Chapter 1: Cameron
Forest Greenwood
It started as an ordinary hunting trip. Aaron and Ronaldo were hot on the trail of a white-tailed doe.
"There she is," Aaron said very softly, not wanting to scare the animal away. "You can take this one."
"Okay, I'll get her for you," Ronaldo whispered.
Aaron tried desperately not to make a comment on Ronaldo's previous luck catching women.
Suddenly the doe looked up, startled, and ran off into the woods.
Ronaldo turned to glare at Aaron. "That's the first deer we've seen all day. What'd you have to go and scare it away for?"
"I scared it away!?" Aaron exclaimed, "That was you!"
"What you think I stepped on a stick or something? No way! I distinctly heard you rustle some leaves at your feet"
"But do you see any leaves at my feet?" He asked, gesturing towards his feet, "I don't think so!" Suddenly a fire erupted around them. Aaron and Ronaldo both jumped back about a yard.
"What the?!" shouted Ronaldo.
"I don't know, but I'm kinda terrified to shout again," Aaron whispered.
"Let's get out of here!" Ronaldo yelled.
"Ronaldo, I don't know if you noticed, but there's a bit of a problem with that solution." Aaron said, gesturing annoyedly at the wall of flames that had appeared around the two of them.
"Aaron, what are we going to do?"
Torchwood Hub, about 30 seconds ago
"Crystal, picking up a huge energy spike about six miles out." Tosh immediately deferred to the Second-in-Command, seeing as the boys were out hunting down another rogue weevil. Crystal was right next to the computer in a flash, despite Tosh not having seen anyone in the main control center a second ago. Crys took one look at the screen and had grabbed her jacket, gun, and car keys and was out the door before Tosh could say "And it's not alien."
The road was a skinny winding dirt road out to the forest but Crystal took it at crazy speeds. She needed to get there and she needed to get there fast.
"Tosh how much farther do I have to the energy spike?" Crystal said into her earpiece.
"About two miles," she replied.
"Good because I got a feeling whoever is out there is in trouble."
Forest Greenwood, Ring of Fire
"Oh we are in so much trouble now," Aaron said backing, with Ronaldo, to the center of the circle.
The fire had started closing in on them and they were soon standing in the center of the circle hoping for a miracle, and it came.
15 seconds later
Crystal screeched to a halt and jumped out of the car. She ran towards the coordinates of the energy spike. Before she got there she saw the fire and bolted forward, praying to every deity she knew of that she wasn't too late. She saw the fire, slowly closing in towards the center of what must have been a perfect ring of flames, and acted on sheer instinct, throwing out her hand, not really expecting anything to happen. But the fire stopped drawing closer and pulled back quite a bit. It was still burning, but back at what must have been the original starting point.
What the…?
Then she heard, barely audible over the roar of the flames, voices. Voices from inside the circle of flames. She swore softly under her breath, already straining to keep the fire in check.
However the heck she was doing that.
Inside the fire
Aaron heard a car pull up, and a door opening and shutting. Then, over the roar of the flames, some pretty creative cursing and a sudden rush of… not wind, exactly, but something powerful, and the fire jumped back to it's original starting point.
What the…?
Then a bit more cursing, softer this time, like the person speaking was under a tremendous strain. And a voice, somehow cutting through the noise of the fire, crystal clear. "Can you hear me in there?"
Back on the other side of the fire
"Can you hear me in there?" Crystal shouted over the flames. She waited a moment then heard a muffled reply.
"Yes we can hear you"
"Ok whichever one of you is magic needs to put out the fire."
"What are you talking about? Help get us out of here!"
"One of you is magic and accidentally started the fire, so whoever it is needs to put it out."
"What are you talking about? Neither of us has magic. Get us out of here!"
"Listen to me! Let's pretend for just ONE SECOND that you actually believe I'm not crazy, alright? I want both of you to calm down and do exactly what I say, ok?"
"Ok"
"I want you to close your eyes and imagine the fire being put out." She waited, nothing happened. "Pretend it is actually happening. Watch the flames go out, imagine you can feel the air cooling off." she yelled over the roar of the flames. Out of nowhere, the fire was extinguished and out of the ashes staggered two worn out and slightly singed boys.
"Thank you for helping us get out of there. I thought we were goners for sure," said the first boy reaching out to shake my hand. "I'm Ronaldo."
"Crystal," she replied reaching out to shake his hand.
"Yes thank you so much," Said the second also reaching out with his hand. "I'm Aaron"
She shook his hand and said, "You really shouldn't be thanking me. It was one of you who put out the fire, after all"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I didn't do anything. It was all you guys."
They both stared at her blankly.
"I'll only explain this once so pay attention. There is a force of nature that only certain people are born with. It allows them to do unnatural things like, for instance, starting a fire without trying and miraculously putting it out. Torchwood calls it Psy-kinetic energy. Most people call it magic." Both boys still looked extremely confused. "You know what, how about I just show you."
"Ok. That sounds good, because I am still not getting this very well." said Aaron
"So what I am going to do is have you try to use 'magic' again. Ronaldo isn't it?"
"Yes that is right."
Crystal picked up a small pebble. "What I want you to do is try to lift this pebble," As Ronaldo reached out to pick it up, Crystal rolled her eyes and quickly blocked his hand. "With your mind. Do the same as with the fire. See it really happening." Nothing happened. "Ok, that probably answers that question. But if he doesn't do it either you can try again. Aaron isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"I want you to try to do the same thing." Suddenly the pebble flew out of her hand and into the sky, hovering at about the height of the lowest branches of the pine tree they were sitting under.
"What the?" The pebble came crashing to the ground. Well, as much as a pebble dropped from a height of roughly 10 feet can crash. "Did I just do that?"
"Yes, that was you."
"How did I do that?"
"I told you already and I'm not going to explain it again"
"Come on I don't get this at all," he said. "How come I can do these weird things that no one else can?"
"I've already explained this, ok? I can explain it a lot better at Torchwood, so, if you want to know, come with me." she said.
Suddenly, Crystal's earpiece beeped at her. She turned it back on and heard alarms in the background, as well as… was that gunfire? "Tosh, what's going on?"
"Crystal, we need you back here, now! Torchwood is under attack!"