Queen of Random: I am going to hate myself for doing this, as I fear that
working on a third fanfic will detract from the other two, but here goes. I
am a huge fan of Pyro and Amara romances - Jamara I think it's called,
although I have seen it referred to as Amyro, but no matter - so I thought
I would have a go at writing my own. Please let me know if this does
detract from 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Role Reversal', but if it turns
out to be a success, well, all the better for you, the reader.
I have always thought that this coupling (Pyro and Amara) had far more merit than one between Bobby and Amara - no offense to all of you Bobby and Amara shippers. I mean, if Amara and Bobby had kids (I hope not), what would their powers be? The power to control water, like that guy on Shinzo? Or the power to melt, and become a puddle? (Come on, you've got to admit, that's a really crappy power, even if you could move around as a puddle. Your mother - assuming it was Amara - could evaporate you. Or Pyro, while we're at it). Oops, starting to wander.
As per usual, I do not own any of the characters in this story, unless they happen to be original characters. Then they belong to me. But as there have been no OCs in this story, I do not own anything from X-Men: Evolution.
On with the trial by fire!
Trial by Fire
Chapter One: The Fire of Life
By definition, fire is a rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light, and is accompanied by flame, especially the burning of a combustible substance.
But to John Allerdyce it was far simpler than that.
To him, fire was life.
It was a beautiful, living creature that he alone had the power to control. For he was Pyro, a mutant with the gift of pyrokinesis, or the ability to control fire.
No one in the world understood the reason why John loved fire so much, why it was the one thing he felt had a connection with, that understood him.
At least, that was what he thought.
*
"Magma," said a voice, jolting Amara Aquilla from her daydream. "You're up."
Amara stepped forward, ignoring the smug look Bobby Drake wore. She silently vowed to herself that she would wipe that look off his face. Or if that failed, melt it off.
"You know what you are to do?" asked Scott Summers, although at this point in time he was going by the name of Cyclops, a tribute to the fact that he was forced to wear a ruby-quartz visor, to prevent the powerful optic blasts his mutation caused from causing severe destruction.
Amara nodded. Closing her eyes with concentration, she rubbed her hands together in anticipation. There, inside her was the power. Suddenly, she seemed to catch fire, and become a girl of living flame. Or, perhaps, a girl made from the magma a volcano spills forth during an eruption.
She opened her eyes, and they focused on the target in front of her. Then she raised her hands, and from them shot forth two small balls of fire, or molten lava. The target was destroyed instantly. She repeated the exercise, but made sure that the next target she hit was the one that Bobby, also known as Iceman, had frozen over with his powers.
Amara returned to her normal, non-flame state, and grinned at Bobby.
She was not called Magma for nothing.
*
"How did it go?" asked Kitty Pryde when Amara and the others returned from their early morning training session.
Amara looked at the mutant who went by the name of Shadowcat. "Fine. I guess."
"I guess?" Kitty looked confused. "Did something go wrong?"
Amara shook her head, causing her long, straight dark hair to move in a manner that almost looked like her hair was fluttering in a breeze. "No. Nothing happened."
"She's right," added Bobby. "Nothing happened at all." His voice, however, betrayed the fact that something had indeed happened.
Kitty covered mouth with a hand in an attempt to muffle her giggles. She failed. "What happened? Did Amara melt your ice, Bobby?"
"She toasted him!" interrupted Ray Crisp.
Kitty looked at Ray. With his sharp personality and his quick temper, coupled with his ability to generate electricity which he released from his hands, it was easy to see why he had earned the name of Berzerker during his stay at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Although, now that mutants had been revealed to the public, the Institute was no longer as safe as it had once been.
That was the reason why Rahne Sinclair, the metamorph known as Wolfsbane, had been taken home by her family. The same had happened to Jubilation Lee, affectionately known as Jubilee - perhaps because of her gift of creating colourful displays of energy, almost like jubilee fireworks.
"She did?" asked Kitty.
Jamie Maddrox nodded his small head violently. "She did!"
Bobby tried, and failed, to discreetly hit Jamie on the back of the head to keep him from saying anything more about the way Amara had shown him up.
Of course, it is hard to keep anything discreet when the person you just hit creates multiple copies of himself when struck.
Hence, the name Multiple.
"Anyway," said Kitty, ignoring the presence of five new Jamies. "You guys should all get ready for school." She looked at her watch. "We're, like, going to be late if you guys don't hurry up. And I don't think you can go to school in that, either," she added, pointed to the uniforms all the new recruits were wearing. "I doubt that colour is in, right now."
