As promised, chapter 2!
...Slightly disappointed I haven't gotten guesses as to Elijah's power yet, but it's also been a very short time since the first chapter released. I will say, however, it's not pure fire.
Screams.
Smoke.
Ash.
"YOU MONSTER!"
Elijah jolted awake, almost tipping off his log as he flailed for a moment, his breathing frantic as fire flared up along his arms for a moment, his powers responding to his moment of panic before he got them back under control. Sighing, he shook his head, trying to dislodge the memories of his nightmare as he stood up and stretched, a couple stiff joints cracking before he relaxed once more and headed for the door.
He took another look out across the cliffside expanse, taking in the beauty, before taking a few steps back, then transforming into red flames that streamed down the cliffside and into the forest below. Reforming above the ground, he dropped the last few feet as himself, landing softly before beginning to walk. He had a long journey ahead of him, after all. Walking gave him time for reflection... not that he wanted to. But when one is alone with their thoughts... that's all they can do.
He thought back to his family, to his mother and sister... he refused to think about his father. The less said there, the better... After all, it was because of that damned man that everything had happened in the first place.
Elijah's father had turned up drunk once more, despite the family's pleas to stop going to the bar every single night and pissing away his paycheck. But all the man did was grumble and shout back most nights. Other nights, he was too drunk to notice or care, and just stumbled to his bed to fall asleep.
But that night? No, that night was different. That night he came home, drunk as a skunk, and when the lectures started... he went for the belt. Whipped mom pretty bad before coming after the kids. Elijah didn't know what set him off... but watching their so-called father beat the shit out of his sister Carrie certainly set off Elijah.
With a roar, he'd tackled their father, starting to wail on him with fists that were suddenly wreathed in red-hot flames, burning with every strike. Elijah didn't even know what he was doing - all he wanted was this man dead, dead for what he'd done and for all the abuse he'd heaped on them over the years. The final blow was harsh - the former father's face was, frankly, unrecognizable now under all the charred skin and the flames consuming the rest of his body. His mother and sister were screaming something, he couldn't hear what over the sounds of the rushing in his ears as it all hit him at once. He glanced around; his rampage against his father had lit his surroundings on fire, the building was burning... with him and his family still inside.
Elijah was jolted from his reminiscing once again as he stumbled, his feet splashing; he'd been walking through a creek and slipped on some of the smooth river rocks. Shaking his head, he focused his attention now on getting across without rolling his ankle or something. Being a Conduit, it would heal in less than a minute - especially if he used one of the items in his pockets to recharge - but it would be annoying and would just delay him, not to mention using said item would just be a waste.
He stepped carefully now, moving a bit slower but more deliberately as he crossed the river, doing his best to forget his trip down memory lane - what's done is done, no matter how much he might want to go back and undo his mistakes. They were all dead, because of him.
Getting to the other side, he found himself face-to-face with a cliff face. Looking up, he could see handholds he could use to climb up... if he wasn't a Conduit.
Streams of red fire rushed up the side of the cliff, coalescing back into flesh and cloth once he'd reached the top and letting him land with a soft sound on the tall grass. Looking up... he started to smile.
It was still a ways off from here, but he could see the tip of the Space Needle - he was close.
Seattle had become somewhat of a home to Conduits over the course of the last year; Delsin Rowe himself lived out on the Akomish reservation outside of the city, but was known to make regular trips to the city. Eugene and Fetch were still around in separate parts of Seattle; oftentimes the three were seen patrolling, ensuring the street gangs didn't act up and the drug dealers weren't pushing their shit onto innocents. The trio had become the centerpieces of Seattle, in a way. Shining examples of Conduits co-existing with humanity, exactly what Augustine had thought could never happen.
Well, hopefully they're willing to give me a chance, Elijah mumbled in his mind, doubting they'd even consider it but still hopeful that he was wrong.
Seattle was the place to be for Conduits... a space much more forgiving and tolerant of Conduits. Of course, no space was perfect - there was still plenty of unhappy people in the city, either Akurans or former DUP soldiers who decided hatred for Conduits trumped everything else - but it was a far sight better than the town he'd left yesterday, with a hunting party on his ass.
His pace picked up a bit, focusing once more on the Space Needle in the distance. Throughout the day, it slowly got closer and closer, until, finally, he exited the forest onto a road. Ahead of him was a tunnel, the other side of which lay the ruins of the 520 bridge and the construction of a new one; lots of progress had been made, especially with the help of concrete-manipulators like Delsin and the few members of the DUP who decided to put their talents to good use, but it would take a long time before the bridge would be stable enough for cars to drive across.
