The Electric Storm

The Electric Storm

The doors to the manor opened up and all of the residents of the manor came out forming a circle around Clint, Liana, and Roy. Ali’s patna’s met together behind the superiors, Clint, Liana, and Roy. “What’s going on?” Ali whispered to Kiara. She shrugged her shoulders in reply.
“We have finally come to decision on what to do about the cynox. We are sending one of your groups on an operation that goes deep into the heart of the Contique.” Whispers of surprise spread through the crowd of teenagers. Ali started to tense up because of what happened to her last week during the fight. She didn’t want to harm anyone she cared about just because she was forced to. “To decide who will undertake in this operation, each patna will have to battle with our group of trained men. If whoever we shall pick actually survives the operation they shall get 25,000 cryptons and, if wanted, a ticket back home.” Shouts and whispers ran through the crowd with excitement now because of the cryptons, the money of Paramut. “We shall start with the elementals first. The rest of you will go inside and start your daily trainings with Liana. We will call you each by your patna and shall give you an answer no later than by the end of the week. You are dismissed.” All of the young params, except for twelve elementals, ran back inside, trying to get the best training spot in the dome with Liana as irritated as ever.
“I can’t believe they’re actually going to make us do this!” Ali shouted to her patna’s but it seemed they couldn’t hear her. The young params finally reached the dome and Liana left without explanation. One group was going on and on about how they would strategize on getting out of the Contique H.Q.
“We could go out at night and you could produce a shield over us to get away unharmed if they find out.” A boy named Matt said pointing to a girl with a freckled face whose name was Sera. Matt was practically the leader of the warriors because he was the strongest one there. They were called warriors because their powers were based on physical capabilities like strength and protection while the elementals would be able to control, obviously, elements such as fire and ice.
“You people do know that they haven’t actually announced who would undergo the operation, right?” Charlie referred this to the warriors in general. Matt turned to look at Charlie and smirked at him.
“Who else could even qualify for it? You can’t even keep your cool if someone is late.” The warriors laughed at his comment and Charlie walked closer to Matt.
“Well, I doubt that they would want someone whose parents are in the Contique themselves.” Charlie said neutrally.
“They left me here when I was five years old.” Matt stated in a confident tone.
“Doesn’t change the fact that you could be a spy for them. For all we know, you could’ve been the one that told them to come here when they did. You could’ve told them when the superiors were gone and when we were vulnerable. You could’ve told them when our shipments came. I mean it could explain all of the things going on here, all the raids, attacks, murders.” Charlie said in a cool voice.
“I didn’t say anything.” Matt said under his breath, angrily.
“But you could, couldn’t you? You could lead us into a death trap and your parents would be so proud of you. You could be a superior of the Contique. Doesn’t that sound good to you?” Charlie said. Matt clenched his fist and his black eyes were filled with rage.
“Okay, I suggest we just start training.” Kiara interrupted pushing them away from each other. You could see it took her some effort to push them away from each other. How could Charlie possibly know that about Matt so soon, Ali thought. The params separated into their own groups and picked different training sets. The gifted, Ali’s group, were forced to stay at the agility course. After doing the agility course for half an hour they fought with each other, passing the time. The elementals came back looking sore and injured, Roy behind them.
“As soon as these sessions are done we’ll fix you guys up.” Roy said as they sat down on the ground, beaten. “Your next.” Roy referred a group of people. At one point, Ali and Kiara came to the elementals to try and talk about what they experienced, while a couple more patnas left to finish their sessions.
“Hey you guys, are you okay?” Kiara started as they walk towards the elementals.
“Do we look okay?” Jeremy, the supposed leader of the group, said. Most of them were propped up against the wall and looked injured. Colton walked behind Ali with a vial of mystique, in a larger container, and some bandages.
“I could fix some of those wounds if you want me too.”
“Please do,” Lilly, an oddly short girl, said. She had a slight gash on her forehead. The only person who didn’t look injured was Jeremy. Colt kneeled between Lilly and a boy named Simon and poured some of the liquid form the vial on the bandage and handed it to Lilly.
“Press this to your forehead. Trust me, you’ll feel better,” Colt said as she took it.
“What is this? I feel,” She searched for the word to say. “healed.” Colt chuckled at her and took the bandage away. Like Ali’s wound, the gash disappeared from her forehead. Lilly felt her forehead and gasped. “It’s gone!”
“That is mystique mixed with some healing essence.” Colt said as he changed the bandage to a new one and passed it to Simon. A few groups later, all of the wounds were healed and most of them left to go to their rooms to rest. Ali, Kiara, Drake, and Jen sat on the floor next to the remaining elementals, Lilly, Simon, and Jeremy, with Charlie slouched against the wall.
“Could you tell us what happened?” Ali asked. Jeremy sighed and threw his hands up in the air.
“Might as well. I would rather have you guys do better than those meat heads over there.” He nodded his head to the warriors. “The people we’re supposed to be fighting with are prisoners.”
“They were from the Contique themselves.” Lilly continued.
“From the Contique?” Jen asked.
“Yeah, they have these electric shackles or something to keep them in place.” Simon explained.
