A taser. That was Hayden’s present to Spark. He gives it to her as we travel in the car, all four kids squished into the back and Mac riding shotgun.

‘Since you can’t create the element, I thought this would come in handy. It’ll work, won’t it?’

‘Yes. Thank you. It’ll be weaker than pure lightning, but better than what we were banking on – Andy said the cavern was lit, so we reckoned there would be electricity in there. This is a much better option.’

Hayden beams and Mac casts him a sidelong glance, a wry smile on his face. Hayden misses it, but I don’t. June is right, in a way – for a cop, Hayden is being ridiculously supportive. Maybe he likes comic book heroes or something.

We pile out of the car as soon as it stops, nervously stretching out our limbs. Something seems amiss. Hayden exits the vehicle last, takes one look around, and swears. Mac and Hayden, despite the plan, rush in ahead of us. Confused, we follow.

‘Detective!’ Spark calls, and is ignored. I look around as we run – there are no other cops in sight.

‘Hayden!’ She calls again, limping heavily to keep up.  He responds suddenly, turning, and Mac nearly runs into him.

‘Wait here.’

‘No! What’s wrong?’ Spark asks again. We aren’t far from the room, and I can just hear the sounds of a scuffle over the heavy breathing of my group. I suddenly realise what is happening.

‘June went in first,’ I say. Hayden nods.

‘Dammit! I thought she was being too agreeable,’ he says, hanging his head.

‘She can’t do that!’ Flame says.

‘Of course she can. She’s doing exactly what we should have done yesterday, our duty as cops. She’s doing it by the book, and I’m worried about the uniforms she took in with her. But it was her right to do it. She knew the location of an accused kidnapper and murderer.’

‘We can’t just run in after her though. It would be . . . impractical,’ Mac growls.

‘Yes, you’re right,’ Hayden sighs.

‘Same plan, then. We’ll go in and distract, while you and Mac come in and drag all the police out of there,’ Spark says.

I step alongside the men. ‘Shall we?’

The sounds of struggle up ahead were becoming more desperate, so both men simply nod and fall in behind Spark and myself. Quietly, to her, I say, ‘I’ll come in with you. He’s as distracted as he’s going to be.’

Face grim, but with her limp significantly lessened, she nods.

The scene inside the room is chaos. I look to Breeze first, confirming she is still there, and raise my arm for Stone. She is fine, watching the madness silently and with wide eyes. June had brought five additional uniforms. Three of them are now unconscious. She is still standing, though not for long.

‘Uniforms got sent in first,’ Hayden mutters as he sprints for the closest downed officer and begins to drag him out.

The Guardian is behind the altar, June opposite him with her pistol drawn, and the two other officers are on either side of him, cornering the Guardian in a rough triangle. The Guardian isn’t fazed, however, as he is using the Earth and Water gloves to form a thick layer of clay around himself. It’s an ugly construct, but it will slow, or stop, a bullet.

‘I didn’t know we could do that,’ Stone says.

‘He’s combining multiple elements. His mastery is not something practiced or taught by our diaries. It’s something new,’ Spark says.

‘Well, he had all the diaries, and a lot of time, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he experimented,’ Flame says, but I barely hear him as I move to free Breeze.

‘No you don’t!’ The Guardian roars, finally realising that we are in the room. He shoots a jet of water at me and trips me up. Spark responds, using the taser on June’s hip to throw electricity at Stephen, trying to distract him.

She only succeeds in distracting June.

‘You kids get out! We don’t need you!’

Bored with being trapped in the triangle, the Guardian shakes part of the ceiling, dropping chunks of rock onto the police officers’ heads. His distraction successful, he drops his clay shield and, hands free, clubs the left-hand cop with a meaty fist. The scrawny guy drops. The guy on the right, dazed from a falling stone, doesn’t ready his pistol again until it is too late. Seeing what is about to happen, I abandon Breeze for a second time, and run at the Guardian. His arm is outstretched, his hand holding a clay spear and pointing it at June. I catapult the altar and latch onto his arm, one hand on the water glove. I strip it, using his own motion against him as he throws me into a nearby wall.

