Elemental
By, McCloud


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Chapter 1: The Gift, and the Curse

"It's time to wake up," called a voice from the distance. "Dan, it's time for school."

There was the sound of movement, a cord being pulled, and light poured into the room. The boy who, until now, was sleeping pulled the covers over his head with a moan. The window-opener walked over to the boy and tore the covers from his hands. He flinched and faked a cry of agony.

"AAAAAHHH!" he yelled. "The light! It burns!"

"Get out of bed," the woman said with a laugh. "I told you it's time for school!"

"What time is it, though?" Dan asked, still in his shorts and his makeshift bed.

"It's about half past seven," she replied.

"What? Why didn't you say so before?" he almost yelled as he jumped off of the couch that he was using to sleep on. He turned to the woman around and pushed her out of the room before proceeding to rummage through his bag of clothes for his red shirt. This one shirt had green, yellow, and blue dragons on the front and back and buttons down the front. He also pulled out a random pair of jeans and threw on his socks and shoes. He rushed by the woman who woke him up and out the door, grabbing his backpack from her in the process.

"Thanks Mrs. Blake," is what he yelled while running backwards down the sidewalk. He turned around and continued to run until he saw a familiar back.

Dan was around five feet, ten inches tall. He had short, black hair and deep brown eyes. He was relatively thin and built for running distances like this. While running, he yelled at the person in the distance.

"Cara! Wait up," he called.

Cara turned around and continued to walk down the sidewalk, facing Dan as she moved on. When he finally caught up, he was panting slightly and his face was a little pink. Cara laughed at the look on his face.

"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite elemental," she said sarcastically, wheeling around to walk normally.

"Elemental?" questioned Dan. "Is that the nickname of the week?"

"Yep," she said as she reached for her CD player and her pair of headphones. Cara was Dan's friend since the sixth grade when he moved to Connecticut. She was only a bit shorter than Dan, but she was much stronger. She had dirty-blonde hair that reached only past her ears. She had hazel eyes that she often used to get stuff from Dan. This stuff usually included drinks, snacks, decent criticism on her stories and, once in a while, a video game or two. Dan currently lives with Cara's family, the Blakes.

"Elemental, huh," Dan said, actually considering the name. "It might work."

"I thought so," said Cara as they walked onto the school grounds. Both Dan and Cara were freshmen at the local high school. They pushed open the front door and entered the building. The school was reasonably large for a high school. It had three floors that were shaped like hollow squares. These were for the main classes, such as: Math, History, Science, Literature, etc. There were also some extra wings for other classes like chorus and lunch.

“I suppose we’d better get to class,” Dan said, checking his watch. It read 7:38. School began in two minutes. The two parted at the staircase and walked to their separate homerooms. Cara went down a hallway behind the stairs and Dan walked through the doors into a crowd of people. After a minute of being pushed about the hall, he finally made it to his classroom just as the bell rang. He put his backpack on his desk and walked to the window where his friend Nick sat. Nick has been Dan’s friend since the seventh grade and he’s been known to always have his nose in a book. These books were usually comics that he borrowed from others. Today’s title: Chrono Crusade.

“Hey Nick,” Dan said. Nick mumbled something but continued to read. Dan sat down next to him and knocked on his head, trying to get a response. This is usually what happened in the mornings. The homeroom bell rang and Dan went to his seat and listened to the announcements. Something about the canned food thing, a note about sports, and an announcement for an upcoming school dance. ‘Nothing new today,’ thought Dan as he yawned. The bell rang again and everyone got up to go to his or her first class. Most of the students went down the many hallways on the first floor. Dan was one of them. His first class was World Civilizations, most likely the most boring subject in the history of man. This was most likely because it was the history of man. Dan sighed as he sat in his seat in front of Cody. Cody was one of the people who, like Dan, didn’t pay attention in class and depended on others for their notes.

