"Diamond in the Rough" by Elliot Peterson

G'day mate. Yup, I'm an Aussie. Just thought I'd be as overt as possible to start with, even though none of us talk like that, but it's the best way to not get laughed at. Saying that, not many people are gonna laugh at a bloke whose entire body can turn to crystal...

That pommie b****** (don't worry, I promise I'll stop soon) Jon wants me to write about how I learnt about my powers. He's not that bad really, and it's everyone he's asked, not just me. It's not gonna be fun, but I'm not gonna pretend it's as bad as Myūto's story, poor girl...

Anyway, time for the "Crystal Colossus", as that comic nerd Alan calls me, to take centre stage.

I've heard most of the other students aren't describing themselves in these things, which seems a bit silly, so I'll start off with that. I'm what you'd call a typical surfer boy - pretty muscular (if I do say so myself) with sun-bleached blond hair. I even had the necklace, but I decided to go for a jade spiral and not puka shells, just for a bit of originality. The only thing I didn't have was the ability to surf, my balance was all off so I could never manage it. Without playing up to the stereotype too much, cricket was my sport of choice.

I grew up in Brisbane, in the southeastern corner of Queensland. My dad was a lecturer at the university there for a while. That was until he thought he found diamonds on a research expedition to Marlborough and sparked a rush there from all over the country. Turns out it was just quartz and he ended up losing his job as a lecturer.

I know what you're thinking, if he made that mistake he must be a pretty crappy geologist. It's not that simple though, there were loads of crystals there but he was just unlucky enough to pick what was probably the only diamond there to test. Anyway, I probably shouldn't be defending him after what he's done, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself so let's just move on.

After he was fired from the university we moved north to Rockhampton. He was hoping to do some research on thunder eggs, which are kind of like geodes, until he'd earned back his reputation. He knew that he could never get a job at the University of Queensland again, but the University of Western Australia was on the other side of the country and offered a fresh start.

Things got worse in Rockhampton though. He was on an expedition to the Capricorn Caves one day and he must have tried to take a sample from the wrong stalagmite (you're thinking he's an inept geologist again) and it crumbled, starting a cave-in. He was trapped in there for ten hours before the rescue crew could get to him, and they had to amputate his left arm, just below the elbow, to get him out.

He was a theatrical bugger about his prosthetic though. He had a large sample of quartz taken from Marlborough, the exact place quartz that lost him his career, and he used a fair bit of the money he got from selling some of his finds to have it turned into a prosthetic. But it wasn't a hand, that would be far too simple. He had it made into a rock pick, to help show his commitment to earning back his reputation. And at the tip - the Marlborough diamond.

I think he wanted me to be a geologist too, but that was never really my thing. My uncle has a ranch in the outback, that's what I fancied doing, still do - this superhero thing won't pay the bills.

He never stopped trying to get me interested in geology though. He took me to loads of caves, brought back thunder eggs and some more common gems for me when he was on digs. Thinking back, he was more like a jeweller than a geologist - it was all about the gems and crystals to him.

It was in one of the caves that I found out about my power. I was 17, same age that I am now, and we were at the Mount Etna Caves National Park. Dad has taken into one of the caves, constantly hunting for more crystals. It was an unhealthy obsession.

I remembered reading at the visitor centre that the Park had ghost bats in it. They're very rare, almost extinct, but they're ugly little blighters - pale white and sinewy, kinda like my gran with sharp teeth. There's several species of bat in the caves there, but I'm pretty sure we found ghosts.

Dad might have made too much noise when he was digging, or it might have been me dropping my rucksack to have a rest. Whatever it was, we woke up the bats, and they came straight for me.

It doesn't matter if you're scared of bats or not, but I'm pretty sure most people would be bricking themselves if a horde of those winged beasties flew towards them. I know I was.

My heart was racing as they came towards me, looking more like one large creature than a group of small ones. I stepped back as they came, stumbling and tripping over my bag (I told you my balance was off). The next thing I remember was my dad waking me up.

