CH: 008 - The Birth of Fire and Fury

{Chapter: 008 - The Birth of Fire and Fury}

Though this was Aiden's first true battle, there was no fear in his eyes—only a cold, calculating blaze that burned with growing intensity. His stance was firm, unwavering. His heart beat with eerie calm, as though it already knew the outcome. His muscles were coiled like a predator waiting to strike. Even now, standing across from a Mutant known for incinerating his enemies into ash, Aiden was unmoved. Unshaken.

"Darling… stay back," he said, not even sparing a glance behind him. His voice, though soft, carried the weight of absolute conviction. "I promise you this—he won't walk away from this in one piece."

Daisy hesitated. Her fists clenched at her sides as conflicting emotions warred within her. Fear, concern, pride... but ultimately, she saw the unshakable confidence in Aiden's posture. The way he didn't waver. The way he owned the battlefield with nothing more than his presence.

Reluctantly, she nodded and stepped back, her eyes never leaving his form, even as her heart thudded in her chest like a war drum.

Across the scorched ground, Pyro stood cloaked in flickering fire, his sneer stretching ear to ear. The flames around him twisted and danced like infernal serpents, crackling with malice. Heat rolled off his body in choking waves, distorting the air in rippling mirages of destruction.

But just as Pyro prepared to unleash his opening volley—

BOOM!

The ground cracked beneath Aiden as he launched forward, disappearing in a flash of red. Dust exploded behind him, scattering rocks in every direction. The air around him ruptured with a thunderous pop, a shockwave rippling outward from where he had once stood.

He was fast—unnaturally fast.

A blur of molten energy streaked across the battlefield, cutting through smoke and heat like a divine blade.

"What the—!?" Pyro staggered back, his eyes going wide.

Aiden appeared right in front of him, silent as a ghost, deadly as a meteor.

Startled, Pyro responded on reflex, hurling a concentrated blaze at point-blank range. The inferno surged forward, scorching the very air it passed through, melting stone and sand into glowing slag.

But it never touched him.

Aiden had already vanished again, weaving effortlessly through the torrent of fire like a whisper between flames. Pyro's assault raged across the field, clawing at trees, disintegrating debris, and carving molten trails in its wake—but none of it landed.

It was like trying to hit a lightning bolt with a spear.

The battlefield became a maelstrom of chaos and flame, yet in the center of it all, Aiden was untouchable.

Each movement was precise. Each dodge, a dance of supernatural grace.

He wasn't just evading.

He was adapting.

Testing his boundaries. Feeling the rhythm of battle flow through his bloodstream.

"You're fast," Pyro growled, sweat glistening on his brow. "But not fast enough!"

He extended his arms wide, creating a web of fire around Aiden—like a hunter tightening a noose.

But Aiden just smirked, weaving through the collapsing trap like it was child's play.

"Is this it?" he taunted. "Is this all the great Pyro can muster? All bark... no bite."

"You little—!" Pyro's expression twisted with rage.

But Aiden's grin only widened. Magma-like veins pulsed beneath his skin, his body glowing with internal heat. Sparks drifted off him with each step, and the ground beneath his feet sizzled and cracked.

He wasn't avoiding the flames because he feared them.

He was learning.

Experimenting.

Letting the Extremis-enhanced system within him sharpen and evolve. His body was still in metamorphosis—pushing beyond human limits, integrating power and instinct in real time.

"You really are a disappointment," Aiden said coldly. "I expected more from a seasoned Mutant. But you're like a dog with all bark and no bite."

"Then let me show you the teeth!" Pyro roared, his rage erupting with violent flame.

But instead of launching another attack at Aiden, Pyro suddenly twisted his hand—redirecting the fire toward Daisy.

"Let's see you dance when your girl's the one on fire!"

A jet of flame snaked out like a dragon's tongue, racing across the scorched earth toward her.

Daisy froze for a split second, the sight of the inferno stealing her breath.

