Firebird's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Firebird reached Shield by the time he got home. They agreed on one hard truth. Two of them could not break the Collective's ritual alone. The rest of the X-Agents were gone, scattered on missions no one would recall. The city still wanted them hunted. If Firebird and Shield walked into that dark room alone, they would die, and the ritual would finish anyway. So they needed someone new. Someone whose power could fight Raze's own. They made the call from the mansion. The red walls felt too quiet with the team away. Shield stood by the window, arms crossed. "If she comes, we have a chance," he said. "If she doesn't, we lose the city." She came. Lancer landed on the front steps and walked in without knocking. Firebird had worked beside her before, but never on anything like this. Blue markings cut across her face, markings she never chose. She looked at the empty hall, then at the two of them. "Where's everyone else?" "Gone," Firebird said. "It's us." Lancer didn't flinch. "Then tell me what we're fighting." They told her everything. Raze. The Collective. The ritual to force humans into mutants. The ones who would die in the change. Firebird watched her jaw tighten. A kid on her old block waved at her every day. She was still trying to earn the city's trust. Now the city might not survive to give it. "Raze bends energy," Firebird said. "You bend energy. That's why we called you. You might be the one who can tear his ritual apart." Lancer was quiet. Then she said it plainly. "I move energy. Heat. Force. I can throw it, shape it. Just like Raze can”. She held up one hand. A white glow bloomed over her palm, then died. "But Raze learned to control mystical energy too. Magic." She lowered her hand. "I've never touched magic. I don't know how." The room went cold. Firebird felt the plan crack under him. Her power looked like Raze's but wasn't. Raw energy against ancient magic. It was like bringing a fist to break a locked door made of light. Shield broke the silence. "Then she learns." They went down to the database. Firebird pulled up every file the team had on mystic energy. Lancer read over his shoulder, fast and silent. Shield searched a second screen. Hours passed. Most files were useless. Then Firebird stopped on one. The file named a male witch. Old records. Someone who had bound and shaped mystic energy for years, far from the city, in the forest. The notes said this witch could teach a person to hold magic without burning out. Lancer stared at the name. "You think one witch can teach me in time?" "I don't know," Firebird said. "But it's the only door left." Shield closed his screen. "Then we find the witch." Firebird copied the file. The plan to fight Raze head-on was dead. A new road opened, and it led out of the city, into the woods, toward a stranger who might not help them at all.