Apparently I hit my head on a rock when I fell back, but my dad found no blood when he checked the back of my head. He found something much weirder. As some sort of defence mechanism, the back of my head had turned to crystal. It was gone again quickly, but I could definitely feel it.

I don't have an explanation of why I have this power. It might be genetic, or maybe there was something in one of the thunder eggs that dad gave me. All I know is that I first found out about it in that cave. But from then on, I wanted to do it more. It felt weird, tingly, when I did it, but in a good way. But I didn't know how to make myself do it.

After a while I figured that I might have to hurt myself to transform, since that's what happened in the cave. I couldn't get anyone at school to help me, so I took to punching the garage wall. I built up a decent bit of muscle from it, and my hands always changed, so I got my fix.

It took dad a couple of weeks to bring up the subject, but that was just because the garage needed repairs. It started as a pretty innocuous conversation (he'd forgotten where he left his quartz rock pick), but he brought up the incident in the cave as soon as he'd found it.

He wanted me to learn how to do it on demand, and not just so I'd stop leaving marks in the garage wall. He wanted to take samples and study the crystals, which didn't sound pleasant to me, but he said it would help him get his career back. I wanted to help him, even if it meant I'd get hurt. I already had an idea that work was his main priority, and I figured that this might be a good opportunity to have some quality time with him. That's really the only reason I went to the caves with him.

So one weekend, with dad's permission, I drove the family car to Mount Etna Park. I know it's a bit theatrical, but I wanted to train in the place that I first found out about my powers. I even went to the same cave.

I took a sleeping bag. I wasn't leaving until I'd managed to do it. I didn't expect it to take too long, so I'd only brought some bottles of water and a few energy bars. So what if sleeping out in a cave's a bit hermetic, Alan grew up in a swamp and he's a great guy.

Anyway, I spent the whole weekend in there trying to focus. I wasn't disturbed because the cave's off limits and dad only got us in because he said he was a geologist, but it's a lot easier to just sneak in when nobody's watching.

I got pretty frustrated after the first couple of hours, since I was getting nowhere. But I had to calm down, had to focus. So I took some deep breaths, closed my eyes, cleared my mind and just stood there. My entire body, every single one of my muscles, was completely tense. It was tough to keep so rigid, but after a while I felt the tingly feeling creeping up my legs. It got faster and faster until it was all over my entire body.

I released. And shouted. Nothing in particular, just a yell. It startled the poor bats again, and I'm guessing done of the visitors outside. Then I opened my eyes and looked at my hands. They were glistening in the faint light that had crept deep into the cave where I was. My entire skin was crystal, my whole body in fact, peeking out of my clothes like gems in rock.

I didn't stop though. I'd packed for the weekend so I would stay for the weekend, just switching on and off until it was as easier as flicking switch. I managed it, it was second nature by the time I left. I entertained myself on the drive back by crystallising my hand every now and then, just because I could.

Dad was so excited when I told him. He acted like he was proud of new, but I knew that he couldn't wait to test the rock and reclaim his position at the university back in Brisbane. I think he knew I knew as well, so he dropped the charade pretty quickly and asked me to show him.

So I did. Just my arm, nothing major, just enough to prove to him that I had it under control. You might not think it, what with me doing it all the time with the ACES, but going completely crystal is sort of private for me. I know it's ironic, but I always feel the most exposed when I'm in my strongest form.

His eyes lit up and he started to grin. I'd made him happy, and that made me happy. But then came the question I was dreading.

"Can I take a sample?"

I didn't know if it would hurt, but I didn't want to find out. Then again, there was a little part of me that wanted to know the limits of my power. Would it hurt? Could I heal myself? Would it even break?

The answer to all of those is a crystal-clear yes. It would be a regular yes but I've been spending too much time with Rod and he's rubbing off on me. Anyway, it really bloody hurt. A lot. Dad was just trying to take a bit out of the side of my right hand but he must have been so nervous or excited or whatever that he took my little finger off. There was a little flash of light when he made contact (I think I heard someone call that "triboluminescence", but I can't remember if it was Jon of my dad), and a lot of pain. I'll keep saying that it hurt like a word Myūto's translator wouldn't let me say, but you'd still have no idea how much it actually hurt.

