Heat-Wave/A Fire in the Sky

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

A Fire in the Sky

The screams for help were everywhere, he had to save them, the smoke was suffocating, his breathing was labored, his vision was blurred, something was wrong, normal fire couldn’t hurt him, and it would even retreat if he willed it too. This was different, the heat in this building hurt, he could hear the primal beast that was the fire snarl and roar in defiance, it was hindering him, delaying him, toying with him, he knew it wouldn’t be long before the temperature in the building reached it’s flash point and everyone would be lost. He had to save them, and he was running out of time. The halls seemed endless, as he ran he cried out to the voices to tell him where they were, to help him find them, but it was no use. They couldn’t hear him over the roar of the flames. He ran for what seemed like forever until he rounded a corner and came to a halt. There not more than fifteen feet away down the hall stood a little boy with the same grayish-white hair he had. The boy, with tears streaming down his face looked at him and calmly said, “You’re too late..” In that moment the boy cried out in pain as the fire welled up from within him, trails of fire streamed from his eyes, The flames coiled around his arms and spread across his body like a voracious serpent, the heat was unbearable, The boy cried out as the power overflowing from within him exploded, the force sending the would be hero through a flimsy wall. Just before he lost consciousness, he could hear the screams for help intensify over the roar of the rejuvenated flames and falling debris. Then all went silent…

Alex sat straight up in bed soaked in a cold sweat.

“Another nightmare” he thought to himself as he looked at the alarm clock sitting across the room, it wasn’t even 3am yet.

It had been the same nightmare he’d had since he was 8 years old, granted events in them would change; the subject and the outcome were always the same. As he pulled the covers away and sat on the edge of the bed he stared at his hands as if they were covered in something no one else could see.

“I couldn’t stop myself; I couldn’t save them.” He thought to himself, as the all too familiar feeling of guilt washed over him. He got out of bed and started getting ready to go out on patrol. There was no use trying to go back to sleep, he never could after having that nightmare.

After getting cleaned up, he went to the closet, inside were several costumes, each served its own purpose and all of them carried his signature pattern and color scheme on them red flames on a field of black. He began suiting up in the costume the people of Paragon had come to recognize him by during his 3 years of trying to keep the city safe, it was made from a specially treated form of Nomex and Kevlar, designed to have an ignition temperature higher than what he normally created, though he had on more than one occasion burned through his own suit.

He reached to the table and picked up the radio earpiece that rested there, putting it on before pulling his mask over his head and putting his sunglasses on. He walked to the sliding glass door that opened out onto the balcony of his apartment, as he opened the door and stepped outside he realized that it was raining, it hadn’t rained very often in paragon city since the war, so the smell and the feeling of the rain hitting him as he closed and locked the door behind him was a welcome distraction from the feelings of guilt and self hatred.

Touching the corner of his sunglasses, his view of the night was brightened by its internal night vision, making some final adjustments to his costume, he lifted up off of the balcony and began to slowly ascend higher into the night sky, from his vantage point he could see that the streets were nearly empty, aside from the occasional car, or couple taking a late night stroll in the rain.

He considered for a moment where the first stop on his patrol should be.

“Kings Row” he thought to himself. The gangs there most likely would be using the weather to their advantage to cause problems, and chances were, with their short attention spans, they needed to be reminded why they needed to be afraid of him.

By the time he reached Kings Row the rain had started to subside, but it smell lingered heavily in the night air. Perched on the corner of a building top he intently watched a couple of Skulls below. It was never very long before they tried something, and this night proved no different.

Kathy walked home hurriedly from work as she shook the remaining rain off of the umbrella that her boss Rick had lent her at the end of her shift at the bar. She hated working nights. The streets could be bad during the day but there was always a hero around the corner it seemed. At night, well, even heroes needed to sleep.

She glanced over her shoulder and started to walk faster as she saw a figure wearing a skull mask step out of the alley and begin to follow her.

Her pulse quickened, and she began to walk faster, she was almost home, there she would be safe. The sound of a pipe bouncing across the brick exterior of the building she was passing began to accompany the sound of the footsteps behind her. She almost broke into a run but her heart almost came to a dead stop as two more figures dressed in black wearing skull masks stepped out from the shadows in front of her.

“Hmm, what a pretty little thing we have here.” His voice was full of malice as a sinister smile crossed his face and he pulled a pulled a gun out from under his coat. The terrified look on Kathy’s face as she franticly looked about for a means of escape that didn’t exist caused his accomplices to cackle and jeer.

