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Fire.
Everything was fire. All around me, like I was swimming through water. I breathed in the tendrils of flame, but there was no pain. Or anything else for that matter. I could feel myself floating toward something. I looked through the light, searching for something, anything, though it was not out of fear but curiosity, that powerful desire to know.
I emerged not into air but into a different sort of fire. Different colors swirling together into shapes, forms. Flames rose and formed spires and walls. Huge houses arose from light. I walked down the center of a path of blue flame. At my sides the houses grew; they began as two and three story buildings, but the next was always bigger than the last until finally I was walking past towering skyscrapers.
At the end of the path I could see a bright red pinprick of light—and then no more. I seemed to have reached the end of the world, and not even the fire reached past it. I approached the light slowly. It looked like a shining bead lying softly on the blue flames. I bent down and reached for it, wondering if it would offer some clue to what this place was, and what I was doing there. It seemed larger as my hand drew closer, then burst as I touched it. Its contents soared to heights far above me, beyond my line of sight. I took several steps back; on the ninth my leg went cold. Around me the strange colorful world changed to deep, blood red. The path below me and the tower before me became the only things not affected.
“ Zachary Walker,” Came an ominous and booming voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I cried out in pain as the fire froze around me and I could feel the voice’s intense hatred. “I will destroy you.”
The once friendly fire now sought to drown me. The houses and the tower fell like water and splash around my feet, rising up them to strangle me. I tried desperately to pull my leg away, but the other sank deep into the blue path of fire. The freezing fire swept over me. I felt myself falling into the path. I struggled, but there was no air. There was no longer any “up.”
I heard myself crying out in pain once more, and before I could pull my jaw shut I felt the tower-fire reach inside me, felt it reaching for my heart.
I was sure I was about to die when I hit the floor hard. I rolled over and sat up, holding myself and breathing hard. When I opened my eyes there was a motionless ball of brilliant light floating just in front of me. I had only a moment to admire it before it faded into nothing and the room went dark.
“Well John, I don’t think Mr. Voss likes me very much.”
“Excuse me?” John shrieked. “Doesn’t like you? Was that a pencil I saw flying through the air yesterday? Was that a swollen ear I saw after school? You’ve ruined it, man! If he ever sees you in action now he’ll know, and then he’s gonna kill you!”
“Yes, I see your point.”
“We could have had you demonstrating today. He’d be so happy he’d forget all about the test, and then I could go home and watch TV.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t study.”
“Zack. Buddy. How long have you been in school? And you still don’t know how things work here? You’re hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. Brainwashed by the school.” John went on mumbling complaints for a while, but then looked up hopefully. Needless to say I was a bit skeptical. “Hey Zack, think you can turn some nickels into quarters for me?”
John obviously didn’t understand me the first time I explained things to him. “Isn’t that kind of illegal? Besides, it’s magnetism. I don’t think I can change the shape of something…. Not right now, anyway.”
John started mumbling again while I hypothesized about magnetic metallurgy.
We were in line at that noise-filled deathtrap of food fights, the cafeteria. I bought myself some soggy cardboard strips resembling spaghetti and a coke, feeling quite certain that the coke was healthier. John, on the other hand, was somehow not afraid of the fries.
“If I ever do manage to change stuff into other stuff”—how very descriptive—“the first thing I go after is the school food. C’mon, let’s go bug Voss. He’s calm when he eats and I’d really rather not sit down in here.”
I couldn’t help but worry when, as we walked out, the lights began to flicker, and then, when I opened the door to Voss’s room, the knob was warm and the lights had dimmed.
Voss honored us with a quick leer when we entered the room. I supposed he had yet to forgive me for knowing the answer the day before. Isn’t he a great teacher?
We sat down in the middle of the room—far enough to avoid Voss if needed, but not too far that we’d have to yell a question.
“So Zack, what are you going to do?” Asked John. “You should totally be a superhero. It’d be great. You can take guns away from common criminals, and if the bad guys come with gigantic robots you can toss ‘em around like paper. You’d just need a cool name.”
“How many robots have you seen attacking the city?” I laughed. “Maybe I could fight terrorism, but I don’t really want to pay for the trip.”
“You wouldn’t need an airplane though! Just make one. Come on, what’s wrong with that idea?”
“I can’t build things, John,” I sure hoped he would take that well. “Or at least, I don’t…hey Voss!”
“You really have to come here and bother me, boy?” He growled. “I’m eating now.”
“I was wondering if you could help me with something,” I muttered, ignoring John’s desperate gestures to shut up. “What can you tell me about plasma?”
John sighed and feigned sleep. What’s important to notice is that Voss could only see his back.
“Plasma,” Voss looked like he wasn’t sure to be happy that I was asking for help or angry he had to bother explaining. “Is fourth state of matter, a heated gas. Like fire, like lightning. Electrons are so excited that they are stripped from atoms. Ions and electrons fly around in low density….”
