Professor Xavier rolled at top speed from Cerebro, telepathically calling to his X-Men.
My office, now.
In only three minutes all of the X-Men where there, looking at him expectantly.
The Professor steeples his fingers and says gravely, "I've found her."
Kitty, Iceman, and Rogue all let out a whoop of joy, and Logan, Scott, and Storm all look relieved. The Professor, however, does not share in their relief and happiness. He holds the remote to the television in his hand and clicks the power button.
A news program is on screen, and everyone quiets to watch.
"...as you all can see, the damage is devastating," the field reporter yells over a cacophony of screaming and explosions, "Police are holding all reporters back from the action, but Channel 6 received word from a highly reliable source on the inside that the inferno is being caused by a group of very destructive mutants. Let's go to our research department to find out exactly how mutations are..."
No one's really listening anymore, just stunned into silence. Storm flips over all of the news channels to find the exact same story playing.
"You—you're sure it's Firefly?" Asked Kitty shakily, "I don't think she could—She couldn't be that... She never let on she could do that much."
"So, that's it?" Scott asked, "She's not ours anymore."
"No!" Yelled Logan, "I—She wouldn't do that! Not on her own free will! Magneto's messed with her somehow... Made her different than she was!"
At his statement the whole room begins to argue loudly. The Professor intervenes telepathically. The room was quiet and uneasy once more.
"Logan is right. When I found Temperance using Cerebro, it was as if I was looking through frosted glass. Her image was blurry, I could barely find her mind. I have only encountered interference like that when dealing with Lady Deathstrike and Jason Striker." The Professor's words ring through the room, and Logan is next to speak.
"So, we go, we pick her up, take her back here, and wait for that mind control potion to wear off. Simple." Even he doesn't believe what just came out of his mouth.
"No, I'm afraid not. This is a defiant public display of power; Magneto is baiting us." Storm says, and the Professor nods in affirmation. "We do have to go in for her. She is still part of this student body. We also have to go clean up the mess they've made of that place. Where were they, Professor?"
The Professor sighs heavily, "A mall. Another tally to the fact that Magneto is baiting us. If it were to be part of his plan for mutant superiority, his target would have been more significant.
"Go, bring her back. Be cautious."
Logan growls in affirmation and adds, "And we'll show them they can't just steal our kids."
Burning. Flames; destruction. All she could see was the magic of dancing fire. Pyro showed her how to make them dance. She was perfectly content watching her creations spin and leap through the air, pirouetting and showering the asphalt with molten light.
Everything seemed blurred, and an annoyingly loud voice in the back of her mind said this wasn't right; she shouldn't be destroying things like this. And then Pyro's voice drowns out the annoying one, and everything is bliss. Everything was pain free; so, so free of anything, everything. She wondered why that voice that sounded so familiar was getting so loud in her mind, almost drowning out Pyro's now. She wondered why she could feel the heat from the flames and feared, just a little, their beautiful glow.
And she remembered, as the black aircraft landed, the curious, intelligent voice of Dr. McCoy.
"Perhaps, since your body temperature is much higher than others, foreign objects like pollen or—or viruses, they just burn up when they hit your blood stream!"
A sick feeling entered her gut, and she remembered the moment, two hours before. Mystique, a vial of clear liquid, and a horrible, burning pain on the back of her neck. Then nothing. Her mind swept blank, only a wide, wonderful expanse of white. Oh, the freedom of not having to make a single decision! But then, that oddly familiar voice. Was it her own? Yes, that did sound a bit like her. What was she saying?
Stop that! You're going to get burned!
No, Pyro says I can do this. He protects me from the scorching flames.
You're an idiot! Why are you causing all this destruction?
It was rather freeing to embrace her power so fully. Firefly wondered why she had never done this before. She found her power easier to control when she relaxed this way.
You've never done this before because you could hurt someone! All those people!
And that realization struck her in the gut. Sometimes guilt can be the only thing to bring you back.
How many have you killed?
Instead of hearing her voice as if it was coming from outside of her mind, it seemed to echo into exactly what she thought. Everything came into focus. Fire was dangerous once more. And Pyro no longer controlled her like a marionette.
There was shouting now. Familiar voices drifting over the smoke. Panic and anger permeated the air with a disgusting, sweaty smell. Firefly was the cause, she knew it.
She also knew that Pyro had a vile of the clear liquid that would send her back into that zombie-state, for a little while, at least. She had to keep him thinking she was still under his control.
The smoke and haze didn't bother her as much as she would have thought, and acting like she wasn't afraid of the blaze proved not as difficult as it had first been. She followed Pyro's commands for fire as best she could. He was draining her battery.
Shapes loomed in the smoke. Lightning struck the ground in the distance. A storm? Or was it Storm?
A bloodcurdling roar deafened Firefly. Wolverine, claws out and shrieking, had erupted from the cloud of smoke and tackled Pyro to the ground.
"Get him off of me!" Pyro yelled.
Firefly complied with a flamethrower to Logan's side. He tumbled off and began yelling at her.
"Firefly! You can beat this, I know you! I know you can!" Pyro, now unnoticed, stole fire from a blazing overturned car and shot it into Wolverine's back, magnifying it to extreme temperatures.
"She's not yours anymore, Wolvie."
It hurt her to watch Logan, his back one huge scab, lying on his stomach on the blazing, blackened concrete parking lot. She needed to signal to him somehow.
"And just to prove it to you," Pyro's arrogant smirk made her hurt a little more, "Finish him off, Firefly."
