The day was going pretty smoothly, aside from that little hiccup. Corey and Kan were walking to their next class together when the crackle of the school's speakers came to life. “Donald Tondro to the principle's office, please. Donald Tondro.” The boys exchanged confused glances. Corey gave his friend a questioning look, as if asking if they should go see what happened. Kan shrugged it off, urging Corey to continue with him on their original path. He, yet hesitantly, obliged.
It wasn't long before lunch rolled around once again. Others they didn't know, ones that had never bothered to send a look their way before, still stared at them with wide eyes. The boys were walking side by side, heading to the isle where their very lovely lunch lady stood when Corey paused with a gasp.
“Shit! I left my wallet in my locker-” He eyed the cafeteria doors before looking back to his best friend. “Hey, K, I'll be right back – Hold my place?”
Kan nodded, a toothy grin taking it's place on his face. Corey quickly thanked him, rushing off down the hall. Kan's eyes swept around the same cafeteria he'd seen almost everyday for six years straight, the details of the room ingrained in his skull. The large glass windows lining the far side, what kinds of people sat at what tables, how the middleschoolers from the floor above always ate outside, how the students had agreed on a specific day meant for food fights. He'd gotten to know the lunch lady quite well. Her name was Emiliana, she was happily married to a man named Robin, and they were looking into getting a dog. The edge of the table Kan and Corey usually sat at had a rusty indent in the corner, the amazing result of their heelies phase. He can still remember his friend's wide grin, back when they were both thirteen, after he realized they had actually let kids wear heelies to school. He was so excited to show them off, then he collided with the poor, unsuspecting cafeteria table. Kan looked back at the dent with amusement. The freshmen usually grouped at one table, the crew currently tossing wads of napkins at eachother. Silently debating which side of the table would win the napkin war, Kan wondered why Corey hadn't returned yet. He slowly eased himself out of the line, briefly feeling sorry for not keeping his word to his best friend about holding his place. He wandered out into the nearly empty hallway, the only students remaining fleeing either in the direction of the stairs, or past the doors he'd just left through. Kan made his way over to Corey's locker, only to discover no one there, the thin blue metal of a locker left wide open. A photo caught his attention, glued to the inside of the small door. A photo of the two of them, about nine years old, missing their front teeth. He remembers when it was taken. He and Corey used to play little league hockey together, and their team had won. Well, you couldn't really win in little league but it was the first time neither of them had wiped out during a game, and Corey convinced him that was enough of a win. Kan used to be a goalie, so you can imagine how much of an accomplishment it was for him. He let a gentle smile take over his face, before shouts came from outside the school.
“Olivia! What did you do to her, you sick fuck-?!” A woman's voice, oddly familiar. Then, another voice, still feminine but on the higher side, one he'd never heard before, tainted with a slight accent. “Oh, don't worry your pretty little head about it. All I did was rip the power from her body. I'm a Mencuri, it's what I do, darling.” Kan took very slow steps towards the front doors of the school, aiming to get a peek out of the windows. A loud set of growls were sent though the halls, emanating from someone outside. He reached the doors, finally getting the first glimpse of the scene that was unraveling before his very eyes. Three figures stood in the dimming light of the parking lot, one cradling another in her arms, the other lanky form standing over them with a feral grin. One that he recognized. She was the raven haired girl from earlier, the one that stared him down in the hallway as if she was about to rip his body limb from limb. He recognized the hunched woman as well, her muddied gray beanie and jean jacket giving her away to him as the one they'd found in the library. He assumed the dark brown haired woman, lying in the sun-kissed girl's arms in what looked like immense pain, was Olivia, from what he overheard. Smoke fought it's way out of the beanie girl's nose, bubbling out of her mouth as she snarled at the tall woman lurking above them. She set Olivia down beside her, as gently as she could, preparing to stand up and face the other. Before getting the chance to do hardly anything, rocks flew from underneath the dark asphalt, trapping her in place by the shoulders. She gave another booming growl as she struggled in place, more heavy smoke erupting through her teeth.
“Another freak? Well, it has been a while since I've absorbed an element like yours. And I've gotta say, taking humans' lives was getting quite boring.”
Kan took that moment to burst into the parking lot, the lanky girl's attention dragging to him, her hands placed on the coffee-haired woman's tan cheeks. He stood with wide eyes, all color emptying from his face.
“Well, isn't this just wonderful? The nefarious energy elemental reveals himself to me. Finally.” She let a large grin take over her features, not any different from the Cheshire Cat.
“Don't-" A harsh intake of breath. "Don't hurt her-!” He stammered out, trying his best not to back away as the girl steps closer to him.
“Would you rather-” She lifts an arm, a piece of the parking lot caving in, leaving a round hole in the ground before it quickly filled, returning with his best friend, Corey Wrighten, on top. His limp form lied motionless on the pavement, and Kan prayed to any God that was out there that he was only unconscious. “-I hurt him?”
He felt his chest cave akin to the way the floor did. His breathing grew heavy and his body shook along with his large intakes of air. “..What do you want with me?” He huffed out, his voice reducing to a feeble rumble.
“You just don't understand, do you?” The girl clicked her tongue, trapping Corey the same way she had the coffee-haired woman, stones raising him off the ground with a flick of her wrist. Her blue eyes were piercing, as if searching his soul for the answer to all her issues. “Our families have been at war for generations. The most powerful line of elementals in history, and the element thieves. My father would tell me stories of your kind. How he, and so many others before him would take power with ease for so many years, but with you – The first that resisted. Well, the first that resisted, and stood a chance. You hold so much potential, yet you waste it so blindly. Potential that I could use correctly.”