“Now I think you’re going to…” the threats were suddenly cut off as he began coughing uncontrollably due to a cloud of smoke and cinders that suddenly enveloped him, His friends looked at him curiously for a moment until the realization that they were in trouble began to sink in. They glanced about quickly hoping to spot the would-be hero. Kathy turned and looked up and saw a shadowed figure hovering not more than twenty feet above.

One of the skulls followed her gaze up as well and immediately knew they needed to leave. “RUN!” he shouted as he turned to bail, he didn’t make it more than a few feet before a ball of fire collided with his back, within a moment the flames enveloped him, the heat scorching his jacket and eyebrows. The fire fed ravenously on the valuable oxygen around him as he coughed for a moment and fell to the ground unconscious. His friend ran the opposite direction hoping to throw off any pursuit, he was luckier, but not by much. The ground around him suddenly erupted into flames. He called out in fear as the fire licked at his clothing, before a similar ball of fire impacted and the oxygen around him was rapidly consumed. As he passed out and hit the pavement the fires around him died out.

The Skull covered in smoke was on his knees now desperately trying to breathe. As Heat-Wave touched down, the smoke dissipated with a wave of his hand and the and the gang member managed a deep breath just before being lifted off the ground by his collar and brought up to eye level as gloved fist landed squarely on his jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground unconscious.

Kathy leaned against the wall for a moment looking around making sure she was indeed safe before she attempted to speak.

“Th.. thank you for-“ she was suddenly cut off by his curt response. “Are you alright?”

“Y.. yes I think so” she stammered.

“Good, are you far from home?” He asked as he clipped a police teleport transponder onto one of the gang members that tried to flee.

“My apartment is just over there.” She pointed to a building that was just across the street.

“Alright, why don’t you head home, and check in with the police. I’ll deal with them.” He said as he motioned to the thugs.

She nodded slightly and moved quickly to her apartment building. The only things going through her mind were how much she was happy to be safe, and how much she hated working nights.

Heat-Wave clipped a transponder to the remaining thug and saved a special one for the one he had punched. He had a message to get across to this one.

Grabbing the gang member by the ankle he lifted off the ground and began to gain altitude. At about the thirty stories high the Skull started stir. He tried to move and wondered why he felt so heavy and why his head hurt, he couldn’t recall a party that would have left him feeling like this. It was just as Heat-Wave touched down on the corner ledge of a roof that the Skull finally gathered his wits and realized the gravity of the situation he was in, and panic began to set in.

“Ah geez! Wh..What are you doing!? Are you Crazy?” The now terrified Skull managed to get out as he looked at Heat-Wave, the ground below, then Heat-Wave again.

“My arm is getting tired; I would stop squirming if I were you.” Heat-Wave said darkly. The Skull took the advisement seriously.

Heat-Wave’s eyes narrowed behind his glasses as he continued with a grim tone in his voice. “Good. Now, I’m getting particularly tired of coming here and sending you and your little friends to jail or the hospital. So I’ve decided to try something new. Every time I break up one of the Skulls little business ventures I’m going to bring one of you to the rooftops and allow you to try to give me a legitimate reason why I shouldn’t let you see if you can fly.”

“WHAT!? Y.. you can’t do that!? You won’t! You’re a hero!” The skull shouted, not believing what he was hearing.

“I’m losing my patience, and seeing your current situation you had better give me a reason to let you live.” Heat-Wave responded angrily, the strain of keeping the gang member out over the ledge becoming evident in his voice.

The Skull looked down quickly then back to Heat-Wave, racking his brain desperately for reasons he should live, he wasn’t coming up with much. “I.. I’m sorry! I needed the money! I’ll leave the gang, and get an honest job! I Swear! Please ju…” He was cut off by Heat-Wave’s response.

“Not good enough.” He let go. The Skulls pleas turned into a terrified scream as he plummeted to the ground.

Heat-Wave began counting the seconds. “2… 3… 4…” Suddenly, the skull was transported away to a police processing center. The delayed response transponder that had been tacked onto the Skulls pant leg worked, a full two seconds before Heat-Wave would have had to dive after the ganger to prevent his impact with the ground. He’d arrive for processing and the inertial dampeners would zero out his momentum when he appeared on the pad.

Things change when a person faces their own mortality, things get put into perspective, and hopefully this kid uses that motivation to make a fresh start. Heat-Wave rubbed his shoulder a bit; he was definitely going to have to work more on his isometrics if he was going to do that more often.

