The winds howl and the trees sway. A flock of birds take flight to escape the scene.

I don’t know much about science, but the heated air mixing with the cold air can’t be good. The wind continues to pick up speed.

I stand up, revealing myself from the bushes. I need to stop this before it gets bad.

Rachel grabs my wrist and shakes her head.

“Don’t go just yet. Let’s see what Dylan can do. We need to trust him for now.”

That may be so, but- but!

Dylan is the first to strike. He charges at Luke closing into melee range. His foot prints leave blackened grass under them. His whole body is heated up.

He throws a punch at Luke’s face, but it’s blocked by a shield of ice. It materialized out of no where and was attached to Luke’s wrist.

So that’s his ability. It seems like he can create things out of ice.

Luke swings his shield, throwing Dylan’s arm away and upsetting his balance. A sword appears in Luke’s other hand preparing a thrust.

The sword is sharp. It’s a weapon. A real weapon. It’s designed to kill and that’s what he’s aiming for.

The deadly sword flies toward Dylan’s unprotected side. He was still trying to steady himself after the parry. From his current position, it’s impossible to get away without getting hit.

An explosion of fire blasts out of his feet, destroying his shoes and launching him away from Luke, escaping unscathed. Dylan looks surprised at his ability, but he seems to be getting the hang of it.

At his new safe distance, Dylan looks at his open palm and then clenches it into a fist. Taking a sprinter’s pose, he gets down on all fours and prepares to get back into battle. Another explosion propels him towards Luke at blinding speeds.

Caught off guard, Luke quickly attempts to block with his shield but a punch with so much velocity and heat demolishes his shield to bits.

Being launched backwards from the sheer force of the punch, Luke creates a large ice pillar behind him to stop from falling any further back. The pillar is curved in a way that slows all of his momentum from the hit and cradles him like an egg.

Undeterred, Dylan follows up his attack with a second. He once again launches himself, ready to punch on impact.

Luke creates another ice pillar right in front of Dylan.

Unable to stop, Dylan makes another explosion in mid air to curve himself around the pillar. He immediately creates yet another explosion redirecting himself back towards Luke.

Irritated, Luke forms a dome around himself to protect his entire body in.

Dylan continues at full speed towards the dome. He puts both his hands in front of him making an explosion to destroy the dome.

“Get out Luke! Before I destroy you along with the ice! Fight me fair and square!”

The explosion doesn’t even put a dent in the dome.

Dylan yells in frustration. The embers multiply and a cloud of fire begins to pour out from his feet. He places his hands on the dome and sends explosion after explosion.

The dome begins to crack.

“Dylan’s going to end up killing him! We need to stop this. It’s going to far!” Sarah pleads.

“No! We can’t risk going over there! We have no power compared to them. We must wait until the end. It’s far to dangerous,” Rachel reasons.

“But-”

Rachel is right, but if Dylan is in danger, I’ll have to run in myself.

Suddenly, out of the crack in the dome, a large spike shoots out.

Dylan, having not prepared, can only barley move it out of the way of his heart. The ice impales his right side.

He screams out in pain.

The ice dome turns to a fine snowy powder along with the spike. Luke looks at Dylan pitifully.

Dylan’s side bleeds profusely. He is forced to put a hand on it and can only look at Luke angrily. He needs to recover.

Luke creates another sword and slowly begins to approach Dylan.

“That’s the end of the line for you, Dylan.”

Dylan blasts himself as far from Luke as possible. With his new distance, he reaches his right hand out and aims towards Luke. The fire that was leaking from his feet disappears and the embers around his hand intensify. He redirects all of his firepower into a torrent of flames, creating a laser like projectile.

Caught off guard, Luke attempts to create another shield to block with but it’s incinerated before it fully forms. The stream of fire drills a hole through Luke’s shoulder.

“That’s it, this is going too far!” I finally decide that me trusting Dylan’s skill has nothing to do with needing to stop them.

“Allen! You can’t. It’s more dangerous than ever right now. You’re right, we should’ve stopped them, but now, we’ll get hurt if we rush in.”

Now that she mentions it, the winds have picked up drastically. They have started to swirl around the arena like a tornado.

The fire that had been leaking from Dylan’s feet, had caught a large amount of the floor around him on fire. Everywhere Luke has been is covered in frost. The battlefield is dangerous, even without Dylan and Luke there.

Dylan yells in anger, “Luke!! If I must kill you here, then so be it!”

The fire around Dylan strengthens. The small cloud of fire under his feet becomes a large inferno surrounding him.

“That’s how it should be! I can’t lose here, your gem will be mine!”

Dylan’s furious voice changes to pain, “You’d really sacrifice that much just for yourself?”

“Of course. But, you have one thing confused, it’s not just for me. I’m doing this for my family. You know my pain better than anyone.”

