“-e look like the fire department to you?” Acrylics click-clacked against the leather steering wheel. “Like, do I?”Sky leaned his head up against the passenger-side window, the AC on full blast right in his face as the sun-bleached streets of Torrance slid by the glass. “‘Cause I ain’t got the hat for it, and I definitely ain’t got a hose.”“I hear you, Prism.” The comm chirped in Sky’s ear for a bare second before Robert’s flat voice announced itself again. “And I have heard you. Multiple times, already. You have made sure of that.”“For real, Roberto Roberto-son…” The pink-and-purple pop star sped up a little more than was probably legal, just rushing past the light before green dared change. “Like, this ain’t even our lane.”
“Well, it’s not a proper fire.” Robert answered the woman again. “At least not from what the apartment manager’s telling me.”“Then why we going?” Prism checked her reflection in the rearview, her visor hanging off the mirror. “Cancel the dispatch and I’ll turn around right now.”“Because it’s your job, Prism.” Keyboards clicked mechanically through the comms. “And because the building manager has a pretty good subscription on top of that.”“Fine.” She may have said as much, but the sound of Prism sucking her teeth made it clear it wasn’t all that ‘fine’ at all.Blue eyes slid shut for a moment as the vibration of the road rattled into his head. He held himself like that against the window for a second or two longer before he opened his mouth with a question aimed at their dispatcher. “So, are we pulling up blind or can we get the rest of that dispatch?”"Yeah, Sky, of course. Well, for one, like I said, it's… it's not really a fire." Robert's voice scraped in again, words hesitant like he was reading them off something. "That's kinda the whole thing here. Building manager caught smoke coming out of a unit’s door and the tenant's on record saying there's no fire and everything's fine, but the manager's got a high-tier subscription and he's the one paying us, so…"
Sky nodded slow. “So the one with the bread wins.”“Pretty much.”The line went quiet after that, just the quiet hum of the electric SDN sedan Prism had pulled from the motor pool.“...so how strong are you, though?” His dispatch partner chose to fill the silence, ‘cause of course she did. “Like, Sonar said you snapped his cuffs like they was a Kit-Kat. What you pushin’?”What’s it matter? I’m just a pet, right? Sky kept his eyes aimed out the window. “You ask everybody what they pushin’, or I’m special?”“And what about it?”He huffed out a breath. “Strong enough.”
"Enough, he says." Prism’s voice went sharp and delighted with a laugh as she took a hard right, tires squealing just a little against asphalt. "Ooooh, okay, mysterious. Look at Mr. Nonchalant over here. What’s the deal with the name?”Sky held back a sigh, breath already fogging against the window. “What name?”“Sky. It’s giving surfer. It’s giving Hollister. It’s giving white boy.” He didn’t need to look her way to know those eyes were on him as she slowed to a stop in front of a red light. “What’s your government? Can’t be Sky.”“Why it can’t be Sky?”“Cause yo mama ain’t name her baby Sky.”
“...nah, she ain’t.” Lucius Connor Bright did his best to keep a straight face even as his lip twitched. "Still Sky, though."
"That's your hero name, I'm sayin' y—"
"Sky."
"Okay, okay." Both hands came up off the wheel for a second before Prism dropped them back down and started driving again. "Damn. Why Sky, though? You fly or somethin'?”“Nah. Don’t fly.” Flying was never something he could ever pull off, as much as he wished he could way back when. Running fast and jumping good were all he had in him, and he could really move back in Paragon. “I liked it. That ain’t enough?”
"I liked it." Prism sighed back at him like it was the saddest thing she'd heard all week. "You bad at this, y’know? Small talk. You're terrible."
“Nah, your questions just trash.”“Boy, I kn—!”
The comm crackled, and a different voice cut in, a familiar voice edged sharp and already pissed off about something. “Oh, this is just bullshit.”“Invisigal.” Robert joined the call before everyone’s secret stalker could pick up steam again. “Is whatever this is important right n—”“Yeah, it kinda is important?” Invisigal breathed out a huff of air. “How come the pop star gets the smoke call with the new kid and I get sent to give an afterschool special about shoplifting to some nepo-baby in a Lululemon? Explain the fairness in that.”Whatever annoyance Sky had sparked in Prism faded as Robert didn’t answer for a second, a smile spreading on the influencer’s face in the silence. Invisigal seemed to take that as motivation, the woman huffing again. “Go ahead, I'll wait."
“Invisigal.” The man echoed himself with a sigh that sounded extremely tired for what was almost an hour-and-a-half before noon. "Your dispatch. Please, focus on y—"
"Yeah, of course, ‘cause some high schooler stuffing leggings down her pants is a national emergency, Robert, be so for real.” “I am being very ‘for real.’ Now, get back to work.”“Whatever, not like Prism even knows what to do with him anyway. Don't have too much fun without me, Mr. Hands." With a simple chime, she was gone off the comm, their dispatcher sighing loud again before he was gone too; the line finally dead.
Prism let out a snort, the sound loud enough to get Sky’s attention. "She likes you."
"She likes messing with me." Ignoring the pressure headache building behind his right eye, Sky watched the buildings get nicer out the window, strip malls giving way to something with properly expensive landscaping. "There's a difference."
"Mm. Little bit." Prism turned the sedan, slowing as they got closer to a curb. "But real talk, Visi's just — that's how she gets her kicks. Throwin' rocks. She’s fuckin’ with Roberto too. Me, I'm serious."
A sigh slid out of his clenched teeth, Sky barely holding himself back from rubbing the bridge of his nose as that pressure pounded harder. …they doin’ too much or am I buggin’?
