Firestarter

[vgdivision]

The PPC was originally created by Jay and Acacia, and is currently administered by the PPC community. Gall and Fellrazer belong to Neshomeh. Gremlin, Aiden, and Xericka belong to PoorCynic. Many thanks to JulyFlame for providing a beta.

Aiden examined the wooden block with the eye of a connoisseur. It wasn’t one of the traditional cube or box-shaped ones; no, this particular block had one of those tricky curves built into it. It would resist traditional stacking techniques unless placed in just the right way. This would clearly require all of his skills.

He turned the block over so that the arch was facing the ceiling. Then, with almost surgeon-like care, he placed the flat edge of the block on the very top of his tower. It wobbled once. Twice. And then went still.

Success.

Aiden nodded and smiled to himself. He then swept his arm through the tower with a giddy laugh, scattering blocks across the floor of the response center. Once they finished tumbling and rolling, he picked up the nearest one and began setting them up again.

“His speed is improving,” Xericka said. She was sitting on her battered couch, thumbing through various forms before putting them into a simple black bag. “He finished the building stage at least a second faster than his previous attempt.”

Gremlin, lying next to her partner with her feet up on the couch armrest, gave out an amused snort. “I feel like it should be weird that you’re keeping track of that,” she replied. “Then I remember it’s you, and it just seems normal.”

“It is important to keep track of developmental milestones.”

“Sure, yeah. But most people don’t do it down to the second.” Gremlin swung her legs off of the armrest and slid into an upright sitting position. Her expression grew slightly more serious. “Are you going to be okay?”

“My previous annual extended medical checkups have not shown any major physical or psychological maladies. As there has not been any major change in my lifestyle over the past year, the same should apply for this checkup.” The Nobody paused, the papers in her hands momentarily forgotten. She looked over at Gremlin. “I suppose I should be asking if you will be okay. This will be the longest you have ever watched Aiden on your own.”

The small frown on Gremlin’s face gave way to a coy smirk. “Are you worried about me, Xerry? Or feigning being worried?” She slid over and rested her head on Xericka’s shoulder. “Either way, that’s sweet.”

Xericka rolled her eyes before pushing Gremlin back. “I merely want to make sure you are both willing and able to take on the task. I can still leave Aiden with the Nursery if you have changed your mind.”

“Xericka, I can handle watching Aiden for half a day. The kid is so chill he practically breaks the laws of thermodynamics. Besides, it’s not like I’ll be all by my lonesome. Gall’s coming over.”

“Yes, Gall. Of course.” Xericka carefully lined up the last few pieces of paper in her hands before putting them into her bag. “And you do remember the rules I set down for her helping you, correct?”

“I remember.” Gremlin began counting off her fingers as she spoke. “No drinking. No partying. No crimes. No leaving the RC.”

“And you will call the Nursery if you need any further assistance.”

“Yep.” Gremlin slid back over to her partner for another hug. “But really, though. Thank you for trusting me.”

Xericka closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side, so that her cheek was gently resting on the top of Gremlin’s head. “You are welcome,” she said. “Thank you for repeatedly demonstrating your trustworthiness.”

There was another clatter of blocks from Aiden’s direction.

“Another marginal improvement,” Xericka murmured.

“Seriously. If it were anyone else.”

 

---

There was a thumping at the response center door. Gremlin, now clad in sweats and a blue t-shirt with “KEEP CALM AND HACK THE SYSTEM” written on it, ambled over and opened it up. “Hey, G!” she said.

“Hey yourself!” Gall answered, grinning. She had plaited her dark red hair tightly against her skull and dressed in cut-off jeans and a theoretically apt purple jersey with white lettering declaring her a supporter of the Vikings. “Have no fear, the party is here!” She held up her hands: with one she dangled a pair of aluminum Jiffy-Pop pans by their long wire-loop handles, and with the other she flourished a DVD copy of Dumbo.

“Sweeeet! Love that one. Don’t think he’s seen it yet, so that’s a good get.” Gremlin turned away from the door. “Aiden! Come say hello to your Auntie Gall!”

There was a brief pause and another clattering sound before Aiden ran out from behind the couch, a gleeful look in his amber eyes. “Auntie Gall! Auntie Gall!” he called out.

“Munchkin!” She dropped into a crouch and held out the movie. “Check it out: we’re gonna watch this today, but only if you’re my personal minion and you’re super-good and do whatever I say, got it?”

