Arc 1: The Aura Complex
Chapter 10: Fires of Passion
~Malon~
Malon strolled through the grocery store in her initial dress, picking out non-perishable foods and stuffing it in her backpack. Checking her bracelet, she noted her rather low amount of credits. She didn't work much. Growing up on a small farm, Malon wasn't used to the brute-strength work in the mines or the nimble work in the factory. She just wasn't. Sure, if you gave her some cows to milk or some crops to tend to, she'd be doing that from dusk to dawn. But, unluckily for her, the work was just too brutal for her to do it consistently. Regardless, she still worked at the factory rather infrequently and did work a bit in the mines to create that hidden room beyond the gravel.
While humming and trotting around the store, she grabbed several cans and jars.
Canned pickles? Certainly. Sardines? Why not. Canned whole Cuckoo? Weird, but okay.
After she paid for all of the cans of food, she returned to her room and dropped the bag onto the floor. "Hey, Zel-"
She looked up to see no one there. Her bed was empty, and there was no sign of her in the room. She thought for a second, innocently putting her finger to her chin. She hadn't said anything about leaving, and they had only recently returned from their meeting. Where would she be?
...
...
Oh, jeez.
Malon put her shoes back on and began running out of Dorm Hall B and into the kitchen to stop Link from the inevitable torture that he would soon experience. As she bursted into the kitchen, she noticed that it was too late. Link sat at the table in the dining section, cheeks full, with Zelda sitting next to him. She saw him immediately spit it out and take a desperate sip of water.
"I'll try to be nice," Link asked. "But that is rancid. The outside is burnt, the inside is raw, there's a black hair in my food, which I don't even know where that came from because we're both blonde, it's bland, and I'm going to get carbon monoxide poisoning from standing in front of this."
"Wow. Even you think it's bad." Zelda replied, a dull expression on her face. Neither Link nor Zelda seemed to notice Malon's presence.
Link stood up and headed to the kitchen. "I'll show you the ropes. My parents would always have me cook on weekends. I've learned a thing or two."
He grabbed a raw slab of beef and then began oiling a pan. He slathered the steak in oil and then coated it with pepper and salt. "You want to season the food. Something you obviously don't know how to do."
Zelda watched in amazement, blushing. It was at this point that Malon decided to leave. She left the kitchen behind her, glad that her friend was bonding with Link. It was obvious by Zelda's behavior, at least to Malon, that she liked Link. There was no hiding it. While Malon wasn't entirely sure if Link reciprocated Zelda's feelings, it seemed like they were getting along great.
Now getting bored, and not knowing what to do, Malon decided to go to the library. She had unlocked solely for the reason that Zelda seemed to like it. Malon wasn't a huge fan of historical books, like Zelda, but instead liked the fiction and fantasy books that you would typically find in a children's section of a town library.
Jeez, she really was a child.
Whatever. She didn't care. She entered the library and browsed the fiction section. Looking through the books, she noticed one that she's never heard of before. The rest of the books were rather famous or well-known. She reached for it, and tried to pull it out, but the top segment only came out halfway before the book stopped with a *click*.
Huh? She let go of it, in which it slid right back into place. She tugged at it again, which it clicked again. This was strange, and seemed rather important. She browsed the rest of the books and saw another one that she didn't recognized. She pulled at this one, which also clicked. Meanwhile, her brain went click. She grabbed both books, and tugged them down at the same time. They both went *click*.
However this time, she heard a mechanism go off. After hearing a few sounds of what could've been gears twisting around, the bookshelf on the far back door slid downwards into the floor, revealing a hidden room.
What is this?
Why is this here?
Is this a way out?
The hidden room was very dark and had a musty smell to it. Checking the security camera in the room, she noted that the bookshelf was right underneath it, enough so that it was almost certainly a blind spot. Since Malon was alone in the library, she decided to venture inside. She began to walk in, as the bookshelf slid up behind her. After the shelf closed up, a dim yellow light emitted from a single hanging lightbulb. The room was covered in spiderwebs and a thick layer of dust. From the looks of it, even the staff didn't seem to know the room was here. There wasn't even a camera.
