Post by Krysta on May 16, 2009 14:01:41 GMT -5
Sunlight broke through a crack in the shade of a small room on the 3rd story of Bridgend. Slowly as the Sun moved up into the sky the room began to light up revealing the tidily kept floor. No papers were set out of place. No clothing rested on the rug or hung off of random objects. The corner desk was clean with a small stack of folders, a small lamp, and a small white laptop closed in sleep mode. The cement walls were pretty bare. No one had taken the time to decorate the room.
Eventually the rays hit a young white fox’s face bringing her to consciousness. Her body ached. Everything still stung and the stench of burnt fur still filled the room. Krysta looked at herself lying across the bed. Bandages still encased her, but she knew that slowly she was healing. They had told her in the infirmary that she would survive the incident without scars by some miracle. She had been lucky. Her eyes met the ceiling as the memories replayed in her head. The dream that started it all seemed as real as the day it came.
Dark clouds rolled in. Claps of thunder shook the ground beneath her. The sky lit up from the static in the air. Surrounded by nothing on all sides Krysta found she was standing in the middle of an open field. The grass was short, barely enough to fit between her large fluffy toes. The sky told a tale of misery, turmoil, and a struggle for power that would soon end with an attack at the ground. Her fur began to stand.
“This isn’t good,” she whispered to herself in fear. The air cracked, heat ran towards her in a blazing white trail and she dove for the ground, “No!”
She sat up in bed screaming. Her fluffy coat was damp with a cold sweat as she panted trying to calm her nerves. It was then that she realized the tingling sensation tickling her skin.
“That’s odd,” the words barely escaped her as she looked down to her arms. They seemed to feel this new sensation the most. It almost seemed like the fur resting on them was glowing. This was not her normal natural white radiance emitted from her coat though. A closer look revealed tiny sparks traveling constantly between the hairs. Her eyes grew wide in astonishment.
It scared her. She didn’t know why but the sparks made her tremble in fear. Something didn’t feel right. This was not your typical static cling that she was accustomed to on dry days. This was a full-blown electric party dancing around her, flowing through her. Was this because of the dream? Or perhaps, had this caused the dream…. this needed to stop. Quickly she got on her feet and ran for the bathroom.
A simple crafted wooden door closed behind her and clicked as Krysta’s finger pressed the golden lock. Her oversized paws traveled across the cold tiles. They crackled with each step and little blue sparks flew every which way. She was surprised to see that her fur wasn’t igniting from all of this, but it relieved her ever so slightly. She stopped only inches before a faded blue shower curtain that hung over her porcelain white bathtub. The shade was ripped open in one swift movement and she reached for the inner wall. A faucet was turned and water began to pour in. An adjustment was made and the flow moved up to the showerhead. She stepped in as the droplets got ready to douse her.
The theory behind all of this was that normally she stopped any static in her fur with a nice warm shower. The moisture seemed to put electricity in its place. Today was very different though. The little specs burst against each spark. Steam began to rise from each one and Krysta began to panic.
“No no no! Just… STOP!” She screamed as her arms flew out at each side. She was enraged and closed her eyes in frustration. Her voice roared through the bathroom, “STOP!”
Everything was quiet for a moment. The tingling began to subside and Krysta opened her eyes. She looked down at her arms and the sparks seem to have disappeared. She was all right, everything seemed normal again. Everything, except her fur… It remained dry. She looked up to see that the showerhead was still pouring down water, but a large orb had now formed over the head. It was growing rapidly.
“Oh now what?” Krysta exclaimed. Immediately the liquid ball released and splashed down on her. She howled out angrily as tiny droplets spilled down on her a moment later. Now everything was back to normal.
A few days had passed since that morning. At first everything seemed to boggle her mind keeping her very distant from the rest of the team. As it had been with her last big life changing disaster, she felt that whatever had happened that morning was to stay a personal matter. Lucky for Krysta her allies were too caught up in work to notice that her head was completely in the clouds. When she had gone for her weekly training away from Bridgend though her behavior was quickly noted.
“If you ain’t gonna keep yer head in the game yous might as well get outta here,” was how the black wolf had put it lightly when dismissing her. He could tell she wasn’t going to get anything done until things were sorted out. This was not something he would be assisting her with though.