Stepping off the side of the building he began flying in the direction of Founders Falls, even the big fish needed to have their memories refreshed from time to time.

A bit later he touched down on a rooftop overlooking the main walkways and began looking for trouble, after about five minutes he saw the what he was looking for, several members of the council were moving into the area to set up shop and he was going to crash their little get together… if it had not been for the sudden resounding and familiar thump followed by a loud whistling noise in the distance behind him that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end.

He spun around to see the incoming threat; it was a missile, barreling down on him with amazing speed.

“Great.” Annoyance evident in his voice.

Heat-Wave hopped up on the edge of the building, and turned to seemingly stare down the oncoming projectile.

Just as the missile reached the opposite side of the building Heat-Wave began to dive toward missile, at the peak of his dive it passed harmlessly underneath him, landing in a roll and coming back to his feet, confident the missile had lost its target and would continue on until it ran out of fuel. He looked in the direction it had come from, the shooter was gone, he looked back toward the missile seeing the trail it was leaving arc up into the sky and circle back around, to reacquire it’s intended target.

“Ah hell!” The annoyance in his voice now tempered with disbelief.

He dove off the side of the building in hopes to pick up airspeed so he could try and out maneuver his explosive pursuer, forcing himself to move faster, he pulled up and sped along the ground toward the only exit he could see in front of him, a narrow alley. The missile was hot on his heels as Heat-Wave darted between the two buildings that were mere feet apart, turning to fly in his side to narrowly miss the ladder from a fire escape, emerging on the other side at speeds that would be fatal should he hit something. Heat-Wave gradually gained altitude all while nimbly dodging the high-rises of Founders falls leading the missile away from the densely populated homes and businesses that made up this section of town, Once he had a clear shot he began to head skyward, dropping small motes of fire from his hands as he went hoping it had been tracking his body heat and that he could cause it to lose it’s target.

It hadn’t worked, the missile flew through the barrage of falling fire and was still after him, and he desperately racked his mind for what it could be homing in on. Then it came to him, making one final attempt, one final gamble, Heat-Wave shot straight up into the air trailing fire behind him as he climbed skyward. He reached up into his mask and removed the communicator he wore. Mustering the last bit of speed he could, he threw the earpiece ahead of himself, then he stopped his ascent, his speed dropped and he hovered for a moment before going into a freefall, if the missile was not tracking his communicator he was dead, if it had been, he’d soon find out.

The missile passed over his right shoulder narrowly missing his head, the noise of the engine left a ringing in his hears. As he fell past he launched a concentrated ball of fire skyward to intercept the missile. Moments later the ball of fire collided with its target, causing a massive explosion that resulted in a shockwave that all of Founders Falls felt.

The force of the blast hit him hard enough to momentarily knock him unconscious and send him spinning out of control. Moments passed as he tumbled to the earth, when his eyes began to open he could hear the rush of the wind, it took a moment to gather his wits, he had started to correct his fall, and began to slow himself down, but it was too late, he wasn’t able to stop himself completely, he was moving too fast.

“This is going to hurt.” He mumbled just before he crashed hard into the edge of an apartment building, bouncing off the side and hitting the brick wall of the building adjacent to it, he made a desperate attempt to grab onto the railing of a fire escape to slow himself down, only to wrench his arm in the fall and dislocate his shoulder with a sickening pop and break his forearm with an audible crack, he fell the rest of the way to the ground, bouncing off of a closed metal dumpster before coming to rest on the concrete in the alley.

Groaning in pain, his glasses gone, his costume and cape shredded, He spat out blood as he used his good arm to try to stand, his attempt failed, as he collapsed to the ground, his breathing labored and shallow he could feel the broken ribs in his side. His head was pounding and his vision began to blur, the sun was cresting over the war walls in the distance and began to bathe him in light, as he looked up to see the sun, a figure blocked out his view.

“Hmm. Still alive? I must say that was a spectacular display on your part, I would have expected no less.” The figure stated with clear amusement in his voice.

“Though, I would have made a much more graceful landing I would think.” The figure began to laugh sadistically. Heat-Wave wanted to move, wanted to stand but everything was slowly going dark.

“See you around, Hero, I’m not quite finished having fun with you just yet!” the figure turned and started to walk away laughing as he did.

Heat-Wave tried to fight unconsciousness but it proved futile, as he fell into darkness, he could hear the fading echoes of laughter.