《Waterbrand (completed)》


 Prologue and Chapter 1

    Prologue


    A flash of light and a roar. Blinking slowly, my eyes finally made out the rafters above me. When did that mule kick me in the chest? What was I doing again? Oh yeah, that was a firebrand blasting me with lightning, not a mule. Fitting, that this whole thing began and will end because of Sarah.


    Chapter One


    Today was the perfect day. A beautiful sunny afternoon, not a cloud in the sky. The leaves were just starting to turn, and Sarah agreed to a peaceful stroll through the park. I couldn''t think of a better place to pop the question than the hill where we first met.


    "Sarah," I asked as I gazed at the sunset in her eyes, "will you marry me?" Hands shaking, I opened the box I had hidden in my pocket as I watched the emotions play across her face. With a tear in her eye, and a gentle smile she replied, "Of course I will Larry." We shared a slow kiss, and lost track of time just holding each other as the sun sank.


    As we followed the trail from our secluded hideaway back to the car, a massive wave of disorientation struck. Unable to keep standing, we tumbled halfway down the hill and slid through several prickly bushes.


    "What the Hell was that?" I groggily asked as I looked over to Sarah. Something seemed off, but I couldn''t think to see what it was through the splitting headache I had developed. Must have hit something on the way down, hopefully I didn''t get a concussion. Blinking away my confusion, I went and checked Sarah out.


    "I''m ok hun, just a twisted ankle," she grimaced as she ran her hands along my cheek. "Are you ok? You look a little pale."


    "I''ll be alright, nothing really hurt. I just don''t, something just doesn''t seem right. I''ve never had a dizzy episode like that, and the trees seem off for some reason. Are you sure you''re ok?"


    Glancing around, her grimace turned into a frown. "There''s definitely something wrong, where did the trail go?" Following her eyes, I realized she had hit the nail on the head. Where did the trail we were on go? We couldn''t have gotten that far off of it. Pulling myself upright, I helped Sarah back to her feet. I took particular pleasure in brushing the detritus off her butt. What can I say, she''s gorgeous.


    Sarah smacked my hand away, but not before I caught the grin on her face. Yeah, she knew what I was doing. I''m fairly certain she loved the fact that I was touchy feely when we were alone, but playtime was over. Time to get serious and find out just how far down the rabbit hole we had fallen. Slipping and sliding through the leaves to the bottom of the hill, I looked around to try and get my bearings. Sadly, I was never a boy scout, so this was an exercise in futility. Especially with the shadowed forest playing with my perceptions. I finally managed to dig out my cell phone, but was rather startled when I had no service. At all. While Tennessee might play havoc with cell service, I had been in this park many times and had never had absolutely no service. A flash of light out of the corner of my eye told me Sarah had the same idea I did, so I walked over to look at her phone over her shoulder. We had different providers, so hopefully she would have at least one bar. I barely managed to catch a glance of her phone before it was shaking too badly to make out anything. The next thing I knew she had her head buried in my chest, and I automatically enfolded her in my arms.


    "Please tell me you have service, even if it''s a lie."


    "Don''t worry baby, even if we have to rough it for a night, we will be just fine." I slowly started massaging her back and shoulders, and just waited quietly for her shaking to stop. As terrified as I was, I knew just showing it would devastate her. Besides, there weren''t any dangerous animals in this park, we were far too close to the city for something like that. Murmuring quiet words, occasionally placing soft kisses on her scalp finally calmed Sarah down enough to take stock of where we were and what to do. She pulled back and wiped the tears from her cheeks.


    Staring into her blue eyes, I put as much conviction into my next words as possible. "We will be fine, but for now let''s put your phone away. No sense in running both batteries down using them as lights at the same time right? Just stay close to me and we can make it out of here just fine."


    "Oh, I don''t know about the just fine part, but that there girly might make the boss happy for a bit."


    Spinning in place, I immediately put Sarah to my back and bit back any tough words the primitive portion of my brain was insisting on speaking. Part of it was that I didn''t want to escalate anything, but the bigger part was the fact that my brain was quickly becoming aware of the rather large handgun pointed right at me from a few feet away. No way was anyone missing from that range, and no way was I willing to chance something hitting Sarah.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Smart move there fella. For a second I thought you was gonna be a hero, but you got to thinkin right quick. Maybe y''all will make it."


    "Please sir, we are just lost. There''s no need for the gun." God I loved level headed Sarah, keeping even the slightest tremor out of her voice while staring down a stranger with a gun. Unfortunately, I knew her words weren''t going to sway this guy, I saw the gleam of malice in his eyes. "What is your name, and can you help us please?"


    "Aw shucks, I ain''t no sir there sweet cheeks, but thanks for butterin'' me right up. Now, there''s no need for y''all to know my name, so that ya can''t go blabbin'' to the coppers. Why don''t you just turn around and start walkin'', but keep them hands on top of yer heads so''s I know nobody wants to try any hero stuff. That just ends up with dead heroes and cryin'' girls, ya know?"


    "Where are you taking us?" Even with the threats, Sarah managed to keep all the fear out of her voice.


    "Just keep the creek to yer left, and follow it upstream a ways. I don''t know how y''all got so close to this operation without settin'' off any of the traps, but y''all can answer my questions soon enough. Now put them lights away and keep quiet."


    Stumbling around in the dark is not one of my favorite things, and adding someone pointing a gun to my back was quickly getting old. Luckily after about fifty feet I could make out a faint glow coming through the brush ahead.


    "Go ahead and walk around the bush real slowly, and remember to keep it quiet."


    The clearing was like something ripped right out of the past. Sixty feet across, the entire area had been cleared of anything that could burn save the pile of firewood to my right. Across from us was a large copper vat above an open firepit, with piping coming out of the top and heading to a second pot, with even more pipe heading from the top of that to a barrel. A large, burly fellow who I really wouldn''t want to meet in a dark alley was just straightening up from placing a jug underneath a small bit of pipe sticking out from the bottom of the barrel. Could this really be a moonshine operation?


    "Now, why don''t you two just have a seat on that log, and we can get us some answers, yeah? First things first though, we gotta keep you tied up so you don''t run away." With that last bit, I felt hope slipping away. As the seven foot behemoth of a man came over to tie us up, I finally got a good look at the one holding a gun on us. This guy would look right at home at a used car lot. Thinly built, with greasy hair and cruel eyes that never strayed until we were securely tied up. When he was sure we couldn''t try anything, his eyes started darting around, but always managing to keep us in his field of vision. Since they refused to give us names, I decided that the guy with the gun was going to be Greasy and the other Tank. "Right, so here''s how this works. I ask and you answer, you might not get hurt. Lie and, well just don''t lie." He sauntered over, bent over as to whisper in my ear, and smashed his fist right into my solar plexus. Gasping for air, I doubled over to his chuckling. "See, that right there is just the beginning of what''ll happen if ya decide to lie. So, tell me, what are yer elements?"


    I could feel Sarah''s confusion, but apparently my coughing and trying to sit up was too slow. Grabbing the hair at the back of my head, he violently jerked my head upright and turned it so I could see the barrel of that gun jammed into the soft area of Sarah''s jaw, her eyes wide with terror. Calmly he asked again, "What. Are. Yer. Elements?"


    "I, I, I don''t know wa wha what you m m mmmean." I couldn''t keep the tremble from my voice.


    "What elements can you control? Everybody has one, so stop playing stupid."


    "Don''t hurt her, please, whatever you do!"


    "Listen kiddo, I''m an windbrand, and a damn good one. Which means I know all these little ways to inflict all sorts of pain upon you. My partner there is an earthbrand, which means he will be able to strengthen your bodies to survive even more pain. Over the years, we have pretty well perfected our craft, and this can be a very long and painful evening for you. Or you could make it easier and just answer the questions."


    Apparently my answer was too long in coming, as our captor backhanded me with his gun, slicing open my cheek. Sarah couldn''t hold in a little gasp at the violence, and unfortunately his attentions turned from me to her. Yanking back on her hair, he leaned in real close and stared at me. Licking his lips, he must have seen the concern in my eyes as he gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "Sweetie, don''t you worry. We won''t be hurting you, you will be a nice little bonus for the boss on this. How you answer depends on how much fun we get to have first, see?"


    I could almost see the switch flick in Sarah''s attitude. One of the things I always loved about her was her passion, but she also had a temper as fiery as her hair. While never truly directed at me, I had seen it turn cocksure idiots who wouldn''t take no for an answer into quivering puddles of meat looking for the nearest chance to beat a hasty retreat. What I had never seen before, however, was her glare literally set Greasy''s eyebrows on fire.


    "HOLY FUCK, SHE''S A FIREBRAND!" Greasy cried while flailing at the fire on his face. As Sarah turned her stunned face to look at me, I saw a shadow loom out of the corner of my eye. Before I could think what it was, Tank had smashed Sarah with a piece of firewood, knocking her to the ground. I cried out and tried to follow, but a quick kick to my stomach sent me sprawling. Flat on my back, the last thing I saw was a cord of firewood heading towards me, then blackness.

 Chapter two

    Chapter Two


    Judging from the headache I woke up to, I really hoped it was all a bad dream and this was the hangover from Hell. I tried to bring a hand up to rub my eyes, and they were still tied together. Guess that was wishful thinking and everything happened. Wait, that means that Sarah actually lit some guys eyebrows on fire? How did she do that? Trying to move as little as possible, I took a look around. Tank was stoking the fires underneath the pot, but the rest of the clearing was empty. Where was Greasy? Turning my head, I saw Sarah with a burlap sack over her head and her hands tied. The rhythmic rise and fall of her chest assured me she lived, but what condition could she be in after that blow from Tank?


    "Hey, looks like sleepin'' beauty woke up." Tilting my head, I finally saw Greasy sitting on the stump we had occupied until recently. He sauntered over and crouched down over my head, grabbing my chin. Forcing my head none to gently side to side, he got a slight frown on his face. "So, what is a waterbrand like you doing in the middle of the woods with a firebrand like her?"


    "What is a waterbrand and how do you know I''m one?"


    "Well, you took quite a whallop on your cheek there, more than enough to leave the bruise that is fading right in front of me. Do ya know anything else with advanced healing other than a waterbrand? So, what were you doing in this forest?"


    "Nothing, just taking a walk."


    "Tsk tsk, see now I know you''re lyin'' there. Ain''t nothing within an hour walk way out here. Now I gotta go and punish you." Taking my hand, Greasy spread my fingers out and looked me right in the eye. "Now, try to keep quiet or we will have to shut you up again. You don''t want that, too much knockin'' on the head does bad things to a person." Suddenly there was a line of burning pain between my index and middle finger! What the OW! A second one appeared between my middle and ring fingers. How was he inflicting these little cuts? It was the mother of all paper cuts on the webbing between my fingers, but he wasn''t touching them at all? Gritting my teeth, I watched as he narrowed his eyes on the area between my ring and pinky. Sure enough, another line of pain and I noticed I was bleeding. How could this guy be cutting me?


    "He he he, hurts don''t it? Aw, yer lookin'' mighty confused there. Never seen a windbrand use a cutter on anyone? It''s best for little nicks here and there, but get in the right spot and you can kill someone. Me, I prefer to nick the painful spots. After we do yer hands, we can try the feet, and back and forth. Just let yer own healing go and well, y''get the idea."


    Greasy took great pleasure in switching around the placement of the cuts on me, never letting me pass out from the pain, but never more than a few minutes respite before a new line of agony would erupt. I don''t know how long I suffered, but things got much worse for me when I heard Sarah. It started out as a little whimper, then she was thrashing about trying desperately to get the sack off her head. In my agony I had forgotten her claustrophobia. "Shhh, Sarah I''m right here, you''re okay baby." I crooned to her to try and calm her down. I didn''t want to think of the tortures Greasy could inflict on her while she was in this state of mind. About that time Tank came over, picked her up and placed her on the stump. Shaking her a little, he uttered his first words of the night, "Quiet. Deep slow breaths." Slowly lifting the sack enough for her to get clean air in, the unexpected kindness seemed to relax her back to rational thought.


    "Th..th..thanks. Do w w w we have t tt to blindfold me?" It had been years since Sarah had stuttered, and that these two would be the cause of her suffering changed something in me. Most people say they saw red and don''t remember what happened. I went the opposite way. These bastards wouldn''t survive the night. The clearing came into hyper focus, every detail catalogued and possible weapons noted. In my gut was an icy rage, and I noticed a slight tingle coming from the back of my head. Almost like a limb deprived of blood flow awakening, but not quite asleep enough to cause pain. The barrel was open on top, with water from the creek flowing into it and draining from a small hose in the bottom. What should have been fairly calm water was now roiling in tune with my rage, and a plan emerged. With the rage firmly in control, and all thoughts of preservation gone, a thin stream of water left the barrel and targeted the joint between the pipe and the main tank. Specifically, the joining compound that sealed up the system. Seeing a small piece fall to the ground, I released my hold on the water and waited. Would my sabotage go unnoticed? It had to, even if I had to suffer a little just to make sure it did.Stolen story; please report.


    Noticing a thoughtful look my way from Greasy, I decided a little taunting was in order. "So, is this your favorite place for a couples retreat? Nice little mountain stream to clean up in after the deed is done?" A burning line of pain across my chest was my reward, but it just added more to my rage. "Heh, guess that one struck a nerve. Seems like you can''t ever go deeper than a quarter inch. That sound about right Tank? Or can you even feel that?" My forehead erupted for that one. "You know, Tank there''s a pretty big guy. As tiny as you are, I''m surprised he doesn''t split you in half." Slashes started working their way around both of my ears, which is far more excruciating than it sounds. Thankfully Tank came over and grabbed Greasy by the shoulder breaking his concentration.


    "He''s obviously trying to distract you. Instead of falling for it, figure out what he doesn''t want you to know." Damn, Tank was brighter than he looked. Taking a moment to center himself, Greasy came over and got right in my face again.


    "So, guess there is a bit of hero in there after all. Your death might get a little faster if you tell us what you did. If not, well we could always do the blood eagle."


    "Blood eagle? Sorry, can''t say that I''ve heard of that one before."


    "It''s one of my favorites. See, we take and make two slits in your back, and pull your lungs out through them. A rather gruesome process, hence the blood part. The lungs are then stretched out to give you eagle wings. Of course, they can''t inflate properly so you end up suffocating. Of course, as a windbrand, I can inflate your lungs for you every so often. My record is fifteen minutes before I let the poor fella die."


    "Well, aren''t you a little sadistic? Don''t worry, I didn''t do anything. Promise." My head rocked back violently from the backhand Greasy threw. If only I didn''t have my hands tied behind me. Oh well, my distraction was working for the moment. Unfortunately, that''s where my luck ended. I looked a little too interested in the still that was unattended. Following my gaze, Greasy paled a little.


    "Hey, you made sure to reinforce the still, right?"


    "Of course I did. I always do, and I checked it five minutes ago. Why?"


    "This guy keeps lookin'' that way like he knows something."


    As Tank started walking over to the still, I saw what I had been hoping for. A slight bluish tinge to the flame. Suddenly, a trail of fire blazed up the support strut of the tank and headed straight for the hole I had made in the pipe junction. "SARAH, HIT THE DECK!" I screamed while throwing my body down, knowing what would happen next. I couldn''t tell if she heard me or not, as my world immediately became a white roar.


    I came to and looked at the devastation of my gambit. The still was a smoking crater. Wow, these guys must have been pretty good at brewing. Greasy was a few feet behind me. I could have thanked him for partially blocking the explosion, but he wouldn''t have cared since his head was making a rather unnatural angle. I didn''t see Tank, but that was the least of my worries. Slipping my bound wrists under my feet, I crawled over to where Sarah was next to the stump. As I got closer, my life shattered. Sticking out of her chest was a small length of pipe. I panicked. All my medical training went right out the window. I ripped the sack from her face. God, she''s so pale. There''s tears running down, but always a small smile when she sees me.


    "It hurts Larry."


    "I know baby. I''m so sorry, I don''t know what to do. I can''t move it, I don''t know what to do."


    "Kiss me."


    My insides churning, I can''t stop the tears, but I kiss my Sarah. Tenderly, we rest with our foreheads together. Every sob from her is agonized, tearing me apart. I whisper, "I''m sorry my love, please don''t leave me."


    "Sarah? Sarah? SAAAARAAAAAAAAAH!" As she slipped away, the rage in my gut shatters and I break down. I sobbed, soul wracking sobs until exhaustion took me and all I knew was black.

 Chapter three

    Chapter Three


    I''m floating. Nothing seems real. Where am I? What was I doing? Something important I''m sure. Wait, where is everything? All is darkness. I can''t be sleeping, can I? This disconnection, feels almost like coming down from anesthesia. I need to wake up, so focus. Concentrate on one thing, then make it happen. Say a word.


    "Hhhhuuuuurrrnnnnnn."


    Well, I heard that and thinking is getting a little easier. It seems like something is fighting me, actively fighting me. This isn''t sleep paralysis, I''ve felt that before and it doesn''t fight back. Ok, time for something new. Look around, what doesn''t make sense? Hmmm, that void looks slightly darker than the rest, and what are those tentacles coming off? Pushing me down. That has to be what is forcing me to sleep, but how do I fight against it? Well, if this is my mind, it has to behave by my rules, and here I am king. Visualize, focus my energy in my hand. Concentrate it, but hide it behind my back. Someone''s going to have a very nasty surprise in a bit. Putting my head down, right hand behind my back, I dig into the darkness at my feet. I lean forward, shoving with my shoulders. The closer I am to the darkness, the better my surprise will be. I struggle, every step painful. Suddenly, instead of tentacles it changes to a flood of darkness, firing from a hose. I slip a little bit, but there''s an easy counter to this. A shield of darkness coalesces in my left hand, deflecting the stream. Sitting still, I wait for the right moment. There! My right hand is tingling, any more energy in it and I might hurt myself. Rising to a sprinters position, I anchor the shield to the darkness in front of me. I rush to the right of the shield and sprint all out at the darkness, you''re mine! Too late it realizes my deception and tries to alter the direction of its hose, but I''m far too close for that. Bellowing a battle cry, I shove my right palm forward and release everything in one burst.


    "HIIIIYAAAAA!"


    With a flash of light, the darkness is obliterated and I blink my eyes against the pain.


    "Jane? Jane! What happened, your nose is bleeding? Are you ok?


    Slowly the world comes into focus, and it has to be some sadistic room meant to break people. I''m sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair, with one leg shorter than the rest. The walls to my right and left are a neon green that somehow seem to give off more light than the bare bulb dangling above the table in front of me. Across the table is a woman, Jane must be her name because she has a nosebleed. Face pale, raven hair, her hands shake as she gazes straight ahead, eyes glazed. If I didn''t know any better, I would say she is in shock. There''s a middle aged guy to her left, it seems like life has gotten the better of him. Crew cut sandy blond hair, he is starting to go a little soft around the middle. Behind them is the reason this room must be to break people. A mirror on the wall reveals both the wall behind me and the one across from me is a shade of bright orange that clashes horribly with the green. A door is across from me, but the manacles holding my arms to the chair ensure that I''m not going through there anytime soon. My inspections of the surroundings are interrupted by Jane apparently coming around.


    "Ow, ow that hurts. I''ve never seen someone overpower me that forcefully before. Relax Trevor, I''m fine. Just hand me a kleenex for my nose."


    Trevor visibly relaxed at this, and proceeded to turn his attention to me. "Jane, you''re the strongest waterbrand on the force. If he overpowered you, are we in danger? I know everyone says waterbrands can''t hurt someone, but in all my time on the force I''ve never met someone incapable of violence."


    Shaking her head, Jane replied, "He just caught me off guard, but if you want why don''t you call in Dr. Minton. He trained me, and is the strongest waterbrand I know, possibly in the state. It should only take him a half hour or so to get here. This guy will be just fine cooling his heels until the doctor can get here."


    "Sounds like a plan. I''ll call in the doctor, why don''t you head down to the infirmary."


    "Trust me, I''m fine."


    "You were overpowered and are now bleeding from your nose. For my sake, head to the infirmary." Bickering as they headed out the door, I was left to my own devices. Well, apparently I had a half hour to get everything sorted out. Shifting to try and get balanced and relaxed in the chair, I had somehow gotten to the front portion of the seat. Strange, I hadn''t been moving enough to slide forward. Planting my feet, I leaned back for a second then relaxed my legs as fast as possible. Sure enough, the chair clicked back down. So both front legs were shorter than the back legs, and neither one matched the other. I would be perpetually sliding forward and to the right. For at least a half hour, then longer while being interrogated. Lovely, this was straight out of some bad cop show.