*
Tap, tap, tap went Amara's fingers as she sat, bored out of her mind, in the back of the classroom. Even the knowledge that, at that very moment, the track team were running right past right below the window Amara was seated next to did not change her gloomy demeanour.
"What's wrong?" ask Tabitha Smith, an explosive blonde in the seat next to Amara. Explosive was the right term to use to describe Tabitha, also known as Boom Boom, whose ability to create small explosives caused other people, human and mutant, to shy away from the vivacious girl. Even the fact that Tabitha had once lived with the Brotherhood of Mutants did not seem to faze anyone. Not even Kitty, and that was her specialty.
"Nothing," said Amara, in response to Tabitha's question. "Nothing's wrong." "Okay." This seemed to satisfy Tabitha's curiosity, and she returned her attention to the track team outside.
But there was something wrong. And it had been wrong for some time. Amara was unsure what it was, but she was sure it had something to do with her powers. She knew that if she tried to tell anyone they would look at her as if she was a freak.
And that would have been the responses of those at the Institute.
God only knew what the human students at Bayville High would do.
But how do you tell someone that your power is calling out to something? Or maybe even someone?
Amara had no idea.
But the thing that scared her most was that she did not know what - or who - her power was reaching out to.
*
John raised a hand so that it was level with his eyes. In the other hand he held a lighter. It was nothing compared to the pack he usually wore on his back, that issued streams of fire from jets on his forearms, but the lighter would do.
With the ease of someone who had done this many times before, John flicked open the lighter, and caused a small tongue of flame to appear.
That was all he needed.
John called out to the flame, and it danced before his eyes, forming patterns in front of him. It always felt special to him, no matter how many times he did it. For each time he used his powers, it was to call a new flame to do his bidding, and so it was special.
The flame changed shape, becoming whatever it was he wished. A dog, a tree, a ball.
Then something happened that he had not planned.
The flame swiftly changed shape, but it was not him doing it. He only watched as the flame transformed into the guise of a young woman. She was tiny, only a few inches tall, and she stood right there on the palm of his hand, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, even more than a bushfire he had seen in his native Australia.
The girl made entirely of fire had her back to John. Then, ever so slowly, she turned around, revealing a face that would haunt him in his dreams.
The small, delicate face, the long hair, the skin he somehow knew was darker than his own - John felt he knew every bit of it. But still he gazed at her, taking in every bit of her, committing her face to memory.
John knew one thing, and that was for certain.
He had to find the girl.
No matter what it took.
I have always thought that this coupling (Pyro and Amara) had far more merit than one between Bobby and Amara - no offense to all of you Bobby and Amara shippers. I mean, if Amara and Bobby had kids (I hope not), what would their powers be? The power to control water, like that guy on Shinzo? Or the power to melt, and become a puddle? (Come on, you've got to admit, that's a really crappy power, even if you could move around as a puddle. Your mother - assuming it was Amara - could evaporate you. Or Pyro, while we're at it). Oops, starting to wander.
As per usual, I do not own any of the characters in this story, unless they happen to be original characters. Then they belong to me. But as there have been no OCs in this story, I do not own anything from X-Men: Evolution.
On with the trial by fire!
Trial by Fire
Chapter One: The Fire of Life
By definition, fire is a rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light, and is accompanied by flame, especially the burning of a combustible substance.
But to John Allerdyce it was far simpler than that.
To him, fire was life.
It was a beautiful, living creature that he alone had the power to control. For he was Pyro, a mutant with the gift of pyrokinesis, or the ability to control fire.
No one in the world understood the reason why John loved fire so much, why it was the one thing he felt had a connection with, that understood him.
At least, that was what he thought.
*
"Magma," said a voice, jolting Amara Aquilla from her daydream. "You're up."
Amara stepped forward, ignoring the smug look Bobby Drake wore. She silently vowed to herself that she would wipe that look off his face. Or if that failed, melt it off.
"You know what you are to do?" asked Scott Summers, although at this point in time he was going by the name of Cyclops, a tribute to the fact that he was forced to wear a ruby-quartz visor, to prevent the powerful optic blasts his mutation caused from causing severe destruction.
Amara nodded. Closing her eyes with concentration, she rubbed her hands together in anticipation. There, inside her was the power. Suddenly, she seemed to catch fire, and become a girl of living flame. Or, perhaps, a girl made from the magma a volcano spills forth during an eruption.
She opened her eyes, and they focused on the target in front of her. Then she raised her hands, and from them shot forth two small balls of fire, or molten lava. The target was destroyed instantly. She repeated the exercise, but made sure that the next target she hit was the one that Bobby, also known as Iceman, had frozen over with his powers.
