Chronicle 35

Firehouse followed a paper trail of who he learned was captain Steven Torchetti of the FDBC. In the memory of his father, who burnt to a crispy pile in his childhood home, he was to to leave no stone unburned. The captain had several addresses in Big City, but none of them had been lived in for many years, Freddy came to find. As he spent his weeks searching, he felt that he wasn’t doing so alone - not only Morgul was watching. When the feeling got stronger, Firehouse knew that he was on the right trail.

A siren passed by Heinz as he walked the streets of Big City, people stepping aside to give him room. He held his fire axe with two hands as he rushed toward the sound, which caused him to take up more of the sidewalk than he needed. Between his feet, he saw three baby ducks waddling along, and said “Aww”, the fire flowing from his mask growing as he breathed out the sound. The sight of it sent anyone on his side of the street to cross, however gentle his nature truly was. All the aggression and violence within Firehouse was aimed directly at the man he sought, the man who killed his father and inflicted the curse of demonic possession upon him, however beneficial it was.

Following the trucks that hurried down the street, Firehouse noticed smoke billowing from one of the top floors of a highrise. He burst through the door to the lobby, where security hid behind the front desk, pointing him to the stairwell. Each floor he passed, he opened the door to check if smoke was in the hallway. Higher up, the stairs were enveloped in smoke. Morgul awakened, tasting the sweet chaos of conflagration. Flame erupted outward from Firehouse’s mask and his body was filled with heightened demonic energy.

Firehouse shouldered through the door to the first floor the fire had spread to, many stories up on the building. Morgul breathed deep the raging fire and further empowered his host. In the hallway, Freddy looked up to see through the burnt ceiling the firemen working on extracting people trapped by the flames. A figure made its way toward him as his head was turned. When he noticed it, he assumed it was someone evacuating. It moved slowly, however. It didn’t try to go around him. Firehouse readied his axe as he prepared for the encounter.

“I see it in you. Filth.” said a feminine voice from behind the veil.

Through the smoke came a woman covered in flames herself. Her facial features could be seen through the bright multitude of reds and oranges. She was visibly displeased with his presence there. Air blew from all around her, clearing out the smoke in an instant and the fire left her body, allowing Firehouse to see the hall was filled with bodies. She held her palms up and her face became more intensely angry. The moment she released the pose she held, a spark came from her hair, which was floating above her shoulders. An explosion filled the hallway. Firehouse fell to the floor below, landing on his feet, holding his axe upward to block any debris from landing on his head.

The entire top of the highrise came down onto the floor Firehouse fell to. He could see the sky through the massive fire covering the top of the building. Some of the firemen were able to dive out onto a crane lift that was pushed away by the force of the blast. It fell onto the side of another building across the street, but they had some safety harnesses still attached to the structural beams near Firehouse. He grabbed hold and pulled the cables, hoping to save the four people struggling to hold on to the lift carriage railing as the crane began to slide on the edge of the other building.

Firehouse yanked the cables hard to correct the position of the lift. He breathed wildfire into the air as he heaved. The two firemen recognized Freddy and started to cheer, knowing his strength. People on the ground chanted “Firehouse” to join in the efforts to save them, motivating the hero. Nearly upright again, he wasn’t able to see through the flames around him and coming from his mask that the flaming woman was climbing the crane, which melted behind her every move.

“This city will turn to ash, for I am SmokeShow, mistress of the embers!”

As it weakened from her involvement, Firehouse’s next yank was fatal. The top of the crane, where the firemen and civilians were near salvation, began to detach from the neck. Horrific screams rang out as firemen below tried to run. Firehouse looked down at the devastation and turned to see the villain launching herself at him from the top of the crane’s base. She flew up in moments and Firehouse swung his axe at her confidently.

The woman’s skin was like bark, charred and hardened from the flames she wore. Directly into that bark the axe became lodged. Firehouse recognized that he wouldn’t be able to pull it out as she lifted her palms. He lifted his leg and kicked the axe further in. It was that strike that told him she was vulnerable. The metal penetrated the exterior and hit something beneath, more fleshy. She flinched, dropped her hands again and her fury felt hotter than the flames surrounding them.

Firehouse then kicked up the lowest part of the handle, causing the axe to twist off the section of ‘armor’ from the side of her torso. She screamed loudly from the pain as it tore away. The flames in the collapsing floor started reacting to her pain. Morgul took advantage of the moment and embodied Firehouse completely. He took the axe as she was bent over and swung it again in the same spot. Without the thick, scaly skin covering it, he was able to slice deep into her. He breathed in a flame core from her body. SmokeShow was no more.

“Mistress of my embers…” Morgul jested from inside of Firehouse, a rare word from the resident demon.

“What did you do?” asked the hero.

Though Morgul didn’t answer, Firehouse could sense in his growing flame breath that the trickster had absorbed whatever was within her. He gripped his axe tightly and watched the edge of the blade turn red hot. This was a new development in his ability, attributed to the stolen energy. 

While the villain’s body was lifeless on the floor, a human-sized blue flame appeared around her. It grew brighter than Freddy could see through. When it dimmed, SmokeShow’s body was gone along with the strange sentient flame.

Firehouse looked at the flame covering the building and saw within it a vision. Two dimensional, segmented eyes looked upon him from beyond the fire itself. It seemed to float around within the color of the flames. The entire building shook as from the eyes came a vibration so powerful that the fires began to dim themselves. Firehouse had to brace himself against the floor and when he rose, the buzzing stopped. The eyes were gone. The message was not for him, but for Morgul.

Shaking it off, to Morgul’s dismay, Firehouse extinguished the surrounding flames. With the tanks on his back, he sprayed the entire floor until it was clear. He looked over onto the street at the ambulances and crowds of onlookers. Before leaving, he noticed on the floor where the blue flame took SmokeShow’s body was a dark area, more than burned - it was scarred energetically. Firehouse took note of the mark and moved on in his quest to avenge his father.