Chapter 6

Mr. Feldwythe was late. The bell had already rung, and the morning announcements were being broadcast over the loudspeaker. Saric was, as usual, ignoring them. Whoever was reading the announcements, however, had something unusual in store.

"And now, a special announcement from Mr. Conner."

Saric sat up a bit straighter. This was different. What could Mr. Conner possibly have to say that he couldn't have just had somebody else read?

"Good morning, students. I have been called here this morning to dispel a very pervasive rumor that has been making its way around the school. While we, the staff, would not normally be so publicly involved, the rumor has been such that even teachers have been affected by it. The rumor, specifically, is that Ms. Elaine Derras has acquired the ability to steal Gifts. This rumor is completely and utterly false. For those who do not know, my own Gift enables me to ascertain the nature of things with a bit of time and concentration, and I can verify that the rumor has no substance to it. Ms. Derras, as some of you may know, is a mimic. Under certain extreme circumstances, she can acquire the ability to mimic another person's Gift, but the other person is in no way diminished by this fact. Furthermore, the student responsible for starting this rumor has been found and punished. I would like to extend my personal apologies to Ms. Derras for not having realized the severity of the problem sooner."

The class was utterly silent for a few moments, before erupting into chaos as everyone started speaking at once. Most engaged in idle speculation about what had caused Mr. Conner to feel the situation was grave enough to merit a public disclaimer and apology. A few, who were more alert than their classmates, saved the speculation for later, and went to apologize to Elaine. It was during the middle of this chaos that the door opened. The man who walked through it, however, was not Mr. Feldwythe.

"So, this is what happens when I leave you in the care of a substitute teacher?" Mr. Roe's voice penetrated the crowd, "Sit down, and be quiet!" upon the final word, Roe invoked his Gift, and his voice reached truly stentorian levels. The students stopped talking so suddenly that it was as if their conversation had been cut off with a knife.

"Much better. Now, let's see if you actually learned anything while I was away. Get out pencil and paper, and enjoy the pop quiz."

Several students groaned at Roe's announcement, which seemed only to annoy him further, "You have not been given leave to speak. Unless I call upon you, the only sound I expect to hear from you is the inhalation and exhalation of breath. Do I make myself clear!?"

Mr. Roe then proceeded to the chalkboard, taking a quick glance at a sheaf of papers he held before he began writing problems. Saric could tell that he was making the problems as complicated as he could, given the students' knowledge base. Saric, however, breezed through the quiz. When he handed it to Mr. Roe a few minutes after the quiz began, however, it seemed only to annoy Roe further.

"Ah, Mr. Kelvrosa. So nice to see you find the subject of math provides you with so little challenge. In view of your skills, I brought a more, shall we say, suitable problem, to provide you with a bit more entertainment," so saying, Roe accepted Saric's quiz, and handed him one of the papers he had carried into the room. Saric looked at the problem in disgust. It would take a person with a degree in mathematics to solve the thing.

"I am not entertained by your attitude towards my skills, Mr. Roe. I am, I admit, far ahead of most of my classmates, but surely you realize that I am not far enough ahead to tackle a problem of this caliber."

"You have not been given leave to speak. To your seat, Kelvrosa."

Saric glared at Roe for a moment before returning to his seat, beginning to work on the impossible problem he had been given. For all of Roe's petty nature, Saric couldn't help but admire the problem. It was almost an art form in the complications it presented. Saric had barely gotten started, however, when Mr. Roe called for the quizzes to be handed in. By the looks on the faces of his classmates, Saric guessed that most of them had not had sufficient time to work through the problems they had been given.

Roe barely waited for the last quiz to be placed upon his desk before launching into his lesson. The time spent recovering from his injuries had not improved his teaching techniques any. Even Saric was unable to follow him, as problems were presented, underwent mysterious and oftentimes erratic changes, and then seemingly magically arrived at the right answer. Roe seemed to delight in being unpredictable, and never followed the same routine for solving a problem twice; it was even somewhat debatable if his incoherent scribbling on the chalkboard could be called a routine at all. He finished, as he usually did, by assigning a mountain of homework. Saric was impressed with his classmates. Many of them had offensive Gifts, yet Roe did not find himself spontaneously combusted, frozen, or beaten to a bloody pulp. Their self-control was admirable.