    At least I still had my clothes on, and was out of the clutches of Tank and Greasy. Then I couldn''t help but remember poor Sarah with the pipe sticking out of her chest. Tears running down my face, I sniffled a little and pushed the memories away. Can''t have that distracting me until I figure out where I am and how to get out. This room and chair, coupled with the mirror and how Trevor talked couldn''t be anything but a police station. Who else tells someone to head to the infirmary? Ok, so I''m in a police station in a weird world that has moonshiners. I''m assuming they can make one way mirrors from the reflective mirror across from me. Apparently I can control water with my mind, weird but evidence is rather conclusive that it is entirely possible. Judging from Jane''s reactions, it is a common ability, but people only use it for good. Yeah, right. Call me a pessimist, but Trevor is right. Everyone has the ability to hurt others. Except maybe the Dalia Llama, but I''m definitely not him. Hey, maybe I can use this to fix this damn chair? Sliding back up, I try and hold my position while concentrating. Closing my eyes, I take a few deep breaths, imagining I''m breathing in calm and out frustrations. Ignoring the ache starting to form in my thighs, I start to feel that tingle in the back of my head again. This time I''m just searching for water that I can use. It''s there, but spread out. Water vapor. It''s everywhere, and just frustratingly out of reach. I can send it swirling around the chair legs, but it isn''t doing much else. Wait, I don''t want to swirl it, I need to concentrate it. Even more, I need it to be solid.


    "WHATEVER YOU''RE DOING, KNOCK IT OFF!"


    The chair clicks down as I lose my concentration. Searching for the source of my interruption, how did I miss the intercom unit on the wall by the door? Well, I guess that confirms the one way mirror. Well, if they are listening, might as well try and get something out of it.


    Licking my lips, I ask, "Hey, any chance of me getting something to even out this chair? It doesn''t have the best of construction."


    Silence.


    "No? That''s fine. I can work with this I guess. How about a glass of water? I promise it is not for anything more nefarious than relieving me of a parched throat."


    More silence.


    "No sense of humor? Seriously though, I would absolutely love a cool glass of water. Or really anything to drink." Not really expecting anything, I got myself as comfortable as possible and settled in to wait.


    Not having a watch sucks. Especially when you are sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a room that is trying it''s hardest to be as offensive to the eyes as possible. At least at places like the doctor''s office, they have a magazine or two for you to stare at.


    Eventually, Trevor and another guy walk in. Dark brown hair and eyes, with a rather worn suit. I wonder which one is the good cop?


    Trevor spoke, "Well, in case you didn''t pick it up earlier, I am detective Trevor. This is my partner, detective Derring. We specialize in the Malias family. So, care to tell us how long you''ve been working for them?"


    "I have no idea who the Malias are, and I definitely don''t work for them." I replied.


    "Oh, come on now. You were picked up at one of their moonshine sites. Along with the bodies of two of their known associates, and one unknown female." Something in my face must have given me away. "You know her." Trevor said the last as a statement of fact rather than a question. I figured it wouldn''t hurt to admit it.


    "Her name was Sarah, and she was my fianc¨¦."


    "Ok, so how long have you and Sarah worked for the Malias?"


    "I don''t work for them. Am I under arrest?"


    "Not yet."


    "Great, then I would like to leave."


    "Sorry pal, we can''t release you just yet."


    I hated to admit it, but the entire time detective Derring was just leaning in a corner with a smug look on his face. I really wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk off his face, so I decided to be just a little less cooperative. "Ok, if I am not under arrest, but I still can''t leave, I would really like to talk to a lawyer."


    Glancing at his partner, I saw Derring''s smirk falter. Then a little malicious spark lit up behind his eyes. "Well, we would just be more than happy to get your lawyer," he said while sauntering forward, "Just tell us who to get."


    "I don''t know any lawyers, I need you guys to contact one for me."


    "Ah, well we can''t be doing that. So, just as soon as you tell us your lawyer''s name, we will be more than happy to get them for you."


    "Listen, its Derring, right?" Seeing him nodding his head, I continued, "I can see you''re a right bastard. Congratulations. Now, can we drop the snarkiness and get me a lawyer? This goes completely against my Miranda rights." I saw the confused looks between partners, and my hopes dropped.


    Trevor looked back at me and asked, "Who is Miranda and what rights does she guarantee you?"


    "Isn''t this cops 101? Miranda v. Arizona? Landmark case about people''s rights? Stop me when it gets familiar." Seeing blank looks on their faces, I continued, "You know, the right to remain silent, right to an attorney..."


    Derring broke out laughing. "Ha! Never had a suspect make up rights and an entire court case before, how ''bout you Trevor? Ha ha ha ha."


    Frowning at his partner, Trevor nonetheless replied, "No, I''ve never heard it before either. Sure, I''ve heard some whoppers with my time on the force, but look at him. I''ve never seen a suspect look that crestfallen and fade off in the middle of a lie before. Especially when he started out so confident. We didn''t even try to break his story, absurd as it is."Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Crap, if there was no Miranda case in this world, I had a bad feeling my chance at getting out of here just hit rock bottom. What could I do to convince them that I was innocent? Hanging my head in despair, I didn''t notice the third person silently entering the room.


    "Taking an awful chance in here with him without me, weren''t you detectives?"


    Looking up, I caught sight of the speaker. Short, around 5 and a half feet tall, I still don''t know how he managed to look young with silver hair. Slacks and a button down shirt and glasses, I could see four different pens poking up from his chest pocket. This must be doctor what''s his name, Morton or something.


    Trevor, looking relieved, replied, "Hey doc, we figured a little bit of questioning before you got in here wouldn''t be too bad. He seemed rather calm, and stopped immediately when we figured he was trying something. Besides, Derring here was ready to knock him for a loop the entire time."


    "Knock him for a loop?" the doctor inquired, looking at Derring with an eyebrow raised.


    "Yeah. Ever hear of an air hammer? I''m the departments resident expert on it. Instead of a blade like most windbrands use, I take a block of air and compress it as high as I can, then fire it off at the target. Instead of a small slice like a cutter, it hits like a sledgehammer. Leaves a few bruises, might crack a bone or two if I hit it just right, but it''s the best for breaking someone''s concentration."


    "Interesting. What''s your best range on it? The best cutters I''ve seen can go for 15 to 20 feet." The doctor truly looked interested in it. Come to think of it, I was too considering it had apparently been aimed at me.


    "Haven''t rightly tested it to be honest. I suppose it would depend on what I was trying to do with it."


    "Well, let''s put that aside for now, we do have a story to figure out. So, Trevor, you called me in. Want to catch me up to where we are at?"


    "Sure. Our guy here was found passed out in the lap of an unknown dead female at a moonshine camp probably run by the Malias family. Judging from the scene, someone didn''t seal up the tank too well and there was an explosion. Two others, well known for working with the Malias, were found dead there as well. We got there and managed to keep him sedated until we got him hooked up in the chair, then he started to come out of it. Jane tried to keep him down and apparently he fought back hard enough to give her a nosebleed. She suggested we call you in and here we are."


    "Succinct as always detective." the doctor replied, a thoughtful look on his face as he studied me. "Jane is ok?" At the detectives nod, he relaxed a bit. "Ok, sounds like he is pretty powerful, and I think it best if we determine just how powerful before we go into anything else. Derring, would you bring in a bowl full of water? It isn''t that big of a risk, especially since I''m going to have Trevor stay outside to observe. If he tries to make a break for it, you can handle him. That is, if he manages to subdue both me and Derring here while chained to a chair."


    A few minutes later and we were apparently ready to begin. The doctor and Derring were sitting at opposite corners of the table, I guess so that I couldn''t target them both at the same time. Right in front of me was a bowl of water, about 3 inches high and as wide as a dinner plate. I looked at the bowl, then up at the doctor and raised an eyebrow at him. "So, what would you like me to do?"


    "Anything you want, short of harming us. Show us just how strong you are, how much control you have." The doctor replied with a soft smile on his face.


    Getting as comfortable as I could in a slippery chair while suffering a major case of glass ass, I wondered what the trained monkey could do to impress his masters. Smirking, I turned to look at Derring and said, "Since my hands have been tied, I couldn''t do this before. Maybe I''ll be able to show you just how much I really don''t care for you." Turning back to the bowl, I concentrated on that tingle in the back of my head and tried to visualize exactly what it was I wanted. Slowly, small ripples started in the bowl, and a bulge came up right in the middle. Elongating it so I had a small ball on top of a pillar of water, I started "sculpting" as best as I could. Three vertical indentations formed along the top, with slight bulges in the sphere taking shape at the base of the four cylinders taking shape. On my side, a fifth cylinder, smaller but thicker than the others appeared, running parallel to the tabletop. Adding in knuckles and my facsimile of a fist was as good as it was going to get, and I slowly extended the middle finger and turned the entire fist to display it to Derring.


    "Cute" Derring replied at the same time the doctor whispered, "Amazing."


    "There anything else you want me to try? I can''t really jump through any flaming hoops, it might damage this lovely chair you guys are so proud of."


    Composing himself, the doctor looked at me as if he could dissect me right then and there in order to figure out all of my secrets. "Can you phase change it?"


    "Do you want gas or solid? I''m not sure I can do it, but I guess I can give it a try."


    "Whichever you want to attempt. It might be easier to let your fist, as it were, return to a bowl of water."


    Turning the fist into a thumbs up at the professor, I let it slip into the bowl like the ending of Terminator 2. Now I had a choice. Freezing such a mass of water doesn''t seem like much, but there are a lot of things to consider. I would have to slow down the molecules, and "nudge" them to help form the crystal structure for ice. Since I was starting to get a headache, I decided to go the opposite and try and make it into a gas. Remembering some bits from chemistry, the first thing I did was concentrate on moving any gaseous water away from the surface and keeping it that way. Then I only concentrated on the top half inch of water, since I couldn''t instantly convert the entire bowl. Visualizing the molecules in my head, the red sphere connected to two white spheres, I started shaking them. Harder and harder, moving them around in circles, spinning around any axis available, until I felt that they had the right amount of energy. The tingle was getting downright painful, so I flung the molecules up as hard as I could and cried out in agony. Have you ever felt like someone put a thumbtack at the back of your right eye and is trying to force it through your eyeball? Yeah, that''s about what it felt like. When I could think straight, I looked up to see the bowl was missing about half of the water in it. Whoops, looks like I overdid it a bit there.


    Slack jawed and pale, Derring looked a little worse for the experiment while the doctor was ecstatic. "I guess this isn''t what usually happens doctor?" I inquired mildly.


    "No, this almost never happens as you should know. Son, this puts you into the top 3% of waterbrands. Even I can''t do a phase change. What did you say your name was again?"


    "Name''s Larry. Larry Davidson. Nice to meet you."


    "Oh I assure you Larry, the pleasure is all mine. This is rather unprecedented. Strong talent usually runs in families, but I can''t say Davidson is one of the major waterbrand families. You wouldn''t happen to belong to one of the major ones would you? What were your parents elements?"


    Looking at how earnest the doctor was, I decided to take a gamble. As inquisitive as he was, surely I could convince him of the truth. "Well, my parents didn''t have elements and I''m sure I am not descended from one of your major waterbrand families. You see, I''m from another world." At that, both men flinched and stared at me. "I know it''s hard to believe, but do you guys have anything that could be a lie detector? I will voluntarily submit to whatever test you need me to."


    Both men just blinked at me and didn''t really say anything. After about a minute, the doctor blinked rapidly and managed to collect himself enough to answer. "Not necessarily a lie detector, but a skilled waterbrand can monitor someone''s responses while they speak. The only danger is that physical contact is required. If you promise not to try and hurt me I will take the risk. Detective Trevor, would you like to try it as well? Multiple people monitoring helps determine more subtle mistruths." As he was speaking, the door opened to admit both detective Trevor and Jane, apparently recovered enough to sit in.


    Jane spoke first, "Even though Trevor here is against it, I think I''m recovered enough to join you doctor. Despite his misgiving, I am also the more sensitive of us." Staring me in the eye, she demanded, "You won''t be trying to force me out this time, and if you even try it I won''t be the only one going to the infirmary, capiche?"


    Taking her at her word, I merely nodded. No sense in antagonizing the woman, I was already in trouble with her for earlier. Probably better to extend the olive branch before the bridge burned completely. "I really am sorry for that, I had no idea what was going on. I just knew I needed to wake up, but something was forcing me down. Fighting back was the only option."


    "Figures, men always want to fight about things. Depending on how this goes, I might forgive and forget." Done with our showdown, apparently Derring was the next to earn her ire. "Do I really have to ask, or are you going to give up that chair so that I can sit down while we do this?" Blushing, he nevertheless vacated the chair and pulled it around for her as fast as he could.


    "Crack that whip." I mumbled, never one to miss a jab at Derring. Apparently both Jane and the doctor had phenomenal hearing, as one gave me a glare that could set people on fire while the other let out a rather undignified snort.


    "Careful son, you aren''t out of Jane''s crosshairs yet. There''s a good reason Derring there was practically jumping out of his skin to give up his chair." Sliding his chair around the doctor put one hand on my shoulder while Jane put hers on the opposite one. They both took a deep breath and the doctor took the lead. "Ok, so for the first minute or so just sit there and relax so we can get a good baseline for you. I will squeeze your shoulder when it is time to go, and you can just start talking. At the end of it all, we will talk."


    With my hands cuffed to the armrests, I couldn''t twiddle my thumbs, so I just sat there and tried my best to relax. As I felt the squeeze on my shoulder, I started. "My name is Larry Davidson, and I''m a medical student at Vanderbilt University. Next year I should be starting my residency at the hospital. Nobody in our world can control elements like this. My girlfriend Sarah and I were at Edwin Warner park earlier today or yesterday, I have no idea what time it is right now. Either way, I proposed and she said yes. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and watched the sun set. As we were heading back, we both got a massive wave of disorientation and stumbled down a hill. We weren''t hurt, but everything seemed.....off somehow. It was colder, and the trees had lost more leaves than they should have. As we were trying to get our bearings, some guy threatened us with a gun and took us hostage. He brought us to the moonshining camp, and we met his partner. They were threatening us, trying to figure out who we were when Sarah set one of their eyebrows on fire. She got knocked out and a bag over the head. I needed a distraction, so I somehow managed to use the water from the stream to weaken the pipe joint compound enough to make a hole. It exploded, killing the other two and Sarah as well. I cried over her until I passed out, and woke up here."


    Sliding back on the chair from Hell, I waited for their judgment. I felt both hands fall away from my shoulders, and I couldn''t help but feel despair for how I lost Sarah all over again. Bowing my head couldn''t hide my tears completely, but allowed me to ignore the sliding of the chairs across the floor.


    "By God, I think he''s telling the truth. Jane?"


    Sniffling, Jane replied, "Yeah. *sniff* Yeah, that seemed like the truth. Sorry, his depression over Sarah really hit hard."


    Trevor spoke up then, "Well, I''m not inclined to argue with you two verifying his story. The only thing now is, what do we do with him? He obviously wasn''t part of the moonshining, but doesn''t have any place to go and no money I''m assuming. Thoughts?"


    Doctor Minton was the first one to break the awkward silence, and his question was surprisingly directed at me. "You said you were getting ready to start on your residency. What is that?"


    "It comes after school, and is required to practice medicine where I come from. Basically, school gives you a broad range of experiences and knowledge. Residency narrows that down and gives you an in depth look at medicine, but still has a licensed physician looking over your shoulder for better training."


    "Would you be interested in continuing your education? We could enroll you in our medical program, and I would me more than happy to teach you how to use your power. The last year of school is focused on using your power anyway. If you want to help out in my general practice to earn some money, that could be arranged. Until then, I can pull strings at the university and see if we can get you a scholarship or something. Living room on campus is available too. What do you think Trevor? Larry? Is that a viable solution?"


    Shocked at the generosity of the offer, Trevor was the first one to respond. "Yeah, that would be a huge help. Obviously Larry here isn''t involved with the Malias family, and we really didn''t have any evidence to hold him on to be honest. Just remember, stay out of trouble and away from the Malias family. They are powerful and hold grudges for a long time. We kept your name out of the paperwork, so they shouldn''t link you to the incident. If they did, there''s a very good chance your lifespan would measure in weeks."


    "Sounds like these people are all sunshine and roses. Yeah, I''ll steer clear of them, no problems there. I think I''ll also be taking you up on that offer doc, and thanks for helping me out. If I can ever pay you back somehow just let me know."


    With a gentle smile, Doctor Minton replied, "Oh, if you would let me pick your brain on things I think we could call it even. How often do you get access to knowledge from another world?"

 Chapter four

    Chapter Four


    It has been eight brutal months of training. Dr. Minton seemed so nice, but that was before I had him for a task master. Starting before sunrise, he had me practicing water manipulation for two hours. Randomly alternating between large, brute force tasks and incredibly detailed models sculpted in anything from bowls to puddles on the street. His favorite motto? If you aren''t sweating by the end and having trouble focusing, then you haven''t worked hard enough. Heaven forbid he catch you slacking, or else you get to be subjected to his stamina course over the weekend. His first, and apparently easiest, stamina course starts out with a seemingly simple five gallon bucket. Step one, fill the bucket. From atmospheric water. Then form a pillar two feet higher than the rim of the bucket, and on top of that he wants a miniature couple dancing. Oh, nothing fancy, a simple waltz will do. Keep the pillar stable, can''t let your mind wander. If you do, he has a lovely willow switch he cut that morning on the way over to provide incentive on the back of your forearm. He also manages to inexplicably hit the exact same spot on your arm. Every. Damn. Time. It took me three tries to get this far.


    Just as soon as you have that managed, he rotates the bucket around so you can see a spigot on the back end. Who the hell puts a spigot on a damn bucket? Why? You can just dump it out. Unless you are a sadistic trainer hell bent on coming up with cruel punishments for your students. Keep the people dancing on their pedestal while making sure nothing flows out through the wide open spigot. Sick of trying to divide my attention three ways, I thought I would get creative and make a block of ice inside the spigot to stop the flow. The cruel smile from there heralded a whole new level of hell. Apparently my reward for showing initiative was more work. Now, Dr. Minton is a rather accomplished waterbrand himself. The next portion of my training involved fighting off his attempts to disrupt my training. Sometimes he would flatten the dancers. Pare away the pillar while trying to force water through the spigot faster. His favorite was to shoot a stream of water from the pillar right at my face. I vowed never to play poker with him either. He gave nothing away. No twitch, excess blinking, he could be looking anywhere. There was no pattern either.


    I will admit, as horrendous as these stamina practices were, they were also incredibly effective. Once I could fill the bucket in under a minute, we graduated to a pool. A 5,000 gallon swimming pool. As soon as I figured out that I could conjure anywhere above the pool and not just the area of a bucket, My time dropped drastically. Originally 16 hours of mind numbing repetition fell to under four. That''s when the informative lessons came in.


    "Larry, you have both incredible stamina, unparalleled willpower, and amazing fine detail control. That is the best combination of traits in a waterbrand. The only thing that can hold you back is your imagination on what is possible and what isn''t. To that end, I will not tell you anything isn''t possible for fear of crippling you. Trust in yourself and your strength, and know I look forward to all the advances you will make in our field."


    After morning practice, I had just under two hours to get cleaned up and prepared for classes at the university. Diagnosing was intriguing. Most cases were presented with a small list of symptoms, then the class took turns trying to pinpoint the problems. Every person there had something they were naturally competent at, but the instructors took pains to make sure nobody was complacent. Personally, I excelled at blood sensing. Probably a side effect of having spent countless hours studying the vascular system in my world, knowing where blood should be flowing and how much gave me a huge advantage. One of the class leaders, Ben, excelled at musculature while twins Glenda and Gloria (poor girls) were the best with organs. Even though it made me seem stand offish, I tried my best to keep everyone at arm''s length. I didn''t want to know these people, didn''t want to make any connections that could be used against me on my project later. It was best that way, for them and for me.


    Surprisingly, the leader with the nervous system was a quiet mouse of a woman named Carmen, who was one of the weakest strength wise. Finding myself early for class once, I sat down in the back next to her with every intention of picking her brain. "So Carmen, you are hands down the best with nerves and nerve manipulation. Any tips on what I could do to improve?"


    Startling at the sound of my voice, her head flashed up to stare at me for a second, then back down to intently study the grains of wood in her desk. "Um, hi Larry." she responded so quietly I had to strain to hear her. Calmly putting my hand on top of hers, she looked at me wide eyed and panicked.


    "Please, just calm down. Take a deep breath, hold it for two seconds, and let it out slowly. I know you''re painfully shy. I''m not going to pressure you, just relax and talk to me when you are ready. Until then, I will face forward." Removing my hand and turning away, I gave her a minute to collect herself. Listening to her rustling papers trying to calm down, I slouched down and closed my eyes, content to wait as long as it took.


