Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:10:53 +0000 From: Guy Cornelius Subject: The Elemental Chapter 5 Right guys, first of, an apology! I am sorry it has taken me such a long time to get this chapter out. Unfortunately I have been having a bit of a tough time recently but it is all sorted out now. I hope you like this (somewhat shorter than normal...again, sorry!) chapter and any feedback would be greatly appreciated...I need to know what I am doing wrong after all! All the usual disclaimers and copyrights apply. Don't read this if you are under-age in your area or it is illegal to do so etc etc. Finally, I would like to thank Kane, my editor, who has been a pillar of support, both grammatically and emotionally and I owe him a lot. Now, without further ado, enjoy :-). Chapter 5. "I...er...wait...umm...wha..." Marcus was far too shocked and confused to even string a coherent sentence together. He stood and stared at the oddly dressed man who had just addressed him, opening and closing his mouth, repeatedly trying to say something that didn't sound like drunken Arabic and failing every time. "Oh do stop gaping Marcus, you look like a puffer fish. Talking of, do you know, there is a fascinating breed of puffer fish that lives in the Indian Ocean that can actually..." The strange man waved his hands around in front of himself, emphasising his words with different gestures while he bobbed around in his chair. He moved around so much that, once he had recovered the ability to form a coherent thought again, Marcus thought the man had ants in his underwear. Marcus had no interest in what the man was talking about, but felt that, for safety sake, it would be best to humour the guy. After all, if the man knew his name, then he probably knew more that he was letting on; angering someone with that sort of knowledge probably wasn't the best idea. Deciding that he was in for the long haul, Marcus pulled up a chair at the table and desperately tried to tune back in to what was being said. "...so you see, if someone where to cross-breed them with the Abyssinian Cuttlefish, the results would be phenomenal. Don't you agree?" The man stopped talking and stared intently at Marcus, clearly expecting a response. "Oh. Er, yes, of course," said Marcus, looking directly into the man's eyes and hoping that he could bluff his way through not having a damn clue what he was talking about. "Fantastic," he said, clapping his hands like a small child at a magic show. "Now, tell me. You are Marcus, aren't you? You see, I did exactly the same thing to a chap last week and made a complete prat of myself. Turned out he was a paranoid schizophrenic who just wanted to borrow a chair, but went away in two minds as to whether someone called Marcus was going to kill him, or whether he Marcus and he was supposed to kill me. Luckily one of his other egos, a charming young woman called Cynthia, kicked in and we had a wonderful discussion about post war Holland. " His eyes drifted down to the table and his eyes took on a glazed, far-away kind of expression as though he was recounting some long forgotten memory. He remained silent for a long moment, and for a while Marcus thought he had been completely forgotten, until suddenly he snapped his head back up and looked directly at Marcus. "Sorry about that. I got a little carried away," he said, shrugging nonchalantly. "Now, where were we? Oh yes, you ARE Marcus, aren't you?" "You know, I'm not sure I want to tell you who I am until I know a little more about you. Considering I know nothing about you except your penchant for veering of on a cerebral tangent, I don't really think that's too much to ask!" Marcus, having recovered from his initial shock, was now, although mildly amused by this eccentric old man, quite suspicious of him. "Oh how rude of me. I do apologise for my lapse in etiquette." The colour drained from the man's face so quickly that Marcus was sure he would pass out. Instead he stood up from the table, pushed back his chair, and bowed from the waist so low that his nose almost met the table. Upon rising, he stood practically to attention and clicked his heels in a fashion that reminded Marcus of the German Officers you see in old war films. "My name is Romeo. I neither have, nor need a surname. In the right circles, you simply need ask for Romeo and you will find me." "What do you mean 'in the right circles'?" Marcus enquired, squinting slightly and leaning forward on this elbows to cover his amusement. Romeo, oblivious to the curious glances of the people around them, sat back down and leaned in close to Marcus so as not to be overheard. "I mean the sort of circles where I might refer to you as the Elemental, rather than Marcus." He grinned cheekily when he saw Marcus' eyes widen in alarmed surprise. "Don't worry, you and Tommy are perfectly safe from me. I mean neither of you any harm. On the contrary, I have come to ask you both for your help." "What does this have to do with Tommy?" Panic flashed across his face as Marcus thought about getting Tommy into even more danger than he already was. "My dear fellow," said Romeo, sitting back in his chair and looking a little shocked himself, "he is a very powerful -" "What's going on, Marcus?" interrupted Tommy, who had walked over to the table and was now standing behind Marcus, a hand on his shoulder. "Ah, Tommy. Marvellous to meet you at last," gushed Romeo, standing and indicating the last empty chair at the table. "Please do join us. I am