But, the thing that stood out, were the file cabinets on either side of the room She approached it, and wiped off the dust from the handle with her finger. She wasn't an expert in age and dust, but it had to be older than five years old.
Malon grabbed the handle, getting dust all over her hand. But, before she could pull the drawer, she heard something muffled, probably coming from the library.
Malon Lon. Please come to the labs as soon as possible.
Malon recognized that. It was her time to discover her power. She didn't know if she was going to be impressed, disappointed, or straight-up freaked out. But, she hoped for the best. She returned to the entrance, and pressed a button on the side of the room, hoping that it would slide the bookshelf down. It opened up, and closed as a group of redshirts entered the library.
"It's your time in the labs. Please come with us or else we'll zap you."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." she replied. She walked along the redshirts to enter the labs and see the sneering face of Vaati. Vaati said nothing and motioned for Malon to follow. She did, and entered the target room. Vaati opened the door and motioned for Malon to enter. She stood there as her bracelet powered down, anticipating Vaati's commands.
"What do you want me to do?" she innocently asked.
"Imagine yourself throwing a baseball." Vaati replied. Malon stood still and thought of herself in a baseball game, dribbling the ball, and scoring a touchdown. Wait, that's not how baseball works.
Malon was just standing there with her eyes closed and doing nothing.
"What are you doing?" Vaati asked, frustrated.
"You told me to imagine throwing a baseball!" Malon protested.
"No, make the motion like you're throwing a baseball. Don't just stand there and think about it! Use common sense!"
Malon scrunched her hand and imagined throwing a baseball right at the target. But, as expected, nothing happened.
"Try again. Focus channeling your energy into your arm, and into the air above it. Then, throw it. There's no guarantee that your power will have anything to do with projectiles like this, but projectiles are the most common and easiest type of power to channel."
Malon tensed her body. She stood still and then channeled all of her feelings, positive and negative, into her hand. She felt her hand slowly begin to heat up with anticipation and nervousness. She chucked her arm towards the target.
An orange ball of flame ejected from her hand and fingertips, hitting the target square in the forehead. Vaati and the redshirts began to clap.
"That was the fastest one we've had yet!" Vaati cheered. Malon wasn't as enthusiastic, but more intrigued. She stared at the palms of her hands. They seemed rather normal. Did she really just throw a fireball? She turned her head to look at the dummy, which was on fire and slowly melting away into a puddle of goop. She tried again, and threw a second fireball at the slowly disintegrating dummy.
This is awesome. Malon thought.
"Fire powers..." Vaati trailed. "One of the most generic powers you'd think. Yet, the first time we've actually seen one out of the fifty or so people we've tested. Let's see what else you can do with that fire of yours."
"Just out of curiosity..." Malon said. "What can the other people do?"
"Only because you asked so nicely, and you gave us quick results, I'll tell you." Vaati replied. "We've had several powers so far. We have force fields, shadow powers, super speed, super strength, magnesis, all sorts of amazing things."
"Oh. You said something about secondary and primary powers the first day we were here. Does that mean I'll get a second power?"
Vaati sniffed. "Unfortunately, not. Since you've unlocked an elemental power first, it's almost certain that that's the only power you're gonna get"
"What do you mean, elemental power?"
"Elemental powers are powers over... elements. I mean stuff like water manipulation, air manipulation, plant manipulation, stuff like that. If you start out with powers like those, as well as major enhancement powers like strength or speed, you're likely not getting any more. The secondary powers are small things, like shield making, body manipulation, and night vision."
"Oh." Malon frowned at not getting any more powers. Oh well. She guessed that fire would be fun to play with anyway.
"Stop." Vaati commanded. Malon reluctantly stopped throwing the fireballs.
"I want you to try to create a constant stream of fire. Like a flamethrower."
Malon sighed. She didn't even know where to start with that one. She just held her hand up in the air, directed towards the melting dummy. She imaged similar thoughts, feelings, and emotions towards her right hand, exactly the same process that went into throwing the fireballs. She felt heat rush through her arm, and then felt the fire spurt out of her palm like a fireman's hose. The flames bursted out in a straight, constant line. Malon moved around her hand, and the flames moved accordingly in whatever direction she pointed it in. Vaati took notice and scribbled a few things down into his notes and forms.
