• tab People are more powerful than they think. Sometimes the weakest of persons has the potential to be the strongest. You see, everything is mind over matter, well should I say mind controlling matter. People's brains control their body parts by sending electric pulses through the nerves right? So why is it limited at that? I have found a way to control these electric in order to control the particles around me. I can actually control the elements with my own body.
    tab The science behind it isn't that hard to understand and I'm amazed nobody has found this out before me. You see, through meditation you can significantly focus your mind on certain things. Usually people will focus on their own body parts or sometimes even things and creatures around them. All a psychic does is meditate and connect another being, this gives them the ability to tap into their memories and consciousness, but of course people already know of this science.
    tab I on the other hand focus on atoms, molecules, ions, things most people aren't even aware exist around them. That part of the science is easy. Now that you know the basics of what I'm talking about, I can explain how it is I control the elements.
    tab When in this meditative state I can sense the atoms around me. Judging by how powerful of an electric/magnetic field they generate I can tell what atom(s) they are, and judging by how stable they are I can tell what molecule they are. As I've said it's all a science. Once you grasp it, this should all make sense.
    tab Now, once I establish what molecules/atoms they are, I have the building blocks to form what I want. Let's take a step back though. You're probably thinking, "So you can sense atoms and molecules, how do you do anything just by sensing them", well now we backtrack to what I was saying before. Your brain controls your body with electronic impulses. Gain control of your brain and you gain control of this electric charge. With this charge when I concentrate on the atoms/molecules I can actually use this electric charge to move, energize, or accelerate these atoms/molecules.
    tab Now all the pieces are there. Fire is simplest to make, all fire is, is heat right? Where does heat come from? Heat is judged by how fast the molecules are moving and how much energy that movement takes. For instance, a calorie is the amount of energy it takes to increase the temperature of a certain amount of water 1 degree. The energy from that calorie heats the water, so, if I pump energy into the air around me theoretically the air should heat up right?
    tab Now say i find a cluster of hydrogen atoms and move them into my hand (this goes back to the manipulating of the impulses step) this in itself is supposed to be "scientifically impossible" but it's really quite simple. Once I have a decent amount of hydrogen at my disposal all it needs is an ignition source. This is where the next element comes in, electricity.
    tab Have you ever walked on a carpeted area and touched metal? You ever get that shock from doing it? There is electricity everywhere to manipulate and using this you can actually create a spark by moving all this energy near a source that is able to absorb eneregy. Hydrogen is 1 electron away from being stable so it wants energy. Shock hydrogen and the energy from the forming of a new ionized hydrogen is enough to increase the temperature... a lot. This heat ignites the hydrogen producing a flame. Pretty neat right? Well now you have a fire ball in your hand... ouch. I burned myself the first time trying this. But then I thought of a way around the heat towards myself. This brings in the next element, Air.
    tab Say that I want to keep the fire burning while at the same time protects my hand from the fire. Well it's simple, fire will burn as long as there is oxygen to feed it. But oxygen has another property; it too wants another 2 electrons to become stable. If I move a steady stream of oxygen between my hand and the flame, it will keep the fire alive while at the same time it will be absorbing the electrons that come off the fire to protect the hand from the heat. Thus I can sustain the fire ball past when it would usually go out. Now sometimes you're going to start fires and moving all the oxygen away from the fire just isn't practical. That's where our next element comes in, Water.
    tab Water is really simple. We have already dealt with Oxygen and Hydrogen, right? So what happens when you move 2 Hydrogen next to 1 Oxygen? That's right, H2O, A.K.A. Water. By moving these two atoms next to each other you can actually create water. Focus this reaction over the point of the fire and you get an instant fire extinguisher. Now that we have the basics, Air, Electricity, Fire, and Water, that brings us to where we can combine them and create almost anything.
    tab You may be thinking now "what about 'earth' isn't that an element?" It is, however, dealing with all these atoms IS the earth element. The second you move an atom, make a molecule, your using the earth element. All you need to do is line up enough carbon and you can make coal. Add the fire element and now you have a diamond. See? It's that simple!