    "Subtlety. How often will an elephant realize it just walked through a spiders web? With all the strength you guys at the top have, you act just like elephants stomping through to do something. Sometimes less is more. Especially with something like nerves. Or even something as simple as keeping a patient asleep. Tell me, when you try and sleep, do you turn the radio on as loud as possible?"


    Wow, I think that was the most I had ever heard her say at one time. I would have to find some way to thank her for that advice, doubly so if it ended up working. Turning my head just enough to see her from the corner of my eye, I gave her a smirk. "Well, that''s an incredibly useful bit of advice there. I guess this elephant is going to have to learn how to tip toe around. Thanks, and if there''s anything I can do to help you out, just let me know." Blushing, she just turned away. Yeah, something simple and anonymous for a thanks would be best.


    My conversation with Carmen got me thinking about what I could do to train myself. Doctor Minton had me practicing delicate work, but I never had to think about power regulation. Carmen''s comment about spider webs seemed like a great place to start. Not wanting to disturb any arachnids, and thinking this would be vastly different than my morning training, I decided on a path for my evening practice. In the bath tub, I started by creating a spider web out of ice. Or at least, that was the plan. No matter how I started, I ended up with shards in the bottom of the tub. I tried creating the web with water first then freezing it to no avail. Growing the web from the side of the tub worked a little better, until I got to the first fork. Then it all fell apart again. I spent the better part of a month getting frustrated and not really moving forward at all, wishing for an epiphany. It finally came when we had a guest lecturer. To my surprise, it was Jane from the police department. I tried paying attention to her lecture about how long it is safe to keep someone asleep, but in the end kept going back to our first meeting. Visualization worked then, perhaps it could help me again?Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    That night I got home and spent the first half hour simply meditating before trying anything. When I got as relaxed as possible, I imagined looking inside my head. There, I could see a glowing well of power. For the first experiment, I merely conjured a small stream of water into the tub. Immediately an arm diameter rope of luminescent blue shot out of the well and out to where I assumed the water was being conjured. Now, I needed to find an adjustable nozzle to determine just how much of my energy came flying out of the well. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I imagined a nozzle with an adjustable angle on the well and tried it. Sure enough, the rope thinned down into a cable as thick as a finger. Elated, I opened my eyes while trying to keep the mental imagery intact. Setting up a web of water, I tried freezing it only to watch it shatter time and again.


    Damnit, this should be working! What am I doing wrong? Going back into my head, I relaxed the nozzle and stuck my hand into the rope of energy. Weird, I could feel it "flowing" around my hand. Almost like a kitchen faucet that was mostly open. Okay, let''s try this with the cable sized flow. Tightening down the nozzle *OW SON OF A BISCUIT* yanking my hand out of the stream I stood there shaking it to get feeling back. That was going a lot faster than the rope was. Damn, no wonder my stuff was still shattering. I wasn''t dialing back on the amount of power at all, I was just constricting it. Ask anyone who works with pipes for a living, if you just go from a larger diameter to a smaller, you still get the same amount of water flowing it just increases the pressure. I needed a way to keep the flow the same, but take out less energy. Going from a smaller diameter pipe to a larger one seemed inefficient, plus there was no guarantee that the thicker rope I pulled on wouldn''t have the same flow as the smaller one.


    I could try and build something like a faucet, but something variable like that just wouldn''t help. Besides, I didn''t really know exactly how a faucet worked. Guess it''s time to wing it and hope for the best. Imagine a giant reservoir, with one main line heading in from my well of power, filling it up from the bottom. At the top of the reservoir is an exit for the power to flow to wherever I needed it to. Now I just needed some way to bleed out excess power without wasting it. Around the base of my reservoir, I created five different drainage pipes, all converging back into my well of power. Each one had a simple on/off valve. If I needed full power, I could theoretically leave all five closed. If I needed a lot less power, opening all of them should leave me with 1/6 of my normal power output without any power loss since all the excess was simply recycled into my source. Just in case, I put a T junction in all the pipes leading back to the source with an end valve like a fire hydrant. You never know when you will need multiple lines of power, and having the time to fine tune problems before you need it could be the difference between life and death.


    Opening the valve into the reservoir, I watched it fill before I took a stream out and started conjuring water. Still rope like, it behaved exactly as it should have. Ok, time for the first split valve. The split stream moved back into the source exactly as expected. Unfortunately the conjuring stream cut off entirely. What the hell? Looking at the drainage feed, I realized my mistake. I had made all the drains the same as the output. Back to the drawing board. Rather than trying to fix the bugs with the reservoir system, I went back to basics. Ok, start with a pipe coming out of the source. Take that pipe, and add on a six way split. One split continued on in the original direction and had the same diameter as the original pipe, and we can end it with a shutoff valve. The five remaining pipes were all smaller than the original. This time I wanted to do some math beforehand. Remembering back to all those lovely physics lectures, energy has to be conserved. So if I split my flow, the sum of the resulting flows will be equal to the original. Also, the flow is determined by the cross sectional area, so if I cut the radius of the pipe by two, the flow is cut by four. My main power line was roughly four inches in diameter. Since the area is ¦Ð times the radius squared, I decided to make my life a little easier and drop the ¦Ð from all calculations. So my radius was two, square it to get an area of four. Of the smaller branches, I made three of them two inch diameter and two of them one inch diameters. Each of the areas for the larger splits would be one, while each of the smaller splits would be 1/4. So even if I had all the valves open, 3 1/2 would be diverted back to the source while still leaving me 1/2 to work with, or 1/8 of my maximum energy output. The variable pipe split sizes gave me plenty of room to experiment with different amounts of power. Since I still wanted to try multiple streams of power, on all the pipes heading back to the source I put another split in with a simple diverter. Both splits were the same size as the original pipe, and the diverter determined which pipe the stream entered. One went back to the source, the other came out for my use. Think of a split with train tracks. The train can only go one way or the other, depending on which way the switch is set up.


    Now that I had that set up, time for testing. Closing all the splits, I had the normal flow of energy before setting any of this stuff up. Opening one of the larger split pipes, I was thrilled when my output dropped from full to 3/4 energy, and I got a corresponding drop in conjured water. I tried it with all the pipes open, and it still worked perfectly! Success! The conjured stream had dropped to a steady dribble, and all my energy was flowing back to my source without any waste! Ok, let''s see if I can manage multiple streams at once. Triggering one of the switches on the larger pipes, I easily directed it to conjure a second stream right next to the original. Beautiful! Suddenly thankful for all those lessons in managing multiple tasks at once with Dr. Minton''s stamina training, I was ecstatic. Keeping up both flows, I used one to conjure and hold a spider web of water while the other froze it in place. While this time I actually got everything to freeze, there were still several areas that I could see visible cracks in the final product. Well, this just won''t do unless I have perfection, or as close to it as I can get before the massive headache I feel coming on lays me out flat. Perhaps I was still using too much power? I switched things around so that the major stream was still conjuring and holding a spider web of water in place, but I was using the smallest pipe I had to freeze it in place. Fighting off my impending pain, I finally managed to achieve it. There, hanging from the edges of my bathtub, was a spider web of pristine ice. I barely managed to get my mental pipe imagery firmly seated before my nose started gushing blood. Grabbing a nearby towel, I decided to call it quits. I''m truly glad I didn''t know how soon this new skill would be incredibly important.

 Chapter five

    Chapter Five


    Three days later, it was my turn to try and hold the patient asleep while others checked over the body. Starting out with everything open, I tried using the main line of power to put him out. Good thing I was there to catch his head, as apparently even that was too much. Quickly shutting off the flow, I looked up sheepishly and said, "Sorry about that. Guess I still have to work on my tip toeing."


    Still acting as our guest lecturer, Jane looked at me strangely and asked, "Excuse me? Tip toeing?"


    "Sorry, got some tips on improving my technique earlier. Nothing to worry about." I knew it would get to her, but I slipped a quick wink in Carmen''s direction and was rewarded with a deep blush. Concentrating again, I turned the main flow back into the source and opened the split from one of the smallest pipe. Using this, I tried to project relaxation and have it flow in waves down the patient, rather than straight into his brain. This time, rather than abrupt unconsciousness, the patient''s eyes started slowly drooping, and I was able to slowly lower him down. Smiling at my success, I looked up to see rather shocked faces from everyone save Carmen, who merely looked thoughtful before noticing my gaze and dropping her eyes.


    Jane spoke up, "Very well done that time Larry. Perhaps after this we can have a group discussion on how you learned to tip toe around. Until then, Ben would you care to take the lead on this? Everyone else follow along as best as you can. Some basic background, patient is male, 34 years old, and is complaining of trouble seeing and headaches."


    Standing close, Ben closed his eyes to concentrate. Since everyone else was doing it as well, I decided to use the main line from my power to do a gentle sweep and see what I could find as well. Something just didn''t feel right about this guy.


    "I can''t really find anything wrong with him. No bleeding anywhere and no flow obstructions as far as I can tell. That pretty well rules out stroke, which is the usual suspect in symptoms like this. Anyone else getting anything?"


    "Don''t worry Ben, several physicians have already checked for stroke as well. We wouldn''t be sending someone with an emergency like that to you guys until you had at lot more practice doing this as well."


    Exhaling with relief, Ben visibly slumped a little as he looked at everyone else to see if they had any ideas. I sent my thoughts flowing through the blood vessels in the patient''s head, not quite convinced we hadn''t missed anything. Suddenly I felt a massive drop in flow before I was past it. Whoa, what could have caused that? Backing up, my stomach plummeted. This guy was a ticking time bomb. Swelling like a balloon, one of his arteries was primed to rupture within a month or so, provided he didn''t have a stressful day. "Jane, guys, someone want to confirm this and get Dr. Minton in here ASAP? There''s a massive aneurism in his occipital lobe that will kill him very soon if we don''t do anything."


    Pale now, Jane looked at me and asked, "Larry, how did you find that out if you are holding him asleep at the same time?"


    Before I could answer, Gloria spoke up "Oh my God he''s right. What can we do to fix an aneurism though? That''s a death sentence."


    "Look, I can do multiple things at once with my power but that isn''t important right now. Someone go get Dr. Minton right now. I have an idea, and if we can get a skilled earthbrand, we might be able to save this guy. Hurry!"


    Fifteen minutes later, Ben, Doctor Minton, and a petite blond came in huffing and puffing.


    "Introductions later, let''s try and save a life first. Doctor Minton, do you know any techniques for sealing up an aneurism?"


    "No, sorry. It''s hopeless. There''s too much that can go wrong, and too many things in the way that we can''t get through."


    "Ok, I have an idea but it will take an obscene amount of concentration. First, can your earthbrand there conjure a platinum wire thin enough to slip inside of an artery?"


    Looking confused, the blonde nonetheless gave me a slight nod and started concentrating. Her first few tries were either too thick or too rigid. The third try she got something that I thought I could work with.


    "Good enough for an emergency. Right now I need to run a test on something. Hold it out in front of me." When she did, I conjured some ice around the middle of the wire and applied as much pressure as I could. Unfortunately, no matter how much I strained I couldn''t cut the wire. Wait, if I can sense strains on the water I conjured, could she do the same with her metal? "Quick, I need you to close your eyes. When I use ice to put pressure on that wire, can you sense the location and sever it?"


    Confused at my obviously absurd request, she still needed to clarify, "If the oldest end of the wire I conjure is considered "up," do you want me to sever it above the ice, in the middle of it, or below it?"


    "Try for in the middle of it, that way I can slowly release any tension that might have built up."


    "OK, I think I have it, release the ice." As soon as I released the ice, half of it fell to the floor.


    "Perfect, but let''s check something. As you sever it, can you make both of the ends round? We will have this wire in someone''s brain, and I don''t want to save him from the aneurism only to have the wire slash open an artery and bleed him out when we withdraw it." At her nod, I figured we should begin. "Carmen, I need you to hold him asleep while I do this. I''m going to need all my concentration. Dr. Minton, I need you to guide the first bit of the wire into the patient¡¯s femoral artery. As soon as it is in, I will make a small ice cap on the end of the wire and guide it up into the aneurism. Ma''am, your job is to keep conjuring wire. Once we are into the aneurism sac, I will line the inside with a very thin sheet of ice to reinforce the vessel wall. We need to keep coiling the wire until the sac is full, at which point I will put pressure onto the last bit and you can sever the wire. Holding an ice cap on the end of the wire again, we will need to draw it back out, making sure we don''t slice any tissue. Any questions on the procedure?"


    Grim determination was etched into my partner''s faces, so without any further question we went ahead with a crazy plan. Sure, this would work fairly well in my world, but here they only had the most basic of surgeries available. No time to start worrying however, as this guy didn''t have much time. Dr. Minton managed to get the wire into position while I was psyching myself up. Not wasting any time, I formed my ice cap and started pulling wire in, moving at a clip of around one inch every ten seconds. Keeping my eyes shut to keep out distractions, I asked our new earthbrand, "Is this a good rate? I can go slower, but would prefer if you were able to keep at least two feet of excess wire formed and ready."


    "This works for me, I already have your safety margin and then some and will keep a conjuring at the same rate you are moving."


    "Excellent. Ok, I''m almost to his neck. At this point I''m going to slow down, and I want you to keep between two and two and a half feet of excess conjured. Just use stop and go conjuring as needed."


    "Roger that."Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Slowing down, I tried to pick a route that would keep me in fairly large arteries (for the brain) while still providing the most direct route to the problem. Three grueling minutes and I was there. Figuring it was best to keep everyone informed, "Ok, I''m at the aneurism. Slipping the tip of the wire inside. Lining the inside of the aneurism with ice. Damn, I don''t have enough control over the wire to start looping. Can you conjure metal on the end very slowly, and turn as you hit my ice walls?"


    "Not really, I don''t know of anyone who has that kind of control. Would it be possible to slowly expand the tip of the wire instead, filling the sac with a solid ball of metal rather than a coil?"


    Thinking fast, I knew we needed something to seal up the entrance to the sac. "That could work, but we would still need something to seal the entrance. Yes, let''s do that and afterwards, I''ll use the wire to create a coil to catch enough platelet cells to form a seal over the entrance. Ok, I have you positioned in the middle of the sac right now, but it isn''t perfectly spherical. The wire direction is the shortest, while the other two axis are roughly the same length. Here''s an idea, can you grow two perpendicular axis to the direction of the wire? If so, I will put an ice cap on each end and we can slowly expand them until they reach the sides. That will give you the outer limits of your conjured metal ball."


    Painstakingly slowly, we found the edges and filled it in with solid metal. With the hardest part done, creating a small coil to seal it and dragging the excess wire out was relatively painless. As the last bit came back out and someone put a dressing on the small wound, I stumbled into a chair and collapsed in exhaustion. "Someone want to double check our work before we let him wake up? I''m spent."


    I didn''t bother keeping track of who was doing what at that point. I just flopped forward with every intention of memorizing the details of the back of my eyelids. Unfortunately, I could feel someone staring at me. Well, they could stare to their heart''s content, I wasn''t planning on explaining anything until everyone was done with the patient.


    "Ok Carmen, whatever Larry managed to do seems to be holding. Why don''t we wake up our patient and see if his symptoms have been eliminated." Leave it to Dr. Minton to take charge, natural born leader that guy.


    Yawning, I heard our former patient starting to stir. "Hhhhyyyyaaaaahhhh. Oh, some new people. Is everything ok? How long was I out?"


    "Mr. Daniels, sorry to drop in like this but it was rather exceptional circumstances. I will try and explain everything, but first we need to check to make sure everything has been resolved. I''m Dr. Minton, and from your chart it seems you were having vision troubles and headaches, is that correct?"


    "Yeah, everything just seemed a little blurry, like I was looking through a bit of glass with vaseline on one side. No matter what I tried, I couldn''t bring anything into focus. I would also get migraines that would strike randomly throughout the day. I must say though, aside from a little grogginess whatever you did seems to have cleared up the vision quite nicely. Is there any hope that it fixed the migraines too?"


    "Yes, well that is our hope at least. One question before we start with explanations, did you notice anything about the headaches that could trigger them? An emotion, argument, things like that?"


    "Hmmm, now that you think about it they did tend to occur when I would be stressed. Either work or rush hour traffic were the most common causes."


    "I see. Well, that does shed some light on things. I feel fairly confident in saying that we most likely have found the cause of these headaches, but if they recur I want you to head to the hospital immediately. One of our students here actually made the diagnosis that probably saved your life, and I think it would be an excellent learning experience for him to explain everything to you, are you ok with that?" At his nod he turned and said, "Ok Mr. Davidson, he''s all yours."


    Thinking the most vile curses imaginable, I nonetheless gave up on my eyelid inspection and walked back over to Mr. Daniels'' table. Extending my hand to shake, "Pleasure to see you feeling better Mr. Daniels. I will try and explain everything in layman''s terms, but if you don''t understand something feel free to interrupt for clarification at any time." Seeing him nod in agreement I continued, "Well, what you had was what we call an aneurism. Basically that means a blood vessel in your brain had a small pouch bud off on one side, then expanded until it was pressing on the part of your brain that interprets what your eyes see. This is a life threatening condition, so we had to undertake some drastic measures, which is why Dr. Minton was called in before we tried anything. He was supervising everything, so please don''t feel that the university lets students experiment on patients."


    "Ok, I can see how Dr. Minton was called in, but you said it was life threatening. I don''t see how a small pouch of blood can be life threatening."


    "Well, think of it this way. That small pouch of blood has a wall holding it in. As blood fills the pouch, it expands, stretching the walls holding it in. Just like an overinflated balloon, if the pouch gets filled too much it will break open and you will essentially bleed into your brain until you die. When you would get stressed throughout the day, your blood pressure would increase. This would expand that pouch enough to cause your headaches. What we did was insert an incredibly thin wire into an artery in your leg, and threaded it up into your brain. Once there we used the wire to fill up the pouch and force the blood out of it. We also left a coil of wire in the entrance to the pouch so that your body can form a blockage to prevent more blood from entering. Eventually this will heal over and you won''t have to worry about it."


    As I explained the cause of his illness, you could see it sinking in just how close to death he had come. Face pale and hands shaking, Mr. Daniels let his head droop. Poor guy, to be confronted with your own mortality like that had to be hard. Placing my hand on his shoulder, he looked me in the eye as I said, ¡°Listen, the important part is that we caught it in time. This treatment will work, and we will closely monitor you for the next week. After that we can slowly back off the monitoring.¡±


    Dr. Minton, seeing that I was pretty well tapped out in the support department, decided to step in. ¡°Mr. Daniels, I agree with my colleague. Close monitoring that tapers off will be our treatment plan, and I don¡¯t foresee any difficulties. Come, let¡¯s get you back to your family. I think, given the events of today, I will also be ordering a mandatory two-week vacation. Stay at home, rest as much as you can, and spend time with your loved ones.¡±


    As they walked out the door, the rest of the class turned to look at me. Sticking out her hand to shake, the blonde beat everyone to the punch. ¡°Well, that is definitely in the top ten for most intense introductions I¡¯ve ever had. My name¡¯s Leah, and I hope most of your life isn¡¯t nearly as stressful as what we just went through.¡±


    ¡°Larry, and no thankfully it isn¡¯t nearly that bad. I can¡¯t express how glad I am that you came though, this would never have worked without you. If you ever need anything, just ask.¡±


    ¡°Well, I for one hate having to keep track of debts, so let¡¯s get this out of the way right now. How in the world did you ever come up with a complicated procedure like that on the fly and coach us all through it like you had done it before?¡±


    Damn, this is dangerous territory. If I were in her shoes I would want to know the same thing, but the less people know about me the better off my other plans will be. I wasn¡¯t surprised to see everyone else staring at me intently as well. ¡°Well, that is a rather complicated story. Before I talk about it, would you all do me a huge favor and swear to keep this knowledge as secret as you can? It isn¡¯t something that I really want bandied about.¡± Seeing confused nods from everyone, I resolved to take the plunge and not hold back. ¡°The short story is that I have seen that procedure done before. Many times, although not with the same equipment. I¡¯m from another world.¡±


    ¡°Impossible.¡±


    ¡°Bullshit.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead, pull the other one.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I did say it was complicated, didn¡¯t I? The truth is I come from a world where nobody has any powers. Any healing we do is done with machines and chemicals. That¡¯s why I seem like I have no experience using my powers. Until a few months ago, I didn¡¯t have any.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s telling the truth. I was there for his first unfortunate day in our world.¡± Forgetting Jane was there, I was glad I had someone to back me up. ¡°His fianc¨¦ was killed by members of the Malias family.¡± Until she lets slip things I didn¡¯t want everyone to know. ¡°That¡¯s why we really need to keep this all a secret. His life would most definitely be in danger.¡±


    ¡°Ok, way more than I wanted to tell everyone but thanks there Jane. So back where I was from, this was how aneurisms were dealt with. We would use a machine to watch a wire be threaded into the sac, and it would be coiled inside to seal it off. We had to do a little improvising here, but it all worked out in the end.¡±


    With my secret out of the bag, I tried keeping as many details about myself hidden, but was free with my medical knowledge. More knowledge never hurt.

