by Saless
Chapter 99

She was still staring in shock at the images on the screen when Erica and Sarah came running out of the shower, still dripping wet. Sarah almost absentmindedly portalled them dry as they came to a stop next to the couch. "What's going on?!" Erica asked worriedly. Tiffany just pointed at the screen and they both gasped when they saw the living flame battling the firemen.

Just then there was a banging on the door. Sarah started towards the door, her eyes still glued to the screen, until Tiffany said, "Uh, Sarah, maybe you should get dressed first?" Blushing in embarrassment, she and Erica ran back to get dressed while Tiffany went to the door. Feeling cautious after her encounter with the FBI agent, she made sure to look before opening the door. Mike and Jill waited on the other side, so Tiffany opened the door and let them in.

"Have you seen the news?!" Mike asked once the door was closed. Vash became visible on Jill's shoulder and jumped to the couch to look at the TV.

Tiffany nodded, "Yeah, we just saw. What's going on?!"

"We were hoping one of you would know! Where's Sarah and Erica?" Jill replied.

"They're getting dressed. What is that thing?!" Tiffany said.

It's a fire elemental. I seriously doubt anyone in this world except for Sarah and possibly myself could manage to summon a fire elemental, even with the recent rise of magic. Unless it followed us through a portal, I am at a loss as to how it could be here. Vash replied.

"What will it do?" Jill asked worriedly as it continued its assault on the firemen. By some miracle none of them had been harmed yet.

I don't know. If it was being compelled it would ignore the firemen, or incinerate them immediately. It's acting like it's unbound. In which case it could do anything. Right now it's just defending itself. Once the immediate threat is gone, I have no idea what it would do. This is very bad. Vash said.

"Can we do anything?" Tiffany asked.

"I can take care of it." Erica said as she joined them. Sarah was right behind her.

"How?" Mike asked curiously. "I know it can't hurt you, at least not directly, but that's not much help fighting it."

"I can use Sarah's ice sword. That should hurt it." Erica replied.

That might work, but you would likely be injured or killed in the process. Vash said. After a pause he continued, There is something strange about its attack. Those flames should be hitting those firemen, but they aren't. It's like they're being deflected just enough to keep from hurting anybody.

"Maybe I can portal it back wherever it came from?" Sarah said hopefully.

"How? Without a book or something you have no way of knowing where it came from!" Jill replied.

"Well, I could still portal it somewhere! I've got to do something!" Sarah said. Without waiting for a reply she opened a portal. Erica grabbed her hand and walked through with her, but she didn't close the portal. Shrugging, Tiffany followed, with Jill, Mike, and an invisible Vash close behind.

"This is crazy! There's nothing any of us can do to this thing!" Mike protested when he caught up with Sarah.

"Actually," Sarah said thoughtfully as she stared at the elemental, "I think I can get it home. There's a...thread, for lack of a better word, connecting it to somewhere else. I think I can follow that thread back to its home and send it back through a portal." She closed her eyes in concentration, but while she was doing so the fire elemental had managed to set the firetruck on fire. The firemen scattered, so the elemental continued on its way now that no one was trying to stop it.

"Maybe you can slow it down Jill? I'll take care of the fire truck." Mike said.

"How are you going to take care of the fire truck?!" Jill asked. In answer Mike transformed, swiftly becoming invisible as he grew to giant size. They couldn't see what he was doing, but they saw the gust of wind that blew the flames out like a birthday candle. Jill shrugged and ran after the elemental. She tried to levitate it, but it didn't really have a solid body. Fire's not something solid, it's just a chemical reaction! How do you grab a chemical reaction?! she thought.

Normally you would grab the fuel Vash replied. However, an elemental doesn't need fuel to stay alight. For the moment it has very little mass at all. You may not be able to grab it.

Hm, if I can't grab it, maybe I can block it! she thought. She focused on the road a few feet in front of it and envisioned a solid wall of force. She'd done this before instinctively to protect herself when sparring, but she'd never tried to do it on purpose. She had no idea if she'd succeeded until it ran into the wall and recoiled. Yes, it worked!

But now what? Vash asked, as the elemental began feeling its way around the wall. Jill kept extending the wall whichever direction it went, but she found she was only able to maintain a small wall, so it was basically moving with the elemental.

Jill was sending it in a circle, to keep it away from the buildings, but she was tiring rapidly. She was about ready to pass out from exhaustion when Sarah suddenly appeared next to her. "You can let it go now Jill, I've got it." she said. Jill gratefully dropped the wall and dropped onto the ground to rest.

A portal opened up right in front of the elemental, but it shied away from it. That did it little good, however, as Sarah simply swept it up with her portal before closing it up. "It should be fine now. Are you okay Jill?" Sarah asked.

Jill was breathing hard like she'd just run a marathon and gasped out, "Yeah...I'm...okay." Mike appeared next to her as he shrank back down from invisible giant size, and Erica and Tiffany stepped out of the portal Sarah had used to catch up with Jill.

"I used my shadows to hide us from the cameras, but I really think we should get out of here." Tiffany said worriedly.

"Good thinking. Let's get back to Sarah's apartment." Erica said. Sarah nodded and opened the portal. Mike picked up Jill, who didn't complain this time, and they all stepped through. He set her down on the couch while Tiffany went to get her some water.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get a fix on it's home world Jill." Sarah said apologetically as she sat down next to the couch.

Jill had just about gotten her breath back at this point, "It's okay Sarah. No harm done." She gratefully accepted a glass of water from Tiffany and drank it down quickly. Tiffany took it back to refill it.

"Why didn't you just levitate it, like you did the dishes?" Mike asked.

"It's just flame, there was nothing solid to take a hold of. I suppose I might be able to learn to telekinetically grab gases, but I don't know how yet." Jill replied.

"Oh, yeah, I guess it's hard to grab air." Mike agreed.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where that thing came from Vash?" Erica asked.

No, I don't. I'm sure it was summoned here, rather than somehow following us through a portal. I just don't know who did it. There shouldn't be anybody in this world with both the power and the knowledge to do it. Vash replied.

"Could it be Sarah's father? He was changed a couple of times, plus he was exposed to the magic of the knife and Sarah healed him. And Mary beat him up while under the influence of magic, too. Could all that exposure have done it?" Mike asked.

No, that's not possible. There is some residue from any magical use, but most of the energy is used up in the spell. He would have to have magic used on him many more times for the buildup to be enough to have any significant effect. Besides, having the power isn't enough. Sarah has the power, but she'd need something to tell her where to open her portal to. I have the knowledge, but I'd need a complicated ritual to derive enough power, assuming it would even work in this world. There's no way that George could have gained that knowledge even if he had amassed that much power.

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