“And they are really strong.” Jeremy said.
“Do they have any essences that we need to take note on?” Drake asked. The elementals shrugged at each other.
“None that we know of.” Rhine, quite a beautiful girl, said.
“I don’t think they even have essences.” Jeremy said.
“Okay, anything else?” Ali asked.
“I don’t think there’s anything else to say.” Jeremy said.
“Even though, it really helps us. Thanks for giving us a heads up.” Ali said as she leaned in to kiss Jeremy’s cheek out of appreciation.
“It’s the least we can do after Colt helped us.” It was obvious that Jeremy was blushing.
“Well, I know those idiots won’t even stand a chance against those guys.” Charlie said. The warriors started laughing loudly from the weapons area. They stopped training for a while and seemed to be playing with their essences. “I’m getting really sick of them.”
“They’ve been like that since Matt got here.” Simon said.
“Wasn’t he one of the first to be here?” Drake asked.
“Yeah, they’ve been like that since forever.” Lilly said. Roy and the luminary came to the dome, the luminary looking even worse than the elementals were. The luminary’s essences were more based on emotions and beauty. Some people who are in the group have extreme attractiveness and some can control emotions. The injured group sat beside the two groups and Colt started to heal their injuries.
“Well, seems that both of you are quite confident in yourselves.” Roy said looking at the two groups left. “Oh, and I see that someone fixed you guys up.” Roy nodded to the elementals.
“Courtesy of Colton,” Jeremy said.
“Then can you fix these guys up for us Colton?” Roy asked and Colt waved at him in response, supposedly saying yes. “Warriors, you’re up.” Roy left the room with the warriors behind him.
“Good luck meat heads.” Charlie said, not bothering to lower his voice. Matt glared at him with disgust. Ali slapped his arm with the back of her hand. “What?”
“Meat heads! Couldn’t you have at least lowered your voice?” Ali said. Colt started healing the others wounds using the same instructions that he gave to Ali to heal her wound.
“Why should I? They are meat heads after all, he said so himself.” Charlie pointed to Jeremy. Ali shook her head in disapproval and came back to the same thought.
“How did you know that his parents were in the Contique? I thought your essence was telekinesis.” Ali asked.
“Drake helped me out. He’s a telepath which means he searched his mind and told me about what he saw through my brain.” Everyone looked at Drake in surprise.
“You’re a telepath?” Ali asked and in response he nodded. Suddenly, Ali went on protective mode in her brain.
“Don’t worry, I won’t read your minds unless I need to or really, really want to.” Drake said, seeing the tension in all of their figures.
“Have you read anyone else’s thoughts other than Matt’s?” Kiara asked.
“No, except for Clint’s, though that wasn’t any good. There was a sort of mind block in his brain so I couldn’t access his memories.” Drake shrugged. “It bothers me but it wasn’t any of my business before and it isn’t now.”
“What about Liana’s?” Nick said. At this, Drake was silent.
“Have you?” Kiara asked.
“I have okay. I can’t help it, I’m a guy.”
“You’re a boy. A guy would be more mature.” Kiara said.
“And you’ve been asking Drake a lot of questions lately.” Jen said. The group giggled and Drake crossed his arms and smirked at Kiara while Kiara stared down, hiding her smile.
“All done, just wipe your faces clean and you’ll look brand new.” Colt said standing up.
“Thank you Colton,” the girls sounded flirtatious while the guys didn’t even say a word, instead they waved in thanks. Some of them stood up and left.
“How long do you think it’ll be before the meat heads are done?” Charlie asked Drake.
“Let me check.” Drake said. He closed his eyes and his facial expressions tensed. After a minute or two, he opened his eyes. “Matt’s patna’s seems to be doing well. So far, they’ve only gotten scratches and cuts. They may be finished in a little while. Those guys are getting beaten up pretty good. I think we should start training.”
“We could help you guys if you want.” Jeremy said, gesturing to everyone else except for the gifted ones. “I think that the both of us would be better to fight than just one of us because those guys are really good.” They all nodded in agreement. Ali looked at her patna’s for approval.
“If you think it’ll help us then I guess it’ll be okay.”
“Not anymore, they just killed the prisoners. They’re coming right now.” Drake said. Colt stood up along with Kiara and Jen.
“What if we aren’t good enough?”Ali asked worried about the people they would face. She brushed her hair out of nervousness. She looked up at Colt who held his hand out to her. She placed her hand in his and he helped her up, pulling her close to his chest.
“We’re going to be just fine. I’ve fought them off before and I can fight them off now.” Colt said. Ali hugged him tight and saw some figures tense up but she wasn’t focused on who the people were.
“Enough of the sentimental stuff, they’re right outside.” Drake interrupted. Instantly, Ali and Colt pulled away from each other and the doors opened. Out came the warriors and Roy. Matt smirked at Charlie.
“Come on guys, we better get going.” Roy said. None of the warriors had a serious injury. The gifted ones walked out of the room with Roy while the others, except for the warriors, wished them luck.