 Chapter six

    Chapter Six


    No matter how cool being able to control water with your mind is, this world sucks. The biggest drawback being no internet. There is nothing to do except practice and listen to the radio. No tv, no video games, and did I mention no internet? I never realized how much easier life was when instant gratification was at your fingertips. Bored? Launch bird varieties at pigs. Forget how to get somewhere? Pull up an app. Questions about European monarchies for some reason? Wikipedia has answers to questions you didn¡¯t even know you had. Then you see a link embedded in the article, sure you want to see about this cousin that seems vaguely familiar. Next thing you know you have spent the last three hours learning things fit only for the <u>Big Book of Useless Information</u>.


    Now I want you to cut it cold turkey for just a day. Heck, see if you can go half a day. We have gotten so used to having everything at our fingertips, our minds have trouble comprehending how things got done in the ¡°good old days.¡± When the fastest source of information aside from actually see something firsthand was to hear it on the radio or read it in the newspaper the next day. If you wanted to research something you needed to talk to people or find a book in the library. Goodbye anonymous anything, be it commenting on another faceless person¡¯s opinion or discreet searches for things not appropriate for public conversation.


    After the aneurism fiasco, I decided the best course of action was to try and lay low. At least by this point I have a small apartment I can call my own, and is close enough to the main portions of the city I can get around using the bike I got. The differences between the worlds still get me sometimes. Nobody has bothered to gear a bike, yet seats that remove with a clip to discourage theft are common. Cars are just as common as the Nashville I¡¯m used to, but apparently getting a driver¡¯s license is a lot harder. Either that or the driver¡¯s education system is a lot better, since the amount of accidents per rush hour is about 1/3 of what I¡¯m used to. Landlines are considered a luxury, but I¡¯m in no hurry to get one. Not like I have a huge list of people waiting to get in touch with me.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    For some reason Prohibition flourished in this world, and all the joys that come with an alcohol free society. Daily rainbows, a divorce rate of zero, no more domestic violence. Pfft, who am I kidding. Moonshiners run rampant, corruption is everywhere. I haven¡¯t seen any, but I¡¯m sure there have to be the equivalent of a Speak Easy, and that they are almost as ubiquitous as Star Bucks. Instead of warring families, apparently the underworld got organized. Each family got a city and the surrounding area, with a supposed council that settles disputes. This system, if it exists, probably explains the lack of all-out war considering the heads of all the families are extremely strong firebrands. Drugs, sex, booze, weapons. No matter what tickles your pickle, for the right price you can find it somewhere.


    So I spend my days with a light training in the morning, followed by classes through the early afternoon. Evenings I spend just cruising around the city to get the lay of the land, and to see what foods are available. The lack of variety is killing me. Gone are the ethnic places. No Thai restaurants where you can get a plate that will clear your sinuses with their aroma. Good bye to the Vietnamese places with authentic pho. What I wouldn¡¯t give for even something as simple as tandoori chicken. Instead there are fast food joints everywhere. The only thing resembling ethnic food are the few Tex-Mex abominations that consider a cheese quesadilla that might possibly have looked at a jalapeno as ¡°spicy.¡± My inner foodie dies a little more each day. What they do have is diners, each one with their own ¡°authentic southern cuisine.¡± There is only so much chicken fried steak a guy can have before they all start tasting the same. After my cruising I do some heavier training after I get home. I try and alternate, working physically one night, followed by my powers the next night, and the occasional stamina training thrown in to keep things interesting. After the workout is a shower then bed. It isn¡¯t a very glamorous life, but for now it suits me. Working myself to exhaustion beats having to deal with the depression that comes every time I think about Sarah.

 Chapter seven

    Chapter Seven


    Coroner¡¯s office, six weeks later.


    ¡°Hey Kristy, got another stiffie! Wanna give me a hand with it?¡±


    ¡°Frank, did you ever think that if you toned down your inappropriate jokes just a little bit you might get a promotion? Or would you rather be an entry level lab technician for the rest of your juvenile life?¡±


    ¡°Just trying to make the day go by a little faster Sweet Cheeks.¡±


    ¡°Oh I can¡¯t tell you how much I will never be your ¡°Sweet Cheeks.¡± Call me that again and I will do my best to convince HR that there needs to be a special position just for you taking care of the dirtiest jobs I can think of. At half your current pay with no possibility of advancement or a raise.¡±


    ¡°No need to get HR involved if you want me in a special, dirty position hun. You just have to ask.¡±


    ¡°Wipe that leer off your face and tell me what possessed you to ruin my day Frank. I have no patience left for your games.¡±


    ¡°Fine, Fine. Special request from a Detective Daniels. Got a suspected street lieutenant of the Malias family died under suspicious circumstances. That¡¯s all I was told, apparently they don¡¯t want you to have any preconceived notions as to what happened.¡±


    Stepping out of her cubicle, Head Coroner Kristy donned her lab coat and latex gloves. ¡°Ok, you get to make yourself useful and take down my notes. I¡¯m serious Frank, no comments, no jokes, no innuendo. This sounds like one of those cases where you might actually learn something.¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Aye aye Captain!¡± Frank said while mock saluting. At least he went over and got a fresh clipboard. Kristy cursed the council member who perpetually blocked her best attempts at getting this smarmy frat boy fired. His one redeeming quality was his ability to write in a legible shorthand.


    ¡°Ok, initial analysis: Subject is clad in pajama bottoms only. One oddly shaped bruise on the side of the neck, no patterns to it. No corresponding bruising on the opposite side, coupled with the lack of petechial hemorrhaging in the eyes rules out suffocation and ligatures. Several old scars, well healed on the chest and arms, concentrated on the knuckles suggest a rough life with multiple fist fights. Nothing recent, so either the subject didn¡¯t fight back or was incapacitated. Considering the scars, I doubt the subject would not fight back. Malias family emblem tattooed on the left pectoral above the heart. Since he wasn¡¯t methodically burned to death, I¡¯m going to tentatively confirm Detective Daniels assumption that he was a part of the crime family. Rigor is nearly complete, but it was a rather warm night. I would say death occurred 8 to 12 hours ago. Removing the pants, no marks appear on the legs. The only visible wound is on the neck, lets focus on that area for now.¡± Closing her eyes to concentrate, Kristy¡¯s hand hovered a few millimeters above the bruised skin. Frowning, she continued, ¡°No damage to the muscle tissue, cause of death so far looks to be exsanguination.¡±


    Frank chose that moment to break in. ¡°Wait, you mean this guy bled to death without having a cut?¡±


    With an exhasperated sigh, ¡°Yes Frank, he bled to death. Back to the notes. There are two cuts in the carotid artery, approximately 3 mm long with smooth edges. The cuts are on opposite sides of the artery, as if a blade was inserted straight through. No damage to the surrounding musculature, no trace of poison. Frank, see if you can detect any trace of metal in the wound or surrounding area. Maybe we can get an idea of what could have caused this that way.¡±


    Jerking back in surprise at the unusual request, Frank shakily extended a hand over the cadaver¡¯s neck. ¡°Uhhhh, I¡¯m not the best at this but I can¡¯t detect any metals at all. Sorry boss.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Frank, this looks like it will be one of those cases that either go unsolved or get published in a scientific journal. Let¡¯s finish up here and get back with Detective Daniels, not that we have much to tell him. Definitely homicide, murder weapon unknown.¡±

 Chapter eight

    Chapter Eight


    ¡°Larry, wait up for a minute would ya?¡± Ben called out to me as he came jogging up from behind. ¡°I know you don¡¯t have the best grasp of local politics, but have you heard the news? There¡¯s a large group out there that is picking off members of the Malias family, and rumor has it they are offering a mind boggling reward for any information at all.¡±


    ¡°Slow down there a bit Ben, you are talking way over my head. Tell you what, why don¡¯t you explain it like I¡¯m a five year old? Maybe then I can follow you.¡±


    ¡°Well, I suppose this could be considered practice for when we finally become doctors, eh? Alright, where to start. Nobody truly speaks about it, but most of the major cities in this country have a family group running the criminals in the shadows. These guys are scary powerful, I¡¯m talking bought politicians, police forces, things like that. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they could fight the army on even terms.¡± Taking a quick look around to make sure nobody was looking, he leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, ¡°The Malias run Nashville, and never speak a bad word about them where people can hear. In fact, probably best to never do it with anyone.¡±


    ¡°Ok, I can follow so far. Let me guess, nothing big happens here without their say so or else there will be. . . reprisals?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, particularly nasty ones. The twin heads are both incredibly powerful Sparkers, probably ranked in the top ten in the nation.¡±


    ¡°Sparkers?¡±


    ¡°Oh, right. Forgot you don¡¯t know all the slang yet. There are three tiers of firebrands. Normal ones can blast fire. Zappers can call down lightning from the storms. Incredibly powerful, but useless indoors and fairly easy to counter. Their flames are a bit hotter. Then the cream of the crop are the Sparkers. These guys are scary powerful, they don¡¯t need any storms. They will just blast you with a lightning bolt from their own hands. In their entire history, nobody has taken a blast from a Sparker and lived. The attack is way too fast to even think about countering, let alone dodge.¡±


    ¡°Ok, and there are two of them running the family? Wow, who would possibly be idiotic enough to incur their wrath?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the question on everyone¡¯s mind. Nobody knows. There haven¡¯t been any demands, no declarations of war. Rumor has it that even the Shadow Council hasn¡¯t heard anything, which is even crazier than declaring war. You got that confused look aga. . . oh yeah, Shadow Council. Sorry. The Shadow Council is rumored to be the reason there is only one family per city. They are a collection of the heads of the strongest families in the nation, and they rule with an iron fist. If you want more territory, you don¡¯t go out and get it. You petition the Shadow Council, and hope they agree with your reasoning. If they do, you get more territory. It keeps things peaceful.¡±


    ¡°Or as peaceful as a group that holds laws in contempt ever bothers?¡±


    ¡°True, true. Anyway, nobody knows who is doing this. So far it is the low level dealers that work the streets that have been hit, and the police are being really quiet on how they are being killed.¡±


    ¡°Well, thanks for telling me all of this Ben. I will try and keep my head down, but honestly I don¡¯t know what to avoid. Probably just end up doing what I have been doing, it seems to be working so far.¡±


    ¡°Anytime man, anytime.¡±


    As Ben turned and walked away, I started plotting. It didn¡¯t seem like I gave anything away, which is crucial. Like the saying goes, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. I had a lot of secrets that just keep on multiplying, and the more secrets you have the harder it is to keep them all. Well, I always think better on a full stomach, plus a leisurely lunch would give me a wonderful chance to people watch.


    Spinning on my heels, I set off in the opposite direction of Ben. What I really needed was a big, greasy cheeseburger and I knew just the place to find it. Three blocks later, I waltzed in to Gloria¡¯s Diner. ¡°Good to see you again Larry, your table in the corner is free. Why don¡¯t you head on over and I¡¯ll be right there to take your order.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good Alicia. Working hard to day or hardly working?¡± Nothing better than friendly banter to get you relaxed. Settling in to my corner booth, I always felt like I was in one of those ubiquitous spy novels since I always faced he door. Who cares if an action is clich¨¦ if it does what you need it to do? While I was farther from the back door, which was on the opposite side of the U shaped diner, I could easily keep an eye on anyone entering. Besides, my area had the bathrooms, and I was fairly certain in an emergency I could slip out undetected. My personal philosophy was that if you needed an escape, being unconventional was best. Shady characters always scope out any place they enter, and the first glance always goes toward the back door. Sitting between the front door and the back just got you noticed that much faster. If you were not in the direct line of sight, however, you had a split second to compose yourself.


    I swear if Alicia put any more swing into her hips as she sauntered over, she was going to throw her back out. Especially since back problems were at best a few years away given how top heavy she was, if you know what I mean. ¡°So hun, what¡¯ll it be? The usual?¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Needing to release a little stress over the revelations Ben had let slip, I decided a little needling was in order. Especially since Alicia went out of her way to be outrageous with her customers. This girl knew how to get the best tips from the male college customers: Low cut white shirts and colored bras to enhance her already formidable assets. ¡°Naw, I¡¯ld like an open thigh sandwich, hold the tomato. Furburger to go.¡± I managed to reply while keeping a straight face, looking her straight in the eye I got the perfect reaction. Her jaw dropped, eyes wide, she just opened and closed her mouth as she tried to process what I just said while turning a remarkable shade of lobster red. After letting her stew for a few seconds, I couldn¡¯t hold the laughter in and belted out a guffaw. ¡°Oh Alicia, you should see your face right now. Payback is so very, very sweet.¡±


    Smacking me in the arm as she pretended to be offended, ¡°You know, you shouldn¡¯t get a girl¡¯s hopes up like that Larry. I might just throw you out.¡±


    ¡°Oh please, you¡¯re just mad that I finally got the better of you in one of our exchanges. That and the fact that someone finally managed a novel pick-up line on you when you weren¡¯t expecting it.¡±


    ¡°I hate to admit it, but you are right. Congrats, you win this one. So seriously now, what can I get you?¡±


    ¡°The usual will be fine. Cheeseburger with pickles and grilled onions, ketchup and mustard. Oh, can you throw on an extra slice of cheese? Since I¡¯m already being bad today, a little more wouldn¡¯t hurt.¡±


    ¡°Gotcha. Fries?¡± At my nod she walked away. Laying my head back, I studied the ceiling tiles as I pondered my next set of moves. Library research had proved futile, and the newspapers were next to worthless when it came to figuring out who did what in the Malias family. I had my best luck by interrogating the low level lieutenants, but they could at most give me someone one or two tiers above themselves. I needed to get someone from middle management, that was the key to busting open who I needed to take out to avenge Sarah.


    Currently, the top two firebrands were common knowledge, and out of my league without a plan. Draco and Ryu Malias were rather nasty characters. Both sparkers, they feared nobody. They earned their utterly ruthless reputation, if you crossed them they went after your family first and you last. Rumor also had it they had a powerful waterbrand with them at all times in case of assassination attempts, but the healer also helped with the torturing of those who displeased the bosses. Imagine getting repeated third degree and fourth degree burns, only to have them healed at an accelerated rate. The sick bastards repeated this until their victim¡¯s body ran out of resources to fuel the constant healing. Hearing how they handled their enemies made the decision to remove the blight on humanity easy.


    Below them was their accountant and lawyer. Keeping his abilities quiet, Leo Dorinson cut quite the figure. Immaculately cut hair, precision tailored suits, he had charisma leaking from every pore in his body. Unfortunately for society, the sculpted blond used his way with people to keep the dregs of society out of prison and on the street, where they could in turn pad his already deep pockets. If I wanted the most bang for my buck, he would be the first target I would take out. There is no better way to throw an organization into chaos than to cause havoc with the finances. People who don¡¯t get paid get very angry very fast. Unfortunately for me, he never went anywhere with less than three bodyguards. Judging by the photos in the papers, the guards were changed on a weekly basis to keep them from getting complacent.


    Those were the top three of the group, and the end of specific information I had. I had sketched out some theoretical structure based on what I would do. The next lower level of trusted aids would have to have several members, each tasked with overseeing a portion of the group activities. Weapons, drugs, alcohol production, internal discipline seemed likely divisions. Specifics would have to wait until I knew more. As I was pondering this and waiting on my burger, something started nagging at me. What could I be missing? My order was placed, I was fairly confident in my assessment so far, but something in the diner just seemed off. Wait, sitting upright I looked around confused. It was lunchtime, and this diner did a fairly brisk business. Why was it so quiet then? Four tables over I saw the answer. Leo Dorinson himself was there with four rather burly bodyguards. No wonder nobody wanted to attract notice, if Ben was right these guys would be on high alert.


    Just then a much subdued Alicia dropped off my burger. Smiling at her, I gave her a small head nod. At least she had the presence of mind to drop her more overt attempts at flirting with her customers. Smart girl. Smashing down the bun on my burger, I still needed to almost unhinge my jaw just to get that first bite. That¡¯s why I love this place. They don¡¯t skimp on the premium meat, and actually season it before it sees a grill. As I enjoyed my burger, I surreptitiously studied Leo and his entourage. How often do you get a windfall like that just dropped into your lap? I doubt a better time to take him out would ever come again, but there were two major issues. One, what could I use to take him out. Two, and much more importantly, how could I do it without drawing attention to myself? It was far too early to give the Malias¡¯ a target for their rage. The bodyguards weren¡¯t helping either. Two of them were eating with Leo, and the other two kept a lookout over the entire restaurant. Damn, but I hate going up against competent help. The other two would most likely get their food to go, never really presenting me with an opportunity. As I was taking the last bite of my burger, a form of inspiration hit. Unfortunately, it was in the form of an inhaled bit of bun going down the wrong pipe.


    Coughing and hacking, I downed the remaining half of my glass of water as everyone turned to stare at me. ¡°I¡¯m ok¡± I wheezed at them. ¡°Bun went down the wrong pipe.¡± Seeing them all turn back to their meals, I gave an internal sigh of relief. Having left a generous tip for Alicia, I sat back and pondered for a second if I could pull it off. It would have to be absolutely perfect timing, and I absolutely had to maintain a walking speed. Settling my nerves, I made my move.


    As Leo reached for his glass of water, I got up and headed for the door. Right before I lost him from my peripheral vision, I tried something I had never done before. I froze all the water in his throat and the back of his mouth, blocking his airway. Walking through the front door, I ignored the beginnings of pandemonium as I made my way back to campus.

 Chapter nine

    Chapter Nine


    Coroner¡¯s office


    It had been a rough morning. Three separate autopsies where nothing added up were starting to get under Kristy¡¯s skin. While she usually enjoyed the feeling of cracking an odd cause of death, the pressure from above to get these solved was beyond ridiculous and she was minutes away from tearing someone¡¯s head off over the stress. Who really cared what killed these low-life street peddlers of drugs? A knock at the door distracted her from her musings. ¡°It¡¯s open¡± she called.


    ¡°Hey boss, sorry to interrupt but Detectives Daniels and Trevor are here to see you, and they have a body with them. They refused to tell me anything, just said that this one took priority over anything.¡±


    Pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, she replied, ¡°Thanks Frank. Sorry if I¡¯ve been a little waspish lately, the pressure of these cases are starting to get to me and it looks like one more just got added to the pile. I¡¯m hereby drafting you as my assistant on these cases, solely for your writing skills. If I tried anything right now I would lose a penmanship contest with a chicken. Grab your lab coat and let¡¯s go.¡±


    Could that be a glint of pride in Frank¡¯s eye? No, Kristy just couldn¡¯t believe that. She was just too drained to believe it. Nevertheless, Frank followed quietly behind her as she made her way to the detectives. ¡°Detective Daniels, Detective Trevor, how kind of you to drop by and see me. Sadly, I don¡¯t have any extra information on those previous bodies you sent my way. From the covered sheet on the autopsy table that wasn¡¯t there when I left for lunch, I can only assume you have more work for me?¡±


    Looking at Frank, Trevor asked, ¡°Is she always this snarky in the afternoon?¡± Not waiting for an answer he went on, ¡°Yeah, we got a special case for you today Kristy. I know we have been pushing rather hard recently, but I think you will understand with this case. Anyway, before we start we need both of you guys to agree to keep the press in the dark about this. Agreed?¡±


    While Frank nodded, Kristy retorted, ¡°Trevor, it is always the position of this office to keep the press in the dark. Only the police release details of a death, and anyone on my staff caught breaking this rule do not stay on my staff for long. So, the suspense is killing me. Who do we have under curtain number one?¡±


    Trevor pulled back the sheet to stunned silence. Eyes open in agony and lips blue, Leo Dorinson¡¯s glazed eyes stared back at the mute coroner.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s Leo Dorinson. Seriously Trevor, if you guys just dropped the lawyer for the Malias family into my autopsy room with no warning, when someone is making a concerted effort to undermine them, you may never make it off my shit list.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Kristy, but you know how it goes. You get the extraordinary cases, and this one has extraordinary written all over it. Besides, you are the best of the best and we need whatever help you can give us on this one. Do you want what we know before or after you start your exam?¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ¡°Give it to me now I guess.¡± She responded with a sigh.