“Ooh . . .” Aiden fell quiet for a moment as he scanned the movie case. “Okay! I can be a super-good minion! Always! Promise!”

Gremlin knelt down and tousled the boy’s hair. “Ain’t that the truth,” she said. “You’re like the least kid-like kid I know. Despite my best efforts.” She looked up at Gall and smirked.

Gall cackled. “Corrupt ’em young, right?” She rose and deposited the popcorn and the movie on the console, then turned around and frowned. “Speaking of which . . . Just a sec.” She leaned out the door, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and whistled. “Fellrazer! Where’d you go?”

A roar answered her from somewhere down the corridor, and a moment later, a sinuous blue jumble of wings and spines about the size of a large dog hurried up to her. The dragon raised his head and tilted it inquisitively, peering into the RC.

Gall gestured at him to come in. “Aiden, meet Fellrazer. He’s my friend—my best friend next to your auntie here. You can say hi if you want.”

Fellrazer shuffled forward, muzzle extended and nostrils twitching with interest.

Aiden had grasped onto Gremlin’s leg when Fellrazer first appeared, but that brief moment of fear had quickly given way to wide-eyed interest. He took a step forward, one hand still clutching loosely onto Gremlin’s sweats. He raised the other and slowly waved it at the dragon. “Hi,” he said, almost breathlessly. “I’m Aiden.”

As this was going on, Gremlin leaned over to Gall. “You’re totally sure that Fells is okay with kids?” she whispered. “Because if anything happens to Aiden, I’m pretty sure Xericka will abandon both of us in the Corridors of Darkness to get our hearts corrupted by evil or something.”

Gall snorted. “’Course, he’s perfectly safe,” she whispered back. “Watch.”

Fellrazer had stopped short of Aiden’s arm’s reach. He made a raspy purring sound in his throat and flicked out his forked tongue to lightly touch the boy’s fingers.

The boy gasped, then giggled. “He’s like a puppy!” he exclaimed. “Can I pet him, Auntie Gall?”

“Sure!” she said, grinning at Gremlin. “He likes it if you scratch under his jaw.”

Aiden let go of Gremlin and walked closer to Fellrazer. He reached out, carefully scratching the dragon where Gall had said. Fellrazer’s yellow eyes drifted shut, and he leaned into it, purring harder.

Gremlin let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. She looked at Gall and smiled back. “Okay, okay,” she said, giving her friend a nudge. “You were right. And that’s not something I tell you all that often.”

“Pff, I am always right,” Gall said, shutting the door and making herself at home on the couch. “You just don’t always appreciate my genius.”

“Genius. That’s . . . one word for what you’ve got, I suppose.” Gremlin plopped down next to her, still keeping an eye on Aiden.

The toddler took his new friend on a tour of the RC’s main room and all the most important stuff in it: his toys. Fellrazer followed him around and sniffed everything that was shoved under his nose, as politely fascinated as a dragon could be. That done, Aiden got back to the business of playing, and the two women relaxed into a round of catching up.

 

---

“Auntie Gremlin! Auntie Gall! Look, look!”

Gremlin looked around at Aiden, who was holding up a Lord of the Rings coloring book—a gift from a fellow agent who didn’t really understand the meaning of ‘age appropriate’, but who did know what kids liked. She nodded. “Yep, that is a . . . purple and green Gollum. With a red mustache. You’re an artistic genius, Aiden.”

“Nice,” Gall agreed with a hearty thumbs-up. “The clash speaks to the inner conflict of the soul, or some deep crud like that.”

Fellrazer, curled into a semicircle with Aiden at the center, grumbled and rolled his eyes.

Gall made a sneering face at the dragon. “Everyone’s a critic.”

Aiden smiled contentedly as he returned to his coloring.

Gremlin, meanwhile, poked Gall. “So. Getting back to what we were talking about. Have you taken down any big Sues or Stus since then?”

Gall resettled herself on the couch. “Nah. It kinda sucks. I took this job for the excitement, you know? Chasing down freaks of nature through weird and brain-bending worlds, new adventure every week, don’t miss it! Nobody told me it could get so boring. They’re all the same.” She sighed in disgust.

“Tell me about it. It’s the same old story over here too. Stop the canons from fu—” Gremlin glanced over at Aiden and cleared her throat. “—doing stuff. Exorcise the demons. Repeat.” She took a sip from her water. “That’s why it’s good to have moments like this, you know? Something that just breaks up the same-old, same-old.”