The rest of the school day was fairly normal. Elaine, now grouped with her friends, not only beat the obstacle course Mr. Cameron had set up, but came in first for the day, along with the others. As the day progressed, she received numerous apologies from students and staff alike. Saric could see the positive effect they were having on her. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before she was acting as if the whole thing had never happened. There had been some bad news in the return of Mr. Roe, but Saric felt that the healing that would soon restore his friend to her former self more than counterbalanced it.

"Elaine Derras and Daniel Eldath."

Elaine smiled. Now that people no longer treated her as an outcast, she found herself truly enjoying the weekly sparring matches in Gift Development. It had been two weeks and a few days prior that Mr. Conner had so abruptly shattered the rumors that had caused her such trouble, and Elaine's life had gotten back on track. Concentrating on the match at hand, she took her place opposite Daniel. His Gift was the creation of energy spikes, which he could then hurl at an opponent with whatever force he deemed necessary. Elaine had seen him use his Gift in previous matches to knock down his opponent, allowing him to easily force them to yield. She already had a plan for victory, though it would cause quite a ruckus. She nodded to Mr. Cameron, and then turned to face Daniel, signaling to both of them that she was ready.

Mr. Cameron smiled, and then blew a whistle he still had left over from his days as a PE coach, before Genesis had altered his job description so radically.

Elaine dove to the side, dodging the energy spike that she knew would come for her the instant the match began. She could nearly feel it flying past her, to fade into nothingness shortly afterwards. Daniel certainly wasted no time going on the offensive. Elaine was ready to carry out her plan. It involved a bit of risk, as she would be standing stationary for a moment, but in a battle of Gifts, risks went with the territory.

Standing up, Elaine focused on her shirt. It was light enough, and it was certainly close enough. Elaine formed her mental image, and then willed the change. A small rush of air against her skin marked the successful completion of the first step of her plan. Smiling, she turned to face Daniel.

Daniel, it appeared, was so severely startled that he could do nothing save stare at her in shock. Elaine had used her telekinetic ability to move her shirt from her torso to her hand, and now stood facing him, wearing nothing above the waste but a bra that showed her developing cleavage to good advantage. Pressing her momentary advantage, Elaine charged him. His eyes regained their focus before she reached him, but she had been planning on that. Smiling, she focused quickly on the garment in her hand, formed her mental image, and teleported her shirt again. This time, she had teleported it so that it would fall quite handily over Daniel's face, obscuring his vision. Elaine realized that without his vision, aiming his energy spikes would be difficult at best for her foe. By the time he had recovered from his second shock of the morning and pulled the cloth away from his face, Elaine was upon him, her hand lightly encircling his neck.

"Victory, Elaine!" Cameron's voice rang out over the blacktop, "And extra credit for ingenuity. Elaine, that's the first time I've seen you use your mimicked Gift in sparring. I congratulate you for putting it to good use, though you should probably put your shirt back on now. Your peers, at least the males among them, seem to have some difficulty focusing on the class with you in such a state," he gestured vaguely to where the class was arrayed to watch the match. Elaine turned to look at them. Most of the boys had their eyes glued to her chest. The only exceptions were her three friends. Dennis was blushing furiously, and had turned his head. Kentaro was nodding to her, showing his appreciation for her tactics without even so much as glancing at her form. Most interestingly, Saric was staring openly at her, but his gaze was not directed at her chest. He was looking into her eyes, and Elaine could feel humor and compassion for the embarrassment he imagined she would be feeling radiating from those eyes. She smiled at him, and then turned to put her shirt back on. It was a bit drafty out here in the middle of November.

