There was a violent calm in the air.

The Campus of North Central Community College was built in a circle around a fountain. The fountain looked almost like a web of fingers reaching up to grasp at the sun. Each finger was bent as though it was closing its grip. Water shot out of the end of each finger, crisscrossing through the air to land behind the finger opposite it. In the palm, a smaller fountain bubbled up cascading water down the fingers, back into the reservoir. The reservoir itself was fairly large. Its circular base was twenty feet in diameter. There were times when Alex wondered if the ball of water in the middle had been designed to be the center of the College that everything else was to revolve around.

At the very outside orbit were the parking lots. Most students commuted, so there were plenty of spaces to accommodate the vehicles. On the next interior ring were the buildings. The Math – Computer Science, Administration, and English – Social Science buildings were across the northern front. The Education – Art and Girl’s Dorm were south of the English – Social Science building. To the west of the Girl’s dorm was the Student Center, where the café was located, and further west, the Boy’s dorm. Between the Boy’s dorm and the Math – Computer Science building was the Biology building.

The next shell that was directly around the fountain was a picnic area. Students spent most of their time lounging under some of the big oak trees pretending to read their textbooks before their next class. Every warm afternoon there was always a Frisbee or a football being thrown between students.

Today appeared to be an exception.

Instead of throwing a football or Frisbee, the students were throwing insults. A crowd of about sixty students had gathered near the fountain and were encouraging was appeared to be a fight. Alex pushed his way to the center of the mass and saw Alicia on her knees, cradling her face in her hands. A fresh red mark radiated across her face, as silent tears flowed out of her eyes.

Alex bent down next to Alicia and examined her face. “What happened?” Alex asked as he gently touched her shoulder.

Alicia flinched away from Alex’s touch. The teacher pulled back his hand and looked at the crowd, “What HAPPENED” The red-haired man enunciated

None of the crowd seemed to want to get involved until a lanky student pushed his way through the onlookers.

“They got into a fight,” The younger man pointed at Derek, who was on the other side of the fountain, “He hit her.”

Alex looked from the other student to his brother. Zac Hancock was taking classes remotely so he could stay close to home. The older Hancock brother had completely forgotten that it was the day when his brother would be on campus. He wanted to ask how his brother was doing, and if he had been in touch with the rest of their family, but Derek cut off any questions.

“She wouldn’t stop screaming about feeling weird.” the younger man walked right up to face the taller teacher, “And I didn’t hit her, I tried to stop her from causing a scene.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed, “You mean you hit her.” Ice danced on the words as they left his mouth.

“It sounds worse than it is.” Derek raised his hands defensively, “It was barely a nudge.”

Wisps of wind began to gather. The clouds overhead pooled closer together, shielding the sun from view. A shiver ran down Alex’s spine as the temperature dropped a few degrees.

“It wasn’t just a nudge.” Alicia’s voice was cold and detached

“You really want to do this?” Derek stepped forward with his fists raised

Alex stood up and placed his left hand on Derek’s chest. The gesture was purely cosmetic. If it came down to a fistfight, there was nothing the older man could really do. Derek’s two-fifty frame had a good fifty pounds on Alex. Years of sports had toned the well-muscled physique of the younger man, while walking had been the teacher’s exercise of choice.

Stolen novel; please report.

“No one is doing anything,” Alex commanded. He nodded for his brother to move back. The last thing he wanted was for Derek to feel too threatened and start a fight.

“Yes, we are.” Alicia’s voice was still detached as she stood up. The wind blew through her blonde hair tugging out the rubber band. Free of restraints Alicia’s hair flailed in her face, giving her a crazed look.

The crowd shrank back. The beating that they had expected to see wasn’t happening. What was about to happen, they didn’t know, but most were smart enough to know they didn’t want to be around to watch.

“Get out of my way,” Derek said as he shoved Alex to the side and raised his hand. As the back of his hand descended, Alicia raised hers.

A gust of air ran up Alicia’s arm and smacked Derek in the chest. The younger man grunted as he took two steps back.

“Stop!” Alex yelled. His face knotted in confusion, “Whatever that was.”

“I don’t know what that was!” Alicia backed up and screamed. She pulled her hair away from her face, “They did something to me!”

“Who?” Alex asked

“The Aliens!” Alicia wailed as the winds picked up

“There is no such thing as aliens,” Derek yelled as he charged at Alicia

Alicia pointed a finger accusingly at Alex, “If they didn’t do anything to me then why can I do this?” Alicia traced her finger towards Derek and a second gust of wind hit the young man again. This time the force of the wind knocked him off of his feet and onto his back.

“I can feel the air.” Alicia screamed as she dug her fingers into her hair, “I can make it move!” She hit Derek with another blast when he tried to stand up. “They did this to me!” She looked up at the sky. Fear dripped off of her words, “They are going to come for me!”

“No one is coming for you!” Alex yelled over the low growl of the wind. “You’re going to be fine!”

Alicia looked over at Alex. Her face softened and the wind quieted a little.

Fire squeezed out of Derek’s hands as he pounded the ground. Alex’s eyes widened with surprise as he watched Derek look at his hands with matching astonishment. Tiny wisps of flames sprouted from Derek’s hands. The flames knitted together as they danced over his fingers until they formed a misshapen ball in his palm. Firm determination set on Derek’s face as he arced back his arm.

“Run!” Alex screamed at his brother as he reached forward to shield Alicia.

The wind twisted with Alicia as she turned to face the flying fire. With her right arm, she directed the fireball into the nearby tree. The dry leaves erupted into flames as the hungry fire licked its way down the branches.

With her left arm, Alicia directed a wind blast at Alex. The gust lifted Alex up enough that as it drove him back the back of his heel caught the lip of the fountain. Alex tumbled into the fountain, sputtering water as he came to his knees.

Alex didn’t know if it was Alicia’s cold stare, the water from the fountain, the howling wind, or a mixture of all three, but a shiver sank its frigid teeth into his back and drove out the soles of his feet.

“Mister Hancock.” Alicia’s voice was as detached and hollow as her eyes, “You’ve been nice.” Her stare sent another spike crawling down Alex’s back, “But you don’t have powers.” She blocked two more fireballs without even looking, “Leave.”

Zac began to move towards them, but stopped as the woman turned her attention to him, “Don’t.” She pointed in the opposite direction of Derek, “Go.”

Alex fought the urge to fun across the courtyard in the direction that she was pointing. There were fires all over the lawn. Students were screaming and some were trying to get away, but the wind was feeding the fire. Driving it towards the buildings and the students.

“Get out of here!” Alex yelled at his brother, “Help them get somewhere safe, I’ll handle this!”

The look on Zac’s face told him that his brother didn’t believe him, but the younger Hancock turned and began shepherding people away from the fight and spreading fire.

Alex set his jaw as he stepped out of the fountain. His shoes squished as he set his feet. “I can’t let you hurt anyone.”

“You?” Alicia cackled, “You can’t stop anyone.”

A second gust of wind hit Alex in the chest. Alex thought he was ready for it, but the air bowled him over, back into the fountain.

Alex rolled over, sputtering water as he tried to breathe.

Alicia glared at Alex one more time, “If you won’t leave. Stay there.”

Alex watched as she turned on Derek and began hammering away at the flames that were licking at his arms. Derek could barely get much fire started before Alicia blew it out. She was toying with him, but there was nothing he could do to stop her.

“She’ll only peel your skin off with hurricane-force winds if you try to stop her,” Alex’s inner voice said, but he pushed the thought away, “Mental note.” He muttered as he stepped out of the fountain, “Find a more optimistic inner voice.”