"Try to increase the distance."
Malon fueled the rest of her energy into her arm, almost doubling the distance to around thirty feet. This was the most amazing thing that she had ever done. She wanted to go home and show her dad what she could do. But, alas, she couldn't. Even if they escaped, there was a high likelihood that she'd never see her father again. Trying to stay positive, she continued pushing all of her energy into her hand and into the flame. But, energy is energy. Her hand stopped emitting flames, despite Malon desperately trying to continue it. Her hand began shaking, all of her energy dissipated into the flames and the surrounding air. A huge wave of weariness went over her head, as she collapsed onto one knee. Her face was sweating, and her eyelids became very heavy.
"Malon, stay with us." Vaati demanded, snapping his fingers. She stood up, and leaned against the side of the glass divider between the testing room and the observation room. She placed her hands on the side of her dress, and heard a hissing sound. Looking down, she noticed that both of her arms were red-hot from her forearm up to her fingertips, and there were two black hand prints on her white dress.
She didn't notice her arms were that hot. How, and why were her arms that hot? Now, Vaati seemed to take notice as well, and jotted down some more things into his forms. Malon, being as curious as she was, took her red-hot arm, stuck out her index finger, and rested it on her exposed, normal-colored shoulder. She felt nothing. In response, she tested her dress once again. She pressed her finger into her white dress, which subsequently burst into flames.
Crud, that was a bad idea.
She spent the next few minutes spinning around, trying to extinguish the flames on her dress. Vaati and the redshirts watched in amusement, as one of the redshirts pulled out a phone to film her.
"Really? Really?" Malon asked, panicking, her dress slowly turning into embers. "Help me!"
"The fire won't hurt you." Vaati rebutted. "You just tested that yourself."
"Do you want me to walk out of here naked?" Malon screamed.
Vaati sighed and turned to the redshirt on his left. "Go get a bucket of water."
Malon opened her mouth to talk, but Vaati returned gaze to Malon. "Just before you ask, I will say that reactivating the bracelet will cause the fire to burn you."
Malon closed her mouth and patiently waited. Soon, the redshirt returned to the room, opened the glass door, and then drenched her. At this point, her dress was in tatters and she had to literally hold the remains of her clothes to her chest in order to prevent it from revealing too much.
"Alright, we'll let you go back out now. You should probably change."
Malon nodded as Vaati messed with the control panel to reactivate the bracelet. After that, Vaati led Malon out of the labs while she was careful to not let the burnt rags slip off her chest. She walked back to her dorm, luckily dorm hall B was right next to the labs. She got several stares from the girls in the dorm hall, but she didn't care. She reached her room, and scanned her bracelet.
But, it didn't scan. She tried again. Nothing happened.
Is my bracelet broken?
She tried a few more times, but to no avail. She slammed her hand on the door, hoping Zelda was there. After a few seconds slamming her fists into it, Zelda opened the door.
"Malon? What happened to you?" Zelda asked in exclamation.
"I was in the labs. Fire powers." Malon replied.
"I see..." Zelda replied. "We can talk about it later. Sorry about your dress."
"It's fine." Malon responded. "I have the top and jeans. As long as I don't burn those to shreds, I think I'm fine."
Malon quickly dropped and disposed of the remaining cloth around her body and replaced it with her causal clothes. Still exhausted from the flamethrower test, she just wanted to lie on her bed and drift off into sleep. She literally hovered over her bed and collapsed straight onto it, falling into a deep sleep.
Malon was sitting on a stool on the side of a cow, with a bucket right underneath the udders. She squeezed and milked the udders, something that she was completely familiar and comfortable with. After milking and squeezing for the next ten minutes, she filled up the bucket enough to get maximum production without any spillage in transfer. She walked the bucket over and placed it over an open fire to pasteurize and kill any harmful bacteria. After that, she happily began to bottle up the milk for sale.
"Malon..." her dad said, walking into the room.
"Oh, hey, Dad." Malon replied.
"Are the milk bottles ready for transit?"
"Almost. I have a little bit of milk left to bottle up."
