A Spark of Luck

The dark alley rumbled as the train traveled overhead. Its old worn wheels squeaked as they worked along the rusty track. It was a chilly night, the rain had finally stopped, but everything was still soaked. Small drip sounds radiated from all around as a single flickering light made a vain attempt to dispel the darkness.

A young man splashed through the puddles, he was ratty looking, his clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in months. Jack was a scavenger; a homeless child abandoned by the system, too malnourished to even work in the mining pits, he was forced to learn how to survive by other means. Today he was looking for scrap metal that sometimes fell off the trains that travelled above. He was getting desperate; it had been weeks since his last lucky find.

“Damnit, I had hoped by trying a different area to have a bit more luck, but I guess not” Jack thought to himself. Just as he was about to head back Jack heard someone speaking.

“I must have dropped it around here somewhere.” A deep voice grumbled.

“I know we were being chased but I can’t believe you dropped it. It better be around here somewhere, if we don’t find it, you’re going to be in serious trouble Tram.” This was a different man speaking, his voice much more nasally.

Quickly hiding behind a dumpster, Jacks’ instinct was to sneak away; being a dangerous neighborhood he didn’t want to get involved in whatever these men were doing here. However, something glowing caught his attention, it was some sort of crystal in the shape of a cube. He found the cube behind a rusty dumpster; almost completely covered in random garbage. Only a small corner of the cube was visible from Jack’s current position.

“I wonder if this is what those men are looking for.” he thought. “Why else could it be here? It couldn’t have fallen off one of the trains.”

He looked closer at the crystal cube, it was rather small, looking like it could easily fit into the palm of his hand. Its surface looked incredibly smooth, and the crystal appeared to hold a vast thunderstorm that had been curiously reduced in size. Jack had seen magic crystals before, but nothing like this.

He was still examining the cube, but he could hear the two men approaching. Making up his mind Jack quickly slipped it into his pocket. The cube felt warm in his hand, and he was surprised to find it had no weight. Jack was sure it was just his imagination, but once he put it in his pocket the little glowing crystal felt like it slowly started to gain weight. Trying to now sneak away, he slipped on a half-broken tile, and made a loud sound as he fell. Jack quickly tried to get back up, but it was too late. The puddles around the corner splashed as the men ran, then suddenly they were standing in front of Jack. They stood over him leering down.

“What are you doing here boy?” what must have been the first guy talking, Tram he had been called, his voice much deeper than the second man. He was a mountain of flesh and muscle, His dark beady eyes pierced down into Jack. Jack had nowhere to run, the two men stood at the only exit to the small side alley he had been searching through.

“I uh...” Jack stammered.

“Speak up.” The second man spoke this time. The nasally voiced man was nearly as tall as Tram, but he was much skinnier. Standing beside the behemoth that called himself Tram, he looked downright tiny. Not that Jack could say anything, he was constantly made fun of for being skinny. The two men were wearing dark street clothing and looked to be well groomed. Gritting his teeth; Jack spoke.

“I’m looking for scrap metal.” He had no intention of telling them about the crystal in his pocket, but he knew he had to tell them some reason why he was here.

“Scrap Metal?” not knowing his name, Jack had started calling the smaller guy Bones in his mind. Jack genuinely enjoying the fact that he had potentially found someone who looked just as skinny as him. Obvious needle marks ran down the man’s arms, causing Jack to assume some sort of drug abuse was the cause of the man’s physique.

“Have you found anything interesting lying around?” Tram asked. His deep booming voice causing small ripples to form in the puddles around him. His piercing eyes never leaving Jack for a second.

“N... No…. I was just leaving…….” Jack tried to say as calmly as possible. But even he didn’t believe what he just said.

“Now wait just a minute” bones said, as he quickly blocked the path of Jack who had tried to hastily squeeze by. the man had an unpleasant smile on his face, and when he moved Jack saw the telltale glint of gun metal under his jacket.

“This was not good.” Jack thought to himself. “Few people could afford a gun in the slums, and anyone that had one you definitely didn’t want to get involved with.” Jack had to think quick, these men could easily kill him, and there wasn’t another soul to help or hear for miles. Tram still hadn’t taken his eyes off Jack, He was looking him up and down, Scrutinizing every inch of him. Another train wailed overhead, its lights briefly lighting up the alley, making shadows dance along the wall as it moved. The train swiftly disappeared into the distance submerging the three individuals back into darkness.

