Raze
Ashe Rivers:Since I was a child I have been surrounded in darkness. Blackness darker than the night's sky. Emptier than the deepest void. I was alone. Always alone. When I was four my mother, the only family I had, was taken from me. I can't remember their face, but it was of a 'hero.' My mother was a casualty of battle, a battle that that 'Hero' started.
After my orphaning I was sent to many homes. They all said they would love me, but they never did. Especially after my quirk came to me. The mere sight of my black flames, and terror took control of them.
The first home to keep me for more than a month was the Pyre household. They adopted full custody of me when I was 13. They weren't even scared of my fire. My adoptive 'father' Fair embraced the flame and tried to help me learn to control it. Whenever he was home he'd always spend time with me, trying to "help me."
It took a long while, but eventually I came to realize the reason he adopted me in the first place. He was raising me to be a hero, he planned on using me to make himself money. To him I was a cash grab, and nothing more. When I was 14, this became overly apparent, when he found out an intricate detail of my flame. He came to a realization that I stood no chance of becoming a great hero. He screamed at me how useless I was, how he wasted a year of his life on me, and that he was going to get his money's worth out of me. He beat me till I lost consciousness. I woke up a day or two later, feeling like I died on the inside. I was hanging from the ceiling of the garage, my wrists shackled with metal chains. I could tell he had his way with me, he used me more than once, and he was going to do it again.
I had to escape, no matter what. I enveloped the chains in my flame. The more the metal heated the more it burned, after a minute or so, the shackles were melted through. Unfortunately he heard my screams of agony, and kicked the door in as I fell free. To me he looked like a monster, but to him I must've looked a demon, 'cause his expression quickly went from one of anger and dominance to the cowardice of a small prey. Upon seeing him I, as well as half the Garage behind me were coated in the abyssal black of my flames. Trying to run, he tripped over his own legs. I grabbed a large wrench, and ran after to him. Standing over him I tried to decide what to do with the animal begging for it's life. Before I could decide, the wrench in my hand had melted into a pool of steel atop his neck. He was dead.
I was tired of people, tired of their bullshit, sick of being used, lied to. Not even to avoid arrest, but to avoid the interaction, I ran. I left that home, that city, and started living on the streets. I stole most everything that I needed, for over a year no one caught me, I was good at concealing myself. I made a mistake though, and a small gang caught me stealing "what was theirs." They chased me back to one of their hideouts. I tried to intimidate them with my fire, but their leader was a pyrokinetic. He stole my flames, eating them to make light of my ability. He offered me a way to pay off my debt, not that it was a choice. I was to become an enforcer for him. That night they beat me and broke my leg so that I couldn't escape. It took a week of focussing my phoenix flame on my leg all night, every night, for the break to heal enough. At that time I escaped by melting a hole in both my cage, and the wall to the building. I escaped that city as well, and have been in hiding since. The longer time goes on the harder it gets, I always feel like I'm being watched, and the scars don't make it any easier to hide either.
"Fuck, and I thought that my childhood was bad." Esper looked like he could barely stomach what he heard. He paced himself away to get some space to think.
"So tell me, Esper why do you want to help me." I erupted wings of black fire behind me.
"Woah! look, first put the fire away before someone notices were here-"
"No one will notice, I'm the only one that's entered this building in a week, now stop skirting my Goddamn question!"
"When I saw the look in your eyes, I recognized it. I recognized it because it's the same face I've had for years now. You're alone, and you need someone, just like I do. I wanted to help you because I need help too.
"If you want a fuck, go find a street whore!" I emboldened my flames even higher.
"I want a friend, someone that I can trust, that trusts me. And honestly at this point, i feel like your the only person I've ever met that might understand me." He started walking closer with his hand out.
"Stay back or I'll make you ash." I coated my arms in flames but he didn't stop getting closer.
"You won't."
"Test me!"
"Okay then!" he dove the last few feet wrapping his arms around me. His embrace was warm. "No one is perfect, Let me watch your back for you, and neither of us will have to be alone again. We will fight with each other, and for each other." He squeezed tight with a soft touch, before letting go. He took off his burning shirt, and threw it to the floor.
"How'd you know the flames wouldn't burn you."
"A good guess."
"Can you help me with something."
"We're allies now, of course you can."