Anyway, it did heal. It took about a week for it to grow back but I had to keep my hand in crystal form until it did. The only way I could stop people from noticing was bandaging it up and saying that it was a burn from putting my hand on the barbecue. That wasn't the hard part though, that was keeping focused constantly to stop my hand from going back to normal, but it really helped my training. The weird thing is that that finger's a different colour to the rest of me. Normally when I change I'm clear, but it's cloudy and a bit yellow. It's the same with other bits I've lost since, little chips here and there from being careless, but sometimes they go pink or purple. It actually looks pretty cool.

After testing the sample, dad found it was quartz. Not quite diamond, but harder than steel. Still, that didn't shed any light on how I got my powers or how I could heal myself like I could. Regardless, he thought it was a big enough discovery to the warrant a trip to Brisbane.

Like I said, I felt exposed when I changed, but that didn't stop dad. From the moment he saw the back of my head in the cave something changed in him. He was even more determined to get his job back, even if it caused me discomfort.

So to cut it short, I went to the university with him and, after I showed them what I could do, dad was offered his old position. The only condition was that he carried on researching my power. I couldn't say no, I couldn't deny him the one thing he'd worked for ever since the Marlborough incident.

It was okay for a while. The odd sample here and there, and he got a lot better at collecting them. Then he started collecting more and more. He wanted bigger samples as well. Apparently there's a large market for crystals carved into the shape of body parts (I blame that Indiana Jones film), so dad asked for a hand.

I told him no. I'd lost a finger because of his overwhelming obsession, and even though it grew back I didn't want to lose anything else. He kept pushing though, he seemed desperate. The man I called my dad had been taken over by his compulsion and I knew he wasn't coming back.

One day I snapped. It was the only time I've ever fully changed in front of him, and it was the last time I've seen him. He's been asking for my hand for days, so I gave it to him, wrapped around his throat. I forced him up against a wall, his eyes wide with shock, but then they got wider.

At the time, I'd been wondering for a few days about whether or not I could do other things with my powers. Launching shards of crystal is something I've learnt since coming to The Academy, but I'd never thought about trying that until I came here. Still, I had a trick up my sleeve that dad didn't know about.

With my left hand around his neck I held up my right hand. The little finger was still discoloured, it always has been, but that wasn't why I showed him. His eyes got wider as my hand thinned and lengthened up to a point. I now had a crystal blade, and I could see the fear in his eyes.

Then I heard a knock at the door and my mum go to answer it. I thought they'd go pretty quickly, so I never expected to feel a hand on my shoulder. More importantly, I never expected to get floored a split second later.

I woke up on a wooden floor, and I couldn't tell if the ground was rocking or if it was just me. Turns out it was both. The man that had floored me had brought me to a boat, and now he sat across from me.

I only know all of this because he told me, since I was unconscious pretty soon after he first made contact. He told me his name was Volss Helstrom and he came from a school of people just like me. Well, most of them weren't tackled by the welcoming party for threatening to shank their dad with a crystal spike.

He'd come to ask if I wanted to join them, but after seeing what I was going to do to my dad he decided it would be better if he just forced my cooperation. It was for everyone's safety and I understood that.dad couldn't harass me for samples, I wouldn't lash out, and mum wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.

On top of that, I could work on my powers and learn about new things I could do with them. Then there's the whole "saving the world" thing, but that speaks for itself.

I agreed to go, it was a great opportunity. The journey was a bit tense to start with but I managed to chip away at my companion's tough exterior. He's a good teacher, and I think he likes the fact that I'm one of the only students he's actually fought. That's why Vinnie, Harold and I are his favourites - we know he doesn't take any crap.

So there you go. That's how I ended up here, with the greatest friends I've ever known. It's good for me here, it's good for everyone. It feels like home.