Fantasy Electric Feel

[NethanielShade]

"I guess that's not a bad idea. Like you said, all three of us in this room was probably a bad idea. But don't blame me... I didn't know you guys were having the same problem as I was when I invited you guys both in," Jenna said, turning away from Elysia to look at Kili. "I guess we should get going before... the whole house explodes or something. You never know." She said, sighing and standing up. All three of the girls left the room, and Jenna yelled to her parents that they would be heading to the park.


Elysia walked alongside Jenna, not saying anything. She a little embarrassed about her panic attack she had in Jenna's room, and as a result there was an awkward silence in the air.





Suddenly, she heard the screech of tires on the street and she turned around. They were near an intersection in the road, and close enough to the corner that Kili had ran to the corner, turned the corner, got hit by a car, and came back into view from around the corner, all in a matter of seconds. Nani!? She asked herself, horrified. She watched as the driver of the car sped away, but before they had driven away, Elysia noticed the driver was a female with blonde hair... And the driver was looking straight at Elysia and Jenna. Then the car was gone, and all that was left was Kili's broken body on the street. N-n-n-nan desu ka?!? Her eyes were wide and her expression was disbelief. Kili and Jenna had been her only two friends this year. And now Kili was dead. There was no way the girl laying on the street a dozen or so meters away was still alive.

"KIIIIIIILLLLLIIIIIIIIIIII!!!"
​

Instantly, the air around Elysia popped, as her powers became unstable, her electromagentic field somehow started ripping electrons from atoms in the air. The hundreds of trillions of atoms in the air around her started losing and gaining electrons, becoming charged ions. As the air ionized around her, electricity jumped to metal all around, looking for conductive things. It shocked the manhole in the street, nearby streetlights, it jumped to door handles across the street, shocked cars, and more. As her electricity connected with things supplied by the city's power grid, it began drawing off of it, in turn making her electricity grow and become stronger and even less stable.

Elysia screamed, electricity and lightning arcing and jumping between everything in sight. The air began to heat up to such a high temperature that the asphalt in the street began to melt, yet somehow Elysia and Jenna were still unharmed. Elysia kept screaming, drawing more power from the grid. She felt the power plant give in, and shut down. This should have caused a blackout, but the electricity had a mind of it's own. It had spread so far from her, the epicenter, that electricity arced from telephone wires above the streets, blocks away, to the ones on this city's section. As a result, she began feeding off of neighboring power grids, gaining power. Elysia couldn't control herself. Her rampage had taken it's own form, it felt like the electricity was controlling her. In her mind, she felt as if she was curling into a fetal position, losing hope... It's so cold...


Then she passed out. Her body fell to the floor, blood gushing from her nose. All the electricity in the air dissipated, conducting into whatever metal the electricity had been acing to. Worse of all, however, was the explosive release of energy after she collapsed. Invisible and harmless to living things, the electromagnetic pulse emitted from her body, and every electronic that could be seen from her location was fried. Somewhere up in orbit, a satellite also was destroyed by the EMP.

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

Her mind was blank, yet she knew that denial was running through her in the back of her mind. She felt so horrified, so scared. Nobody was in the neighborhood; nobody other than she and Elysia witnessed the tragic... accident. No, she refused to call it an accident. It was a hit and run. Someone killed Kili, and that terrified her. Jenna didn't react when all the power went out in the neighborhood, and she didn't react to Elysia's screaming. There was a vague sense that was telling her that Elysia was getting out of control, but she didn't register it, not yet. The world felt unreal at the moment; it felt like her world was consumed in a genjutsu. It was only when Elysia sent out a powerful electromagnetic pulse that she became aware of the world around her again.


The girl's eyes shifted slightly from left to right, scanning the damage done to the neighborhood streets. Behind her, she saw Elysia on the ground with a bleeding nose. With jerky movements, she removed herself from Kili's side and staggered to Elysia, dropping to her knees so that her legs laid flat on the ground. At least Elysia didn't look dead..


"Elysia... wake up," she sobbed. A whimper. "Don't leave me."


Jenna didn't know how long it had been, but soon enough, the three girls - two alive and one dead - started to attract attention. People were gaping at them, some trying to call the ambulance on their phones only to find that electronics didn't work. Jenna could feel the hum of electricity running through her body, and later, she could hear slight cackling noises. She looked eerily calm, her face blank as she stared at Elysia.





Why did this happen?





In the end, Kili and Elysia was put on a stretcher and taken to the emergency room across the street from her neighborhood. It was only a seven minute walk. Someone, she didn't know who, supported her as she mechanically made her way to the hospital. Tears pooled in her eyes once again.





Why?

 

[NethanielShade]

A blonde girl wearing dark sunglasses in a red car sat outside of the hospital building, talking on her phone. No one was watching her, and no one would know who she was if they were. She was invisible in this country, no identification, no birth certificate, no driver's licence, no criminal records, no anything. No camera had ever caught her on tape, no picture had accidentally been taken of her, no anything.


