Las Vegas (WC 1370)

This was going to be my back up story for the online writing course, but I decided to go with 'Healing' instead. So here's Alex once again.

For those familiar with The Legacy: Fate, you will recognize this. I rewrote a small part of the story to fit as a stand alone. Enjoy!

We arrived in Las Vegas late into the evening. Never had I set foot in a big city before so it amazed me to see people roam the streets even at this time of the night. No words from my limited vocabulary could express how I felt as I watched the bright lights of blues, yellows, and greens that covered the buildings from top to bottom. Even the ones in a more subtle white appealed to me just as much. Obviously, with three suns, such display of lights would have no purpose on my planet.

Mellie gave time for my strong fascination for everything surrounding us to settle down a notch. Content to be with each other, we strolled around the city for hours without even speaking a word. The proximity of her body so close to mine left me weak in the knees. How had I managed to fall so deeply in love with someone from a world so distant from mine? If this had been my first time on a foreign planet, I might have understood. Conversely, I had spent more time in space and on other worlds than on my own, and never had I come remotely close to anyone. In my line of work, letting your heart control your mind could get you killed, but this time, the mere thought of leaving made me feel miserable.

I was lost in my thoughts when the first sirens went off. Mellie stiffened in my arms. Some people shouted orders and ran inside the edifices, but most stood petrified and weeping. I half-expected to see the dreaded military choppers and jeeps that kept finding me everywhere I went, but they had not triggered the confusion, something else had.

"What’s going on?" I asked Mellie.

"Tornado alert," she murmured.

"No tornado has ever touched down in Las Vegas," a man behind us said.

"It must be the same phenomena that plagued the rest of the country for the last week or so," someone else replied.

"I saw it on the news. Just yesterday, Albany, Trenton, Springfield, and Daytona, all leveled to the ground, and a few hours ago, Phoenix and Tucson, destroyed too. No one survived. No one," a woman added between two sobs.

"You should seek refuge inside one of the buildings. It’s not safe to stay outside," another man, this one dressed in a blue uniform, told us before he ran to another group of people directing them to the safest locations.

The tornado roared in the distance but buildings hid it from our sight. Ignoring the man's advice, I ran toward the sound with Mellie following close behind. We pushed our way between the people who fled to safety until we saw it in all of its towering horror, gigantic, even from afar. The rotating monster was heading directly toward us. I could not help but wonder how people could even hope to survive such a force of nature.

Every fiber in my body was telling me to walk away, or better, to run away as far as I could. As a navigator, I followed a strict protocol and our law did not allow me any leeway. In situation like this, the instructions left no doubts: Step aside and let the beast destroy everything on its path, even if it kills everyone. They were right; too many people would witness my intervention, and yet, how could I let innocent human beings die when I could prevent it? Their reasoning made no sense. Nothing justified the death of so many people, not even our sacred vow not to reveal ourselves to indigenes.

The storm held a lot of potential for destruction but I knew I could beat it. For once, my emotions, all bottled up inside of me, would prove useful. I would draw on them to fuel my power and control the element. With no time to waste, I reached for Air. Once again, my faithful friend would come to my aid. I summoned her and commanded her from as far away as she let me. Once contained and under my supervision, she thickened and gained strength.

"What is he doing?" asked someone from behind me.

"Hush, don’t disturb him, I've got a feeling that whatever it is, it’s gonna be spectacular," Mellie answered.

I silently thanked her for not letting anyone break my concentration. This spell needed all my attention, and it was probably one of the most dangerous I had ever attempted.

Once I gauged the air under my control equal as the tornado, I ordered it to swirl in the opposite direction. Slowly at first but then faster and faster it obeyed, thus creating my own colossus. People became hysterical. For all they knew, the tornado had doubled itself and now two funnels threatened the city. The strong stench of fear crept in and mixed with the smell of perfume and cigarettes that already arose from the crowd.

Both giants were coming dangerously closer. It was time to put a stop to it. I slammed my air pet into the original. The force from one countered the other and in no time, they annihilated each other. All that remained of the turbulence was an enormous pile of sand.

A strange stillness followed, accompanied by an unusual energy that went through my body as if I were a human lightning. Mellie ran to me but before she could touch me, I sent a gust of wind that swept her off her feet and pushed her away.

"I am sorry, but I had no choice. You need to stay away until I figure out what is happening. Something is wrong. Touching me now would probably electrocute you," I said, after I cast an invisible wall around me, preventing anyone else from coming closer.
Pointing in my direction, the awed bystanders flocked closer. Some sought information while others captured everything on video cameras. As for me, unable to release the power, I felt wickedly stronger as more energy flowed into me.

Mellie bit her lips before she spoke with a small voice, "When you sent your tornado, a broad glowing ray initiated from your hand, and now you might not see it but your figure glows just like the beam."

All of a sudden, one after the other, all the lights went out, leaving the city in a total black out. Mellie started to cry.

"I am going to be ok, but please, leave the area. I feel uneasy. Before long, the military will rush here. I cannot bear the thought of them capturing you and dragging you back to that horrific place again. I would never forgive myself."

"Alex, I'm not leaving you."

"Please, do not argue."

Stubborn, she did not move so she left me with no choice; I had to find a way to stop this madness. After a few more failed attempts, I realized what I did wrong. To cast the spell, I had unlocked the door to my emotions, immersing myself completely in them. Now, to put an end to this, I needed to go back to the source and do the one thing I excelled at doing, the same thing that hindered my spell casting before: I had to push those emotions back behind that door.

As soon as I succeeded, it created a void in my heart and in my soul, and I felt the power rush out of my body. Finally, I was my normal self again, not a moment too soon. People cheered. Most could not comprehend what they had witnessed, but they could all see that the danger was gone. Somehow, I had become their hero. Mellie ran to me, and this time, neither wind nor wall prevented her. We stood embracing each other for a few minutes, oblivious of the people around us.

"I knew you could do it," she whispered in my ear. "Now, we'd better leave before those choppers show up again."

I nodded. It never ceased to amaze me how she could be so willing to put up with me and the weird life I was forced to live.

"So… where to now, Hun?" she asked me and her eyes sparkled with excitement.