Another malicious grin took it's place on her face. “I'll propose an exchange. Your friend here,” She gestured towards the crumpled form trapped within asphalt. “for your powers.”
A choked heave fought past Kan's throat. As loud rain started to pound down, his eyes dropped from the girl's face, falling to Corey's. His mind supplied an image of a kid without his two front teeth, the number seven printed on his burgundy jersey, the one from the very photo he'd taken so many years back. The one Kan'd been staring at mere minutes ago. He had the same freckles, the same light filled eyes, the same damn it's okay smile. This was his mess now, and he was going to fix it. Block the puck, win the game, save his best friend from certain doom. He's sure that one was on the list when they were nine, too.
He shut his eyes, taking a weighted breathe in. “-Superpowers, don't fail me now.” And with that simple hushed sentence, his eyelids opened with force, dark eyebrows sewing together. Light took over his eyes the second they were revealed, the fluorescent color shining off of his brown skin. He felt powerful, like the vulnerability that swarmed his stomach before was physically impossible now.
“It seems you've chosen the hard way. Well, this outta be fun.”
Almost as quickly as it arrived, the light blinked and faded away from his orbs, leaving them empty and brown. He fought to keep his balance, his body returning so abruptly to it's weakened state. It was then, lanky girl in front stalking towards him with a grin like a madman, that Donnie finally decided to join them. The colossal rainfall increased tenfold upon his arrival, his entire body heaving with determination and rage. The girl craned her neck to look at the new arrival.
A wicked smile. The storm barely seemed like an inconvenience to her tall form. “Is that River Tondro's kid? Might I say, you look just like him. It'll be a pleasure, tearing you apart.”
Apparently, that's all Donnie needed, because seconds later his eyes were engulfed in a yellow glow, the same he'd seen in this very parking lot only a day ago. His lip was raised in a fierce snarl, fists surrounding themselves with energy, form fitting like a glove, what he had almost killed Kan with on that same day. To the side of Donnie, stood the sun-kissed girl, holding the once collapsed woman's weight over her shoulder. Smoke flowed out of her nostrils in streams, fire erupting from underneath her lips. Definitely an elemental. She must've escaped the rocks whilst the Cheshire grin of a woman was occupied with them. Kan's eyes flashed before fizzling out again, energy pulling his body up with a grunt, and then leaving him in his previous collapsed position.
She sighed, the frustratingly smug face remaining intact as she raised her arms in either genuine or staged defeat. He couldn't tell. “I can see when I'm outnumbered. Although taking you each out one by one would be oh, so satisfying -” As she took a small step back, a sharp spike of asphalt burst from the ground, less than an inch from spearing Corey's pale neck. Her light eyes trained on Kan. “I only need one of you.”
Kan had to hold Donnie back, pushing himself off the ground. Lightning struck a few blocks away, a show of his frustration. White light absorbed Kan's dark orbs once more, flicking a small bit before remaining strong and bright, an attempt at intimidation. She stepped back about a foot more before the floor swallowed her whole, filling in again as if it hadn't been touched at all. The towers of rocks that trapped his best friend, as well as the ones that were formerly restraining the smoke girl retreated into the ground as the raven-haired girl disappeared from sight.
The group stared at the deathly still body as it landed with a 'thump!'. Donnie latched himself onto Kan's arm, either a comfort for himself or for the darker boy, scanning his face for any trace of a breakdown, loud drops of rain against the rough street ringing in his ears. Kan's breath shifted into labored chunks, making to shake Corey, yell at him to wake up, take him into his arms and wait for his light laugh to fill the air and tell them it was all a joke. But he couldn't, Donnie's arm restraining him from going any closer. They stared, praying for the motionless boy to move, open his eyes, anything. But he didn't. He didn't draw his eyebrows together, or scrunch his freckle-covered nose, like he does when he wakes to the bright sun invading his eyes. He didn't give him a dopey grin, like he does when he realizes he fell asleep at Kan's again. He didn't take him in his arms and reassure him everything's alright, like he does when Kan stumbles through his window in the middle of the night. He didn't wake up. Kan felt the world crumple around him, screwing his eyes closed before opening them, as if Corey would get up if he wished it hard enough. Who was he without Corey? A day hadn't gone by where they hadn't been attached at the hip, his world revolved around Corey. His world revolved around seeing his best friend's crooked smile every morning. His world revolved around the light in his best friend's eyes when he talked animatedly about comic books. They can't rip him away. God, not like this. A sob bubbled out, repeating "no, no, no-" like a mantra, tears preparing to stream down his face. Then, like a lighthouse in the middle of a storm, a grunt erupted from the spotted boy on the ground, rolling over onto his back only to launch into a fit of husky coughs. Kan's eyes went wide as he stared at the form that had previously appeared lifeless. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, ragged and broken, the glow of his white eyes reduced to a chocolate brown as he felt tears well at the corners. He almost collapsed, the power of the elemental state leaving his body, barely catching himself on the rocky asphalt. The loss of such strength only seemed to release another river of tears as he embraced the scraped kid on the ground with a shaky “you're okay”, the downpour slowing to a stop. Corey did his best to wrap his arms around Kan, dusty fingers tangling in his hair to try and calm him down.
“-I'm okay.”
The soft, teary wheezes bubbling out of the boy only made the taller hold him tighter. It felt like they were back at the ice rink, the two still in the skates made for kids. Kan came running out, face red from the cold as he embraced Corey, crooked smile and beaming eyes overtaking his features, as they had just won their first game together. Corey could still feel the smooth texture of Kan's jersey, labeling his nine-year-old form number ten.
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