Wolverine looked up, and Firefly shuddered. His face held a mixture of emotions, the most evident anger. She had been fearing and hoping Pyro would tell her to do this. Hoping because she could easily signal to Logan that she was herself again, and was only doing this to lull Pyro into a false sense of security. Fearing because, well, Logan was Wolverine.
She kept her face frozen in indifference and leaped into action.
Logan just never realized how scary Firefly could be. It was her appearance, right now, as she looked down on him. Someone had dressed her in a sleeveless red dress which fluttered around her shins. Her pale skin was made even paler by the dress, giving her a haunted, ethereal look. Firefly's hair fell over her face, but the wrong side. Her scar was lit by the flickering infernos all around them, her 'normal' side totally invisible.
They had brought out the mutant in her.
And her eyes, those cat eyes, were totally cold.
She attacked. Red flat-soled shoes struck the ground at an angle, bringing up a wave of fire and burning gravel. Logan rolled away from her.
"Come on, Smarts!" He yelled. She ran full force at him, intending to tackle. Pyro's influence had obviously made her dumber. By moving closer, Firefly was giving Logan chances to attack her. Firefly could cause damage from far away, but Wolverine needed to be close to sink his claws into an opponent.
Other X-Men had joined the fray, finished with Mystique and Magneto. Iceman, Rogue, and Kitty formed a barrier around Pyro, trying to bring him down. He was powerful with all the fire around him, and Rogue couldn't get close enough to touch him.
Firefly made contact, slamming into Logan with enough force to knock him off balance. And then he saw it: the subtlest of subtle winks from her emotionless eyes. The slightest upturn at the corner of her mouth. A knowing twitch along her eyebrows.
And then she gave him a fiery punch to the nose.
"OWWW!" He yelled a little too loudly. He then tackled her to the ground, making sure to cushion her landing with an arm, but whipping it out from under her before anyone could see.
"So, what's the plan?" He whispered, just loud enough for her to hear but no one else.
"I was figuring on keeping on beating you up, actually." She said it so her lips barely moved. And then she shoved him off with strength he hadn't noticed before. A fireball hit him square in the stomach. He dove in with his claws, missing her by a few inches, but close enough to say, "Power down a bit, you're killing me."
Her hands flicker, fire flitting around them, but not touching her skin. She thrusts out, flat palmed, and imprints of her hands wind up on his cheek and shoulder before healing shut.
"Gotta make it look good. Thanks for rescuing me, by the way." She bitterly says, not bothering to hide her speech.
It was almost like they were sparring in the Danger Room again, talking about what they had for lunch. Except the stakes were higher, and the dress code formal.
"We tried; Magneto's got that place cloaked. You're parents threw a fit, rightfully."
She does this odd cartwheel accented with fire that Logan just knows Mystique taught her.
"My parents. My parents are going to kill me."
"They tried to kill us." She almost lets herself laugh.
Firefly lands a few more fire punches to his gut and whispers, "It's time."
Iceman keeps up a steady defense as Rogue tries to get close to Pyro, and Kitty phases Iceman through more powerful fire blasts or flaming projectiles. She obviously can't touch Rogue.
Fire erupts from behind them, odd, because Pyro is in front of them. He laughs.
"'Bout time, Firefly." He calls to the girl in the flaming red dress.
She walks past them all, they part as she leaves fiery footprints behind her. She stands beside Pyro, and it almost looks like she might attack them.
And then she sets his shirt aflame.
"Watch it!" He grabs it from his clothes and throws it to the ground.
She begins pelting him with fireballs and punching him and kicking him.
"What are you doing! Attack them!" He's sounds panic-y. Her face splits into a grin.
"See what happens when you're not in control?"
And she attacks again, waves of molten flame and heat washing over him. He fights back, pushing the waves into a wall of fire between them. Firefly has this odd calm about her now, and somehow, she knows she's going to win.
Firefly raises her hands in front of her, her neck exposed, her back straight, and slowly, she pushes out.
Pyro is immediately knocked out.
Firefly opens her eyes, and looks around. Her friends stand close to each other, Logan coming up behind them, and putting one hand on Rogue's shoulder.
Firefly raises her hands, and slowly lowers them, palms down. All of the flickering flames subside, smoking on the blackened pavement.
She can only stand there and look around at the wreckage she somewhat knowingly caused.
Firefly assumes this is why you shouldn't bottle things up.
The group moves towards her, and she backs up.
"Still hot." Is her excuse.
Eventually, the other adult X-Men join them, Storm going directly to check Pyro's pulse and then leaving him there on the ground.
Logan ventures forward. Firefly looks up at him, the most emotion he's ever seen occupying her face.
Peacefulness, anger, relief, and sorrow.
"You didn't kill anyone, not yet, anyway." He says roughly. "Three people in critical condition over at the hospital."
Her expression does not change.
"I'm really tired. Can we go home?" She sounds like a child. Kitty comes up, and hesitates for a moment before throwing her arms around her roommate.
"I missed you so much! Never, ever do that again!"
Firefly's old face comes back to her, cheeky and sardonic, but in a light sort of way.
"I will never, ever get kidnapped again."
"We should probably go." Cyclops adds, "The cops aren't very fond of us at the moment."
"When are they ever fond of us?" Rogue scoffs.
The group heads back to the Blackbird.
Back home.
A/N: Aww, happy endings. Yes, I know there were a lot of potholes and such, but I think this was pretty good for my first attempt at fanfiction. Only one chapter left!