Fire and Family (Part 2)
Posted on Mon Mar 31st, 2025 @ 13:39 by Effigy & Jonathan Monroe & Rebecca McMillen
Edited on on Mon Mar 31st, 2025 @ 14:13
Chapter:
Besieged
Location: Administrative Offices - Avalon Institute
Timeline: Late evening, Wednesday, February 10th, 1993
2221 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure
The tower window had been several stories up. Had it been a few lower and Jonathan's night might have been over, after being sent hurtling out of the window. Time seemed to slow down in that moment, as his eyes struggled to find a sense of what was up and what was down. Gravity helped. He was falling.
In that moment he felt his mind racing with thoughts. Mostly panic. Thoughts of home, of the love of his life, burning in front of his eyes. The pain, the horror of not being able to stop it. A pain he'd repressed his whole life. Claire being arrested. Hearing the news from Phoebe that Cameron was gone. More pain, piled upon the mountain. Pushed down. Forced into hiding. But there was no point in hiding that anymore; not when he was falling from the institute's tower. He closed his eyes and let himself feel it: the rage, the fury, the grief...the sudden crushing feeling that he was about to die - he allowed it to set itself free. And Jonathan Monroe burned harder than he had burned in his life.
Rebecca couldn't believe it. Her heart was pounding as she saw the face of her younger sister there, clear as day. Big as a billboard, a usual sight to the diminutive teacher. "J... Jillian?" Rebecca squeaked out from under some of the furniture. It had been a while, too long some would say, but her memories of her family weren't entirely all positive. Memories started to fill in, recollection of times at her expense. Now wasn't the time for therapy. At least not for the middle sister. She choked a few words at first, but managed to continue, "Jillian is that you? W.. what are you doing here?" Rebecca was always one for caution, but still this was a bit of a shock. She slowly approached the edge, hesitance in each step. Her memories of Marcie weren't entirely nice, but she was still family. She came all this way to, what exactly...
"Are you with them? D... did you do what Jon said you did?" she asked, hoping this was all just a case of mistaken identity. She WAS wearing a mask, after all.
"I.." Jillian looked around the room again. Her heart pounding in her ears. The chemicals coursing through her veins. She hadn't been with anyone. She had barely been lucid for as long as she had been taken by the Doctor. "It's complicated." She looked towards the window where she had thrown out the burning man. His records hadn't mentioned anything regarding powers of flight. She had just kicked him out the window to let him plummet to a certain death. "I'm sorry, Becks, I.."
He should have hit the ground. As he opened his eyes, Jonathan saw it below - but it wasn't getting closer. A moment of shock came over him as his emotionally fractured heart realised that he wasn't falling at all. In fact, he was flying. Burning blue like a scorching beacon of cerulean, the world around him stopped for a second time in as many minutes. And in that moment, he found himself laughing. Perhaps it was his mind finally allowing him a little bit of joy amidst the angst, but the feeling of floating in the cool air above the institute was one of such peace and wonder.
And then his mind turned back to the window; the shattered pieces of glass scattered below. Rebecca. It was a strange irony - or perhaps fate - that the first time his power had manifested, a girl by that name had been hurt. And now he was determined not to see another harmed because of his fear. Through as much strength as he could muster, Jonathan forced his burning form back to the now smashed window. The rage was gone. But his fire was still burning.
"We're not finished!" he called out, grabbing hold of the window frame and landing just about safely inside the room in front of them.
Rebecca ran out from her cover, the looming form of her 'little' sister. Behind her, the colossus of flame burned bright enough to hurt her eyes slightly to even look in his direction. Once she was out in the clear, she stopped being the littlest mouse of a woman and returned to her proper stature. "Jon, stop." she pleaded, the blue glow coming off the burning man illuminated her features, her fears, her tears. "She's my sister! Please, please..." she knelt down next to Effi... next to Jillian, "I don't know what's going on, but please don't hurt her. W..." her little sister was a monster to her in their collective youth, but this was different. These times were different. Whatever words she was aiming for died in her throat, choking on emotion. She reached out to put a hand on her sister's shoulder. To ground both McMillens in the moment.
Jillian tensed up the moment Jon burst back into the room. "Interesting." The voice was flat again, her eyes seemed to have glossed over. Whenever adrenalin shot through her system Jillian faded away and Effigy took over. A sudden hand on her shoulder did nothing to alleviate that. She grabbed on and through an arm throw flipped Rebecca through the air and onto the ground. Taking on an attacking stance across from Blaze. Quickly trying to gauge what her best plan of escape would be. Her eyes darted at the blond she had just thrown to the floor. Headache. Flashes of memories. Frozen in place as the heat rippled through the room. "You should step down, I can't.." Jillian tried to keep herself frozen in place but the reflexes and programmed behaviour was fighting hard to take over.
Her stare solidified, "You'll die even easier than the speedster." Effigy had never been one for quips and goading, but something was very wrong and if she could provoke him into an attack there was a good chance she could stay in control. Her knuckles cracked as she balled her fist.
If Jonathan had been inclined to listen to Rebecca, that one line put any notion of standing down out of his thought. He lunged, the thought of that vengeance still filling him as his burning hands grasped Effigy by the shoulders and pushed her against the stone wall of the administration office. The stonework itself blackened with scorch marks from the heat he was putting out. "I'm gonna make you burn for what you did," he growled darkly.