“Yeah, I feel that. It’s cool to just hang with you.” She bumped her fist against her friend’s. “And I like your kid, who I think has definitely earned that movie. Whaddaya say, Aiden? Ready for a movie?”

Aiden looked up from the coloring book, where a very 1960s-style Gandalf was coming into focus. “Movie!” He dropped the crayon and clambered to his feet, then excitedly shook his hands in the air. “Movie time! Moo-vie, moo-vie!”

“Sounds like a yes to me,” Gremlin said. “Either that, or he got into the sugar when we weren’t looking.” She stood up and stretched. “Do you want to take care of the popcorn, or did you want me to do it?”

“Oh, I got this covered,” Gall assured her, rising herself. “Stand back . . . okay. Fellrazer!” She snapped her fingers.

With a toothy grin, the dragon coughed a puff of flame onto his back, lighting up the spines that ran down the middle in a perfectly contained miniature bonfire.

Gremlin smiled and shrugged. “That’s one way to do it, I guess. Aiden, just stand back from Fellrazer and we’ll have ourselves a nice snack in no . . .” She fell silent upon looking over at him. “Aiden?”

The boy was staring at the dancing flames, mouth slightly ajar. He tilted his head to one side, and then the other. The flickering light sent odd shadows dancing across his unreadable expression. Slowly, he reached out toward the fire on Fellrazer’s back.

“Whoa!” Gremlin darted forward, a look of unrestrained panic on her face, and snatched Aiden off the floor into her arms. “Ooookay then! That was some fun!” She turned Aiden in her arms to look him in the eyes, which were still vaguely glassed over. “Aiden, that’s fire. Fire is hot and should not be touched. Okay, buddy?”

Even Gall was concerned. “Jeez, I didn’t think he’d just go for it like that.” She addressed Fellrazer: “Fend him off if he gets too close.”

Fellrazer raised a wing in acknowledgement and splayed both of them out a little further from his body.

“Cool, cool.” Gall nodded. “Right. Let’s make this quick, I guess.” She retrieved the Jiffy-Pops and sat down to toast them over her dragon’s back.

There was no response from Aiden, who was now staring off into the middle distance. Gremlin chuckled weakly. “Looks like he inherited a bit of his mom’s inherent creepiness,” she said. “Come on, Aiden. Sit down next to me. The movie’s gonna start soon, okay?” She set him down on the couch next to her and slid Dumbo over to Gall with her foot. “Can you put that in the DVD player for me? I’m just going to keep him right here in case he decides to get handsy again.”

“Uh . . .” Gall had a Jiffy-Pop in each hand, and would normally have kicked up a fuss, but in this case sucking it up and figuring out a solution seemed like the better part of badassery. She managed to hold both loop handles in one hand while popping open the DVD case with her teeth, and finally got the disc into the drive. “Hah! So there.”

“Thanks, G.” Gremlin raised her hand towards the screen and, with a wave, began skipping through all the ads and menus. Beside her, Aiden blinked and shook his head, as if he were waking up from a nap. “How you feeling, kiddo? You kinda went weird on us for a second there.”

Aiden looked up at Gremlin. “Fire,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Uhh . . . yeah, that was fire.”

“Fire.”

“. . . Aiden?”

A smile washed over the boy’s face. “Fire!” He lifted both his hands and pointed them, palms outward, at the loose pile of wooden blocks on the floor.

FWOOSH.

The blocks were suddenly the center of a small inferno.

Fellrazer lifted his head and gave a grunt that was half startled, half impressed.

“Whoa!” Gall yelped. “Dude! What?”

Aiden laughed and clapped, which caused the smoke wafting from his palms to make strange shapes in the air. “Fire! Fire!”

Gremlin stared, stunned, at the fire now burning merrily in the middle of the floor. Her outstretched hand dropped, freezing the movie mid-title card. A string of stammered Mandarin curses came out of her mouth.

“Fire!” Aiden thrust his hands toward the fire again. There was no fireball this time. Instead, the flames surged in intensity, smearing the ceiling with soot and forcing the two women to shield their faces from the heat. It then vanished, leaving nothing behind of the blocks but some smoldering ashes.

Gall turned a wide-eyed stare on Gremlin and Aiden. “What,” she said again, “in the name of Loki’s overcompensating metal hat, was that?” She jabbed a Jiffy-Pop in the direction of the former blaze. Several kernels popped.