Almost as if the weather were responding to her thoughts, it began to snow a few minutes and a couple of matches later. Mr. Cameron tried his utmost to keep the class focused, but no teacher in the world could compete against the magic of the first snow of the season. Though most of the students assembled had seen it every year of their lives, there was something about the lazy descent of the six pointed crystals of ice that could not fail to mesmerize. Kentaro was particularly spellbound by it, as the part of Japan he was from rarely saw snow.

Finally, Mr. Cameron gave up and dismissed the class early. Elaine wandered over to her friends, feeling the soft, feathery touch of snowflakes against her hair and skin. She would likely tire of the snow before the spring thaw, but for now, it was almost as if the snow announced the beginning of the holiday season, and everyone was feeling festive.

"Hi guys," she greeted them with a smile.

Dennis blushed again, and wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Oh, stop that, Dennis. I'm not going to bite you."

Dennis tried to speak, but was unable to form a coherent sentence. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, with a bit more success, "H-How could y-you m-muster up the c-courage to do that?"

"To tell the truth, it embarrassed the heck out of me."

"You certainly didn't show it."

"I was in the middle of a sparring match. I didn't have time to let my emotions distract me."

"Still..."

"I understand how you feel, Dennis, but think of it this way. We're being trained to defend ourselves in the event that we need to fight another Gifted individual. Any fight that involves Gift has the potential to be very serious if not outright deadly. If that had been a real fight, and I had frozen up or been unable to carry out my plan due to embarrassment, I'd probably be in a great deal of trouble right now."

"You certainly afforded the class quite the view," Kentaro jibed.

"I hope they enjoyed the show," Elaine grinned, "Maybe next time I'll have to start charging admission."

"Step right up and see the greatest spectacle on earth," Kentaro joked. Elaine wasn't sure where he'd heard the classic circus pitch, but he carried it off fairly well. After the laughter had died down, he resumed speaking, "On a more serious note, I must congratulate you for your use of tactics. Your combination of surprise with an attack that kept your opponent from sighting on you with that Gift of his was brilliant."

"Thanks."

Elaine looked towards Saric, noting that he had said nothing. Seeing her eyes on him, he finally spoke.

"I'm glad to see you've got your inner strength back."

Elaine laughed, "You mean you're glad I've returned to partial insanity?"

Saric didn't reply, but his eyes communicated his message well enough. Better a joyous partial insanity than a miserable complete insanity. Elaine couldn't help but agree with that thought.

"So," Dennis said with a smile, "think you can use your new Gift to create a few snowballs?"

Elaine laughed and began focusing on the falling snow. Individual flakes started appearing in her hands, only to melt under the heat of her skin.

"Apparently not. I can't seem to teleport more than one object at once."

"Ah well, I guess we'll just have to wait for that snowball fight."

"Like any of us are going to get into a snowball fight with a flier," Saric grinned.

"Spoilsport."

"The period is nearly over," Kentaro observed, "Shall we go get something to eat?"

Elaine frowned momentarily, "That sounds like a good idea, but I just remembered something I have to do. I should be able to meet with you guys in a few minutes. Save me a spot, please."

Elaine winced slightly upon entering the cafeteria, nearly deafened by the din created by her fellow students. They seemed particularly loud today. Elaine figured it was probably due to the snow. In Arrowhead, the first snow was almost a holiday in and of itself, and nearly everyone felt their spirits lift at that thought. True, the snow would eventually get old, but there were a few weeks of pleasure to be had before it began wearing on people. It was highly unlikely that anything productive would be done with the rest of the school day.

It appeared Elaine's objective might be a bit more difficult than she had anticipated. It had been a while, but Elaine wanted to find Anne, and find out who had gotten her to work at destroying the rumors. The only problem was, there were several hundred students in the cafeteria. Finding one student, who she had only met once, in this mob, was something of a daunting task.