afraid, though, this is not the sort of conversation your friend can join." "That's okay. Matthew's already gone. I told him I would call him when needed." Tommy looked over at Marcus and smiled. "Who is this guy?" "I'm not quite sure. He was about to tell me though." Marcus looked pointedly at Romeo. Romeo smiled, summoned over a waitress, ordered a brandy and then brought his attention back to the table. "As I said, my name is Romeo and I know all about you...both of you." He shifted his gaze between the two of them as he spoke. "I am well aware of the troubles the Ascension is facing, maybe even more so than you are. I, and a few of my like-minded colleagues would like your help in fixing these problems." "And what do you think might be the source of these problems?" asked Marcus, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. Romeo appeared harmless, and he was saying the right things, but that didn't automatically make him one of the good guys. "Your suspicion is perfectly warranted Marcus, but do not forget we have a mutual friend who led you here. Let me just say that myself and a band of other Mages are working to right a few wrongs. I must say, we were very impressed with your work on the Glasgow facility...even if it was accidental." "You...you know about that?" asked Tommy, shifting about in his seat nervously. "Oh we know all that and more," replied Romeo, fixing Tommy with a penetrating stare. "How do you know so much? It wasn't until about a week ago that I even knew about me. And I didn't know about the name 'the Elemental' until yesterday, when I turned into a walking fireball and started killing people," hissed Marcus, trying not to be overheard by anybody. "Oh stop flapping. Look, meet me at this address tonight," said Romeo, handing over a business card, "and all will be explained. Now, if you will excuse me, I must take my leave. I believe I have appointment with the Barber...or was it the Dentist?" Romeo walked out of the café muttering to himself and generally looking rather confused. "O...kaaaaay, well that was just a little bit weird." Tommy took the card from Marcus, who was still staring at the door with a bemused look on his face. "Hey, I know this address, it's one of those big warehouses in the Docklands area isn't it?" "Hmm, what? Oh, er, yeah. I think so. So, hey, do you think we can trust this guy?" Marcus was still staring at the door, half expecting Romeo to come back in and start all over again. Eventually he managed to drag his attention back to the table and listen to the answer Tommy was giving. "...a little bit weird, but he looked pretty harmless. I am worried about how much he seemed to know about you. I mean, YOU didn't know about most of that stuff until a couple of days ago so how the hell do he and 'some like minded Mages' know all that crap? Maybe he works for one of the Masters and it's actually a trap?" "Hmm, good point. Well, I guess we'll just have to find out tonight. Oh, grab that waitress so we can order something. I'm starving!" Tommy gestured to the waitress in questions and she came over and took their order. Both men stayed quiet for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Marcus was staring at the table, slowly ripping a napkin to shreds and fighting with his thoughts. Something Romeo had said bothered him and eventually, having completely destroyed the napkin, he decided to ask Tommy about it. "Babe, just before you came over, Romeo started to say something. He said that you were 'a very powerful' and then you interrupted us. What was he talking about?" Marcus stared into Tommy's eyes, confusion and curiosity fighting with the guilt he felt for questioning his boyfriend. It broke Tommy's heart to see Marcus' gorgeous face so troubled, but now wasn't the time to appease those worries. "Not a clue," shrugged Tommy, "the guy clearly has a few loose bolts upstairs!" Tommy did his best to put on a convincing laugh but failed miserably. Marcus shrugged in response and smiled weakly, leaving Tommy no indication as to whether he had believed him or not. "Did you know," said Tommy, desperately trying to change the subject, "that you started talking like a right twat when you were talking with to that guy? I mean 'cerebral tangent', what the hell is that?" He laughed, poking Marcus in the side. "Oi, shut up, ass wipe! At least I know what 'cerebral' means," Marcus stuck out his tongue and jabbed Tommy back. "I'd be surprised if that thick head of yours could even work it's way round spelling 'cerebral'." They carried on flinging jibes back and forth between them for a few minutes, occasionally throwing in the odd poke in the side for good measure, until their food arrived. Realising that they hadn't eaten for over a day, they fell on the food like it was mana from the gods and quickly demolished every last morsel. Marcus sat back in his chair and stretched, raising his arms above his head, causing his shirt to lift slightly, revealing part of the treasure trail that ran down into his jeans. He looked over at Tommy and his gaze met hungry eyes filled with raw, feral hunger. "Enjoying the view?" he asked with a cheeky grin on his face, his arms still above his head. He slowly lowered them back down, dropping his shirt back into place, covering himself up again. "Very much so," said Tommy, a wicked glint in his eye. He got up and moved his chair so that he was right next to Marcus and pulled the table closer towards them, leaving it only millimetres away from their