She was effectively a ghost


She waited outside of the hospital, a cellphone held up to her ear. "It's done. Yes. There's no way Number Seven survived... One of the other girls is unharmed, Number Nine... But the other one, Number Eight, she went crazy. She can't control her powers yet, and she almost destroyed the block. Wait, what?!" She exclaimed, staring out her car window in shock. Two black cars had just pulled into the hospital parking lot, and two men in black suits stepped out of each car. They weren't here, they didn't know she existed... No, they were here for the girls. "Shit, I gotta go. They're here." She rolled down the window, pulled out a handgun from her glove compartment and aimed, shooting one of the black cars twice. Bang bang. "Fuck the government!" She yelled, further gaining the men in black's attention, and instantly she peeled out of the parking lot. She looked in the rear view mirror and noticed only two of the four men had ran back to their car, the other two ran towards the hospital. She felt a sinking feeling. Only two of them would come after her. The other two were still after Number Eight, and she needed her alive... But there was nothing else to be done. She sped down the street, seventy miles per hour over the speed limit. "Tch. The kids'll have to take care of themselves."

​

She was in the void again. She never remembered this infinite expanse of oblivion when she woke up, but she always seemed to end up here again. How many times had she gone unconscious in the past three days now? In this state, she had no bearing on time. In the darkness, it seemed she was here forever, but when she'd wake up she knew she wouldn't remember this, and it would feel like time went by in a blink.


For now, she floated here in this endless expanse. She reflected on what had happened. Kili had died, but that seemed distant and unimportant. She had gone on a rampage? But why? Nothing seemed to matter to her, she had no emotions, she was just processing the information. Going on a rampage didn't save Kili, nor did it avenge her, so it was pointless, and probably hurt more than it helped. Then she remembered, she saw a blonde woman in the car that hit Kili. Well, that was a lead at least, but it wasn't much. Elysia wondered why she felt the need to avenge Kili, though. Did she miss Kili? Would she miss Kili? In this emotionless state a few things occured to her: When she woke up she would be mad that she wondered if she'd miss Kili, even if she didn't remember it. She'd also know that she was putting everyone around her in danger. She wouldn't want to lose Jenna, and she wouldn't want to lose her family because of these powers. Maybe I should just run away.





Elysia woke up and stared at the hospital ceiling for a few seconds before it registered where she was. Here again? She wondered. Right, she had gone crazy again. She sighed aloud and sat up, noticing Jenna was asleep in the hospital room, and her parents were nowhere to be found. It was still bright outside. Elysia scanned the room, and froze. Two men wearing black suits stood by the door. Their heads were shaven, they had strong jawlines and big hands, and they both had dark sunglasses covering their eyes. They both stood perfectly still, and perfectly blocking the door and any chance of escape. "She's awake." The one on the left muttered, and Elysia noticed they had tiny microphones from their ears to their mouths.





"Jenna... Who are they?" Elysia asked, really nervous, and loud enough to wake her friend. The one on the right began walking towards her, the one on the left stepped to the side so he was blocking the center of the door.





"Elysia Hotaru." Said the man who'd walked towards her. "I'm with the FBI, and you are under arrest for terrorism charges. I ask that you come nicely and quietly. We'd prefer to not have this show up on the news." Something seemed off about him, he didn't seem like a normal cop. He also didn't seem like an FBI agent, he seemed more like one of the Men In Black you hear about in alien stories and stuff, secret government agents sent to harass or silent witnesses of UFO's. Also the ones who come to take UFO's away. Static popped the air around Elysia, and her heart monitor rang out with a loud beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, flat-lining.





"Stay away!" Elysia screamed. "JENNA WAKE UP!"





"Calm down, right now!" Said the Man In Black sternly, "Elysia, come with us peacefully. We already have your parents. You're 'Wanted,' and you're coming with us, peacefully or not."

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

"Jenna... Who are they?" Jenna jerked awake at Elysia's voice. Wha... Her mind was still murky, not fully comprehending the situation she was in right now. Her back was kinda sore... Ah, right. She fell asleep next to Elysia in the ER room right across from her neighborhood. The room was quiet, which was a good thing because her head was slightly throbbing. A man's voice invaded her mind, but she figured that it was the doctor so she tilted her head from her bent position to look at the "doctor". Her eyes finally fell on the man. He was dressed in black, definitely not a doctor. A cackling sound followed by a loud beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep sounded from behind, indicating that the heart monitor flat-lined. Her eyes widened slightly right before she heard Elysia scream.


"Stay away! JENNA WAKE UP!"


At that, Jenna suddenly stood up and looked at the man with wide eyes, knocking back the chair she was sitting in. Her eyes darted from the intimidating man in front of her to the men guarding the door.


"Calm down, right now!" Said the Man In Black sternly, "Elysia, come with us peacefully. We already have your parents. You're 'Wanted,' and you're coming with us, peacefully or not."


The tone he was saying that in didn't sit right with her. Even though she'd taken Tae Kwon Do, she had really no idea how to defend herself from even one these men in black who all seemed like really experienced fighters. Her mind was working in overdrive, trying to think of a way out of here without getting themselves killed or in trouble. Okay, if they ran, then they would definitely find them within the hour. She couldn't take them down. They looked like men who could beat her to a pulp and may also have weapons on them. On top of that, they took Elysia's parents. She took a brief moment to praise herself for thinking somewhat logically for someone in a situation that looked life threatening. First action, stop Elysia from destroying the hospital.





"E-E-Elysia." Jenna stop herself from stuttering. "C-Calm down. M-M-Maybe they.. they just want to t-talk?" The whole time, she never took her eyes off the man in front of her and moved into a position in front of Elysia's bed. If they wanted to get through to Elysia, they would have to get through to her first. She would probably lose, but she would have to try. The man took a step forward, and then another. Even though she was trying to stay strong in this situation, tears started to pool in her eyes yet again.





