"You're Peter Welsh?"
"That's my name," he said, standing up. "Don't overuse it."
Patricia smirked. "You got any more of those?" she asked. "Or am I going to be standing here all day listening to high school hallway pick-up lines?"
Peter smiled and licked his lips. "That depends," he said, looking her from head to toe. "Do you like them?"
"Do I look like I like them?" Patricia said, starting to lose her temper. "Seriously?"
"Well, Peter Welsh definitely likes you. What can Peter do for you, beautiful?"
She opened one side of her blazer to show her badge and gun holster. "Answer a few questions."
Peter's smile faded immediately as he stepped away from Patricia, his retreat stopped by the car he had been working on. "Woah, hey," he stammered.
Patricia smiled, greatly satisfied with how uneasy she was making the man. She knew that she sometimes came off a little too hard, but times like these were just too precious to warrant her trying to be someone she wasn't.
"Is this him?" Rick said, coming up behind her. Peter's eyes darted between the two of them, his mind racing with reasons as to why they were here. He thought back to the two men from the other day, and wondered if he could risk trying to get away.
"Yeah, it's him," Patricia said.
Rick stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Rick Turen."
"Are you a cop, too?" Peter asked, ignoring the gesture.
"A cop?" Rick frowned, pulling his hand back. "Why would you -?" Rick stopped, sighed and turned to Patricia. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Patricia smiled.
"He's shaking like a leaf," Rick disagreed. "Only you can make a grown man do that."
Patricia sighed. "He referred to himself in third person," she reasoned.
"She pulled her gun on me, man," Peter lied, sensing that Rick was more on his side than Patricia's.
"Watch it, rugrat," Patricia sneered.
Peter retreated a bit further, almost climbing onto the car behind him.
"Ok, stop it," Rick said. He turned towards Peter. "Listen, this is a complete misunderstanding. We're just here to talk."
Peter looked from Rick to Patricia, and then back at Rick. Trying to register which one of them was more dangerous, he started to say something when he caught sight of the two men that had chased him the other day as they walked into the garage. They stopped one of the garage's receptionists, and his eyes widened in horror when she pointed towards where he was.
"Oh, crap!"
Rick and Patricia turned to see what he was talking about and immediately recognized Sebastian's men. They were looking about the garage, still trying to register where the receptionist was pointing towards.
"I gotta get out of here," Peter stammered, trying to slide past Rick. "Was great meeting you guys."
Rick grabbed him by the arm, stopping his escape. "We need a distraction," he said, scanning the room. He smiled when he saw what he was looking for.
"Dude, we have to go," Peter said. The two men saw them and immediately made their way down the side of the garage, quickly weaving between the other mechanics.
"You're fire, right?" Rick asked Peter.
"What?"
"Your element. It's fire?"
"How do you -?"
Rick winked at him. "Trish?"
Patricia pulled out her gun and took aim. "Way ahead of you."
The two men stopped when they saw Patricia draw her weapon, one of them already readying his attack. She pulled two shots and the men dove to the ground, looking up in confusion when they realized Patricia wasn't shooting at them. The bullets hit a tank behind them, the gasoline inside escaping in streams.
Rick pulled out a lighter and lit the flame. "I think you know what to do with this," he said, looking at Peter with a smile.
Peter smiled back. "Oh yeah."
#
"Wait, how is that even possible?"
Brian had suggested a small diner next to the library. It was a fifteen minute walk, one she had spent explaining what had been happening. She had told him about the war, about Sebastian, about the assignments, everything. She had left nothing out, trying to be as honest as possible, hoping that it was at least making a difference to him.
He had listened to her intently, taking everything in without uttering a word. Even after they had reached the diner and ordered their respective drinks, he remained silent. It was only after she had finished and sat quietly drinking her coffee did Brian finally say something.
"I thought you guys were all powerful and stuff," he said. "You all made it seem like you had it together."
"Apparently not as well as we thought."
"What about mom?"
"I took care of her," Leah said. She had called in for back-up the other night, and before following Brian this morning, had made sure the Guard had moved her mother.
"So I don't have a choice, is that it?"
"Not this time, Brian, no."
Brian was furious. "How can you do this to me again? I have a girlfriend, an education. I have a life here, Leah!"
"A life the Order gave you," Leah shot back. "You were only safe as long as we were able to watch over you. That's almost impossible now."
Brian folded his arms across his chest and sat back angrily. He reminded her of the little boy she had grown up with and had left behind so many years before.
"You can bring your girl with you, if she wants to come."
"Funny."
"Rick and Patricia seem to be doing ok."
"Ashley's an art major," Brian said. "What's she going to do? Draw people to death?"
Leah almost smiled but decided against it. She didn't need to piss her brother off any more than he already was. He wasn't looking at her anymore, his eyes cast down as if he were asleep.
