Chapter 1

Pyra Get's Her Gloves

Pyra had been at the Xavier's Institute for the gifted for three weeks now. No one, minus Xavier and herself knew her story.

Pyra was born, Kaija Ann McArthur to Aaron and Esther McArthur. Her mother, she never knew, she had died giving birth to Kaija, their second child. Esther McArthur suffered from immense heat, literally burning her from the inside out. The newborn girl was the cause as the doctors soon found out. The doctor that delivered Kaija was left with a third degree burn on his hand from merely touching the child's skin. The father sent his son away to live at his grandmother's house down the street and took Kaija home the day she was born, knowing that because of her differences, she would not be helped at this hospital.

Aaron had spent days trying to figure out how to care for the child. Her crib was made of metal, her sheets were made of old fire blankets and her clothes were crafted from old fire suits made from one of the firefighters' wives. Aaron was a firefighter, so he had the resources available to care for the child. His fellow firefighters accepted Kaija just as Aaron did.

The child grew, she was taught at home, and had frequent temper tantrums where flames would shoot out. Her power was uncontrollable. Her brother, Robert would visit after school, but he never liked his younger sister, she was too different.

One day when she was five, she saw a picture of her mother on the coffee table; her father had been staring at it for some time. She asked Aaron who the woman was, and he told her.

"She was your mother," he answered sadly.

"Where is she," Kaija asked.

"Something happened to her when you were born," Aaron said searching for the right words so he would not upset his daughter. "Kaija, you were born with your powers, your skin can not be touched."

This Kaija already knew.

"Your mother was burned from inside out, while you were still inside h-"

"I killed her," Kaija asked, the flames in her eyes were dim. "I didn't mean to."

Aaron only nodded, he wanted to hold his daughter, but he did not have his gloves on, they were in the kitchen, he could not just leave her.

Kaija let everything register, she killed her mother, intending to or not. Flames grew from her arms and hands and rapidly spread over her body. The floor was wooden, and flames quickly spread in the living room, catching the carpet, the coffee table and even the ceiling. She was upset with herself. Anger was one emotion she did not know how to react on.

Kaija stood in the middle of the living room, in flames. Her father reached out for her without his gloves on, a fatherly instinct to drag her out of the house. The flesh on his hand was quickly eaten away, he screamed in pain and fell against the wall, a support beam fell on top of him and Kaija ran to his side, still in flames. Her flames grew more bright and larger.

Soon sirens screamed down the street and firefighters jumped off the freighter. The flames were doused with water and foam, the girl and her father were pulled from the house as it began to crumble. Flames destroyed everything beautiful, nothing could be saved, no one but the girl could be saved. Her father died of deadly burns and the inhalation of smoke. The child escaped without a mark, burn or even so much as a cough.

Kaija was taken to an orphanage where she was locked in solitude for ten years before she escaped to find a place where she would be safe. She was tired of the poking and prodding of scientists and the solitude. She wandered for four months before encountering Magneto and another week before encountering Scott Summers and Logan.

She was taken to Xavier's Institute for the Gifted, where we find her now, standing in the doorway of the gymnasium in her new gym uniform. It consisted of red shorts with a stripe down the sides, a plain gray t-shirt and plain white tennis shoes. A few students snickered as she walked to her place on the attendance line. She ignored them.

"Hey, Pyra," one boy taunted. "When are you going to talk? Are you mute?"

Pyra ignored them. Her father had dubbed her Pyra. It was a pet name. Everyone she met seemed to take to it; it had been years since she heard her birth name.

The instructor walked in, a Cajun man with a deck of cards in his hand. He was known as Gambit, but Pyra did not understand what the deck of cards was for. Were they going to play 'Go Fish'?

Gambit quickly took attendance, pausing to look at Pyra for a moment, then moved on. "Today, we run," he said with his Cajun accent. No one moved, "Now," he shouted.

