The pounding in Felix's chest was rampant and virtually unstoppable; like a wild animal that had busted free of its cage. The fire raged onward, creeping towards the house like a sinister monster that was hell bent on destroying anything in its path. He knew all too well that the eggshell white house that he grew up in would be nothing more than a charred mess of ash and embers before sunrise if the fire wasn't extinguished. If it continued on as it was, there would be nothing left standing, and nothing left to remain of his childhood home. The memories of holiday mornings, birthday parties, and family dinners clawed at the back of his mind. They were memories that laid in that eggshell white house, and in the blink of an eye they would all be burned away. In a way, Felix felt unattached from the situation. It simply wasn't registering properly within the tissues of his brain, and the sobbing of his sister made no sense at all. He was drawing a blank, almost as if he was witnessing something that he couldn't comprehend. He knew what was happening, he was watching it with his own two eyes, but nothing made any sense at all.

His feet were placed firmly on the road in front of his childhood home; the road he learned how to ride a bike on. The road that he crossed everyday getting on and off the bus. But he couldn't familiarize himself with his surroundings. In a strange way, he felt homesick, even though the home he'd always known was right there in front of him. The neighbors were talking, and some asked if he was okay, but he couldn't understand what those words meant anymore. He didn't feel okay; not at all. His mind was swirling like a cyclone, and even the gentle voice of his own mother couldn't snap him out of the state he was in. He felt oddly calm, mostly because the shock of it all hadn't quite sunken in yet. The barking of a small dog caused Felix to turn his head towards the house of his next door neighbors. He'd known them for years, they babysat him when he was younger, he'd played with their kids in his childhood youth, and he'd watched their youngest daughter Kora grow up...But, he couldn't seem to recall their names or their faces. All in all, everyone around him, including his own family, felt like total strangers.

He watched the little girl struggle in the grasp of her mother. Felix could have sworn that he knew her, and in reality he did, but in his oblivious state, he couldn't find that stack of information in his brain. His head felt oddly empty, and those feelings didn't sit well with him. The little girl continued to try and escape from her mother's grasp. Her legs flailed in the air as the mother did her best to keep her grip tight. In one swift motion, the little girl had sunken her teeth into her mother's arm, causing her grasp on her daughter to loosen; but only slightly. Unfortunately, the slight opening was all the little girl needed to wriggle her way free and fall to the ground, barely landing on her feet. Before her mother could react, the little girl dashed towards her burning home in order to save her puppy that was trapped under a fallen ceiling beam. The whines and begging barks of the poor animal could be heard throughout the neighborhood, but nobody dared to risk their life for the dog's safety. Nobody other than the little seven year old girl who had become attached to her small puppy.

Before Felix even knew what he was doing, his feet carried him towards the burning house of his neighbors. His head was spinning, but he was lucid enough to know that if the little girl didn't get out of the house immediately, her life would be taken along with her puppy's. The cries of his parents and two sisters echoed from behind him as he threw caution to the wind and entered the home that was set ablaze. He could barely hear the whimpering of the little dog and the quiet sobs of the little girl over top of the crackling fire. He spotted the two by the stairs as the little girl desperately pulled on the front part of her puppy's body. He was trapped under a fallen ceiling beam; one that would be impossible for a girl the size of Kora to lift. Felix raced to her side, gently pulling on her arm. His hand was abruptly slapped away, and even though she was only seven years old, the skin of Felix's hand began to sting at the harsh contact.

"I'm not leaving without Shiro!"

He could tell that he would either have to use brute force to remove the little girl from the home, or he would have to save her and her puppy. The animal whimpered, almost as if it was begging Felix for help. Being the animal person that he was, he couldn't refuse to help the innocent creature. His hands came into contact with the ceiling beam that was quickly setting fire on either end. For a moment, he wondered whether or not he'd be able to lift such a heavy object. His lungs were filling with smoke, causing him to cough and sputter. The little girl was doing no better, and was at the point of physically gagging on the smoke as it burned her nostrils and throat. Thoughts of the little girl's family were eating away at him, and he quickly realized that letting her die was not an option. The thought of his own grieving family gave him a second wind, and with one final pull the beam lifted ever so slightly. It wasn't for long; but it was long enough for the puppy to wiggle his way out and run into the open arms of the little girl.