“You can’t harm others for that! It’s wrong!”

“NO! You’re the one who’s wrong!” Luke breaks down, “For my family’s sake, I need your gem! Give it to me! For me! Please…! I will obtain another gem, whether it’s yours or not, so if you don’t want me to hurt anyone else then give me yours!”

“Luke, you know I can’t do that. Not now, not anymore. You’ve gone too far.”

Luke sounds desperate and sad, “I see. We had such good times together, when we were little. I wish we could go back to those days. I really do. But, things have changed. I no longer need anyone else, I will live by myself and protect my family! If I’m forced to rely on others, then how can I possibly believe that I’m someone that can be relied on? I am the wall that protects my family. So please, for me…”

The winds speed up again and the fire continues to rage. The temperature decreases drastically.

The point of discussion is over. This fight can no longer end peacefully.

I need to stop this now, I’ll intervene.

The cold air blows past and I stare at the battered bodies of Luke and Dylan. Two holes pass through their bodies. Injuries that if moved slightly, could have been fatal.

My body won’t move, even when I tell it to. The sudden prospect of death paralyzes me, getting in the middle of this fight is suicide.

Hero my ass.

“JUST DIE ALREADY!!!”

Three pillars of ice spin in circles around Luke. They twist making a trunk-like shape. The trunk extends past the canopy of the forest. It’s taller than the tallest tree here. Branches shoot off in every direction from all around the trunk, branches that were as sharp as knives. From inside the protection of the tree he can’t aim, so the branches randomly shoot around, making it almost impossible for Dylan to escape.

The ice tree is bright, reflecting all of the suns rays through the leaves of the other trees. It shimmers and sparkles. The surrounding grass is covered in frost so it appears to be winter instead of spring.

Several branches of the tree head straight for Dylan.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that! Your selfishness is pissing me off!”

Dylan lets out his infinite rage. Fire coats everything around him. The sheer heat melts some of the smaller knife-like branches.

The grass is entirely frozen now, except for a circle around Dylan.

The branches continue to grow towards him. A million spears fly in every direction. Nowhere is safe. The majority of the branches are heading in his general direction, while the rest cover everywhere else, just to be sure he won’t get away. They don’t quite reach out to us yet though.

Dylan’s heat isn’t enough to melt all of the branches. They slowly start making it closer and closer to him. He has immense fire power, but his defense leaves a lot to ask for. On the other hand, Luke had defense and offense.

All of the fire vanishes instantly. Leaving just a glowing ball in Dylan’s hands. It’s the concentration of all of his fire power. He recognizes that his flimsy defenses can’t hold for long and decides to gamble everything.

Three branches immediately hit Dylan. Without the heat to keep them at bay, they pierce his shoulder and both of his legs. It goes all the way through his shoulder, but they stop lodged in his legs.

Through a scream of pain, Dylan aims the ball of power towards the base of the tree, right where Luke hid. The sphere was bright white like a miniature sun.

“Don’t do it! Please stop this!”

Sarah can’t watch any longer. She runs towards Dylan. Maybe she wants to be a hero, too? She’s definitely qualified, unlike me. I still can’t even move.

Sarah sprints away from the safety of the bushes. As she desperately tries to stop Dylan from becoming a killer, two stray branches fly towards her. Shocked, Sarah tries to dodge but trips and begins to fall. It’s unavoidable now.

She may die here.

She hasn’t done anything wrong though. So why? She simply wanted to help, but it’s going to cost her her life?

That’s wrong.

It’s all my fault, too.

A power surges through me, it feels like adrenaline and gives me immense strength. I feel the power course through my muscles and bolt towards Sarah without a second thought. The fear of death that once controlled me, wasn’t even half as strong as the fear of letting something else die. The death of Sarah would be unjust. No, it would be the death of justice itself. She’s done nothing wrong, and I must protect her life for that reason alone.

I reach Sarah a moment before she gets hit. The strength that passed through my veins made every step of my run feel like a leap.

At the last moment, I allowed that strength to vanish so that I could ever so gently push Sarah out of the way, taking her place.

“I’m sorry, Luke!” Dylan shouts at the top of his lungs.

The cold air immediately gets blown away with an intensely hot wind.

The miniature sun stretches into a beam of white hot inferno. It easily melts every branch it comes in contact with and cuts it’s way to the trunk.

The flame wraps itself around the tree. The ice is strong, but the flame is stronger.

The beam of fire makes a hole through the tree along with Luke. It drills straight through his abdomen, leaving a hole the size of a bowling ball.

Blood drips out of his mouth and stomach and he silently collapses onto the floor.

The massive tree turns to a fine dust, leaving snowflakes in the air. They fall gently down from the sky onto my face.

It’s cold again. So cold.