"We... Our friend just got killed. Killed!" Jenna shouted the last part. "Why," she whispered, "are you doing this? Can't you leave us alone f-for a couple days? You're just making everything worse. When Elysia gets emotional, everything gets out of control for her. DO YOU WANT TO TRIGGER HER AND RISK YOUR LIVES OR SOMETHING? ARE YOU GUYS STUPID?!" By the end of her rant, tears dripping down her face and she sobbed. What did she just do? Despite her calm thinking just moments before, she just blew it. Jenna started to breathe heavily as tears poured down her face, and then she snapped...





"GET OUT!!!" She shrieked. A familiar sense of warmth powered her, and she pulled on it in a moment of desperation. Different objects suddenly flew toward her and stopped right before hitting her. The heart monitor, metal eating utensils, the mens' weapons were floating around Jenna in circles.

 

[NethanielShade]

The Man in Black smiled. The smile showed his teeth on half of the mouth, and his lips stayed together on the other half, it was weird to see, and with his eyes unreadable underneath the sunglasses, it was creepy as hell. "My my, you two girls are quick to jump to powers you can't even use." He nodded, his face turning grim. "Very well. Elysia Hotaru. You have twenty four hours to turn yourself in before you and your family disappear, forever."





Then the two men left, the air around Elysia stopped crackling with energy, and Elysia began sobbing. Why was this happening to her? First she got struck by lightning, then her friend died, and now the government wanted her to disappear, and they'd go through her family to get to her? She placed a hand on her machinery by her bed, purposely frying the systems. "Jenna... Gomenasai. I'm running away." She said, getting out of the hospital bed, changing out of the hospital gown and into her clothes shamelessly in front of Jenna. Elysia's expression was the expression of someone who had given up, and was unable to cry. The thought occurred to her that maybe Kili had been lucky to die, and everything would be easier for Elysia if she just jumped out of the hospital window. She looked down at her hand, and opened her palm. Lightning jumped between her fingers, and she had imagined that happening. When it happened, it felt like she had used a new muscle, like wiggling your ears when you previously had been unable to. She stared down at the stream of constant energy arcing between her fingers, and jumped when a tear had fell into it and sizzled. She closed her hand into a fist.


She walked towards the door, and froze. She realized she wanted to ask Jenna to come with her. Elysia didn't want to be alone. But she couldn't go back to her house, she'd be out living like a hobo or something. Besides, Jenna still had her family.





"Goodbye, Jenna."

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

"My my, you two girls are quick to jump to powers you can't even use." He nodded, his face turning grim. "Very well. Elysia Hotaru. You have twenty four hours to turn yourself in before you and your family disappear, forever."





Jenna's anger spiked more at the words the man in black spout out. By this time, she too angry to cry much less sob. POWERS WE CAN'T USE?! WE'RE ALREADY USING THEM, IDIOT! But of course, she didn't dare say that out loud in fear of what would happen next if she did say those words. Even though the men left, Jenna's emotional turmoil kept the objects orbiting around her in circles. She just kept staring at the space where the man in black was, too furious to say anything. The room was eerily silent until Elysia said those words.





"Jenna... Gomenasai. I'm running away."


What? Panic replaced anger, and the floating objects suddenly dropped simultaneously the same way she felt her heart drop. Jenna seemed frozen in her place, eyes wide with tear tracks running down her face. It was too much... She got into a car accident, obtained new powers, had a friend die, had said friend's family taken hostage, and now her only friend alive was going to leave her?





"Goodbye, Jenna."


Her thoughts finally caught up with her and then she ran up to where Elysia was standing at the door and gripped her left arm with both hands in a desperate grip.





"Please..." She whispered. "Please, I'll do anything. Just don't leave me alone, uh*?"


Even though she knew that saying this was practically abandoning her family, the fresh scar of her friend's death combined with the pressure from the men in black led her to make her decision. Elysia needed someone more than they needed her. She was a senior; she was going to college soon anyway. The government wouldn't kill their families without reason if they both just ran away...





* "uh?" is kind like the Japanese word for "neh?" when used in this context. A kind of plea.

 

[NethanielShade]

Coldest winter for me.


No sun is shining anymore.


The only thing I feel is pain.


Caused by absence of you.


Suspense controlling my mind.


I cannot find the way out of here.





I want you by my side.


So that I never feel alone again...

"Please..." Jenna had whispered, gripping Elysia's arm desperately. "Please, I'll do anything. Just don't leave me alone, uh?"


Elysia stared at her, and nodded. She felt a surge of emotions, the main one being relief. "Hai, ikuzo." They snuck out of the hospital room, and down the hallways, luckily meeting no one on the way. Jenna was worried about the first floor because there would be people there, but when they reached it and walked out of the hospital's front doors, no one stopped them, no one seemed to recognize them.


Where should we go? Elysia wondered to herself as the two girls walked down the street. Were they fugitives, now? The police didn't seem to be actively after them, yet but it was only a matter of time. Most likely, the cops would come after the twenty four hours the government agents had given them. Elysia snapped out of her though and jumped when something cold and small hit her on the nose. "Huh?" She said in surprise, right before another hit her on the forehead. Then one on her arm, and she realized it had begun to rain. A thought came to her, at that moment. "Jenna. It's probably too dangerous for me to go back to my house, but do you think we could sneak into your house and get your phone?" She thought for a second, then said "Some coats would be nice too, but your phone is what we really need. We need to learn to develop our powers, and I have some ideas."