"NO!"

Aiden's voice tore through the battlefield like thunder. His eyes lit with a terrifying glow, and the temperature around him skyrocketed. The ground beneath him hissed, cracking under the pressure of his fury. Molten steam exploded from the soil.

The rage awakened something deeper.

He moved.

Faster than reason.

The world blurred as Aiden crossed the distance like a meteor breaking through the atmosphere. Rubble exploded behind him, grass ignited, and sound warped in his wake.

He overtook the flame—

And threw himself in front of Daisy.

"Be careful!" Daisy cried out, too late.

KRA-KA-BOOOOM!!!

The flame hit him like a meteor strike. A roaring detonation echoed across the city, flattening trees, tossing shattered stone like shrapnel, and sending a pulse of fire that could be seen for miles. A massive dome of flame engulfed the field, turning day into hellfire.

The air howled. Windows shattered. Fire devoured everything it touched.

Daisy was hurled back, coughing, shielding her eyes from the blinding light.

A column of flame shot upward, painting the sky in a bloody red hue. The air itself seemed to scream.

And within that column… something moved.

Not crumbling.

Not falling.

But rising.

From the heart of the inferno, Aiden emerged—his skin glowing like molten steel, magma pulsing through his veins. Flames licked his body, but they hissed and vaporized upon touching him. His hair whipped around him in the blaze, his eyes glowing like dying suns.

A volcano in human form.

Unstoppable.

Unyielding.

Pyro kept attacking for five whole minutes. He poured everything he had into Aiden—wave after wave of blistering flame. The ground turned into rivers of lava. The air became toxic. Trees disintegrated.

But Aiden stood in the center of it all.

Alone.

Undefeated.

"HAHAHAHA! What a fool!" Pyro laughed, out of breath, staggering from the effort. "You sacrificed yourself for a woman! Now who's going to protect her?!"

And he turned, smirking, walking toward Daisy through the smoldering haze.

But then…

The smoke began to clear.

But Pyro's smug grin didn't last long.

His eyes widened in disbelief as the smoke cleared—not with the fading of battle, but with the slow, terrifying revelation of what still stood within it.

Aiden emerged like a demon wreathed in fury. His body pulsed with the glow of molten magma, wrapped in searing crimson flames. The heat rolling off him warped the very air. It was as if a volcanic god had been summoned into human form.

Every breath he took shimmered with power. His eyes—twin infernos—glared forward, unblinking. As he stepped, the ground melted beneath his feet, leaving craters of bubbling rock that hissed and popped like lava exposed to rain.

"No… No, that's impossible!" Pyro's voice cracked, his bravado replaced by horror. "How are you still standing?!"

Aiden said nothing. He simply stood there, his form glowing like a living furnace. Shredded remains of his clothes clung to his charred frame. He looked forged in fire itself—an elemental force made flesh.

Pyro panicked. Flames burst from his palms in a desperate stream, a furious torrent meant to vaporize everything in its path.

They struck Aiden… and died.

The fire dissipated the moment it touched his skin, as if it were nothing more than smoke trying to burn a star.

"That's it?" Aiden's voice echoed with the gravity of a volcanic eruption. He strode through the inferno, heat bending the air around him. "Is that the limit of your so-called power, Pyro? I expected more."

With every step, the earth cracked and melted. The battlefield itself seemed to recoil from his presence.

"If you hadn't threatened my woman…" Aiden growled, voice coated with venom, "...maybe I would've let you entertain me a little longer. But now?"

He paused, gaze darkening.

"Now you get to be remembered as the first pathetic stepping stone on my rise."

Pyro's heart pounded like a war drum. Something primal inside him screamed to flee. But his legs refused to move. The weight of terror rooted him to the spot.

Too late.

BOOM.

