Long time no see you old bag of bones
Oxygen held Sulfur by the throat, suspending him in the air before a setting, faint white sun. To Sulfur, the air smelled terrible, biting, corrosive. "Welcome to our new world." Oxygen said smiling.
Copper met biological life for the first time, an ancient single celled organism called an Archaea. In her passion and curiosity about what she found, she destroyed it. Sulfur informs her that he helped design the energy system for the Archaea, and that the light elements (Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen) have been spearheading projects similar to this one.
Millions of years later, the Elements are at war during an interval known as the Great Oxidation Event. The conflict pits the Elements most abundant at Earth’s surface, lead by Oxygen and Silicon, against the elements of Earth’s core, lead by Iron.
A meteorite threatens Copper and Sulfur’s home on the seafloor, but at the last moment before impact, Sulfur destroys it. But, tensions rise as Oxygen’s form materializes from the wreckage of the meteorite.
Oxygen waved a hand, offering Sulfur a dispassionate hello. Copper counted 8 black rings on the front side of his wrist.
"Long time no see you old bag of bones." Oxygen said with a sneer.
“Go back where you came from and leave us out of this.” Sulfur spat. His dislocated jaw didn’t move. These words were coming from somewhere else.
“Give her up Sulfur. We talked about this already. We don’t want to fight.”
“Find someone else! Don’t involve us in this. Surely you could use something else? What about Cobalt?”
“And where the fuck are we gonna find Cobalt? Has anyone ever even seen that guy? I’m not sure he’s ever manifested. Sulfur look around you, this situation is perfect. You’ve done the math too. Just listen to us.”
“She’s not ready.” Sulfur was insistent. Desperate.
“What’s wrong with you?” Oxygen said smirking, staring through his bangs. “Why are you helping him? You know what Iron did was wrong.”
“I don’t know. I try to honor my bonds, and Iron is family."
Oxygen laughed sordidly. “You a family man? What sweet irony.”
“Get the fuck out of here, Oxygen.”
“You know that if you fight me here, I’m going to kill you, right?” His words were a snarl.
“You think I’m scared of death?” He laughed. Sulfur was already lunging towards him, smoke trailing from behind his heels. His fist was outstretched, ready to strike. Accicular blades of stilbite cut from the gaps in the bones of his hand, making knives aimed directly for Oxygen’s core. Oxygen looked his attacker head on with calm.
Sulfur feinted, a quick pop causing his momentum to alter precisely. As he changed direction, he released a hand full of his cinnabar flesh into Oxygen’s eyes. Another pop and Sulfur was behind him, bringing the knives down into his neck.
The stibnite blades shattered against ice.
Sulfur sat frozen. His surprise was evident.
“Mercury, wow, what a treat.” Oxygen spat. “Good choice. What a shitty Element." He let out a sigh, still not betraying a sense of worry. In fact was still facing away from Sulfur. "Do you want to try that again?"
With a curl of Sulfur's bony fingers the cinnabar formed into needles and drove into the skin of Oxygen's face, drawing out cerulean blue fluid. "Feels interesting doesn't it?" Sulfur looked pleased. "I think it’ll feel even better after this." With a pull, yellow powder erupted from the wounds, followed by the faintest trickle of silver.
Oxygen grimaced and cracked his neck, causing his ice armor to shift. "More poison. I should have expected that." He sighed and turned to face Sulfur. "I guess the fight will be more even now."
"Let me ask. Do you miss the surface? Or do you like crawling around in the dark with your traitor friends?"
Sulfur lunged without a reply. A backwards rotation brought a long leg down across Oxygen’s shoulder. At the instant of contact, Sulfur, sent all of his mass into that bone, causing it to harden and densify. The kick came down with a crash, sending Oxygen hurtling towards a great, oozing crack in the seafloor.
The blue flames in Sulfur's empty eyes flamed brighter with glee. Quickly, before Oxygen could change his path, he reached his hands across his body to touch his shoulders and dragged his hands down his arms, collecting a bluish grey metal. He formed a cube shape with his hands and whispered death through it. Sulfurous gas emerged from his gullet mixing with the metal on his hands. From his hands poured a hellish rain of perfect metallic cubes of galena that grew as they descended, crashing down into the fissure where Oxygen landed.
Seeing his opportunity, Sulfur raised his arms behind him, released a cloud of sulfur, and ignited it, blasting his body to the seafloor. There drawing from the vents, in the peak of his power within this domain, he gasped one massive, rasping inhale and blasted a dazzling column of blue flame from his gaping maw. When the flames finally died down, the ocean boiled above a sea of molten lead where the fissure once opened.
"Woo! How about that little extra stink on that galena prison??" Sulfur hollered, apparently to no one.
