Alicia Vaugur, human

  I run as fast as I can as the sound of an explosion sounds behind me. This was the chance I'd been waiting for all this time. A chance to make that hot-headed son of a whore pay. I almost pause at that thought. Wow, I’d gotten blood thirsty. I guess weeks being treated like a glorified pet by a sadistic pyromaniac as he torches innocent people in front of your eyes does that to you.

  I shake off my thoughts as I move. They’re unimportant for my goal. I just need to move. I don't have to go far to reach a fire hydrant, only about a kilometer away. I come to a halt in front of the metal object, frowning at it. Slowly I circle it, considering how the fuck I'm supposed to open the dumb thing. I could break it open somehow, but how? I glance from side to side, trying to think of something. I need something either big and powerful to smash the thing, or I need to open it normally. The thing is I certainly don’t have whatever it is that firefighters use to open them. So forcing it open it is.

  I turn every which way, hoping to see something when my eyes light up, locking onto what might just be my salvation. It's an unguarded old car. The vehicle looks heavy enough, and though locked, that doesn't mean I can’t get in.

  I'm gonna get in so much trouble, I think to myself as I make my way over to the vehicle. We're in the edge of a residential area, and despite it being halloween, nobody mills about the streets. There are a few cars, but just pulling up my hood is enough to hide my identity. The nearby houses don't seem to have cameras, and when I make my way to the other end of the road so nobody can see me, all I have to do is grab a rock and smash a window. I climb in through the glass, careful not to cut myself, and open the bottom compartment to get at the wires. My father had some… interesting viewpoints, lets say, on what a kid should know how to do to be safe on their own. And one of them was hotwiring old cars. How did he know how to hotwire old cars? Fuck if I know.

  The rumble of the car is all I need to hear to know it's started and I immediately open the door. I turn the car so it's facing the fire hydrant. Then, I place the rock on the gas pedal just right. I immediately jump out of the vehicle as it begins to move on its own, rocketing forward at rapidly building speed as it crosses around 10 feet before slamming into the fire hydrant with a loud BANG. I wince, then duck into a bush. No lights turn on in the house the car was parked in front of. Heavy sleepers? Or maybe nobody's home? That'd be convenient. Either way, I can only hope that kid knows what he's doing.

  He was strong. I could tell. That, and he was smart with how he was using his powers. Ripping water out of trees is something I'd never have thought of, much as it pains me to admit, if only to myself. I'd been raised to be great. I'd practiced two martial arts from childhood, became an amazing shot with a gun when I joined the military by my fathers will. I was one of the best of the best, rising through the ranks like a shooting star.

  I clench my fist in anger as I sit up. I'd trained my body, my mind, and my skills from a young age. And what did that get me? Nothing. No matter how hard I train, I don't imagine anything standing up to those monsters of the elements. Then I pause as I notice something. There's no water geysering out of the fire hydrant, like I'd expected. Back in America I remember seeing a fire hydrant that’d gotten hit by a car spewing water up into the sky and flooding the streets. So why wasn't this one?

  Cautiously I make my way over to the fire hydrant. The metal is mangles, and the car is off to the side steaming and rumbling, making sad noises like a wounded tiger. I feel bad ruining the nice car. And from the looks of it, it was for nothing.

  There's no water in it.

  Why is there no water in it?! I crouch down in front of it, trying to find something, anything. Even a drop of water. But, no. It's completely dry on the inside- oh. Back when I was younger, when I was in highschool, I had done a slideshow for class focusing on the many differences between things in cold and warm climates. One of those things was the fire hydrants.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  I face-palm, frustrated with myself for not remembering it. Dry barrel fire hydrants. In cold climates, the water is kept below the freezing point in the ground so that it doesn't freeze inside the hydrant, causing problems when there's a fire and water is needed. There's a valve in it that keeps the water under. I need to pull it out.

  In the distance I hear a loud explosion. Over a kilometer away I can see the fire elemental, Tory Renolds. He’s… running. He's not chasing the water elemental. He's running from him. I'd never imagined that demon running from anyone. It was always others who ran.

  I shake my head, turning back to the fire hydrant. There's got to be something I can do to get the water out. Peering a convenient hole, I can see the valve. I need to yank it somehow. Or at least dislodge it. I turn from side to side and notice that same rock on the ground. This thing must have been sent by the gods or something. I scoop it up into my hand, reel my arm back, and slam it into the pole connecting the top to the lower valve. A small dent is made. The valve isn't dislodged. I pull my arm back. I slam into it again. Another dent. The valve isn’t dislodged.

  I do it again. And again. And again. Over, and over, and over, and over and over and over- until.

  Water begins to rise up, then spill out of the mutilated hydrant.

  I raise my arms and let out the most childish cheer I've made since I was 8. I then feel heat on my face and. Despite the heat, I feel my blood go cold as I turn. Tory is close. He's only a few meters away and-

  A section of the earth rises and slams into his jaw, making him stumble and fall onto the ground.

  Tory lets out a choked, pained noise as he grips his broken jaw, and out of the ground beside me come 2… teens?

  One is a girl with brown hair that I don't recognize. The other is a blonde haired boy I do recognize.

  “Thanks, miss.” The boy says, looking down at the fire hydrant. He holds out a hand, and water begins to flood out at the speed of a tsunami. Hundreds of gallons gather up in a ginormous ball above the boy. He stands right in front of Tory.

  “I figured out how you did that.” He says, grinning. “You turned into fire, or rather, heat. I never even considered that, so props to you for your creativity.” The water elemental snaps his fingers, and a dome of liquid envelops both him and Tory. Any further words spoken are cut off by the flowing dome of water.

  …

  William Trey, Water Elemental

  The dome of condensed, shimmering water closes in on me and Tory. The man stares up at me in rage.

  “You fucking BIT- AUGH!” His words are cut off by a bolt of water going right into his face. He coughs. Even as I stand in the dome I pull more and more water out of the fire hydrant by the minute.

  “You killed a lot of people.” I say, my voice colder than I thought it could be. “Hurt a lot more. Burned some beautiful places. Why?”

  “Oh, so now you're some moral paragon, huh?” Tory scoffs. “Please. We all just wanna see the world burn.” He turns into heat again, and now that I know where to look, I can feel him heating the moisture in the air. He fails to breach through the barrier and stumbles back, retaking human shape.

  “Not all of us.” I say, shaking my head. “Not me.”

  “Why else would we have received these powers if not to show the world that WE'RE BETTER?! HUH?!” He growls out, blasting all the heat he has at me. More and more water comes and consumes it all.

  “And that was the last of your reserves.” I say calmly, looking down at him as he falls to his knees. “And now you die.”

  “Wait- no, no… I-I didn't mean it, I-” I blast him in the face with water to shut him up.

  “Congrats, Tory. You got on the news. The whole world knows your name.” I look down at him as I slowly wrap him up in pressurized water, squeezing. “But one day, the whole world will forget your face. You'll just be a footnote on a page in a book.” I lean forward. “You burned. Now your legacy burns.” I clench my hand into a fist. I can hear bones cracking. Tory screams.

  I pause. What the fuck am I doing? I look down at the man writhing in pain. I'm not gonna torture the guy, even if he was evil. What made me- what… why did I…

  I shake my head to shake off the thoughts. I wrap him up entirely in water. Then I pierce his skull with a ball of condensed water.

  Time stops.

  The [Fire] elemental has died

  You have taken on the [fire] element

  Ascendance tier: 2/20

  You have gained sub-ability [Element Creation]