"I need to say goodbye," he finally said.
"We don't exactly have a lot of time," Leah replied.
"We have as much time as I say we do." Brian stared hard at his sister, and when Leah noticed he wouldn't let up, she nodded.
"I'll come with you."
"No," Brian stopped her as he got up from his seat. "I can do this on my own. Just wait here." He pulled on his coat and made his way towards the door. "I'll be back in an hour."
Leah watched him leave and wondered how long she would actually wait for him to come back.
#
Rick led Patricia and Peter running down the back alley of the garage. He didn't know how much time they had just bought themselves with their little fire show, but Sebastian trained his field officers well, and if these two were here alone without an army of guns behind them, then they were definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Racing back into the street, the three made their way towards where Rick had parked. Peter glanced behind him and was surprised to see one of the men racing out behind them. He barely had enough time to guess where the other one was when the earth under his feet began to shake with such force that it threw him off balance, and he landed face first on the pavement.
Patricia had felt the shaking before it happened, her experience training with Nadia and Steven paying off. She had also felt a gust of wind behind her, and knew immediately that they were going to be attacked with both forces. As soon as the earth had started to shake, she had thrown herself to the ground, rolled, and turned with her gun aimed at her pursuers.
Patricia fired three shots at the first man, two bullets hitting him in his shoulder and sending him to the ground in pain. The second man was already moving, pushing his arms out as she felt the air around her bend and push forward. The force hit her square in the chest, sending her flying back into Rick.
Peter felt the air above his head bending, and without thinking twice, jumped to his feet and ran. He could feel the air bender's focus shift towards him, gusts of wind building up around him as he was carried off his feet and thrown forward, crashing hard into a parked car. He screamed in agonizing pain, and hoped he had given the others enough
time to recover.
From where he sat, he watched as Rick stood completely still, his hands balled into fists, his eyes glowing. Suddenly, he bent to one knee and slammed one fist into the ground. Rick was rewarded as a fire hydrant blew its sides, water rushing out with such force that it crashed into the air bender and sent him straight into a wall. The man dropped like a pile of bricks, still and unmoving.
Patricia had also found her way to her feet, and before the man she had shot could get up, she ran towards him, grabbed him by the nape and slammed her knee in his face. The man fell face down onto the pavement, blood gushing from his nose in a way that made Peter uncomfortable.
Rick made his way quickly to where Peter sat, pain racing down the side of his arm, and helped him onto his feet. A crowd had started to gather, some sick enough to walk all the way up to the unconscious men and snap pictures with their phones. One or two were taking pictures of them, too, and Patricia was quick to pull out her badge and get to work.
"Are they dead?" Peter asked.
"I doubt it, but we've got a pretty good head start now," Rick replied. He could already hear sirens.
Patricia walked towards them, putting her sunglasses back on and pushing her chin up. "Ok, I'm going to have to play detective. You head on out and get him out of here," she said, gesturing at Peter.
"Are you going to be ok here?" Rick asked.
"When have I ever not been?" Patricia flashed him a smile. "Just go. Before people start asking questions."
"Trish?"
Patricia kissed him quickly on the cheek and pushed him along. With Peter's arm around his neck, the two men hurried away from the scene towards the car.
#
There were screams.
Leah had waited for almost half an hour in the diner before deciding to return to the library. She had promised her brother she would stay put, but she was usually terrible at things like that. She had chatted with the waitress for a few minutes, fiddled with the menu, tapped the drum line to "We will Rock You" and ordered another cup of coffee. She just didn't know how to relax, and something had felt off.
The screams assured her that her senses had been right.
Leah started to sprint as soon as she realized that they were coming from the library. She tore past the crowds, sirens shrill as police cars raced past her, and prayed to all that was holy that she's be able to get to Brian before they did. She knew from experience that, when it came to elementals, human nature was usually shoot first and ask questions later.
She made it only as far as the large grounds in front of the library, students storming towards her in a stampede as police officers hid behind the open doors of their cruisers. There was a lot of shooting, mostly coming from the interior of the library, glass shattering everywhere. She tried to race against the crowd and was grabbed by a police officer just as a bullet swished over her head.
She watched in horror as more bullets found random targets. Whoever was shooting was causing enough chaos to render the police inept, forcing them to cower behind their covers, unable to return fire in the pandemonium that was outside the library. Someone screamed next to her, a young girl's body falling flat onto the pavement, the bullet holes in her back quickly bloodying her blouse.
Leah scanned the crowd quickly, trying to determine where her brother was, or if he had made it out at all. Knowing her luck, the shooters inside were probably after him. As if answering her question, a body flew out in a shower of glass from the second level of the library, Leah immediately recognized the uniform of Renegade hit men. She felt her muscles tense as the hit man slammed into the pavement below, but the jet of water that had pushed him out was more important.