Malon tilted the bucket to gather enough milk in the corner to scoop it up. "That should be it. How many bottles do we have?"
"Around two hundred. Help me load them into the truck?"
Malon nodded as she began to carry the crates of bottles into their shipping truck. In due time, Malon and her father were driving towards Kakariko, with Malon admiring the Hyrulean countryside. A sign saying "KAKARIKO: 25 MILES" whizzed past their eyes.
Currently, they were driving past a couple of cherry plantations. Malon loved seeing this each week; it was beautiful. But, as she was gazing out, she noticed something grey and mechanical out of the corner of her eye, trampling some of the cherry trees. As she looked at it head on, it seemed to be a tank.
What? Why was there a tank out in the middle of the Hyrulean countryside? But, this tank was large, ominous, and heading straight in their direction. Her father didn't seem to see it. But, as they approached it, it began to aim straight at the truck.
Then, it fired. Tarin screamed, swerved, and crashed as the truck collapsed sideways and scraped along the pavement for a solid forty feet before coming to a stop directly in front of the tank. Malon and her father were both trapped inside with broken glass all over their sides. Malon heard a few footsteps on the pavement as well as what sounded like a lightweight vehicle arrive. The door, directly above Malon, opened to reveal a man in a red shirt as well as military gear. He grabbed Malon and pulled her out of the car with no words. She was about to thank him for saving her, but he shushed her. He used some kind of machine to prick her finger and then scanned her blood.
"We've caught one! Throw her into the truck!"
Huh?
A couple more redshirts arrived to grab her. Still delirious from her injuries, she watched as she was dragged away from her father, but too fatigued to actually take any action. Smoke began emitting from her father's truck, getting all into her eyes and nose.
Malon jolted awake, wanting to escape the now distant memory disguised as a nightmare. She was reminded of everything. Of how her father was probably waiting for her to return. Of how she could've done something to stop them, or warned her father about the tank in the first place.
No. It's alright. It's not my fault. It's not my fault.
She sniffed and felt her eyes water, still feeling the lingering senses from her dream. Then she realized something. The smoky air wasn't just a lingering sense. It was her actual room, smoking in the dark. She stood up from her bed and felt her way to the light switch. After she turned it on, through the smoke, she noticed two charred arm marks on the blanket of her bed, as well as various charred handprints on the walls leading to the lightswitch. The switch was slightly melted as well. She looked at her own arms, which were now glowing red. Malon silently freaked and turned out the lights, so it would be difficult for Zelda to notice the smoke if she were to wake up. Luckily, Zelda was asleep and too much of a heavy sleeper to notice.
"Did I just use my powers?" Malon whispered to herself. She checked the bracelet, just to make sure it worked well. Then she remembered. It didn't work when she was coming into the room. It must've broke from the first time her hands began to burn hot, back in the labs, and Vaati must've not noticed. She stared at it, willing for her hands to return to normal. She hated the facility, just like everyone else here. But, she didn't want to burn it to the ground and kill everyone. After a few minutes of sitting there with glowing hands, trying not to touch anything, Zelda began to stir.
"Malon? did you buy a new heate-"
Zelda was speechless as she watched Malon's hands glow in the darkness.
"What?"
Zelda turned on the light to see the several burn marks in Malon's bed and wall.
"What happened?" She asked, concerned.
"I think my bracelet broke." Malon replied. Zelda grabbed her wrist to check the bracelet, but that wasn't the smartest of ideas.
*hiss*
The moment Zelda's hand made contact with Malon's, she recoiled in pain, falling to her own bed.
"What're you doing? Stop that!" Zelda demanded, clutching her hand in pain.
"I'm trying! I don't know what to do!" Malon replied. She began to sneeze from the smoke, but sneezed out a couple of baby flames instead of snot and spit, which dissipated a few inches from her nose.
"Okay, I know this is rather serious, but that is the most adorable thing ever." Zelda said. "Should we contact Vaati?"
"No." Malon replied. "I'll try to see if I can control it."
"It doesn't look like you have the hang of it, Malon." Zelda replied. "I'll go out and buy you some fireproof gloves. Stand in the middle of the room, and don't touch anything."
