The Elements

Chapter 1

Cai slammed into the wall with a crash as Ashley finished him off with a full-blown kick to the chest. He slid down onto the ground, and shook his head a little.

Ashley smiled. Finally, she'd proven that she could beat him with a little bit of intelligence. She stood, leaning on her practice fighting staff casually as she watched him clamber to his feet a couple of metres from her.

He rubbed the back of his head, making his blonde hair stick up in every different direction.

"You do know that I'm not really attacking you?"

Ashley nodded. "Sure."

"So you don't have to be so rough." He took his time to walk over to her, picking up his practicing staff from the floor in front of her.

Ashley only shrugged. "Well otherwise you would've beaten me anyway and then I'd be where you are." She smiled a little. "And I'm not a loser, Cai." As she span her staff around in her hand, she noticed her sweatband around her wrist had slipped, starting to reveal the beginning of her nightmares to the world.

Evelyn burst through the hall's door behind her and Ashley's heart jumped. She instantly pulled the sweatband up to the top of her wrist, covering her scars before she turned to smile at Evelyn.

The area which they were working in was an open space. It looked similar to a gym, but was more concealed and less available to the public. After Gina had found out that the four of them were going to stop the chemicals spreading around other places, her famous father had provided the four of them with their own private working space. They trained most days to stop themselves from getting bored. Well, most of them did.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Evelyn panted as she flung her bag onto the coat stand and ripped off her denim jacket. "How long have you two been here?"

"About 10 minutes. Don't worry, you're not that late" Ashi said, as Cai walked up to her and kissed Evelyn gently on the cheek.

Evelyn smiled at Cai's welcome, before looking around. "Is Joseph's not here?"

Ashley shook her head. Cai's face was swept with darkness. "He's not been here for the past two weeks. He clearly doesn't care."

"He probably doesn't. It'll be him who suffers in the long run," Evelyn said spitefully. "Not us."

Cai gave Ashley an anxious glance. "He hasn't been at home much either."

Ashley bit her lip a little.

Joseph had been acting strange ever since they'd come back to Gina's house. The four of them had decided to start training to get better at fighting for when they go after Cale but since then, Josep hadn't turned up to any session after the first, and every time they'd returned he'd been out. He was constantly going places by himself, coming back in the dead of night when he thought no-one was awake. But Ashley was awake. She knew he didn't get back until stupid times in the morning, and he'd be bashed up. She would confront him, but he'd been so skittish lately that they'd drifted apart, secretly upsetting her considerably.

"Is Julius here yet?" Evelyn changed the subject, opening the door to the staff room and peeking inside.

"Not yet," Cai answered before Ashley could. "We're all early anyway that it doesn't really matter." He walked up behind Evely and hugged her, kissing her neck a little. They had broken their 'secret' dating to Gina a week or so previously, and because of that, they were much more confident with PDA around everyone. Even Cai had become showier about the fact that he had a girlfriend. It was surprising as well as sweet that Evelyn could bring out that side of him, even though Ashley was a little jealous. Since Joseph had been pulling away, she felt alone and in want of male company. She'd convinced herself that she didn't need a man: she was perfectly fine by herself, but she wanted someone who wasn't annoying, which was a tendency held by most girls, to hang around with.

Gina's son Ralph was almost right, but he was far too normal and not nearly as reckless as Nathan, even though he tended to drink half the time.

The door opened from the other side of the room, and Ashley turned her attention to the man at the door. Julius was your stereotypical trainer: fit, muscular, and extremely attractive. On top of that, he was nice, hence why Ashley liked him more than most people.

"Hey guys!" he said enthusiastically as he chucked his bag through the open staff room's door. His soft brown eyes smiled as he stretched. "How are we all today?"

Ashy nodded. "Pretty good."

"Yep," Cai agreed.

Evelyn merely nodded.

"Good. Joseph still not here?"

Ashley shook her head and suspicion crossed Julius' face briefly before he smiled again.

"Well never mind. He'll come when he's ready right? In the meantime, we should probably do something useful. Now then," he wandered into the middle of the floor in his stretchy Lycra trousers and thin grey vest. "Ashley, want to go first?"

Her heart leaped as she realised that that was her name. For a second or two, she was fearful for going first, before she tore herself away from the wall and stood facing Julius.

Evelyn sat herself on one of the benches lining the wall next to Cai as they watched.

"Excellent. Okay, I want you all to practice what we looked at yesterday: the somersault attacks. Now why do we use them?"

"To confuse the enemy by changing the direction of the attack suddenly and taking control over them," Cai responded in a monotone, as though he was reciting it word for word from a textbook.

"Wonderful. And Ashley, what's the trick to successfully mastering it?"

Ashley blushed a little remembering her failing somersault the previous day. "Don't be scared?" Julius smiled at her approvingly, though he looked a little sympathetic at her embarrassment.

"Good job." He turned his body completely towards Ashley, who was waiting a few metres from him. "Now then, I want to you try it. Come at me as though you're going to attack me, and then when you feel ready, somersault over my head and attack from behind."

Ashley twirled her wooden dagger for practising in her fingers as she crouched a little, preparing herself.

"Try not to kill me though," Julius remarked amusingly.

There were a few seconds whilst she braced herself, and then she was off. She sprinted towards Julius, who was standing poised, her dagger concealed in her palm. She bowled into him, whacking him in the stomach. He grunted, not expecting her to actually attack him, before his eyes turned serious. He folded himself onto the floor in an instant, sliding under her open legs, until he was behind her. Then he pulled her dagger-wielding arm behind her, ripping it from her grasp, and holding it at her neck. She was breathing deeply just from the shock of the attack.

"Right," his breath was warm as he spoke next to her ear. "You have to think of something cleverer than that. Obviously I know this is practice, and perhaps that was a little mean, but your enemies are not going to just stand there waiting for you to attack them. You have to use your head." He let her go when he'd finished, throwing her dagger back onto the floor with a hollow clatter. He then turned to walk casually back to his starting position for her next attempt.

On an impulse, Ashley sprinted at Julius until she whacked into the back of him, sweeping him off his feet. She was about to jump on him as he rolled to the side, recovering himself. He landed a few soft-ish punches on her torso, and just as he was about to dive for her arm, she leaped into the air and twisted in a somersault over his head, grabbing onto his shoulders on her way over.

With the force of her falling body, he fell crashing to the floor behind her, and she whipped around, holding the dagger to him as she sat on his chest. There were a few seconds of stunned silence before he smiled from under her.

"That was perfect. Hit them when they're not expecting it. Wonderful."

As Ashley was stuck in the shock of what she'd done, he flicked her gently on the arm.

"You can get off me now, though."

Ashley blushed a little and rolled off him onto her feet. Julius stood up gracefully and dusted himself off before turning to the other two sat on the benches with identically shocked faces.

"Now who's next?"