Blackharbor, Maine

Theodore sat in the musty old apartment. It was a piece of late 21st century architecture, so it had the Vita-Lock locking mechanisms and other amenities that came with the time period. However, it had creaky wood floorboards and some terrible paneling. It's true that this apartment was only used for Vircid dead drops or meetings with non-personnel, but they could at least fix it up a bit. Theodore took a sip from the ice cold water bottle he was holding, while twirling a little ball of air in his palm. He gave a moment to look outside. The sky was a sickly gray, the water of the harbor a stagnant greenish-brown. However, due to the mild hallucinogens that Signer employed, it all looked pristine and beautiful. Well, not too beautiful or people would get suspicious. "Poor idiots are too blind to see the truth. It's not that powerful of a drug...sheer willpower could probably wear it down." Theo said as he dismissed the ball of air. It was his sincere hope that the recipients of his letter were open to new ideas, and could accept the Vircid's way of thinking. If they didn't, they'd be up a torrential river without an anchor.

Airesmee walked down the side walk whistling cheerfully, she had a address in one hand and a latte in the other. She had gotten the letter only day after moving to America, which was first odd since she knew no one who lived in Maine. As she read it all things only began to get weirder, yes she knew all the stuff about the Spireheart and the amazing powers it gave the elementals, but to hear from some crazy letter that the Spireheart was actually bad and practically killing the earth? She figured it was some silly spam letter and had ignored it for days, until one night she laid in bed thinking about what would happen if it were true and she was missing out on being able to save the world. With a open mind and only a tad bit of doubt she began packing that night and got to Maine as fast as she could. Now she had only to find the building she was supposed to meet this 'Theodore Morvis' at. She checked the buildings finally finding the correct building and with a deep breath she knocked lightly, the paper crumpling in her hand.

Jack got off the bus a few blocks from the address. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but since his life seemed meaningless otherwise, he figured it was worth a shot. He took a deep breath and smelled the air. You could tell a lot by what was in the air. He'd learned to trust your nose above all else. He could smell the ocean and that smell you get with all cities, that something off in the air from the city. The bus drove off and his nose filled with the exhaust, ruining his olfactory sense. He coughed and turned, looking at the city around him. He had a map and the pack on his back, mostly clothes and food he was able to scrounge up before he left. He looked for the street signs to get a quick reference for his map. He mumbled to himself and headed towards the address he had with the letter. He bumped into a man and woman after turning a corner walking in the other direction about a block and a half from the place. "I'm sorry, excuse me." He noticed something odd about the two of them, the air around the man was... odd.

He kept walking, a little faster. He couldn't shake this feeling something was different about those people he passed. He came to the building and knocked on the door. No answer. He opened the door and walked in. There was a long hallway and a staircase leading up. He started listening to door and seeing if he could find anyone that was in there. The entire place seemed empty. He knocked on almost half the doors in the building. "Someone's idea of a joke, I guess." He left in a huff, disgusted that he trusted the letter in the first place. He couldn't figure out WHY someone would pull a gag like that, but it seemed someone had. He left the building and saw someone else walking the same way. He didn't really know if they were going in or just happened to be walking by, but he turned to them and said, "Don't. It's all a big scam."

He started walking down the street and came to a street corner with the traffic still in the right-of-way. He sighed and closed his eyes, thinking. What now? I didn't have anything going before, maybe that was the right way to do it. Maybe life's just a useless time to waste until we're not taking up oxygen anymore. He felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped away. The man he'd been given the meal by, who talked to him about elemental power, was standing on the corner with him. "You left quickly. We didn't get to finish talking. There's some things you need to learn. Come." He gestured and Jack suddenly felt short of breath, like someone had just full force punched him right in the chest. He gasped for breath and coughed before being able to breath right again. That was enough to peak his interest.

The man led him several city blocks away. "The world's in a lot of trouble, you know? You've seen it first hand. I bet you don't even know why you went off and fought. I'm sure you understand less how you survived." There were lots of people around and the man looked around. "Come." He trotted across the street into a rather fancy looking hotel, Jack in tow. "Hello. Is my usual room empty?" The bellhop nodded and the man gestured for Jack to go into an elevator with him. At this point, he was very curious.

"Well, there are people who protect the world and people who think they're on some... Righteous crusade! They think they're trying to save the world from us, even though we're the ones that are keeping it alive. Oh, if only you knew. If you could see, if you could SMELL the way the world is out there... You can smell something isn't right, I know you can. You may not be able to tell anymore, you've lived almost if not all your life with it, so you're used to it. But they're getting close to destroying this world, despite all our efforts." The elevator opened up into a closed off room filled with all sort of different, odd things. "This is where you learn. I believe with some training, discovering your potential, you could really be a key member of the Signet."

Tatiana knew where she knew this man from. He was one of the new recruits she saw before leaving the day she left to go undercover. She wrote on the notepad and walked over to him, handing him the paper. "I never really cared for that color myself, why?" The notepad had the words, "They have the room mic'd and recorded." written so it had to be held at a precise angle to read it. "I think it's time I show you the door, sir. I don't feel we have anything else to talk about." She grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door, Anastasia on their heels, pulling it shut behind her. She looked at the security cameras in the hallway as she pulled him to the elevator. As the doors opened, the bellhop was in there.

"Anya..." She pushed on his face and a flash of flame came from her hand and burned down his throat. He fell to the floor, his mouth bleeding and him not moving.

"I always hated that name. It's TatiANA!" She kicked him and used his key to call the elevator to the basement. "The elevator's bugged too, but we'll have enough time to get out of here since he's not at the desk, little snitch. I'm Tatiana, you can call me Tati [Tetch-E] for short. Never Anya. If you're after the new recruit as well as gray, I'm guessing it's important. When we get down there, we'll only meet Gray as resistance, but he's a very effective Wind elemental, one of our best who teaches the new recruits. I'm the middleman, the paper pusher. I've got enough information to get help us a little in this drive," she pulled out a small drive from her purse and a notepad, "and this pad for what they'd know if I made digital copies." They were on a high floor and it felt like it was taking forever to get to the basement. "By the way, I'm Tatiana, this is Anastasia and I KNOW YOU! I saw you before I went undercover in Signet. Who are you? What can you do?" They were only about halfway to the basement at this point and Tati was getting nervous that they wouldn't have time to get out before reinforcements got called. "Boy I hope you're an Earth elemental or we may not make it out of here."




Gray walked around the floor, his steps seeming to echo around the entire basement. Jack couldn't concentrate with everything else trying to work itself out in his head. "Come on. I can do this. It's simple. I could probably move this with my breath. It's just like a pinwheel. In a tube," he reassured himself under his breath. He took a deep breath in and tried to calm himself. He pictured a pinwheel in his mind and blew on it, spinning and spinning. He opened his eyes. Nothing. He tried again, picturing it in the tube. Nothing. He tried to calm himself again. He pictured the pinwheel in the tube and saw himself being in the tube and blowing on the pinwheel. Just then he heard the elevator ding and turned, not seeing that the turbine was spinning. Gray started speed-walking towards the elevator.