Chapter V: Playing With Fire

The next day, we were all sitting in the living room, bored. "What are we going to do now? My dad and stepmom are out shopping and there is next to nothing to do." I said from where I sat on the floor, extending and retracting the Bowmerang's limbs. "How about working to control your fire a bit more? You have it down pretty well in combat, but outside of that, it's kind of out of control." Weiss suggested. "And how do you suggest we start that process?" I asked her.

"Why not use the fireplace?" Bob said. "That could do it. It's actually pretty well contained as it is, so nothing too messy will happen if he doesn't get it right." Blake said, still reading. "Alright. Let's get this started then." I said, somewhat nervous.

I got up and looked at the fireplace. Focusing on that specific point, I tried to put energy into it the way I did with my weapons, which only resulted in a small explosion. Luckily, not much of it got beyond the brick structure. "Okay. Lets' try this again." I thought, pointing my sword the firewood inside it.

After taking a few breaths, I was finally rewarded with a decent sized fire. "And now to put it out." Weiss said. "Yeah. I figured that was part of it." I said back without looking. I thought of an oven fire being put out by the turn of a knob. It actually worked. The only sign of the fire having been there was a small burn mark.

"Nicely done. You couldn't done that first part faster, but you still got the job done." Yang said, giving me a thumbs up. "It's a work in progress. I'll get it down to that point eventually." I said, sheathing my sword.

Right at that moment, a small portal opened up above us and dropped something that looked a lot like a raw ruby, along with other colored gems. "Where did jewels come from?" I asked, picking the ruby. "These aren't jewels, you dunce. That's Dust in its raw uncut form." Weiss, snatching up the crystals. "Dust? You keep saying that, but you don't quite explain as to what it is?" Bob said, raising an eyebrow.

"It is kind of difficult to explain." Ruby said, scratching the back of her head. "You can try to explain it as best as you can." I said. "Okay. We'll have to let Weiss explain since she is the heiress to the largest Dust company in our world." Blake said, having putting her book down. "No wonder why she acts so much like those spoiled rich kids and celebrities I hear a lot about on tv and the internet." I thought, sitting down on the end of the couch next to Ruby.

After an extensive and rather still confusing description about how it worked, how it was used, and the forms and properties it had, Bob and I had managed to wrestle some form of understanding out of the princess's explanation.

"Well, that was something." Bob said. "You do realize you could've just tried to summarize all that, right? Just getting straight down to the main points wouldn't hurt at all, in fact." I said. I know I'm smarter than most kids my age, but even I don't get into that much detail, with or without having to stop to take a breath. "Yeah. But if I did, you wouldn't have even heard of some of the finer details." The overly white girl said, hands on hips.

"Fine. Fine. Can we get a demonstration of how it works?" I asked. "Sure. It's probably best not to have one in here, though." Blake said. "I know an area that nobody ever really goes to." I said. "Works for me. Lead the way." Yang said. "Alright." I responded, getting up and heading out the front door, everybody else behind me.

After a long walk, we reached our destination. "And here we are." I announced, refraining from saying it too loudly. "Wow. Nice find. How did you come by it?" Ruby asked. "I had once gotten lost when I was younger, ran into this old building, which was and still is surprisingly sound." I answered, opening the door to the abandoned factory. We all went in.

"This place is huge!" Ruby shouted, her voice echoing throughout the empty structure. I saw Blake cringe a bit at the volume of the echoes. "It's probably nothing." I thought, putting the thought aside for another time.

"Alright. This may be a bit explosive, so watch yourselves." Weiss said, throwing an accusing glance at Ruby. Ruby backed up a little at that. The rest of us got behind cover as Weiss threw the white Dust crystal down. A thick white mist hung in the air for some time before settling down. When things cleared up, we looked out from behind our various barriers and saw ice spikes sticking out of the ground. Weiss came out from behind the crystalline structure.

"Now that is awesome. I kind of wonder how it would react to a something from this world." I said, examining the ice. "I don't think that's a good idea." Weiss said. "It can't be that bad a reaction, right?" I asked. "Alright, but you're going to have to go with the dust form of it. It's slightly less volatile than the raw crystals." Blake informed me. "Alright. I'm all ready to go." I said, wondering how things would end up.

After I got what I needed, I set it ablaze. Unfortunately, I nearly blew off the walls of the building. "I did not see that coming." I said, a little dizzy. I still recovered very quickly, though, getting up as the dust settled. "That was unexpected." Yang said. "That was even bigger than Ruby's sneeze, and that was with the same type of dust." Weiss said.

"Let's never try that again. Ever." Bob said. "That, my cousin, is something I can agree with." I said.

"Now, how about we head back home. Somebody out there is bound to have heard that." I said. "Yeah. Sounds like a good idea to me." Bob said, putting a hand on my shoulder. We got back home just as my parents got there. After some questioning, we all had lunch and watched some movies.