Zelda quickly left the room as Malon was awkwardly standing in the center of it, holding up her hands to not touch any of the furniture or any of her clothes. She was anticipating for Vaati or at least a couple of redshirts to enter the room as she had openly discussed what had happened and the cameras caught almost everything. She was standing for a full ten minutes before Zelda reentered the room.
"Sorry for the wait." Zelda replied. "Department store was really big."
Malon darted her eyes to the long, black leather gloves that Zelda was holding. "Those? Those are fireproof?"
"Supposedly." Zelda replied. Malon slipped them on over her busted bracelet.
"Y'know, I don't think Vaati's watching us very carefully." Malon informed.
"I've observed that too." Zelda replied. "I think it's because there's too many people and rooms to watch or listen to everyone at once."
Malon finished pulling the gloves up to her elbows. "This is really convenient." Malon observed. "Eh. Whatever."
"I think you breaking your bracelet pushed up our escape date." Zelda replied. "Let's just wait until Komali has some idea of what he could do, and then we'll initiate it."
"Don't forget Link." Malon informed.
"What about Link?"
"Didn't Link say that they let him out without discovering his powers?"
"I think that was total bullshit. He's definitely hiding something. But, we all have our secrets, don't we?"
"Is that the first time I heard you swear, Zel?"
"I think it was. The sleep's getting to me."
Zelda checked her own bracelet and showed Malon. "It's 2 AM. Just go back to sleep."
Malon looked up and saw the smoke dissipating through the vents. "Fine."
Zelda turned off the lights with the half-melted switch and hopped into bed. Malon jumped into her bed, but couldn't easily fall asleep. She pulled her glove off her left hand, and stared at the red glow. There was no doubt that it was using up her energy quickly, and that it would cause her to be tired a lot quicker. Despite the energy sap, Malon was too nervous to fall asleep with the same feelings as the night before. She stared at the ceiling, and silently willed for her hand to cool. After a few minutes of attempting to extinguish the heat, she gave up and slid the glove back on. Rolling over in her bed, she slowly began to clear her mind and fall asleep.
Malon woke up, but had absolutely no idea what time it was due to her broken wristband. She slowly walked up to Zelda, careful not to disturb her. Malon checked Zelda's bracelet, seeing that it was already eight thirty. She shook Zelda awake, slowly telling her to wake up, eager to start the day with breakfast. She groaned and put the pillow as a sound barrier between Malon's voice and her ear. She shook her more vigorously, until she ended up picking up the pillow and slamming it down on Zelda's body. She groaned and stood up, wiping sleep out of her eyes. Checking her bracelet, she began to get ready for the day with Malon.
Halfway to the dining hall, Malon realized something.
"My bracelet's broken. I can't order food."
Zelda stopped in annoyance. "I'll get some ingredients, and I'll cook something for you."
"I'd rather starve."
"FINE. I'll go buy a second meal, and then bring it to the mines."
Malon turned around and ran away, into the hidden room in the mines. Zelda entered first with a to-go bowl of oatmeal and a spoon. Malon quickly scarfed it down as Zelda somewhat awkwardly watched her. Once Malon was finished, she set the to go box on the floor. As if on cue, Link and Komali instantly came into the hidden room.
"Hey, girls." Link said.
Komali waved. "Hey, you t-"
Komali Quill. Please come to the labs as soon as possible.
"Bye, you two."
Komali instantly left the hidden room.
Link began talking like nothing happened. "What's with the gloves?"
"My bracelet broke."
"Okay... Number one, what does that have to do with the gloves?"
Malon whipped off the glove on her left hand, revealing her still-glowing skin. Link looked amazed and slightly disturbed. "What?" he asked.
"I think this is what broke my bracelet in the first place." Malon said, a stern look on her face. "Zelda said it was probably a good idea to just keep it broken, as it'll no doubt aid in our escape."
"What else can you do?" Link asked. Malon cupped her hand and threw the air, making a fireball appear and dissipate on the stone walls. Link was amazed.
"I can also do a flamethrower, but I have no idea what else I can do."
