Chapter 8
The next 4 hours were the most tiring hours in Lash's life... Sure, Ken gave her breaks whenever she really needed them, but in the whole 4 hours she only took one. Lash had to get stronger... She knew she had to... Otherwise she'll constantly lose until she's lost it all... Ken did show her a lot though, mostly control based lessons though. Along with earning how to control her abilities, Lash also learned a lot about Ken. For one, she learned that he was an incredibly patient individual. No matter how badly she failed or how many times it took her, he kept his smile on and his motivating words a coming. Another thing was, like Lash had thought, he was incredibly strong. Like Kate, nothing could hurt him, and he could also create all kinds of fire and even ripped one of the biggest spires from the ground without a problem! It was amazing! The last thing was that he was incredibly smart and knew the answer to any question she asked him, which was pretty cool. Brains and brawn, what a combination. Through all the training, Lash felt she had gotten a lot better, and the further she went through the training the easier it was to do the next thing, and the next. It made Lash feel really good. When Ken stoped her, she had only wanted more, but he had told her that for now, she was done. At least with him. Lash wondered what he meant by that, but then Katelyn came in and smiled at her.
"Hello Lash. Have fun training with Ken?" Katelyn asked as she walked up to her.
Lash, seeing as she was in a good mood, smiled back at her as she replied,"Actually, yeah. I did. It was a lot more fun then I thought it would be."
Katelyn nodded as she replied,"That's good. But now it is my turn for an important part of your training." Lash had no idea what she meant, but followed Katelyn along anyway. Anything that could make her stronger at this point she would take. Katelyn led her to her room first, and told her to grab a sweatshirt, as it was a bit chilly out. Lash understood now that the raining would be outside, but Kate didn't even hint as to what the training might be. Lash was up to the training however, and knew that she could do it just like the rest of her training.
As they made it outside Lash noticed that it was almost sunset, which meant that it was around either 6 or 7. The forest was quite calm tonight as Katelyn closed the hatch, standing on top of it as she beckoned Lash over. Lash walked over in front of her as Katelyn turned her around, grabbing her around the waist.
"Katelyn what are yo-" Lash started before Katelyn replied.
"Close your eyes, and just breath Lash."
Lash did so as she just stood there, breathing. After awhile she started to feel wind rushing past her, and opened her eyes. Lash was rising higher and higher in the air as the ground went further and further away. It was quite obvious what Lash did next, she screamed. Lash did this, frozen in fear, for about 3 minutes while Katelyn just hovered about 500 feet above the forest. When Lash had finally stopped, Katelyn asked her,"You finished?" Lash very slowly nodded her head as Katelyn smiled and said,"Good. Let us go for a little fly, shall we?" Katelyn then started to fly North, keeping the sun to their left as the wind rushed past them. Lash was ever so slowly getting more comfortable with flying as she looked around the area, noticing the natural beauty about it. The more calm she got, the more beautiful she realized he surrounding area was as she grinned, laughing in excitement. Though there was still a tinge of fear in it.
"You realize what I'm helping you with now Lash?" Katelyn asked, smiling at her. Lash nodded. Katelyn was trying to help her overcome her fear of heights, and one day get rid of all fear so that she may be the best on the field of combat,"Good. Because now that you are comfortable with this, we must push the limits." Before Lash could even begin to wonder what she meant by this Katelyn slowed down slightly, arcing upward a bit before snapping downward, going incredibly fast downward. Lash could feel the rush of wind strike her face as she closed her eyes, another swell of fear building up in her. But before they hit the ground, Katelyn turned back upward, going just as quickly upward as she had downward.
Through the wind Katelyn called out,"Lash! Put both your arms down and shoot fire out of both your feet and hands! Push as hard as you can!" Lash started to do this, the fire rocketing out from beneath her as she kept her eyes shut. She then felt herself arcing downward a bit, starting to level out, so she opened her eyes. That's when she saw that Kate wasn't holding her, she was flying on her own. At first, it was terrifying, and she wobbled a little in the air, but after awhile she finally stabalized, and looked at Kate. Lash was flying by herself!
"Katelyn! This is absolutely amazing!" Lash yelled out as she just flew straight.
Katelyn then looked to her left, watching the sun go further down as she said,"That's great Lash, but we'll need to cut the lesson short." Lash looked at her questioningly as she flew over, grabbing a hold of her hand as her fire stopped, and Kate plummeted downward to the forest floor, carefully landing both of them on the ground as Katelyn fell to a knee, shaking her head in what appeared to be pain.