The walk home was bitter. Cold raindrops fell on her head and she seemed to twitch slightly with the contact of each one. It wasn’t like she was scared of water or anything. Krysta just wasn’t enjoying the storm. Warm showers in the evening seemed to sooth her more. The cold only made her more disgusted as she looked around at the city ruins. There were barely any completed buildings. Hotel Kast seemed to be placed near the more sturdy structures but just a couple of blocks down it seemed like no one had lived there for years. Rats ran through the streets looking for any scraps of food they could muster. Sometimes there would be piles of god only knew muck sitting near storm drains. Her foot found it’s way into a pothole that had somehow developed on the broken down sidewalk and she yelped.
“Yuck! That’s disgusting!” The words burst from her in a horrible phlegm filled tone that only made the situation seem even more gross to her than at first. City mystery scum pools often had that affect for those unlucky enough to come across one. She was damp, cold, and disgusted. She began to lift her foot out of the mess and shake it as if she had paper hanging off it. Her voice snuck through clenched teeth, “I’ve seriously had just about enough of this crap…”
Her foot shook more vigorously as she failed to get most of the sludge off. It looked horrid against her white coat, especially compared to her other clean foot. The rain began to pick up and pour upon her as the wind grew and slapped her in the face. Krysta’s ears sank low until they rested against her head. Her jewel filled eyes grew narrow and she snarled. Recently she had been more easily frustrated than ever before in her life. Maybe it was the stress of training and the taunting that came along with it in an attempt to make her stronger. Maybe it was the fact that she felt like alienating herself from everyone living within the walls of Bridgend. The recent rude awakening though had certainly not helped things get better.
Everything grew inside of her until finally Krysta barked out in rage. It echoed against the walls of the ruins loudly at first, but then fading fast. This was when Krysta noticed that the rain had stopped. The wind had stopped. The elements were no longer touching her. An eyebrow rose as she examined the situation and found that a liquid dome surrounded her.
It was amazing. Standing still, she investigated the wall. Disfigured Ripples formed randomly along the surface; a reaction to the storm droplets outside. A slender white finger extended out to touch it. Another ripple formed, this time traveling along the inner wall. Light ‘bloop’ sounds echoed around her and she began to relax. At least the rain wouldn’t touch her anymore. Her attention turned to her drenched fur coat, and again the sludge on her paw. Memory of the other morning reminded her that the last time a ball of water had formed her fur had achieved to stay dry even after the static stopped. Could she control this now?
Krysta tried to focus her mind, what she truly wanted that moment. Her body began to shake out the water as it normally would, but this time instead of matting up the hairs floated back down into place. Any moisture that had recently been there was now flying out towards the wall and being absorbed. Her eyes grew.
“Cool…” she almost couldn’t release the word from her astonishment. Her foot was next as she lifted it and shook. Oozy gray droplets flung from her toes and latched onto the inner wall of the water chamber. The liquid grew darker from the junk it received, but Krysta was left clean and dry.
She began to stand tall and proud realizing her accomplishment. The next step would be getting home though. Having finally achieved staying dry in the dreary weather, Krysta intended to stay as such. Her first step was small and cautious. She was afraid of the shield not moving with her, or that it would fall down on her. Luck was on her side today as the walls began to slide along the path. She took another step, and then another, and another, until finally her normal stride was into play. Finally she stopped. The last thing she needed to know was that she indeed could control it and she closed her eyes to relax. The sphere… she wanted it gone. Her eyes shot open, and the walls fell at all sides. The sphere had melted from the center above her head down avoiding her being drenched. It was exactly what she had wanted. Ignoring the rain falling on her she now ran home in excitement. The weather was forgotten.
Only a few minutes later Krysta found herself again staring into the porcelain bathtub deep within the safety of Bridgend. An idea was formulating in her mind and she just had to try it out. Her hand reached in for the faucet, shaking from the excitement. Water began to spill out of the showerhead up top and Krysta stepped back onto the tiled floor as the droplets fell into the tub below.
She fought with herself debating if the plan would actually work. It seemed silly, unlikely, but she loved the thought of it so much. She began to concentrate on the water. Each droplet that fell was of great importance to her, especially if this were to be a success. Her eyes focused to every liquid crystal of hope that flew out with thoughts that chilled her.
“Come on…” the words slipped from her mouth in a small fog. She was beginning to see her own breath. It had to be working! Any concern now that it wouldn’t was flushed away as she blew towards the shower. A small gust left her lips and wrapped around the droplets. At first they fell like rocks pattering against the bottom of the tub. Little ice crystals shattered on impact. She shook her head; this was not what she had intended.