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

"Hai, ikuzo."


After hearing those words, Jenna relaxed her hold on Elysia's arm, but still did not let go. They sneaked around the hospital, miraculously not gaining the attention of any health care workers. Even when they exited the building, no one stopped them. All they did was give them looks full of pity and sadness for the death of their friend. It was an unfortunate accident, she heard people say in a not-so-discrete manner. It really irked her that other people were talking about the death of Kili like it was some new gossip topic, but she let it slide; she had more important things on her mind right now: running.


Jenna guessed that they would soon be fugitives in the eyes of whatever organization the men in black were from. Maybe the man had introduced what organization he was from, but she wasn't exactly awake at the time. Jenna decided to ask Elysia later since she was awake when the man entered the room. She didn't even know what they wanted with Elysia. And normally, when confronting teenagers who had just gone through an emotionally exhausting event, people are cautious so that they would not hurt their feelings. But maybe the men in black didn't care. Of course they didn't care... They took Elysia's family. If they left, though, the men would release the family for sure because what would use would they be to the men if they couldn't provide useful information? Before she could get any further along her train of thought, she realized that it started raining.


"Jenna. It's probably too dangerous for me to go back to my house, but do you think we could sneak into your house and get your phone? Some coats would be nice too, but your phone is what we really need. We need to learn to develop our powers, and I have some ideas," Elysia said.





"Yeah, sure. Although I can't sneak into the house. We have an alarm system, so there's a sound whenever a door or window is opened. It doesn't matter, anyway. My parents will probably let me in... As long as the men haven't come by."


Jenna went back to the house, pressed the code for the house, and opened the front door with her sweaty hand: bee-bee-bee-beep! The sound alerted the family of someone entering the house. Almost immediately after the alert, her family, who were all sitting in the living room, stood up and looked at Jenna. Everyone stared at the two girls standing at the entrance door, the door still open. Then, the chaos began. Jenna's mom started to cry, her dad didn't really know what to do, her sister hugged her, and her brother just said hi. By the time they calmed down, about three minutes passed and the door was finally closed. They allowed Jenna to go upstairs to her room with Elysia behind her, but their eyes all lingered on her, as if they wanted to say something, but couldn't say it. Unknown to the girls, the FBI did indeed come by their house and asked their members to contact them if Elysia showed any signs of running away.


When Jenna got to her room, she closed the door and looked around at her untouched room. Her phone was lying down on her bed with the charger still inserted. The door to her closet was slightly opened. She grabbed her blue purse, stuffed her phone and wallet inside of it and then went over to her closet, opening it.





"You can pick anything you want from here, and it's yours," Jenna said. She wasn't really attached to any of her clothes, so she didn't see the harm in letting Elysia choose something. They weren't going to come back anyway.

 

[NethanielShade]

When Jenna opened the door to her house, they were greeted by a loud, alarming beep-beep-beep sound from the house alarm, followed by Jenna's family standing and staring at them, before her mom cried, her sister hugged her, her brother said "Hi" and Jenna's father stood there awkwardly, not saying a word. Strange that it was armed while they were still home. Elysia was uncomfortable the whole time. She wondered what her parents were doing right now. Were they in a jail cell? Jenna and Elysia were finally able to go up to Jenna's room, but Elysia shivered uncomfortably. She could feel Jenna's family's gazes on their backs.


"You can pick anything you want from here, and it's yours," Jenna said once they got to her room. She nodded. Elysia had spent the night at Jenna's before, so she more or less knew where things were. She wasn't here for clothes, though, and she went and grabbed Jenna's TV remote, taking the back out and pouring the batteries into her hand before shoving them into her pocket. She did it to several other appliances too like the alarm clock. Then, she grabbed a bag from Jenna's closet, and she put various things in it. Coins, needles, bobby pins, she even found two watch batteries, which she felt would be extremely useful.


Once Jenna had everything she planned on bringing, they left Jenna's room. Elysia got two umbrellas from a hallway closet, and then the left Jenna's house. "I know I said it'd probably be too dangerous... But I've made up my mind. We're going to my house for supplies too, and since it'll be empty, we can raid it without worry. I'm running away, even once my parents are safe..." She paused. "I don't know if those agents, or other ones, will be at our house, but there's bound to be some surveillance of the house. Luckily, we can sneak into the back. My house doesn't have an alarm."


They walked on in grim silence, until they reached Elysia's neighborhood. Once they were three houses away from her, Elysia and Jenna jumped the house's fence, and they were in a stranger's back yard. They jumped the neighboring fence, the next fence, and the one after that. Finally, they were in Elysia's back yard. She took long strides, reaching the back door in a few steps. The door was locked. An idea came to her mind. They had electrical powers, and the door's locking mechanism was made of metal. Maybe she could influence the tumblers in the door, somehow. She hovered her hand just above the metal door handle, and willed the electricity to flow. Nothing happened. She strained her mind, trying to force it to happen, even picturing it in her mind, but nothing happened. She sighed, and tried again, calming herself. She sat there, keeping her mind clear, hoping something would come to her. The palm of her hand began to tingle, and she felt the urge to scratch it, but she kept it still. Finally, a spark jumped between her hand and the door handle, before fizzing away. It was frustrating, she couldn't control it, but she knew it was there. Frustration and anger built up in her, and she threw her hand away from the door knob, and it followed, wrenched from the door by magnetism, and flung across the yard. The door knob on the other side of the door fell to the ground, and the door swung quietly open.