stomachs. "What are you..." Marcus jumped as he felt Tommy's hand glide up his thigh. "Babe! Not here. People might see!" Marcus looked around the room to see if anybody was looking in their direction, but didn't move away. "That's half the fun babe," coaxed Tommy, "the possibility that you might get caught red handed." With that, Tommy's hand made it up to Marcus' crotch and he slowly started rubbing up and down. Marcus had to bite his tongue to suppress the moan that was desperately trying to escape. His cock was rapidly hardening and although he knew they should stop, he also knew he didn't want Tommy doing anything of the sort. Tommy smiled as he slowly undid Marcus' fly, releasing his erection to the cool air of the café. He gripped it firmly in his hand and slowly started pumping up and down causing pre-cum to well up from the tip. He felt some of it drip down onto his hand so brought his thumb up to caress the tip, spreading the pre-cum around like lube. Marcus closed his eyes at the sensations but then, remembering where he was, quickly opened them again. After a few minutes of Tommy's ministrations, Marcus saw their waitress approaching their table. His eyes widened with shock as he realised that Tommy was still pumping his hand up and down his exposed cock and the waitress was too close for him to do anything about it. Luckily, she stopped at the opposite side of the table from them and seemed not to notice the movement of Tommy's arm or the shivers of pleasure he was creating in Marcus. "Was everything alright for you gentlemen?" she asked in a saccharine-sweet voice. "Lovely," was all Marcus managed through his gritted teeth. "It was wonderful, thank you very much," replied Tommy, equally sweetly, the rhythm of his wanking not faltering for a second. "Can I get you anything else?" "You know," replied Tommy, looking the waitress right in the eye and raising his eye-brows in a most suggestive manner, "I would just love a Latté." His voice oozed lascivious charm and the waitress blushed under his gaze. She stammered out a quick response and then rushed off towards the kitchen, knocking into someone's chair as she went. "Was that really necessary...nggh" grunted Marcus. Tommy's only response was to squeeze his dick tighter and smile. A few minutes later, Marcus noticed the waitress coming back with Tommy's drink. "Baby, you gotta stop. I'm real close and she is coming back again." Tommy, relishing the expression of half panic half pleasure on Marcus' face, simply smiled again and quickened the pace of his hand. "There you go sir," said the waitress, blushing again and dropping a packet of sugar on the floor. "Oh, I'm so sorry, let me get that." When she crouched down to pick it up, she noticed the movement from the corner of her eye and looked up, just as Marcus grunted and sprayed rope after rope of cum onto the underside of the table. She quickly stood up and locked eyes with Tommy, the shock evident on her face. Marcus, who had had his eyes closed, opened them and immediately realised what had happened. He blushed a furious shade of red and stammered a string of incoherent nothings. Tommy, however, simply put his hand in his pocket and drew out two twenty pound notes and slid them across the table. "Thank you so much for the wonderful service, you really have been great," he said, winking at the girl, who was no more than about seventeen. For a moment she didn't react and then she put her tray down over the money. As she stacked their empty plates onto the tray, she looked over to Marcus. "You know, my boyfriend has a pet snake too. I wish it was as big and good looking as yours. It never spits nearly that much either." Tommy burst out laughing, while Marcus went an even deeper shade of red. With that, she winked at them, picked up her tray and walked back towards the kitchen. As expected, the money had disappeared along with their empty plates. Later that evening, Marcus and Tommy stood looking up at the building in front of them, a vast, seemingly derelict warehouse with boards over the windows and a large sign up declaring the building to be unsafe. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Marcus looked up and down the street they were on, but the buildings were all clearly marked with their number on and he had seen the number 12 on this one from quite some distance away. "Of course I am. Look, there is even a huge 12 painted under that window over there. The real question is, how the hell do we get in." Tommy started towards what looked like it was once a doorway, but was now a crumbling staircase leading to a large piece of plywood. He carefully climbed the stairs and began pulling and shoving against the board over the door. "It's no good. This thing is stuck on good and tight," he called back to Marcus who was still looking up and down the street. "Something isn't right here. We are in central London, albeit in an industrial estate, and there is nobody around. I haven't seen a soul since we got here." "So? How many people hang around industrial estates at nine o'clock at night?" asked Tommy, turning back round to face Marcus. "Look, lets just get in, or get the hell out of here. My instincts have never let me down before and they are screaming bloody murder right now. Here, let me try, get out of the way." Marcus started walking towards the stairs, his hands already raised in preparation. Tommy started picking his way down the rickety stairs, but started when he heard the voice of the Elemental address