"That gang, the one that captured me, I need them erased. I guess you know now, but i can't harm people with my fire directly, and with the pyrokinetic, I've never been able to get them off of my mind."
"When do you want to go." His smile made me feel happy. It had been years since I felt Happy.
We stood together hand in hand in front of the warehouse that I was once imprisoned in. "Wait!" I grabbed esper by the neck, and pushed him to his knees. "Your one of them, aren't you. You wanted to bring me back, for revenge right." it was the only reason, his kindness made no sense. Even if he needed someone, to choose someone burned like myself, he had to be working with them.
"No, Ashe i would nev-"
"You two, You're on private property... Holy shit! Hey Gil, check it out, it's that burn victim that ran away forever ago." He grabbed his forearm as a cloud of lightning surrounded it. "You're gonna walk where we tell you, or you're gonna die where you stand. Flynt is gonna be really happy that you've come home, not so sure how he's gonna feel about you finding yourself a boyfriend though. I let go of Esper, and he slowly stood up. He seemed more focussed on the others than me. I could tell then that he really was honest with me. Gil and two others came from behind us, the lightning guy keeping his distance further back. They escorted us into the center of a really big open room, there was a stage, with a throne in the center, and two massive tanks on the side.
"Holy shit girl, I was starting to think you'd never come home!" small streams of fire erupted out of the tanks, they quickly whipped through the air to wrap around the man sitting on the throne. I could see his face, the pyrokinetic from before! The small streams expanded taking the shape of two large dragons, they quickly grew abandoning the tanks, until they covered the stage. He held out a cigarette, as one of the dragons wisped fire onto the end of it. "So Why did you come back to me? I don't know if you see my friends here, but I clearly don't need your fire as supply anymore, and after breaking my heart like you did. Damn did i never want to see your face again… But here you are, so why shouldn't I incinerate the two of you right now." As he said those words the dragons left the stage, one wrapping around the room, the other around us.
"Shit dude, your stories don't match up very well." what the hell was Esper doing!
"Excuse me!" he seemed more surprised that Esper was talking at all, rather than the response he was reacting to.
"Well, I mean on her account, she seemed more like a prisoner, and on yours she sounds like a runaway bride. I don't know, something just doesn't add up right. There's like, a shroud between us, and I'd just like things cleared up y'know." wait he gave the signal! Once I noticed I erupted a shroud of black fire around us, He grabbed onto me tightly as we zipped upward.
"EXPLOSION!" there was a massive thunderclap beneath us, as the lightning ball that had been charging this entire time was released.
"Are they dead?"
"I don't know I can't see."
"They have to be if the were hit by that right?"
"They're on the ceiling." One of them saw through us, (Esper threw out flashbangs as I surrounded us, before he zipplined us upwards with a grappling hook he stole). Esper quickly dropped us downward as the dragon of flame rushed towards us. I blasted it with my black flames. They erased it effortlessly in their tracks (my flames suffocate normal fire).
"Thank you! I never got a real chance to play with these flames." He ripped my fire from me, making a black dragon to replace the one I destroyed. "I can't expand these flames, but damn are they cool! So what are you gonna do now? Your own quirk is even fighting against you, not to mention the three men I have behind you, two geomancers, and a hydromancer. What do you have left, nothing. Just like always, you're nothing. A petty thief wasting a damn fine quirk." He stood on stage as though he was a god, a coat of fire, numerous dragons of fire were being formed now.
Esper was down on one knee next to me. "Ashe look at me." as I looked at him, he had a weird slingshot on one arm, and some weird drillbit like thing in the other, He stood up and took stance to use the sling. "We Have this Asshole!" He shot the bit into the air, the backend exploded, multiplying it's speed drastically.
The projectile hit his shoulder, blowing a hole clear through to the other side. "AAAAAGHHHHHH." I had never heard a scream so chilling. He locked eyes with me for a second before launching all the dragons that resided on stage "DIE!" I enveloped myself and Esper with my Blackfire.
"Please tell me that wasn't the end of your plan?" I held Esper tight as we might die soon.
"It was supposed to Hit him in the face-" The black dragon erupted through the shield that I had made us.
"BURN!"
The flames didn't hurt but they blacked our vision and burned our clothes. "I have one more Idea, but hold tight and keep the flame veil up okay."
