Ember

Ember (Story of an Ex-Superhero) -11-

He always watched her now.

It was hard not too, for she was the most curious, most greatest of his creations. Her energy was so complex that it even took him awhile to understand the immense amount of power she possessed. With a chaotic whirl of  her scarlet hair and unforgiving eyes, she was the living definition of a beautiful monster and a wonderful disaster. He found himself immersed in such joy when he watched her  in a destructive mood. Her mind was so disconnected from her body, that a fiery rampage through the city did not spur a fleeting thought of sensibility or care. Yes, he thought, she had turned out perfectly horrific. It was exactly what he needed.

The other products of his creation had not turned out so wonderful. The majority of them did not even manifest powers for a wild reason that he had not uncovered yet. But the ones whose powers did manifest, their consciences did not link with their powers. You see, what he needed was a creation whose powers and conscience were two of the same flame. If one had an aggressive power and an aggressive state of mind, it was used in an aggressive way. But unfortunatly, those two did not add up all the time.

For instance, there was one of his in Chicago that had great potential with his uncanny ability to explode objects with a blink of his eyes. But unlike his gift, his nature was the polar opposite of explosive. He was a far too docile and considerate type of person, for when he accidentally exploded the head of one of his friends in a fit of rare anger, he was so overtaken with remorse he looked into a mirror and exploded his own head to end it all. 

Then, there was another of his who had a beautiful ability to disappear. And while this could've been used to carry out a variety of perfectly horrific deeds, she only used it to carry out the deeds of others that managed to discover what she could do. She was a slave to others and proved a weak link no matter what her ability was. To possess no backbone proved her useless and he had to end her life with his own hands. It was quite dangerous to let one of his creations to live on when they were no use to him. That sort of thing could be dangerously useful to other people, like Ember had once been to the citizens of San Marino.

Now when he came upon her, he was prepared for yet another failure. Though she possessed an immense amount of potential with her gift of fire, as fire itself is rarely a controllable element, with her  role as a superhero she was never the type he could aim for. As stupid as the title "superhero" sounded, he could infer that superheroes were of the noble sort and could rarely be easily corrupted.

But then, the uncanny arrival of a stranger with a very curious pack of abilities and his sudden rocket to fame proved enough to kick Ember off her noble stand and completely out of order. That sort of push was enough to launch her into a raging fit of corruption. It was then, that he realized she was a golden opportunity. He knew he would have her.

But then, the stranger was a curious spectacle as well. Even from a careful distance, he could tell that this boy did not possess an ounce of righteousness or selflessness in his heart and that was the characteristic that he sought out for in the first place. Perhaps in retrospect, he was even more valuable than she because his type of malice was that of a cloaked one compared to her impulsive and impeccably chaotic evil.

But he finally concluded that the two of them combined would prove to stir a more violent tempest than they could be able to create on their own. To him, the two of them carried the likeness of two magnets. One of their halves was repulsive to the other, but at the same time the opposite halves drew strongly together. To him, the idea of it was glorious for it would take a very large force to break them apart. 

He was now watching them battling yet again in a department store. It was a magnificent sight, to watch the two of them fight for they were maliciously marvelous in combat with sharp, coordinated movements and determination alight in their eyes. They both were so consumed with hatred that they seemed to be prepared to run an entire city into the ground, if it gave the change to destroy one another. But then, with horror, he watched her running the boy into the hard, plastic tile floor of the store, poised in a a stance that promised death. He knew that her final blow would kill the boy and with it, his plans for the two of them.

No, they were not to finish one another so soon. Now was not the time for their death. Perhaps later, when all the things he had aimed for, when everything he had planned was finished, they could tear each other from limb to limb. When his designs were set into motion, he would watch from afar, making sure everything he promised to his other creations would dance along accordingly and in the end he would be the one laughing. But for their death? It was not time.

He swooped in with a steel confidence of knowing he could stop her from delivering the killing blow. All he needed to do was reach carefully through the barrier of her skull and pick through her forgotten memories, her hidden emotions and her wild thoughts until he found something that had a steadfast grip upon her soul. He would wrap his hands around that thing and pull it to the surface of her mind and let it slip into the light of her eyes.

All thoughts, in that moment, of killing at that moment would cease to exist when the worst sorrow she kept locked away came into being. 

For him, it was all too easy.

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Authors Note:

Short chapter! I know and I'm sorry, but nonetheless, I hope you like it!

-Sunny