Students quickly dispersed and began to run around the gym. Pyra started to run, taking the end of the line, and gradually moving up, keeping her eye on the instructor. When a good portion of the line was moving to slow for the Cajun, a card was thrown and exploded near the group. The first time this happened Pyra reacted quickly, throwing a fireball at the instructor before she had time to think. His jacket caught on fire, and the group stopped running.

Pyra realized what she had done and closed her fist in the air; the flames on Gambit's jacket disappeared quickly. He marched angrily towards the group of stunned students.

"What do you think you're trying to pull on Gambit," the instructor asked, angrily and in a Cajun accent.

The group parted from Pyra, and a boy snickered in the back.

Pyra kept her eyes steady, and they locked with Gambit's eyes.

"What's de matter? Cat got your tongue?"

The same boy that snickered let out a little meow as her turned from human to a cat, then back again. Pyra saw it from the corner of her eye. Her eyes wandered from Gambit's towards the noise and then she glared back.

"No," she said, not trusting her own voice. "Nothing has my tongue. It was reaction," she continued. "I wasn't expecting the noise."

Gambit looked hard at her, his eyes showed anger. "You ruined Gambit's jacket!"

"You surprised me," Pyra deflected the blame.

"You need better control of your power," Gambit argued.

Pyra said nothing, but her eyes turned to small balls of flame, they grew bright and angry.

"Thanks to your new classmate, you all will run for the rest of the day," Gambit announced and seemed pleased at the groans. He walked back to the center of the gym, knowing that Pyra was glaring at him.

The students began to run and the boy that snickered ran next to Pyra. "Thanks for nothing; I hear you're good at getting into trouble."

Pyra smiled evilly, "Is that what they say? What do they call you?"

"Beast Boy," the boy smirked.

Pyra laughed and ran towards the front of the line.

Soon gym class was over, and Pyra was glad. It was true; she had been getting into a lot of trouble lately. She stood at her locker, it was still locked, she could not figure out how to do the combination, so she left it. She packed her gym clothes in her book bag and slung the bag over her shoulder. A girl laughed, but not at her. Showers were running but Pyra did not bother with them, it is not as if she would be damp for long anyways.

Pyra walked into the hall, there waiting was Beast Boy and two of his followers. Pyra turned to walk the other way, they teleported in front of her.

Pyra stopped in her tracks. "Leave me alone," she growled.

The boys parted and let her pass, snickering as she walked away. They would get her good one day.

Pyra was on her way to Biology with Storm. Storm made science easy to understand, she explained it really well. Pyra took her seat in the third aisle from the right and two seats from the back. Beast Boy had the same class and took a seat behind Pyra. Pyra pretended to ignore his existence.

Class started and Pyra felt awkward, she had a book, but did not want to risk burning it by touching it, like shad burned so many things before. She sat very still at her desk, taking mental notes and participating in the class.

Storm understood Pyra's dilemma, and had spoken with Professor Xavier about the matter. He was working on something for Pyra that would allow her to be a bit closer to the normal being. Storm drew a picture of a cell on the chalkboard behind her and began to explain the different organelles.

"Hey," a voice behind Pyra whispered. "You know what else they say about you?"

Pyra ignored the voice and continued to make notes on the vacuoles and ribosome of the cell.

"Pyra, they say you are dangerous," the voice continued.

Pyra smiled, "they are not wrong," she whispered over her shoulder and continued to take mental notes.

Beast Boy smiled and leaned back in his chair.

The hour passed quickly, at least for Pyra, not so much for other students. Pyra had not been given the chance for an education since she lived at the orphanage. She was cherishing every moment.

Pyra walked out of the class without her book, Storm had picked it up and told Pyra that Xavier was working on something that would help her, but she never said what. Beast Boy followed her out.

"They say that you killed your family," Beast Boy said. "Burned them alive…do you hear them scream?" He mocked a girl's cry of agony.

Pyra turned on the kid before the kid could react, her arms, eyes and hair were in flames and she gripped Beast Boy's neck before he transformed into a caterpillar, screaming in real pain.

