Ablaze {Marvel} ||2||

25. "Everything Begins With a Spark."

"I still think this would be better if more of us came with you," Tony said through an earpiece.

"It's just to scope out the place," I said.

"No, it's to break-in and give us proof, Kia. Were you not here for this plan?"

Natasha, Steve, and I were finding our way to the facility in the cooler New York night. We figured night would give us more cover, so hours before this, we'd spent time figuring out a game plan.

We weren't dressed in our Avengers gear, just regular clothing to avoid attention. Cars were running on by, traffic lights dictated who had to wait and who had the all clear to start driving again.

"How far off are we?" asked Steve.

"Shouldn't be too much farther," I stated. "Mind you, I took a car here. I didn't walk."

"Maybe we should've invested in a taxi, then," said Natasha.

After some longer walking and sticking together, we found the facility that Kasey and Seth were hiding out in. I breathed in. All right, let's do this. With Natasha's help at getting the lock open, we snuck into the facility.

The lights were on, a big transition from the dark of the night.

"So, where are we going?" Steve asked.

"I only had a tour of the place for a night."

"You stayed the night here?"

I nodded. "Seth had said for observation, see if anything bad happened."

"The opposite did," Nat muttered. "Should we split up? We'll cover more ground that way."

"Your call, Kiara," Steve told me.

I bit my lip in thought. I didn't want us to split up, just in case Seth and Kasey had somehow given themselves powers too. But Natasha made a valid point. "Tony, can you keep track of everyone if we split?" I asked.

"Sure can, Girl on Fire. Go for it."

"You heard the man, split up."

We branched off, Natasha and Steve leaving at the first intersection—Nat took the left while Steve took the right. I remained on my course.

So far, all I got was hallway. No doors. No elevator. No rooms. No directory. This place was pretty plain on the inside. Maybe it was intended to stay that way.

When I did come across doors, I frowned. All rooms required handprint access, access which I knew for a fact I didn't have.

I stopped abruptly when the lights cut out and what appeared to be the emergency lights kicked on. Instead of the usual red lights, the halls were basked in blue. Strange choice of color. Sirens began to wail. Oh damn.

"Nice of you to drop by," said a drawling voice.

I spun around to find the man from before, the man who had beaten Natasha down to escape. The Chicago survivor. His voice oddly enough matched his appearance. He was dressed in a rather fitting black workout suit. I took a fight stance. At this, he smirked.

"Really?" He took a few steps forward.

"Guys, what's going on?" I heard Tony from my earpiece.

The guy in front of me opened his palm. I widened as the fire came obediently. He looked at me. "Miss this, do you?"

I almost ducked when he threw the fireball, but it stopped just in front of me. A warning shot. He took a few more steps. He then created a stream of fire behind him, cutting off that way. Steve and Natasha—unless they found another way—had no way to reach me.