The branch that had embedded itself in my chest also turned into snow.

Winter covered the entire battlefield. Dylan fell over into the soft snow due to his wounds.

“Stay with me!” Sarah held my body and looked at me, teary eyed.

Rachel hurried over as well, “Allen, you need to stay awake, got it? I’ll try and call Simon. Sarah, stay with him, I’ll help Dylan.”

Water droplets fell onto my cheek, warming it up. They came from Sarah’s eyes. She continued to talk to me, but it was hard to hear. I was lost in my own thought.

I saved her. Thank god. Does this…

Does this make me a hero?

Sarah reached out and held my hand while crying. I wrap my fingers around hers to try and comfort her. I can’t move anything but my hand.

These powers, the gems, they got me hurt so bad and hurt Dylan too. They even killed Luke, but they allowed me to accomplish my dreams. As close as I could get to them, anyway.

I’ve had a good run.

I had things I wanted to do still, but it’s so hard to continue to strive to achieve things. I think I lived fine. Dying to accomplish my goal sounds good to me. I’m sure I’ll be remembered as the person I wish I was, even if that wasn’t truly me.

The world starts to fade away and the last thing I see is Sarah’s sobbing face.

…

…

…

“Will he really be alright?”

Shut up, will you? I’m tired. I’ve already accepted death.

…

“I-I’m not sure! I’ve never needed to treat such serious wounds.”

C’mon. I just want some peace and quiet.

I blink open my eyes and find myself in a house that I’ve never seen before.

“He’s awake!”

“Allen! You’re alive!” Sarah said with a shaky voice.

Another tear fell onto my face. She wiped her eyes immediately.

“Yeah… yeah. I’m alive. Where am I?”

I sit up in the unknown house. I was on someone’s bed.

“This is Christina’s house,” Simon says, “Her parents aren’t home right now so she said we could use it. She’s in the living room right now. Dylan is with her, he woke up before you did.”

So Simon treated me, “Thanks, Simon.”

I stand up out of the bed and suddenly feel pretty cold. I look down and I’m only wearing my underwear.

“Eek! Why’d you strip me??”

Sarah blushes.

Simon frantically answers, “Well, your shirt was ruined, it’s got a big hole and it’s covered in blood. We needed to take your pants too, to make sure there were no other injuries. Not to mention, they were covered in blood too. Don’t worry though, you should be one hundred percent healthy now.”

“Could you get me some pants then please?!” I’m embarrassed.

They bring me a pair of pants which fit me surprisingly well. It’s a nice pair of sweat pants.

“Who’s are these?”

“Christina’s.”

What?? That feels wrong. It feels almost as embarrassing as having no pants. Almost.

“Oi! What’s the ruckus? Did Allen get up?” Christina calls from another room.

Hearing that, Dylan rushed into the room.

“You’re fine! I was worried!”

“Yeah, I’m good now,” My memory was a bit foggy. “What happened at the end of the fight? Where’s Luke?”

Everyone’s face darkens.

Dylan speaks up, “… I killed him. Kyle helped bury him in the forest.”

Simon looks sickened. He seems like he may puke.

“I see. I’m so sorry. I should’ve stopped you earlier.”

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have gone by myself. I don’t know why I didn’t think that you guys would follow me. I’m a fool. I got you all hurt and ended up killing my old friend. I just- I thought that I needed to take care of it on my own. Luke was my friend, so I felt responsible.”

At every mention of the word kill and Luke’s fate, Simon looked even more appalled. Sarah too, but not to the same extent.

“What do we do now?”

Christina makes it into the room, “Kyle said that we should hold another meeting. The final one.”

Everyone goes silent.

What a cruel fate this is.

A minute or so of silence pass before someone speaks up.

Rachel lightens the mood, “So… Simon, Christina, how’d you two meet?”

Christina answers, “Ah, Simon has been my friend since we were little. He always helped me out.”

“Helped you out? I practically do everything for you!”

“Yeah, sorry. He does a whole lot for me. He even makes my lunches,” She gives a proud smile.

Poor Simon, he’s totally getting used.

“Well, you guys can all sleep here if you need to. It’s pretty late already. My parents won’t mind.”

It was late, maybe it would be better if I just told my parents that I’d be staying at a friend’s.

“Are you sure that it’d be alright?” I confirm.

“Sure.”

“Well, then I’d be happy to. Thanks a lot.”

“No problem. What about you four?”

They all nod.

“Sweet. I’ll be going to bed soon. So, Simon can stay in my room, we have two guest bedrooms so two of you can stay in each, if that’s alright.”

Two guest beds? Dang.

I roomed with Dylan and Sarah stayed with Rachel.

This house was huge. Apparently, Dylan was wandering around for a while. Because of his family situation, he probably has a very small house in comparison. A house this big is even impressive to me.