Closing her eyes she tried to focus again, this time on lighter fluffier thoughts, childhood pleasures… her parents. She had it and blew another gust into the water pouring out. There seemed to be a loud ‘poof’ on contact with the beads as they transformed into tiny flakes. They flurried to the bottom and began to pile up. Krysta kept her focus on her parents and blew more at the incoming water until a pile of light, fluffy snow stood before her. The top was barely level with her nose.
Krysta let out a squeal of delight and clapped her hands together. The water flow was stopped quickly to keep the pile from being condensed, and Krysta got down on all fours. Her tail waved viciously in the air above her for a brief moment. Then, she pounced.
Fluff flew up in every direction encasing parts of the room. Most of the pile remained in tact though as it fell back down onto Krysta’s head. She achieved to kneel down and only have her nose and eyes poking out into the open. They traveled around the room playfully as if spying on some unseen figure. She caught sight of herself in the mirror across the room and laughed. She looked just like a pup. She wasn’t a pup though, not anymore.
A sigh escaped her and she stood up. Snow flopped down heavily into the pile as it was already beginning to melt. It was time to clean up this mess and get back to work. A little sad, Krysta went to get her mop and cleaned things up a bit. She turned up the heat to help the melting process along though it was already warm to begin with. It was late by the time she finished.
Miserable she stepped out into her room and sat down on the edge of her bed. Lazily she blew a few times and gusts traveled around the room. She played with this for a while seeing what she could knock out of place. Some water flicked off her finger and she blew another gust. A shard of ice formed and sailed across the room until it smashed into a wall. This was done numerous times to follow until her coat had dried. Finally she seemed to be getting the hang of this… one step at a time.
The next week was spent focusing on control. Krysta didn’t know what was happening to her but she was certainly going to keep it in check. All of her life she had been able to overall control her life. There had only been a few rare occasions where outcomes did not play in her favor. These new abilities were not going to affect this. Overall her time was spent inside her room messing around with cups of water and her breath. On occasion she would go into the bathroom to work with larger amounts of water. She was getting the hang of how things worked with two elements: Water and Wind. The sparks from the first morning had still not returned though.
Once content that she had control over wind and water enough to avoid problems and random outbursts, her focus moved briefly to electricity. The sparks from the first morning had not returned since but Krysta was determined to bring them back. The main problem seemed to be that she hadn’t found the right thoughts to trigger the ability yet. Water had become fairly easy once she figured out that every time she wanted to not be wet the moisture halted. Through that the task of making water do as she pleased had become much less strenuous.
Wind was even nicer. All she had to do was breath with the intent to blow air at something. There had only been one horridly embarrassing disaster so far with this, involving the breaking of wind from her backside. Her head had hit the ceiling before she came back down. Thank goodness this had taken place in her room. Even though the experience had nearly traumatized her Krysta actually found some use to it and intended to work on using this in the future to help propel her in specified directions more quickly. Of course, she also planned on mastering a technique to make this more ladylike and suiting for her self. A combination of practicing silent farts and wagging her tail at the same time seemed like the best solution. She would make it appear as though her tail caused the wind if anyone were to ever somehow notice.
Electricity was the big mystery though. Krysta was able to imagine many uses this ability could hold if mastered. Even re-electrifying her fur would be a great advantage if that were all she could muster. She thought of things that angered her. She imagined the sensation from that faithful morning. She even tried to recreate a thunderstorm in her mind. Nothing seemed to be working though.
“I suppose I just need more time.” She sighed to herself after hours of arduous thought. Her attention now moved around the room. It had grown dark while she was practicing and only now she had noticed. A small light appearing in the distance outside her window. A fire had been left unattended in the street. It was small, but the light burned bright. That's when the idea struck her. “Fire.” A new element was out there just waiting to be discovered and mastered. It only made sense that if she had experienced some sort of event with so many other elements so far that fire had to be hidden away in her somewhere.
Krysta traveled across her room, now messy with air blown papers scattered across the floor. She had lost her sense of organization since the ability to mess around with wind came out. Every page just meant something to target later. A few pages stuck to her feet, but this went unnoticed as she reached her desk and pulled out a match. She struck it once and it began to glow lighting up a corner of the room. Krysta watched it almost hypnotically, then reached over and lit a candle before blowing the match out. Leaving things unattended for a moment she went to the bathroom to fetch a bowl of water. She was eager, but not stupid. If the fire were to do anything and lose control, there would be water there to douse it immediately.