All of a sudden Jack felt completely weightless and seemed to literally float off the ground for a second. Then the air crackled and suddenly there was an extremely bright flash and a loud crack as Jack is blown back into the ground. The air was knocked out of him, his chest burned, and he labored for air. “What the hell was that?” he thought, his entire body hurt. He tried to open his eyes, but his vision was blurred. With ears ringing, Jack shook his head, trying to clear it. That’s when he finally noticed his leg felt like it was on fire and frozen at the same time. Trying to stand up, he collapsed back into a blob on the ground. Convulsing, his muscles constricting too tightly for any sound to escape his lips. His lungs burned for air, it felt like every pore in his body was ripping itself apart. Finally, it seemed to reach some sort of crescendo, the pain was so intense Jack was sure he was about to die, when suddenly it felt like a huge amount of pressure was released, his entire body tingled and buzzed like it was full of bee’s. After what seemed like hours but was really just a few minutes, his body gradually began to feel somewhat normal. That is when he noticed the sound again, this time it was much clearer.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Jack knew that sound, it was gun shots, and suddenly his awareness of the situation clarified as he looked up and saw the two men. Tram and Bones were both pinned against the alley wall as they were getting shot at. Chunks of brick were being blown out of the wall while Bones was leaning around the corner returning fire. His gun fired in small bursts making a weird buzzing sound every time he fired a burst. Next to him, Tram was the picture of stillness with his eyes closed. Suddenly his eyes flew open, and he started methodically scanning the alley.

Multiple fires had been started at some point while they were fighting, causing the area to be lit up and as the dust began to settle Tram spotted Jack. They made eye contact, Trams eyes focused like lasers on him. After briefly locking eyes, Tram made a quick gesture with his hand and suddenly Jack felt the ground beneath him turn to liquid. The cold stone quickly wrapped around his arms and legs, holding him in place. Jack tried to struggle but he was barely conscious.

He looked back up and watched helplessly as suddenly Bones head exploded. He had been reckless, leaning too far around the corner while he returned fire. His body crumpled to the floor. Jacks’ eyes widened in fear, having no idea what was going on, he squirmed against his bonds helplessly. It looked like the they were under attack from multiple assailants. Bullets whizzed over Jacks head, ricocheting down the alley. Sparks emitted anytime a bullet bounced against a metal pipe. The fires were quickly dying out cause the alley was too damp. Leaving them in relative darkness except for the sparks from the bullets.

Jacks leg still burned with intense pain, but he barely noticed. He was entirely focused on the insane scene occurring before his eyes. Bones, the skinny man with needle marks on his arms. The man that just had his head blown off slowly stood back up, his head still clearly missing. The darkness made the wounds hard to make out, but his silhouette clearly showed his head was still absent from his body.

“What the hell is going on?” is all Jack could think.

The skinny headless man then lifted his gun and continued to return fire with his head still missing. That’s when Jack spotted a silhouette appear from the shadows behind Tram, it looked like he melted right out of darkness. Tram was on one knee distracted doing something. The shadow man sprang from the darkness with a knife in each hand, the man started hacking at trams enormous back. Compared to his huge form, the little blades should have barely caused an itch. But as soon as the blades touched his body; Tram started roaring like a mad man. The blades were as black as night, and they seemed to cut Tram with little resistance. The man in the shadows quickly hacked with both hands, but as much obvious damage as he did; Tram was just too big. With one swing of his hands, Tram sent the shadow man flying, right in Jacks’ direction. Jack tried to lift his arms, but he was still restrained so the man landed right on his stomach, knocking the air right back out of him.

Something interesting happened when the shadow man landed on Jack. As soon as he landed on top of him, the man started convulsing. The shadow man screamed as he spasmed on top of Jack. He dropped both his daggers and foam started forming on his lips. The black daggers seemed to disappear as soon as they left his hands, then suddenly he stopped convulsing. The man seemed to go stiff then fell over, smoke rose from his body. The smell of burnt hair quickly filled the alley. That is when Jack noticed the small static shocks occurring all around him. They were everywhere, seeming to surround his body. The sparks were white with a blue tint. A beautiful sight, the sparks would light up for a second then disappear just like fireflies. But there was so many; it looked like he was covered head to toe in sparks.

The sparks were beautiful, momentarily forgetting about the insane battle before him as he was completely transfixed. Jack had never seen anything like it. Suddenly he realized what it was; “Electricity. I am radiating electricity”.

“Why doesn’t this hurt?” Jack thought. He could barely lift his head, managing to lift it just enough to look down over his body. He could still just see, but it looked like the electricity was emanating out from his body. The sparks would slip out of his skin, not seeming bother by any clothing. They came zipping out with force in the hundreds. They would then abruptly stop a couple inches from his body radiate for a second then slowly disperse. quickly being replaced by another.

BOOM!

An explosion brought Jacks attention back to the fight unfolding in front of him. The headless Bones just had another chunk blown out of him. Bones wasn’t knocked over this time and he didn’t even seem bothered; A huge chunk of his right side was missing. He just took a second to pick up the gun with his left hand then continued to return fire. That’s when another train drifted overhead, this one a slower industrial train. Jack was hoping the light would help him understand what was happening but weirdly enough the light from the train only served to exacerbate his confusion.

Finally getting a good look, Bones did in fact have two giant holes in his body, but the much weirder part was that his entire body looked like he was made of water. The parts of his body that had been damaged were dripping a clear liquid. There was no blood anywhere. The man looked half melted. Jack started to wonder if this was even a man. He had heard of magical creatures and wondered if this was some sort of water monster.