    ¡°Apparently earlier this afternoon Leo and his four bodyguards were eating at Gloria¡¯s Diner. Halfway through their meal, Leo slams his fists on the table and starts turning an alarming shade of red. Whatever happened, he spilled half his drink down the front of his shirt and started flailing about without making any noise. One of the guards tried pounding on his back to help him cough something up, but nothing helped. Less than three minutes later, he was dead.¡±


    ¡°What a brutal way to go¡± Frank muttered, still having not taken his eyes off the corpse.


    ¡°Indeed. Trevor, it sounds like something got lodged in an airway. Was he drinking or just taken a bite when this happened?¡±


    ¡°Drinking apparently, hence the spilled water down the front of the shirt. If you are thinking poison, I highly doubt it. Everyone was sharing a pitcher of water, and one of the bodyguards always checks the glass for any residue before allowing any liquids to be added. Any ice they have is in the pitcher itself, so they can¡¯t be the poisoned vehicle. We have the name of the cook and waitress, and the food is being sent off to the lab for testing.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, well you saw where I was going with that question. Ok Frank, you ready? Let¡¯s get started then. Based on the description from witnesses, and the blue around the lips, I¡¯m calling cause of death asphyxiation.¡± Hovering her hands just above the throat, all the blood drained from her face. ¡°Frank, I need you to check for metals. This just doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±


    Stepping forward, Frank dropped his notebook on a nearby tray table and hovered his hands above the throat like his boss had. ¡°No, I don¡¯t sense anything at all. Sorry, why do you ask? This is another one of those weird deaths, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Whatever obstructed his throat basically shredded both the esophagus and trachea. He bled, but not enough to be fatal. Something is strange though, the blood is too thin.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by too thin?¡± Trevor inquired.


    ¡°Ever had a glass of iced tea that you left unattended too long, then accidentally drank it? While it might still look like tea, it most definitely doesn¡¯t taste like it anymore. Same thing here, the blood almost seems like it has been watered down. How big are the ice cubes used by the diner?¡±


    ¡°Rectangular with a curve to the back side. Nothing out of the ordinary. Do you really think an ice cube would be able to block both though?¡±


    ¡°No, it wouldn¡¯t. Besides, you say that he never made any sound right? That means total obstruction of the airway. The ice cubes you described wouldn¡¯t be able to do that. If there was even just a little bit of leeway, he would have been able to wheeze enough to warn people what was wrong. Total obstruction means no air out, so he wouldn¡¯t make any sound at all. The question is, how do you get ice to completely block his trachea?¡±


    The two detectives shared a significant look. ¡°How indeed?¡±

 Chapter ten

    Chapter Ten


    The city was wound tighter than a clock spring after Leo¡¯s death. Several newspapers, despite claims to the contrary from police, ran stories linking the death of the high powered lawyer with several low level drug dealer deaths. From an internal takeover to police assassinations, possible causes ranged from probable to conspiracy theorist. While only I knew the truth, I had far more important things to keep me occupied. Namely, we had started what would be a residency back home.


    Dr. Minton was rather insistent on overseeing mine, both to give me as much supervision as possible and to see how much he could learn about my diagnostic and treatment technique. I didn¡¯t mind at all, since working at a teaching university hospital would give the widest variety of cases. So I spent a blissful week doing mundane doctor diagnoses. Broken bones from foolish stunts, overprotective moms freaking out about a rash, the normal ER issues. Of course there were serious cases too, but nothing incredibly difficult. After my impromptu dealing with Leo, I was ready for a week of mundane. Alas, there isn¡¯t an ER in the country that could be described as mundane.


    ¡°Next up we have an older male with respiratory problems. Shortness of breath with a raspy cough, could be anything. Ready to narrow the field from almost anything down to a few possibilities?¡±


    ¡°Dr. Minton, do you get your kicks from the problem solving aspect of all this, or from foisting nigh unsolvable problems on the backs of people who can¡¯t necessarily tell you no?¡±


    Laughing, he replied, ¡°Oh it is the problem solving part of it Larry. The sense of satisfaction from looking through a list of symptoms and a patient¡¯s history and figuring out how to help them. The tougher the case, the better it is.¡±


    Entering the room with a doctor¡¯s trained knock and wait a half second before opening the door, we finally got to meet our patient. A pale white male sat on the exam table, hunched over with elbows on his knees. The first thing I really wanted to do was slather him with sunscreen and send him outside for a few days. His wife had some skin color, even though you could see the fear in her eyes for her husband. Clutching his hand with a fierce determination, I could see the steel in this lady¡¯s backbone. Hopefully the situation wouldn¡¯t be as grim as her husband seemed to think it would be.


    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Dr. Minton and this is my associate, Dr. Davidson. Are you Mr¡­¡±


    ¡°Landis. Harold Landis and this is my wife Francis.¡±


    ¡°A pleasure to meet you both. Now it says here you were having some respiratory problems, could you walk me through what happened?¡±


    ¡°Of course doctor. Earlier today *hree* I woke up and was having *hree* trouble breathing. Not much *hree* you can do with miner¡¯s lung.¡± Unable to stop himself, Harold descended into a wet, hacking cough that lasted for half a minute.


    ¡°Miner¡¯s lung, have you been diagnosed with this before?¡±


    Patting her husband¡¯s hand, Francis took over the narrative. ¡°Sorry doctor, but since this is a long story I hope you don¡¯t mind hearing it from me. Harold has been a coal miner for 37 years, just like his father and grandfather. I¡¯m still shocked he even spent enough time above ground to marry me.¡± She softened this last with a sad smile directed at her husband, as though it were a joke they had enjoyed throughout their married life. ¡°All that time underground, working in the mines has taken its toll on him. A few years ago he was diagnosed with miner¡¯s lung. He kept working though, because I always had a dream to come and see Nashville. We finally managed to save enough money to pay for the trip, and just arrived in town yesterday. The travel seemed to have worn Harold down, so we stayed in and went to bed early. This morning his coughing was a lot raspier, and he was having trouble getting air so we came to the hospital.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry to hear that. As I¡¯m sure you are aware, there really isn¡¯t much we can do for miner¡¯s lung. We will have a windbrand come and make your breathing easier for a while.¡± Finished delivering his bad news, Dr. Minton headed for the door and I quickly followed him.


    As we exited the room, I pulled him to the side and whispered in his ear, ¡°Dr. Minton, why is it that we can¡¯t do anything with miner¡¯s lung?¡±


    ¡°Well, nobody really knows what causes it other than it occurs in the majority of miners who spend years in the mines.¡±


    ¡°Would you be willing to take a chance with another of my theories? If so, we will need an earthbrand, preferably Leah if we can get her down here. Luckily for her it shouldn¡¯t be too hard on her this time, there won¡¯t be any conjuring of small metal wires.¡±


    ¡°Larry, you should be well aware I am willing to risk a lot where you are concerned. I¡¯ll have a nurse track down Leah and we will see what we can do. I assume you will want to save the explanation until everyone is assembled?¡±


    ¡°First, let me try talking to the patient. If they don¡¯t want to go through with what I assume will be a tremendously painful procedure, then we won¡¯t be doing much other than confirming the cause of miner¡¯s lung.¡± With that I turned and walked back into the room with the aging couple, desperately trying to convince myself that I was truly offering them hope rather than an excruciating death.


    ¡°Harold, I have something I would like to try with you if you are willing. I¡¯m not going to mince words here; I believe you deserve the unvarnished truth. This is a highly experimental procedure, and could very well either kill you or leave you with permanently diminished lung capacity. It all depends on how bad your lungs truly are. Best case scenario, we remove the cause of the miner¡¯s lung. I can¡¯t even guess the odds of success, as far as I know this has never even been attempted before.¡±


    With a grim look on his face, Harold pondered what I had just told him. ¡°Well son, you said you could remove what¡¯s causing my miner¡¯s lung. That would be wonderful, but just a moment ago everyone agreed that the cause of miner¡¯s lung is a great big unknown. First off, why don¡¯t you explain how a whippersnapper like yourself knows more than everyone in this room.¡±


    ¡°A fair point, and I suppose you just wouldn¡¯t trust a doctor off the street who looks as wet behind the ears as I do yet claims a miracle cure. In a little while, another associate of ours, a quite talented earthbrand, is going to join us to confirm the cause of your illness. If either of you is an earthbrand, you can double check my claims. When you worked in the mine all those years, you breathed in a lot of dust. Over the years, the miniscule particles of coal in the dust collected in your lungs. Eventually enough coal dust mixed with the mucus in your lungs and started to block your airways. The mixture forms little globs, and these globs in turn form a network that restricts airflow through your lungs.¡±


    To say that everyone in the room was stunned by my explanation was an understatement. Even Dr. Minton, a bastion of professionality, had a mouth gaping like a fish out of water. Looking at his wife with tears in his eyes, Harold asked, ¡°Can it really be true? All miners have heard the stories, all dismissed as crazy. Earthbrands that worked in the mines too long, and got this cursed disease. The really strong ones kept saying that the coal always came home with them, they couldn¡¯t get away. It drove so many of them mad, poor bastards. I¡¯m not strong enough of an earthbrand to sense coal that small, and my dear Francis is a waterbrand.¡±


    ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t my favorite theoretical doctor. That¡¯s a rather interesting theory, I¡¯m surprised that nobody has thought of it before. Hello folks, sorry to barge in like this but apparently my expertise is at this guy¡¯s beck and call. Please, call me Leah, and I¡¯m the earthbrand specialist junior here requested.¡± Finished throwing me under the bus, she held out her hand to greet the couple. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind Harold, I¡¯m going to pick Dr. Davidson¡¯s mind to see just what and where he wants me to try and sense, the narrower of a range he can point me to the better we can determine what needs to be done.¡±


    ¡°Always good to see you again Leah, but can you really blame me if I need the strongest earthbrand I know to come and lend me a hand?¡±


    ¡°Flattery will get you nowhere doctor.¡± She flippantly retorted, ¡°OK, well maybe it will get you a little bit. However, had you sent the message that you needed me to solve a decades old medical mystery I would have been a lot more excited to be coming down here.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Leah, I¡¯ll keep that in mind the next time. Anyway, back to what we need. Starting an inch below Harold¡¯s collar bone, I want you to see if you can sense anything that resembles coal. Scan through his body front to back, moving down to the bottom of his rib cage.¡±


    Stepping up to the patient, a reassuring smile on her face, Leah consoled Harold, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Harold, this won¡¯t hurt at all. I¡¯m just going to be sensing, I won¡¯t be moving anything.¡±


    Visibly relaxing, Harold took his wife¡¯s hand while Leah inspected his chest. Even with all our reassurances, I could still see a slight tremor in his fingers. After a few minutes, Leah leaned back on her stool. ¡°I don¡¯t know how nobody thought to check for this before, but you were exactly right on the cause of miner¡¯s lung. There are thousands of little balls of coal spread throughout his lungs, but now that we have a definitive cause I don¡¯t see how we can get them out.¡±


    Harold looked at me, and I could see the desperate hope in his eyes, hope that he could spend more time with his beloved. Not wanting to crush his dream, I still needed to be pragmatic. ¡°Harold, I know this seems like a giant leap forward, but trust me when I say this is the easy part. I am going to try and describe what I want to do in rather graphic detail, because I don¡¯t want you thinking this will be easy on anybody. I also want you to be fully aware of the possible risks before we go through with any of this. There is a very real chance you will die.¡±


    Harold looked to his wife, then turned back toward me and nodded.


    ¡°Ok, what I want to do first is have Leah try and break the fibers connecting the coal nodules. This will make removing them easier. As a precaution, we are only going to be doing one lobe at a time, and there are five lobes we will have to do. While she is doing that, I want you to concentrate on taking as deep of breaths as you can Harold. When she is done, take a breath and hold it. The next part will be the hardest, both because we will need to coordinate it and because we will be expelling at the same time. I will draw water from your blood and flood the lobe of your lung we are trying to flush out, and I want you to cough and expel everything from your lungs. I will help as much as I can, but you will be coughing up the biggest slurry of black phlegm in your life. We will have a collection bowl for it, and it may cause you to vomit as well.¡±


    ¡°Son, I can handle a little discomfort. You said it was the dangerous part, can you tell us what the dangers are?¡±


    ¡°Of course. If you don¡¯t expel all the water that can cause major problems. Forcing the water through the air sacks that exchange air with the blood can cause them to rupture, permanently lowering your ability to breath. The coal slurry could irritate the bronchial tubes on the way out, making each breath painful. In fact, I fully expect some irritation for a while.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Looking at Francis, I saw tears in the corner of her eyes. She looked at her husband, and said with a shaky voice, ¡°Harold dear, I can¡¯t tell you how bleak my life would be without you in it. Miner¡¯s lung will kill you eventually, and there¡¯s a chance that you will die if you tried what he is asking of you. But there¡¯s a chance we can beat this, and spend the time we would normally have together. I think we should do it.¡±


    ¡°I could never tell you no dear, and I wanted to try this anyway. Let¡¯s do it.¡±


    Turning to Dr. Minton, I asked him, ¡°Any ideas on possible safety measures that I might have overlooked?¡±


    Dr. Minton put a finger on his chin and stared of into space for about ten seconds, obviously lost in thought. ¡°You seem to have most of your bases covered, I would only suggest a windbrand as an emergency measure in case of breathing issues. That would be a few too many people for this small of a room, I will go see if there is an opening in one of the lecture demonstration rooms. For something like this, we should really get several of the department heads to watch since it isn¡¯t an emergency. Any objections Harold?¡±


    That¡¯s how we found ourselves an hour later with the heads of Medicine, Research, and Legal along with several of their underlings. Who would have thought that every spare doctor in the building would want to see an experimental procedure for a disease that had no known cause the day before? No pressure or anything. Legal was making Harold sign so many disclaimers that I¡¯m pretty sure he was going to develop carpal tunnel and have his hand cramp into a permanent claw. While Harold was finally making some headway on the stack of paperwork, and hopefully not signing away his soul in the process, I decided to do an outline of the procedure for all the spectators.


    ¡°Okay everyone, while we finish up some preparations I will go over the theory of the procedure and what we hope to accomplish. First, our patient has been previously diagnosed with miner¡¯s lung. In order to confirm causation, we had an earthbrand scan the patient¡¯s lungs. They confirmed that there are small granules of coal in the bronchia of the lungs, held in place with a fibrous matrix. In order to minimize the risk to the patient, we will be treating one lobe of the lungs at a time, starting with the patient¡¯s upper left lobe and moving counter clockwise. We will first attempt to use the earthbrand¡¯s power to disrupt the fibrous matrix. While this is happening, our patient will be trying to maximize lung inflation in anticipation of expulsion. With the final inhale from the patient, I will then force water into the lungs from the bloodstream, through the alveoli, and use this water to flush out the granules of coal while the patient expels everything via coughing. Any questions before we begin?¡±


    The head of medicine raised her hand, and at my nod asked, ¡°This sounds like it might take quite a bit of water out of the body. What steps have you taken to minimize the threat of dehydration?¡±


    ¡°The patient has drunk nearly a quart of water in the past hour, and Dr. Minton will be monitoring the patient¡¯s hydration. In case it drops into dangerous levels, we will stop the procedure and depending on the progress made, resume in 24 hours.¡±


    Taking a minute to make sure there were no more questions, I headed over to check on Francis and Harold one more time. ¡°How are you two doing? I know this is coming at you rather quickly, and there are probably a lot more people here to watch this than you first thought.¡±


    Harold tried to lighten the mood, ¡°After all that water I drank you should probably be thankful I don¡¯t get stage fright son. I might pee my pants.¡± With a quiet chuckle he continued, ¡°Seriously though, aside from a little nervousness from the unknown, I¡¯m ok.¡±


    ¡°Glad to hear it. I think we are about ready, is there anything you need before we start? Also remember, we can stop at any time. If you only want to do one lobe today, we only have to do one. You are in charge.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, but I¡¯ve always been one to get as much done as possible. Before we get started, I have one request.¡± Turning to his wife, he kissed the top of her hand and said, ¡°Dearest, I know you have stood by me through trying times, and there have been a lot of them. But I don¡¯t want you to see this. I will be uncomfortable and in pain, but I can handle that. I¡¯ve done it all my life. Please, wait outside so you don¡¯t have to see this.¡±


    With tears in her eyes, Francis asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you want me with you?¡±


    ¡°Always my love, but there are some things I would do anything to save you from and this is one. Besides, you have a very sympathetic gag reflex, and I wouldn¡¯t want you to be embarrassed in front of all these strangers.¡±


    ¡°You always knew just how to convince me of anything dear. I will wait outside if you promise to stop if it gets too much. I still need you in my life.¡± She said with a sad smile, wiping the last of the tears from her eyes. Standing up, she kissed him on his forehead and started to walk away. As she got to the door, Leah handed her a box of tissues and whispered something in her ear.


    Walking down to the floor, she picked up what appeared to be a small trash can on her way. ¡°Well Harold, are you ready for this? Instead of a bowl, you get these lovely plastic garbage cans, and we have six of them just in case.¡±


    Taking the trash can from Leah, Harold slid onto the waist high table that was prepared for our attempt. Sliding back from the edge, he positioned the can between his legs for better control. At this angle, he could bend forward slightly and have his chin about six inches above the edge of the can, and he wisely oriented it so that the shorter side of the can was against his chest in case he got some unexpected range as he expelled the coal from his lungs.


    Dr. Minton and Leah both took up positions behind Harold, and I stood in front and to his left side. ¡°Ok Harold, whenever you are ready let Leah know and start taking as deep of breaths as you can. She will try and loosen the matrix holding the granules in place, and that might start making your breath rattle a little more than normal. On your tenth breath, I want you to breath in as deep as you can and hold it. I will flood the lobe we are working on with water, and try and help you expel it. At that point, you probably won¡¯t be able to do much but cough. Don¡¯t fight it, just try and cough as hard as you can. If you vomit in the process that¡¯s ok, I will make sure no liquid will come back into your lung. We can start when you give the word.¡±


    Nodding his head, Harold gave a one word reply, ¡°Go.¡±


    *hree*


    *hree*


    *hree*


    *hreee*


    *hreeee*


    *hrrreee*


    *hrrrree*


    *hrrrrrr*


    *hrrrrr*


    *hrrrrr*


    As his rattling breath reached the count of ten, I flooded his lungs, attempting to modulate my power so I didn¡¯t tear the delicate tissue. Harold went from back slightly arched with his shoulders back to doubled over the trash can in an instant, face beet red as he tried to force out the gunk that had built up in his lungs over the years. I was frantically sending it out through his bronchial tubes before he suffocated. Even with his mouth wide open there wasn¡¯t enough room to exit, his expulsion was so forceful. The poor guy had a soupy black liquid pouring out of his mouth and nose.


    *GAACHHHAAAUUUK*


    Spluttering after the initial outpouring, the poor man sank into himself as tremors wracked his body. As the dry heaves finally started to subside, Harold wiped the tears from his face. Leah, bless her heart, was right there with a box of tissues to help him clean up with.


    ¡°Ugh, well *cough* that was about the most unpleasant experience *cough* I have ever experienced.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry you had to go through that Harold, but you did wonderful. If you don¡¯t mind, please don¡¯t throw your tissues away in the trash can you vomited into. I¡¯m sure several of these doctors watching would love to see what you just coughed up for *ahem* research purposes.¡±


    Chuckling, Harold nonetheless handed me the slightly less than quarter full trash can and used a wire basket Dr. Minton had stealthily placed on the table beside him for the tissues. ¡°Y¡¯all have some rather odd hobbies, don¡¯tcha?¡±


    ¡°Harold, you don¡¯t know the half of it.¡± Leah replied before I could stop her. ¡°There¡¯s doctors that will study any liquid, so long as it came out of a living body. They must have iron stomachs, the sight and smell would drive me insane inside a week.¡±


    Interjecting before they could go further off topic, I tried to maintain a slightly professional decorum. ¡°Putting that aside, Harold, how are you feeling? I want you to take a deep breath and tell me anything you notice.¡±


    *Hhhhaaaa*


    Tearing up a bit, I was worried at first until I heard Harold speak. ¡°Doc, that is the clearest breath I have taken in a decade. It does hurt a little bit, but I can actually feel part of my lung filling up with air. Completely full.¡±


    Smiling at his fortune, I placed my hand just below his collar bone. ¡°I¡¯m so glad to hear that. I¡¯m going to check for any ruptured air sacs and possible bleeding.¡± Closing my eyes to concentrate, I did an extremely thorough scan of Harold¡¯s lungs. I noted some areas of scar tissue, probably from trying to expel the coal matrix for years with no success. A lot of his tissue was highly irritated and inflamed, but thankfully there was no bleeding or burst alveoli. ¡°Dr. Minton, I¡¯m seeing some inflammation of the tissue, but no bleeding or ruptured alveoli. Do you agree?¡±


    ¡°Aside from some scar tissue you neglected to mention I concur. Before we move on to another lobe though, I would like at least a half hour break to let Harold drink some water and let the irritation subside a little bit.¡±


    ¡°That sounds right wonderful Dr. Minton,¡± Harold said. ¡°I could use a break, but I would really like to get this finished today. While we wait, can someone send in my wife so she can see I¡¯m ok and stop fretting? I know she¡¯s worried sick out there. She always jumps to the worst possible conclusion unless shown otherwise.¡±


    ¡°OH HAROLD, YOU¡¯RE STILL HERE!¡± Apparently while we were checking on the patient, Leah had seen that this would take a while and let Francis back in the room. Taking the container of expectorant from Harold¡¯s hands, I stepped back so that it didn¡¯t get knocked over in his wife¡¯s rush to embrace him.