Clearing her desk of nothing but the bowl and candle the white fox sat down. She stared into the flame. White, orange, red… it danced between the colors at the end of a small wick and reflected in her eyes, her soul. Fire was a dance to her, lifting her heart. She felt she could do this. Fire was within her. Krysta held out her palm towards the flame. She wanted it to grow. She focused on the flame, on the dance, and the glowing grew. The room lit up with oranges and reds.
The candle stood still, untouched.
Krysta began to scream. Her hand had ignited and her entire fur coat had followed in the blink of an eye. It blazed, binding her in the inferno. It cracked, popped in her ears. No… it was the sparks. The little blue sunbursts had returned surrounding her, and flames encased it all. The mystery was solved; the electricity was triggered by fear.
The ability to move became an impossible task. Jolts of electricity surged through her, and the pain inflicted by the flames overtook her. Krysta continued to shriek, yelp, and howl. No one seemed to hear though. Finally in a last ditch effort she leapt for the door and punched the red button installed near the lock. It was the panic button. Security would be there soon. Krysta, however, was already unconscious.
She groaned at the memory. She had been so stupid. Messing around with the elements was a dangerous task that would take much more time to master than she had allowed. It was a mystery that she hadn't been dismissed from the Silencer's after that disaster. Instead they had offered to help her learn more about what was happening. Apparently, this was not abnormal.
By now the sun that had awoken her that morning moved out of her eyes. The room was growing dark again as the rays moved away from her window. Someone knocked on the door and Krysta grunted. She did not want company right now. Couldn’t they all just leave her alone to wallow in her own self-pity until she healed? The regularly visiting doctor was only a reminder to her of how miserably she had failed herself and her team.
“Go away!” She hollered at the door, “I’m just fine. Leave.”
She was ignored as the door opened, and the frog hopped in with his bag of medical knick-knacks. His large round eyes rested at the top of his head and he scanned the room. A look of confusion overtook his face.
“Krysta? I know I just heard you here. Where are you hiding?” He said this rather concerned. He moved to the center of the room and turned in circles trying to spot her.
“What are you talking about? I’m right over here.” She was angry already, and his games were only fueling her further.
The doctor looked towards the bed now having heard her voice. His confusion was still present, but began to fade.
“Ah, so you already know.”
“Know what?” Her frustration was quickly rising, but the games seemed over with. The frog chuckled a bit and pulled out some papers from his coat.
“My dear, your test results are back,” he looked down at the front page skimming it over before returning a blank stare at the bed, “It appears that our suspicions were right about your quickened recovery. On top of your recent elemental specialties, you seem to have developed an ability we recognize as the ‘healing factor’. Quite lucky on your part, especially with all that has happened recently.”
There was a pause, and he shuffled through more papers. He couldn’t seem to find what he was looking for right away so he continued on a previous conversation the two had had, “You know, I did some research into the matter. Though it is not rare for the Anthro beings to experience abilities such as yours, it is still a mystery as to why you have developed so late. Most abilities become active in early childhood. I’m sorry that we have inconclusive results for the delay. Ah, here it is.” He pulled out the sheet he was looking for, then looked towards the pillow. “Krysta please, relax. It is much easier to talk to you when I can see you.”
“What?” She was the one confused now. “I have no clue what you are talking about. Are you blind? I’m right here.”
“I assure you I can see perfectly clear. Anyways,” he tapped at the paper, “While we were testing you for the healing factor we came across another ability. We expected this since most Anthro’s have 3 abilities. You have developed the power to turn yourself invisible. Did you already know this?”
“… No.” She began to relax and the doctor smiled.
“That’s better. I can see you now. I suggest you talk with the team immediately about specialty training so that you can get all of this under control my dear. You are scheduled to return to work very soon. Those bandages will be coming off tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? So soon?”
“You’ll be healed by then. I already told you, the healing factor is going to restore you back to full health at an incredible rate. Now get some rest.” He packed up his bag and headed for the door. He turned the knob to leave but was stopped by Krysta’s voice.
“Doctor… could you stop by the main office on the way out? I have a message for the team.”
