Saturn

In the area they were driving in, crime wasn't at all uncommon. The police rarely did anything, so mostly the people relied on lone vigilantes, but that would only get them so far. Even though a powerful special task force existed within the police, they rarely got involved with small crimes. Smart people knew not to go out late at night.

Liam pulled over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes, the car skidded to a stop.

"You two, stay in the car."

"No, we can help."

Kevin said, following Liam out of the car. Rubi caught the door as it was about to close, and followed the two closely. It was late at night, and the scream had come from a dark alleyway. Liam put his index finger on his lips, a gesture for them to stay silent. As the three quietly approached the alley, they overheard a conversation.

"Stop! Don't touch me!" The same feminine voice screamed.

"Hur hur, stop moving and this won't be painful at all, we wouldn't wanna ruin your cute face."

"I'd like to have my own fun with you, but the boss says we gotta bring you back, some experimental shit or whatever."

"Stop fooling around boys, grab her and go." Three burly voices came from the alley.

"You two stay back in case anything happens," Liam whispered.

Kevin and Rubi signaled an 'okay'.

Liam leaped forwards to the entrance of the alleyway. His hand was in the position of a gun, and he shot out three blue arcs of lightning that illuminated the alley. For a split second, he saw three burly men and a girl lying on the ground. The first arc of lightning made contact with one of the men, and he immediately collapsed. One of the men had a shield-generating ability that allowed himself and his comrade to be protected. Liam dashed into the alleyway, his body energized by the electricity allowing him to run at superhuman speeds. Before they could react, Liam punched their stomachs, sending a surge of electricity into their bodies. In mere moments, the three thugs were all immobilized and lying on the ground.

"Sarah!? Are you alright?" Liam rushed to the girl's side.

"Liam! How did you find me?"

Kevin and Rubi had entered the alley after confirming that the thugs were immobilized.

"That girl looks familiar, I think I've seen her around school." Kevin thought.

"Is she someone you know?" Rubi asked.

"Yes, I recognized her voice, it was a miracle we were nearby, otherwise who knows what would've happened to her." Liam replied, in a hurry. "Quick, we can talk about this later in my apartment, she might still be in danger."

The four of them made their way to Liam's car, and Sarah rode shotgun. Liam stepped on the gas and they sped down the road.

Then everything turned into chaos.

The burning car was flipped upside down, smoke and shattered glass everywhere. Thanks to his seatbelt, he was hanging upside down on his seat. Kevin looked to his left, Rubi was bleeding from her head, burned and unconscious. However, Kevin himself was perfectly fine, but he was worried about the three others. He heard a groan come from the front seat.

"Liam, are you okay?"

"Yeah, but Sarah's out." Liam replied.

Kevin knew he had to get out soon before the fire burned them alive. He unbuckled his seat belt and tumbled down, before forcing the door open. Rubi was dragged out of the burning car by Kevin. He rested her gently onto the road, far from the burning car and smoke. Kevin desperately wanted to help but he knew he had no healing abilities. Liam had helped Sarah out, who had regained consciousness.

"I'm gonna heal my wounds then Rubi's, but depending on how hurt she is, I might run out of Energy." Sarah said.

"Healing Water!"

Her body glowed blue as her visible wounds faded, then she moved to heal Rubi. From her hands appeared water that slowly covered the girl's entire body, healing the wounds it touched. Sarah's eyes closed as she fell lightly onto the road, she had used too much Energy healing the two of them.

"She'll be okay, right?" Kevin asked, concerned.

Liam replied, "Sarah just needs some rest, she will be alright."

Kevin turned his gaze to the unconscious Rubi who was starting to wake up.

"What… happened?" She asked groggily.

"That's a great question, what happened?" Kevin wondered as well. "One moment we were cruising down the road and the next our car was sent flipping…"

"We're being attacked." Liam said with absolute certainty, interrupting Kevin's thoughts.

"But by who?" Kevin and Rubi asked in unison.

At that moment, they heard a man laughing from across the street, his figure obstructed by the smoke.

"HA HA HA HA HA! AFTER BEING ASLEEP FOR SO LONG, THIS IS INCREDIBLE!"

From behind the curtain of smoke, the man pointed at the totaled car drowning in flames. In an instant it exploded, sending burning debris flying in every direction. As the smoke fanned out, a clear view of the assailant could finally be seen. He was a man of fair height, with disheveled gray hair, sporting a casual jacket and cargo pants.