    Smiling smugly, Leah sauntered over to where I was. ¡°I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t have let that poor old lady fret outside any longer than she had to for no reason, so I decided to let her in.¡±


    ¡°Well done. Let¡¯s let them reassure each other, no need to intrude on a moment like that.¡±


    Two and a half grueling hours later, we had Harold¡¯s lungs entirely cleared of coal gunk. Although he was rather pale and shaky by the last bit, he was ecstatic to be breathing free and clear for the first time in decades. The head of medicine was busily organizing notes on the procedure for publication, while several research doctors had each claimed a container of what they lovingly labeled ¡°black liquid death¡± and were animatedly discussing experiments to be performed.


    Pulling Dr. Minton away from the group, I asked, ¡°Dr. Minton, this has been rather draining. Is there any chance I could get next week off? I know it¡¯s short notice but¡±


    Cutting me off, Dr. Minton answered, ¡°My boy, you just discovered the unknown root of a major health issue and came up with a treatment to cure it in the span of a day. Things like this just don¡¯t happen, and there are serious ramifications. I don¡¯t think we can do next week judging by the looks the head of medicine is giving you, but we can try for the week after. I¡¯m sure next week you will be working closely to write up a paper for the journals detailing your treatment. You know what they say, ¡®Publish or Perish¡¯ and all that.¡±


    As I turned to see the looks that I was receiving, I just knew Dr. Minton was right. Oh well, a week delay wouldn¡¯t kill me while helping publish a new treatment to save lives. I wouldn¡¯t even mind if I was relegated to second or third author.

 Chapter eleven

    Chapter Eleven


    I am now thoroughly convinced that Dr. Ains, our head of medicine, is a former interrogator for some clandestine government agency. Never before had I been grilled over every possible thought process I had, and it is an experience I wouldn¡¯t want to repeat. We were just going over background information to prepare for the paper, we hadn¡¯t even written a sentence yet! For forty hours, each and every decision was scrutinized.


    In the end, only a slightly sanitized report was compiled. Since I wasn¡¯t sure Dr. Ains even knew I was from a different world, I had to fudge my story a little bit on what prompted me to bring in an earthbrand to help with diagnosis. Luckily for me, Harold had unwittingly provided me an out when he talked about the stronger earthbrands going crazy and saying they, ¡°brought home the coal with them.¡± Not only did this ensure my own secret was safe, but also greatly increased the chance of an academic journal accepting the paper. Would you take an author who claimed to be from another world seriously, or would you pat them on the shoulder and hand them a tin foil hat? Luckily he agreed that after he got copious notes about the procedure, I could have a week off.


    I had finally gotten to the point where book and newspaper research just wouldn¡¯t help me anymore. It was incredibly difficult, but I believed I had put together at least a general outline of the Malias family organization structure. At the bottom was the street level dealers, both drugs and guns. They would report up through a chain of command, ultimately culminating in one or, most likely, two individuals in charge of each operation. Now, in order to get your product somewhere, be it drugs, guns, or illegally distilled alcohol, you need someone in charge of your distribution network. Preferably this is all that person does, since every organization depends on its supply lines. When those get cut, you are in trouble. Defending your supply lines and stockpiles from others likely fell to yet another person. So while I knew the twin heads of the Malias family, if I truly wanted to take them out of business completely I would need to take out at least four others, five if I could find out who had replaced Leo as the organization¡¯s treasurer. Time to get some names and descriptions to go along with my hypothetical model.


    First up was to find a base of operations in a seedier area of town, one that couldn¡¯t be traced back to me. As luck would have it, seedier areas of town also tended to have a lot of abandoned buildings. I just had to find one to suit my needs. As many spy novels would have you believe, it is amazing what you can do if you just look like you belong or are in a hurry. So I packed a rather worn backpack with some secondhand clothes from the Goodwill store and left my apartment late in the afternoon. As I started getting into the shadier areas, I stepped down an empty alley and quickly changed. Looking the part is only partly clothes, the rest would have to be done by acting. I didn¡¯t want to attract attention, so no eye contact. Slightly hunched over, as if years of oppression in life had permanently bent my spine, and a quick shuffle out of anyone¡¯s way. The hardest part was the fact that I was rather clean shaven to appear professional at work. It would take at least a month to grow a convincing beard, time I didn¡¯t really have. Planning for this, I had stopped behind a mechanic¡¯s shop on my way to pick up a few oily rags. Scrubbing some onto my face, neck, and the back of my hands would partially help. To complete my look, I put on a jacket with the hood up to shade my face. This would also make it harder to see that instead of a glazed look in my eyes, I was actively searching my peripherals for a place that would suit my needs.


    Not just any abandoned building would do if I wanted to get the information I needed. Several that I passed were obviously occupied, even though they were clearly condemned. After several hours of searching I hit what I hoped was paydirt. What used to be a deli, boarded up tight. Walking around the building, I found a back door that was shut with nothing more than a padlock, and even better noticed that the previous owners had a walk in cooler sticking out of the back of the building. Perfect, those things were practically soundproof as it is, and a little on the spot modification would guarantee I wouldn¡¯t be disturbed.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Inspecting the lock, it appeared to be of fairly sturdy construction. Normally I would need some rather hefty bolt cutters to get through it, but I was always taught to work smarter, not harder. While the lock was rather substantial, the thin strip of metal behind it holding the door shut was nowhere near the same league. Conjuring ice a little at a time behind it, I only had to wait until the weak hinges popped off and voila, I was in.


    The first order of business was a quick walkthrough, although the low light made this rather difficult. A thick layer of dust covered a kitchen long ago stripped of anything valuable and not bolted to the floor. Empty cupboards and a metal prep table greeted me. Excellent, nothing blocking access to the walk in. Stepping through the kitchen into the former dining room, I could hardly make out anything. From the odd shapes, it appeared that they left the tables and chairs behind. Again a thick layer of dust confirmed that nobody had been this way in a very long time.


    Stepping back through the kitchen, I finally opened up the walk in cooler. Fighting me the whole way, I had to really muscle the door open. Dodging the dust falling like snowflakes, I surveyed the interior. A completely empty metal box with a drain on the floor that had accumulated a rather impressive amount of mold, I just knew it would be perfect. The phosphorescence had long ago faded from the interior safety handle but that didn¡¯t bother me, these were always located in the same spot. If you couldn¡¯t find the only thing sticking out of a wall at waist height you probably need to rethink some of your life choices.


    Walking back outside, I closed the door to make it seem like I had never been there and decided to get the lay of the neighborhood. Walking around in the rapidly approaching dark didn¡¯t seem like the best time, so I headed for home. Time to start working on a list of what I needed.


    First off, I had plenty of chairs to secure my interviewees to. I would need something to secure them with, but my first thoughts of rope or zip ties went right out the window. What would happen to someone who had a very fine control of fire that decided to heat up the zip ties until the plastic was almost melting, then break free when I was distracted? No, that wouldn¡¯t do at all, it would have to be something metal. Handcuffs would raise entirely too much suspicion, even if I went with the fluffy love cuff variety. You generally only need one pair of those, not multiple, and I didn¡¯t want to stand out. Hmm, perhaps a big spool of electrical wire. Not only could I cut it down to the size I needed with relative ease, but it is something inconspicuous. As I was walking away from the wire section, I had an epiphany. Earthbrands can manipulate metals. If I came across one, the wire wouldn¡¯t hold them very long. I guess I was going to have to get some Para cord to supplement the wire. In addition to the restraints, I would also need coarse grit sandpaper, a hammer, some nails, and wirecutters. A set of pliers wouldn¡¯t go wrong, especially since I wanted it to seem like I was buying these for a home project. Oh, don¡¯t forget the screwdriver as a makeshift lock for the walk in. Mustn¡¯t forget that.


    That would cover some of the messier aspects, but I would need a few more things to keep everything quiet. A bolt of heavy cloth and scissors to cut it. Pay for it all in cash and get it from a store you never frequent, and it is practically untraceable. Of course, I wasn¡¯t too worried given the horrid state of forensics in this world. I doubt they were even advanced enough to match tool marks.

 Chapter twelve

    Chapter Twelve


    Four days later and I had everything prepared. Three of the sturdiest dining room chairs in the cooler, all the supplies in a corner, and no less than seven approach and escape routes planned. With plans like this, anything that lets you fall into a routine makes you predictable, and predictable gets you dead. That is not an option this early in the game. I also had several different outfits with slightly different personas. The more ragged personas had obvious drug ticks, from scratching at the inside of my elbows to constantly wiping at my nose and sniffling. A few I was slightly better dressed, but still didn¡¯t try and project any air of authority. While in the right situation that could make sure nobody paid attention to you, I didn¡¯t want any of the possible headaches that would arise from an accidental confrontation. I spent another day hidden in a rather foul smelling alley just to watch a crack house, hoping to identify the messenger that would collect all the money and deliver the drugs. A few hours in and I knew his nearby route, and was able to follow it back for several blocks and find a likely ambush.


    These guys were so sure of themselves that they didn¡¯t even try and hide their schedules. Every two hours the messenger would ride his bike up to the house, walk inside for a few minutes, come back out and carry on. Same route every time. Unfortunately for him, that repetition worked to my advantage. I was camped out at the mouth of an alley where he would have to pass after hitting a rather large puddle. As soon as I heard the sound of tires hitting the puddle, I gave a count of one Mississippi, then stepped out of the alley swinging my rather heavy backpack just below my shoulder height. The sudden movement caused him to swerve, but it was far too late. The pack hit him at the crook of the elbow, jerking the wheel opposite of the way he was anticipating it to go. The drag from the tire slowed the bike enough to throw him over the handlebars to the ground, where I immediately cut off his exclamation of ¡°What the He¡± with a backhand to the jaw. Disoriented and in pain, I quickly slammed him into unconsciousness with my power and dragged him out of sight. Jogging back, I removed his bike as well and that was the end of that.


    Pulling him upright, I still had to get him three blocks, and it was light enough out that trying to be subtle would be noticed. Rather than sticking out that way, I decided to go the outlandish route. Letting him come to a state of semi consciousness, I put his arm across my shoulder and started ¡°walking¡± him home. If I saw a group of people starting to pay attention, I would let him slip a bit and cry out, ¡°GODDAMNIT CHUCK, IT¡¯S TOO DAMN EARLY TO BE THIS DRUNK!¡± My impromptu plan worked like a charm. While everyone chuckled and laughed at the ¡°drunk¡± in my arms, nobody really cared. I was just a good friend taking home a guy a little too deep in his cups.


    As soon as I walked down the alley that ran behind my base, I stopped the act, flipped him onto my shoulder, and got him into the walk in as soon as I could. Restraint time. I would much rather over restrain than under, so he got several loops holding his biceps to the back of the chair, several loops holding his forearms to the armrests, several at mid-calf to the legs of the chair, and a few across his thighs holding him to the seat of the chair, repeating it all with Para cord. Even if he managed to knock the chair over, there was no way he was getting out. As he was starting to come around, I put a blindfold of heavy cloth over his eyes, and one strip between his jaws to muffle any screams. All told it took about a half hour to get him tied down. While he finished coming to, I used my power to conjure ice blocks over the cooling fans, creating a seal that would prevent any noises from making it outside. Coming back, I gave him a few taps to the cheek to get his attention.


    Jerking his head upright, he tried for several minutes to move any of his limbs. He stilled quite quickly at the sound of my voice, ¡°Struggling is useless, you are strapped down really securely.¡±


    ¡°Imiom, moo oo mow mo I mork mor?¡±


    ¡°Oh, sorry about that, I actually expected a lot more screaming. Let me loosen that so we can have a talk, we do have some time to kill before the fun starts.¡±


    As soon as I loosened his gag, he calmly repeated what he attempted earlier. ¡°Idiot, do you know who I work for?¡±


    ¡°You know, it¡¯s rather funny you should ask that, since who you work for is exactly what I want to know. See, I know you work for the Malias family. What I really want to know is who is in charge of the drugs?¡±


    ¡°If you know I work for the Malias family, you know that I would never betray them. They make regular examples of people who, shall we say, upset them.¡±


    ¡°Well, I hoped you didn¡¯t want it to go this way, but I see I have no choice. Soon you will see that I am a lot worse of a person than any of the Malias, and you will be begging me to believe you. First we have a few people to invite to our little soiree, so time for the gag to go back on. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡±


    Securing his gag, I headed back outside to see if I could land my second catch of the night. I headed back to the crack house, only took a position on the second floor of a dilapidated building half a block away and settled in to wait. Half an hour after the messenger should have been by to pick up the cash, activity started picking up. I could see people peeking out of blinds in the second story, and several guys started walking around the block. As they started roaming further and further away, I headed back to where I had stashed the bike. Seeing one of the thugs come closer, I needed to play this one just right. ¡°Hey man, you lookin¡¯ fer that guy that keeps going by here every coupl¡¯a hours?¡±


    Squinting at me, the guy flashed a tire iron at me and asked, ¡°Yeah, tell me what you know and I won¡¯t break your knees.¡±


    ¡°Look man, I ain¡¯t seen nothin¡¯, but I think that¡¯s his bike there in the garbage. I seen the bike in there a while, but don¡¯t go lookin¡¯ in on stuff that ain¡¯t my business, ya know?¡±


    Coming closer, I decided to go full out and start scratching the inside of my elbows, as if I was just waiting for my next fix and it was a while overdue. ¡°Figured if it wasn¡¯t y¡¯all that disappeared him, y¡¯all might reward a feller for pointin ya in the right direction. So how ¡®bout it, can a feller get a reward? I could really use a reward.¡± Pacing back and forth, I maintained a good three feet of distance between me and the goon. Obviously dismissing me as just another junkie looking for a fix, he relaxed his arm, but still kept a firm grip on the crowbar. Turning down the alley, he never saw my lunge that forced his head into the side of the building. As dazed as he was from getting his head slammed into a brick wall, pushing him the rest of the way into unconsciousness was no real challenge. Slinging him up into a fireman¡¯s carry was a lot more difficult since he outweighed me by about 50 pounds. Keeping to the shadows, I slowly made my way back to home base. Opening the walk in, I wasn¡¯t too surprised to see the messenger on his side still strapped to the chair. He wasn¡¯t making much headway against the restraints either. I decided to let him enjoy the fruits of his labors while I secured the goon.


    ¡°Uuuunnnnnggggg¡±


    ¡°Well, looks like your friend is finally coming around.¡± I said to the messenger after setting him back upright. ¡°Don¡¯t you guys worry, I have you both tied up securely. I know who you work for, so save your threats of retaliation. We will need at least one more person for our little party to really begin, so I want you two to play nice. Oh, and should you be entertaining any ideas for escaping together, I have thought of all the scenarios. You are at my mercy.¡±


    Not giving them anything else to go on, I decided on one last fail safe. Putting the chairs back to back and connecting them in several places with wire I stepped back to admire my handiwork. Not only could neither man reach the restraints with his hands, the chairs were secured together in such a way so that they couldn¡¯t slide over and release each other. The most they could do would be to slide one way or another, or fall to the side. Stepping outside, I closed the walk in door and used a screwdriver to secure the door latch. Now they couldn¡¯t even get out of the metal box without help from outside.


    Once again I headed back to the crack house, and I¡¯ll be damned if it didn¡¯t look like someone had kicked a hornet¡¯s nest. Three guys filled the front porch, and they all had biceps as big around as my thighs. The glare they were directing at anyone who got close to the house had people crossing the street just to avoid it. From my perch two stories up, I could see over the fence at the side of the house and into the back yard. Knee high grass hid a junkyard of twisted and rusted metal. Plenty of cover, if someone were to be able to sneak in. It was entirely too early to try anything like that though, I needed to kill a few hours.


    Deciding my time would be best spent keeping an eye on my two prisoners, I was rather glad I went back to my base. When I opened the door, both chairs were on their sides, and the wire was in pieces on the floor! Stepping in I quickly launched a kick to the face of the goon, and slid all the wires down into the floor drain.


    ¡°Well, now here we have a major problem. Here I go through all the trouble to make sure you two are comfortable during your stay here, and how do you repay me? An ill-conceived escape attempt. I guess now we will have to do some improvised surgery.¡±


    ¡°Surgery? What the fuck are you talking about fool?¡±


    ¡°Ah, the goon does know how to speak. Wonderful. Well, since you are an earthbrand of some considerable skill, I¡¯m going to have to use this here knife to go in and make sure you can¡¯t do that anymore. I guess now we will have to do some improvised surgery.¡±


    ¡°Surgery? What the fuck are you talking about fool?¡±


    ¡°Ah, the goon does know how to speak. Wonderful. Well, since you are an earthbrand of some considerable skill, I¡¯m going to have to use this here knife to go in and make sure you can¡¯t do that anymore.¡±


    ¡°You think I¡¯m just going to sit still while you do that? I knew you were stupid to attack the Malias, but you must be dumber than I thought. Everyone knows you can¡¯t stop someone¡¯s powers.¡±


    ¡°If I had a nickel for every time what everyone knows turned out to be wrong, I would be a very rich man. Now, sit still while I work. You really wouldn¡¯t want me to nick your brain stem while I¡¯m cutting.¡±


    ¡°W w w w wh what are you talking about? What¡¯s a brain stem?¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess a little knowledge wouldn¡¯t hurt you, and might actually convince you to sit absolutely still. The brain stem is the portion of your brain that controls heartrate and breathing, and if I accidently cut portions you could become paralyzed. Or Die.¡±


    Of course, that little threat had the intended effect, and I could practically feel the tension in him as I prepared to perform impromptu brain surgery. This was all speculation on my part, but from my early training and the pain it caused, I theorized that the portion of the brain that controlled these powers was in the cerebellum. While that vastly narrowed down the target area, it still left a rather large area that could have terrible repercussions if I was wrong. I did remember how vision was almost required for the firebrand¡¯s powers, so I was going to focus on the area near the occipital lobe. Tilting my patient¡¯s head forward, I held him steady with my left hand while forming an ice scalpel in my right. Going straight in to the target area would sever the spinal column and kill him, so I moved an inch and a half to the right, and forced my blade in until the tip was just past the bottom of the skull, keeping perpendicular to the line of his spine. This would be the tricky part. I had to slowly grow my blade while following the curvature of the skull, which required me to grow it at an angle that was pointing slightly back towards my body. The quickest way to reach the target would be to deviate slightly to the left as well, but would add an additional complication so I chose to parallel the spine then move laterally. While it would be longer, it would also be safer. Finally reaching the gap between the two lobes of the brain, I once again changed direction and extended the line of my blade, flattening it out as it moved so that it covered the entire top portion of the cerebellum. All this preparation went on despite the whimpering of the goon. I guess he didn¡¯t like pain and the feeling of helplessness. Prolonging this wouldn¡¯t help anything, so I took a deep breath to center myself in preparation, then forced dozens of centimeter long ice needles to extend from the plate I had performed and perforate the cerebellum.


    Removing such an unwieldy blade would not only shred the remnants of the brain that I had painstakingly avoided, I simply flash melted the ice into water and let it drain out his wound tract. I also hijacked his blood supply and forced his platelets to seal off the dozens of minor bleeds, ensuring the patients survival.


    Exhaling, I asked, ¡°Well, how do you feel? Still among the living?¡±


    Before he could answer, the goon¡¯s body was wracked with shudders as the stress broke his mental barriers and reduced him to a sobbing mess. Confident that he would live, I bound him and the messenger once again in wire and dragged them back into the middle of the room.


