Balancer's Soul (46 page)

“NO!” Connor startled them and
realized they didn’t understand that bit of science. After calming
his voice he said “Not in the slightest.” Connor looked at him
seriously and the tone of his voice backed the conviction. “Jack,
pressurized fire is dangerously explosive.” His expression looked
skeptical and Connor looked around the clearing, judging the
distance to the trees. “It looks like all of you need another
demonstration. I’ve never met a person who didn’t understand that
fire is hot without burning themselves.” Connor looked at Sarah and
felt her in his mind. “You and your mother go hide behind that tree
line and keep a safe distance.” Sarah nodded and took Jillian by
the hand and ran for cover.

She thought to him
“Be careful. I read your mind – sorry – I now
know how dangerous and serious this lesson is. Stay safe,
Husband.”

“I will keep both of us
safe.”
When they reached the tree line she
nodded.

Connor sighed for what was about to
happen.

He looked at a now worried
Jack. Good, at least he understands some of the gravity of this
situation. “I need to show you
why
this is so dangerous.” Jack nodded that knowing
firsthand experience is always the best lesson one could ever
receive. “First we need to build a blast shield for our protection.
We need to make an angled shield wall as thick as possible.
Otherwise we’ll be in a massive amount of danger.” His quick reply
was “Ok, let’s get to work.”

And together they began
laboring.

Twenty minutes later they
made the perfect shield. It was five feet thick and the front had
been angled to direct the force of the blast upwards instead of
back at them. They had a reasonable bubble of safety. The wall’s
back stood four foot tall and twelve feet across, made in a
crescent circle to bend the force around them. If any flames came
back on them they would be protected by the angle and design of the
shield. Sarah and Jillian were far enough away that they could see
everything and not come into any danger. Each of their faces were
full of concern. Connor pushed his mind to Sarah’s.
“Let me guess, you told your mom about how
serious this was?”

“Yes, she needed the
truth.”
He nodded and she
smiled.

“Jack, now you need to
listen to me very carefully.” Connor had his complete and undivided
attention. “I need you to stay below the barrier the whole time.
When I let go of the contents, I will say ‘
Now
!’ and you will not wait a moment
longer to pull me down or you could guess my unfortunate
outcome.”

“I understand. What do I need to do
first?”

“Make a baseball sized fireball for me
to use.” Moments later he held a red hot flowing sphere of fire in
the right size that had been requested. Connor put his hands to
each side of the fire and made a shell of pressure around it, like
he did with the water. Taking the ball of flames out of his hand
Jack slid down on the ground and had a tight hold of Connor’s
belt.

Adding a massive amount of pressure to
the fire changed its properties. Connor knew what would happen with
the lack of oxygen, Jack didn’t. Looking up at him Jack said “Where
did the flame go? It just vanished!”

Out of the corner of his eyes Connor
looked at him while concentrating on maintaining the pressure.
“This is why I said it’s so dangerous. You can’t see it is the
reason enough to frighten me, it makes it more deadly because you
would be incinerated before you realized what happened. Not even
you could outrun this explosion. It moves nearly at the speed of
sound.” Connor took a step forward, to the very edge of the wall.
“Are you ready?” Jack answered by tightening his grip even more on
his belt. “Three… Two… One!” The element combination of Pressure
and Fire was thrown nearly as hard as he could. At the same moment
it left his hand Connor yelled “NOW!!!” and Jack didn’t hesitate.
He pulled his son-in-law to the ground in one motion and pulled him
against the wall, using the falling momentum. The only pain Connor
felt was when he landed his right hip that held Tool.

A moment later the very air
erupted with an angry
BOOM
! and intense flames washed over
their heads in a sheet of orange and yellow flame for several
heart-pounding seconds. The heat and flames rolled over the top of
the barrier and the angle’s design did perfectly because no direct
flames came within the safety zone.

When silence settled in,
Jack looked at Connor with eyes full of fear and first hand
understanding. Connor then felt Sarah calling into his mind.
“Are the two of you safe? I cannot see you
through the smoke.”

“Yes, and your dad is just
a little surprised. We knew he would be.”

“Can we come to you yet?”

“Not yet! Let me make sure
it’s safe.”
They wanted to check the
damage for themselves. He told them to wait and give them an ok.
Connor looked at Jack who then glanced at their impatient women. He
looked back and nodded to make sure it was safe for them even
though he still seemed somewhat shaken.

They each slowly rose to survey the
damage. The shield did its job protecting them and only managed to
get slightly charred.

Looking beyond the shield Connor knew
what would happen, but Jack wasn’t fully prepared for the severity
of the consequences. Where the epicenter of the explosion took
place now held an impression in the ground. There were burn marks
in a one hundred foot circumference and some of the weeds were
still on fire, but they couldn’t start a forest fire because there
wasn’t any close vegetation to spread to. That’s why Connor chose
this place and it worked perfectly for this
demonstration.

In a calm, but quiet voice Jack asked
“Connor, can you explain to me what just happened?”

“Sit down on this ledge and catch your
breath.” He sat and Connor yelled “All Clear!” for the girls to
come over.

They ran at a Balancer’s speed to
check on them and what really happened. When they were satisfied
with their mate’s health and looking over the blast site Connor
continued telling them about what happened. “That was known as the
Back Draft Phenomenon. Watch the movie, it is remarkably similar.
When something so hot runs out of air, it gets even hotter. When
oxygen is reintroduced with the heat, the air itself literally
explodes! Everyone and everything in its path is consumed from the
intense flames.” He looked down at Jack to make a larger point. “Do
you see that?” He pointed to the charred crater. “You could imagine
how much more devastating it would be if your fireball was any
larger.” And Jack’s face paled, imagining a bigger
fireball.