“Sure thing. And what may that be?”
“I wish to start team training as soon as possible. It’s about time I started working with my allies, rather than around them.”
The frog nodded in approval, happy to see that the young girl was indeed learning. He turned and hopped out, closing the door gently behind him.
Eventually the rays hit a young white fox’s face bringing her to consciousness. Her body ached. Everything still stung and the stench of burnt fur still filled the room. Krysta looked at herself lying across the bed. Bandages still encased her, but she knew that slowly she was healing. They had told her in the infirmary that she would survive the incident without scars by some miracle. She had been lucky. Her eyes met the ceiling as the memories replayed in her head. The dream that started it all seemed as real as the day it came.
Dark clouds rolled in. Claps of thunder shook the ground beneath her. The sky lit up from the static in the air. Surrounded by nothing on all sides Krysta found she was standing in the middle of an open field. The grass was short, barely enough to fit between her large fluffy toes. The sky told a tale of misery, turmoil, and a struggle for power that would soon end with an attack at the ground. Her fur began to stand.
“This isn’t good,” she whispered to herself in fear. The air cracked, heat ran towards her in a blazing white trail and she dove for the ground, “No!”
She sat up in bed screaming. Her fluffy coat was damp with a cold sweat as she panted trying to calm her nerves. It was then that she realized the tingling sensation tickling her skin.
“That’s odd,” the words barely escaped her as she looked down to her arms. They seemed to feel this new sensation the most. It almost seemed like the fur resting on them was glowing. This was not her normal natural white radiance emitted from her coat though. A closer look revealed tiny sparks traveling constantly between the hairs. Her eyes grew wide in astonishment.
It scared her. She didn’t know why but the sparks made her tremble in fear. Something didn’t feel right. This was not your typical static cling that she was accustomed to on dry days. This was a full-blown electric party dancing around her, flowing through her. Was this because of the dream? Or perhaps, had this caused the dream…. this needed to stop. Quickly she got on her feet and ran for the bathroom.
A simple crafted wooden door closed behind her and clicked as Krysta’s finger pressed the golden lock. Her oversized paws traveled across the cold tiles. They crackled with each step and little blue sparks flew every which way. She was surprised to see that her fur wasn’t igniting from all of this, but it relieved her ever so slightly. She stopped only inches before a faded blue shower curtain that hung over her porcelain white bathtub. The shade was ripped open in one swift movement and she reached for the inner wall. A faucet was turned and water began to pour in. An adjustment was made and the flow moved up to the showerhead. She stepped in as the droplets got ready to douse her.
The theory behind all of this was that normally she stopped any static in her fur with a nice warm shower. The moisture seemed to put electricity in its place. Today was very different though. The little specs burst against each spark. Steam began to rise from each one and Krysta began to panic.
“No no no! Just… STOP!” She screamed as her arms flew out at each side. She was enraged and closed her eyes in frustration. Her voice roared through the bathroom, “STOP!”
Everything was quiet for a moment. The tingling began to subside and Krysta opened her eyes. She looked down at her arms and the sparks seem to have disappeared. She was all right, everything seemed normal again. Everything, except her fur… It remained dry. She looked up to see that the showerhead was still pouring down water, but a large orb had now formed over the head. It was growing rapidly.
“Oh now what?” Krysta exclaimed. Immediately the liquid ball released and splashed down on her. She howled out angrily as tiny droplets spilled down on her a moment later. Now everything was back to normal.
***
A few days had passed since that morning. At first everything seemed to boggle her mind keeping her very distant from the rest of the team. As it had been with her last big life changing disaster, she felt that whatever had happened that morning was to stay a personal matter. Lucky for Krysta her allies were too caught up in work to notice that her head was completely in the clouds. When she had gone for her weekly training away from Bridgend though her behavior was quickly noted.
“If you ain’t gonna keep yer head in the game yous might as well get outta here,” was how the black wolf had put it lightly when dismissing her. He could tell she wasn’t going to get anything done until things were sorted out. This was not something he would be assisting her with though.
The walk home was bitter. Cold raindrops fell on her head and she seemed to twitch slightly with the contact of each one. It wasn’t like she was scared of water or anything. Krysta just wasn’t enjoying the storm. Warm showers in the evening seemed to sooth her more. The cold only made her more disgusted as she looked around at the city ruins. There were barely any completed buildings. Hotel Kast seemed to be placed near the more sturdy structures but just a couple of blocks down it seemed like no one had lived there for years. Rats ran through the streets looking for any scraps of food they could muster. Sometimes there would be piles of god only knew muck sitting near storm drains. Her foot found it’s way into a pothole that had somehow developed on the broken down sidewalk and she yelped.