    ¡°Good enough for government work. Now, at least one of you was helpful despite the escape attempt, so I¡¯m not going to punish you too terribly. Unfortunately, in case this didn¡¯t work I¡¯m going to have to take steps to prevent Mr. Goon here from reaching the exterior walls. I think two inches of ice will work long enough to prevent escape, but it will get uncomfortably cold in here. Luckily it won¡¯t be me that will run the risk of frostbite. If all goes well, I should be back in time to save your fingers and toes. Hopefully.¡± Done with my explanation, I formed ice around the walls and ceiling, leaving the floor and door uncovered. Stepping out, I closed the door and locked it with the screwdriver, then formed another thick block of ice outside to seal them in. Even though they didn¡¯t have any air flow, the cooler was large enough that they should have several hours of air. Now I just had to decide how to get one more participant.


    Knowing that I couldn¡¯t even begin to carry any of the guards at the front of the house back to the cooler, I would have to take one of the people inside. I had no idea how many people would be inside, which greatly complicated any plans I might make. I did know I would have to take out the three guards out front, because the absolute worst thing that could happen would be to get pinned between two groups of hostiles. I pulled out a hoodie and covered my head, and strode down the street. Two houses away, I lofted three spheres of water the size of basketballs and had them travel over the roofs. While the guys on the porch would be distracted by me, the real threat would drop in from above. Continuing down the street, I stopped in front of the walkway that lead up to the porch, turned and stared at the guards. Noting my aggressive posture immediately, the three walked down from the porch in a triangle formation, two in front and one in back. That would be perfect.


    ¡°Hey boy, you really don¡¯t want to be around here right now. Go find your fix somewhere else.¡± One of the lead guys said threateningly. Unfortunately for him, my attack was already underway as I sent the first of the water balls down around the head of the goon in back and froze the outer inch of it. With no way to get air out, he had no way to warn his compatriots and the ice was cloudy enough that between the lack of sight and his ensuing panic, he couldn¡¯t target me with his powers. Not waiting for his body to drop, I gave a massive tug on the sphere of ice and water, pulling him forward and into the backs of his unsuspecting friends. As they were knocked off balance, they also got personalized ice domes over their heads. I took too quick steps to the right just in case someone got a lucky attack off in my direction, but my caution wasn¡¯t necessary. Stepping over the bodies, I headed to the front door.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Now, if I were a paranoid drug dealer that had a load of drugs and money go missing, I wouldn¡¯t be trusting anything coming through a door. So I conjured a massive block of ice in front of it. I didn¡¯t need to worry about the windows, as they were already boarded up. Heading around back, I found a rather dilapidated screen door was the only thing securing the back of the house. I guess the inhabitants were counting on their reputation, the metal minefield, and the guards out front preventing anyone from approaching from the back. Opening up the door quickly, I conjured a rather large spike of ice sticking up from the ground to hold the door open, and keeping my escape route secure. Getting on my hands and knees, I stuck my head in to find the kitchen empty of people. I did hear voices coming from the next room, so I slowly moved towards the noise, testing each footstep to avoid any creaky boards underneath the cracked linoleum floor.


    Unfortunately, the obviously occupied room had the door open. Squatting next to the doorway, I relaxed and tried to identify how many voices.


    ¡°Damnit, we gotta find that kid. You know we are gonna get blamed for this shit, doesn¡¯t matter that he never made it here in the first fuckin place. They ain¡¯t gonna care, we gonna take the blame and so are the poor fools who saw him last.¡±


    ¡°For the last time, calm down Darren. You noticed something was wrong, and did the smart thing by passing it up the chain. You didn¡¯t sugar coat it, you didn¡¯t try to hide anything.¡±


    ¡°It ain¡¯t gonna matter man, they gonna see me as responsible and kill me as a traitor. You know how they kill traitors, I don¡¯t wanna go like that.¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t going to kill¡±


    ¡°THE HELL THEY WON¡¯T! They¡¯ll see it as I lost money AND drugs, they gonna slow roast me man. Use their fuckin waterbrand to keep me alive for weeks as they singe off body parts. Ain¡¯t nobody allowed to fuck with the Malias.¡±


    Hmmm, this was rather interesting. It appeared at least two occupants were in the other room; the rather terrified drug dealer was directly across the room from the sound of his voice. The much calmer woman would be to my right if I entered through the door, but nobody in this situation would be calm unless they were higher up the food chain. If she were, there would be at least one bodyguard with her at all times, assume two because it is much better to overestimate your opponent¡¯s strengths than underestimate them. The guards would be silent, but probably not overly alert to outside threats. Their primary concern would be the increasingly agitated dealer in the room, as panicked people afraid for their lives tend to not think rationally. If I were them, one would be near the woman to act as a human shield should an attack arise, while the other would be across the room and out of the line of fire. While I was pondering the locations of possible opponents, I had momentarily lost track of the conversation. Listening in again, I tried to pick up as much information as possible.


    ¡°going to kill you, so just relax. I¡¯m more concerned that your man Donovan has also gone missing. Two missing people in one day has them . . . concerned. Especially with some outside organization hitting our street dealers.¡±


    ¡°It don¡¯t matter what you say, I¡¯m a dead man. Even if it ain¡¯t the twins that off me, Burt will have my head for losing one of his.¡±


    ¡°Oh please, Burt is huge on personal responsibility. If we find Donovan and he let his guard down, it¡¯s his ass not yours.¡± As the unnamed woman stopped talking, I heard the rustle of a guard repositioning himself coming from the left of the room, just inside the doorway. So nice of him to put himself within arm¡¯s reach of the door, I would thank him by taking him out first. Taking out the others would be much more difficult, I would have to get fairly close to take one of them hostage. Conjuring a four-inch blade of ice in my left hand, I made my move.


    Maintaining a crouch, I lunged into the room and immediately thrust my blade into the stomach of the guard by the door. As he bent over in pain, I lit up every pain receptor in his body and continued moving forward, straightening from my crouch in favor of speed. Reaching out with my right hand, I unleashed a continuous blast of water with the force of a fire hose at the woman seated on a stained couch. Her bodyguard was on point, and took the brunt of the blast. By the time I had made it across the room, the drug dealer had barely started rising from the couch. Slamming my knee into his gut, a second conjured knife found its way into his throat. Turning to face the remaining bodyguard, a steel backhand took me in the chest and sent me flying across the room. After making a nice dent in the wall and valiantly falling to my knees in pain, I was caught in a literal iron grip as the bodyguard grabbed both biceps and hauled me to my feet facing him. Except, instead of a bodyguard I was facing an impenetrable steel suit. No wonder he was willing to step in front of danger to his client, he could turn into a freaking knight.


    Chuckling at the astonished look no doubt plastered on my face, he said, ¡°He he he, never seen an earthbrand do this before kid? The boss wanted to send the best to handle this little fiasco. Now, are you going to be a good captive, or am I going to have to break some bones to convince you to play nice?¡±


    Coughing through the pain in my chest, I desperately wracked my brain for a solution to my predicament. His armor left no gaps for me to exploit, at least none facing me. If he was smart, he was completely isolated with a rather large supply of air in there. Not good. I needed to get through that armor, but most of my techniques wouldn¡¯t work.


    Shaking me back and forth a bit, apparently he was getting rather impatient with me. ¡°Stop, stop!¡± I managed to croak out. If only I had something to cut through his armor. Wait a minute, THAT¡¯S IT! If the steel is thin enough, an extremely high pressure spray of water can actually cut it, but it has to be incredibly close. Closing my eyes in concentration, I brought my right arm up and extended my index finger. Aiming for his heart, I held it half an inch away from the side of his chest. Using the largest stream of my power, I started conjuring water at my fingertip. The rest of the power save one of the smallest streams I used to contain the slowly expanding sphere of water. As the pressure reached the limit of what I could maintain, I used the last stream of power to punch a pencil sized hole in the containment field, shooting a lance of high pressure water through the steel plate covering the bodyguard¡¯s side and straight into his chest cavity.


    ¡°Ungh¡± was all he managed to grunt out before I felt his arms slacken and he started pitching forward. Shoving with my remaining strength, I managed to ensure the human tank didn¡¯t pin me beneath him. Panting with my hands on my knees, I had forgotten about the remaining person until an invisible line of fire erupted across my forearms, slicing neatly through the arms of my hoodie. Glancing up, it was suddenly impossible to get a breath and the woman had a vicious sneer on her face. Fighting through the panic, I ran forward and slammed my fist into her face followed quickly by an uppercut to the solar plexus. As she doubled over retching, I took a few deep, glorious breaths. Before she could recover I smashed a double fisted hammer blow onto one of her kidneys. As she fell to the floor, I once again knocked her out.


    Hoisting her onto a shoulder, it was past time to get out of there. Hurrying through the house, I exited out the back and made my way down the street. I really wished it was closer to full dark, but I didn¡¯t have much choice.


    ¡°Hey, stop right there!¡±


    Turning to see who was yelling, I saw a group of five guys heading my way. I turned and started sprinting, not trusting the three block lead I had. Darting left into an alley, I stopped and fought through the impending headache from over using my power and conjured my distraction. Sitting about a foot back from the edge of the building, I hoped it was close enough that turning the corner at full speed wouldn¡¯t leave enough reaction time to avoid the block of ice sitting at shin height. To add some extra discouragement, I added several spikes protruding towards the mouth of the alley. Staggering from the effort, I headed out at the best possible speed away from my pursuers. Trying to avoid common pursuit mistakes, I took the first left turn that I could. Zig zagging down alleys, the sounds of pursuit died off. I was incredibly happy to see the abandoned restaurant, and to finally make it inside to safety.


    Taking a moment to recover, I slid the ice block securing the door across the melted puddle on the ground. I guess it wasn¡¯t as much of a deterrent as I thought it would be. I opened the door to find the two guys right where I left them, although they were shivering terribly. Leaving the door open, I secured my third and final prisoner of the night.


    ¡°S s s s s so n nn n nicccccce of y y yu yu you ta ta ta ta ta show ow ow ow uppppp.¡± The messenger stuttered out. I guess they must have been a little colder than I though. Before I did anything to fix the temperature, I had to neutralize the threat from the woman. As a powerful windbrand, she could manage to kill me even if she was tied up. As quick as I could, I rushed through the same procedure I had done on the goon from earlier. Sadly, that last surgery cost me the last of my power for a while, and I knew I would need an hour to recharge even the smallest amount. Flopping down into a chair, completely spent.


    After a few minutes of relaxation, which wasn¡¯t nearly long enough in my opinion, a banshee shriek startled me. ¡°WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME YOU SONOFABITCH!? HOW ARE YOU STOPPING ME FROM CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF YOU RIGHT NOW!?¡±


    Looking directly into her deranged eyes, I calmly replied, ¡°Could you keep it down? I overexerted myself back there and have a killer headache.¡±


    ¡°TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!¡±


    ¡°If you keep calm, and tone it down a little I will.¡± Pausing to make sure she was going to keep it down, I continued, ¡°It¡¯s really rather simple. I cut the part of the brain that controls your power. You are no longer a windbrand.¡±


    Terror slowly consumed her face as all the implications sank in. I didn¡¯t really care; I was reveling in the blessed silence. Five minutes of glorious silence passed before she started talking again.


    Almost demurely, she asked, ¡°So what happens now? You obviously have a goal in mind, what do your superiors want with us?¡±


    What is she blabbering about, superiors? Keeping a poker face, I thought through the implications. Did they really think that I was part of an organization trying to horn in on their territory? I could see that, but could I work with it somehow? Probably not. ¡°Well, right now I¡¯m just looking for information. How I have to get that information would be up to you guys.¡±


    As I figured, the messenger would probably be the easiest to break. ¡°What are you looking for? I don¡¯t know much, I¡¯m just a runner man.¡±


    ¡°Well, I want to know who is at the top of the organization. Leo already met an unfortunate end, and I know about Ryu and Draco. So, who is in charge of the muscle? Distribution? Alcohol?¡±


    ¡°Tell him anything and we will torture your entire family in front of you, and save you for last.¡± The woman interjected with a snarl. That sure of a reaction, I would be willing to bet she was one of the ones up at the upper tiers of the organization. I could work with that.


    ¡°Listen sweetheart, I¡¯ll get to you in a moment and we can play ¡®who thinks up the better torture¡¯ then. For now, I want to hear what this guy has to say.¡± Turning back to the messenger, I made a carry on motion with my hand.


    ¡°Roger. Roger Goodfell is in charge of protection man.¡±


    ¡°See, that wasn¡¯t too hard now was it? We got a name, but I need a description too. What he looks like, where to find him. As much as you can.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where he hangs, I stay as far away from him as I can. He¡¯s tall, six foot maybe? Shaves his head bald, and the coldest eyes you ever seen. This is a sparker you don¡¯t wanna cross.¡±


    ¡°You little shit-stain of a traitor! The more you tell this walking corpse, the more you and your family will SUFFER! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL¡± *CRACK!*


    Not wanting to deal with the interruption and lose the momentum we had built, I fired off a quick backhand into the lady¡¯s cheek, drawing a line of blood from splitting her lip. Taking a leftover strip of cloth, I forced it into her mouth, tying it tight across the back of her head. While it wouldn¡¯t stop her from making noise, at least she would be muffled. Turning back to the messenger, ¡°Well, now that should at least stop the threats. Shall we continue?¡± Sadly, as I said it I noticed he had gone quite pale and was shaking and sweating. Damnit, she finally got him. Now I would have to make myself more threatening than her. Snapping my fingers in front of his eyes, I quietly started talking. ¡°Look, I know you think she is scary, and I frankly agree with you. However, what you don¡¯t know is that I will get the information I want. How long it takes me depends on how much pain you want to go through before you give it up. Now, I know you are thinking, ¡®No matter what, I can take what he can dish out¡¯ but you are wrong. See, everyone breaks. Everyone.¡± The longer I talked, the more the trembling increased. Good, maybe he would start talking again. ¡°To prove how little you guys mean to me, I¡¯m going to have to make an example of Donovan here. Goons like him never really know much, and you already told me about his boss.¡±


    Before I could lose my nerve, I lunged forward with the screwdriver I had surreptitiously picked up and slammed it into Donovan¡¯s chest. Eyes bulging from the unexpected attack, Donovan slowly slumped forward as he bled out.


    ¡°OH SHIT MAN YOU KILLED HIM! WHAT THE HELL?!¡± Letting the messenger freak out a bit, I looked over to my other guest to see her appraising me with cold eyes. She had to know that nobody was getting out of here alive, but with her gagged she couldn¡¯t say anything to my information source. Squatting in front of him again, I lightly slapped his cheek to get his attention. ¡°I didn¡¯t really want to kill him, but you clammed up and I needed an example. So why don¡¯t we get back to where we were. You were talking about Mr. Goodfell.¡± Shaking uncontrollably, I could tell he was on the edge of going into shock. Squatting in front of him, I lightly slapped his face to get his attention. ¡°Easy now, don¡¯t go passing out on me or anything. That¡¯s it, deep calming breaths. Slow in, hold it for a second, and slow back out. Perfect, that¡¯s perfect. Now, I know you aren¡¯t used to seeing the dark side of your business up and close, and I¡¯m really sorry I had to do that in front of you. Of course, it was necessary so that you could see just how far I¡¯m willing to go to get the information I need. I even planned out a few tortures, but just realized I don¡¯t need to stoop that low. Ya see, torture comes down to inflicting the most amount of pain with the minimum amount of bodily damage. I could easily keep you alive through broken bones and light bleeding, things like that but I don¡¯t have to. Earlier tonight I figured out that I can cause a body¡¯s pain sensors to react without causing any damage. Do you realize what that means?¡± At his head shaking slowly in the negative I continued, ¡°That means I can make it feel like you are being tortured without actually hurting you. We could theoretically go for days or maybe even weeks; it all depends on how your mind holds together. So here¡¯s your choice, and it is really a simple one. Endure weeks of torture, telling me what I want to know and possibly come out drooling like a fool for the rest of your life, or just tell me what I need now and we can skip all the torture.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll let me go? You won¡¯t kill me? All I have to do is tell you what you want? I¡­ I can do that. I¡¯m sorry Miss Andrews, but if I get out of here alive then there¡¯s a chance I can run away from the Malias. I can¡¯t do that if I¡¯m dead.¡±


    ¡°Miss Andrews? Is that our foul mouthed friend over here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s her. I don¡¯t know how you got the head of distribution already, but that¡¯s her. If you need it moved, she¡¯s the one who gets it done. Mr. Goodfell is the guy in charge of protection, and aside from the Malias brothers themselves, that is the head of the organization. They haven¡¯t even replaced Leo yet.¡±


    Looking over, I saw the resignation in Miss Andrews eyes. Taking the bloody screwdriver out of Donovan¡¯s chest, I got down so that I was eye level with her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I have to do this, but your organization really is the epitome of evil. I¡¯ve made it my mission to take them down. Like a mythical beast, if you really want to end something like this you have to cut off all the heads. I¡¯ll give you a moment to make your peace with whatever deity you pray to.¡± I saw a tear building up in the corner of her left eye, and before it could fall I slammed the screwdriver home into her chest. Walking around behind the chairs, I stopped behind the messenger. ¡°Thank you for the information, give me a second and I¡¯ll get these restraints off.¡± As his body relaxed, I slipped an ice dagger I had formed into the base of his skull, killing him instantly. ¡°Unfortunately, I can¡¯t risk you getting caught and telling people what I look like. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t have to torture you.¡± Conjuring some water to wash my hands clean with, I walked out of the freezer and never looked back.

 Chapter thirteen

    Chapter Thirteen


    I was extremely thankful for a quiet work week after my information gathering session. Not only had I strained my power, but there were several bumps and bruises that were rather sore. The light week let me get to the point where using my power didn¡¯t cause splitting headaches anymore. I was rather lucky that I didn¡¯t break any bones, as that would require a rather lengthy explanation. Dr. Minton noticed that I was rather stiff right away, but seemed to accept that my muscle soreness was the result of a game of racquetball that got a little too intense.


    My nightly excursions were also vastly different. I stayed by the river, looking through industrial complexes for a place for the final showdown. Luckily I found just the place on the north side of the city, a grouping of warehouses sandwiched between the interstate and the Cumberland River. An unused one would be perfect. Wide open for the most part, there were a few pallets of machinery scattered at random. Limited exits and an undisturbed layer of dust showed very limited foot traffic meant there was little chance of being disturbed for the final confrontation.


    Halfway through my Thursday afternoon, my relaxing week went to hell.


    ¡°Well Larry, this should be a rather routine fix.¡± Dr. Minton started out with the background of our latest patient. ¡°Eight-year-old boy broke his arm outside playing. Let¡¯s head in there and get a quick peek, then we can get the stuff for a proper cast.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like a plan Dr. Minton.¡± I replied. Knocking lightly, we both entered upon hearing a faint ¡°Come in¡± from inside. Rather small for his age, our patient was sitting on the table cradling his left arm across his chest. Sandy blond hair cut short in a crew cut with icy blue eyes, something just seemed off. He seemed to radiate a sense of despair and frustration, but it was hard to tell if it was with himself or the bear of a man next to him. Easily six foot three, this guy would give Brian Urlacher a run for his money back home. Slightly distracted by the giant, I almost missed what Dr. Minton was saying.


    ¡°So, this is Brandon, right? Hello Brandon, I¡¯m Dr. Minton and this is Dr. Davidson. Between the two of us, we will have your arm good as new in no time. Before we do that, can you tell us exactly what happened?¡±


    Before the boy could speak, his dad interjected, ¡°Kid was running around the yard and got a little too close to the see saw. His brother jumped off, and Brandon here ran right into it as it swung down.¡± Eyes downcast, Brandon merely nodded along with the explanation posed by his father.


    ¡°Well, these things are bound to happen. You must be a pretty fast runner to break your arm hitting something like that. Now, I¡¯m going to lightly run my hand along the outside of your arm to check where the break is and what it looks like. I promise, this won¡¯t hurt a bit but I need you to sit very still for me. Can you do that Brandon?¡± At his nod, Dr. Minton continued with the examination. Although the story seemed plausible to me, something about this just seemed wrong. I¡¯ve known kids who could stoically accept whatever life threw at them, most of those wouldn¡¯t be silently shedding giant tears at the same time. After Dr. Minton stepped back, I got close and examined the arm. Shocked at the shape of the break, I kept all emotion off of my face. Looking at Brandon, I asked, ¡°Brandon, does any other part of your body hurt?¡±


    Clearing his nose with a subtle sniff, he responded, ¡°My other arm hurts a little bit too, but not as bad as my left.¡±


    ¡°Ok Brandon, hold still while I check this one out as well.¡± Mentally drawing a line across the boy¡¯s chest, I started my exam level with the middle of the break in his left arm. Sure enough, there was a hairline fracture of his upper arm. ¡°Dr. Minton, there seems to be a hairline fracture on this arm as well. I don¡¯t think it is deep enough to require a cast, maybe a sling to help immobilize it for a few weeks and it should heal on its own.¡±


    Frowning, Dr. Minton stepped back up and checked his arm. ¡°I agree, sorry that I missed this on the first look Brandon. If you two don¡¯t mind, Dr. Davidson and I will step out for a bit to get everything we need.¡± Getting nods from both patient and father, we stepped out into the hall.