The params walked down the corridor, nearing the exit. Ali had been holding Colt’s hand tight for the past couple of minutes. It seemed that Colt didn’t mind so she continued to do so. The two params were at the back of the patna but not far behind. “We’re going to be fine.” Colt said to her suddenly. She looked up into his gray eyes. It always calmed her somehow.
“You can’t assure that.” Ali replied. He squeezed her hand.
“We may not get the award but you aren’t going to get hurt again. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Don’t underestimate your skill. You could take down a pride of lions if you wanted to.”
“You don’t know that. You’ve fought these people before so of course you’re so calm but all I’ve done all my life was train and practice.”
“You’ve fought a couple times yourself. Like last week.”
“I succeeded in that didn’t I. Yup, got myself cut open by my own best friend.” He smiled at her which made her smile as well but she quickly hid it by looking down.
“You know I wasn’t myself.”
“Yeah, he was such a badass and much cooler.”
“So that’s how we’re going to be,” he said playfully as she giggled in silence.
“Here we are. Remember to be as alert as you can. We will be watching to end the battle but you won’t see us so we can’t help you unless you’re getting really beaten up.” Roy nodded to them to signal for them to go ahead of him outside of the doors leading outside.
“Thanks for the great advice.” Jen said sarcastically.
“No problem, now, get out there.” He clapped his hands. “Good luck.” Ali let go of Colt’s hand and walked out of the doors.

It happened so fast. Ali was taken by surprise and thrown towards a nearby training dummy used for swords which broke from the force. She looked around, obviously shocked and saw a woman in pure black running towards her. Ali stood up just as the woman reached her and tried to off balance her by kicking the woman’s leg. The woman, however, dodged it quickly and knocked the air out of Ali’s stomach with her knee. Ali placed her palms on her knees to catch her breath and was instantly thrown to another dummy. The woman walked to her this time. “You’ve got to try harder honey.” The woman said as she reached Ali. Suddenly, she twisted in pain and fell to her knees, clawing at her ankle. She isn’t allowed to talk or she’ll get electrocuted, Ali processed. Taking advantage of the woman’s weak state, Ali elbowed the woman’s neck and made her fall to the ground. All Ali was thinking of was whether she should kill the woman or if that would just disqualify Ali from the competition. Before Ali could decide which of the two she would do the woman had her in a head lock, cutting off her breathing. Ali flung her hands up to the woman’s hair then face then neck. She searched for the woman’s pressure point and when she finally found it she pressed on it forcefully. The woman’s grip loosened on Ali’s neck till she let go. Ali gasped for air and crawled away from the body that was now turning to golden ash. Ali hit something like a rock and breathed a sigh of relief. Without warning, someone grab Ali’s hair and pulled her to her feet. Ali clawed at the hand with her nails and it threw her to a nearby tree. A man neared Ali then grabbed her throat with one hand and a wooden stake like object in the other.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” The man said to her as Ali tried to breath. Would they let him kill me, Ali thought. As he readied his weapon he was shot with an electric current. Ali knew because she felt it as well. She would’ve screamed from the pain but his lock was too hard. Somehow, it seemed the man wasn’t affected. “That won’t hurt me. I’m an elemental, idiots.” He said to the wind. Ali knew if she didn’t think quickly this guy would kill her. She thought of the crystogem and reached for it. She took it from its chain and transformed it into a knife. The man was too shocked to react before Ali plunged the knife in his gut. The man released her from his grip and Ali fell, gasping for breath. The man fell to his knees. Ali took the knife out then stabbed him again in the heart. Golden blood flowed out of his wounds but he still didn’t die. Ali thought of the only other option she had left. She took the knife from his chest and sliced his head off. The man turned to gold and disappeared as ash in the wind. Ali breathed a sigh of relief and scanned her surroundings for anymore enemies. As she stood up, she felt dizzy. She felt her forehead with her fingers and when she brought her hand down, her fingers were stained with golden blood. We can get that fixed up when you come to the entrance, a voice in Ali’s mind said. She did what the voice said and walked to the entrance. Her patna’s were sitting in a circle near the entrance. Jen had a long cut on her arm but it wasn’t too serious. Colt was kneeling down beside Jen, tending to her wound with a piece of cloth.
“How are you?” Charlie asked. He was standing up and had his arms crossed.
“I fought a woman who loves to toss me around and a man who couldn’t be electrocuted and tried to kill me.” Ali said and he nodded in approval.
“Let me fix that for you.” Colt said, standing up and approaching her. The cloth he used to heal Jen’s wound was replaced by a new one. He gently pushed her down so that she could sit down as he kneeled beside her. He gently pressed the cloth to her forehead and Ali couldn’t help but to stare into his misty gray eyes.
“Um, where’s the mystique?” Ali asked still in a trance.
“In the cloth, I’ve figured out a way to get the liquid in the cloth as I produce it.” Colt said.
“You guys did very well, considering that you didn’t use your essences to fight.” Roy said. Ali snapped out of her trance when Roy stood by the door. “Come inside, I’m sure all of you are very hungry.” Ali just realized that the sun was starting to go down. Colt stood and helped Ali up after he healed her wound. All of the params went inside and walked to the dining room to have their dinner.