Aedus slouched on the floor of the elevator; he had thus far leaned on the wall, sat on the rail, knocked out a ceiling tile and hung from the ceiling, He had done pushups, sit ups, pull ups, he’d done Yoga. He had played Tetris until his cell phone died. He tried to make a game out of three coins, a paperclip and a pin. The best he could manage was trying to spin all the coins at once and then try to flick them with the pen; he got extra points for making them hit the paperclip when he hit the coins.

He waited and waited and waited in various positions and done various things to keep his mind entertained, he just wanted off the elevator, he promised the emergency operator he wouldn’t climb out the top, apparently the worst accidents happened that way and if he could just be patient and wait he would definitely survive, if he tried to force his way out or climb out of the roof, it might not go so smoothly. He thought he could make it, but He had promised he would wait. He sat down with his feet toward the ceiling and his back to the floor; it would have looked natural if he was rotated ninety degrees one way or another. He was on the verge of taking a nap when the elevator phone rang.

He picked up the receiver and warily answered “You Rang?”

“Heh, Hey Mister, we’ll have you out soon, ok? what level are you on?”

“ok. I’m in between the fourth and fifth floor.” He didn’t have to look; He’d been staring at it for the better part of three hours.

“Alright, Like I said, have you out in a jiff.”

“K, Thanks.” Aedus Calmly hung up the red receiver and wondered how long it took to get out of a jiff, how one got in a jiff in the first place. And why for the love of all that is good that he didn’t take the stairs, he typically took the stairs if it was less than five floors. He was just as fast as the elevator in a clear fire well stairway, he didn’t have to wait for anyone getting on or off, no chit chat. And he most certainly did not get stuck between floors. This was almost enough to make him always take the stairs.

Aedus huffed out a sigh as he waited and began to doze.

He stood on the tip of a mountain, but this mountain had a large angry mouth that glowed red. He peered into it and was mesmerized by the too hot glow of molten rock. A voice rumbled below and in the deep baritones of the best teacher he had ever had, his seventh grade mythology teacher Mr. Dronns voice spoke as the lip of the mountain moved as it spoke, Aedus precariously balanced on the edge.

“Volcan, Volcanus, Mulciber, Sethlans Hesphestus, master of the flame, the god of fire, good and bad. They used to Build pyres in my name, tossing live fish and animals into my heat, to persuade me to let their crops go unscathed. Flamens would hang their clothes in the sun and start their work only by candle and by my leave. You know the tale boy, of how my mother tossed me from the heavens upon seeing my face. You know the tale of how she only wanted me back once I was useful, what did that get her a trap in a chair, that’s what. But she got the last laugh, yes they gave me a wife for her release, but She was fair as she was unfaithful. Remember, it well boy because that is your fate too, your reward will come with barbs and your presence will be unwanted until you are useful. None the less you will wear my mark.”

Aedus rolled to the side and his feet fail to the elevator floor with a thud waking him from the dream. Ever since he had learned he was to be a mutant, a lava mutant, or an obsidian mutant…an elemental shifter. He’d been having crazy dreams. Gods had talked to him; he was trapped as a statue in a museum. He repeatedly was fired from a volcano like a clown in canon at the circus. It was sickening, he wanted to hurry up and get the power so he could learn it was all going to work out. It was going to work out wasn’t it? Not like he had much of a choice, he had to have power to stop the apocalypse…it wasn’t all on his shoulders, but what if he played a key role. What if the rat girl did, and his role was to protect her?

Where the hell was the elevator repair man?

Aedus looked around his temporary cell and decided that seeing as nothing was going on another few minutes wouldn't hurt. he folded his arm beneath his head and began to doze.

As his eyelids shut his mind found an odd nearly forgotten memory of a cartoon. He was laying on the floor of an tall glass elevator. above him stood a green cartoon duck in a diaper. He reached for the elevator button and the duck smacked his hand away.

"You no push the button! I push the button." and so the duck did. "elalator go down the hole." He held out the last word dragging it with them as they plummeted toward the ground. Aedus's eyes snapped open as He heard the doors begin to open. The first thing he remembered beyond work gloves prying the doors open was a massive handle bar mustache, one of those mustaches that could be put in a calendar of eccentric facial hair champions. Aedus rolled to his feet.

"Why didn't you force the doors open young man? you look strong enough to have done so?"

"...I promised the operator I wouldn't apparently its dangerous."

"I've been doing this for decades, this how it is done."

Aedus let his head fall. He stayed here going in sane on a promise not to handle it himself. SO, much for not doing brash things and keeping promises to strangers.