    Making sure that we were out of hearing distance from the room, I stopped and turned to Dr. Minton, ¡°Do you agree that something just isn¡¯t right in that room back there?¡± With a thoughtful frown Dr. Minton nodded. I continued, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you happened to look at the shape of that break, did you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, a spiral fracture. Not really uncommon, but I¡¯m used to seeing it on much younger kids. I assume there is a reason you are bringing this up?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. This type of break is commonly called a toddler fracture where I¡¯m from. It¡¯s caused by kids planting their limb and twisting.¡± Seeing the light of recognition flashing through his eyes, I kept going, ¡°There is also another way to get this specific type of break, and it isn¡¯t quite as innocuous. Sometimes adults grab onto a child¡¯s arms and twist, trying to get the kids to stop doing something. Twisting too hard breaks the bone in the same pattern you saw.¡±


    With a look of dawning horror on his face, Dr. Minton muttered, ¡°Child abuse¡­¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Now, how would you expect the breaks to show if someone who was much stronger with his right hand grabbed both arms of his kid while facing him and twisted? The poor child would have a major break on his left arm and a minor break in his right. Or maybe even just a hairline fracture. Did you also notice that the breaks twisted in the opposite direction? How could someone naturally break their arms in a twisting motion if the motions were in opposite directions? No, this is child abuse, plain and simple.¡±


    ¡°Well, we can stall until police get here I think, but Mr. Goodfell in there doesn¡¯t seem like he would be the most patient of people.¡±


    Hearing that name, I froze. ¡°Goodfell? His first name wouldn¡¯t be Roger would it?¡±


    ¡°I think so, but why do you know that name Larry?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where I heard it, but that guy works pretty high up with the Malias family. Dr. Minton, we need to get the police here as quickly as you can and we need to evacuate this area of the hospital. I can handle Goodfell, but I don¡¯t want anyone to get caught in the crossfire. Can you have the nurses slowly evacuate everyone else?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we call this a code white so that the patients don¡¯t understand what is going on. I¡¯ll have the nurses clear everyone out and call the police. What was your plan?¡±


    ¡°Well, we can¡¯t really separate Brandon and his father too much. Let¡¯s see if we can get Roger out in the hall while you work on Brandon¡¯s arm. I¡¯ll keep him occupied until the police get here.¡±


    ¡°I would feel a lot better if we knew what his strengths were. As strong as he looks, I would put him as an earthbrand.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°No, he¡¯s a sparker.¡± Getting a weird look from Dr. Minton I continued, ¡°You don¡¯t want to know. Just trust me that this guy is a sparker and that I can handle whatever he throws at me.¡±


    For the next fifteen minutes, organized chaos descended in the halls. Patients were quietly moved around, all staff maintained a subtle perimeter to make sure that nobody wandered in, and word arrived that police would get there in another half hour. Knowing we couldn¡¯t delay any longer, Dr. Minton and I walked back into the room with the Goodfells.


    ¡°Took ya long enough. Can¡¯t you see my boy is in pain here?¡± Roger grumped at us as we entered.


    With my politest tone possible, I replied, ¡°Sorry about that Mr. Goodfell, but we ran into a few issues. While Dr. Minton sees to your son, would it be possible to discuss a few things with you in the hallway? I¡¯m positive when we get a few things cleared up your son will be perfectly fine.¡± Holding the door open for him, I nonetheless received a glare for my efforts.


    Stepping into the hallway, Roger took up a position about four feet away with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted shoulder width apart. ¡°Ok, I¡¯m out here. What do you want?¡± I would be surprised if this guy could stuff more condescension into those two phrases. Rather than tiptoe around the issue, I decided to confront him directly with what evidence we had.


    ¡°Well Roger, it seems you haven¡¯t been entirely truthful with us about how your son broke his arms.¡±


    Eyes narrowing at the use of his first name, Roger interrupted, ¡°You callin¡¯ me a liar, boy?¡±


    ¡°Not just a liar. You¡¯re a child abuser. Something your son did pissed you off, and rather than handle it like an adult, you broke his arms.¡±


    ¡°Watch your tone, boy, you have no idea who you are dealing with.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I think I know exactly who I¡¯m dealing with. Big man twisted his little boy¡¯s arms until they snapped. Of course, working for the Malias I wouldn¡¯t put good parenting skills on your list of attributes.¡±


    ¡°You know who I work for, which is pretty surprising. You know I can get away with what I want, and you keep pushing me? You got a death wish, boy?¡±


    ¡°Naw, no death wish. I¡¯m just not impressed with a guy that has to break his kids arms to get what he wants. What happened? Did he not jump high enough or fast enough for you?¡±


    The more I taunted him, the more I could see the anger rising in his face. At this point, there was a vein above his left eye throbbing in time with his heartbeat. ¡°I don¡¯t gotta take no shit from some doctor fresh outta diapers. Listen up ya little shit, you are pissing off the RaiKami. Believe me when I say that it ain¡¯t something you wanna keep doing.¡±


    ¡°RaiKami? Seriously? Could you get a more pretentious title?¡± My mocking seemed to take a little wind out of the guys sails. ¡°Seriously, calling yourself the ¡®Lightning God¡¯ in Japanese is supposed to make me scared? No, the only thing that might do is make me paralyzed with laughter.¡±


    ¡°You wanna test me? See why I earned that title? You do realize that your water power won¡¯t protect you from lightning, or are you that stupid, boy?¡±


    Conjuring a shield of ultrapure water in front of me, I kept taunting him, ¡°Getting real sick of you calling me boy. Why don¡¯t you put your money where your mouth is and see what is stronger: my water or your lightning.¡±


    As Roger raised his hand to make a pointing motion at me from his hip, I tightly shut my eyes and braced myself for what was to come. I also took notice of his exact positioning. KRABOOM! Thankful that my eyes were shut to protect from the lightning strike that just blasted into my shield, I had never been happier of my study of basic chemistry. What most people don¡¯t realize is that pure water makes a great insulator. The hard part is keeping water pure enough that the solutes don¡¯t start to allow for the conduction of electricity.


    Not wanting to waste the aftereffects of what was essentially a flashbang going off, I took two quick steps forward and unleashed a kick to Roger¡¯s groin like it was the game winning field goal chance. Blinking furiously to clear my sight, I quickly got onto Roger¡¯s back and held him down. As the ringing in my ears cleared, I finally got him to quit struggling by applying the point of an ice dagger to the back of his neck, slightly to the right of the center so I wouldn¡¯t kill him. As quickly as I could, I used a rough lobotomy procedure that I had practiced on Donovan to destroy his powers. Letting the ice instrument melt, I formed a new dagger and held it to his throat. ¡°Listen up asshole, stop struggling right now. I¡¯ve already stripped you of all your control over fire, you have no power anymore. I want you to deliver a message to your bosses for me. Tomorrow night, have them come to the north edge of town. There¡¯s a complex on Cowan Street, have them meet me there at midnight and to come alone to the warehouse that is shrouded in fog. If they don¡¯t come alone, I will keep dismantling their organization a little at a time.¡±


    ¡°You think that just because you can block lightning you have a chance against the twins? You really are a special kind of stupid.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got a bone to pick with the twins, but the more important thing is this: Are you going to deliver my message? If you can¡¯t deliver it, I should just kill you now and send them a message another way. So, what¡¯s it gonna be?¡±


    ¡°Cowan street, tomorrow night at midnight. Come alone to the warehouse shrouded in fog. I¡¯ll deliver your message, don¡¯t you worry. Of course, you might want to get your affairs in order, the twins don¡¯t take kindly to threats. Warn your family to get out of town, they might live a little longer.¡±


    Before I could respond, several police officers raced around the corner. One of the lead officer asked with a gentle voice, ¡°Doctor, are you going to take the knife away from that man¡¯s throat?¡±


    ¡°Yes officer, I just needed it to subdue him after he tried to kill me.¡± Slowly extending my arm to the side, I tossed the dagger away from my body. As soon as it left my hand, several officers swarmed over Roger and me. Handcuffed and hauled to my feet, we were quickly separated. As quickly and concisely as possible, I told my side of the story to the officers, leaving out the threats and lobotomy I had performed. Luckily, Dr. Minton came out of the exam room with Brandon and backed my side of the story. While nobody actually saw Roger attack me with lightning, several people throughout the building heard the blast. The police were convinced that it couldn¡¯t have been me blasting lightning around when I demonstrated control of water. Three hours later the police left with a written account of both my and Dr. Minton¡¯s stories, and Brandon was headed out in protective custody to become a ward of the state.


    ¡°Whew, what a day. So, are you going to tell me how you survived a point blank lightning strike or just going to leave me hanging?¡± Dr. Minton seemed both exhausted and interested at the same time.


    ¡°Well, I simply used a water shield. Not really a big deal.¡±


    ¡°Larry, this is a huge deal. Water conducts electricity. That¡¯s why nobody has survived a lightning strike until now.¡±


    ¡°Dr. Minton, up until now nobody was using the right kind of water. Water doesn¡¯t conduct electricity, at least pure water doesn¡¯t. All the things that water is able to dissolve are what causes it to be able to conduct electricity.¡± At this proclamation, Dr. Minton just stared at me. ¡°Try it sometime with a voltmeter. See how pure of water you can summon, and check the resistance of it. If you get it truly pure, it should read 24 ohms. Then take that same water and dump salt in it and watch the resistance drop.¡±


    Shaking his head, he replied, ¡°Is it seriously that simple? I¡¯ll check it out sometime, don¡¯t worry. Don¡¯t worry about it now, let¡¯s just go ahead and head out for the day. Go ahead and take tomorrow off as well, nobody should have to work the day after they almost get killed. No matter what though, I am proud of you for sticking up for that boy. Just so you know, I did get him to open up about why he got his arms broken. Apparently his dad was trying to cause his powers to awaken, and got frustrated when he didn¡¯t show any progress. Never mind the fact that most people don¡¯t show any power until at least puberty. At least he will spend a very long time in jail.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Doc, for telling me. I¡¯m glad we could get him out of there as well. I think I will take you up on that offer though, and head on out. I will see you on Monday.¡±

 Chapter fourteen

    Chapter Fourteen


    I arrived at the warehouse several hours early. There wasn¡¯t much to be done for traps, but I did have one small surprise. In the middle of the space, I placed four waist high square mirrors in a very specific pattern. The first two were connected at a right angle with the mirrors facing outward, and I set them up so that one of the mirrors made a 45-degree angle with the front wall of the warehouse. Facing the door of the warehouse, the outer edge of the mirror lined up with the edge of the door, and the connecting point between the mirrors was to my left. This left one of the mirrors facing the door and the other facing the back of the warehouse. The second set of mirrors I also connected at a right angle, but with the mirrors facing towards the right angle. These mirrors were placed facing the first set of mirrors, with a pallet of boxes hiding them from being seen from the door. I now had the perfect hiding spot. Squatting down in the crook of the first set of mirrors, I was completely hidden from the entrance. The peculiar setup of the mirrors reflected the back of the warehouse so nothing appeared out of place.


    At 11:30 I rolled out the welcome wagon. This close to the river it was a simple thing to create a fog that surrounded the warehouse I was in, with a corridor leading up to the main entrance. I made the fog reach two stories higher than the actual building just so my guests wouldn¡¯t have any issues finding the place. Sitting back in my hidey hole, I waited to see if my ultimatum would be accepted.


    Fifteen minutes later I had my answer, as the door opened to admit two men. Even though they entered by themselves, I still wasn¡¯t the trusting type. Letting them get five feet inside the building, I turned the fog into a massive ice block that wrapped around the doorway with two feet of clearance on each side. Feeling the massive temperature difference, both men turned to look over their shoulders, then turned back obviously dismissing my exit deterrent. Speaking loudly, I called out, ¡°Sorry guys, but I just don¡¯t trust either of you. This is to ensure we aren¡¯t disturbed.¡±


    The left twin responded, ¡°We understand. Although it would weaken our position more to be seen as requiring backup to remove an irritant such as yourself, precautions on your part will not be held against you.¡±


    ¡°For a pair of ruthless criminals you are rather accommodating. Since we can keep it civil for the moment, my name is Larry Davidson. Would you mind introducing yourselves?¡±


    Again the left one responded, ¡°Not a problem Larry. I am Draco, and this is my twin brother Ryu. So would you mind telling us why you have declared war on our operation? Perhaps we could come to some sort of agreement. You have proven yourself extremely resourceful, and we have had several high level positions open up recently of which you must be aware.¡±


    ¡°Sorry to disappoint you guys, but there will not be any agreement between us.¡±


    ¡°Pity. Normally at this point we would be threatening your entire family with the most horrendous of tortures followed shortly by your own painful demise. Unfortunately, we seem to have a problem that has never occurred before, as you don¡¯t have any family. Would you care to explain how that came to be?¡±


    ¡°I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt, not like anything about my situation could be changed. You see, I am from another world. I have no idea how my fianc¨¦ and I were forced into your world, the only thing I know is that on what should have been one of the happiest days of my life a minion of yours took everything away from me. My fianc¨¦, Sarah, the only connection to my world, was tortured and killed right in front of me. Since your organization took everything from me, I decided I would have to return the favor.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°We were not aware of that unfortunate situation, although I suppose it wouldn¡¯t make any difference to you to now to express our condolences. I suppose this will end with your death then. How regretful, I¡¯m sure the knowledge from your world would have been of tremendous help in advancing our organization. Especially this disappearing trick you seem to have mastered.¡±


    Stepping sideways from the mirror, I launched a barrage of ice spikes towards the twins before they could separate. I didn¡¯t count on Ryu being prepared to launch such a quick defensive move as a wave of intense heat melted everything I had thrown. Knowing a counterattack would be sure to follow, I quickly conjured a shield of the purest water I could. Instead of a lightning strike, my shield was struck by an intense jet of flame that vaporized well over half of my protection.


    A flash of light and a roar. Blinking slowly, my eyes finally made out the rafters above me. When did that mule kick me in the chest? What was I doing again? Oh yeah, that was a firebrand blasting me with lightning, not a mule. Fitting, that this whole thing began and will end because of Sarah.


    Searing pain cleared the fog clouding my head. ¡°Gyaaaaaah!¡± I cried out in agony as a flame was held inches above my stomach.


    The scariest part was how calmly Draco was holding a flame just close enough to cause pain without causing too much tissue damage. ¡°Well, we are so glad you managed to survive. Did you think us fools though? Roger told us of how your water shield managed to block his lightning. Now that we have your attention, there are several questions we would like you to answer. Before you misunderstand us, we will ask you questions and you will tell us everything we want to know. There will be no negotiation and no tricks. Understand?¡±


    Before I could respond, the flame was dancing on my flesh. ¡°Gyaaaaaaaah, yes, YES I UNDERSTAND!¡± Damn, I couldn¡¯t let these guys know anything they wanted. Apparently they were under the misunderstanding that people in this world couldn¡¯t use their powers through pain. While this was true for the vast majority, I could do small tricks. Any direct attacks wouldn¡¯t work, as Ryu was keeping a close eye on me and I had no doubt that he would terminate any attempt in an extreme manner. As the flame was slowly taken away, I used just a trickle of my power to do the opposite of what I had done to the bodyguard a week ago. Instead of activating pain receptors, I shut all mine down. Now I just had to buy some time.


    ¡°Now that we understand what¡¯s at stake, let¡¯s move on to more important matters. It seems an associate of ours, Miss Andrews, has gone missing. What do you know about that?¡±


    ¡°Depends, there was a Miss Andrews I came across recently. Slightly deranged, foul mouthed windbrand with a penchant for torture?¡±


    ¡°An apt description, since you seem to have met her can I assume she came to an untimely demise? Oh, come now it really is ok. We had figured as much since we hadn¡¯t heard from her in a week.¡± Apparently mistaking the sweat beading on my forehead for fright instead of effort, I made an effort to keep the inadvertent ruse going.


    ¡°Yeah. Yeah, I met her. Like you said, she is dead. Nothing persoGYAAAAAAH!¡± Despite what Draco had said, apparently it was a rather sore subject. Luckily I was able to see where he was holding the flame so that I could fake the agony of being burned alive. Taking several deep breaths after he removed the flame, I knew time was running out.


    ¡°Excellent. Now, it seems that Roger has lost all his power. So now we are going to have a nice, long discussion on how you managed to remove the power of a firebrand whose strength is on par with ours. Do we need more incentive?¡±


    Shaking my head in the negative, I knew my time was up. Who knows what despicable acts these bastards would pull with that kind of knowledge. Keeping my voice quiet, I got both of them to lean in close as I whispered, ¡°I wonder if Kansas got it right in their song, will there be peace when I¡¯m done?¡± Grabbing both twins by the collar, I let go of the massive ice block I had been conjuring twelve feet above our heads and embraced the descent of darkness.

 Epilogue

    Epilogue


    Dr. Minton


    Monday afternoon


    ¡°Excuse me, Laura? Have you heard anything from Dr. Davidson?¡± I asked with concern. Something weird had happened on Thursday with that abusive father, but I figured Larry would have come to me with his concern.


    I was interrupted with my musing by Laura¡¯s response, ¡°No doctor, we haven¡¯t heard anything. I¡¯ve tried calling several times through the day but no answer.¡±


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m going to head over to his place and check on him then. It isn¡¯t like him to completely miss work with no word or warning.¡± Heading out, my worries kept increasing. Larry was responsible for putting one of the Malias family in jail, and I wouldn¡¯t put it past them to arrange for some retaliation. Thankfully there were no cops to see just how fast I managed to go on my way over to his apartment.


    Entering with the spare key he had left me, I called out into the darkness, ¡°Larry? You here? It¡¯s Doctor Minton checking on you.¡± Stepping into the apartment, I could tell that it had been empty for a few days. The air was still and stale. Walking into the kitchen, I noticed a thick envelope with my name on it. Opening it up revealed several pages in Larry¡¯s handwriting.


    Doctor Minton,


    If you are reading this, then things didn¡¯t go as planned. I¡¯m sorry, but I just couldn¡¯t let the Malias family get away with what happened to Sarah. I really did appreciate the time you spent helping me to adapt to this world, but no matter how much joy I felt helping people, nothing could fill the void in my heart. Every night I cry myself to sleep as I stare at her ring on my dresser.


    As a thank you for everything you have done, enclosed I have detailed instructions on several things that should be helpful. I started out with how I visualized a mechanism to divide my power into several streams that lets me both perform multiple tasks at once and also perform tasks that would normally be overpowered. Behind that are detailed explanations on the two new procedures we worked on, how to fix an aneurism and how to cure Miner¡¯s Lung. I also included several criteria we use in my world to diagnose semi common ailments and what the causes and treatments usually are. Hopefully you will be able to adapt that knowledge to this world.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    One thing I will not pass on in any way is the ability to remove someone¡¯s power. I feel that this knowledge would be far too dangerous for anyone to obtain, especially considering how the use of power is ingrained into every facet of society. Forgive me, but the risk is just too great.


    The next page is a notarized copy of my will. What little material possessions I possess I pass on to you, to do with what you will. Again, thank you for everything you have done for me.


    The final page you will need to turn over to the police. In it you will find a detailed list of the things I have done in order to take down the Malias family and free this town from the curse of their existence. It should solve several of their cases, and provide insight on how a waterbrand with the proper knowledge of anatomy can use their power for nefarious purposes. In addition to how I used my power to kill, I also included what clues would indicate cause of death in each case.


    There are some bodies that might not have been found as of yet. On the east side of town, I¡¯m not sure the exact street anymore, is an abandoned restaurant with the lock to the backdoor broken off. Inside the freezer you will find three bodies. Two of them are lower ranking members of the Malias family while the third is a person I only heard referred to as ¡®Miss Andrews.¡¯ According to my source, she was responsible for the distribution network employed by the Malias family. Please see that their bodies are laid to rest.


    As for me, I was supposed to meet the Malias twins at a warehouse on Cowan Street. Hopefully I will walk away from this confrontation and you will not need to read any of this, but I doubt my luck will hold out that long. Please ensure my remains are placed next to Sarah¡¯s.


    Your ever grateful student,


    Larry Davidson