He stares at his hand in shock, and I see it for the first time as I regain my feet – it’s horribly burned. Hayden and Mac manage to grab the cop on the left as June roars in disgust. Despite my efforts moments ago to save her, she throws herself forward at the Guardian. His focus is drawn from me and back to her as he bats her casually aside. There is no finesse in his swings, just sheer size and weight. June is sent sprawling away, but this time he follows her.

‘I’ve had enough of you, meddling woman.’

To her credit, June regains her feet. Red-faced and completely out of control with rage, she goes to take another step forward when Flame and Spark appear, throwing their elements towards the Guardian – Flame from two lit torches that he’d brought, and Spark from her taser. Stephen counters, shielding himself with clay. It was ugly before, but now it is hideous, as he cannot soften it or manipulate it how he wants without the Water glove.

The intervention angers June even more. Before she can get in the way again, Mac grabs her around the waist and picks her bodily up off the ground. It is surprisingly funny, watching the full-grown woman kicking and screaming like a grumpy toddler. A touch on my arm reminds me that I am part of this battle too.

‘You alright?’ Stone asks.

‘Fine,’ I say, rising and pulling the Water glove onto my hand.

‘Wrong element, man.’

‘Yeah, well, I improvised. Grab him.’ I point to the last, semi-conscious, cop in the room. He is on my side of the Guardian, which is the opposite of Mac and Hayden, and I don’t want him to become collateral. Stone moves to do as I ask as I sprint back to Breeze.

‘No!’ The Guardian sees what I am attempting to do, again. Flame and Spark throw numerous little attacks at him to keep him rooted to the spot.

‘Hiya. Third time lucky?’ I say as I skid to a stop next to the cage. Breeze beams back at me.

‘Better late than never.’ She holds out a hand and I give her mine, clad in the Air glove, which she gracefully removes.

‘Now I feel ready,’ she says, flexing her hand beneath the glove. As I go to work on the clay surrounding her, she points her hand to the Guardian and focuses, intent on stripping the air from around him.

Moments later she’s free, but confused.

‘I know it’s working, but it doesn’t seem to be making any difference!’

‘Just keep at it. He’s a tough bastard.’

A tough, angry bastard, we discover moments later. Realising that he’s being outnumbered, he does the one thing he can do in a room full of people – he begins to collapse the ceiling. Fire and Lightning are weak against Earth, and both Flame and Spark dive under the altar for cover. Breeze backs up to the relative safety of the wall, her face furrowed in concentration.

‘I’ll keep them in air, you get the glove!’

The whole place is coming down on our collective heads, and yet Stephen is not worried as he surges towards me. His eyes are on me, even as two particularly large rocks thud into his back. He doesn’t try to dodge them – in his rage, he’s nearly suicidal.

Stone is close, but helpless. He needs the glove to save us, and that’s my job. I duck and weave around the falling stones, trying to get away from the Guardian, to get behind him. He watches with amusement but barely alters his course. His focus remains – eyes on me, mind on the collapse. A particularly large section comes down, separating me and Stone from everyone else, and burying the altar.

‘Andy!’ I can hear Mac calling, but the dust is so thick that I’ve lost track of Stephen. A large rock smacks into me and I drop to my knees, not due to pain, but surprise. I can’t see, and I can’t fight that. If I can’t see him, maybe he can’t . . .

I’m snatched into the air by my collar, a gloved hand gripping me. Bugger. The Guardian’s dust-streaked face comes into view, and that face will haunt me for a long time to come – if I live. He has a sickening grin on his face as more of the ceiling falls. I’ve lost sight of everyone and everything except my impending doom. He pulls back a fist, covers it in rock, and prepares to pummel me into oblivion.

‘I could have told you everything!’ he says, still grinning.

‘I know it, Stephen.’

His face slackens for a half-second, then his resolve returns. I nearly expect him to say more, to fall into that movie-trap of speaking until someone saves me. But it won’t happen, I can’t think of anyone left who could rescue me.

I realise, then, that I am a dumbass, too distracted by fear and dust. He picked me up with his gloved hand. I wrap both hands around it and focus on the Earth power, absorbing it into me. Or at least, I hope that’s what I’m doing. I just want the damn place to stop collapsing around me. The shuddering stops as the Guardian figures out what I’m doing and begins to shake me. Hard.