The collision with the wall sent stars into her vision. Effigy felt the pain sear through her, despite the protective clothing. She focused her strength and struck hard into Blaze's sternum. Her hand searing in pain from the immediate burn. She felt the skin on her face starting to burn, tighening, peeling. Another strike, this time a hook to the man's temple. The advantage of having him so close.
And then the chair. Rebecca wasn't much for physical confrontation, but this she could manage. She swung the heavy chair at Jon, looking to more dislodge him from pinning her sister. The chair was heavy, solid, well manufactured. Even if Rebecca had the proportional strength of a rodent like that one kid from Brooklyn, the chair would endure the strike. She looked at Jillian, tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"Jillie." her voice soft, defeated... she used the nickname Marcie had for her. The name Rebecca was never really 'allowed' to call her Bigger sisters. "Go. Get out of here."
Jonathan tumbled to the floor. Flames seemed to fan off him and lick up the wall. A few scraps of paper from the nearby desk were caught in it and flashed in a short burst before disintegrating. His head and shoulder hurt, and the room was temporarily spinning. Only for a moment, though; in short order he was back on his feet and closing his fists again. "Not until she pays!" he barked, another flare punctuating the oath.
Rebecca stood, chair in grasp, still mentally reeling from what she just did. To be fair, the past five minutes would required a lot of mental organization. She never let the chair out of her grasp, despite the notion that some of that chair was currently on fire due to contact with Jon. The room was already suffering the heat of his fury, and the blonde already had sweat beading on her brow. "No." she found her voice.
"I... I can't let you hurt her." It was odd to see defiance and defeat in the same moment. She stood against Jon, trying to perhaps save his soul while also trying to save the sister she just reconnected with. "What she did was wrong, but if the cost of a life is a life, then who collects on you?"
"Cause it sure as hell can't be me."
Rebecca blocking his path, that determined expression on her face, gave Jonathan pause. He was angry, frustrated and hurting. He'd never burned quite as hot as he was in those few seconds, coming close to setting the rest of the room on fire. But the look in her eyes and the earnestness of her voice broke through to him. He stopped advancing. As much as he wanted payback for Cameron, he would never allow himself to burn through another to get to it. Especially not someone with that name. "Why are you protecting her? After what she did...she deserves it..."
Effigy felt her burns knit themselves back together. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, even with the enhancements to dull her pain and sense of self preservation. She knew she had limited opportunity to get out and when Rebecca. Her sister. No. Critter. The Avalon Art teacher. When the woman stepped in between she saw an opportunity. She grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into Jonathan's embrace. She figured that either he'd have to extinguish, allowing her to pass, or he'd burn her and be frozen in shock at what he did. The shove wasn't as forceful as she had wanted, because while Effigy didn't care which if the two outcomes came to pass Jillian sure did.
"Why? Because somewhere in there is my si.." Rebecca started, and then was shoved towards the sun. No no, that wasn't accurate. The sun wasn't blue. Her tail thwipped about to try to counter the shove, but that wasn't how her tail worked. It was great for maintaining her own balance, not for reclaiming her balance when it was taken from her. Shock. Surprise. Disappointment. So many emotions all at once. Oh, and fear. Fear was a good one. It kept Rebecca alive for so long.
Although not expecting the sudden jerking motion of Rebecca being pushed towards him, Jonathan's instincts kicked in; the typical human reaction to someone stumbling like that was to reach out to grab them. For almost twenty years, he'd been avoiding doing that. So he stepped back - it may have been that reaction that prevented any serious harm coming to her. Switching off his power wasn't quite as simple an action, though; intense heat didn't just disappear - it tended to radiate into the nearest objects. The floor first. And then the poor girl's clothing. He could smell a hint of burning hair as his hands tried to stop her tumbling into his body. "Damn! Rebecca-" he gasped, torn between helping and withdrawing. And a fleeting look from his eye spotted their intruder already breaching the already smashed window.
Rebecca hissed through tight teeth as the heat from Jon's proximity washed over her. Intense heat. Searing heat. She came into contact with the floor as she held her hands out to catch herself, and immediately pulled them back and gave a shriek! As the rest of her collided with the stone floor, she scrambled to roll out from on top of the scalding stonework, the unmistakable stink of burned hair now directly assaulting her sensitive nose. She half-scampered half-crawled on arms and feet away from Jon. Not out of fear, but more that he was currently the source of the heat that was burning her. She breathed heavy and quick, trying not to cry in front of the others as she moved, cradling her hands to her chest to protect them from further harm.
The fresh air following the oppressive heat snapped all of Effigy's senses back into place. She was soaring through the air and even though the roof she landed on was closer than the ground the sudden stop sent shockwaves through her body. Her improved constitution was enough to resist any adverse effects. She sped across the rooftop and slid down a rainpipe to get herself to the ground nearest her infiltration spot. She continued her sprint, not taking the time of effort to check if anyone was on her tail.
Her foot hit the edge of the cliff perfectly, and with a supernatural swan dive she arced through the cold dark February air into the frigid late winter water. The surface of the water barely broke as her hands split the cold liquid. She'd be back with the G.O.U. before long. Hopefully the nagging headache would dissipate.
