Voltiana

Many years ago, in a small house...

"Do you require more food, Grandpa?"

A much younger Ionix was holding a bowl of soup, offering it to an elder, gray-haired Zharian, who was in bed.

"Thank you, Izuru," the man replied, taking a sip of the soup. "But you shouldn't worry much about me. I'll be dead soon."

"But there's no way!" Izuru exclaimed. "You can't die, right? You have an Element!"

The man coughed some more before sitting up. "In theory, yes. But with an ability like this only comes one weakness: the heart."

"The heart? What do you mean?"

The man ripped a hole in his chest, showing his heart, which was weakly beating and partially missing.

"When one gets an Element, every part of our bodies manifests the ability to regenerate even the most severe damage. Even our heads. This regeneration is so powerful, if our entire bodies were reduced to nothing but our heart, we'd still recover."

"Wow..." Izuru said. "That's awesome!"

"But nothing...comes without limit. If the heart is damaged in any way, it WILL NOT regenerate. If it is fully destroyed, the user will die very quickly. In the case of me, my heart hasn't been fully destroyed yet, so my death has been slower than it should."

Izuru grabbed his arm. "There has to be some way to help you, right?"

The man shook his head. "Only the element of Healing would be able to save me now, and it's been almost a century since one of our kind has been in possession of it."

Tears began to fall down Izuru's face, but the man gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Have no fear, Izuru. I've prepared a gift for you. May you bring me that tablet up there?"

He pointed to a preserved table on display, made of black stone. Ionix grabbed it and handed it to the man.

"Here, Grandpa."

The man examined the tablet for a moment before gripping it with all his might. Shockingly, lightning started coming off of his body and absorbing into the tablet, almost as if it was being drained out of him.

"Grandpa! What are you doing?"

Izuru's grandfather set the tablet down and immediately collapsed onto his pillow. "There...you take that tablet with you. When in your time of need, break it, and inherit the power I've passed on to you. It won't serve me well anymore, and no use letting it go to the winds."

Izuru took one look at the tablet, which was glowing yellow.

"Wait...did you....Grandpa...? GRANDPA?"

But the man didn't respond anymore, and at first, Izuru thought he was sleeping, but doctors later came to confirm his worst fears.

Two weeks later, in an orphanage...

"Izuru, yes? Izuru Ichihashi?"

The boy nodded. The female director who was examining him gave him a large coat. "Here, you must be cold."

He put on the coat, but he never set the tablet he was gifted down. The woman took note of this. "What's that in your hands? Is it special?"

He nodded again.

"You aren't much for talking, are you?"

He glanced down at his tablet. "Can you please just show me to my bed?"

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "Don't you want to meet the other kids first?"

"What kids?"

She guided him down a hallway, and sure enough, nine other young kids were playing in the common room. Once the director and Izuru stepped in, each one of them turned their heads.

"Hello, children! This is Izuru! He'll be your new friend! Say hi!"

The kids all spoke at once, some of them half-heartedly. "Hi, Izuru!"

Izuru simply waved back. The director pointed to each kid one by one. "Izuru, this is Otoko, Nobukazu, Ryusei, Amika, Haruhisa, Chiaki, Fusako, Kan, and Maki."

Most of the kids attempted to avoid eye contact, except for Maki, who stood up and extended a hand.

"Hi! Great to meet you!"

The director stepped away. "Maki, can I trust you'll be able to explain to Izuru how things work here, while I handle some important business? He's been living with his grandfather for almost fourteen years now, so he's a bit new to this."

"Sure thing!" Maki replied. "I'm on it!"

She took Izuru's hand and dragged him to the middle of the common room. "This is where we all play! Plus it has a TV, so we can watch our favorite cartoons!"

She then dragged him through a door, which had a cluster of beds attached to the walls. "This is the bedroom! We each have our own bed!"

"Great," Izuru said. "Where's mine?"

"Now for the rest of the tour!" Maki continued, dragging Izuru along.

She showed him the kitchen, the bathrooms, the backyard, and even the nurse's office. Once they were done, they returned back to the common room, which was all but cleared out.