him. "You might want to move a little quicker than that." To the casual observer, Marcus hadn't changed at all, but looking into his eyes, Tommy saw them swirling with fire, just like last time. He scrambled down the wooden stairs as swiftly as he was able, jumping the last few in his haste to get out of the way. He knew he was safe and that the being in front of him was still Marcus and would therefore never hurt him, but he still got a little scared every time he saw the transformation. Once Tommy was off the stairs the Elemental raised his arms, pointing his hands, palm first, at the door. For a moment nothing happened and Tommy had a sudden panic that perhaps Marcus was loosing his powers but his fears were swiftly allayed when two seemingly unimpressive balls of fire, about the size of golf balls, shot from his hands. Much to Tommy's surprise, rather than hitting the wood and setting it alight, upon contact the balls of fire exploded with such force that the doorway, and much of the brickwork around it was completely decimated, leaving a hole big enough for them to squeeze through. Marcus blinked rapidly a few times and his eyes slowly returned to their normal state. Clearly just as surprised by the effect of his actions,. his eyes widened in shock and his eyebrows rose up towards his hairline. "I am going to have to start getting used to these powers. I thought it would just set the wood on fire!" "You and me both babe," replied Tommy, making his way towards the, thankfully still intact, stairs. "Shall we?" He turned back to look at Marcus and tilted his head towards the new hole in invitation. "I suppose we might as well get this over and done with, but let me go first. Who knows what's in there. For all we know, this guy could be an agent of the Masters." Marcus strode over to where Tommy stood, took his hand in a firm grip and stared up the stairs. When they reached the top, he paused, trying to let his eyes adjust to the gloom inside. After a while, he was satisfied that he was as adjusted as he was going to be and gingerly stepped through the hole, still keeping a firm grip on Tommy's hand. They came out onto a wooden balcony over-looking the shadowy, cavernous interior of the building. Despite their already dark-adjusted vision, the sheer size of the building meant that they could see no more than 10 or 15 meters in front of their faces. Marcus had a quick look round and noticed a stairway off to their left leading to the floor of the warehouse. It appeared that the doorway had brought them out onto the first floor of the interior, and Marcus assumed that at some point, someone must have knocked down into the basement to increase the size of the room. He started towards the staircase, Tommy in tow, and slowly descended, his senses on high alert for any sign of danger. "Ah, at last, you have arrived," boomed a familiar voice, shattering the previous silence of the room. "I was beginning to worry that you weren't going to grace us with your presence!" Marcus heard the footsteps before he saw the feet making them and, although he knew it was Romeo coming towards him, he still felt his body shift into a defensive stance just in case. A few moments later, Romeo, who had clearly just traversed the entire length of the warehouse, walked towards Marcus and Tommy, arms spread wide, as though greeting an old friend. "Marcus...Tommy," he continued, looking at them in turn, "please follow me. There are some people I would like you to meet." He turned swiftly on his heel and took off back in the direction he had come from. Tommy looked over at Marcus dubiously, but he simply shrugged his shoulders and set off after Romeo, leaving Tommy no choice but to follow. As they neared the other end of the vast warehouse, Marcus started making out shapes in front of them. It looked to be people sitting in a circle of chairs but he couldn't make out how many there were or whether they were even people in chairs at all! "I apologise for the darkness, but until I know you are with us, I wish to protect the identities of my friends," said Romeo, his voice taking on a slight, nervous hitch for the first time since the three of them had met. Even if this statement had not proved it, Marcus was now well aware that he was being watched. The tell-tale signs of other people were quite clear; someone shifting in a chair to his left, a light sniff directly in front of him, only yards away, a shoe tapping on the floor ever so lightly. "Gentlemen...and lady," said Romeo, the smile on his face portrayed quite clearly from the tone of his voice, "I would like to introduce Marcus and Tommy, the special guests that I..." "What is so special about this pip-squeak?" an ugly, nasal voice growled from off to Marcus' left. Romeo gasped in shock and quickly rounded on the location of the voice. "Philip, we discussed this, we need..." his voice tapered off as he heard footsteps approaching behind him. He turned slowly, as though to face his own death. He was clearly very agitated by this unexpected turn of events as his usual genial demeanour was replaced by that of a nervous, cowering old man. As he turned, he became aware of a faint glow which grew steadily stronger. When he was finally facing Marcus, he gasped again as he realised the glow was coming from his eyes, which had taken on the fiery form that Tommy had come to recognise. He quickly dashed in front of Marcus and pulled Romeo out of Marcus' path. He had no idea what the Elemental...no, he mentally scolded