Today’s lesson was different from others, however. It was written on the chalkboard in big, bold letters: IMMORTALS. Dan looked at this heading with interest. What’s this? Dan thought. Must be a subject change. The lesson started with a lecture on a specific people that possessed special waters that granted them longer lives. They were called immortal only because each person lived for a good four hundred years each. These people were not like others, including the not dying part. They only existed to fight each other. The fighting was part of their religion that said the last one standing was given the ultimate prize. At the end of class, Dan packed up, and then stopped. Wait, he thought. We were doing a unit on China yesterday. There’s supposed to be a test tomorrow.

The next class was physical education in the new gym. Dan always liked this class because it gave him something to do. Classes shouldn’t be only sitting at desks and writing notes.

After that, Dan went up to the third floor to Spanish class. He saw Cara waiting outside and they got a moment to speak.

“Did you have Evans’ class yet?” Dan asked, forgetting for a minute that she didn’t have the same teachers as he did.

“No, genius.” She replied. “Why?”

He told her about the Immortals. When he finished his short explanation, Dan told her to meet at the front doors after school to talk more. The bell rang and Dan entered his classroom. After Spanish was Science class on the second floor. Dan met up with another one of his friends at the landing.

“Hi Lauren,” Dan greeted her with a smile.

Lauren smiled back and said hi. She was very short for her age and had long, brown hair that reached the middle of her back. She also wore glasses, a blue shirt and jeans. Over her shirt was a green and blue plaid button-down that belonged to a friend of hers. There was one thing about her that everyone remembers: her smile. It wasn’t impressive or anything, just there. Always. Most of her friends joked about her parents dying and Lauren would be at the funeral, smiling away.

“What’s up?” Lauren asked, seeing the confused look on Dan’s face.

“Nothing,” Dan said. “Just didn’t understand a class, that’s all.”

They walked into their classroom and found a single word etched on the whiteboard, also in big, bold letters. This heading said: ALCHEMY.

“What the-“ Dan began to say, but caught Lauren’s, and the teacher’s, eyes and shut up at once. This day was getting bizarre. Why did the teachers suddenly switch topics in the middle? The science class went on as a usual class would, only Dan knew more of the answers than usual. Lauren was still smiling at the end of the lesson when the bell rang, but she watched Dan put his books away with confused eyes.

After science, Dan had English and literature. He walked around to where Cara would normally go to homeroom and down to the end of the hallway. When he walked in, he immediately checked the board for another sign of immortals or alchemists. The whiteboard was completely blank, and Dan sighed with relief. He sat in his chair at the back of the room and waited.

“Today,” his teacher began, “we’re going to put our reading of Romeo and Juliet for a few days and focus more on poems and stories written by people called Immortals.”

Dan almost fell out of his chair in shock. Luckily, he caught himself in time and continued his train of thought about what was wrong with today. His teachers were all changing subjects to the same topic. Why?

The bell rang forty-five minutes later and Dan quickly walked to the cafeteria for lunch. Maybe Marc or Justin would know why the teachers were switching their schedules. He went into the lunchroom and instantly spotted his two friends near the doors to the outside area. Dan met up with them and walked out into the sunlight.

“Hey Dan,” Marc greeted with a smirk. Marc, a sophomore of sixteen, was very tall. He had blue eyes and short, brown hair that almost looked like a pompadour. He also wore glasses like Lauren’s. Marc liked to wear the same kinds of shirts as Dan, only with more black on it. He was also obsessed with dragons. Marc even had the many different ways and languages for the word “dragon” all over his backpack.

“What’s up?” Justin asked, seeing Dan’s confused look. Justin, however, was the exact opposite. Even though he was also a sophomore, seventeen, he was very short. He also had blue eyes and short, brown hair but unlike Marc’s, it was more straight than bouncy. Justin was more of a computer person than either Dan or Marc and spent some of his free time writing programs for games and gadgets.

“Are any of your teachers changing the topics of class, halfway through?” Dan asked. “Or did anything like that happen in your freshman years?”

