Harry Potter and Mistborn, boy oh boy are they good. And lucrative, not for me though. I don't own jack squat.
The idea for this story came after reading Three to Backstep by Sinyk (my goodness, I didn't know fanfiction could be that good) and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (my goodness, I didn't know any story could be that good) back to back. The ideas from Mistborn and the world and characters from Three to Backstep (I say Three to Backstep and not Harry Potter for a couple reasons, reason number one being the soul magic Sinyk created) started to blend together in my mind. Invent a new character to change things up, throw it all in a pot, stir, and season to taste. You've got yourself a fic.
Chapter one: A large, less than thrilling explanation of the mechanics
(If you are already familiar with the Mistborn series you can skip this, I'll add a tl;dr at the bottom explaining the bits you don't already know)
Hello, my name is Kieran Grant. And this, this is my story. I guess I should start with the mechanics, after all, I've had to explain them enough times already in person. I have a rather unusual skill set, a skill set that runs on batteries.
Well, not quite batteries. The skills (or abilities, rather) run off of certain metals. You see, I'm what I call a mistborn (I'm the only one you know, so I got to pick the name). There are sixteen different metals that I can "burn" to achieve different effects, but in order to burn them I have to swallow them first. Not that I have sixteen different abilities, most of the metals contrast eachother (and, at the time this story starts I haven't figured out all sixteen).
For example, when I burn steel I instantly see translucent blue lines leading from my center of gravity (usually, I can change the origin if I concentrate) to all the different pieces of metal around me. Selecting a blue line (or two, or several) mentally and pushing on it (hard to describe, sorry) will send the piece of metal the line leads to flying. Unless the piece of metal weighs more than me or hits something that weighs more than me. Then I go flying away from the metal.
The rules governing my abilities seem to follow some form of the laws of physics, but not strictly. Remember how I said I have sixteen metals but not really sixteen different abilities? Well, maybe explaining iron will clear that up. When I burn iron the opposite effect of steel happens, the blue lines still appear but now if I select a line it pulls the metal toward me. Or, if it's heavier, me towards it. So pushing and pulling on metals is really one ability, but it takes two metals. Clear as mud? Awesome.
All the metals I've found are paired with another metal that is either an alloy of said metal or part of said metals alloy. The next two metals I managed to figure out by the time this story begins are pewter and tin. I quite like these metals, particularly pewter. Whenever I burn pewter it gives me heightened strength, speed, agility, balance, and endurance. It's freaking awesome. Unfortunately, it burns really quickly.
Pewters cousin is tin, which enhances all of my senses at once. Tin burns really slowly, but aside from that it's not really pewters "opposite". The next two metals I figured out at the time are zinc and brass. These two metals are rather interesting, burning them lets me tweak people's emotions. Burning zinc lets me "riot" or enflame choice emotions in people, making them feel that emotion much stronger. Brass does the opposite, soothing choice emotions. Now, I have a strict policy about not using those last two metals to try to influence people into doing my bidding. However, if someone is having a panic attack I find it a good time to turn on the brass. Or if a friend needs some confidence for their oral report that's a good time to start burning zinc. For the most part though, those two metals go untouched.
The last two that I knew I could burn and also knew how they worked (foreshadowing? You'll have to wait and see. I already know how this ends.) are aluminum and duralumin. Now, aluminum is worthless. Any time I burn that I automatically lose all my metals. Poof, gone. It's alloy however, that's interesting. Burning duralumin automatically burns up whatever metals I'm also burning at the time, just like aluminum. The difference is, I still get all the power from those metals that suddenly flash out of my system. I can do some REALLY fun things with pewter and duralumin.
Just burning pewter, I can lift the back end of a car. Not a big ole truck, think of something like an Altima or a Civic. If I flare my pewter I can lift the back end of a car after an expensive trip to the hardware store. Flaring lets me eke some more power out of the metal, but it also burns it up faster. Plus, it's just kinda hard to be constantly flaring. So, what happens if I burn pewter and duralumin at the same time? Well, assuming I've got a decent amount of pewter in me I can flip that car. Lengthwise. Of course, then I'm out of pewter. So I gotta use duralumin with caution.
Burning duralumin instantly super-flares any metal I'm also burning at the time, but pewter is the easiest to visualize. Well, that's enough of the mechanics for you to know what I'm talking about when I fight the dragon in the next chapter.
tl;dr
As of the time this story starts I know I can burn all the basic metals, (steel, iron, pewter, tin, zinc, brass, copper, bronze) but I don't know what the effects of copper and bronze are. I also know about aluminum and duralumin, as well as their effects. You know what, scroll back to the top and read the chapter. Whatcha gonna do, get on with your life? I don't think so. You've got time for this.