Heart of Fire (Open) [MV]

Music Theme for this thread: Mercury Rises

It was noon on a Saturday. The gardens should have been packed with people. But today they were largely empty, as pillars of heavy black smoke rose skyward. Tree by tree, flowerbed by flowerbed, someone was setting the gardens on fire.

The culprit was not trying to hide. He walked through the park, seeking and finding new things to burn. His body was a shining, flawless silver, all apparently made from one piece of material since it was without crease. He had no mouth, no ears, and no eyes, though he had no problem seeing its surroundings. Instead, his face was covered by the same, smooth silver. He was thin, unnaturally thin, and he had dark red lines that traced down his arms, legs, torso, and face.

The silver man stopped, facing a small gazebo. Holding a hand out, he unleashed a wave of fire from his palm, which quickly consumed the structure. Soon, the gazebo would be cinders, as would be the entire Tinder-Smith Garden area if this man wasn't stopped.

Miley watched the smoke from a distance as she walked towards the gardens. She walked into them and silently watched the man set things a flame before slowly raising her hands and shooting out snow quietly over the flames. The flame would then melt the snow allowing water to rain don and put out the flames on the small flower beds and then did the same to the trees. 

She then walked up beside the man with a straight face and did the same thing she had been to put out the flames. She then would look up to the man  and speak out softly in her feeconic accent. "Why do you feel that you need to burn these things?" She asked in a near curious tone without a hint of hostility in her voice.

The silver figure stopped, focused on the girl who had arrived. She had frost powers, but she was clearly not one of the 9. She was asking him a question, without malice or anger in her voice. The silver figure was surprised.

A voice would sound within Miley's mind. The silver figure had no mouth, but he could communicate through telepathy. 'It is what I have always done. It is what I am. All will burn, as it has burned in ages past. I am the first to awaken. The first to move. I will burn all before the others can stop me.'

Miley looked back forward to the now just smoking structure she didn't seem to be startled by the voice within her mind at all and simply replied to it calmly. "And why did you decide to make it your life goal to burn all and everyone who opposes you? It surely can't be just because you were born or made or something of that matter just to do this task."

"Clearly you are self aware which means you can chose your own path including what your fire burns so you must have reasoning behind your flames... correct?" She said looking to him with a rose eyebrow before looking back forward. "Though I must ask. What if you found yourself unable to continue your desire to burn all who oppose you but find yourself faced with thousands of beings that oppose you that all of which... are unable to be burned, unable to be harmed by you... what do you do then?" She asked all with pure curiosity.

The silver figure thought about the girl's strange questions. There was an uneasy silence that went on for a minute. Finally, the voice sounded in Miley's mind again. 'Your questions are difficult to answer. I do not often think of such things. Fire will always burn, whether it can choose its own path or not. It hungers for dry grass. It devours wood with endless appetite. To burn is all it desires, all it finds beautiful, and all it needs to survive. So it is with me.'

There was another pause, as the silver figure contemplated his next words. 'To be unable to burn one's enemy. Such events have happened in ages past. Neptune, one of my kind, has control over water. Defeating her is difficult. She has killed me more times than the others. This is what happens when I cannot burn my enemy. I die. Such is the nature of the universe.'

Miley nodded her head slightly after he finished explaining. "I see." She said simply. "Your reasons are far more reasonable than most. Many others would have merely said that they wished to do what you do simply because they wanted to and left it at that. I thank you for taking your time to answer my questions and doing so in a well thought out manner." She turned on her heel facing away from the smoking structure as she stood beside the man.

"For your kindness I will not try to stop you for my own reasons to do so are not yet as good as yours. I will allow someone else to stop you." She started to walk away. "Though depending on what you burn next you may come across me again for there are some things that I will have full reasons as to why I should stop you and if the time comes I will stop you at that point."

The girl was not going to stand against him, at least not now. She thanked the silver figure for taking time to answer her question. He nodded in reply.

Hands raised, the silver figure conjured more and more fire, setting trees on fire and reducing flowers to ash.

A few blocks away, police watched the scene through binoculars. "We have to do something, sir!" a new recruit said, full of zeal.

"Calm down, Jones," the chief said. "We don't know what other powers this weirdo has. He hasn't hurt anybody yet. I'd like to keep it that way."

Hotwire saw the collumn of smoke a good ways out. He really hated doing hero work in broad daylight. It was risky. Very risky. If he wasn't careful, he could end up on the wrong end of a pair of handcuffs. So it was time to suit up. Well, what could be conscidered suiting up. He hadn't really developed a super hero outfit yet. It was just a modified orange jumpsuit.

