Burning Slow

Where's our epic background music?

"Alright, so while I was asleep, what did you guys plan? Or had in mind?" Ember entered the dining room/ makeshift conference room, Rocco right at her side.

The teenagers in the room grinned, excluding Rocco and Ember.

Kenneth placed his hands on the table, materializing a map of Greenland.

James produced some light in his hands as he was seated over on the other end of the long table, illuminating the map, while Jacob made the room darker, controlling the lights from the bulbs.

Astraea reached into a portal and brought out some snacks and drinks enough for everyone.

Nick teleported to some place and came back with a long stick that has a U on one end of it.

Then Nathan produced some rocks from his hands.

"Woah." Rocco and Ember exclaimed at the same time.

"You guys definitely planned for this." Rocco said at the same time Ember said, "I feel like you guys planned this."

"Oh we did." Grace answered both of them as she grabbed the stick from Nick.

"Wait." The light suddenly disappeared, making the room darker. "Where's our epic background music?"

Astraea sighed. "We said no to that, idiot."

"But we still deserve background music." He pouted.

"Get the light back on, J." James grumbled at his twin but got the light back on nonetheless.

"Alright, so," Grace drawled out in case someone else had something to say. When everybody remained quiet, she nodded signaling that she would start talking.

"Greenland is eighty percent ice. There are also about two hundred glaciers and there are twenty eight spots of glaciers in total. Since there are only nine of us, we eliminated nineteen spots which brings us to here..." she moved the nine rocks to nine places with her stick, "here and here." She looked at the others to see if they were following.

"Go on." Ember pressed.

"For this to work, Nathan's power isn't going to be enough. Along with his power, we're going to make those other nineteen less colder places darker with Jacob's power. Though I have a question, Ember."

"Shoot."

"What happens to the virus when it rains?"

"Okay, so this is just a hunch that we had. So the virus is a bomb, right?" Everybody nodded. "If those particles were man-made then it would probably easily be wiped by water. Along with the fact that Guinea had the least number of infections since it's apparently the rainiest country in the world. But then again, this is just a hunch. We couldn't really test this out since we couldn't get our hands on the virus particles. It was impossible without the proper instruments and since we laid low, we really couldn't do anything to help. We just had to survive and hope for the best, I guess." Her mind flashed back to all those days lazing around in the house, moments with Nathan and her dad and only going out to buy food and other necessities.

"We're going to have to trust that hunch." Grace clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. "So back to what I was saying, when it's dark and gloomy, we immediately think of rain, right?" Once again, everyone nodded. 

"If the virus is wiped out even before it has spread, then the psychopath that managed to kill ninety percent of the human population would be unsuccessful in trying to wipe out the entire human race. So then we conclude that he or she-" she emphasized and Astraea and her high-fived with a smug look on their faces- "won't be choosing any places where rain might fall."

"But there's one little problem that we couldn't work out and we were hoping that you could solve that for us, Em?" Nathan scratched the back of his neck as he looked at his best friend.

"What is it?"

"There's so much land to trek in the nine places, we doubt we can catch the psychopath."

"So you guys don't have a plan to locate them?" Everybody nodded.

Ember chuckled making everyone raise their eyebrows, looking in wonder at her. "It's so simple Nate."

"What is it, Ember?" Rocco leaned closer to her as did everyone, their interest piqued.

"Nate here is an elemental, guys. He can feel the wind, the fire, the water and..." she paused, smirking... "the earth."

"Oh no." Grace frowned.

"Oh yes." Ember chuckled again.

The two of them had a silent conversation with their eyes, ignoring the questioning looks that everybody had on them.

"Uh Earth to Grace and Ember?" Kenneth snapped his fingers.

"So what you mean to say is Nathan could feel the people walking on Earth?" Rocco cut between the silent conversation of the two ladies.

"Yes, darling." Ember is already so deep in planning that she didn't even notice the boy's cheeks turn a light shade of pink. "With the right training, he can definitely do it."

"I can?"

"Of course, Nat. Before I died in the future, I was almost able to teach you how to do it." She smiled. "He can do it, can't he, Grace?" She brought her attention back to the healer in the room.

Grace sighed, narrowing her eyes at Ember. The two once again had another silent conversation and the others feeling left out..

"Promise me first that you're not going to use it." 

Ember just shrugged with a mischievous smirk on her face. "No promises."

At this, Grace groaned, massaging her forehead. "If you die, I can't heal you." She muttered to herself.

She sighed, defeated. "It's going to take some work but I'm sure he can. He just needs to recognize all our footsteps and if there's someone that he doesn't recognize then we found our culprit."

"And that's where I come in." Nick boasted, making the other boys roll their eyes at him. The questions that they had in the earlier conversation, fading away.

"Yeah, the dumbass here volunteered to teleport to us in case we need something." Astraea droned, grabbing another pack of juice from one of her portals.