Aiden vanished from view and reappeared in an instant. His magma-clad hand clamped around Pyro's throat, hoisting him into the air like he was weightless. Yet Aiden didn't let the heat kill him—he controlled it with surgical precision, inflicting searing agony without crossing the line into death.

"AAAGHHH!"

Pyro shrieked as a hellish heat surged through his neck—not fire, but something worse. It was the very essence of combustion, flame without flame, heat that melted his skin.

He felt like his neck was being slowly melted. He struggled with his hands and controlled the flames to attack Aiden but he couldn't hurt him. He finally knew how ridiculous and arrogant his previous action was and thought about how Aiden fooled him by running away from his flames. It turned out that his flames couldn't do any damage to Aiden, he was just teasing him.

His flesh sizzled, skin blackening around Aiden's fingers as if the very essence of his life was being incinerated. He thrashed, sending panicked waves of fire at Aiden—but none of them touched him. They dissipated before contact, like children's breath against a storm.

He finally understood.

Aiden hadn't been dodging.

He hadn't been running.

He had been toying with him.

"You… monster..." Pyro wheezed, barely able to form the words as the agony overwhelmed him.

The fire in his body began to flicker. His power—his very essence—was being drained. He could feel it. Something was being siphoned from within him, flowing into Aiden's hand like a stream of soul and flame.

"W-Wait…" he gasped, his voice breaking. "I— I…"

His pride wanted to beg. His fear screamed at him to apologize. But the words wouldn't come. His strength faltered. His control slipped. The inferno within him was no longer his to command.

"Do you want to aplologize, beg for mercy?" His fear wanted him to ask Aiden to let him go but he just couldn't make any sound at all. his strength was getting weaker and weaker and his flames had begun to gradually become out of control. He felt as though there was a force in his body that was being absorbed by Aiden's hand and was leaving his body.

"No… No…"

Aiden's grip released.

Pyro crumpled to the ground like a broken doll, his limbs twitching, breath ragged. Darkness crept into the edges of his vision.

When he finally looked up—he saw it.

The impossible.

Aiden had returned to his normal appearance. The glow was gone, but his hand… still burned. A flame danced gently across his palm.

His flame.

"N-No… That—That's my power!" Pyro cried, his voice climbing to a fever pitch of despair. "You… You stole it! YOU DEMON!"

Aiden didn't respond. He stared at Pyro with cold, emotionless eyes. As if the man before him wasn't even worth hating. Slowly, he lifted his palm.

The stolen flame swirled and twisted in the air, reshaping itself like a living serpent of fire.

Then it surged forward.

"DON'T!"

A voice rang out through the smoke—sharp, urgent.

Aiden turned. Daisy was sprinting toward him, her face pale, worry etched in every line. She grabbed his arm.

"Dear… don't kill him. If you do, SHIELD will be all over us. He's not worth it."

Aiden's gaze shifted from her to Pyro.

The man lay in a heap on the scorched ground, trembling like a beaten animal. His pride had already been shattered.

Then, to everyone's shock—

"NO—KILL ME!" Pyro suddenly screamed, his voice raw with desperation. "Please—JUST KILL ME! I'M NOTHING WITHOUT MY POWER! MAGNETO WON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME NOW!"

Losing his ability made him feel more pain than death would.

His voice cracked, raw from anguish. It wasn't the pain of defeat—it was the pain of being erased.

Aiden raised an eyebrow.

Then—snap.

The flame vanished.

Like a candle snuffed out by a whisper of wind.

Without a word, Aiden knelt and picked up a small, scorched object on the ground.

Pyro's lighter.

Once a symbol of arrogance. Now nothing more than a relic of failure.

"Let's go," Aiden said quietly.

He turned away and walked off, Daisy falling into step beside him. No more words. No more threats. Just the sound of their footsteps retreating into silence.

Behind them, Pyro lay in the ashes—shaking, hollow-eyed, broken beyond repair.

And in that empty silence, one truth echoed louder than any scream.

Death… would've been a mercy.

*****

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