea spray hundreds of feet into the air. Rainbows sparkled through the misty salt water as it reached its zenith and fell back to the ocean.

Ocean waves rolled over the spot where the whirlpool had been. As the last of the geyser settled over the sea like rain, the last indication that there had ever been something as remarkable as a whirlpool in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean was swallowed and washed away. Below the trio, the water rolled as though it had never been disturbed.

Xander raised a hand and blocked the glaring sun from his eyes. Of all the things he had taken
from both Wind Warrior island and from White Halls, he wished he had remembered a pair of sunglasses. The glare as the sun reflected off the ocean was causing a headache.

He glanced over his shoulder and watched Sean and Jessica removing their jackets and stuffing them into bags on their backs. The temperature above the drowned city was far warmer than at the bottom of the ocean, and even Xander began feeling beads of sweat rolling down his back.

Though he controlled the wind as the surrogate Wind Elemental, it still struck him as bizarre to see two people hovering in the air, going about tasks like taking off jackets as though they were standing on solid ground. He was sure there’d come a time when it felt normal, though he doubted it would be any time soon.

“Are you two ready?” he asked as they finished stripping down to their summer clothes.

“Ready?” Sean asked. “Are you asking if we’re ready to fly back to London? Or are you asking if we’re ready for the three of us to take on an entire army of Fire Warriors once we get there?”

Xander smirked. “Let’s start with the first one.”

Sean shrugged. “Then sure, I’m ready to go.”

A shimmering bubble of pressurized air appeared around the trio moments before Xander started flying north. At first, the ocean rolled lazily below them, but they quickly picked up speed. Soon, the white-capped waves were passing in a blur. A thunderous boom split the air as they reached supersonic speeds. Despite the bubble suppressing most of the noise around them, the sonic boom physically shook them all.

The flight was exhilarating to Xander. No matter how alive he felt under the ocean when he was connected to the Water Elemental, the air was where he belonged. He had known the rush as a child when his family took their first airplane flight, and he was able to look down on the miniaturized world over which they flew. Now, flying by only his strength of will alone, the pleasure saturated his very being.

With a broad smile on his face, he chanced a glance over his shoulder at his friends. Sean and Jessica couldn’t have come from more different worlds. Sean and he had been best friends since they were young. Though Xander eventually outgrew the comic book fascination of his youth and Sean didn’t, it made the heavyset man that much more interesting to be around. Jessica, by contrast, was a gorgeous sorority girl. She cared about her look and reputation in all the ways Sean didn’t. Yet Xander could see the gleam in Sean’s eyes when he looked at her and knew there was more going on than what would have been readily obvious to an outside observer.

As he looked from Sean to his ex-girlfriend, Xander didn’t see the mirth on her face. The frown was practically etched on her skin; its downturned corners carved craters into her normally smooth complexion.

“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked.

Though he didn’t think it was possible, her frown actually deepened.

“You may have let Sean off the hook earlier, but he wasn’t wrong. We’re three people, about to start a war with the whole Fire Caste. Please tell me you have a plan.”

“She makes a solid argument,” Sean added before Xander could respond. “You may be all Superman right now but we’re Jimmy Olsen, sidekick reporter. We’re the people that are going to get creamed while you’re being all invincible.”

Jessica sighed and shook her head. “Sean may be a tactless jerk,” Jessica said, “but he’s not completely wrong. We can’t just go flying into the city and hope for the best. We need a plan.”

Xander’s smile faded, as he suddenly felt outnumbered. “I’m working on a plan.”

Jessica reached out and gripped Xander’s ankle. She used it for leverage as she pulled herself forward, until they were flying side by side. “Don’t lie to me, Xander. We dated for a long time. You’re a spontaneous guy, and I loved that about you. But you’re not a planner. You’re more a ‘wing it and hope for the best’ sort of guy. You were the type that decided Friday during class that we should go rent a cabin on the lake for the weekend, and you’d walk out of class right then to see if there were even any cabins available. But if I asked you to plan a romantic dinner for our anniversary or Valentine’s Day, there was a good chance we were going to wind up ordering off the ninety-nine cent menu at McDonalds.”

Sean laughed from behind them. “Dude, she’s right. Remember when you planned your parent’s anniversary party? You invited their friends and then totally forgot to pick them up at the airport because you went on a date with some bimbo instead? They were pissed.”

Jessica turned sharply toward Sean. “I’m pretty sure I was that bimbo, Sean.”

Sean laughed nervously. “Awkward. Well, I’ll just stay out of the conversation for the rest of the flight then.”

“You guys aren’t wrong,” Xander said. “I suck at stuff like this. It’s one of the reasons I wanted you two with me on this… trip, or whatever we’re going to call it. You guys not only keep me grounded during all this insanity, but you’re also the brains behind this operation. Without my aunts and uncles around, it’s up to just us, and that scares the crap out of me.”

He glanced over at Jessica, and his brow furrowed with concern. “I don’t really know what I’m doing here,” he said. “I’ve been fighting this whole elemental war on a wing and a prayer. The truth is, even my successes—like finding the Wind Elemental—are more because of you, Sean, and my aunts and uncles than they are because I did something well. Tell me, Jessica. Tell me what to do now.”

