Ch. 8

After dinner, Firefly made her way back down to the Danger Room. As she had expected, Logan was waiting for her.

"We're going to work on your control. The Professor is supervising up in the control room." Logan pointed to the room above them.

Firefly sat down cross-legged. She began to breathe as Logan and the Professor, who was communicating with them both telepathically, instructed.

"I'm not sure how this is supposed to work." Logan stated simply. "Personally, I never thought of myself as the calm and controlled type."

"I get it though," Firefly whispered, "No emotion, no fire. No fire, no emotion. It's a cause and effect type thing."

Her eyes were closed and she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.

"Alright, Temperance. Try a flame in your right palm." The Professors voice echoed throughout the room.

Firefly opened her right eye warily at the control box in the upper right corner. "I think it's a bit to soon." Her voice quavered.

"You never know 'till you try, Smarts. And keep breathing."

Firefly closed her eyes once more. Extending her right palm, she began to shiver.

"Stop! You have to calm down before you try anything." Professor Xavier echoed.

Her hand dropped to her side and she leaned back.

"I can't."

"Yes you can. I know, I'm psychic."

Firefly rolled her eyes.

"I saw that."


An hour later, Firefly was dismissed from the Danger Room. She had basically spent her time breathing while Logan paced in front of her and the Professor tried to coax her into lighting a flame in her palm.

It hadn't worked.

She was just too nervous. Pain kept flashing in her mind whenever she even thought of using her mutation.

Logan walked stiffly beside her. He had out and out told her that he thought that training session had been wasted time, but then comforted her with a "But you'll do better next time."

Firefly herself had felt it pointless.

She dragged her feet along the carpeted floors back to her room and Logan walked on to his own.

Firefly opened the door and was bombarded with unwanted light.

"Kitty…?"

"It's time for a girl-to-girl chat."

Firefly's eyes strained against the light, but she managed to make out the three forms of Kitty, Jubilee, and Rogue sitting on her bed.

Firefly blinked twice, closed the door, turned on her heel, and walked down to the common room.

The couch seemed very comfortable at that precise moment…


Fun Fact: The exact definition of Temperance Bellview's mutation is the ability to create and manipulate fire. Also, an acute sense of hearing, smell, and sight were triggered at the same time as her pyro-kenetic abilities showed.