Firebird's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Firebird hovered above the war room table and watched his city burn in miniature. He wanted a world where mutants and humans lived side by side, but the hologram showed the opposite. A crowd packed the downtown square. Red fire raged across burning cars. At the center stood a shirtless man with blue-streaked hair and red energy pouring from his hands. Raze. His enemy, and the reason fear was spreading through the city Firebird guarded. Shield stood across the table, arms folded. He was a tall blonde man in a blue suit with a red belt buckle marked by a black X, the same mark Firebird wore. Shield was his partner in the field and his lover out of it. He rarely wasted words, and he did not waste any now. "He's not just breaking things," Shield said. "Watch the crowd." Firebird looked closer. Raze flung fire, then pointed at a frightened woman cowering nearby. He wanted witnesses. Every phone in the square filmed a mutant setting fire to their homes. "He's building the story," Firebird said. "One more panic like this and the whole city demands we hunt every mutant down. Even the innocent ones." "Then we stop him tonight." Shield's jaw set. "Call the others." Firebird closed his eyes. He pressed two fingers to his forehead and reached out with his mind, searching for the other X-Agents scattered across the region. He felt each of them in turn. One was underwater. One was deep in a fight of his own. Every mind he touched was already strained and far away. He opened his eyes. "They're all busy. It's us." Shield didn't flinch. "Then it's us." They launched from the mansion together. Firebird flew ahead, reading the heat of his streets the way he had for years. He knew these rooftops. He knew these people. One of them could be the terrified woman below. They hit the square from above. Shield dropped between Raze and the crowd, taking the first blast on his chest so no one behind him would. Firebird swept low and lifted Raze off his feet before he could aim again. "They're filming," Firebird said into Raze's ear. "So am I." He flew Raze straight up, out of the crowd's sight, and dropped him hard onto a loading dock far from any camera. Shield was already there. Together they pinned him. But Firebird had misjudged the crowd. People had seen two more costumed figures tackle a man and fly him away. They did not see a rescue. They saw more mutants, more power, more things they could not control. By morning the city had a new demand. Raze sat in a cell, silent and smiling. The people wanted the mutants gone too. Every mutant. Including Firebird and Shield. The fear he fought his whole life now pointed straight at him.