Inside the house, the lights were still on. The TV in the living room was on, and the dining room still had plates of half eaten food on the table. The government must have come while her parents were eating dinner. She didn't see any signs of a struggle, so her parents must have gone willingly with them. She grabbed four kitchen knives and put them in the bag, then she went to the garage and looked around. "My dad has a pellet gun, so there's bound to be ammo somewhere..." After a few minutes of looking, she found a large cylindrical plastic jar about half a foot tall and about four inches wide, completely filled with small pellets. She put the whole thing in the bag, smiling. She went to her mom's office and grabbed a full pack of double A batteries. Finally, they reached her room. She stripped everything in her room of batteries, she grabbed the pocket knife her dad had given her years ago, then she realized her school backpack was on the floor. That would be useful, she thought, and transferred all the items of Jenna's bag to the backpack. She also put two of her usual outfit into her bag. She laughed at herself then, realizing how stupid it was that she usually wore the same thing every day. She didn't hang out in public with friends often, as Jenna and Kili had been her only friends, so she didn't have much of a social life, and as a result not very many "cool clothes." Her father was weird, since he was used to the uniforms girls wore in Japanese schools, that had been what he bought Elysia. She didn't care much, so she wore them without complaint. It wasn't anything too uniform-y, just a skirt, a collared shirt and a vest over it. She had liked the look before, but now it made her feel self conscious. Oh well, now's not the time to be worried about that. The most important item of all she had grabbed so far was her phone. She had plans for it. It would be how she trained her powers. She put it in her pocket. She looked at the charger, wondering if she should bring it. No. I have electrical powers now. I'm going to learn how to charge my phone. If I can't do that, I can't do anything else of use.





Elysia looked up at Jenna, then. "Hey... What should we do about food?"

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

Instead of picking clothes like Jenna thought she thought Elysia would, her friend started collecting batteries and then shoving them into her pocket. Jenna just stood by the closet door, watching Elysia in curiousity. What's she doing... After she was done with gathering batteries, she grabbed one of her old bags and put what looked miscellaneous objects into the bag. Taking after Elysia's example, she grabbed her school bag (a North Face back pack colored light gray and white) and took out all of her school supplies as opposed to just dumping it. It would be bad if her family got curious about what was going on inside her room, and a way to get them to come was to make noise; dumping binders and journals made noise. After she was done, she started to pack things as well. The first thing she put in her back pack was her blue purse that she picked up earlier. The purse had her phone inside it, but she couldn't use it at the moment anyway. She opened one of her desk drawers and took out two blank journals, two mechanical pencils, a multi-colored pen, and three cases of 0.5 mm lead. The next thing she put in there were a whole box of pads and her favorite jacket. It was dark green and could keep her warm. And last but not least, she shoved in her light gray scarf.


When they were both finished, they made their way out of the house. Everyone was in their respective rooms doing who-knows-what. While Elysia was grabbing the umbrellas from the hallway closet, Jenna's dad saw the two girls. Jenna's eyes met her dad's. She could see sadness, but acceptance on his face. Even though she didn't know it, her dad was not going to report that her daughter had just run away with the "fugitive" until much, much later. The rest of the family would later agree when he told them of the news.


"I know I said it'd probably be too dangerous... But I've made up my mind. We're going to my house for supplies too, and since it'll be empty, we can raid it without worry. I'm running away, even once my parents are safe..." She paused. "I don't know if those agents, or other ones, will be at our house, but there's bound to be some surveillance of the house. Luckily, we can sneak into the back. My house doesn't have an alarm."


Jenna nodded and followed Elysia in silence, appreciating the silence between them. She hoped that none of those men in black were guarding Elysia's house or anything. They finally reached the house... but the door was locked. Elysia did something weird, but Jenna quickly figured out what her Japanese friend was trying to do. It looked like Elysia was getting frustrated, so Jenna was about to say that it was okay, but then Elysia suddenly threw her hand away from the door knob. Her mouth dropped when she saw that the door knob was missing from the door. Even if Jenna could use the same kind of power as Elysia, it seemed like Elysia had more power than her. She reminded herself not to get on Elysia's bad side... not that she would want to make her mad at her in the first place.


The house looked like it was being lived in at the moment. It didn't look like a house that was unoccupied at all. It actually kind of creeped her out. What if people were actually here? Pushing her fear aside for the moment, she walked around Elysia's house, picking up things like rubber bands, a watch, a pair of scissors, and even a laptop. She felt kind of bad for taking a laptop, but she wanted to watch her drama and anime. Some of the things were just more enjoyable on a laptop than a phone. Plus, it might come in handy someday. Jenna finished picking stuff up, so she went looking for Elysia. When Jenna saw Elysia in her room, she saw that her friend replaced her bag with her own back pack.


"Hey... What should we do about food?"


