Tension's Like a Fire

The fire consumed the girl.

Stefan stopped dead in his tracks that was the last thing he’d intended. He thought this meant her power would forever be lost to him.

Alex exploded. Jazz, the girl who brought him back, he presumed about to die and he let loose more fire at the finally unsuspecting Stefan than he ever knew he could.

He lit Stefan up like a candle.

Then grabbed Jazz.

Stefan’s attention was grabbed by the flames covering his skin burning him agonizingly. He screamed then went straight to ice sending off steam. He was frozen solid trying to get the heat out of his body faster.

But curled up frozen solid, eyes clamped shut, left Stefan vulnerable.

His first mistake.

Zack spotted the opening and ran at Stefan.

Stefan heard the loud thundering running from Zack’s muscle dense flesh slamming against the pavement one foot at a time.

He began thawing himself.

Not fast enough.

One mistake was enough.

Zack’s fist smashed into the partially frozen Stefan .

Again a scream came from him. He couldn’t think through the pain to react, to fight back.

Again Zack’s fist makes contact with Stefan’s body. And again. And again. And again.

“Oh my God.” Ecstatically poured passed Alex’s lips.

Zack’s eyes rose from Stefan’s nearly destroyed body and saw the flames on Jazz dying away revealing the girl unscathed.

Stefan, whose body was crushed on the rubble like a half stepped on cockroach, managed to muster up enough strength to look up and see her too.

“Damn it.” He muttered as his head hit the rubble succumbing to the death that was awaiting him.

He realized as he died she had just the power that would have made him invincible; would have made him strong enough to take over the world like he’d always dreamed.

Alex who’d actually assisted in smothering some of the flames as he held her close taking over the flames so he didn’t get burned.

Zack’s eyes -as well as everyone else‘s- expanded in amazement. He slammed his foot one more time against the broken body and moved back to them.

“What the hell are you fireproof?” Zack asked what everybody was thinking.

She looked just as astonished as they were with tears of elation flowing down her cheeks. “I don’t know.” She said with the joy evident even through the tears.

Alex who had the same type of tears in his eyes smiled and caressed her face. “I guess you’re not as fragile as I thought.”

She smiled back and put her palms to his face too. “I guess I had us both fooled.”

Amelia sat on the ground hand over her face silent as the grave.

Jazz’s eyes moved falling on the girl who she saw -even through the flames- struck all but in Jazz’s place put in pain. Something Jazz feared but only vaguely remembered from her childhood. The reason she feared it was lack of experience.

Her hands dropped from Alex’s face and she turned and walked over to Amelia who still sat in a heap on the floor. She extended her hand out for Amelia.

Amelia finally noticed and slowly took Jazz’s hand with her left still cradling her right to her body letting Jazz slowly help her to her feet. The morose look on her face didn’t change.

“Thank you.” Jazz said gratefully.

Amelia just looked at her cocked her head to the side and walked away, back toward the car wordlessly.

They left that alone. They figured they could give her a pass because of her trauma.

***

Home. Safe.

Those words were beautiful to them. For the first time since it all began they were really truly safe and nothing had ever felt better it was like being able to breathe for the first time in years.

It had been a week. They were happy.

They had moments of peace where Alex and Jazz could just lay in bed in each other’s arms enjoying the calm. Stealing kisses. Gazing into each other’s eyes, memorizing each other’s faces. Speaking so they knew more than each other’s tragedies.

Sally and Jack making up for all of their foolish lost years.

Zack and Jenny were taking things slow. Pretending to be a normal couple. That was the best way for them.

Rian simply enjoyed life without calamity the calm was his natural habitat.

Amelia still hadn’t spoken. Not to anyone.

That scared them but there wasn’t a thing they could do.

They experimented with Jazz. She wanted to know how this power worked, what it’s limits were, and if it was really the reason she lived through a plane crash.

She wasn’t just fire proof.

She was invincible.

Well, almost. She knew for a fact that she aged which she translated into she’d die eventually.

The girls could work with them... Well not their “normal” job but they could fight with them. They were going to be taught to fight.

They were going to be an even bigger team now.

Like a family.

Something those kids needed more than anything else in this great wide world.

***Epilogue***

Time elapses.

The guys still do construction to pay the bills. Jenny’s a mechanic. Sally and Jazz both have their own jobs that are purely day so at night -when big cities are the ugliest- they could help the guys.

The end of their night, when they all think that they’ve done as much as they can without dropping dead from exhaustion.

They started to walk home deciding now was as good a time as any.

Until they heard a counter offer.

Screaming begging.

“Help me!” The voice cries into the night only hoping someone could hear her. It felt like space where no one can hear you scream. “Please don’t hurt me!” The voice then begged to her assailant.

That was enough to convince them they weren’t done.

Rian took his unavoidable lead with everyone following hot on his heels... Well as close as they really could.

The guy had a knife to her throat demanding her silence and she did stop screaming only letting out little whimpers in fear.

Rian snatched the knife from the guy’s hand causing the guy to almost think he dropped it. 'It couldn’t have been taken that fast,' He rationalized as he looked to the ground before turning his head seeing Rian.

The man didn’t even flinch. “Get the fuck outta here!” He roughly barked at Rian before turning his head back to the girl.

Rian stood there shocked at the man’s gall.

Not for long before the rest of the team joined him.

Jazz, having been in this position herself before, felt a rage rush through her at the simple sight.

Rian moved just enough -figuring Zack would be the one to handle this- for Jazz to get by him and get close enough to shove the man and easily deliver a roundhouse kick that nailed him square in the jaw.

He stumbled back a few steps clutching his jaw before falling to the ground next to the woman’s feet.

Jazz followed him to this spot and put her foot on his throat looking down on him coldly.

Before she could say a word of the eloquent speech planned in her head he grabbed her foot and using all the strength he had in his well built body threw her off of him into the wall right next to him head first.

He hopped up as best he could assuming the blow to the head would put her unconscious.

Then he came to face with six other angry faces.

Only one of the four men in the group looked well built enough to be a match for him in a fight, the rest he thought would be no problem.

Alex lit his pant leg up and the man realized then that he was wrong

He fell to his knees trying to smother the flame before it went any higher.

Zack approached the man picked him up like a rag doll using only one hand to grasp his throat as he lifted him into the air.

“Never touch a woman like that again.” Zack said forcefully before throwing him into the adjacent wall.

The man scrambled to his feet -just like they all do- and took off running.

Jack flung some trashcans behind him to encourage the action further.

Jazz had already stood up and dusted herself off and walked back over to join the rest of them as Rian asked the wide-eyed woman if she was alright.

She pushed her thick black framed glasses higher up her nose before shaking her head yes exaggeratedly.

“Thank you so much.” She said first. “I produce a news show and may I say you guys are the news.”

She offered them exposure. In a positive light, this definitely wasn’t what they ever anticipated.