Brian was still in the library.
She ducked her head and ran in the opposite direction of the library, making her away around its west side where the police had not yet barricaded a way in, and raced towards the side doors. She could still hear the shooting, now mixed with shots being fired inside, and the screams of students finding various ways to escape the carnage. Bracing herself, she slammed her shoulder against the doors.
Leah rolled to a side, pushing herself against a wall as she tried to slow her breathing. She concentrated, following the sounds of gunfire coming from the first floor. She quickly scanned her surroundings, and confirming that all the mayhem was above her, raced past stations of computers and deeper into the library. Her eyes darted left to right as she made her way to the stairs, pulling out her lighter and setting her hands ablaze with flames.
She was about to start up the stairs when she was stopped by the screams of a man thrown down the stairwell and into a wall by jets of water. He went down shooting aimlessly, the gunfire stopping as soon as his skull cracked against the stair railing.
Leah threw caution to the wind and raced upstairs. If Brian was being forced to use his powers, then she needed to be with him. She knew that he had little practice, opting for a quieter, more lay-low attitude, and to use his powers on full throttle could go dangerously wrong. She took the stairs by two, hands ablaze, ready for a fight.
She stopped dead when she reached the top. Brian was standing to her right at the far side of the floor, an easy target to the dozen shooters hiding behind walls and firing at him. But, it was her brother that she was staring at; she was completely mesmerized by the sight of what he was doing.
Brian was standing completely still, his palms facing outwards and his head raised to the ceiling. He seemed to be floating off the ground, the water at his feet pushing him up, perfectly balanced as his eyes glowed a bright blue. Around him, water swirled in circles as if surrounding him in a whirlpool, waves rising up and down around him, crashing into the floor of the library before shooting out in jets at the shooters around him. Leah couldn't believe what she was seeing, the water surrounding Brian so thick that it stopped the bullets as they crashed into the waves.
A bullet grazed her shoulder and brought her out of her stupor. One of the shooters had seen her and had turned his attention towards her, his gun aimed for the kill. Leah quickly shot the flames in her hands at him, sending him rolling as a wave of water picked him up and flung him through a window. Leah turned towards the closest shooter to her and sent her flames at him, the man immediately catching fire and racing from his cover, screaming as he flapped his arms about.
The shooters realized that they were being attacked from both sides, their organized assault on Brian suddenly broken, some moving to switch their attention to Leah. It was a mistake they paid for dearly, the water shooting out from Brian slamming into them and sending them sprawling about. Leah turned to her left, shooting flames at her attackers as she made her way deeper into the floor, burning herself a path through the shooters.
"Brian!" she screamed over the sounds of gunfire, flames and crashing waves of water.
Brian didn't reply, lost in a frenzy of energy, shooting more and more jets of water out from around him. Leah watched as more shooters were tossed about, thrown against bookshelves and into walls. She tried her best to control where she directed her flames, knowing well that the whole library could burn down if she wasn't careful. She felt some relief as she saw some of the hit men race towards the stairs and escape, leaving their comrades behind, more worried about getting out than helping the others.
Leah turned her attention to Brian. The shooting had finally come to an end, and she had to get him out before the police found their way in. She called out at him again, but he didn't reply. With no one to direct his powers at, the water surrounding him intensified, the waves crashing into each other, rising and falling with vigour.
Leah etched her way towards her brother, thinking how best to break the trance he was in, and coming short of a reasonable solution that didn't involve hurting him. She could feel the strength of the energy surrounding him, pushing at her like a gush of wind. His head was still turned skyward, but she could now see tears running down his eyes. It's going to kill him, she thought.
She ga
thered her own energy, building it up inside her, readying herself for what she knew she had to do. Just before she could let it all out, Brian moved his head, his eyes focused on her, and screamed.
Leah felt the water hit her like a cement truck, slamming hard into her body and throwing her across the floor and into the book shelves.
With the breath knocked out of her, Leah lay helpless as volumes of books fell off the shelf onto her. She could feel herself going in and out of consciousness, and fought to stay awake. She needed to get up. She needed to get to her brother. The library floor was drenched in water, Brian having obviously stopped using his powers, and she could faintly here it racing down the stairs to the level below. Cringing, she fought to find enough energy to push herself up to her feet, her hands almost slipping in the water around her.
Holding onto the side of her body where she was sure she had broken one or two ribs, Leah made her way back to her brother. Brian was on his knees, crying freely, his back to her. Leah slowly walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Brian?"
Her brother's entire body was shaking, and when Leah saw the bloodied body of Ashley cradled in his arms, her heart sank and her knees gave away.
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