“Yuck! That’s disgusting!” The words burst from her in a horrible phlegm filled tone that only made the situation seem even more gross to her than at first. City mystery scum pools often had that affect for those unlucky enough to come across one. She was damp, cold, and disgusted. She began to lift her foot out of the mess and shake it as if she had paper hanging off it. Her voice snuck through clenched teeth, “I’ve seriously had just about enough of this crap…”
Her foot shook more vigorously as she failed to get most of the sludge off. It looked horrid against her white coat, especially compared to her other clean foot. The rain began to pick up and pour upon her as the wind grew and slapped her in the face. Krysta’s ears sank low until they rested against her head. Her jewel filled eyes grew narrow and she snarled. Recently she had been more easily frustrated than ever before in her life. Maybe it was the stress of training and the taunting that came along with it in an attempt to make her stronger. Maybe it was the fact that she felt like alienating herself from everyone living within the walls of Bridgend. The recent rude awakening though had certainly not helped things get better.
Everything grew inside of her until finally Krysta barked out in rage. It echoed against the walls of the ruins loudly at first, but then fading fast. This was when Krysta noticed that the rain had stopped. The wind had stopped. The elements were no longer touching her. An eyebrow rose as she examined the situation and found that a liquid dome surrounded her.
It was amazing. Standing still, she investigated the wall. Disfigured Ripples formed randomly along the surface; a reaction to the storm droplets outside. A slender white finger extended out to touch it. Another ripple formed, this time traveling along the inner wall. Light ‘bloop’ sounds echoed around her and she began to relax. At least the rain wouldn’t touch her anymore. Her attention turned to her drenched fur coat, and again the sludge on her paw. Memory of the other morning reminded her that the last time a ball of water had formed her fur had achieved to stay dry even after the static stopped. Could she control this now?
Krysta tried to focus her mind, what she truly wanted that moment. Her body began to shake out the water as it normally would, but this time instead of matting up the hairs floated back down into place. Any moisture that had recently been there was now flying out towards the wall and being absorbed. Her eyes grew.
“Cool…” she almost couldn’t release the word from her astonishment. Her foot was next as she lifted it and shook. Oozy gray droplets flung from her toes and latched onto the inner wall of the water chamber. The liquid grew darker from the junk it received, but Krysta was left clean and dry.
She began to stand tall and proud realizing her accomplishment. The next step would be getting home though. Having finally achieved staying dry in the dreary weather, Krysta intended to stay as such. Her first step was small and cautious. She was afraid of the shield not moving with her, or that it would fall down on her. Luck was on her side today as the walls began to slide along the path. She took another step, and then another, and another, until finally her normal stride was into play. Finally she stopped. The last thing she needed to know was that she indeed could control it and she closed her eyes to relax. The sphere… she wanted it gone. Her eyes shot open, and the walls fell at all sides. The sphere had melted from the center above her head down avoiding her being drenched. It was exactly what she had wanted. Ignoring the rain falling on her she now ran home in excitement. The weather was forgotten.
Only a few minutes later Krysta found herself again staring into the porcelain bathtub deep within the safety of Bridgend. An idea was formulating in her mind and she just had to try it out. Her hand reached in for the faucet, shaking from the excitement. Water began to spill out of the showerhead up top and Krysta stepped back onto the tiled floor as the droplets fell into the tub below.
She fought with herself debating if the plan would actually work. It seemed silly, unlikely, but she loved the thought of it so much. She began to concentrate on the water. Each droplet that fell was of great importance to her, especially if this were to be a success. Her eyes focused to every liquid crystal of hope that flew out with thoughts that chilled her.
“Come on…” the words slipped from her mouth in a small fog. She was beginning to see her own breath. It had to be working! Any concern now that it wouldn’t was flushed away as she blew towards the shower. A small gust left her lips and wrapped around the droplets. At first they fell like rocks pattering against the bottom of the tub. Little ice crystals shattered on impact. She shook her head; this was not what she had intended.