"Umm...." She thought about that for a few moments, racking through her brain for an answer. They couldn't really afford so much food. She only had money from her birthday. Adding up all of her birthday money, it added up to $210 cash. She couldn't really risk using her debit card until she learned how to cover her tracks. So, the next thing she came up with was cooking food. But they couldn't cook food, much less afford the ingredients. That led her to her third and final option. Steal. "I... I'm thinking of stealing. If we learn how to control the surveillance cameras, we can steal as long as no one looks. I don't really like it, but we can only afford food for so long. I have two hundred and ten dollars in cash from my birthday, but I think we should save that."

 

[NethanielShade]

"I... I'm thinking of stealing. If we learn how to control the surveillance cameras, we can steal as long as no one looks. I don't really like it, but we can only afford food for so long. I have two hundred and ten dollars in cash from my birthday, but I think we should save that."


Elysia nodded in appreciation of her friend. She had wondered, or more accurately worried about, how good Jenna's survival skills would be, but Elysia realized something. Jenna watched a lot of anime, and you can learn stuff from some of them. Elysia was in the same boat, she watched lots of anime, but she also played lots of video games and read books. Even though it wasn't an apocalypse, she felt like she was stocking up for one, looting houses like it was one. Jenna went across her room and picked up her wallet from her desk. How had she forgotten that? Shaking her head, as well as dumping the coins into her other pocket, then she counted the money. A $100 bill, a $50 bill, a $20 bill,a $10 bill, and a $5 bill. No way. She hadn't counted her money in a while, but how perfectly they went from bigger to smaller made her actually chuckle to herself. "I have one hundred and eighty five dollars, so there's more to the emergency money." She looked back to Jenna. "Stealing is not only an option, but it will probably be a necessity. For now, let's raid the kitchen. I know we can take some stuff along." She shouldered her backpack and grabbed the now-empty bag she had borrowed from Jenna before heading to the kitchen.


In the kitchen, she checked the pantry first. They would probably not have refrigeration, wherever they went, so it was best to pack things that didn't need to be cold. They had a lot of microwavable just-add-water Kraft Macaroni and Cheese bowl-things. 10 of them to be exact. There was also a box of Reese's Puffs cereal, and Honey Nut Cheerios too. She put all of these nicely in the bag, trying to make as much room as possible. The also put several cans of Spaghetti-O's, though she didn't particularly care for them, two cans of Ranch Style Beans, and two cans of corn in the bag. The pantry was stocked full of other stuff like canned green beans and canned tomatoes, canned soups, graham crackers that you use for s'mores, Club Original saltine crackers, dry bags of beans, bags of rice, and more. It occurred to her that even though her dad was Asian, her mom wasn't and didn't buy a lot of Asian food. She went to the other side of the kitchen and opened a cabinet. She felt like laughing, she felt mischievous, and she also felt like a little kid with no worries for a few seconds. This cabinet was the junk food cabinet, and she took one of the long slender boxes of Cosmic Brownies and also a box of pop tarts and put them in the bag. There was other stuff, Oreos, Beef Jerky, Welch's fruit snacks, ect. but she left it, assuming Jenna would take what she wanted. Regardless of who got what, they'd share all of the food. Lastly, Elysia checked the spice cabinet. There wasn't much here, but she did get a can of Morton brand salt. Her bag was nearing the top, but when she turned around she noticed the bread basket and the jar of peanut butter next to it. She nodded to herself, putting in the jar of peanut butter, and putting the loaf of bread on top. There were a few bags of chips like corn chips, Doritos, Cheetos, and there were also Tortillas in the basket. She's leave what was there for Jenna is she wanted anything. Her bag was pretty much full.


She paused once she was done looting, and mentally checked everything she had grabbed. Was she forgetting anything? She hoped not. "Well, Jenna... You ready for this?" She asked, then she sighed. "Gomen... Honto ni gomenasai..." She said, tears dripping down her face. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I'm sorry this government freaks are after me. It's my fault. It was the EMPs that attracted them, probably, that's why they're after me and not you yet. All of this shit that's happening... Jenna, I'm really sorry.

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

After saying what they should do for food, she saw Elysia's wallet and realized that Elysia could have some money too. Jenna walked across the room to pick up Elysia's wallet. Afterwards the money in Elysia's wallet totaled out to $158. Jenna did the mental math in her head. $185 + $210 = $395!!!! They were rich! Kinda... When she thought of how that money could be spent and how fast it would be gone, her excitement died down. Ugh...





"Stealing is not only an option, but it will probably be a necessity. For now, let's raid the kitchen. I know we can take some stuff along."


She nodded. Elysia was right. They could take what they had now and what they needed would come later. For a while, all Jenna did was watch Elysia pack all of those snacks into her backpack. And then she looked into her very, very spacious bag. Although this would feel similar to shopping, - something she disliked doing - but this was for their own survival. So she began to pack away the things that Elysia hadn't already packed yet. The leftover bowl packs of macaroni & cheese, four cans of chicken noodle soup, two Dorito chip bags, and the list went on. Throughout her packing, she sighed on multiple occasions because picking and packing these snacks really felt like shopping. It took ten minutes to finally finish packing all of the food in her back pack. Now in her back pack was filled mostly with food. If people saw her backpack, they would think that she was a studious student from how much her backpack was bulging. After she was done, she crouched down on the kitchen floor next to her backpack and sighed loudly, relieved that it was finally over, before looking up at Elysia.