He lifts the arm that I am desperately hanging onto over his head, clearly intending to throw me, as he has so effectively before. Before he can, however, a hand grabs my leg. The body follows, using my leg to swing up onto the Guardian’s back.

It’s Breeze’s carer, the wiry little black man. He grabs Stephen’s hair and beard and pulls, distracting the giant. It is enough for me to wrap my own legs around the Guardian’s waist and apply leverage to the hand that I have a hold of. His hand is clenched, trapping the glove, but he cannot get rid of me easily now. I’m holding the hand nearly upright, putting pressure on his shoulder to get him to release.

Breeze’s carer is suddenly thrown off, brutally, but is back standing moments later. Those moments are all the Guardian needs, however, to get rid of me too. I hang on with all my strength and then, randomly, oddly, the gloved hand relaxes and I strip it, falling to the ground in shock. I look up to see why.

Breeze’s carer, who we’d all entirely forgotten about until his fortuitous re-entry, was up again and dancing, but it is Stone who has done the damage. In a brutal move, he has grabbed the Guardian’s balls and twisted. As soon as he sees that I have the glove, he releases and backs up, nearly falling over some of the debris.

The Guardian roars again but is distracted by the wiry little man in front as Stone and I exchange the glove. Stone raises his hand, settling the stones and dust and ceiling. Like something from a (horror) movie, the other three controllers rise from the dirt. Breeze’s carer steps back, leaving the Guardian to us kids.

Breeze reaches out and strips the air from his lungs as Flame lights a ferocious ring of fire around Stephen, protecting us. Then Spark unleashes, gathering power from all the tasers she can see – three of them – and sends the electricity coursing through the Guardian’s body. He drops like a sack of potatoes and stays down, twitching.

Stone focuses hard and manages to clear a small path to the door – and to Mac and the cops. I can barely recognise anyone as they walk through, their eyes careful, watching the Guardian.

‘It is fine. We won’t let him rise,’ Spark says, the lightning giving her a scary, intense expression.

Hayden, apparently the bravest, steps past June and into the circle of fire, trusting Flame to lower the intensity around him. Flame does, and moments later the Guardian is cuffed and unconscious.

Technically, we did not see the boot that rendered him that way. That could be conceived as police brutality.

June is silent, eyes wide as she watches the four controllers manipulate the elements. Well, three, since she can’t see what Breeze is doing.

It is a bit awkward, to be honest, as we all stare down at the Guardian. It seems no one is ready to commit to what happens next, whatever that may be – police interviews, I assume. Wanting to break the moment, I step over to Breeze’s carer and hold out my hand.

‘We weren’t introduced. I’m Andy. Thanks for the save.’

‘Harry.’

‘Pleased to meet you.’

Tension broken, all four controllers rush over to me, jubilant.

‘Thank you Andy!’

‘Our new Guardian.’

I shake my head and take a step back. ‘No, I’m not a Guardian – he was a Guardian.’ I point to the motionless, handcuffed man. Flame drops the fire shield, letting a sweaty Hayden out.

‘He was, and he’s going to prison. The power needs to pass on. Death isn’t a necessity for that to occur, the predecessor just needs to be unable to perform. At least, that’s how we think it works,’ Spark says.

‘That name just seems wrong now, tainted, and I don’t want to share it.’

‘Fine. You cancel out our powers, and that is different to anything we’ve seen before. Your powers act like ours, in that you can stop the element just by thinking it, like when we think and manipulate our elements. You’re one of us.’ She stops, thinks for a moment, then clicks.

‘The null controller. That’s what you are. It’s not grammatically correct, but it describes what you do. You nullify our powers.’

I nod without committing as Mac approaches.

‘You realise that this is the first time since this started that I haven’t had to carry you away?’

I laugh. ‘For that, I am truly glad. What happens now?’ I ask Hayden.

‘Well, you can get back to your life on the ocean, if you want. We’ll keep in touch, but we’re going to have to bullshit the investigation. It’s too unbelievable. No interviews for anyone who doesn’t want to give one. We should be able to put him away for life, based on the murders, and keep him until his trial on assault against a police officer.’

‘Wait, Andy, you can’t go back to the ocean. We need you,’ Spark says.

‘What do you need me for?’