Amara returned to her normal, non-flame state, and grinned at Bobby.
She was not called Magma for nothing.
*
"How did it go?" asked Kitty Pryde when Amara and the others returned from their early morning training session.
Amara looked at the mutant who went by the name of Shadowcat. "Fine. I guess."
"I guess?" Kitty looked confused. "Did something go wrong?"
Amara shook her head, causing her long, straight dark hair to move in a manner that almost looked like her hair was fluttering in a breeze. "No. Nothing happened."
"She's right," added Bobby. "Nothing happened at all." His voice, however, betrayed the fact that something had indeed happened.
Kitty covered mouth with a hand in an attempt to muffle her giggles. She failed. "What happened? Did Amara melt your ice, Bobby?"
"She toasted him!" interrupted Ray Crisp.
Kitty looked at Ray. With his sharp personality and his quick temper, coupled with his ability to generate electricity which he released from his hands, it was easy to see why he had earned the name of Berzerker during his stay at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Although, now that mutants had been revealed to the public, the Institute was no longer as safe as it had once been.
That was the reason why Rahne Sinclair, the metamorph known as Wolfsbane, had been taken home by her family. The same had happened to Jubilation Lee, affectionately known as Jubilee - perhaps because of her gift of creating colourful displays of energy, almost like jubilee fireworks.
"She did?" asked Kitty.
Jamie Maddrox nodded his small head violently. "She did!"
Bobby tried, and failed, to discreetly hit Jamie on the back of the head to keep him from saying anything more about the way Amara had shown him up.
Of course, it is hard to keep anything discreet when the person you just hit creates multiple copies of himself when struck.
Hence, the name Multiple.
"Anyway," said Kitty, ignoring the presence of five new Jamies. "You guys should all get ready for school." She looked at her watch. "We're, like, going to be late if you guys don't hurry up. And I don't think you can go to school in that, either," she added, pointed to the uniforms all the new recruits were wearing. "I doubt that colour is in, right now."
*
Tap, tap, tap went Amara's fingers as she sat, bored out of her mind, in the back of the classroom. Even the knowledge that, at that very moment, the track team were running right past right below the window Amara was seated next to did not change her gloomy demeanour.
"What's wrong?" ask Tabitha Smith, an explosive blonde in the seat next to Amara. Explosive was the right term to use to describe Tabitha, also known as Boom Boom, whose ability to create small explosives caused other people, human and mutant, to shy away from the vivacious girl. Even the fact that Tabitha had once lived with the Brotherhood of Mutants did not seem to faze anyone. Not even Kitty, and that was her specialty.
"Nothing," said Amara, in response to Tabitha's question. "Nothing's wrong." "Okay." This seemed to satisfy Tabitha's curiosity, and she returned her attention to the track team outside.
But there was something wrong. And it had been wrong for some time. Amara was unsure what it was, but she was sure it had something to do with her powers. She knew that if she tried to tell anyone they would look at her as if she was a freak.
And that would have been the responses of those at the Institute.
God only knew what the human students at Bayville High would do.
But how do you tell someone that your power is calling out to something? Or maybe even someone?
Amara had no idea.
But the thing that scared her most was that she did not know what - or who - her power was reaching out to.
*
John raised a hand so that it was level with his eyes. In the other hand he held a lighter. It was nothing compared to the pack he usually wore on his back, that issued streams of fire from jets on his forearms, but the lighter would do.
With the ease of someone who had done this many times before, John flicked open the lighter, and caused a small tongue of flame to appear.
That was all he needed.
John called out to the flame, and it danced before his eyes, forming patterns in front of him. It always felt special to him, no matter how many times he did it. For each time he used his powers, it was to call a new flame to do his bidding, and so it was special.
The flame changed shape, becoming whatever it was he wished. A dog, a tree, a ball.
Then something happened that he had not planned.
The flame swiftly changed shape, but it was not him doing it. He only watched as the flame transformed into the guise of a young woman. She was tiny, only a few inches tall, and she stood right there on the palm of his hand, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, even more than a bushfire he had seen in his native Australia.
The girl made entirely of fire had her back to John. Then, ever so slowly, she turned around, revealing a face that would haunt him in his dreams.
The small, delicate face, the long hair, the skin he somehow knew was darker than his own - John felt he knew every bit of it. But still he gazed at her, taking in every bit of her, committing her face to memory.
John knew one thing, and that was for certain.
He had to find the girl.
No matter what it took.