Man, Christina was a rich girl all along!

I say my goodnights to everyone and lay down.

As I fall asleep, I start to think of today’s events. Things have changed a lot in just one day. The previous idea that things may become dangerous was now fact. Just having these abilities put us at risk,

Speaking of, Dylan was able to his activate fire. My guess for the trigger is rage. Every time he got mad, the flames swelled. In that same way, Sarah’s trigger was to feel like no one could see her. To ‘wish’ that she wasn’t seen or to believe she wasn’t seen.

So what’s the correlation between rage and fire? I get that it’s a very common connection to make, but invisibility and not being seen are the same idea. Rage and fire are quite different in reality. In this way, how are they even connected at all? Does there even have to be a reason?

My ability seems to be a form of super strength. I was only able to activate it when I desired to protect Sarah, though. So I guess I ‘wish’ to have the strength to be able protect someone. What does Dylan ‘wish’ for? I’ll have to ask one of the other ability users, probably Sarah or Rachel. If they can’t figure it out then I’ll be forced to ask Kyle, but I don’t like him much. He’s done a lot for me and I appreciate it, but he gives off bad vibes. Not to mention, he causes a fair amount of problems himself.

It’s easy to ignore, because we all want to forget, but someone died today. Luke, Dylan’s old friend and a brother in ability using, died. More specifically, he was killed. He was so desperate to steal someone’s gem. Why was that? What was the reason that he caused us so much pain? I’ll never understand, because no matter what, I would never hurt an innocent like that. I would never do something evil.

Not me.

I saved someone today. I saved Sarah’s life. I’m practically already the hero that I’ve always wanted. If I were stronger, I may have been able to take care of Luke on my own, though. That would’ve been my optimal hero.

A hero.

To me, a hero is a person who protects justice at all costs. A person who is strong enough to protect good and destroy evil.

It’s no longer such a far fetched dream, I may one day become that person.

“Are you awake?” Dylan whispers.

“Yeah.”

“So you’re having trouble sleeping too?”

I haven’t, really, but since he has, “Yeah.”

“Today shook me up. I hope I wasn’t showing it though.”

He chuckles.

“No, you did a good job. I’m sure you didn’t worry anyone.”

“Thanks. Anyway, I’m having a lot of trouble coping with… ya know… killing Luke. It’s been rough, man. I feel that you may be the only one I can tell this to. I wouldn’t want to worry any of the chicks, and Simon is too precious.”

“I’m glad that you can trust me.”

“Yeah, thanks for understanding. Me and Luke were buddies since we were little kids. I’m sure you gathered this by now, but my family is quite poor, we live in a trailer park. I don’t want pity though. I’m doing just as fine as everyone else. I’m strong, but… Luke wasn’t. That’s why I was there for him. Luke was in the same boat as me. Poor for the same reason, too. Medical bills can take a lot out of a lower income house, blew us straight into poverty. My pa’s got a heart disease. He hasn’t kicked the bucket yet, though. He spends most of his time in the hospital, but that may be even worse. He’s suffering and so is the rest of the family. The bills cost so much and he isn’t getting better.”

Damn. This is rough. He must’ve had such a hard life up until this point, but as per his request, I won’t pity him. Instead, he’s doing great. From the way he acts now, he’s a very amazing person to be able to be so kind and live in these conditions. He’s probably got such a short temper because of how hard his home life is, though. It’s understandable.

“A similar situation was happening with Luke, but he didn’t handle it well. He often lashed out and got into fights for no reason. I’d help him out, but it often just made us targets for bullying. Kids made fun of us for being poor, but after we gave them a couple beatings they wouldn’t mention it again.”

So he was bullied, too. Well, they tried to bully him. Still, though, for him to be able to have such a hard life and still not even let an ounce of it show. He’s incredible.

“Somewhere along the way, Luke distanced himself from me. It was slow and gradual so it was hard to notice. When I confronted him, all he could say was that he needed to be stronger by himself. From my years of knowing him, he probably thought that always being with me and talking with each other made him weak. He probably thought that he wasn’t strong enough to be there for his family if someone needed to be there for him. In that regard, to go so far to protect your family, he was wonderful. But, as far as I know, he left all of his friends. He shut himself off from the world entirely. When I saw him again for the first time in a while, at the meeting, he didn’t say a word to me. He was like a completely different person. But the Luke I knew was so fun. He was an amazing friend… and I- I!”

His voice picked up volume.

I sat up and gave him a pat on the back.

“You’ve done great. There’s no need to hold back.”

His eyes swelled with tears, but only one fell. He shed a single tear for his old friend. Despite being so strong, despite having such a hard life for such a long time, losing Luke was too much. Their friendship had already been torn apart, but he shed a tear for the wonderful man he remembered.

“Goodbye, Luke.”