“Yeah,” Marc said, thinking about the day. “My teachers were talking about Immortals and…um…”

“Alchemy,” Justin finished for him. He, like Dan, believed in and even studied certain aspects of Alchemy. “Were your teachers talking about it too?”

“Yeah.” Dan replied in a somewhat happier tone. He wasn’t being singled out. That was a good sign. The three boys sat and ate their lunch in silence, thinking about why their teachers changed lessons. The bell rang for the next period and Marc leapt to his feet.

“Shoot!” He yelled. “I’m gonna be late for Bio!”

He began running to the other side of the school, stopping only to wave at Justin and Dan as they walked inside the building. Dan began walking up the stairs to the third floor and Justin went down to the first. They said their goodbyes and continued to their next class. Dan’s algebra class was the same as always. Check the unfinished homework, take the test not prepared for, listen to the teacher and pretend to take notes. The bell rang after a long forty-five minutes and Dan moved on to the last class of the day, chorus. There, he met up with Cara and they were able to talk for a few minutes before the bell calling them in sounded.

“Have any of your classes changed subject?” Dan asked.

“Yeah,” replied Cara. “They were talking about alchemists and immortals. Was it like that in your classes too?”

“No,” Dan said sarcastically. “I just thought I’d bring up facts about your life that I don’t know about. Of course mine have been like that!”

“Calm down!”

“What do you mean, ‘calm down?’”

“It’s not like any of the teachers know, right?”

Dan thought about this for a moment. She was right. If the teachers knew, then they would’ve said something or done something. He sighed with relief and thanked Cara for her point of view on the matter.

“No problem,” she said. “This proves, once again, that I am always right.”

Dan and Cara sat down in their respective chairs and the final class began. After thirty-five minutes of singing, they were given a break for the rest of class. Cara spent her time writing something in her little, blue notebook. It had “KEEP OUT DAN” in big, bold letters on the front. Dan decided to read a book that he pulled out of his backpack entitled: “Angel.” The bell rang ten minutes later, but Dan wasn’t listening. Cara took her notebook and hit him on the head. Dan rubbed the spot where the book had collided with his head and looked at the clock.

“Oh,” he said. “Thanks Cara.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” she said with a bow. The two left the classroom and were halfway to their lockers when what Cara said made sense to Dan.

“Not funny,” he growled.

“I thought it was,” Cara laughed. “It took you long enough.”

They walked together back to their lockers in silence. Dan was still reading his story and Cara had pulled her CD player out again. After placing some books back and pulling others out, the two of them walked down to room 218. It was Thursday and that meant the only after school activity they had: Anime Club. Upon entering the classroom, everyone greeted Cara and Dan and both sat down in the back with Marc. Justin was in his usual corner and Lauren wasn’t there at all. She didn’t usually attend this kind of thing. Today, Marc had plans to entertain the club with the games he invented. This gave Dan time to think things through. He was so deep in thought; he didn’t hear any of his friends calling his name to get in front and act out one of Marc’s scenes.

“Wake up, Elemental,” Cara said, using the name she had given him earlier. “It’s your turn.”

“What,” he said absentmindedly. He was completely at a loss for what was going on. “No thanks, maybe next time.”

He went back to his thoughts and stayed in his own corner like Justin did for the remainder of time. When Cara tapped him on the shoulder in an attempt to wake him again, Dan jumped.

“Thanks again,” he said as he grabbed his bag and left the room with Cara. They walked down the almost empty hallway with the other members of the club and waited outside for the bus to arrive. When it did, Marc got on and waved goodbye to Dan, Cara, and Justin as it left the school. Justin walked over to his dad’s car and left as well. This left Dan and Cara to walk home. As they reached the top of the hill overlooking the school, they heard an unwanted voice call to the both of them.

"Dan! Cara!" The voice came from school wide jerk, John Hills. He spun the two around to face him. John was slightly taller than both Cara and Dan. He was a year older than them, but was held back one year so he was also a freshman.

"You two owe me money," he said. "It's time to pay up."