The cafeteria was a strictly functional building. As one entered, row upon row of long benches and tables extended towards the other end of the building, leaving a somewhat narrow aisle between them. When they were not seating students, the benches and tables could be folded up into recessed slots in the walls. The area immediately before the service windows was empty of furniture for about ten feet back from the back wall, save for a free standing island holding silverware, some basic condiments that could still be obtained, and a vast number of cloth napkins. Since Genesis had occurred, paper napkins, and just about every other disposable commodity, had become obsolete. Elaine was still somewhat annoyed that the cafeteria had not changed its silverware to metal spoons and forks, however. Some "genius" had somehow imported hundreds of metal sporks to serve as eating utensils.

Elaine nearly missed Anne in the crowd, had Anne not called out to her.

"Elaine! How are you? I heard the announcement and wanted to check in with you, but things kept distracting me. Is everything cleared up?"

"Everything is fine now, thank you," Elaine smiled, "Actually, I was looking for you. When you showed me what happened, you said a friend of mine sent you. I've talked with all of my friends, but none of them seem to know you. I was just curious as to who acted on my behalf."

"You don't know him? That's strange. The new janitor told me about what was going on. You know, tall, dark hair, maybe twenty years old? I assumed he was a friend of yours."

"I think I know who you're talking about, but I've never spoken with him. I wonder why he got involved? It's not that I don't appreciate your help, but it seems a bit strange, you being sent by someone I don't even know."

Anne shrugged, "I'd offer to try and help you find out, but I'm very much out of the loop. No one wants to tell me anything, since I have a habit of investigating things to death, and I refuse to keep secrets."

"Thanks anyway, Anne. I really appreciate everything you've done. I'll see if I can track down the janitor and ask him myself."

"Best of luck."

Elaine smiled and went to go find her friends. Her questions could wait. Her stomach, however, demanded more immediate satisfaction.

The first snowstorm of the year had been rather heavy, but also quite brief. Saric had gotten home a bit earlier, and was now relaxing on the couch in the living room, a warm mug of goat milk from one of the local farmers and a glorious view of the sunset his only companions. The clouds had partly cleared off, and the sun shone golden through them in the day's final moments, its light reflecting from the new-fallen snow, until the entire world seemed to be glowing with a color that slowly shifted towards a glorious red beauty that softly faded, heralding the arrival of night.

The sound of someone knocking at the door startled Saric out of his reverie. This was unusual. Everyone else was already home, and, so far as Saric knew, none of them had invited friends over. Shrugging, he went to see who it was. The sight that greeted his eyes as he opened the door took his breath away.

Elaine was dressed to the nines. Her fiery hair was up, pinned into an elaborate style that looked like it had taken hours to arrange. She wore two small diamond studs in her ears, and lipstick of a red deep enough to put the recent sunset to shame. Her dress was a matching shade of red, cut to show a tasteful amount of skin. The ensemble was completed by a pair of red high heel shoes that did fascinating things to the contours of her legs. As tribute to her Gift, she had put on a few inches, and expanded her bust a bit. It was obvious that she had taken great care with how she changed her appearance, accentuating her features without changing herself completely. The result was still obviously Elaine, but Elaine as Saric imagined she would normally look in a few more years. He had never seen anyone or anything more beautiful.

"Well, I was going to ask what you thought, but I think your face says it quite well. Close your mouth, Saric, before you let the flies in," Elaine grinned.

Saric numbly shut his mouth, trying to think of something coherent to say. Finally, he waved Elaine in, not yet able to convince his voice to work properly.

Elaine stepped in, slightly awkward in her heels, and took a seat on the sofa. Saric did likewise, then finally found his voice.

"You look fantastic, Elaine. To what do I owe the honor?"

"You may recall that the Winter Dance is being held in a few more weeks, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, typically the boy is supposed to ask the girl to the dance, but I've never been typical. Will you go to the dance with me, Saric?"

"I-I'd be delighted, Elaine," Saric responded, stuttering slightly. His voice seemed to be rather fickle this evening.

Elaine smiled, then looked at the clock on Saric's living room wall and sighed, "I really wish I could stay longer, but my mother wants me back in time to help fix dinner."

"I understand. It was good to see you again, even if only briefly, and even if you did startle me a bit," Saric smiled, "Let me get the door for you."