himself, he had no idea what Marcus was about to do, but for some reason, he didn't want Romeo involved. "I don't know who you are," said Marcus in his own voice, which surprised Tommy, "but you would be wise to watch your tongue when talking to me." He stopped on the rim of what he thought the be the circle of chairs and stared in the direction from which the voice had issued. Both Tommy and Romeo were impressed by the authority that Marcus had injected into his voice, and were equally intrigued as to what would happen next. "Oh yes," said the man, whom Marcus assumed to be called Philip, "or what? You'll blind me to death?" Philip, a young sounding man, snickered at his own joke and then Marcus heard someone stand and begin to walk toward him. "You aren't the only one who can play with fire you know. I mean, obviously I haven't reached the lofty heights of your ability, being able to make your eyes glow and all, but I think I do alright." Suddenly, not a meter in front of Marcus, a hand erupted into flames up to just beyond the wrist, the owner twirling his fingers and flicking his wrist, clearly very proud of what he was displaying. "Ha! What are you going to do with that little spark?" snorted Marcus derisively. "Little spark?" exploded Philip, "I can set alight almost...any...thing...I..." Philip stared aghast as Marcus allowed both his feet to set alight. Slowly, he allowed the flames to creep up his body, licking their way past his knees, waist, chest, arms and, finally, head. Philip shrieked at the sight before him and fled back to his chair, quickly dousing his own flames in the hope of relieving the attention currently being paid him. Marcus, whose flames now lit the immediate area, walked into the centre of the circle of chairs and slowly turned through three hundred and sixty degrees, staring directly into the eyes of those watching him. He counted six men and one woman, all of whom could only hold his fiery gaze for a couple of seconds before they were forced to avert their gaze. Suddenly, Marcus' voice bellowed out with the full force of the Elemental, causing each member of the group to jump almost out of their seats. "Do not dare assume that because I am young, that I am not skilled. I control powers that the Masters themselves are scared of. I do not yet know who you all are and what you are trying to achieve but if any of you ever, EVER threaten Tommy or myself, you will bear witness to their full potential." He stopped and beckoned for Tommy to join him. Tommy extricated himself from Romeo's tight grip and walked over toward Marcus, managing to successfully hide his own fear very well. He had to force himself to stop from re-coiling when Marcus placed his arm around his shoulders, but was relieved to find that he felt nothing except the reassuring weight of his lovers arm around his neck. Foolishly, Philip saw that the flames were having no effect on Tommy and immediately jumped to all the wrong conclusions. His courage renewed, he got to his feet and strode over to Marcus, stopping about a metre in front of him. "What is the use in flames that don't burn anything. I mean, it is a very pretty parlour trick but you aren't in the least bit dangerous. Look at your little lover-boy, he is completely unharmed." He chuckled once again and looked round at the other seated figures, looking for some form of response. His chuckle died and he frowned slightly when he received none. "How about you take my hand and I will show you how dangerous they can be," Marcus extended his left hand, as though offering it to a friend to shake, and smiled. His voice was so calm and sweet that it made Tommy's blood run cold. He had learnt by now that there were many gradients to Marcus' anger and this one was pretty close to the top. "Philip, is it? Trust me when I say that now would be a really good time for you to sit back down," warned Tommy, his eyes almost pleading Philip to sit down. "Shut it, you!" spat Philip. Tommy's heart sank. He didn't especially like this Philip guy, in fact he was quickly coming to hate him, but he knew what was coming next would entail a lot of pain. His fears were confirmed when in a lightening fast movement, Marcus' outstretched hand shot up and grabbed Philip round the throat and lifted him off the floor. "Listen to me, you pathetic little wretch," seethed Marcus, his voice dripping with venom, "Tommy is unharmed by my flames because I choose for him to be unharmed. You may be starting to realise that I have not made the same choice with you." The room was silent for a moment before it was suddenly shattered by the screams of agony that Philip was producing. The smell of burning flesh quickly filled the vicinity and Tommy heard at least two of the shadowed people gag. Marcus held Philip for only a few seconds more and then dropped him to the floor where he quickly rolled into a ball, whimpering and clutching his burned neck. Marcus turned on his heel, pulling Tommy along with him. He strode off towards the entrance to the warehouse, but paused when he reached Romeo and allowed his flames to fade. Without looking at him, he said to Romeo, "If your friends are still interested in my help, we will be in the café at the same time tomorrow," and with that Marcus and Tommy left the warehouse. Well, there it is guys. Let me know what you think at the_elemental909@hotmail.co.uk. Also, if you would like to be put on a notification list so that I can let you know when the new chapters have been posted, let me know.