“I . . . I don’t know!” Gremlin finally managed to say. She stood up, leaving Aiden on the couch, and began quickly pacing back and forth in front of him. Aiden paid this no mind, and instead kept giggling while bouncing up and down in place. “I’ve never seen him do anything like this before! I mean, Xericka never—” She stopped. “Oh shit, I just remembered. He was adopted from the Airbender universe. His father was a firebender, but we weren’t sure if it was going to carry over to . . . Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”

“Oh, shit,” Gall echoed. She gave the popcorn a few shakes, just to do something while she thought. More kernels exploded noisily. “Uh, he has to have a source of fire to do it, right?”

“That’s movieverse firebenders!” Even with panic quickly burbling up in her voice, Gremlin still managed to put a disgusted spin on the word ‘movieverse’. “He’s from the cartoon; firebenders there can just make the stuff by themselves!”

“I knew that!”

Gremlin looked over at Fellrazer, who was now sniffing at Aiden in a vaguely puzzled but keen way. “And they learned it from dragons. How fricking appropriate. Can you extinguish him? Maybe that’ll calm Aiden down.”

“No. Dammit.” Gall shook her head. “But it’ll go out on its own in a while! It’s just a thin coat of spit . . . so, uh . . . maybe it’ll be cool?”

FWOOSH.

Now it was the coloring book’s turn. It lasted about three seconds before shriveling up into cinders. Aiden had the wide grin of a child who had just discovered an extra big package underneath the tree on Christmas morning.

Fellrazer’s jaw dropped in an excited grin, and he made a happy sort of squawk.

Gremlin let out a pained, shrill sound from the back of her throat. “Aiya,” she murmured. “Xericka’s going to dump me into the deepest, darkest pit she can find.”

“Okay, nobody panic,” Gall said. “You—” she pointed a rapidly bulging popcorn pan at Aiden “—stop that! No more fires, you hear me?”

FWOOSH.

Flecks of aluminum floated through the air like snowflakes on a windy day. Bits of burnt popcorn were scattered across the room. The only sounds were the crackling of small hot spots and Aiden, who was laughing so hard that he fell off the couch.

Gall looked around in stunned disbelief. She’d taken a fair bit of popcorn and hot air to the face. “Aw, man! See, now we can’t eat that! Bad minion!” She dropped the burst Jiffy-Pop and its twin with a sigh of disgust and started brushing herself off.

Fellrazer got up and claw-footed over to Aiden, gently using his teeth to pick up the toddler by the back of his shirt and set him on his feet. He licked at the boy’s hands, purring.

Aiden giggled again and started scratching the dragon under his chin. “Good boy,” he said. “Good Fellrazer.”

“You, stop encouraging the Terrible Terror!” Gall slapped the side of Fellrazer’s tail.

In response, he slapped back, and his tail was bigger than her hand.

“Ow! Hey!”

Fellrazer chortled in his throat.

“Fire,” Aiden remarked. His satisfaction and eagerness were palpable.

“I’m going to go get the fire extinguisher,” Gremlin said wearily, as she starting combing blackened corn kernels from out of her hair.

 

---

Xericka shifted her messenger bag on her shoulder as she walked through the maze that was the Department of Bad Slash. Another year, another clean bill of health. No abnormalities or potential Sue relapses. As was to be expected.

She rounded a corner, then slowed her pace. There was an unfamiliar haze in the air. Smoke. Certainly not a massive cloud of smoke by any measure, but visibility was not at one hundred percent. There was a lingering odor as well. Something burning. Multiple things burning, to be precise.

Her pace slowed further as she approached her response center. It seemed that both the haze and the acrid smell were emanating from Response Center 555. A somewhat troubling if not entirely unexpected development.

Xericka closed her eyes, let out a small sigh, and opened the door.

The interior was certainly different from how she remembered it upon her departure. The room looked as if someone had turned on an industrial wind machine inside. Furniture was tipped over. Ashes and what appeared to be charred popcorn were scattered everywhere. Almost every surface—ceiling included—had some sort of black smudge on it. Most of said smudges were at knee-height, and looked rather like small hand prints.

Slumped against the couch were two women, both of whom looked exhausted. They both had fire extinguishers clutched in their grips. The one with the undercut looked particularly haunted, and was staring off into the middle distance.