Closing her eyes she tried to focus again, this time on lighter fluffier thoughts, childhood pleasures… her parents. She had it and blew another gust into the water pouring out. There seemed to be a loud ‘poof’ on contact with the beads as they transformed into tiny flakes. They flurried to the bottom and began to pile up. Krysta kept her focus on her parents and blew more at the incoming water until a pile of light, fluffy snow stood before her. The top was barely level with her nose.
Krysta let out a squeal of delight and clapped her hands together. The water flow was stopped quickly to keep the pile from being condensed, and Krysta got down on all fours. Her tail waved viciously in the air above her for a brief moment. Then, she pounced.
Fluff flew up in every direction encasing parts of the room. Most of the pile remained in tact though as it fell back down onto Krysta’s head. She achieved to kneel down and only have her nose and eyes poking out into the open. They traveled around the room playfully as if spying on some unseen figure. She caught sight of herself in the mirror across the room and laughed. She looked just like a pup. She wasn’t a pup though, not anymore.
A sigh escaped her and she stood up. Snow flopped down heavily into the pile as it was already beginning to melt. It was time to clean up this mess and get back to work. A little sad, Krysta went to get her mop and cleaned things up a bit. She turned up the heat to help the melting process along though it was already warm to begin with. It was late by the time she finished.
Miserable she stepped out into her room and sat down on the edge of her bed. Lazily she blew a few times and gusts traveled around the room. She played with this for a while seeing what she could knock out of place. Some water flicked off her finger and she blew another gust. A shard of ice formed and sailed across the room until it smashed into a wall. This was done numerous times to follow until her coat had dried. Finally she seemed to be getting the hang of this… one step at a time.
***
The next week was spent focusing on control. Krysta didn’t know what was happening to her but she was certainly going to keep it in check. All of her life she had been able to overall control her life. There had only been a few rare occasions where outcomes did not play in her favor. These new abilities were not going to affect this. Overall her time was spent inside her room messing around with cups of water and her breath. On occasion she would go into the bathroom to work with larger amounts of water. She was getting the hang of how things worked with two elements: Water and Wind. The sparks from the first morning had still not returned though.
Once content that she had control over wind and water enough to avoid problems and random outbursts, her focus moved briefly to electricity. The sparks from the first morning had not returned since but Krysta was determined to bring them back. The main problem seemed to be that she hadn’t found the right thoughts to trigger the ability yet. Water had become fairly easy once she figured out that every time she wanted to not be wet the moisture halted. Through that the task of making water do as she pleased had become much less strenuous.
Wind was even nicer. All she had to do was breath with the intent to blow air at something. There had only been one horridly embarrassing disaster so far with this, involving the breaking of wind from her backside. Her head had hit the ceiling before she came back down. Thank goodness this had taken place in her room. Even though the experience had nearly traumatized her Krysta actually found some use to it and intended to work on using this in the future to help propel her in specified directions more quickly. Of course, she also planned on mastering a technique to make this more ladylike and suiting for her self. A combination of practicing silent farts and wagging her tail at the same time seemed like the best solution. She would make it appear as though her tail caused the wind if anyone were to ever somehow notice.
Electricity was the big mystery though. Krysta was able to imagine many uses this ability could hold if mastered. Even re-electrifying her fur would be a great advantage if that were all she could muster. She thought of things that angered her. She imagined the sensation from that faithful morning. She even tried to recreate a thunderstorm in her mind. Nothing seemed to be working though.
“I suppose I just need more time.” She sighed to herself after hours of arduous thought. Her attention now moved around the room. It had grown dark while she was practicing and only now she had noticed. A small light appearing in the distance outside her window. A fire had been left unattended in the street. It was small, but the light burned bright. That's when the idea struck her. “Fire.” A new element was out there just waiting to be discovered and mastered. It only made sense that if she had experienced some sort of event with so many other elements so far that fire had to be hidden away in her somewhere.
Krysta traveled across her room, now messy with air blown papers scattered across the floor. She had lost her sense of organization since the ability to mess around with wind came out. Every page just meant something to target later. A few pages stuck to her feet, but this went unnoticed as she reached her desk and pulled out a match. She struck it once and it began to glow lighting up a corner of the room. Krysta watched it almost hypnotically, then reached over and lit a candle before blowing the match out. Leaving things unattended for a moment she went to the bathroom to fetch a bowl of water. She was eager, but not stupid. If the fire were to do anything and lose control, there would be water there to douse it immediately.