"Who are you?!" Kevin asked

"Saturn," the man replied. "Now, prove you're worthy of hearing this name by entertaining me."

Kevin looked at Liam and Rubi, he doubted they could beat this man, something about him exuded power.

"Our best bet is probably to grab Sarah and run… but we would risk him following us. But there might be a chance we could beat him." Thought Kevin

"Don't think of running…" Saturn said, taunting them.

Liam and Rubi exchanged a look back, they knew running was the best option.

"On the count of three, run. I'll grab Sarah." Liam whispered under his breath.

"One… two… three!"

Kevin and Rubi bolted the opposite direction from Saturn, running with everything they had.

That was, until they were blocked. It was an invisible force field of sorts, one that repelled whatever was near it. The invisible dome cut cleanly through the nearby buildings, setting some on fire.

"This is Saturn's Battlefield, isn't it?" Kevin asked.

Rubi nodded in affirmation. She raised her hands outwards, and a pillar of stone burst out, colliding with the dome. The moment it hit, the rock attack crumbled into pieces, falling to the ground.

"No luck, I guess our only option is to fight…" Rubi said.

They turned around and ran back towards the direction they came from. Soon after, they spotted Saturn, Liam and Sarah. The girl appeared to be suspended in midair, floating beside Saturn. Liam was ready to fight, a fierce expression on his face.

"What happened while we were gone?" Kevin wondered.

"GIVE HER BACK!" Liam yelled, enraged.

"I don't think so. I came all the way here for this girl, if you really want her back, then beat me." The man replied.

"So be it!"

In an instant, Liam blitzed forwards, traveling the distance between the two fighters in a mere second. His body was supercharged by the electric energy. With all his might, he threw his fist forward, aimed straight for Saturn's head, with enough strength and speed to blow it clean off. However, his fist bounced off an invisible barrier protecting Saturn.

"Tch!"

Liam launched another punch in midair, but it was deflected yet again. Realizing his offensive was useless, he lifted his legs, pushing off Saturn's barrier in order to propel himself backwards and landing flawlessly.

"I see… you might be of interest as well." Saturn stepped forward, taking off his jacket and throwing it aside. "But I'll have to neutralize you, I don't think you'd go with me that easily."

"Liam!"

The boy turned around, to face the two teenagers running towards him.

"Didn't I tell you two to run?"

"We can't, he has a Battlefield deployed, and there's a barrier!" Rubi replied.

The three understood their current situation. They had no choice but to beat Saturn if they wanted to escape alive.

"Let's fight him together!"

Rubi summoned more pillars of stone, surging out of the ground and cracking it. Taking advantage of her attack, Liam dashed to attack Saturn from behind with a blast of lightning. Kevin shot small beams of darkness from his palm. However, all three of their attacks were rendered useless, the invisible barrier protecting him was unbreakable.

"Damnit, his shield is unbreakable!" Kevin thought.

"That was my strongest attack…" Rubi said in shock.

"There's no way any of your attacks can get through my Gravity Art: Sphere." Saturn said.

"But of course you're holding back aren't you?"

"Of course, this is a residential area after all. I wouldn't want to put other people in danger."

Liam replied.

"Ha! Well if you do that, there's no way you can save this girl, so make your choice."

Kevin looked at Liam, who had a pained expression on his face.

"This decision must be tearing him apart…" Kevin thought.

"Well, let's make sure your two other friends don't interfere."

Suddenly, Kevin and Rubi's bodies were slammed into the ground by an invisible force. The man had increased the effects of gravity on them. Even with all their strength, the two couldn't move an inch. By this time, the fire had spread to the nearby houses, and smoke was in the air.

"My…body! I can't move at all! What am I supposed to do?! Darkness! Please, lend me your power!" Kevin begged for help. "Please! Please… I'm useless without you…"

His pleas weren't heard, or simply ignored. There was no answer from the dark voice within him.

"How could I have been so stupid to think I could've helped save Sarah. I shouldn't have even won against Mei. It was all a fluke, I'm nothing."

He had lost all hope, he was going to lose both Liam and Sarah.

The boy looked at his immobilized friends. They were lying flat on the road, limbs outstretched.

"I have to make a decision now!" Liam tried to think about the situation logically. "The logical decision would be to hold back and risk Sarah being captured, if I went all-out it would put all the innocent civilians nearby at risk. But I can't just let Saturn take her."