    tab My name is Verinium and I live in New York City. The people here are incompetent and primitive at best. They are practically slaves to their work. If They aren't working day in and day out they are probably the dogs of the city, hobos, gangsters, muggers, thieves, cut-throats, pickpockets, etc. I want to get out of this city, but I have to finish high school first, I'm a senior at NYH and it's a bigger dump than the city is. There is graffiti everywhere, fires being started left and right, and almost everyone has a knife on them at all times.
    tab I just had my 15th birthday the other day. Most kids my age get a new weapon or money, which they then use for drugs. I on the other hand am actually law abiding and competent. I treat my mom with respect and in return she treats me with kindness and respect as well. My mom got me an ice-cream cake for my birthday but she got attacked on the way back home. Now she's in the hospital with a fractured rib, no money, and a lot of shame. This was the final straw for me, using the information I now possess, I'm going to take this city back from the criminals.
    tab It was Saturday morning and Verinium was heading home from school with his best, and only friend Kain. Kain was extremelyl intelligent and also a senior at NYH, he was 17 years old and quite a bit bigger than Verinium. Although Kain was a strait "A" student he always felt inferior to Verinium who barely got "C's". Verinium got a 100 on every in-class assignment but felt anything other than that was just a waste of his time, and so his grades suffered greatly.
    tab Kain is the only person Verinium ever shared his secret experiments with. Although he tried again and again to help Kain grasp how to perform these maneuvers, often times having to give an example to even get him to believe it was possible, Kain was never truly able to perform. By the end of 'training' as they called it, Kain and Verinium would be tired to the point of blacking out, and hungry enough to eat anything.
    tab The ability was a scientific breakthrough, almost the equivalent of alchemy, however it did have 1 drawback, it required an immense amount of energy. The impulses used to manipulate the matter around them doesn't come from nowhere, it comes from the body. If they drained themselves too much it could be very bad, one time Veriniums mom came home to find them both passed out in the middle of the room. Since then Verinium developed a way to recharge himself without him having to gorge himself every 30 minutes. He wanted to share this method with Kain but because Kain was not able to control all the elements he doesn't want to put his friend in danger. It was the one secret that he wouldn't tell anyone until they were ready.
    "Kain, let's get something to eat, it wont do us any good if you keep over-exerting yourself. Even if you can only get the Water and Electricity elements that's still more than everyone else." Verinium tried to explain to Kain.
    "Yes but I'm tired of you always being better, I'm not going to stop practicing until I at least match you!" Kain replied.
    "Well then let's get some food. You cant continue to train if you constantly run out of energy."
    "I guess your right, but I don't understand why I run out of energy so fast. You have been doing the same exercises with an even lower calorie intake than me. According to your theory you should have run out of energy long before me."
    "Well... I told you i'll tell you that secret once you master the other elements. It could be dangerous to tell you before that."
    "Yeah I know but if iI knew now I could train for so much longer without wasting all my paycheck on food."
    "I'd rather you alive. The money and time you'll save means nothing if you kill yourself trying to learn something your not ready for."
    "Alright. Well let's go, I don't feel like making anything."
    "Where do you want to go then?"
    "I don't know. McDonalds? Burger King? It really doesn't matter, we are just going to burn all the calories in about 20 minutes anyways."
    "Calories yes, but that stuff still isn't healthy... but you are right I don't feel like making anything either. Let's just go to BK."
    tab They got up off the floor in Veriniums living room. It wasn't big but it was very emtpy. There was an elaborate plaid carpet which was red and blue. The walls were painted dark purple and the ceiling was light blue with white spots every so often representing clouds. Verinium doesn't really know why his mother chose such a dark theme with such a free spirited ceiling but it just 'fits' for some reason. There is really no furniture anywhere in the room except for 2 bean-bags which Verinium and Kain use for their 'training'.
    tab They headed out the door and down the street. It was the ghettos of the town. As they passed by houses they could see shutters falling off, holes in the walls, and broken windows everywhere. I'll have to visit my mom on the way back. God knows how she must feel. Verinium though to himself. Veriniums mom was still in the hospital and recovering. She was making progress with her physical injuries but she was still mentally unstable.
