Distant Elemental

Nayru blinked a couple of times, coming to her senses. She groaned and put a hand to her throbbing head. As she opened her blue eyes again, she groaned once more, squinting in the bright light. Where was she? Slowly she became accustomed to the light, and looked around. Her whole body seemed to ache as she struggled to her knees. A cell. She was in some sort of cell, with steel bars in front of her, a clean white floor beneath her and white walls all around. A cot sat in a corner, a toilet in another with toilet paper, and some bread and a cup of water was near the bars. There was a door in the bars that looked impossible to open, and a large lock on the outside hung heavily, antique and silent. Nayru looked around slowly, thinking. What had happened? She remembered a bright light from the night before, lots of loud noises and an immense amount of pain. She must have been lying in the cell for a while; her whole body ached from the flat, hard ground beneath. She looked up at the ceiling and almost blinded herself from the fluorescent light than shined down upon her. She could smell an antiseptic sort of smell and was vividly reminded of a hospital.
“Oh, so you’re awake now.” Nayru winced, hearing a noise for the first time in this silent place. She squinted out beneath the bars and saw some sort of guard looking back at her. He was leering down at her, a rugged smile across his grotesque face, which in seconds was drenched.
“Why you little-” he spluttered, outraged and confused at the same time. He grabbed hold of the bars and shook them as hard as he could, not doing much, but showing his rage. “Don’t you dare!” he screamed, his ugly face doubly distorted with rage. In response, though she felt disorientated and everything swum around her, Nayru poked out her tongue and made funny faces at him.
“You’ll pay for that!” the man yelled. He whirled around and made to storm off when all of a sudden he was lying flat on the floor, face down. To her luck, Nayru had knocked him unconscious. She sucked back up the pile of water that had appeared on the ground, and looked over at the wall next to her. It could work...
“Nayru?”
Nayru’s eyes widened. That voice sounded oddly familiar...
“Andromeda?”
“Oh no, they’ve got you too.”

Fulgora and Nova reached the field half an hour later, despite Nova’s constant protests and attempts to teleport Fulgora away. She would not listen, and in a flicker of motion would appear somewhere else if ever he tried to grab her and teleport with her.
“You can’t go back there! They’ll be swarming all over the area, they’ll catch you! Listen to me!”
“Shut up Nova! I don’t want to hear what you’ve got to say, you coward!” she spat at him. She ran onwards, back to the field, flying across the roads, skimming between any cars still out late at night. It was almost all Nova could do to keep up with her through his teleporting.

Autumn and Blaise strained their ears to hear the slightest sound. Autumn breathed heavily, trying to muffle the noise she was making. She was having difficulty keeping the foliage around her and Blaise- it was their only safety against the search parties that now combed the dense bush in the surrounding areas of St. Chris’s park. She could hardly believe what had happened.

Skye bobbed up and down in the air, trying to keep at a certain altitude but finding it hard considering the state she was in. Her head throbbed at a certain point just above her left ear, and blood dripped freely from a cut along her cheek which she ignored. One lone truck traversed the road beneath her, and although the initial convoy had started up way before she attempted to follow, this last hope hadn’t been hard to find. She was almost sure where it was leading her.

As blinding lights burned through their eyelids, the elementals all swayed as the ground began to quiver. A roaring noise could be heard, and everyone presumed the worst- some new monster come to get them. They heard many footsteps, but no-one could do anything as they stumbled about in their separate darkness. Fulgora screamed as a hand grabbed hold of her wrist and before she could lash out, she had disappeared through the air, Nova pulling her away. Bianca’s goading laugh infuriated Blaise, but everyone else was afraid. Flashes of their surroundings could be seen as eyes blinked rapidly, but nothing made sense. Nayru cried out suddenly, slumping to the ground. Blaise roared, fire flaring from his fingertips before Autumn cried out “Blaise, stop it! You’re hurting me!”
There was another loud thumping noise as someone else hit the ground.
“You’re not getting away from me, Ashleigh!”
More noises of Ashleigh yelling and fighting with Bianca were heard over the tumultuous sounds, men calling out orders and strange whooshing noises as others strained to obey. Blaise and Autumn slowly regained their vision, only to find themselves surrounded by people with no way out.
“What the hell? Where is everyone?” Autumn cried out.
“No time!” yelled Blaise. He burst into flame suddenly, the all-consuming ball of wrath that pushed everyone backwards, including Autumn. She wasn’t defenceless though; the grass beneath her, as it had done only recently, grew out and wrapped itself together to create rope-like whips that struck those around her. The two fought their way out of the crowd and started running, stopping only to look back and see if they could see anyone- but there was nothing other than their pursuers.

In her last moment of clarity, Andromeda caught a vision of Skye surrounded by men holding guns and closing in on her. Skye was as blinded as Andromeda had been seconds ago and didn’t see what trouble she was in. Andromeda heard someone coming up behind herself, and knew she had only a second to react. She raised her hand toward Skye and with a huge effort, as Skye was far away, she enveloped her in space and sucked her through a portal to a distance as far away as she could get before Andromeda felt the strike that had been coming hit her across the back of her head and with a sickening flash her world went black.

Skye yelled as she felt her feet leave the ground. A weightless feeling took over her, until with a sudden thump and a searing pain she landed on the ground. “Ow!” she cried hitting her head hard before rolling over and standing up quickly. She was in amongst stubborn bush that she could not swipe away with her hands. She grabbed a bunch of branches and pulled, twisting them around as she felt other brambles and twigs swipe at every part of her exposed flesh it rubbed against.
“Aargh!” she cried out in frustration, fighting for space in the dense bush before calling up the wind and lifting herself into the air. The branches grabbed her clothes and pulled, trying to keep her down, but she fought back, striking at them with the wind till her clothes tore and she was away. She pulled herself up into the air, got her bearing, and flew steadily back towards the desolate oval.

Skye gasped at the scene before her eyes. The field was crawling with people- she could hardly see the ground amongst the mass of figures the swarmed all over. Skye couldn’t spot any elementals; she wondered where they had all gone. She couldn’t remember what had happened... but it must have been Andromeda or Nova who teleported her away. As far as she knew, Nova had to be touching the person he teleported, so it must have been Andromeda... where was she? It was then she spotted an unconscious figure being borne away by a small crowd of people. Andromeda was thrown into a truck that sat next to the field, and already a driver was getting in, ready to make way. A small convoy of trucks went with this one. Skye felt outraged- how dare they? Skye would have instantly swooped down to help if she hadn’t spotted Bianca and Ashleigh. Some sort of massive claw made of darkness was wrapped around Ashleigh, who also appeared to be unconscious, and she was being carried away towards another van. This instantly made Skye wary- if she got too close she could be captured too. She watched as the people slowly filtered away, disappearing into trucks, cars and vans and leaving. No elementals remained. Did that mean she was the only one left? Skye had to stop and reconsider how she was going to approach this situation. She saw the last truck leaving and was forced into action.