Storm rushed out of her classroom after hearing a couple screams and chants for the fight to go on. She saw Pyra standing in flames and raced back to her desk, picking up a telephone and calling Scott.

Scott was out the door of his Geometry class in no time at all. He spied Bobby Drake in the hallway he called for his help and stopped in Logan's classroom before moving on. Soon three mutants were racing towards the fight. Storm tried to keep students away from the fight as Pyra and Beast Boy were fighting on. Pyra fought out of anger, Beast Boy now only fought to escape her wrath.

Bobby spied Pyra in flames and sent a coat of ice towards her flames to cool her off and allow time for Logan and Scott to get through the crowd of students.

Pyra let more heat escape and melt the ice; she was angry and wanted to fight. She could not see, nor did she care that Beast Boy was nearly petrified of her. She was too angry to see the fear on his face and to notice that his attempts to fight her were to escape. Someone grabbed her from behind and started to pull her off Beast Boy. Flames ignited around her waist in attempt to burn the arms that held her and escape.

Logan yelled in pain but did not let go. He continued to drag her away from the fight, even though his attempts clearly did not stop it as, three balls of flames flew towards Beast Boy who was just now relaxing. A stream of ice hit each ball of fire; freezing them and making them drop. Two streams of ice also made their way to Pyra to cool her down enough for Logan to handle her.

Scott helped Beast Boy sit down on the ground, the crowd had dispersed immensely and he looked at Logan. "Take her to the neutral room," he near ordered. "Storm, call Hank…Bobby see what you can do to stop the burns."

The three mutants nodded at their orders. Storm was back at her desk calling Hank, the Institutes doctor. Logan began to drag the fighting Pyra down the stairs and to the neutral room. Bobby waited with Beast Boy until Hank arrived and Scott went to talk to Xavier about the unfortunate event.

Once downstairs and at the neutral room doors, Logan threw Pyra inside and locked the door until his skin regenerated. Pyra fell to the floor but was quickly back on her feet and banging on the large metal door, not noticing that she was not using her powers. When Logan felt brave enough to take on the girl, he opened the door, pushed her out of his way, and closed the door behind him, which automatically locked.

Pyra fell back to the ground, glaring at Logan as she quickly got back up. She threw a few punches and hit her mark until Logan caught on and caught her fists. Pyra tried to light her hands but nothing happened, a look of fear spread across her face. She did not know what happened, she had never run out of flames before.

"What the hell do you think you were doing," Logan asked, clearly put out.

Pyra tried to twist her hands out of Logan's grip without any success.

"No, you're not escaping this one, kid," Logan said tightening his grip until she winced in pain. Pyra kicked at him, but he was too far away from her for her long legs to reach. Logan twisted her arm and then pushed her into the wall. "Sit," he commanded, glad that he did not have his powers right now.

Pyra reluctantly sat, bringing her knees to her chest and glaring, silently up at Logan.

"What the hell was that," he asked again.

Pyra held her glare and said nothing.

"Look, kid," Logan said crouching down to the level of her eyes. "I don't know what Beast Boy said, but he probably deserved it. Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Pyra's face-hardened at the thought of the boys words. Her skin was getting cold she shivered. "It's my fault," she said clearly.

"Yeah, kid," Logan said. "Part of it is your fault."

Pyra shook her head. "It is all my fault," she yelled.

"Care to explain?"

Just then, Scott entered followed by Xavier. Pyra tried to make a run for the door, but Logan caught her with one strong arm and pulled her back down to where she was sitting before.

Pyra went down hard but she did nothing except glare at the three now. Scott stood beside Xavier, looking down at the girl.

"Pyra, we can't be having fights everyday at the institute," Xavier said. "I do not fully blame you, I know you have a short temper but you seem to have more control of it than I thought. However, it takes two to fight."

"She won't say what happened," Logan half growled with frustration.

Pyra looked to the eyes of each person that spoke, still angry.

"Kaija, something had to have provoked you," Xavier said.

Xavier was the last person Pyra wanted to talk too. He was the only one besides her that knew her history, and now it seemed the entire school knew. Pyra still said nothing.