There was a crash from the bedroom. Through the doorway charged a dog-sized dragon, his back aflame. Charging after him was a dark-haired boy with a massive grin. He was waving his hands in a circle, which seemed to match the motion of the small motes of fire orbiting above his head.

Xericka tilted her head to the side. “Interesting,” she said.

Aiden stopped dead upon finally noticing the Nobody standing in the doorway. “Mommy!” He ran over to Xericka and hugged her legs. Without saying a word, she kneeled down and scooped him up into her arms.

The balls of flame fell to the floor. Almost unthinkingly, and without looking, Gall swung around her extinguisher and gave them a quick blast. Then she cottoned on to Xericka’s presence. “Oh! Oh, thank Thor.” She nudged Gremlin with her elbow. “Hey, look. We’re off the clock!”

Gremlin slowly turned to look at Xericka. Her expression wobbled between relief and utter dread. “Hey, Xerry,” she finally managed.

“Good evening, Gremlin. Gall.” Xericka stepped into the room and set down her bag on what looked like the least soot-stained surface. “I see that Aiden has begun to come into his bending.”

“I can do things with fire, Mommy!” Aiden added pridefully.

“Indeed you can. Well done.” The Nobody turned her attention back to the two exhausted babysitters. “Was it any specific moment or incident that provoked him to begin firebending?”

“Uh.” Gall shared a look with Gremlin. “It just sorta—”

That was when Fellrazer came back around from the other side of the room and trotted up to Xericka’s feet, peering interrogatively up at his new fire-starting friend. The flames along his spines were low now, but still glowed molten red over his blue scales. He squawked a question.

“Happened?” Gall finished weakly.

Xericka looked down at the dragon, then back up at Gall and Gremlin. “It just happened.” She arched one of her eyebrows for a moment. “Of course. Was he injured in any way?”

“No!” Gremlin practically leapt from the floor with a manic look on her face. “No, absolutely not! He’s fine! Ha! Ha! The little scamp. You’re fine, aren’t you Aiden?”

The boy opened his mouth to answer, but instead yawned. “Good,” he said as he leaned his full weight against Xericka.

“Then I suppose everything has concluded in a satisfactory manner,” Xericka said. She began to rock Aiden in her arms. “Aiden has reached an important development step without injury. In fact, I should probably thank you both for helping him to achieve this point.”

“You should?” Gall muttered to herself, but then, smelling an opportunity through the reek of burned popcorn, she scrambled to her feet beside Gremlin. “Y-yeah, you should! You know, for a little guy, he sure made a big debut! Totally wouldn’t have happened if not for us.” She threw an arm around Gremlin’s shoulders, grinning. “And Fellrazer, of course.”

The dragon grunted smugly.

“So . . . you’re not annoyed?” Gremlin asked. “This is all just sort of . . . hunky-dory?”

“That is not a phrase I would deign to use, but still. Everyone appears to be fine, and the overall damage to the response center is minimal. I would consider that acceptable.”

Gremlin sagged with relief. “Holy frick, man. That is just so good to hear.” She straightened up and gave Gall a hip-bump. “We are the best babysitters, G!”

“That. Being. Said.” The temperature in the room, which up until this point had been rather high from all the flames being thrown around, suddenly seemed to drop a few degrees. Xericka stalked over to the two women, stirring some of the debris with her coat, and eyed them both. It might have been a trick of the light, but some of the grey ashes seemed to go completely black as they swirled around her. “In the future, you will ask my permission before bringing a dragon into this response center. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” Gremlin quickly said, her eyes wide.

Fellrazer scuttled behind Gall’s legs. The Viking just nodded, trying not to choke on a hastily swallowed protest.

“Excellent.” Xericka nodded to them both. On her shoulder, Aiden was starting to doze off and had apparently missed his mother’s ultimatum. “Now then. I believe I shall put Aiden down for his nap. After that, the both of you can assist me in cleaning up the response center.”

“Sure thing, Xerry. We’d be glad to help.” Gremlin elbowed Gall in the ribs and gave her a warning side glance. “Wouldn’t we, Gall?”

“Ow,” said Gall, giving Gremlin a resentful stare. After a moment, she broke off and rolled her eyes. “Oh, fine. We will clean this sucker so hard it won’t know what hit it.”

“Then we are in agreement.” The Nobody nodded to them before walking into the bedroom. She emerged a couple of seconds later, Aiden still in her arms. “His nap will have to wait. The bedroom is on fire.”

Gremlin winced. “I’ll go get another fire extinguisher.”