"Well, Jenna... You ready for this?" Elysia asked, and Jenna responded with a nod. "Gomen... Honto ni gomenasai..." And then tears dropped from Elysia's face. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I'm sorry this government freaks are after me. It's my fault. It was the EMPs that attracted them, probably, that's why they're after me and not you yet. All of this shit that's happening... Jenna, I'm really sorry."


Jenna sighed once again, but this time it was because she found Elysia's worries to be cute, but unnecessary. Wasn't she herself the one who chose to follow Elysia? She reached up to Elysia's face and put both hands on Elysia's face, wiping away her tears, which were just replaced by new tears. "Don't worry about that, kay? I was the one who chose to be with you, you know? Plus, they were probably going to come after me sometime in my life. I showed them what I could do in the hospital. It would've only been a matter of time. It's better if I can be with someone who will understand me, don't you think? I chose this. It's not your fault." Jenna pulled Elysia into a hug and started to cry herself. The events that happened in the short span of a day finally caught up to her. I cry too easily, she thought to herself. The only thing awkward about this was that Jenna had to reach up to Elysia in order to wipe her tears away and that Jenna was really short compared to Elysia.


She broke up the hug with tear running down her cheeks and some snot visible. Jenna quickly wiped away the tears and snot before chortling. It felt nice to let it all out. "Let's get going, mm?" With that, the two left the house, leaving the house like it was before they entered with only a few things missing - except the kitchen, of course. Most of the food in the kitchen was scavenged for survival purposes.

 

[NethanielShade]

Jenna wiped away Elysia's tears and told her not to worry about it, told her that she was the one who chose to come along. Jenna pulled Elysia into a hug and both of the girls were crying, then. They held each other, sobbing for a few minutes, before Jenna broke the hug and wiped her face. "Let's get going, mm?"


Elysia was happy, as they left the house. She supposed it was strange, perhaps even wrong, that she was happy when he parents were captured. Still, she was happy to vent it all out and she was happy to have Jenna by her side through all of this. They traveled, then, both wondering where they should stay for the night. So much had happened today, in the last few hours. It had been the evening when Elysia ran to Kili's house, it had been sunset when Kili got his by the car, and it had already been dark when they reached Elysia's house. Now they walked through the night.


After about an hour, they found an old warehouse that didn't seem to have been opened in years, evident by the rust on the padlock and in the keyhole of the lock. Elysia put her hand just above the padlock and attempted to do... Something. Whether it be magnetism like last time, or something else, she had to try. After about twenty minutes of concentration, calming the mind, then concentration, she couldn't get her powers to work for some reason. She sighed. "I'm out of juice, probably. We can't just make electricity out of nothing, can we? We probably store it like batteries." She froze, remembering the batteries she had been collecting. Would they be enough? Was it worth it to waste them on this? No, it wasn't, she knew a better source of power, but it was dangerous. She would try a street light again. She left the backpack and the bag of food by the locked warehouse door and headed for the street.

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

After an hour of tiring walking, they reached an old warehouse that gave off an eerie feeling. Of course it felt eerie: It was dark; the warehouse was old, unoccupied, and spooky. Even though she didn't want to sleep there or anything, Elysia seemed fine with it, and they had to sleep somewhere. There was a rusted padlock on the warehouse. Jenna waited patiently as Elysia tried to do something to open the lock with her powers. After Elysia left, Jenna didn't follow and instead stared that the locked packlock, feeling the urge to try too. The teenage girl hadn't exactly used her powers as much as Elysia had. She was just a bit more... reluctant and afraid of this new discovery. But she did have to admit that it was pretty cool to be able to manipulate electricity.


Slightly hesitating, she slowly reached her hands and touched the padlock. Her hands held the padlock and then she felt something. It was... the same kind of tingling feeling running through her in the hospital. The nonexistent whispering urged to pull on the power just a little bit. And so she did, but instead of a little, a powerful feeling surged through her whole body from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. And then she thought back to the padlock unconsciously. The next thing she knew, her hands felt weird and then the lock started shoot out a couple of sparks before dying down. Her hands jerked away from the lock out of instinct, but told herself afterwards that electricity couldn't hurt her. The lock... didn't open. But she suddenly knew what to do to open the lock.


She knew how to open the lock because she knew what was inside it. Jenna didn't know exactly what she had done, but she understood how the lock worked. But the thing was, she didn't have anything that she could pick the lock with, so she waited for Elysia to come back from wherever she ran off to. She wasn't particularly paying attention to where she went because she was so absorbed in doing something with her new found powers. That was when a feeling dropped in her stomach. She realized how dangerous getting sucked into power was. If she got too addicted, she would not think of anything else. And then what would Elysia do? Would she get too absorbed in her power to pay attention to her? Would she ignore Elysia in a pursuit to get stronger? No. She could not think about that. They were going to stick together, no matter what.

 

[NethanielShade]

Elysia knew the dangers of touching the street lights, and she knew if she touched one again the EMP would probably gave away their location. So she wouldn't touch it. She still needed electricity, however, so she decided to test something. Tentatively, she reached her hand out towards it. Once it was a few inches away, the air between he hand and the light pole hummed, buzzed, and blurred. After a few seconds, the air was ionized enough that it became a plasma electricity was able to flow through it. She watched as the electicity ran from the light pole, through the air, and to her finger tips, bouncing around on her skin before sinking into her mid-knuckle. She held her hand there and watched the current flow, and she realized she was forming a closed current. The electricity ran into her and right back out through the same stream, like she was a detour on the electricity's path before it went right back to where it was. Like a closed wire in a loop, it was going back and forth. She wasn't storing anything. She crunched her eyebrows together, annoyed. She knew she could store the electricity, otherwise some suff she had done before wouldn't have been possible. She reached her other hand towards the pole and suddenly, it shocked her. She felt pain throughout her entire body for a tenth of a second, before she stumbled back, feeling very shocked and very hyper from adrenaline...