    "So Verinium how was your birthday? What did your mom do for you this year?"
    tab Verinium gritted his teeth at the memory of when he found his mom bleeding in the streets 1 block from his house. He had heard her screaming and ran out to help, but by the time he got to her the assailant was already gone. "My birthday was... Let's just say it was Interrupted." Verinium responded.
    "Interrupted? How? What happened?" Kain replied with a worried expression.
    "My mom got mugged on the way back from the grocery store. They beat her up pretty good and stole a months pay from her."
    "What?! Who was it? Did you see them?" Kain demanded.
    "If I saw them," Verinium began saying, "They would probably be in the hospital instead of my mother."
    "Man, I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
    "I didn't want to alarm you. It could have interfered with training, or worse, caused you to lose focus and hurt yourself."
    "I guess." Kain finally said.
    tab They were now at Burger King. The remnants of what used to be a nice restaurant now stood as a monument to the crime in the city. Like the school it had graffiti everywhere, it also had vomit on the walkways, homeless people sleeping on the side of it, broken windows, and an old rusted hand rail. They walked into the restaurant and began ordering their meals.
    "Welcome to Burger King, can I help you?" The cashier asked politely.
    "Yes. Can I please get a-" Kain started to ask when suddenly the door behind him was kicked open and a masked man with a gun rushed into the restaurant.
    "Everyone down on the ground!" The masked man screamed, wildly swinging his weapon around. Everyone dropped immediately, some started to cry. Verinium remained standing.
    "You! On the ground now!" The man said pointing his gun at Verinium.
    "No." Verinium said calmly, "Put the gun down and walk out right now. I'm not in the mood to deal with lowlifes like you."
    "What did you say to me you little punk?" The man said, "I should shoot you right now! Luckily for you I'm nice and will tell you again, sit yourself down on the ground with your hands on your head."
    "You annoy me," Verinium said, "I'll tell YOU again. Put the weapon down and walk out right now and I won't have to hurt you."
    "You hurt me? You forget little man I'm the one with the gun." The man said still flailing the gun around. He pointed it up getting ready to steady his aim on Verinium. Now! Verinium thought to himself. He focused and moved a small amount of static into the brass cartrage within the gun. It created a spark and the powder ignited. POP! A shot fired into the ceiling. "What the devil?" The masked man exclaimed in surprise. "5." Verinium said.
    "What?" The man said still startled at the misfire of his gun.
    "Your holding a Smith and Western revolver. It holds six shots, assuming you had it full when you came in here you now have five shots left." Verinium calmly explained.
    "Ok I've had enough of you!" The man yelled.
    tab Verinium, knowing the next bullet was coming for him, decided that even with his ability his reaction time still wasn't faster than a bullet. He then, moving quickly so that he could get it done before the bullet was fired, began running a current of oxygen around the floor so that the oxygen would steal the electrons from the floor tiles. By doing this Verinium was able to create a "super magnet" out of the floor between him and the salespeople, customers, and the gunner.
    "Say goodnight wise guy." The man said.
    "Good Night." Verinium replied smugly.
    "Oh I'm gonna enjoy this!" *POP*... *FTANG*
    tab Everyone but Verinium jumped at both sounds. The second was the sound of the bullet smashing into the rusted up metal ceiling. The magnet pushed the bullet so far off course it appeared as if it had gone strait up right after it hit the magnet, which of the course nobody else even realized he had placed there.
    "4" Verinium said almost laughing at the man's face.
    It was an expression between "What the heck" and pure fear.
    "This is your last chance," Verinium calmly stated, "Leave... Now."
