Brick by Brick

by Hugh-R

When the world brings you down, it's great to have someone you can depend on. When a small group of failures come together with grandiose dreams of a kingdom held together by such ideas, they quickly find themselves in over their heads. But even still, these unlikely heroes are willing to keep trying to build that castle, brick by brick.

1. Prologue 1

It was as gravity took hold that Beauden Paige realized he had made a terrible mistake.

It was as the first branch slammed into his face that he accepted he would have regrets.

And it was somewhere around the time the twentieth branch knocked the wind out of him that he had the first positive realization that day.

He survived initiation.

Barely, but he survived.

The positivity was soon crushed, however, when he realized the full extent of the damage.

There was no way he could complete the initiation with barely a third of his aura!

Not to mention he just knew that without aura, more of his skin would be black and blue than would be white.

And even with aura, he was left with stinging arms and a heavy limp.

---

As the sun set in the distance, Robyn Frank considered her options.

But even as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, she had yet to come to a decision.

With a sigh, she leaped from her perch.

After twenty feet of free fall, within a mere meter of the ground, she stopped.

Lost in thought rolled over once before gravity resumed and she landed perfectly on her feet.

She looked to the sky, yet again.

And she made her choice.

---

As the sun rose, Iris Xanthopoulos yawned.

As she rose and got ready for the day, it was fairly obvious that Iris is average.

In fact, she is so stereotypical, so generic, that she was different.

She was so normal that she was abnormal.

And so, as she stepped out the door, a pair of eyes followed her.

---

As the city of vale was at its busiest, Quartz Coleman was the same.

With such commotion, it was the perfect time to snake into the pockets of unsuspecting shoppers and slip out with twice as much cash than went in.

But it was as he snuck away from the scene of the crimes, that the local police force finally decided to do their job for once.

Pulling out a hexagonal crystal-like object, he activated his aura.

Immediately, the crystal seemed to pulse. And as he threw it in the air, a steel handle unfolded from the bottom before landing in his waiting palm. From the sides of the crystal, spikes seemed to from from a variety of elements. Ice, fire, stone, and even electric spikes were scattered seemingly randomly across the mace.

His opponents raised their weapons, an assortment of pistols and even a few rifles.

He smirked, and stepped forward.