"Kate? Are you alright?" Lash asked, walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes Lash, I'm fine. But the problem is that my helmet is out of batteries again... Cause you see, the only way I can see is with ultraviolet rays, but with my helmet drained and the sun down, I am effectively blind. Can you walk us back to the base?" Katelyn asked.
Lash looked at Katelyn, smiling a bit as she nodded, but realizing she couldn't see said,"Yes Kate." Lash then grabbed a hold of her arm as she head back the way they came. They flew quite far, so it would be a heck of a walk. At least they could still talk, and Lash had a few questions that she wanted to ask.
After they had walked for a few minutes, Lash finally opened her mouth and asked,"Hey Kate, if your part of the Elements, then where are the others? I've only met you and Mike so far."
Katelyn kept a straight face as she replied,"You have met three of us. Kenneth is one of us as well." Lash had a look of surprise, but after thinking about it wasn't that surprised that Ken was an Element. The Element of Fire no less. So she let Katelyn continue,"As for the others, Samantha left us and went to live her own life, but she never told us where she went. She had never wanted any of this after all, and the changes hit her really hard. Jessica on the other hand, I know where she is, but she told us she did not want to fight anymore. She's currently living her life in a forest, far from other people."
"What about the last one? What happened to them?" Lash asked when she didn't continue.
Katelyn however gave out a shaky sigh as she replied,"The last one is Tim, and he took all of this the hardest... He left because he was afraid-... Afraid he would hurt me..." Tears were leaking from the bottom of Katelyn's helmet as Lash could see her face screw up in sadness. Lash did not know who Tim was, but he was obviously someone important to Katelyn. So Lash decided to change the subject to something else.
"So, I heard from Mike that you guys had your abilities before all of this, how is that possible?" Lash asked her.
Once again, Katelyn shook her head as she said,"I suppose if it needs to be told, I should tell to you..." She said quietly at first before straightening up and saying,"A few months before the war, all of us had been in a reconnassaince group for the army, and had to check out Russian territory to see if they were planning an attack. Well, our being there was a set up for an experiment and... We got these abilities..." She paused for a moment as she grabbed her head with her free hand, saying,"We were just tools to those people... Well, none of us enjoyed living our lives as experimental rats, so we fought back. It took us a few horrible months, but we earned our freedom. We fought a war in order to stop the recreation of people like us, just to help aid the creation... Now we're fighting a new one to protect those like us."
Lash couldn't believe any of it... The Elements have already been around for months, created by some group as a form of weapon... It's probably what made Kate blind... Now, deep inside, Lash knew that she was fighting more then just the Honor Guard. She would have to fight against this group that they had to face. She would kill each and every one of them for making Katelyn and the others suffer like they did...
They stayed quiet for the next hour of walking, the opening within view as she saw Kenneth there waiting for them.
"Welcome back you two, enjoy your flight?" Kenneth asked, looking at Lash more then Kate.
Lash nodded as she replied,"Yes Ken, it really helped. But I'll need a lot more practice."
"We'll have time for that later, for now, go get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow." Kenneth said, leading Katelyn down the stairs.
"Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?" Lash asked.
This time Katelyn answered as she replied,"We are going to visit an Alpha living on his own. He has apparently already killed 4 Honor Guard, and so we are going to try and recruit him, and I want you to be there Lash." Lash felt quite honored as she thanked Katelyn, watching her walk off to her room with the aid of the bases lights. Lash now understood why they seemed so bright, and was happy Kate found a way around it. But now was time for Lash to rest, because she could feel her body begin to throb in muscle pains everywhere, as now every step step seemed to hurt as she made it to her room. When she finally made it there she just removed her clothes and hopped into bed. Tonight she did not care if Mike peeked in on her, because she was too tired to give a rat's ass... Besides, with what Mike went through and is going through, peeking at a naked girl is the least of his worries. Lash however stopped thinking about this as she very quickly drifted off into sleep, dreaming about the Elements she knew, and her mind creating what she thought the others looked like. Though she quickly found out that she could not picture Tim... It was just something about him... She hoped she would meet him one day so that she may thank him for helping everyone, as well as give him a heavy punch in the face for hurting Katelyn...
Word Count: 1965
Subject: Chapter 8 