It didn't take but a moment more. The surface of the lake of molten metal began to harden. Sulfur calculated quickly. The pool of metal was cooling far too fast. Oxygen had truly grown stronger during the war. He readied himself.
Another instant and the surface of the lead lake had shattered, pierced by prismatic shards of ice the size of mountains. Sulfur barely had time to clock his green and blue eyes before his hands were on his throat. Oxygen's momentum brought them hurtling towards the surface of the water, smashing through.
Oxygen held Sulfur by the throat, suspending him in the air before a setting, faint white sun. To Sulfur, the air smelled terrible, biting, corrosive. "Welcome to our new world. I was looking forward to showing you this." Oxygen said, looking around.
"Don't move or I'll burn every last atom of this form into oblivion." Oxygen threatened. His eyes then narrowed with thought. "Oh wait. That's right you probably haven't seen this trick yet." He laughed and brought four of his fingers to the black circular marks on the wrists of the hand that suspended Sulfur. The contact sent red flames burning violently down Oxygen's arm and up his scalp, engulfing his head. He gleamed at Sulfur. "That's free oxygen in the air. Can you feel it?"
Sulfur could feel his strength waning. Here in the atmosphere his power was a fraction of what it was down by the vents. This was the worst outcome. But so long as Oxygen kept him up here, away from Copper, things might be okay.
"Do whatever you want. You know I've been through worse. I'll be back before you know it."
"Oh, I know that. That's why I'm going to hold you right here."
Sulfur laughed bitterly. "You gonna shout at Copper from up here and try and get her to join you?"
"That comet we sent down there wasn't for me, idiot. I could use the water."
Just as Sulfur was taken out sight, a whisper came from behind her. “Copper."
She turned to face the voice. From a fragment of the meteorite, crumbled and broken, settling down past her hiding place in the chimneys materialized, a grey form with eyes of diamond. Her scalp dripped and smoke poured from her mouth as she spoke. “Hi. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.” She spoke gently, with an even tone.
It was Carbon. She could see the compounds. It was a weak manifestation, a few tons at most.
Anger grew inside her, washing over her as she thought of Sulfur’s fate. She couldn't imagine anyone who could beat him. She thought of his warm, tired eyes, and called to mind his teachings. Energy brimmed from her feet and flowed into her upper body. Her arms sparked, now charged with energy.
Carbon noticed her building power, and raised her arms. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you".”
"You betrayed him! You're a monster." Copper screamed at her. And for an instant, in her rage, her focus snapped. From her fingertips arced terrible braids of bronze lightning bolts, tearing through the depths of the sea, which bubbled and boiled in their wake.
When the bolts reached Carbon, she knelt down and placed a grey hand on the rocks of the seafloor. Another hand rose to meet the blast. The energy gathered in her palms and leapt across her skin, passing through her body and into the earth.
Copper reached deeper, channeling her anger and fear into power. A continuous barrage of lightning arced from her fingers to Carbon. She stepped forward towards her target, intensifying the barrage, but Carbon continued channeling the current through her. As Copper was nearly upon her, adding every last ampere of her power to her effort, Carbon's hand reached her hand up to meet hers.
Her grasp was gentle. Her fingers wound around Copper's, resting on the plates of her hand.
"I promise I don't want to hurt you. I also told Oxygen not to hurt Sulfur for what it’s worth."
"My electricity...” Copper panted a bit. An inquisitive look came on her face. “My powers don't work on you."
"Yeah, I mean I can conduct, just like you." She poked at Copper's navel and laughed sweetly, leaving behind grey graphite squiggles. "But I can't make the energy like you can."
Copper was shocked. A blast of that magnitude might have hurt even Sulfur. She didn’t imagine there was another Element out there with her powers.
"You should try maybe burning or stabbing me if you really want me to leave." Her eyes went wide and she put her palm to her forehead. "Shit though, oh my gods. For Oxygen ? It would be so goddam useful to have your move for when that guy is acting out of pocket."
"What are you doing here?" Copper asked cautiously.
"Like I said, we just want to talk to you."
“You could have knocked.”
“We tried that actually. Sulfur is pretty protective of you if you hadn't realized."
Copper's options were few. Sulfur was gone, and her most powerful attack was useless. But most importantly, her curiosity was piqued. Small sparks lifted from Carbon's skin where they touched.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"I’d like to ask for you help."
Next time on Elements:
“We have an idea about how we might be able to make a safe home for ourselves on the surface. We're going to change the atmosphere." Carbon gestured vaguely out into the distance. "Free oxygen."
Copper looked out the window to the scene of destruction outside. “Is he really the guy who you want to be giving a bunch of power to?”
Carbon seemed visibly disturbed by the question. “Yeah, um, I’m working with him on some of this. But I think it’s the best chance we have.”
Love the added voice over and music!