"That won't be necessary." James interrupted Nick's moment of glory making him pout. "He would only be useful if there are large areas that we need to get through."

Everybody shuddered for a second as they remembered that they would travel Nick style, absolutely dreading the moments leading to it.

"Oh yeah we've been talking about that. Kenneth here can make those walkie-talkie's that can cover huge distances. We're close to nailing it down but still needs some work." Jacob second.

"'Yeah, we should be done in three days or so." Kenneth confirmed.

"Alright, so the plan is almost concrete. Just a lot more training, guys, and more healing for me, yay to me." Ember ended in a sarcastic tone, shaking her hands in the air, fake celebrating, making everyone laugh at her.

*****

"Nate, you have to feel her breath, feel her move, just feel the earth." Ember instructed for the millionth time and Nathan still couldn't get it.

"What do you mean by feel? Em, that doesn't make any sense." He prolonged, whining.

"God, I really was hoping not to use it ever again." She muttered to herself. "Take my hand." She stood up, dusting herself off and offering her hand to Nathan. He quickly got up from the ground and grabbed Ember's hand just as she instructed.

They were surrounded by a light green glow and a light breeze. Ember's eyes were closed in concentration while Nathan saw the nature around them become more vibrant, having more life.

All of a sudden, Nathan started to feel thumps that he hadn't felt before nor felt before. It was as if he felt it through his entire being and he could just see footsteps moving in different directions like a map. He felt that some were heavy and some were light. With each thump, he heard a drum as if it was dictating the movement of his heart.

After a couple more seconds, the light green glow faded along with Ember falling to the ground as she tried to catch her breath.

"Em, you okay?" Nathan frantically asked.

"I'm fine." She panted. "I just hadn't used that power in forever. I'm going to just lay down." Nathan laid her on the ground as she panted.

"You told me you weren't going to use it ever again."

"I had to. I'm not sorry."

"How's it going, guys?" Grace walked in with her flushed cheeks, sweat drenched shirt, wisps of her coily hair escaping her previously neat ponytail, obviously tired from Alex's way of training them, but she still had a bright smile on her face.

She had to go through some bushes, which explains the escaped strands in her ponytail, to get to their secluded part of the field.

"I did try to teach Nathan without using my powers-" cue the frown on Grace's face- "but he f*****g sucks at following directions-" now cue the eye roll of Nathan- "so I ended up using my powers, hence the more vibrant part of our field."

Grace sighed but eventually giggling, half expecting it to happen. "Can you do it now, Nathan?"

"I can try." He shrugged.

Nathan sat on the ground beside Ember and a light red glow engulfed him. The change was barely noticeable but the air around them started to get warmer and the grass around him was starting to be scorched.

Grace sprinted to Ember and hurriedly pulled her away from Nathan. "Dude, wrong element!" She yelled, making Nathan lose his focus, almost scorching the whole field but he quickly released some water to stop it before the fire reached both of the girls with him.

"Oops?" He scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry."

"Well, there goes the vibrant green grass." Ember mourned. "My best friend is such an i***t. I question why we're even friends." Grace nodded at that, making their subject whine in protest.

"Alright, Nate," Ember spoke as if she was talking to a five year old, bending down to look him in the eyes, "you control four elements and I've seen you do all of them. And each element has a corresponding color, right?" Nathan nodded. "Can you lay all of them on the air in front of you?"

"You don't have to be mean." He pouted. "Fire was the first element I detected." He tried to defend himself.

"Just do it, Nathan." Grace rolled her eyes.

"Fine." He grumbled, doing as he was told. A corresponding color for each element was in his hands.

Red for fire, blue for water, white for wind and brown for earth.

"See? You have to choose brown for earth. I thought you already had this down?"

"I do! It's just fire was the first thing I managed to grab onto. This is just different, alright. Let me try again." Grace and Ember nodded at him, standing at a safe distance.

This time, Nathan was finally surrounded by a brown glow.

"Can you guys try walking in different directions?" His eyes still closed in concentration.

Thud, thud, thud.

"Ember is in my eight o'clock and Grace at six?" He opened his eyes to check for himself. He turned his head and saw Ember and Grace in the exact position that he felt them in.

"Holy shit." He exclaimed.

"He finally got it right!" Ember celebrated, relieved.

"So how long have you guys been at this?"

"Since you left us four hours ago." Nathan awkwardly smiled. "Well, on the bright side, I got healed enough to stop the continuous bleeding by using my power so there's some good from the four hours.

Nathan was scratching the back of his neck, still wearing that awkward smile on his face as he walked towards the girls.

"the only thing left for you to do is identify the others' footprints and you're good. Now c'mon you two, I'm famished." Ember and Nathan nodded, following Grace with smiles on their faces.