‘We haven’t found the water controller yet. I reached out; he emailed me once and then he just disappeared.’

‘Seems like the ocean would be an excellent place to look for a water controller,’ I say with a half-grin.

‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’

‘Andy? A word?’’ Mac says, indicating that we should step outside. We walk up the tunnel in silence, the controllers lagging behind us.

Outside, and out of earshot of the others, Mac stops me. ‘Take a moment, Andy. Count to ten, breathe in slowly. Yes, you won, but take a moment to calm down before you make a decision. This is your life they are asking you to decide on, and I don’t want you to rush into the choice and regret it later. That includes being a sailor, understand, Andy? This time, you get to choose your path.’

I nod and take his advice. He is correct. I’m lucky, unbelievably so, to have come across a mentor such as him. After a moment, he speaks again.

‘Why did you get involved?’

‘For information.’

‘Why did you stay involved?’

‘For vengeance.’

The controllers approach me, no one completely unharmed, and I am seized by the knowledge of how lucky we were to escape with so few injuries. I stand, continuing to mull over what I’m about to say.

‘Andy?’ Spark asks cautiously.

‘No, Spark, I’m not staying with you. I’m going back to the ocean. I’m going back to my life.’

‘You can’t! You’re the Null controller!’

‘I’m not a hero, Spark. Everything I’ve done in the last few days was selfish. I wanted information for myself, vengeance for myself. Now, my parent’s killer is going to jail and my friend’s legacy is continued. I have succeeded. I don’t want the life you guys lead. I’d likely just end up dead – who would want that? It’s a miracle I made it through this week alive.’

‘But . . . it’s your duty.’

‘My duty died the day everyone I loved did. Besides, I believe in fate now. If you guys truly need me, I’m sure fate will throw us back together.’

‘I don’t believe in fate.’

‘I just happened across an alley with two of the only five controllers in existence, with a diary I recognised, despite having no memories of my youth. I call that fate.’

‘You’re one of us.’

‘Maybe, but I’m also an under-aged fisherman who has been lost and in over my head all my life. I have a mentor who, despite everything that has happened, has stuck by my side.’

Spark doesn’t say anything this time, but she does glare at Mac.

‘It isn’t him, Spark, it’s me. I have a choice and I’m making it. I’m not the hero you want me to be. This “Null controller”.’ I enunciate the title carefully, chewing on the word, and decide that I like it. Though I still won’t assume the title.

‘You are the Null controller, whether you are with us or elsewhere.’ Spark is getting testy now. Stone intervenes by touching her arm.

‘A word?’ he says, then winks to Mac. He takes a couple of steps back, and talks quietly, but I can still hear him. I’m sure this is deliberate.

‘He’s been a street kid all his life. He’s not about to make a commitment, is he?’

‘It’s not like I’m asking him to marry us!’ Spark says, and she isn’t nearly as subtle as Stone.

‘You’re asking someone with no identity to commit to one – that’s a lifelong commitment,’ Flame says.

‘He has to commit to an identity eventually.’

‘But this is a dangerous one. Besides, as he said, fate can bring him back to us,’ Breeze says, and turns to me, eyebrow raised. Both Mac and I look away, making her laugh.

‘You will keep in touch, Andy, ok? After all, we are friends now.’ Breeze holds out her hand for me to shake. I do so, agreeing. Then I look down at my hand, still clad in the blue Water glove.

‘Keep that. We can’t carry it anway. If we find the Water controller, we’ll let you know,’ Spark says, resigning herself to my decision. There is an awkward pause, then Stone holds out his hand.

‘Ok. Sure. Nice knowing you, then. See you?’ Nope, still awkward. I shake Stone’s hand and Flame steps forward, pulling me into a hug. Oh. I hug him back, and then hug Spark, though more gently. I step back as Mac shakes their hands too. Hayden emerges from the tunnels, as dirty as the rest of us, while Mac is handing Spark and Stone a business card each with our ship’s details on it. I salute the officer, dropping my hand when I see June emerging behind him. She does look guilty, at least.

‘This one is for him.’ Mac says, handing another card to Spark. ‘Be safe.’

Without another word, or a look back, Mac and I head towards the nearest street to hail a cab. Time to go home.