"They're gone?" Maki realized. "Those sleepyheads!"

"Can I please join them?" Izuru asked.

Maki let him go, but she noticed the tablet in his hands. "What's that?"

"It's just something from my grandfather, nothing more."

He went to get in his bed, but Maki continued to eye him, curious. The next morning, Izuru was the last one to wake up, and when he did, he noticed his tablet was missing.

"The HELL? I know they didn't just—-!"

He immediately got up and ran into the common room, where he found the kids examining his tablet.

"What do you think it is?" Chiaki asked. "Some kind of magical artifact?"

"We can't use magic, idiot," Nobukazu shot back.

Amika grabbed the tablet. "It's glowing! That must mean it's special, right? What do you think, Haruhisa?"

Haruhisa briefly looked at the tablet. "It's just a piece of stone. Why bother?"

Izuru immediately rushed in and snatched the tablet away. "What the hell is wrong with you people? Give that back!"

Maki stepped in, trying to take the tablet back. "Hey, don't be so mean! We just...wanted...to...look!"

"Get your hands off of it!"

They both continued to pull back and forth, and Kan also started tugging at it. "Dude, don't be a killjoy!"

"GIVE...IT!"

Izuru ripped it free from their hands, but in the process it flew into the air, and collided hard to the ground, cracking in half. Izuru immediately dropped to the floor and tried to piece it back together.

"Damn it! Look what you've all done!"

But they weren't paying attention to him, rather to something BEHIND him. When Izuru followed their eyes, he noticed the tablet floating in the air, yellow energy emitting from it.

"What's it doing?" Maki asked.

The tablet began to crumble, and out of it emerged a yellow ball, crackling with energy. Each of the kids watched, shocked, but suddenly more balls of energy, all in various colors such as white and green, emerged from the tablet before it exploded. Once it did, each ball of energy floated through the air and absorbed into the chest of each one of the kids.

The yellow ball went to Izuru, who immediately dropped to the ground, coughing and feeling weak. The green one went to Maki, who began feverishly scratching at her skin.

"What is this? What's going on?" she asked.

"My body...is on FIRE!" Otoko exclaimed. "It's like my bones are racked with pain!"

"My face!" Amika shrieked. "Why can't I feel my face?"

The director came in, alerted by the noise, but she was too late to help. "Children! What have you done?"

But she had to dive for cover as the resulting energy caused the entire room to explode.

Many hours later, Izuru was the first to wake up, noticing the destruction the explosion caused. Once he sat up, he noticed a young woman looming over him.

"Survived the process, I see. Imagine my shock when I find that ten little children have inherited the power of the Elements. And all at once, too."

Izuru backed up. "Who are you?"

The woman looked down at him with a curious look. "You can refer to me as Runea, if you'd like."

"Runea?" Maki sat up. "She's part of the Obsidian Order!"

"Obsidian Order?" Izuru questioned. "What's that?"

"You don't know who they are?" Kan remarked, sitting up as well. "They're like the direct lieutenants of the Master! Each of them boasts a super cool Element, and they have TOTAL control over the army!"

"But, Miss Runea," Maki said. "If you're here, then that means..."

Runea nodded. "Yes. You'll all have to come with me. Besides, your director won't be in any shape to watch over you for quite a while."

"Is she dead?" Fusako asked.

"Not so. But an explosion of that much elemental energy won't do the body much good. Now come, children. The Master awaits."

One by one, the kids followed as they left the wreckage. She escorted them out of the streets and into what appeared to be a giant black van. After getting in the back of the van, Runea signaled for the driver to pull off.

"But wait, Miss Runea!" Maki blurted out. "I thought all your positions were filled! Why does the Master need us?"

Runea closed her eyes, thinking for a moment. "He is willing to be more...flexible, with his establishment."

This caused a bunch of whispers among the kids, and soon, they pulled up to the front gates of a black castle.

"Alright. Everyone out," Runea ordered.

Izuru was the last kid to exit the van.

"I still don't know anything about the Obsidian Order," he thought. "But I've got to do what Grandpa said, and make use of this power!"