Xavier waited patiently, for an answer.

"The quicker you tell us, the quicker you get your powers back," Logan, said hoping that would get her to talk.

Scott saw Pyra shiver and took a step towards her. "Are you scared?"

Pyra shook her head.

Scott looked at Xavier with confusion.

"It was something he said," Pyra finally replied, staring Xavier down with her glare. "Something I thought only you and I knew."

"What did he say," Xavier asked, slightly concerned, now.

Pyra looked at Scott and Logan, knowing that if a student knew, they probably knew too. "He said that he heard," she paused, and then spoke angrily. "He heard I killed my family…he asked if I could still hear their screams, and then he screamed."

It was silent for a split second.

"I gave him something to scream about," she said wanting to smile, but did not dare.

Logan looked from Xavier to Pyra, wide-eyed.

Scott's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I didn't tell anyone, Kaija," Xavier said, catching her implication that he did. "Most mutants do come here because they hurt someone."

"You burned Beast Boy pretty badly," Scott informed Pyra.

Pyra held Scott's eyes with her own. "He deserved it," she muttered.

"Really," Scott asked, "that bad?"

"He was fighting to escape you," Logan added. "Not to get joy out of bulling you."

Pyra nodded realizing her mistake. "So I should leave? Are you kicking me out too?"

"No," Xavier said quickly. "We want to help you. You have a great potential-"

"I don't think I would have done any different if someone said that to me," Scott said. "It hurts the most when it holds true, doesn't it?"

Pyra nodded confused at how Scott knew how she felt.

"You two have a lot in common," Xavier said. "Perhaps the three of you can work together?"

Logan nodded, "I'm going to check on Beast Boy." Then he got up and left.

Xavier smiled and extended his hand to Pyra. He was close enough now to her that he could have touched her.

Pyra shivered and tried to melt into the wall. "Don't touch me," she yelled.

Scott looked confused, he hadn't had Pyra in his class yet, in fact, that's where she was on her way to.

Xavier backed up to give the girl more comfort. Then he pulled a pair of maroon gloves out of a box. "These are for you," he said and handed them to Pyra.

Pyra took the gloves slowly, being careful not to touch Xavier's skin. She shivered more.

"Uh, should we get her to the infirmary," Scott asked. "It's not that cold in here, and she's shivering like she's in a blizzard in summer clothes."

Xavier watched Pyra for a moment. "We need to get you out of this room."

Scott helped Pyra up, even though she nearly fought him, his bare skin touching hers. Her skin was at a normal temperature, for a normal human.

"Let go," Pyra shouted and tore herself out of Scott's grip. "I don't want to hurt you!"

Scott watched her stumble back and now he understood. "In this room, you can't hurt me. This room takes your powers for as long as you are in it."

Xavier led them out and told Pyra to put on the gloves. Pyra could feel her powers come back to her as she stepped out. She obeyed, and put on the gloves. The maroon cloth ran up past her elbow, the fabric felt like cotton but did not burn. Xavier waited for a response. Scott, now understanding that Pyra could not touch anything because her normal body heat is extremely high, and the gloves were made so she could touch things, extended his hand to her.

Pyra shook her head and started to back into the wall.

Scott grabbed her gloved hand and they both waited a second. He did not scream in pain, in fact he was smiling. "The gloves will allow you to touch books, people wood, and really anything," Scott explained. "Professor Xavier is good at solving problems." He let go of her hand and stepped away, then showed her that his hand was not burned. "See?"

Pyra looked confused and astonished. "Th-Thank you," she said to Xavier. "I'm…I'm sorry-"

"There is nothing to be sorry for, Kaija," Xavier said as he wheeled away. He stopped a few feet from the elevator and turned back to Pyra. "I can have them made in any color, style and length, just let me know. Rouge may be a good person to talk to about gloves too." He smiled and disappeared into the elevator.

Pyra looked at Scott then at the floor.

"Come on, let's go see how Beast Boy is doing," Scott said, as he walked up the stairs.