Or was it adrenaline? Maybe some of it could be accounted for that, but she felt... Energized. She was charged somehow. Again, she reached forward with one hand, and then the other. The electricity flowed in one hand and in the other. She expected in one hand and out the other, but no, in one hand and in the other. This time, there was no out for the electricity. It was meeting halfway in her body and being stored there somehow, she didn't know how she knew, it was just a feeling.


She ran back to the warehouse where Jenna was waiting for her. "We have a lot to talk about... Have you even tried playing with you powers? We'll need to learn to keep them under control, obviously, but we also need to learn how to use them." She reached a hand out towards the padlock, and the center of her palm buzzed. She knew the power was there, she just didn't know how to reliably use it. It's like a new muscle, or learning to wiggle your ears for the first time. You know you can do it, but when you're conscious of it, it doesn't come. Relax, she told herself. Suddenly, there was a deafening"*ZZZT" that lasted half a second, and a blinding flash as electricity leaped from her hand to the padlock. She jumped back, feeling like she almost had a heart attack. "That scared the shit out of me!" She said, but stepped back towards the door and pointed her palm towards the padlock. Then she realized something. Electricity follows the path of least resistance. She thought. My hand is too far away from the lock. She reached forward, and the air began to hum. She kept reaching closer, until electricity flowed out of her into the lock. She felt herself rapidly draining, and she didn't know what she was trying to accomplish. What would electricity do to a lock? Only one way to find out. She closed her eyes and grabbed the padlock. Instantly, bright white light flared up again, and the "ZZZZZZZT" sound began again. Suddenly, an instinct told her to let go, and she jerked her hand away just as the padlock fell off. The bottom of the padlock was glowing white-hot, and the shackle of the padlock was literally melted. Her hand had just acted like an arc welder and she put enough electricity into it all at once to melt metal. She looked down at her hand, shocked. Didn't arc welders produce like, extreme heat? The molten lock should be proof enough, even though it was already starting to cool and solidify, welding the lock to the floor. Why hadn't her hand been hurt? She shrugged and looked back to Jenna.


"Let's go inside."





Inside the warehouse* it was big and empty and dark. There were no lights, but the moonlight filtering through the ceiling showed her it was empty enough. And it was also thoroughly creepy. Looking out at the vast sea of concrete made her realize something. "We forgot blankets."





*Here's what it would probably look like inside.

 

[DreamBeat]

Jenna 호은 Lee

"We have a lot to talk about..."





Jenna nodded in response. Yeah, with all that happened during the past day or two, they needed to sort things out. She needed to sort things out. Everything was still jumbled and so rushed...





"Have you even tried playing with you powers? We'll need to learn to keep them under control, obviously, but we also need to learn how to use them."


Jenna wanted to respond, but she figured that she could talk to Elysia when they went inside. She didn't want to talk with Elysia out here.. in the dark. Anyway, Elysia was probably going to blast open the lock anyway. Jenna watched with rapt attention as her friend held out her palm in the direction of the lock. For a moment, nothing happened, but then she saw it happen. There was a spark between her palm and the lock before the the spark intensified into a great white light that blinded her. Jenna brought up her arm up to the eyes to shield herself from the blinding light. After a moment, the whiteness died down and it was dark again. The only thing that was still bright was the padlock itself. It was glowing a pretty white as it radiated heat for a few seconds until melting off of the entrance of the warehouse. Elysia looked at her.


"Let's go inside."


Once again, Jenna nodded and followed Elysia inside. Huge, was the first thing that came into mind. The second thing that came into mind was that it was cold and kind of dark and creepy. But she would have to get used to it. There was no telling how long they would be using this warehouse as their.. base. On the bright side, the moon was shining bright tonight and that at least provided a source of light.


"We forgot blankets."


Ah... Right, blankets.


"We have our jackets. Coats? Until we get warmer blankets, I guess we just have to live with our jackets and cuddling with each other," Jenna said in a slightly teasing tone and then sat down on the cold concrete floor. Her jacket was pretty warm and it stayed warm as long as it wasn't too cold, yet she still shivered as she felt the cold floor pressing against her bottom. "Tomorrow, we could probably go get some thick blankets... If we can get by unnoticed. Since we've already ran away, I would guess that they're going to check the security cameras. And on top of that, I need to learn how to use my powers. Like you said before... I, uh, need to play with my powers, I guess. You've been playing with your powers more often, so I feel like I need to catch up..." She trailed off. Indeed, she did feel like she wasn't using her powers as often as Elysia. She guessed that she didn't really know how to take this into stride, this whole power thing. It wasn't like she had a need to use it or anything. But she knew that it would probably be useful in the future, so she would practice. She would practice and become good at controlling her powers like Elysia was trying to do now. "This warehouse is pretty big, so I guess we could practice some. If we could. There's electrical current inside of us that we could somehow.. maybe manipulate."