"I'm pretty sure that we're all paid up," Cara said. "Too bad you flunked math. You'll never know."

"Yeah," agreed Dan. "Just back off."

Dan stared into John's eyes, also brown only without the same energy and happiness.

"What did you say, freak?" John also knew Dan for his odd nicknames and their meanings.

"I told you to back off," Dan said again, fire in his eyes. "Or would you rather we take this to the field?"

John nodded and all three students walked across the parking lot to the football field on the other side. The sun was beginning to set as Dan and John faced each other on both sides of the field.

“Ladies first,” called John, trying to provoke Dan.

Since Dan didn't charge, John did it for him. He drew his fist back and lunged. Dan sidestepped to the right and lifted his knee into John's stomach. Dan jumped back as his opponent fell to the ground. John stood up again and flew towards Dan and tried to punch him again. Once more, Dan avoided the strike by ducking under him. He grabbed John’s arm and flipped him over his shoulder, smashing him into the ground. When John got back to his feet, he ran at Dan again, this time trying a kick to the chest. Dan ducked and tripped John by sweeping his leg under John's stable one. He fell on his butt and Dan stood over him.

"Maybe next time," he said as he turned and began walking away.

"You only won because of those stupid powers," John called, still on the ground. Dan turned and looked at John, getting up and brushing himself off.

"I don’t need them for an idiot like you," said Dan, coldly.

"Awww. Why not," John asked in a babying voice. "Is it because of your parents? Do you miss them?"

"Shut up," Dan said quietly, his temper was starting to rise.

"Or is it your stupid brother," he taunted.

"I told you to shut up." Dan's voice was much more vicious and a bit louder than before.

"Or what?" questioned John, finally finding the weak point. "You'll kill me like your little sister?"

"I SAID SHUT UP," yelled Dan, the taunting finally getting to him. Dan’s entire mind went blank. He went into a blind rage and the ground began shaking. Winds began picking up and the sky darkened. Lightning flashed and thunder roared. Dan raised his hand and two different hands made of the ground beneath them shot up and grabbed John's legs. He screamed as two more came up and grabbed his arms. Lightning shot down from the sky into Dan's outstretched hand and fire burst into the other. He raised both fists and, using a blast of wind, flew at John and proceeded to punch every inch of John that wasn't covered by an earthen hand.

In this day and age, thousands of people die and thousands are born every minute. Every so often, special children are born. These children are born with powers, powers greater than and military weapon. With these powers, people could stop bullets; fly, even erase minds, all without blinking an eye. This power is Alchemy. Using Alchemy, one could do whatever they want. Each child born this way gets one elemental power, either fire, earth, wind, or water. These elements help make up the building blocks of matter. Each child is born with one, and only one.

Dan was born different. He wasn't granted one element, but seven. His powers come from all of the elements around him, three of which remain undiscovered by science. Although it stays under control most of the time, such power could go horribly awry when provoked. There was only one other time when Dan's powers were provoked like that. The result changed his life and scarred him forever. If you want to know what happened, just go up the road to the local Jewish cemetery. There, in the very back row, you will find four headstones, each bearing the same last name, Dan's last name. Both his parents and younger brother and youngest sibling, a two-year-old girl, died because of Dan’s Alchemy. No one knew what really happened except for Dan and Cara.

"Stop it," yelled a voice from somewhere. Dan halted the beating and turned around. It was Cara who yelled. The lightning stopped crackling in Dan’s hand and the fires dimmed in the other. The sky was once again a red-orange and the fists that bound John broke apart and he fell to the ground, broken, bruised, and bleeding. Dan was in a daze. He slowly walked away from the field. Cara tried to put a comforting hand on Dan's shoulder but drew it back as a blast of hot air came from him. Dan was mentally unstable, trying to rebuild the wall of anger in his head. Right now, his power was unchecked and everyone was a target. He had lost control for the second time, and someone almost died.

This is Dan, his gift, and his curse.

This is his story.

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