"Thanks. I'll try to come by tomorrow, if I may?"

"That'd be great."

Saric rose from his seat, offering his hand to Elaine. She smiled and took it, rising gracefully from her own seat. Saric noted with amusement that she had shifted into more practical shoes. Upon reaching the doorway, Saric turned back to face Elaine.

"I appreciate your taking the initiative. I would have asked you, by the way, but I hadn't quite worked up the courage yet."

"Why do you think I'm wearing all this?" Elaine laughed, "The extra inches, the fancy dress, all of it, is a security blanket."

"No blanket ever looked so beautiful."

"Thanks. It's nice to know I know what I'm doing when I change forms."

"Well, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow," Saric said, opening the door. As he looked outside, however, his smile vanished, replaced by a look of sheer astonishment, "or perhaps you won't be going home after all."

Elaine looked over Saric's shoulder to see what had startled him so.

"Oh... my... god."

There was nothing like flying.

Dennis slowly turned, preparing to make another circle around the town. As per Ranger Swift's instructions, he chose his directions somewhat randomly, and could honestly say that no two flights covered exactly the same route. Swift had been very firm in his stance on predictability. An open invitation for trouble, he had called it. In the pre-Genesis world, Dennis would have dismissed him as paranoid. These days, however, it only made sense to be a bit paranoid. And besides, randomness or no, the job was more joy than burden these days.

Dennis had finally gotten the hang of using his wings to steer, while invoking their hidden power just enough to keep him at the altitude he desired. Much of the burden of flight had been lifted when Dennis had stopped trying to lift himself by muscle alone. The rest had slowly disappeared as his movements gained grace. He had, he did not hesitate to admit to himself, looked like a wildly intoxicated bumblebee when he had first started invoking magnetic levitation. Now the only problem his wings caused him was the occasional bumping into things, and that, too was happening less and less often.

Dennis shivered. Well, almost the only problem. It was cold on the ground. Up in the sky, it was positively freezing, and Dennis' bat-like wings got cold very quickly and very easily. Even this, however, was cured relatively easily. While his wings did not in the standard sense provide Dennis with his ability to fly, he still moved them quite a bit to steer. The easiest solution to cold wings was to exercise them by flying faster and practicing his aerobatics.

The scenery below almost whizzed by, but Dennis still took time to appreciate it. The entire town was covered with a blanket of snow, softening the sharp angles and corners that marked the majority of the buildings therein. The field of white was neatly cut by a ribbon of black at the southern and western borders of the town, as the river, unhindered by the icy temperatures, continued on its swift and violent course to the lowlands. To the north and east, and only slightly below Dennis' own altitude, the tops of the cliffs that finished the town's perimeter shone jagged and almost crystalline in the afternoon light. For safety's sake, though Dennis felt the measure was almost redundant, the trees at the top of the cliffs had been cleared away for fifty yards back from the face. The town of Arrowhead was built like a fortress, and in these times, the citizens intended to take full advantage of that fact. As Dennis understood it, the trees across the river would soon follow. No one mentioned the possibility of an attack by raiders, but with no central government and every reason for people to want more supplies, it was certainly conceivable.

Evening came fairly quickly this far north and this close to the winter solstice, and the sun had just set as Dennis was finishing his last circle. While he was only required to put in an hour of scouting per day, his sense of duty to the town, combined with the joy of flight, often kept him out longer. As he prepared to land, Dennis thought he spied something out of the corner of his eye. Turning in midair, he got a better look.

"Why couldn't I have stayed home sick today?" he asked himself, just before a wall of wind hit him with enough force to send him spiraling out of control.

"It can't be natural, Saric."

"I know that, mother," Saric replied, looking out at the howling blizzard that had come seemingly out of nowhere. Saric had lived in Arrowhead all his life, and seen a few blizzards in his time, but this one was unlike anything he had ever experienced. True, a blizzard could often strike without much warning, but to go from partly cloudy to whiteout in ten minutes was unheard of.