"Having a hard time choosing?" Saturn taunted, "it's alright, take your time. The worst thing that could happen is your friends dying of smoke inhalation. The fire's spreading pretty quickly."

"Are you stupid? The hell do you think you're doing?"

Liam turned around, the female voice came from behind him.

"Mei? How did you-?!" Liam was at a loss for words.

"Fight now, talk later. Go rescue your friend and don't worry about anything else. At the very least I'll take care of the fires."

In an instant, the flames that enveloped the nearby houses were all sucked into the palm of her hand, becoming a purely condensed ball of flame. As she closed her hand into a fist, the flames dissipated.

"Right, I'm gonna beat Saturn and save Sarah."

Liam raised his hand and storm clouds began to gather around him, high up in the sky. He planned to use Saturn as a conductor for his lightning. The air around them became tingly with static energy.

"Tch! I know better than to underestimate a powerful enemy, especially when there are two of them." Saturn said, freeing the unconscious Sarah from her invisible barrier. "There will be a better opportunity for me."

The man raised his hand and waved goodbye, walking into a portal that appeared out of thin air. As he disappeared, so did the effects of his gravity-altering power. Kevin and Rubi were able to move again, and quickly rushed towards Liam and Mei.

"Why are you here?" Kevin asked, visible hostility in his voice.

"I followed you here to ask you some questions about what happened earlier today." Mei replied.

"Well I've already told everything to Liam, you can just ask him. Come on Rubi, we're going."

As he turned to leave, Liam stopped him.

"Wait, we have to talk about all of this. Like it or not, we're all involved in this situation now. Let's go to my apartment."

At first he was reluctant, but ended up going with them anyway. Liam carried Sarah all the way back to his apartment, although it wasn't too far away. Now, sitting on his sofa next to Rubi, the four of them were ready to have a conversation. Sarah was still asleep in Liam's bed.

"So…" Kevin trailed off. The tension in the room was thick, he and Rubi were still hostile towards Mei.

"A powerful man attempted to kidnap Sarah, and we were all roped into it as well." Liam said, finishing his thoughts.

"None of us have any idea who he was, right?" Rubi asked.

"This has to be related to the recent string of kidnappings. You've all seen it on the news, haven't you? People of all ages are disappearing in this city. Recently, I looked into the cases out of curiosity. Turns out the only thing linking all the victims together is their powers, all of them seem to have something to do with the nine elements of the world." Mei said.

"The nine elements of the world… water, fire, lightning, ice, wind, earth, nature, light and darkness. According to the myths, these were the elements that made up the world." Kevin muttered.

"And also according to the myths, there was a god of each element!" Rubi added.

Liam nodded, then said, "but they were all sealed away by a group of heroes…"

It was a mythological tale that everyone was familiar with.

"Then if we connect the dots… could people be trying to break the seals?" Kevin asked.

However, it was a question nobody there knew the answer to.

"This is assuming that the myths are real, we could be completely off the mark on why these specific people are being kidnapped." Mei put an end to the conversation. "There's still much we don't know about this whole situation. We should all go home and get some rest."

"She's right. We're going." Kevin got off the sofa and headed towards the door, Rubi following closely behind him.

"Wait. Mei, can you go with them just in case? We might all be in danger since our powers are of the nine elements." Liam asked, worried.

"Fine, I'll accompany them home." Mei followed the two.

The walk back was an awkward one, they had first sent Rubi home before walking towards Kevin's house. Finally, after minutes of walking in silence, Mei asked her question.

"How did you become so strong?" She asked aggressively.

"I didn't." Kevin answered harshly. "That wasn't me, and those powers weren't mine. I'm still weak and useless."

"Oh, so just because you couldn't do anything to save Sarah you're useless?"

Kevin stayed silent. The sidewalk was illuminated by only the street lamps, but he felt strangely safe in the darkness.

"Why do you pick on those who are weaker than you?" He asked Mei, looking her in the eyes hatefully.

"That isn't a question I can answer easily." She replied.

"Bullshit. Whatever, I'm home."

Without a second glance he walked into his driveway and up to his front door. Kevin grabbed the keys in his pocket and unlocked it. As he walked in, he saw a glass container with food and a note taped on top reading:

Rubi dropped by earlier and told me you were going out with friends later! I made dinner for you when you come back, so enjoy! Love, Mom.

Kevin smiled as he picked up the container.