Clearing her desk of nothing but the bowl and candle the white fox sat down. She stared into the flame. White, orange, red… it danced between the colors at the end of a small wick and reflected in her eyes, her soul. Fire was a dance to her, lifting her heart. She felt she could do this. Fire was within her. Krysta held out her palm towards the flame. She wanted it to grow. She focused on the flame, on the dance, and the glowing grew. The room lit up with oranges and reds.
The candle stood still, untouched.
Krysta began to scream. Her hand had ignited and her entire fur coat had followed in the blink of an eye. It blazed, binding her in the inferno. It cracked, popped in her ears. No… it was the sparks. The little blue sunbursts had returned surrounding her, and flames encased it all. The mystery was solved; the electricity was triggered by fear.
The ability to move became an impossible task. Jolts of electricity surged through her, and the pain inflicted by the flames overtook her. Krysta continued to shriek, yelp, and howl. No one seemed to hear though. Finally in a last ditch effort she leapt for the door and punched the red button installed near the lock. It was the panic button. Security would be there soon. Krysta, however, was already unconscious.
***
She groaned at the memory. She had been so stupid. Messing around with the elements was a dangerous task that would take much more time to master than she had allowed. It was a mystery that she hadn't been dismissed from the Silencer's after that disaster. Instead they had offered to help her learn more about what was happening. Apparently, this was not abnormal.
By now the sun that had awoken her that morning moved out of her eyes. The room was growing dark again as the rays moved away from her window. Someone knocked on the door and Krysta grunted. She did not want company right now. Couldn’t they all just leave her alone to wallow in her own self-pity until she healed? The regularly visiting doctor was only a reminder to her of how miserably she had failed herself and her team.
“Go away!” She hollered at the door, “I’m just fine. Leave.”
She was ignored as the door opened, and the frog hopped in with his bag of medical knick-knacks. His large round eyes rested at the top of his head and he scanned the room. A look of confusion overtook his face.
“Krysta? I know I just heard you here. Where are you hiding?” He said this rather concerned. He moved to the center of the room and turned in circles trying to spot her.
“What are you talking about? I’m right over here.” She was angry already, and his games were only fueling her further.
The doctor looked towards the bed now having heard her voice. His confusion was still present, but began to fade.
“Ah, so you already know.”
“Know what?” Her frustration was quickly rising, but the games seemed over with. The frog chuckled a bit and pulled out some papers from his coat.
“My dear, your test results are back,” he looked down at the front page skimming it over before returning a blank stare at the bed, “It appears that our suspicions were right about your quickened recovery. On top of your recent elemental specialties, you seem to have developed an ability we recognize as the ‘healing factor’. Quite lucky on your part, especially with all that has happened recently.”
There was a pause, and he shuffled through more papers. He couldn’t seem to find what he was looking for right away so he continued on a previous conversation the two had had, “You know, I did some research into the matter. Though it is not rare for the Anthro beings to experience abilities such as yours, it is still a mystery as to why you have developed so late. Most abilities become active in early childhood. I’m sorry that we have inconclusive results for the delay. Ah, here it is.” He pulled out the sheet he was looking for, then looked towards the pillow. “Krysta please, relax. It is much easier to talk to you when I can see you.”
“What?” She was the one confused now. “I have no clue what you are talking about. Are you blind? I’m right here.”
“I assure you I can see perfectly clear. Anyways,” he tapped at the paper, “While we were testing you for the healing factor we came across another ability. We expected this since most Anthro’s have 3 abilities. You have developed the power to turn yourself invisible. Did you already know this?”
“… No.” She began to relax and the doctor smiled.
“That’s better. I can see you now. I suggest you talk with the team immediately about specialty training so that you can get all of this under control my dear. You are scheduled to return to work very soon. Those bandages will be coming off tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? So soon?”
“You’ll be healed by then. I already told you, the healing factor is going to restore you back to full health at an incredible rate. Now get some rest.” He packed up his bag and headed for the door. He turned the knob to leave but was stopped by Krysta’s voice.
“Doctor… could you stop by the main office on the way out? I have a message for the team.”
“Sure thing. And what may that be?”
“I wish to start team training as soon as possible. It’s about time I started working with my allies, rather than around them.”
The frog nodded in approval, happy to see that the young girl was indeed learning. He turned and hopped out, closing the door gently behind him.