Walking across the concrete structures they'd built across the ruins of the old bridge, consisting of pillars of concrete stretching across the many gaps in the still-standing sections of the old bridge, the structures of said sections having been reinforced to ensure they wouldn't shift and sink anytime soon. The "builders" had even added handrails, to help ensure visitors wouldn't fall off while traveling, how nice of them.
The halfway mark was where Elijah found his trouble beginning.
As he stepped onto a longer stretch of old-bridge, he suddenly found his legs locked in place with pieces of scrap metal bolting themselves to the floor around his feet, trapping him. From behind a ruined truck stepped out a young man, tall and skinny, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a cocky grin.
"Well, well, what have we here? Someone who doesn't know there's a toll to cross the bridge?" He mocked, stalking closer. The truck he'd been hiding behind shook, rattling intensely before several sheets of metal peeled themselves away to begin orbiting the man, like he was the center of the universe. He certainly had the ego to believe he was, anyway. Elijah thought to himself, peering at the man's smug expression.
"Ah, my mistake then." Elijah commented calmly, something that actually gave the metal Conduit pause. "How much is the toll, then? Wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone, after all." As he spoke, he let out a few wisps of his power, the intense heat trailing from his hands down his legs to the metal, which began to deform as it glowed red. A moment later, Elijah stepped free, shaking his legs to ensure no burning metal was clinging to him.
Seeing this display, the metal Conduit stared him down for a few seconds, calculating, before sighing and dropping his metal sheets, gesturing for the bridge on the other side. "Nah, no toll for Conduits; my mistake for not seeing it sooner. Most who come to Seattle do it by plane or boat, not the bridge."
Elijah stared back for a moment, before shrugging. "Well, now you know... hopefully, we won't have a confrontation like this again." Turning his focus away from the metal-manipulator, he walked towards the bridge into Seattle, only a few more gaps to cross now.
The sudden shrieking of metal was all the warning he needed to transform into intense flames, the partially-stripped truck sailing through the air where he'd been standing moments before and off the platform, sailing into the water as the fire streamed towards the blonde boy to coalesce back into a scowling Elijah, his arms ablaze.
"And here I was going to just walk away and let you off." He stated, the heat intensifying as blondie pulled more metal scraps to himself, forming almost a suit of armor out of them. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way."
He dodged a pile of scrap metal loosely shaped into the fist of this 'golem', sidestepping it and rushing across the small platform to get in closer. Fifteen feet.
Another wild swing, a haymaker. A swift Flare Dash let it pass through him without problem. Ten feet.
A kick from the golem's stubby legs; easy enough to dodge, even at ranges this close. Five feet.
The metal abruptly exploded off the other Conduit's body, huge pieces of metal shrapnel flying in all directions; this actually caught Elijah off-guard, several pieces smashing into his chest and sending him flying back, flaming motes hanging in the air as he passed. He landed hard and tumbled, but was up in a matter of moments, having momentarily transformed to change his position, and then threw himself back at the rapidly-reforming golem.
The metal Conduit lashed out once more with a fist made of scrap metal, but this time, Elijah's arm came up, his palm glowing red for a moment before a burning ball was launched, arcing up into the air before coming back down and smashing into the front of the golem, causing it to stagger as it violently exploded, tearing off some scrap pieces and damaging others; still, this was just to catch him off-guard and give Elijah an opening.
He transformed as he rushed forwards once again, allowing his fiery form to flow into the armor. The other man screamed as the flames licked at him. His armor dropped to the ground, red-hot and steaming, as he lost control in his agony. He dropped to his hands and knees, breathing heavily as his body and clothing smoldered.
Elijah, reforming before him, reached down and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up to stare into his eye. Hmm... it would be so easy to just kill him right now. Leech his element and burn the rest; nobody would know, nobody would likely care.
...No. He refused to go down that path again. His last trip down it was accidental... but that was still no excuse.
Instead, he brought up a hand, glowing red-hot as his powers swirled around it, and pressed it to the man's stomach, easily burning through his shirt and into the flesh beneath. The man let out another scream, this one somewhat strangled by Elijah's grip on his throat, before he let the man go.
"Just because I decided not to kill you, don't go around thinking you're special." He stated bluntly, staring down at the pathetic excuse of a mugger, laying on the ground and clutching the hand-shaped burn mark on his stomach. "And sometimes... death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you."
Stepping over the metal Conduit's body, he continued on his way, his hands in his hoodie pockets once again and the sun shining down on the yin-yang symbol on his back. If anyone had been there, they might have said the yang seemed a bit higher up than it had been before...
Not fully pleased with how the fight scene turned out, but I didn't want to delay the chapter. Maybe another time I'll go back and edit it to make it a bit more thrilling.
Still, here's to another new chapter!