EVERYTHING BURNS
By Alysha Taylor
From the Ashes
!NOTE!
I am not the owner of X-men, nor am I part of a writing team, or creator of any of the canon characters for the X-men. But I do indeed own a string of characters that are my own, such as Zinta Morvollo (Sizzler/From the Ashes) in this fan fiction.
The night was thick with illuminated lights, false lights that did not dance, did not shine in the sky. Just lights casting elongated shadows over the darkened streets that seemed to be abandoned, as if everyone had been evacuated. The threat of rain promised by the clapping thunder that resounded in the distance, a loud foreboding of a bad night, a real bad night. But still, Zinta Morvollo walked outside of what she called her living area. Not something that any sane, normal person would choose for themselves. For this 'house' was an old warehouse that had been closed and empty until she had purchased the property. The old building was one now overcome with trees, grass, plants, and vines. Vines crawled like a mass of green snakes up the cold dull gray stone. It looked horrible. Stone crumbling in areas. Still looking abandoned until one entered the building, it looked better, of course, much more… cozy, than you would have taken it for from the pestilent look of green life tangling with barbed wire fences that had fallen, and the barrels of what looked like toxic waste outside.
No, not cozy… Surprisingly extravagant, with the look that a world class interior designer had made this heaven and left the outside to die. The warehouse was massive, even in its exterior supposedly damned theme. Inside was the place that miss Zinta Morvollo, age seventeen, had lived in since the time she had turned nine years of age. The inside had steadily changed and bettered, but outside had steadily worsened. Inside was a haven, with a ballroom that had a theme of sensual gold's and creams, the master bedroom was huge, with a massive custom bed that looked more like something a ruby roman bed for a roman emperor. The room looked like a tribute to just that, with the wonderful custom statues and artifacts all related to Rome. All carefully made. All expensive, very expensive. It was one of many rooms. Zinta lived alone, and she had never had someone in her home other than workers. But still, she had an army of rooms.
There seemed to be a room for everything. From Hollywood to the Amazon. It was a home that looked inside like a grand hotel of the highest expenses. The place had a theatre. Not a home theatre, an actual movie theatre, and then a stage theatre. It had a swimming pool, a dining room that could hold a hoard and an army. Everything seemed huge, the lot was a large one, and the warehouse was big in every way, wide, long, and tall as a tower. But still, even if you saw the inside, the obvious lone owner, and the lone person who ever lived or slept there. You would have to wonder… Why? Why would someone want such a place that could be for so many people, and live in such seclusion.
Zinta was alone, and one room was strange, a room that could withstand some of the most extreme heat, a bare room that looked as welcoming as the exterior of Zinta's nest. No, this was not one of the warehouses in the middle of the city, it would have been condemned so long ago if that was so because of the outer rims of the palace. It was in what was a promising town long ago, but after a high rate of mutants turned out, it was abandoned. Zinta had not just purchased that one lone lot, but the entire town, not large, true, but it was refurbished, everything looked like a picture perfect town, all but that one eyesore she actually lived in. It was her way of pretending, coping with what she had to go threw.
Why she was here.
But she didn't want to think on the day she had been given a pay role to stay away from her home, her parents, and her little sister. She just wanted to walk, alone down the streets with false lights sneering down at her, her in this bone cold in an unbearable sweat. Her skin burning, an almost luminescent glow to her pale skin, her blue eyes seemed to be catching a fires flickering image in them. But there was no fire. At least no fire on the outside. But on the inside of the bedazzling young female, there was an inferno. And at this point in time, she herself, felt that heat as it pressed from inside, screaming for its escape, for a way outside the network of flesh, and into the veiled darkness of the night air. At all times, Zinta was much warmer that all other human beings. But right now, to touch her skin would have been to be burned. And each moment that heat grew, and that glow, as well, flourished. She looked like some surreal angel that to see would be to blind you.
Sure. She was not completely alone here, animals ran about along the streets, slept in ally ways. They had gotten used to the vision of Zinta, glowing like a last candle in the night. The only real light that you noticed under the dull throb of the street lights. Alone with but nature to keep her company, rare creatures of such an exotic beauty. She was obviously rich, filthy rich beyond comprehension. But then, what did matter when you were by yourself, when you did not have anyone to share the greatness with. When your own family forbad you to ever see them again, forbad you to use their last name. Made you into someone you were not. Zinta Anne Morvollo. That was a joke. She still didn't even think herself as who she was before Lynne Taylor Heshvail. Lynne was now dead, for what the world was concerned. And as far as Zinta concerned, Lynne was dead as well, an empty shell that was now filled with the lonely spirit of Zinta. But a fallen angel, kind and gentle, cursed with the mutant gene.
Two deer bolted from one lane, bounding with powerful, startled strides, but not at Zinta, and before the seventeen year old girl knew what was happening the heat rose viciously, and then followed a sound of what she thought was strange thunder, when then, a demonic pain shot between her eyes. That was when at last, the fire found a way out. No longer Zinta Anne Morvollo. No longer Lynne. No longer the mutant Sizzler. But a massive, flaming bird, that for a moment shed ashes. A terrible screech muted the thunder as it crashed. Even though rain started to fall, and grow heavy, the raging heat of the bird evaporated it and raised the temperature around most of the town. No water came close to touching it. It was a mutant killer that had shot her between the eyes. But it was not Zinta that was the bird. It was a whole other creature that screamed in its rage. In but a matter of seconds, the man who foolishly pulled the trigger found a flaming beast grabbing onto him, the blaring heat of the beak cutting threw him like he was warmed butter. He was dead, and devoured by the bird.
That was when the brotherhood arrived. A new member who was able to locate other mutants, and their levels, had felt the creature acting out today, feeling the power under the skin. She was like nothing they ever saw before. A powerful creature. Two beings in one. And when the fire bird was about to take to the skies, a fire ball slammed into her side, causing the creature to screech, and again, the hungry fire bird found a meal. Hungry, starving. Ravenous. Then, From the Ashes dove at Pyro, the one who dare toss fire at fire. When again he readied for another fire ball, then slamming it at From the Ashes just as she reached him, the bird somehow managed to fly threw him, his body like the passing of a ghost. Her fire entangled with his. And as he recovered and fire finding now the lighter was gone, melted, but he had picked up the ability from the passing to create fire without it, and again, fire flung into From the Ashes side. But this time, both felt the overwhelming connection, and Pyro managed to control the fire bird, and watched as it tried climbing higher and higher, until he managed to force the fire into the center. Away, back to were it came from, and then, hundreds of meters above the ground, Zinta's bare body fell. A vision of a fallen angel slamming into earth just outside of the town.