Xander blinked as the bright light finally faded leaving him alone in the woods, the only light being a flickering glow from the fires.

Turning around, Xander stared at the spots of flames as he tried to figure out where the light was coming from.

He finally managed to answer that question when he looked in a small puddle of water and blinked at the flaming skull looking back.

"Okaaaay…. Suddenly I'm having a ghost rider moment." Xander muttered to himself as he sat down next to the puddle and tried not to freak.

His concentration was shattered when a large brown squirrel finally got tired of the flaming individual just sitting there and decided to fall back on an age old squirrel tactic to see if something was dangerous.

Xander blinked as the nut hit him in the chest before falling to the forest floor smoking.

Three miles away Benjamin Tennyson bolted back towards the camp as the scream tore through the quiet night.

--

Xander had finally managed to stop screaming and running about when he noticed he was starting to set the surrounding woods on fire.

Slowly taking a breath to calm down, he frowned as he realized that besides the oddness of being a human torch rip off he wasn't burning himself or the odd uniform he was dressed in now.

Looking up at the sound of chattering, he noticed the tree the squirrel was in had managed to catch fire due to his frantic motions.

After a moments focused thought he found he could actually 'feel' the flames as they follow the fuel they had found towards its highest point.

Growling at his own actions, Xander focused his will on stopping the fire, it was slow going as the flame's natural tendency was to consume whatever it can, but after focusing on it for several seconds he decided on a different tactic.

Instead of stopping the flames, he started to redirect them towards himself.

It would have been next to impossible if he hadn't read all the comics he had as a child.

With a final push of energy Xander looked around the smoking area with a critical eye for any wayward spark or ember that might restart the blaze.

Finally assured there would be no continuation of the fire, Xander looked up at the slightly smoking squirrel with a grin. "Not gonna throw anymore nuts at me are ya, you tree rat." He growled as the squirrel made a series of short barks and disappeared into the tree tops.

Smiling to himself, Xander turned back towards his camp when an explosion ripped the ground out from underneath him and sent him flying. As he came to a tumbling halt Xander shook his head to clear it and looked up at his attacker.

The small robot hovered in the air, bringing what looked suspiciously like a cannon to bear on Xander again.

Diving to the side, Xander threw his hand out and grinned when a fire bolt slammed into his attacker, the smile dropped as the bolt simply glanced off the metal hide of the thing leaving only a slight scratch over its shiny surface to show where Xander had attacked.

Dropping under the third attack and diving away from its fourth, Xander realized that its attacks were constantly getting closer. Growling to himself, he decided to try a variation of a tactic he had seen in one of his comic books.

Pointing his hands at the ground, Xander spun slowly in place as he forced flames from his palms until a good blaze was surrounding him.

Ignoring his attacker, Xander fed more energy into the fire before he set a single source of fuel at the center and added a spin to the whole thing.

Xander had been expecting a small pillar of flame he could use, what he didn't expect and what any good pyromaniac would have warned him about was the situation commonly referred to as the Fire-Storm. Latching onto the monstrous new creation Xander swallowed as he focused its entire rage on the robot that had attacked him.

Bracing himself as the vortex started to scream, it sucked everything into itself and Xander wondered how long he could hold this thing.

Twenty five seconds later, Xander was trying to force the monster down before it went on a near unstoppable rampage when his focus was nearly broken by the incessant beeping of the small symbol on his chest.

Coming to the rapid conclusion that it was likely a bad sign, Xander redoubled his effort on his creation.

As the beeping became a steady whine, the vortex finally succumbed to Xander's will and the bright light engulfed him, his last view was the final wisps of flame breaking up and disappearing as a lump of alien metal crashed to the ground.

The End?