I let Voss continue with unimportant details for a while. He seemed to like listening to his own strange, possibly fake accent.
“Mr. Voss, I remember reading something about magnetism, too.” As I said this, I noticed John start to pay attention. “Something about containing plasma within magnetic fields.”
“Yes. Plasma is contained within magnetic fields.” He stood and paced as he continued. He took a marker and started drawing circles on the whiteboard. “When you look into the sky, you see stars. Stars are burning balls of gas. The gas stays because of gravity. Plasma stays because of magnetic field.”
“So, can that be done artificially?”
“Should try putting toothpick in microwave /1,” He said dryly. I got the feeling that that was a bad idea.
“So, if man had a way of controlling magnetic fields, you could make a really awesome light show, right?” John asked, smiling at me. “Like Fourth of July but better.”
“If wanting to pay big price. Is probably being tested….”
Mr. Voss was started to sound irritated again, so John and I decided to give him a break.
I could see John’s curious smile, but I shook my head and gestured toward Voss. “We’ll just have to try it later. Besides, the bell’s going to ring.”
He sighed and we went to our assigned seats. The bell, however, didn’t ring, A few students came in, the sort that keeps an eye on their watches and never come late to class. Personally, I had stopped bothering with my watch because even when I got it to tick, it was either too fast or too slow, and I didn’t know how to fix it with or without magnetic powers.
Some came in a little after the bell was supposed to ring, though it was obvious there were stragglers taking advantage of the malfunction. Voss was too impatient to let everyone settle down and passed the test out immediately. Now, I’m not one for pre-test nervousness, but bumps were rising all along my arms and a chill seemed to sweep the room.
“You will have thirty minutes to complete the test. Do not cheat; I will see. Do not talk; I will hear. If you participate in either you will leave room and take zero for test. Understand? Good. Begin…now.”
One of the late students was just walking in the door at the time. He bore an innocent smile and scratched his head like he was confused. Voss threw a copy of the test at him, and then one of the lights burst overhead. The room began to shake.
“Get down! Go under the tables!” Voss jumped up and slammed his hands on his desk, yelling at the top of his lungs. I obeyed immediately, vaguely touched by his sudden interest in our safety. “Go! Now!”
He shoved the late boy under his own desk and only then did he make a mad dash for an empty spot under the tables. Then, above him, one of the lights came loose and fell his way. Without thinking I stopped its fall and made it fly across the room away from everyone.
Sparks from the live wires ignited papers on the tables and hung too close to Voss and the students for comfort. I flipped the light switches off, but I wasn’t sure about the fire.
“No time like the present,” I muttered, and created a magnetic field around the fire, then lifted it slowly into the air in the form of a ball of light.
It’s like in my dream.
The voice echoed inside my head: “I will destroy you.” Somehow, I knew it to be true, but that wasn’t going to stop me.
The room was suddenly way too hot, even as the ball of fire moved further away and began to disperse. The ground felt like it had stopped shaking, but the room continued to spin. I clutched the leg of the table for support. As I did, people around me started crawling out. I wanted to shout out to them that the room was still unstable, that something might collapse any second, but my voice had gone.
I yelled something, but wasn’t sure what. I saw that girl…no someone else. Voss crawled over to me, looking concerned. Then someone seemed to turn the lights back on. Ah, too bright, too bright. Voss’s skin glowed whiter than his shirt, then there wasn’t any difference. Why didn’t someone turn off the lights? I wanted to do it myself, force the light switches and keep them there, but I couldn’t see them anymore. Couldn’t find them.
Too bright. Too hot. There was a hand on my shoulder, but I couldn’t see anyone. I told them to turn the lights off, but I couldn’t hear myself talking. What was wrong?
Damn lights….
/1: microwaved toothpick: DON’T try this at home, especially not without an adult. I found really cool but dangerous stuff. Search for “microwave phenomenon” on Google. The microwave apparently generates a magnetic field. Oooooo, fire. :) I'm probably gonna have to make plenty of notes like this because much of what I write has some scientific backing.
Yay for long chapter!
Averaging 1 review per chapter. Not bad, I guess. My lit teacher advocated the "don't think, just write" method. I'm not quite doing that, but my main goal is to get something written. Deadline...I dunno. Three months?
hotsauce6548: Well, many of the X-men were just born with powers, and they usually manifest during puberty. Zack’s sort of the same way. Sort of. :)
Yami Ferret: Yeah, Dirk is my favorite character. I based him off of what I envision my own brother to be like in a few years, although my brother is into video games and not comics. Plus, I don’t think he’ll be one to run away.
By the way, did I do better with descriptions? Still not too good with people, but I think characterization is OK. John’s like a lazy version of one of my good friends. Zach’s supposed to be the all-around good-guy, and for good reason.