"That's pretty awesome." Link replied. "I'd ask for a demonstration bu-"
Malon interrupted him by stretching her arm out in the opposite direction, fire flowing from her hands
"Looks like you've got that under good control." Link observed. Zelda was also studying her, intrigued.
"Not quite." Malon said.
"How so?"
Malon waved her glowing hot hands right in front of Link. "I don't know how to turn this off."
Then, a thought occurred to Malon. If her bracelet was broken, why not get rid of the whole thing? Right in front of Link and Zelda, she whipped off both gloves. She then placed her hot red hand on her bracelet on her left wrist. Gripping the entire thing, it started to steam and hiss. The bracelet now began to glow red and get soft, as Malon ripped it off with one fell swoop.
With that, her wrist suddenly felt so much better with the bracelet missing, as she flexed her wrist around freely.
"Are you gonna do that to us too?" Zelda asked.
"Not until we're ready to break out." Malon replied, slipping her gloves back on. "I can't even get back into my own room, or get food, but that's fine, since I have Zelda."
"Oh! That reminds me," Link started. He grabbed a paper out of his jean pocket and unfolded it. "They're holding a competition. Winner gets five thousand credits."
Malon snatched the page out of Link's hand and stared at it.
Aura Complex Monthly Competition
10 Competitors battle it out in various competitions among many fields.
Hosted by Vaati
Begins Saturday, see Vaati if interested.
"I dunno, Link. Sure, if you want credits, you can join, but I'm not really feeling it."
"No." Link rebutted. "I was just saying, this is a good time to escape."
"Eh?"
Zelda put a finger to her chin. "That's right. Once this competition starts, Vaati will be distracted. Sunday is... in three days?"
"Excluding today, that's right." Link replied. "That gives us three days to plan and prepare. Malon, do you have any ideas? Especially utilizing that fire of yours."
"I could rip off your bracelets, but I might burn you."
"I'm not willing to take that risk." Link said. "Most of the rooms are locked without bracelets, and we'll be somewhat restricted. Maybe once we get outside of the complex."
"I have a few ideas for the escape itself." Zelda said, finger in the air. "Komali said something about air ducts, right? Malon can just rip the covers off the vents, and we can get around that way. The redshirts won't be able to see us in the vents. But, while the vents do lead outside, there's a high chance we'll run into a fan that'll kill us. We'll need to drop down into the facility for the actual escape, which'll be We have to stick together."
"But, what if they catch us?" Malon asked. "Can't they just press a button and zap our bracelets?"
"Rubber..." Zelda muttered.
"Huh?"
"Rubber tubing. They have rubber tubing in the factory. If you cut it in half lengthwise, you can slip it in between your bracelet and your arm. That way, we can still access the rest of the facility. That'll block the electricity. For now, I'm assigning roles for us all."
Malon and Link listened in closely. "Malon, cut up the rubber tubing. Link, buy supplies for our escape. That's food, water, clothes, and other necessities. Pack it into four backpacks."
"I already have some food packed in our room." Malon replied.
"Perfect. Give it to Link after the meeting. I'll survey the facility to see what'll make the best weapons in the event that the redshirts come after us. As for Komali, i dunno, just have him get more supplies with you, Link. Or, anything else you can think of that we'll need."
"I have a question." Malon stated, raising her hand. "What will happen to us when we actually escape?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, like, by now, North Hyrule has probably taken over a sizable portion of South Hyrule by now. If we return home, they'll just spot and find us, and then send us back here. Not to mention that we have no rupees."
Zelda took that into consideration. "You're right. We should flee into a neighboring country. The problem, though, is that none of us know where this facility is located, so it'll be difficult for us to know which country would be the closest to run to. As for the rupee issue, I'll bet some of the redshirts have some money on them. We'll just knock them out and steal it."
Malon inhaled. This was going to be an insane plan.
Now, we see what Malon can do with her powers! Stay tuned for next week, where I'll showcase Komali's abilities (Yes, abilities with an 'S') with his own chapter. I didn't really give him much love within this chapter, so you'll have an entire chapter dedicated to him. And one more thing, that hidden room in the library will play an important role in the future chapters. The Complex will not fade from importance once the group moves on.