"The only question I have," Djoser commented, "is whether this is a deliberate attack, a freak accident involving Gift, or something else altogether."

Saric's family had gathered together around the dining room table to discuss the storm and try to figure out if anything could be done. Elaine was there as well, but she was staying in the background, unsure of what to do. There was no way she could get home in this storm. Saric was simply thankful that she had been inside when the storm struck.

"It can't be an attack, Djoser," Saric replied, "what purpose would be served by it? The storm is too big to be targeting any specific person or place, and the idea of taking advantage of the confusion is absurd-no one can so much as get out of their house right now."

"Well, thanks to Jack Rando, everyone in town has got plenty of food. His dumplings may not be fancy, but at least they don't spoil," Saric's father said with a sigh. Saric wasn't sure whether he was sighing from relief or exasperation. Both emotions felt quite appropriate at the time.

"I believe there was a saying that about sums that particular blessing up," Saric added, "'Thank God for stale flavors', wasn't it?"

The laughter in the room eased the tension of the situation somewhat.

"I'm sorry to impose on you," Elaine finally spoke.

"You got stuck in a snowstorm," Saric's mother shrugged, "It happens. I just wish there was a way we could contact your family and tell them you're safe."

"Well, mom knew where I was going, so that should ease her concerns a little, at least."

"I hope so. There isn't really much we can do right now. Going out in that whiteout would be insane. The power lines are buried, so we shouldn't have a problem with heat for most of the rest of today. After that, it's a question of whether Sparkweaver can reach the station. We'll just have to keep ourselves amused until the storm dies down and we can start digging ourselves out. We've got a deck of cards, board games, videos, music, and plenty of books, so do whatever strikes your fancy,"

After some discussion regarding the options, Saric's parents settled into a game of crazy eights with Djoser, while Saric and Elaine amused themselves with a game of chess. None of them really wanted to put any more drain on the electric grid than necessary until they were sure Sparkweaver would be able to keep it going.

'They certainly do have strange weather here in America, ' Kentaro thought.

Today's work had been especially lengthy, and Kentaro had just finished delivering his last package when the blizzard started. He had been at his tasks for months now, and remained unimpressed by the importance of his duties. He still performed to the best of his abilities, but he privately considered delivering mail a waste of his time.

From where Kentaro stood, it was obvious that the blizzard seemed to be originating somewhere on the ground, though it was too far away for him to pinpoint the location. The obvious answer was that this storm was the result of a Gift. Likely a new Gift, Kentaro reasoned, as, judging by the intensity of the storm, it was powerful enough that its existence would otherwise have been common knowledge.

Kentaro was just turning around to begin the very short run home when something odd caught his vision. It looked like the storm had caught something in it. Something large. Something that looked almost like...

"Dennis!" Kentaro called out, realizing the nature of the object being tossed by the storm. There was no reply, but that was actually rather unsurprising. The storm wouldn't be able to keep Dennis aloft for long on its own, but it looked like Dennis was still trying to regain control, and the frantic beating of his wings, aided by his powers of magnetic levitation, sufficed to keep him caught up in the winds. Kentaro wasted no time running after his friend, keeping pace along the ground. To his horror, Kentaro realized that the cliffs that half-surrounded the city were drawing near.

Dennis apparently realized the same thing. Kentaro saw him redoubling his efforts to gain control. Unfortunately for Dennis, all he seemed to be gaining was altitude. There would be no easy landing in this storm.

The cliffs were almost upon them. Kentaro had always thought they looked beautiful, lending their jagged elegance to the natural wonders of the area. They were still beautiful, but Kentaro found it harder to appreciate their beauty under the circumstances.

Even from far below, Kentaro could see that Dennis was exhausted. Still, there was no telling what kind of injuries he would suffer if he collided with the rock wall at the speed at which he was flying. There was also the highly unpleasant drop back to earth from wherever he ended up striking.

Dennis was, if anything, gaining altitude even faster now. Kentaro assumed he must have been trying to get high enough to go over the cliffs to avoid the otherwise inevitable collision.

He almost made it.