He poked his head out the alleyway facing the park. If he wanted to pull this off, he'd need something to hide more of his body. In fact, this situation warranted for just that. Under the park were a series of water pipes, used to water the field at certain times of day. He could use his powers to remotely control the pressure in the pipes, but that would just blow the spouts, and create a couple geysers. Not efficient for firefighting. But if he could tap into those pipes with the right equipment, and then increase the pressure...

"I should be able to fight the fire from within the park itself. Fortunately, the fire department seems to have some auxiliary gear." He said. With a deep breath, he made a bolt across the street. As he did, part began to fly off one of the secondary engines. Little bits of piping and pump parts began to coat him. Then larger pieces of metal from one of the Fire Department SUV's. Finally, a fancy electronic smoke mask flew off the sides of one of the engines and clasped over his face. When it was done, Harmon was coated in a slightly bulky metal suit of red and white, as his eyes glowed light blue.



With that, he burst into the park.

"I have about a minute to find a water main before this suit begins to overheat. Once I do that, the internal piping should cool the suit for me."

Unlike his previous guest, the intentions of this newcomer were clear from the start. He was clearly prepared for battle. Again, it was not one of the 9, but that did not mean he was not a threat.

The silver figure held a hand above his head and conjured a large fireball, about 4 feet in diameter, then sent it flying towards Hotwire.

"Chief, some crazy guy in an exo-suit is running in there. See, he's right over..."

"I'm not blind, recruit. I see him."

"Shouldn't we try to stop him?"

The chief shook his head. "You don't get into a fight on purpose unless you think you can win. Whoever that guy is, he thinks he has a chance."

Miley then started to make her way out but saw a guy in a large suit run into the park. She quickly made her way over behind a tree that was yet to be burnt before Hotwire turned to her direction. She eyed him but stayed silent. she didn't know who he way nor what he may do if he saw her first. The likely hood of him assuming her as the one burning the place down was unlikely but she really did not want to take the chance. She saw the flames head in her direction which wasn't good for her in her ice form one bit especially if she needed to hide where the flames were going to be.

Though she couldn't risk turning into her other form yet and need her ice abilities so for now she would do the next best thing. She grabbed a cat like silver full face mask from the strap on her upper thigh under her dress and put it on. Her clothes then were changed into her families armor that could not be burned and had a very large cape that she immediately used to cover her body more than the dress had to protect herself as she watched the guy silently as the flame ball was flung at him.

Hotwire stumbled his way through the searing blaze. His tech vision had highlighted to him junction points for the water pipes. All he had to do was tap into one and-

*FWOOSH*

A fireball barreled towards him at great speed. He managed to tumble out of the way, but just barely. In fact, the act of doing so left a couple nice dings in the armor. And to top it off, he had spotted the source of the fire. Some strange metal man, and a girl who looked like she was right at home in the scorching heat. This wasn't good. At least he was on one of the junctions.

"Pump up the pressure and..." he said doing just that. With a surge of water, he felt a bit of relief as the interior of his suit cooled, and he saw the tank gauge shoot straight up to max."I'm not your every day super soaker." he yelled as two massive sprays of water cut wide swatches in the flames.

Water? A human was able to control this most evil of elements? This was not good. Already, the armored man was putting out the silver figure's flames.

No. No! The silver figure lifted himself ethereally into the air, as if gravity had no effect on him. He could not allow this water to spread. There was much that needed to burn before the cycle ended. The silver metal around his chest moved like liquid, forming a hole in his sternum and revealing a glowing red orb. The glowing grew more intense for a few moments, then the orb shot out a huge beam of fire.

Unless they were stopped, the flames would engulf everything for a great distance in fire. In this case, that included several small stores on the gardens. Thankfully, those buildings had been evacuated a few minutes earlier.

Perhaps the most distressing thing, however, was that this beam of fire was focused on Hotwire himself.

Miley watched the two silently though took note that the man seemed to notice her. She really hoped he didn't think she was the cause of this too since she was now in her armor. Miley saw the flames getting closer... this was not good.... She started to sweat a bit and leaned on the tree as she narrowed her eyes slightly as the area on the bark an don her hand started to gain frost from her stressed out feelings. She then looked to the flames nearing her and held her hand out and shout out ice and quickly mans a barrier between her and the fire with a large thick wall of ice that started to melt but wasn't melting very fast.

She really hoped that she didn't cause the silver man to target her now too but she wasn't about to be cooked in the flames nor was she going to move any closer to the flames, the silver man, nor the guy who possibly thought she was the enemy so she figured this was her best choice besides going into her other form and since she wouldn't be able to change back right away definitely made her not want to change yet since she may need her ice.