    "Nobody tells me what to do!" *POP, POP, POP* *TANG* *pLUCK* *PING*
    "I, and your out of chances," Verinium said," Hey Kain how bout you help me take care of this guy."
    Kain got up off the ground and dusted off his pants. The gun man immediately swung the gun towards Kain.
    "Get back on the ground!" He yelled, by now hysterical with fear of who... what Verinium was.
    "It seems to me like either my friend here is deflecting your bullets magically, or you just suck at aim." Kain said taunting the man.
    "Kain soak the black powder inside of his gun with water. I'm walking past the m agnet."
    Verinium whispered to Kain.
    "Magnet?! What magnet? You didn't tell me about a magnet!" Kain whispered back.
    "Just do it." Verinium harshly whispered back.
    "Alright what are you two talking about over there?" The man asked.
    "You're punishment." Verinium stated as he turned and walked past the magnet.
    tab Kain hastily went deeply into meditation. Slowly moving atom by atom through the small crack in between the bullet and the casing. This is going too slow and I'm already exhausted. Kain thought as he started to lose focus. He knelt down on the ground touching the old rusted up rail on his way down. *TZZ* Ouch. He thought. Sucking on his finger an idea struck him. He began to move all the static from the rail into his body. Instead of moving it all at once which would have been like a lightning strike, he moved it slowly which just felt like a stream of constant energy. So this is how he does it... Kain thought to himself. Kain began focusing on making more water inside the bullet. But he was too late. *POP* Verinium stopped dead in his tracks. Everyone in the restaurant gasped as he just stood there. He turned around and amazingly there was no blood, there was no hole in his chest. Instead, a split second later, there was a *PINK* as the bullet dropped to the floor. Enough of the black powder was damaged where as the bullet fired but instead of firing at a deadly 500 MPS it fired off at a mere 60 MPS, which, to the human eye looks like the same thing.
    "You shot me!" Verinium stated turning around. "You actually shot me!"
    "How are you not-" the man began to say.
    "0, and to think I was going to let you live."
    The hydrogen ball Verinium had been saving in his hand burst into flames as he released a small charge into it. Keeping a constant flow of air between it and his hands it actually started to rotate forming a perfect circle in his right hand. I can control shape with air? Verinium thought to himself. This could be fun... I don't think he will want to rob a store again any time soon. Verinium maneuvered the air wildly making a crude sowrd shape. But it was good enough to impress everyone and send terror into the now unarmed man.
    "What is that? Who are you?!" The man demanded.
    "Me? I'm your hostage," Verinium stated with purpose, " and soon to be your executioner!"
    "Please! No! I was only trying to get some quick money so I can pay for my kid to go to school! I'm not a bad person, you must understand me!" the man begged.
    "I understand," Verinium stated,"but the second you didn't leave you showed what kind of man you were. The second you shot at me you sealed your fate."
    Verinium was geting closer. The man wanted to turn and run but he was frozen with fear. Verinium thrust his sword into the man. The man winced.
    "Get out now. This is your last and final warning." Verinium said.
    He had dispersed the flame right before it hit the man. The only marks left on the man were a hole in his shirt and a small burn on his chest.
    "But first come behind the counter. I want to see your face." Verinium said.
    "Why?" said the man.
    "Because you won't be spared if I see you commiting a crime again." Verinium said.
    tab The man dropped the gun and went behind the counter. Verinium followed him while closely watching the man's muscles to sense any tension that could be a precursor to a closely watching the man's muscles to sense any tension that could be a precursor to a physical attack. There was none however, the man was broken, having his life close to it's end and being spared. He was in shock.
    "I take you behind the counter becaus I am giving you a second chance. The cameras can't see you and the people can't see you. I want you to fix your life and become a valued member of society," Verinium explained,"You're no good to anyone dead, and you're a waste of our money if you're in jail. You said you have a kid right? Do you ant your kid to turn out like the others in his town? Or do you want your kid to grow up to be a respectful and honest member of society. You're setting the example. Don't be like the other animals of this city."