With burning eyes, Felix let the fiery hot beam drop from his hands like dead weight. The splinters and the blisters were causing him discomfort and some slight pains, but the adrenaline coursing through every vein in his body was just enough for him to rush to the little girl and pick her up in his arms. As he headed for the door, another ceiling beam cracked and was sent falling overhead. He barely moved in time, but he was simply clipped in the foot by the heavy object. However, it now blocked the exit, and the flames were closing in on the three of them. The little girl buried her face in Felix's neck to escape the burning smoke that was stinging her eyes. In his most desperate of moments, Felix took three large steps in the opposite direction, feeling the heat of the fire behind him as it nearly torched his back. There was no time to think of another plan. He charged towards the beam, jumping into the air as the flames parted ways for him, the puppy, and the little girl to get over without so much as a single burn mark.

Questions buzzed in his brain like an annoying fly, but Felix didn't have the time to stop, or even to hesitate. He made his way into the yard, narrowly making it to the pavement before falling to his knees. The smoke hadn't done enough damage to cause any real harm, but it made him incredibly dizzy in every sense of the word. Still coughing, the little girl ran towards her crying mother with Shiro firm in her grip. Felix was wheezing now as he laid on his back and stared up at the sky. It was very early morning, so the sky was still a dark shade of gray, and a few stars could still be seen in the space overhead. Family members gathered around him as his vision blurred further. They called his name and shook his shoulder, but it was all completely in vain. He was more focused on the fact that his head was spinning. That, and the fact that he had physically moved the flames as he jumped. Questions ate at him like a rodent, and he wondered just how he'd managed to split the flames of the fire down the middle as he leaped over them.

Tiredness won the battle in those few moments. His eyelids felt so heavy that it was physically impossible for him to keep them open for any longer. He succumbed to it, letting himself drift off into dreamland. There, he was met with the face of a woman he didn't believe he'd ever met before in his entire life. Her eyes were a startling color of blue, reminding him of the ocean's darkest depths. To him, her eyes seemed to be as deep as the ocean, too. Her hair was long, coming to rest just at her thighs, and it was bright red in a way that Felix was sure couldn't be natural. When she opened her mouth to speak, Felix knew he had to listen. She had a commanding personality and looked like someone who was just meant to be in a leading position. He figured that he himself could use a bit of guidance in his current state, so he kept his unblinking eyes on the woman.

"You can stop the fires, Felix," the woman said to him.

"I...I can?" He asked, confusion and doubt pricking at his chest.

"You can," the woman confirmed.

"Just who are you anyway?" Felix inquired, his eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion.

"Who I am isn't important right now. I'll explain things to you clearly soon enough. Your family needs you," the woman urged him.

"But what can I do?" Felix asked desperately.

He felt like crying, but he didn't want to be seen as weak. The woman was telling him that he could save everyone and stop the fire; but how? He didn't understand what she was getting at. He was just a sixteen year old boy! What in the hell was she expecting him to do?

"Use your powers, Felix."

With those final words, the woman began to fade from view. Felix could feel his heartbeat racing again. What was he supposed to do? What powers was the woman even referring to? And just who was she anyway? Questions piled up, but when Felix's eyes reopened he felt so much more alive. The worried eyes of his family members were all on him, looking down at him from above.

"Felix, can you hear me?" His mother asked, and he noted the wetness of her eyes.

He took in a sharp breath, filling his lungs with fresh air. While he'd been passed out, the fire trucks had finally arrived. The neighbor's house was long past burnt, but the house that Felix grew up in could be saved and escape with just a few burn marks here and there. If the fire could be extinguished within the next few minutes. The words of the woman in his dream rang through his ears.

Use your powers, Felix.

But what powers? He couldn't believe that it would really be possible for him to stop the fire...That wasn't possible. Not if everything he'd ever been taught was the truth. But, in his desperate state to save the fondest memories of his childhood, Felix took a brave step towards the brightly burning flames that had fully engulfed the neighbor's home.

"What are you doing?" His mother shrieked from behind him.

He couldn't give an answer, because he wasn't sure himself. One part of his brain was telling him to turn around. After all, it was completely unbelievable for him to be able to stop a fire that large. But, the mysterious woman's words rang in his ears once more, and the dream began to feel like less and less of a figment of his imagination.

"Powers," Felix mumbled to himself, looking down at his hands.

"But...How do I use them?"

Felix suddenly remembered the way the flames had parted when he jumped over them. Intently, he raised his head to look at the raging fire. The hoses that the firemen were using were practically useless. The fire was simply too large and too strong to be put out by such miniscule tools. It was spreading a foot every time an inch was snuffed out. He stared at the flames, bracing himself for humiliation. Then again, if what he was about to do didn't actually work, he could always blame it on the smoke inhalation. He slowly raised his hand, reaching outwards. He could feel the eyes of all the people on him, and that certainly didn't make his situation any better. He took a deep breath, once again filling his lungs with the not so clear, smoke-filled air. In a strange way, the things he was doing felt so natural. He'd never done anything like it before, but in more ways than one, he felt accustomed to the movements he was making. Even if he didn't fully understand what he was doing, something deep within screamed for him to keep pushing onward.

