The Elementals: Chapter 5 attack

We had managed a whole month of movie nights and I had managed to avoid Ember’s wrath and so after work tonight I was going to meet Sky with Pizza to celebrate. My shift finished later than normal and so I had to weave through a bunch of handsy drunks to get out. I made my way home through the dark streets, no paying attention to my surroundings as I ordered pizza online.
I feel a hand grab my waist and i’m pulled into a large older man who smells like a brewery. I push myself away from him, but run into another man behind me. I feel my heart start to race as I realise i’m trapped by at least 4 men when are now circling me. One lunges forwards and I deflect his hand and land a solid kick to his stomach, the others then try to grab me, my training kicks in and I dodge and fight them off until i’m backed into a corner and 2 of the men grab my wrists. I don’t know what they want from me, but I know its not good so I struggle as best as I can to escape. I look around for anything that could help me, but there is nothing but dirt and grass. I pray for the ground to swallow them up and I watch in astonishment as the earth rises around their feet, pinning the men in place. The men notice at the same time as me and try to free their feet which gives me the distraction I need to break free and run. I’m so angry, I want to go back and hurt those men, but I’m too shocked at what happened to go back so I run all the way home.
“There you are, I was worried the pizza would get cold, but Rain assured me it would not get wasted…” Sky stops speaking as he takes in my dishevelled appearance. “Lily are you ok? What happened?” He asks worried.
I take deep breaths to steady my breathing as Rain pulls me into a hug. I start to calm down. “Its fine, just some drunken idiots wanted a fight, but I got away.”I explain
“What, where? I will go and teach them some manners” Sky says, angrily
“No, please stay, I think I dealt with them.” I say
“How many?” Sky asks
“4, maybe 5, I wasn’t paying attention and it happened very quickly.”
“How did you get away? I know you are a good fighter, but you are not that good” Rain says.
“I.. I don’t know, you will think its crazy but I think I made the earth rise up to stop them moving” I say hesitantly. Rain looks at me like she is assessing my sobriety, but Sky is looking very seriously at me.
“Can you show us?” He asks.
“I guess I can take you to where it happened, they might still be there.” I say
“Oh no, if we are going on a wild goose chase, we are at least eating the pizza first” Rain says and my stomach grumbles in agreement.
After pizza I take them to where it happened, I’m glad the men have gone, but there are clear holes in the grass where it trapped them.
“See those holes, I mean I guess the grass could have been swampy or something” I say pointing as Sky steps and proves the grass is solid.
“I don’t think so, can you try to do it again?”he asks
“I don’t even know what I did or if I did anything” I say hopelessly
“Just imagine what you want to happen and then focus on it” Sky encourages as Rain rolls her eyes.
I look at the ground and imagine it swallowing them up like before and I focus on willing it to do what I want.
“This is silly, lets go h-” Rain says, but stops as her feet become trapped.
“Woah!” I exclaim
“I knew it! I knew it wasn’t just me” Sky says excitedly.
“What?” Rain and I ask in sync as sky frees himself and levitates briefly.
“How did you do that?” I ask amazed
“I can manipulate the wind. I found out a while ago, but I didn’t tell anyone because i’m still figuring it out myself. You can help me now, with your earth powers and my wind powers we can train together and work out what this is” Sky raves.
“This is a lot to take in, I need chocolate and you need to explain” I demand and Rain nods emphatically beside me.
“Ok, lets go back home and I will bake brownies and regale you with my personal superhero origin story” Sky says.

“When I left home to come live here, I joined every club I could to try to make new friends and have a fresh start. I was playing football, hockey, rugby, boxing, everything I could and I did make a few good friends in the process. I even joined a cookery class and learnt how to make these and feed myself. Thats how I managed to bulk up, I finally stopped growing, started eating properly and exercised a lot. One day in second year I scored the winning goal in an away football game, we went out to celebrate afterwards and I got separated from my mates. The other team jumped me in the street when I was looking for them. There were 7 of them against just me and I couldn’t take them. It was a windy night and I remember thinking I wish they would all just blow away and the next thing I knew a strong gust of wind pushed them all back from me, enough that I could escape. At first I thought it was the alcohol and my imagination, but then I really wanted it to be real. I guess I wanted my own super powers. I tried to replicate it by getting into unfair fights and eventually I succeeded and then I honed in on how it works. I didn’t know who to talk to about it, it seems crazy and its not like I could ask my parents if they experienced this too and I didn’t want to become a science experiment or a mental hospital patient so I kept it a secret until now.” Sky finishes his story as we finish his brownies.
“So you can manipulate wind? and you learnt it in self defence like I did.” I clarify.
“Its more like I can manipulate the air around me rather than just the wind, like how I suspect that you will be able to manipulate more than just grass.” Sky says.
“Can you teach me?” I ask hopefully
“I guess so, but I’m still learning myself and it’s hard to find places to practice.” Sky says.
“oh no, she has got that twinkle in her eye that means she is going to full geek out or plan something and that means i’m off to bed. Don’t worry though your secrets are safe with me” Rain says and leaves.
“She is not wrong, I have so many questions for you and i’m going to make a plan for us to work this out. What do you know so far? Any ideas on why we can do this? Do you think there is something wrong with us? Do you think i’m a freak?” I stop talking quickly and look away, realising my inner spiralling was said out loud.
Sky pulls my face up gently to look at him “You are amazing, there is nothing wrong with you, you are perfect and we will figure this out together” He says and once again I feel the pull to kiss him, to show him how much his words mean to me, how much he means to me. I lean in slightly closer and he suddenly jumps up and heads for the door.
“Its late, you should get some sleep and text me when you have thought of a plan” Sky says as he rushes out the door.
“Well that didn’t go as I had hoped” Rain says coming out of her room to hug me “But still having superpowers is pretty cool, even if it is a weird shoe swallowing power”.