He followed everyone else as guards bowed to Runea and opened the gates to the castle. Runea led them down a path to the front door, where a young man with long white hair and white eyes was standing, wearing a "punk" jacket and jeans. He had a guitar in his hands that he started playing when Runea approached him.

♫ "Look at you Runea! You're finally back! It's great to see you again, and it seems you've brought a pack!" ♫

Runea shook her head. "Where is the Master?"

♫ "He's insideeeeee!" ♫

"You're as insufferable as ever, Melodar," Runea remarked. "Ugh. I'll speak with you later. These kids are priority, at the moment."

♫ "Yeah, yeah, yeah, OKAYYYY!" ♫

Runea hurried the kids past him, entering the castle. After a walk through the halls, they reached the throne room, where they found a young man with orange and yellow hair arguing with a young girl with gray and green hair.

"Brother, you need to let me have some fun! Don't be such a party pooper!" the girl moaned.

"You walked into dwarven territory, got their leader so drunk he fell into an endless chasm, and forced ME to bail you out! You're part of the Order now, Mysteria! You can't keep playing these immature games!"

Mysteria folded her arms. "No one told me it'd be such a dull experience. You people have no idea of FUN."

Runea cleared her throat, which caused both siblings to look at her. "Excuse me, Radiux? Have you seen the Master around?"

Radiux scoffed. "Nope. He's probably busy attending to his political duties. You know, like making peace with DWARVES."

Mysteria rolled her eyes, but they lit up once she saw the children. "Ooh! Who are these precious things?"

"They are children from a nearby orphanage. This boy here, Izuru, his tablet unleashed a myriad of stored Elements when broken, granting each one of them an Element of their own."

"She knows my name?" Izuru wondered. "Wait, forget that, how does she know about the tablet?"

"Really?" Mysteria's eyes widened. "That's so cool! What Elements did you guys get? Wanna try them on me?"

Izuru looked around, nervous, before speaking. "Ahem, my grandfather, he put his Electricity Element in there before he died, which has been in our family for generations, but I don't know where the others came from. I was only given his power today, after...he passed."

Runea put a hand on his shoulder. "That's because Elements attract other Elements. If one is stored in an artifact, any other latent ones will be drawn to that artifact. But even still, ten at once is still not commonly heard of, even for us."

Mysteria yawned. "Doesn't seem like Master is coming back tonight. You guys want to have a party in his throne room?"

Radiux slapped his head and grabbed Mysteria by her arm. "Come. We're taking you to bed."

"But it's only 7:30!"

Once they were gone, Runea turned her attention back to the children. "Don't mind my colleagues. They can be a bit much, but they all mean well. Though I wouldn't take advice from Mysteria, however."

"They're AMAZING!" Maki exclaimed.

"They're something, alright," Izuru whispered under his breath.

Runea gave them a brief smile. "Well, since the Master is not currently here, let's get you all set up in the guest bedrooms for tonight. Come, come."

She directed them to a hall with six bedrooms in it. "There are two beds per room. You'll each need to group into pairs and pick one."

Each of the children picked a pair, and Izuru was stuck with Chiaki.

"Well, this is awkward, ain't it?" Chiaki remarked.

"This whole place screams 'awkward," Izuru replied.

Runea turned on her heel and started to walk away. "I shall see you all in the morning. And one final rule, DO not leave your rooms, for anything at all."

Once she was gone, the kids entered their rooms. Izuru's room had two king-sized beds, a dresser, a lamp, and a TV, along with a window looking outside.

"This looks much better than back at home," Izuru thought.

Chiaki took the bed closer to the door, and Izuru got in the one next to the window.

"Maybe I'll wake up and this is all a dream," Izuru murmured.

"Pfff, dreamers die," Chiaki pointed out.

"No one asked you. Either way, goodnight."

"Night."

After a few hours of sleep, Izuru was woken up by the tapping of his window. "Ugh...at this time of night?"

Chiaki was still asleep, so Izuru got up to check. When he did, he found a young Voltian girl with orange hair, desperately banging on the glass.

"Help! Help! Please, sir, I need your help!"

—-