Date: Sunday, August 30th, 2010, 9:30 am
Location: Cactus City, Texas
The morning sun was already fierce by the time Julius and his family stepped out of the church. He and his family had a ritual in which they would attend church every Sunday and then have breakfast immediately afterward. This normalcy was most welcome to him, considering the emotional turmoil he had experienced the previous night and that morning.
He felt like everything was normal until his father asked, "So what's your plans today, son?"
He had made plans the night prior when he was deep in thought in bed. With a practiced proficiency, he lied to his parent, saying, "I was going to go hang out with the guys today, but I'll be back before sunset." He hated lying to his family, but if he wanted to avoid being caught by the government and conceal his powers, he would have to discover the extent of his abilities and master them.
"You better, it's a school night. Just because you did amazing last night doesn't mean you can slack it in your studies." Julius' dad said. "We expect you to maintain that 4.0 GPA so you can get into a great school."
"I will dad," Julius replied rolling his eyes, but making sure his dad wouldn't see.
"Good, just letting you know, though, I'm proud of all of what you have been accomplishing lately."
Once they all got home, Julius quickly changed into a simple T-shirt and shorts. Recently, his clothes have been feeling a little tight now that he turned 15. He looked at himself in the mirror, and it still surprised him how much he had grown. Last year, at the end of eighth grade, he was only 5'8" and weighed about 185lbs. When he first arrived on the first day of high school, some of his friends almost didn't recognize him, as he had gained a few more inches, making him exactly six feet tall, and with all the football and wrestling workouts, he had packed a good amount of lean muscle, weighing 198 lbs.
As Julius raced downstairs, he was just about to leave when my mom yelled out, "You ain't leaving yet without saying goodbye!"
Julius chuckled and approached them. They were watching a movie together on TV. When they noticed he was in the room with them, his mother hugged him and told him to be safe.
After Julius left the house, the first thing he decided to do was go to the most excluded place he could think of, and that was the forest. People did tend to visit it, but it was large and dense enough that he could avoid prying eyes.
Once he was deep inside the forest, he stopped when he got to a small clearing that had a small stream passing through it. He and his buddies had discovered this hidden gem last summer. That's when he decided to get to work.
The first thing he did was work on the ability that he already knew he had: his seismic sense. He took off his shirt, socks, and shoes and stood in the middle of the opening. He figured if the power was based on touch, the more of him that was in contact with the ground, the more information he would receive. Julius then closed his eyes, focusing not on seeing but on feeling. The faint tremor of an ant crawling, the deeper vibration of a distant car, the subtle shift of the wind against a nearby mesquite tree – it all registered. He pushed deeper, trying to filter out the noise, to feel the bedrock beneath the thin layer of topsoil, the pulse of the very earth.
As he concentrated, a new feeling had emerged. He was no longer just feeling the earth but connecting to it. He then imagined a ripple, a tiny controlled tremor. Beneath his left hand, the dry dirt subtly shivered, a minuscule wave moving outwards. A small, jagged stone, embedded firmly in the ground, nudged upwards slowly as if something pushed it from below. He was able to lift the tiny stone out of the ground, but it took a tremendous amount of energy.
Not wanting to give up, he altered his way of thinking and pictured himself as the rock. It was firm and rigid. So, he pictured himself when he used to powerlift with his father. He widened his stance a bit and tried again, focusing on the rock. This time, however, with the most imperceptible groan from the earth, the rock rose in front of him from the soil, quivering mid-air. He held it there, mesmerized by its defiance of gravity, until his concentration faltered, and it dropped with a soft clink.
He spent the very next hour just experimenting; he felt a growing sense of exhilaration of his newfound ability. He could make rocks levitate, summon simple structures from the ground, and even collect handfuls of dirt and have it compress into a levitating boulder. This was it. This was earth bending, a direct extension of his seismic sense. The earth was no longer something he just felt; it was something he could now manipulate.
Next, he then decided to turn his attention to the air. He remembered the football game, how he'd felt the subtle currents, how he'd seemed to ride them, almost float. He stood up and stretched his arms wide, trying to feel the invisible breeze that tickled his skin and moved around him. He closed his eyes, just as he had when trying to focus on his seismic sense, but this time, instead of focusing on being rigid and hardened like the earth, he imagined himself like the leaves he saw flying in the wind. Free. Once he felt and understood the current of the air, he began to move his body in wide arcs, not pushing and pulling as he did with the earth but guiding and redirecting the air. Once he felt he had collected enough wind around him, he launched one powerful movement, and an invisible force carved into the tree in front of him as if someone had struck it with an axe. He grinned a broad, genuine smile. This was wind bending. He could now command the air as well!
The seismic sense, earth, air… it was all real! The sheer excitement and the surge of adrenaline from this double confirmation were overwhelming. His mind raced, replaying the football moves, understanding them now. He could do so much more. With his excitement boiling over, he couldn't help but pump his fist in front of him and scream, "Fuck Yes!" However, when he did so, a searing torrent of flame erupted from his fist.
It wasn't a flicker, not a wisp. It was a concentrated blast, a jet of superheated orange and red that shot across the yard. His eyes widened in horror as the fiery stream hit the dry, brittle leaves that were in a small pile in front of him. In an instant, they ignited, a hungry, crackling blaze fueled by the dry Texas heat. The smell of burning foliage filled the air, irritating and terrifying.
"Oh, no! No, no, no!" Julius scrambled back, his excitement instantly replaced by gut-wrenching panic. The flames licked higher, threatening to spread to the nearby trees. He had to stop it before the forest fire broke out!
His mind raced, a frantic search for a solution. How do you stop fire? Water! He thought of a gamble: if he were wrong, he would be responsible for burning down an entire forest. If he could bend and control earth, wind, and fire, why couldn't he do the same for water? He looked at the flowing stream of water and pictured himself pulling the water and directing it. He motioned with his hands, and to his amazement and relief, the water rose and shot towards the growing flames! Steam hissed, and the flames roared in protest before slowly and steadily dying down. He pushed more, focusing his will, until the last embers flickered and died, leaving behind only smoldering, blackened husks.
Julius collapsed onto the ground, soaked, trembling, and utterly speechless. He stared at the extinguished fire, then at the flowing stream, then at his hands. He had done it. He had controlled the water.
Earth. Air. Fire. Water. These four elements—the very forces of nature — were his to command. The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow, leaving him breathless. He was Julius Valdez, a 15-year-old kid from Cactus, Texas, and he held the power of the world in his hands. The isolation he felt was immense, a silent scream in a world that had suddenly become too small for his colossal secret. His heart hammered, no longer from fear but from the dizzying, terrifying thrill of his boundless potential.
If he was going to keep his newfound powers and status as a mutant a secret, he needed to practice his abilities a whole lot more. That day, he practiced until it was barely 30 minutes before his set curfew. Not wanting to be in trouble, he quickly headed home. The universe had just opened up, and he was standing at its fiery, windy, watery, earthen threshold.