    "But you don't understand," the man said,"there are no jobs available to somebody like me. I am a high school drop-out, nobody wants to hire a failure."
    "Nobody wants to hire a crook either. There are jobs out there. Finish your education and set the example for your kid. You should never tell your kid to do something you haven't done yourself. You say you needed money to send your kid to school? If you finish your schooling you'll be able to pay for theirs."
    "Yeah but if I don't have money for my kids schooling what makes you think I can pay for my own?"
    tab Verinium thought for a while and came up with an idea. He focused and found all the charred items. Pans, burgers, grease, spatulas, boxes, the mans shirt. He took all the carbon and began to form it in his hands. The man watchied in amazement as a small ball of black dust began to form. Verinium grabbed more and more until there was no more carbon in the room. He now had a ball about the size of the mans head. He then surrounded the ball of carbon with hydrogen and set it on fire. He forced a massive amount of oxygen around the ball and forced it tighter around it. He continued to do this and as the ball got smaller he pulled some iron from the dust on the ground and forced that too into the ball. By the time the ball was the size of a dime the man was completely confused. What was once a big flaming ball was now a tiny green flame. It kept getting smaller and smaller. Finally Verinium formed a small ball of water over it and dropped it onto the ball, now the size of a BB. He handed the now extinguished black bead and handed it to the man.
    "What good is this going to do me?" The man asked.
    "Wipe it off. With y our mask, I don't feel like being here all day so let's multi-task here."
    Verinium replied with a smile.
    tab The man took off his mask and began to wipe the bead off. It had many edges and began to shine a brilliant orange. The man looked into Verinium's eyes with a look of pure euphoria. The man had blue eyes and reddish brown hair. The man had a small goatee on his chin and a five o'clock shadow.
    "Is this?" The man was at a loss for words.
    "An orange diamond," Verinium stated,"though I don't approve of your methods of making money, your intentions were noble. This will fetch you enough money to pay for you AND your kid's schooling. I hope to see you learning soon."
    "Thank You! You don't know how much this is going to help us!" The man said.
    "Put your mask back on, walk out the door, take it back off and run."
    "OK. I will not forget this."
    "Whats your name?"
    "Bryan Tanus. Why?"
    "Because I wasn't kidding, I will not spare you a second time."
    tab With that the man ran out of the restaurant and was gone before anybody could go and try to get a good look at him. Verinium returned the stolen electronst o the floor so that nobody would get hurt later from the magnetic field. He had done some good today. 1 man out of many may not seem like much. But he was doing it, he was making a diffrence in HIS city. It no longer belonged to crime, but was under the protection of a new type of force. Verinium later started a task force to rehabilitate criminals... at the crime scene. He called them "The Tempests". He was the leader and deal with the bad cases and simple crimes he got stuck in. Kain became the "Chief" of the tempests and was mainly a teacher for the new comers. He was able to later learn how to control the Air element but could not master fire, nobody could. The only person who was ever able to control fire was Verinium. He did it with such ease that nobody knew how or why they couldn't. But then, nobody could figure out why the physics of the ability worked except Verinium. Some praised tempests for what they did and how they not only protected the inocents, but literally cleansed the wicked, rather than just locking them away. Others on the other hand protested tempests because they felt that they were wimply recirculating the criminals back onto the streets. Some of the criminals that dealt with the tempest didn't reform and were later "Released" from the world on their second offence, but most of them had reasons for thier crimes and were easily swayed to becoming valueble citizens without the need for death, or jail. Bryan Tanus later became a tempest. He got his GED 4 months after his incident with Verinium and his kid is now attending NYES and doing well. Verinium's mom made a full recovery and has no idea about the task force until this day. Nobody in the task force knows his name, which he made sure of to protect his friends and family. He is known to his colleges only as, The Tempest Genius.

    FIN