“I’m just glad you knew what would
happen before you attempted this stunt uninformed.” Jillian said
and gave Connor a grateful hug. “From where we were watching the
two of you were gone in a sea of flames. We could feel the heat
sting our faces, even from where we waited.”

“Just be thankful I’m mated to the
right man.” Sarah said in pride. As Jillian released her embrace,
Sarah took her place and held him tightly. “I’m glad you’re
uninjured.” Her green eyes looked up at him worried and filling
with tears.

“I knew what would happen, Princess.”
He kissed her on the forehead and said with a smile “Now it’s your
turn to mix some other element combos with me.” Her tears
evaporated instantly and replaced with widened eyes. Connor looked
at Jillian and Jack. “If the two of you have anything to spare I
could use whatever you have to offer. Using an intense Pressure
element twice was draining.”

They both nodded and each took one of
his hands to funnel in some stamina. Five minutes later they each
released his hands. “Sarah, are you ready?” He asked and her head
spun around to glare at him. “Don’t worry there will be no more
explosions today.” She arched an eyebrow in provocative
disappointment. Then he caught her train of thought and would amend
those words later.

“What kind of element combo do you
have in mind?” She asked casually, but she knew that he caught what
he had planned for later.

“Making glass.” And she started
laughing at the suggestion.

“How do you intend to do that without a forge
or a press?” Sarah asked.

“I will manipulate Terra while you do
Fire.” He turned to look at Jillian. “Can I count on your abilities
as a Fireman?”

She started laughing. “Sure just let
me go get my Dalmatian.” She kept laughing until she saw that he
wasn’t. She figured Connor was talking about extinguishing the fire
from the previous experiment. “Ok if any fires start I will put
them out.”

As Connor stood up he grabbed a
handful of loose sand, walked over to Sarah and sat down before her
cross-legged. “Ready to try?” She nodded. Connor felt her reaching
in his mind for a private conversation first.

“Is there any possibility
for us to wind up hurt?”
She asked
worriedly.

“There is always a danger
when you’re experimenting. I told you to be my fire starter because
I will know when something goes horribly wrong, when you heat up
solid materials.”
Connor stuck his thumb
to his chest to remind her of the price he paid.

“Ok, I trust you.”
Her eyes softened.

“After this I have only
enough energy for one more test.”
he
stated truly.

“Can I get a sneak peek of
what you’ve got planned?”
her green eyes
searched for an answer on his face as she did her mental
probing.

“When we get there you’ll
see.”
And he smiled at her which she
miserably failed not to return.

Without closing her eyes Sarah made a
one handed softball size of fire. Connor didn’t close his eyes
either when he imagined all of the loose grains of sand stick
together into a small ball. When the flames and sand came together
he distributed the power flow through both of his hands to keep the
sand sphere balanced between them. This required a steady hand, but
two were better than one.

Sarah used her left hand to steady her
outstretched right arm that held the fire. Connor glanced over his
shoulder to see Jillian standing next to the sitting Jack. She had
accumulated moisture from the air and a small stream of water
continued to flow up from under the ground. She soon had a
cannonball size of water hovering in each of her hands. She wasn’t
taking any risks.

He lifted the sand ball over the
flames with both hands and slowly brought the wad into the center
of the red hot blaze. It would hold the most intense heat. Connor
didn’t take his eyes off of the mass inside Sarah’s burning energy
for an instant. If he did he would be liable to burn her
badly.

As the sand became hotter he knew they
needed only a fraction more heat to liquefy the individual grains.
“Sarah, could you add only a little more heat?” Without a word the
flame grew slightly in size and intensity. With the new burst of
strength from Sarah the sand started melting and fusing together.
As the sand melted, the fire burned away any impurities and they
shot off in sparks, popping from time to time. The sand shrunk from
the size of a golf ball down to the size of a marble.

Knowing that it the task is finished
he lifted the molten ball out of her flames. “Were good now. You
can turn that off.” he nodded to the flame and it disappeared. “Now
it needs to cool… slowly.” Connor looked back at Jillian while
still using his power to keep it away from the ground and away from
his hands. “It looks like you can return those back to the fire
station.” He flashed Jillian a grin.

“Better not waste it.” She put the
balls of water together and steadied the beach ball size of water
in her left hand. With her other she removed some of the water to
make another, but smaller water ball. She turned around and poured
the smaller ball into Jack’s mouth. He drank graciously.

“Thank you, My Love. I needed that.”
She did the same thing again and gave herself a drink. She looked
at Sarah to come over and get some herself. Connor sat in amazement
as Sarah took a long draft. Jillian started towards him, but
stopped and tossed the remaining water at Sarah.

Instantly Sarah called upon her liquid
element and barely made it before the sphere came apart. She let
out a held breath as a long sigh. “What did you do that for,
Mother?”

“My guess would be that your mom has
picked up the habit of throwing things from my sister.” He guessed
calling back.

“I guess so.” Sarah said walking over
to him with a small smile. She knelt at his side, but didn’t touch
his outstretched arms. She held the water over his head. “Drink
up.” Connor lifted his head back and she slowly poured a stream of
water from her palm to his mouth. The water is some of the cleanest
he had ever tasted in his life. It was cool, clear and crisp. “That
hit the spot.” She leaned down when she finished giving him another
final drink. She stared at the former sand.

A few minutes later it was cool enough
to touch. The sand was at first almost black, but after melting it
became a nearly perfectly clear piece of glass. Sarah and Connor
stood up at the same time. He handed the marble into Sarah’s hand
and she studied what they had made together.