Ember

Ember (Story of an Ex-Superhero) -15-

 Authors Note: The picture to the right is what I envision Ember to look like. I'll show a picture of Reno in the next installment. Anyways,  tell me what you think of this chapter! Feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!

When she opened her eyes, there was nothing but a hollow darkness. She was lying down, that she knew, for it felt as if her face was pressed against a cold floor. Goosebumps rippled down the surface of her arms. A strange dampness hung in the surrounding air, thick as if there was a promise of rain. She couldn't be outside though, for the mechanical grind of a generator hummed somewhere near and when she coughed, the sound ricocheted around her, an echo.

When she sat up, her suspicions were confirmed. A light flicked on, blinding her. After her eyes settled to the brightness, a plain concrete room lay before her. No windows. No furniture. Only a single naked bulb hanging from the ceiling and a metal door with a tiny rectangular window set into it. 

She tried to remember how she came to be here, in this concrete prison. All she could recall was a heavy force smashing into her, losing control of her powers, and then only darkness. It had to be the tiny girl who did it. Perhaps she possessed more power than her size let on and perhaps Ember, at the same time, had jumped to the conclusion that she would be an easy take own far too quickly. Obviously, she had been wrong. 

The heavy click of an unlocking door disturbed the silence and Ember's head snapped towards it, instincts flaring. Whoever dared to walk through the door would get a taste of her fire. She pooled the flame in her palm, balancing it delicately on her fingertips, waiting for someone to step into view. And just as a slight shadow flitted across the wall, she threw her fire as hard as she could.

A strange hiss then filled the room, sizzling like the frying pans of fast food joints. In front of her, a thick cloud of white steam blossomed, obscuring her vision. The room grew hot, causing perspiration to prickle the surface of Ember's skin and her lungs to grow heavy with the weighted air. In this moment of confusion, Ember let her guard down. It was only for a second, but  a second was all it took because the next thing she knew, a whirl of water crashed into her.

Now, fire an water are two opposing elements bound in an endless power struggle. Fire is stronger when there is little water and an abundance of water proves deadly to a single flame. Ember oftentimes tried to stray away from the substance. Sure, she needed to hydrate daily, but that didn't cause damage. Utter submergence did.

That's why Ember dutifully avoided pools, lakes, streams and large bodies of water. When she was younger, it wasn't much of a problem. She'd just feel a bit nauseous near water. When she got older, however, and her powers began to mature, it got worse. If she took too long in a cold shower, she passed out. But when she became a superhero, the city often worried that they'd need saving right after Ember got out of the shower. So they came up with a solution: a medication that kept her from passing out during a shower and being too weak to fight. While the medicine helped in the long run, it was a hassle, an expensive one, for scientists to make. Perhaps that was one of the many reasons why San Marino decided to drop her. Her weakness with water along with uncontrollable bursts of power every now and then was a dangerous disadvantage.

When she had to live on the streets after that fateful Christina Delangio incident, the luxury of the medication disappeared. She just had to deal with it now. If she ever found the chance to use a shower, usually at a community center, she had to pray there was hot water and make them quick before she became too weak. It was an obnoxious sort of think, but Ember tried not to let it bother her too much. 

But she was certainly bothered by this water. It was so cold that it shocked her. She was, in no way, mentally or physically prepared for it. When it made contact with her blazing skin, a sizzling noise filled her ears and it felt as if the water was eating away at her flesh. The water drenched her,  but it wasn't enough for her to pass out like she did when Reno snuffed her with the fire hydrant back at the Awards Ceremony. It seemed like it was just enough to make her writhe in pain, like a mobster shooting someone in the foot, not to kill him, but to make him comply.