The reflecting flames flickered in his eyes, and he felt a spark ignite in his chest and a fire raging in the pit of his stomach. As his hand went higher in the air, the destructive flames seemed to raise along with it. His mind locked on the target, and he knew good and well what his goal was. All the fear inside of him was burnt out, and hope took its place in his chest. In one swift motion, Felix slammed his hand downward. The flames before him followed in suit, caving in on themselves. Just like that, the fire was put out, and everyone stared at Felix with wide eyes. They couldn't believe what they'd just seen, but even more so, Felix couldn't believe what he'd just done. The fire that started in the forest behind their homes, the same one that had been wreaking havoc for nearly three hours by that time, had been put out within seconds by a single teenage boy.

"What did I just do?" Felix asked, the fear returning quickly as he stared down at his own two hands once more.

What kind of monster am I?

Just then, a flash of light appeared before his eyes, and the woman from his dream appeared before him. He stumbled backwards, falling onto his back the pavement, knocking the wind from his lungs. Nobody dared to make even a single move as the scene before them began to unfold. With a giggle, the woman reached her hand out to Felix. His eyes were wide as he stared at her, vaguely wondering if he was just seeing things.

"I'm real," the woman assured him, bringing her hand closer to Felix.

Hesitantly, he reached out slowly. When that proved to be too slow for the woman's liking, she quickly grasped his hand in hers and pulled him roughly to his feet. For someone who was so skinny, she seemed to be extremely strong.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Felix asked her.

"Ah, I'd forgotten that I haven't officially introduced myself just yet. My bad," she laughed at her own carelessness.

"My name is Sarah. But, most people just call me Red."

With hair like hers, Felix didn't have to wonder why. Just as well, she was dressed in a crimson colored, latex body suit.

"But, how did you know what I was thinking?" Felix repeated.

"Oh, that?" She laughed, almost like reading someone else's mind was just an everyday occurrence.

And for Red; it was.

"I'm a mind reader. I can access the parts of my brain that most people can't. I can impose my will upon others through their thoughts, read minds, and do this neat little thing called Dream Walking. That's how I was able to contact you when you passed out," she explained.

"This is insane," Felix mumbled, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.

"I know this might be hard to understand right now, but you're not a regular human, Felix," the female told him.

"Yes I am," he replied wearily, even though deep down, there was no way he could still believe in his own ordinariness.

"I...I go to school, and I get okay grades, and I stay up too late watching stupid movies! I eat too much junk food, and I feel like nobody understands me sometimes, and I laugh at all the stupid cat videos on the Internet! I'm just...I'm just a normal kid," Felix stated, but by the end, his voice had become nothing but a faint whisper of words.

"You have the power to manipulate fire. You're far from a normal kid," she stated.

Red's words weren't meant in a malicious way, but to Felix, they made him realize that he really wasn't normal after all. Years of doing his best to just blend in with the crowds at school and in public...Years of just begging to be a normal human being that didn't stand out in any way; and now this.

"I never asked for this," Felix stated bluntly.

"I don't want this power. I just want to be a normal human being. You can take it away."

Red sighed. She knew how Felix was feeling. She'd been through it, and since becoming the leader of Supernova, she'd watched eight other boys fight against and even attempt to reject their powers; just as he was doing.

"Felix, you either have to learn to control your power, or you let it control you," Red warned.

"Either way, you can't just get rid of it. You're one of the Chosen Ones, and I need your help."

"My...Help?" Felix asked, raising his head once more.

"It's a long, complicated story. Right now, I just want you to trust me," she said to him.

Felix couldn't see any viable reason to not trust Red. After all, she hadn't lied to him yet. Still, he was weary of putting all his faith in her because she was so good at dodging questions and avoiding giving answers. With those thoughts in mind, Red could completely understand why Felix felt that way.

"I'll answer all your questions when we get to our headquarters," Red assured him.

"H-Headquarters? What the hell does that even mean?" The Australian questioned.

"It means that you're a part of Supernova now. Felix, I'm sorry, but your days of being a normal teenager...They're over."

Hearing those words made Felix regret all those Saturday nights filled with potato chips and soda. He began to regret not hanging out with his friends more, not going to at least one party, or even having his first kiss. Would there ever be time for any of that ever again?

"You should go talk to your family," Red stated.

"This might be the last time you'll get to see them for a while."

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