The New Elemental God

The woman looked up and their eyes met. Adam's instinct was to go to her but the ground was falling apart underneath his feet. Deep in his soul the Young God felt that she had recognized him. 

In the last possible instant, the mother jumped off and managed to hold on to the edge of the crack.

"Oh, who is that?"

Marduk was dismissing Calder's water attacks as if they were playing tennis. Even though Adam was in his father's body, the stranger knew exactly who he was.

"He is so fresh. Must be fun to be this young."

With the life of his grandmother in his arms, the boy could only agonize watching his mother struggled to hop on to solid grounds. 

In the mean time, while all the attention was turned down, the Water God was flying above Marduk, trying to get his attention. Using water jets his attacks had no effect on the mountain of muscles and his lava hammer.

Fixated on Adam, the enemy started to get closer.

"Calder, help her!"

Once the minor earthquake stopped, the woman was able to get herself over solid ground. Momentarily relieved, Adam looked down at his grandmother. It wasn't of her character to be so oddly quiet. First he noticed her closed eyes and his heart stopped. Shaking her aggressively didn't work, so he put his ear on her nose. She was breathing.

"Grandma don't…"

"Adam, go! The earthquake is over, take your Maria to the hospital, I'll be okay." Said his mother, reading his mind. Shr was on the floor trying to catch her breath unaware of the danger that was coming. 

"I assume they haven't told you about me, right?!"

The new God didn't need much to understand Marduk was the enemy. Not because he was three meters tall and carried a hammer just as big as him, but because of his eyes. There was no mercy in them. 

"Calder!"

Desperation was the only thing Adam felt. His grandmother had hypotension, the stress must've lowered her blood pressure causing her to faint, which meant she needed emergency care. 

"Does she have trouble breathing, Adam?" His mom noticed her mother-in-law was unconscious. "And who do you keep calling?"

In the rear, the Water God was trying to restraining the giant but nothing seemed strong enough. The old man was using all the water in the lake as ropes to stop Marduk but he just kept advancing without even fighting back. 

Torn between helping his oblivious mother and taking his grandmother to get medical assistance, Adam was in shock, unable to choose. 

"It doesn't matter now…" With a twisted sneer, Marduk just flexed his muscles, breaking Calder's thick ties. "Let's focus on you."

The eminent threat pointed his hammer in Adam's direction. The weapon was improbable, as if there was a portal in it that lead to the Earth's core where it could get infinite magma. To think he was maneuvering that thing without being affected by the heat was terrifying. 

"I see you can't use your powers yet." Marduk only shifted his gaze from Adam to his mother and that was enough for the boy to know what he was planning. "It's a shame you're gonna have to watch this."

"CALDER!"

Using all the air in his lungs, Adam yelled for help.

In less than a second, everything changed.

Under Marduk's feet, the earth cracked and sank with the power of his impulse. 

Over the lake, Calder caught up with the Monster's intentions and bolted towards the woman on the grass. 

Meters away from his mother, Adam felt his grandma start to shake. 

Something had to be done. Quick. If he let go of his grandmother she would die of shock and if he left his mother she would get killed. 

These word didn't completely form them on his brain, he only had time to feel them.

Beyond human sight, Adam saw Calder flying at ultrasonic speed. Moving in the same direction, was the Giant, lifting his hammer, ready to strike. 

As Calder passed by Marduk, in a movement faster than Adam's vision, he grabbed the Water God's foot in plain air. 

Calder's heart stopped. 

Reacting unconsciously, Adam jumped to where his mother was. In her perspective, the worst was over, she was getting ready to stand up. 

Even with his Godly sight, Adam couldn't properly see the Giant's movements but in some way he knew exactly what the man would do. 

Calder was thrown away so fast, the Young God didn't even see in which direction.

Already half way across the gap, Adam saw Marduk swing his hammer with his right arm directly over his mother. Predicting the trajectory of the impac, there would be no time for him to catch her, on the contrary, he and his grandmother were in route to collide with the hammer. 

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Before he could put it into words, Adam fell on ground holding his grandmother tight. On autopilot, he left his father's body and pulled out with his powers the piece of the earth they were on top of. Adam flew away as fast as he could carrying what was left of his family. 

On his mind the face of his mother when she recognized him was all he saw.

With his father unconscious and his grandmother gasping for air, Adam didn't even notice time passed when he landed in the closest hospital emergency entrance.

Thankfully, there was no one around to see a flying pile of dirt deliver two sick people. 

It didn't take more than a minute for the nurses to come to rescue. As much as he was hurting he couldn't leave without knowing they would be okay. 

Inside, the grandmother was in worst shape. They had to tube her because she wasn't getting enough oxygen, her heart was barely beating. In a hurry they started CPR to get the blood flowing again otherwise her organs would fail. 

Once again, Adam, the Earth God, could only watch and do nothing while the people he loved the most suffered because of him.

Anxious and helpless, he wanted to do something. So he decided to risk something new. The same way he was able to get into his father's body, maybe he could do that to his grandma to help her heart. 

Since he had nothing to lose, he decided to go ahead. 

Positioned by her bedside, Adam thought the logical place to start was the brain. He rubbed his hands together and put them over her forehead. At first he felt stupid but it didn't matter, he had to try it.

Eyes closed, concentrating on getting inside her mind he tried to touch her. After a few seconds, the professionals decided to shock her. Adam opened his eyes hoping to see the white ceiling but instead he was his grandma's pale face. 

In his chest his heart broke into a million pieces. Tears threatened to come up but before he was taken over by fear he decided to try something else. 

This time he was feeling stupid but determined. After all he was a God and his death had to be for a reason. 

Another rub of hands and he laid his hand over her chest. 

"Come one grandma, lemme help you…" 

Adam said to her before closing his eyes. In the darkness of his mind, the boy pictured his grandma's heart. It was imobile so he touched it, the feeling was cold, way colder than it should be. Thinking about all the stuff he had seen on TV he held the muscle in his hand and began to massage it following a rhythm. One, two, squeeze, one, two, squeeze. 

Alone with himself, he forgot about the world and focused just on his task. But he couldn't help not being flooded with memories. Like when he would go to her house and before bedtime she would tell him about the werewolf that circled her farm in the full moon. The stories were so creepy and up to that moment he believed them. 

There was also the fast that, despite his parents begging her to accept help in the house, she cooked every meal herself and it was the best food he had ever eaten. Every time he went over she would make him homemade french fries and he would eat a bucket of them. 

On the outside, in the real world, he heard claps and a celebration.

Opening his eyes, he noticed his hand had disappeared inside his grandmother's chest. Looking around, the monitors showed a steady rhythm. 

Reluctant to let go, he thought it was just the massage's effect but then it hit him. He wasn't supposed to do any of that. 

Something lit up inside him. Wishful, Adam let go of his grandma's heart.

Eyes glued to the cardiac monitor and the rhythm didn't change. She was going to live. 

The emotion was so intense, Adam didn't know what to do with himself. First he let go of the air he had been holding in his lungs for way too long. It was like he also had just come back to life

In the other room, his father was already waking up. Apparently he fainted but nothing serious came of it. 

For a minute he was happy to have saved them. However, it didn't last long. That victory reminded him of his failure.

The realization of what had happened hit him along with the anxiety. He was led to believe they could still be in danger. What if Marduk was looking for them? He wanted to hurt him, nothing stopped him from going there to finish the job. 

He decided to go back. It tortured him that he had to leave them alone but there was still someone who needed him. 

With one last look at his grandma, Adam busted out flying through the building.