Jessica looked away from him and stared down, admiring the giant waves passing quickly below them. It was disorienting and left her with a sense of vertigo, but it gave her a chance to gather her thoughts.

“All right. You’re going to do two things for me,” Jessica said. “First, you’re never going to admit that again,” she said, poking him in the chest.

“Excuse me?” he asked, surprised.

Jessica turned her attention back to him. A stern determination flashed in her eyes.

“You don’t get to doubt yourself anymore,” she said. “I’ve always believed that you don’t stress the small stuff or the stuff you can’t change. What you’re doing may not be the small stuff, but you can’t change who you’ve become. You can’t pass off your responsibility onto someone else. You can’t wonder if you’re going to succeed because there’s no one else to pick up the slack if you fail.”

Xander felt the weight of his responsibility returning.

“People believe in you, Xander. A lot of people. Sean and I are risking our lives to stay by your side because we believe in you. Your aunts and uncles gave up their powers, their entire livelihoods, because they believed in you. Elementals, that I didn’t even know existed a couple weeks ago, gave you incredible powers and tasked you to save the world because they believe in you. It’s about time you started believing in you, too.”

Xander swallowed, unsure how to respond. He still didn’t feel comfortable with the idea that he was the last line of defense between the world and its destruction.

Xander licked his dry lips as he looked at Jessica. “I’m almost afraid to ask what the second thing is.”

She placed her hand on the side of his face and gently turned his head toward her. “We need you to not be you right now. The crazy spontaneous kid was awesome when we were together, but now it’s time to do the adult thing for a while. We need a plan. We’ll help you as best we can, but everything hinges on you. So wrack that crazy brain of yours for a plan, so we don’t go flying into the middle of a few thousand Fire Warriors with nothing but my arsenal of smarmy comments and a list of profanity that would make you blush.”

Xander smiled despite the stress he felt. He was forever grateful to have his friends by his side. Though it sometimes seemed counterintuitive, he was incredibly happy that he had people in his life that would be brutally honest. In a time like this, it was exactly what he needed.

“So I need to come up with a plan,” he said. “Any ideas where to start?”

Jessica shrugged. “Find something worth fighting for. You have to start with a reason.”

“Sammy,” he said without hesitation. “She’s the reason I’m doing all this.”

Jessica nodded as she released her grip on him and began drifting back to her normal spot beside Sean. “Then keep in mind that rescuing her hinges on us succeeding in London. So start coming up with a plan.”

By the time the trio arrived on the southern tip of the English Isle, the humor had drained from Xander. Though they were too far away from London to sense the Fire Warriors using their elemental powers, the weight of his responsibility seemed to radiate from the city in waves.

They had flown off confident, bolstered by his acceptance of the Water Elemental’s power. Xander had brazenly agreed to save London from its destruction at the hands of the Fire Caste and, like normal, he had rushed to the rescue without truly formulating a plan.

It wasn’t long after they began speeding over the countryside that the inky smudge on the horizon became more apparent. Like a giant pillar of darkness, the heavy smoke rose from the ruins of London, staining the sky for miles around. It rose unimpeded until it reached the perpetual cloud cover, where it then blossomed outward like a mushroom cloud.

Xander’s breath caught in his throat as they approached. Even from a distance, the city looked like it had been struck by an atomic blast. His heart sank in his chest, and he fought the urge to vomit as the weight of his task settled onto his shoulders.

“Are you seeing this crap?” Sean asked. “Dude, I’m serious. You may be all Superman, but Jessie and I are just normal people. We’re going to get killed in there.”

“Shut it, Sean,” Jessica said. “You’re not helping.”

“I wasn’t trying to help. I’m trying to stay alive.”

Jessica looked past Xander. The overly confident exterior she normally exuded faltered as she stared at the distant city.

“Please tell me you have a plan.”

Xander swallowed hard as he stared at the smoke. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t.

The dragon soared over Los Angeles. Its shadow fell over the streets below, and its wings skimmed the rooftops of the buildings. It could hear the screams of surprise from the people below as they looked up at the monster of mythology gliding overhead. The Fire Elemental let out a roar that shook the windows nearby, adding to the fear and panic in the city beneath it.

It reveled in the fear it caused. The Elemental’s draconic ears could hear every scream as the people ran both from its presence and from the Fire Warriors who stormed into the eastern part of the city. With a flick of its forked tongue, the dragon tasted the ash, smoke, and sulfur lingering in the air. The taste grew in intensity the further the line of Fire Warriors advanced into the city.

The Elemental lowered its long neck and inhaled. The air ignited the furnace deep in its chest. As it exhaled, flames bellowed from its throat and poured from its mouth. Like a wave, the fire filled the streets below. Cars melted in the inferno and glass shattered in the windows of houses. The concrete and siding of the buildings dried and cracked before shattering under the heat. Home after home collapsed in its wake as it flew deeper into the heart of Los Angeles.