"Okay." I had no Idea what his plan was, but i had faith in him. We waited for a while until the black dragon had exhausted it's fuel enough for me to see Esper's Hands. He had another shot ready. He quickly fired it before his hands could vanished again.
Diving on top of me. "Expand the veil as much-" Before he could finish speaking there was a loud roar, It was eclipsed a second later by ringing of deafness. I closed my Eyes and kept my flames burning strong. After a minute I felt Espers hands on my face, opening my eyes I could tell he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't hear what. He pulled me to my feat, handing me a coat to cover myself. It looked like Esper was telling me to stop the flame, so I ended it, cautiously, as to prevent flames from bursting in.
Looking around, you couldn't even tell that we used to be in a building. The gas containers on stage, and probably some more hidden away had exploded. We were standing in the empty caras of what used to be a building.
I couldn't move, frozen in fear, I didn't know what to do. Esper grabbed my hand and pulled, as he ran, tearing me away with him. We didn't stop for what seemed like miles. We hid away in an alley. My mind was blank. Between being shook from the explosion, and the exhaustion from running, I could do no more than stare into the night sky. Esper grabbed onto me tightly, as if he would never let go. I returned the motion. We stayed that way until dawn.
*****about 1 ½ years later *****
I was at home (an abandoned building) as Esper was out getting dinner, when I heard the back entry way open. "Esper? You back already." It wasn't him, instead it was some middle aged man. "Who the Hell are you!" I donned my signature black wings, as I coated my arms in the flame, projecting them at the man.
"You may calm down. My name is Adam, and I have a proposal for you."
"I don't want any part of what your doing, now leave my home." I extended the flame a little closer to him.
"Funny, the man that owns this home died a Year ago. Are you Mr. Cobbler's lost wife?"
"Cut the bullshit and leave!"
"I'm sorry, that wasn't like me... In the coming months this country will be divided in two, On one Side will be Gods that bow down to man, on the other Gods will take back their thrones. You can either choose a side, or be caught in their war."
"What are you talking about?"
"Soon the Caster family will lose their throne, and the Heroes of this nation will rally behind them in battle. This nation will quake as Gods battle again, for the first time in millennia."
"And What does joining you grant me? Other than not getting caught up." my flames grew.
"Joining Pantheon will put you amongst the new Gods of this world, as an equal. Seeing your potential from your various exploits from the past few years, I believe you are fitting for the title. We are still small as of yet, but if you'd wish to meet the other Gods first, that is fine."
"How small is small?"
"Five."
"You plan on taking on the Casters along with the entire Hero association with five people. Now your making me laugh!"
"The five of us could fall the entirety of the 10 great heroes, sans three specific members, without trouble at that. I already have plenty of others in my sights for who I want to join Patheon. I came to you early on for a reason. Because I want our Gods before I Knights are to arrive. The strong come first, and you are strong."
"If I'm so strong, then what's stopping me from incinerating you today?" I extend the flame to his neck.
He walks through it, (did he call my bluff). "I told you that you'd be equal among Gods. Lady Raze, as they call you, that means I am a God as well, and gods do not die so easily, especially primordials, such as myself." He pulled out a metal card, with an address pressed into it. "Here is the address for our temporary estate. Please do visit soon." He turned as to leave.
"Wait. Do I get a plus one?"
"Ahh the Esper you mentioned when I entered. I will look into him, If he is worthy of being among the Gods, then he will most assuredly be invited. I will speak to him before nights end. If there are two of those cards between you tomorrow he may come. Have a good day Lady Raze"
"It's Ashe"
"My apologies Lady Ashe." He walked calmly through the flames I had enveloped him with, as he left the building.
Could he be serious? Could someone actually be amassing an army capable of falling the nation? And Gods, was he serious about that, or was it delusion of grandeur? He walked through my flames as if he knew they wouldn't hurt him. Did he know, or is he just so strong that he didn't believe that they'd bother him to begin with? Wait, His clothes weren't even singed when he left. They should have been burned clean through. What the hell is that guy? Now I'm interested.
Raze - Ignites the field
Ashe Rivers"Raze"
Quirk - Black fire
Black fire burns hotter than other flames, only it can't burn people, in fact people cant feel its heat at all as it doesn't radiate any. The flames heal wounds in place of burns, they leave a burn scar where they heal though.
Gear:
She has no specified, specific gear before joining pantheon.
The only support gear she gets is a suit that is damn near incineration proof.