Jack watched as the liquid all around the man slowly flowed towards him. Once reaching his feet, the liquid seemed to disappear into his body, his missing body parts slowly reforming as the mass of liquid coalesced around the man. Jack couldn’t take his eyes off the incredible spectacle occurring before him, he had never seen anything like this. When he was still under care of the orphanage and had free time to read books; he had learned of the amazing elemental powers you could acquire throughout the world. Unfortunately, Jack could only dream of such abilities, knowing he would never have the money to escape the slums. The cores being so expensive they didn’t have any photos, only rough drawings. Jack had been impressed by the gun the man carried, signaling his wealth. But that was nothing compared to the cost of an elemental core. You could buy a city block with the money it would cost to buy an elemental core.

Jack watched as Tram summoned a smooth stone box out of the ground. from within the box, he pulled out a giant gun that had a giant revolving canon for a barrel.

“A huge freaking mini gun?” Jack thought. “How could this possibly get more insane?”

The weapon had a massive rotary barrel on the front. The ammo for the gun appeared to be a giant power crystal attached to the back of the gun. Those crystals Jack knew were different from what he picked up. Those are power crystals, portable mana power. Power crystals were incredibly useful, but also incredibly heavy. Tram hefted his weapon then went still again. That’s when Jack noticed what looked like tattoos forming all over his body. After a second he realized it wasn’t tattoos, but stone. His entire body was being covered in stone. The stone was thick and completely covered his face. After covering himself in stone, he stepped around the corner, heaving the huge gun with him. The gun took a second to spin up before firing; a high pitch whining sound that increased to ear piercing levels, then the bullets started to fly. Incredibly loud booming shots, they fired one after another in unbelievable repetition. After a few seconds of firing his cannon, Tram pulled himself back around the corner, the guns barrel was red hot and smoking. His stone body had obvious pot marks from where he had been shot, but none of the bullets seemed to have penetrated his stone armor.

Having been distracted by that Jack hadn’t noticed Bones forming what looked like giant bullets in the air shaped out of water. He was waving his hands in weird gestures as he created them. They were swirling around violently while maintaining a bullet shape. Each one was huge, probably the size of Jack’s head. They were spinning incredibly fast with their front tapering into a sharp point. The water roiled silently inside each bullet as they kept spinning faster and faster. By now he had formed roughly ten giant water bullets. Once Tram had pulled himself back around the corner. Bones released his water bullets. They didn’t just fly straight though. the bullets flew around the corner in a homing pattern, each one flying in different direction.

The bullets flew off, making no sign if they hit anyone.

“I’m almost out of mana!” Cried Bones. The sounds escaping his half-formed mouth in a gurgle.

“Good” said Tram. And to Jacks surprise. Tram leaned back and swung a huge fist into the body of Bones. His liquid body exploded. Liquid fragments flying everywhere.

“You Bastard!” cried Bones. Jack could see the betrayal clear on Bones face.

“It’s you.” Bones spoke. He collapsed on the ground now. The was water no longer flowing towards him. Now it seemed like he was slowly drying up. The water seemed to be flowing out of his body. A disgusting sight but unfortunately for Jack, living on the street meant death was a part of your daily life. This was not the first man he had seen die.

Bones kept cursing out Tram as his breath slowly died out. His last words being something about Trams mother being unfaithful. Jack could not quite make it out. That’s when the shooters around the corner had stopped firing.

“Give us back the core and we’ll let you go.” A voice yelled from around the corner. “You’ve got three seconds before we blow you all to hell.” The voice was calm, they were talking as if they did this every day. Tram looked right at Jack. He grimaced, as the knife wounds on his back continued to bleed freely. The situation looked dire.

Obviously surrounded, and still restrained to the ground, he just couldn’t get his thoughts in a row. “Who was attacking them? Why did Tram kill his companion?” While Jack was furiously racking his brain with how he got himself into this situation, Tram seemed to make his mind up about something. He made another gesture towards Jack and the ground started flowing around him once more. This time his whole body sank into the ground. After a moment of sinking, he rapidly realized he was entirely confined underground in a very tight space. His body had stopped emitting sparks, so it was pitch black. His legged still burned horribly, but Jack wasn’t paying it any attention, he was panicking. Never having been in such a confined space before, he quickly learned that he did in fact not like it. Not one bit.

Unexpectedly he heard and felt footsteps above him. Someone was walking right over him. “Where the hell did they go?” a muffled voice said. Hearing the voices above him, Jack was able to slightly orient himself. Orienting himself he was able to calm his breathing a little. He could now hear multiple sets of footprints.

“Search the area” another voice spoke. He continued to do his best to control his breathing. Slowly he lost track of time, after such a grueling event, he was exhausted. His breathing eventually settled, and he fell asleep, Dreaming of fireflies.