An annoyed pair of blue eyes flicked her way as she flashed him a grin, camera-bright. "Just puttin' that out there."
…yeah, I’m not buggin’.
The electric car pulled into the circular driveway of a towering high-rise, the glass front shining bright under the Torrance sun. The building only seemed to rise higher when Sky got out of the car, head tilting up as — yeah, okay. Nice place.
Real nice, actually.If the glass-and-steel front wasn’t enough, the little fountain trickled strong in front of a lobby you could tell had a doorman even from the curb. Nobody had ever fought a thing in a building like this, and every single person it paid good money to keep it that way.
"Ooh." Prism slid her visor on as she tilted her head skyward, taking it in. "Robert ain’t lie. They probably got one of the real good memberships. Concierge tier. Bet they got a smoothie bar."
…I like smoothies.
– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –
The elevator was all mirrored panels and soft music inside a wood-paneled box, and Sky watched the digital numbers climb. There had been no trouble from the front desk, their bright blue SDN lanyards all the clearance they needed to get past the concierge.
Prism leaned a shoulder against the wall, angling toward him again as soon as the doors slid shut. "So, what you doin’ after work?"
"How ‘bout we just focus on the mission?" Sky kept his attention on the numbers as they got closer to the given floor. Three. Four. “Just for right now.”“You so fuckin’ rude.” Prism sucked her teeth again, the smirk dropping off her face. “...me?”"Yeah, you.” A gloved finger jabbed out, just barely stopping a foot from his face. “I’m trynna be nice to a nigga and you over here actin’ like a fuckin’ princess.” …princess?“I don’t see your problem, ‘less you gay or trynna fuck the boss or somethin’.”Blue eyes slid her way as the number above them hit ‘6’, Sky’s jaw set as he stared Prism down. “...I’m trynna what?”
“You not goin’ after the white meat? Because the way you be staring down Blazer, some people already talkin’...” She turned away from him. “You know.”
"Yeah." Sky watched ‘6’ tick over to ‘7’, the elevator dinging. "I do know."
The doors parted open on a hallway as expensive as the lobby implied; the space wide, lined with noise-dampening dampening carpets and art so abstract and modern it would take a minimum of six figures in your checking to pretend it was good.Sky stepped out first, steps drifting toward the wall as his eyes scanned the numbered brass plaques over the heavy wooden doors. 7-15.He stopped, Prism right behind him, smell hitting his nostrils before knuckles even touched wood. Smoke, sure, but not the smoke of a real burn; nothing that was relying on anything real for fuel.
He knew that smell. Huh.
Two solid raps against the door had the deadbolt snap back the second his fist left the wood.
The door cracked, then opened on a Black woman with a bonnet on and her robe pulled tight around her as she stared out with wide eyes and an open mouth, clear signs of breathing a bit too fast. It only took a second for her to clock the costumes, then something in her shut like the door that wasn’t. “No.”His feet planted firmly in the threshold was the only thing keeping that from changing, the door open enough that Sky could make out the hazy not-smoke hanging as a thin shimmering distortion in the hallway of the apartment. “Hello, ma’am—”“No.” A hand went up to the doorframe before Sky could even introduce himself. "No, we're — we're fine. Thank you, but we're fine, there’s no — nobody called."
"Ma'am." Sky kept his voice and his words as even as he could, no different than when he spoke to his dispatcher. The woman was at least two good decades older than him, so he doubted anything less would help here. "Your building manager called. He reached out to us about a disturbance. We just gotta check it out, make sure everybod—"
"It's breakfast." Her words might have sounded solid, but her hands weren’t — fingers clearly shaking where she gripped the doorframe. "I burnt th-the eggs, that's all, that's all it is, the pan got away from me. It's nothing. I appreciate you coming, but there's really n—"
"See? She good." Prism was already half-turned back toward the elevator, one hand up. "Lady don't want us here, Sky. That's her right. Let's bounce, let the—"
Sky's eyes stayed on the woman's face, breath still too quick, and body square in the doorway like a wall to keep him from seeing over it. Nah.
Blue eyes narrowed. Eggs don’t smell like that.
He was almost about to give in — because he was pretty sure being SDN didn’t give him anything like police authority — but one more try couldn’t hurt. "Ma'am…"
"MA!" The scream from somewhere back in the apartment cut him off before he could say anything else; the sound young, high, and terrified.
The woman flinched like the sound went through her, stepping back off the door on pure reflex as she turned around with her own ragged scream. "Ma'am, move—" That was all the space Sky needed, the hero already past her and into the apartment before she could get a proper word out.“No, wait!” Hands grabbed uselessely at the back of his gi.
"Sky!" Prism yelled from the doorway, actually surprised by the sound of her voice.
The apartment blurred by — nice furniture, family photos on the wall, a couch nobody'd ever spilled anything on — as Sky followed the smoke, the haze thicker toward the back. The temperature in the apartment spiked twenty degrees in a single second as soon as Sky cut around a corner, that thin not-smoke wavering out of a half-open door on the left.One palm slammed flat against the wood, the door shoved the rest of the way open as Sky ran right into a wall of heat. He blinked at the oversized bathroom, the whole space lined in white marble and hazy with thermals.
A girl sat in the bathtub, a Black girl no older than fourteen.
Fully clothed in pajamas with her knees pulled tight to her chest and pressed back into the corner of the tub like she was trying to disappear into the porcelain, the girl’s eyes were lit up with orange, actual light spilling out of them, and her hair —
Her hair was on fire.
Burning full and bright as a bonfire, a crown of flames erupted from her scalp up toward the ceiling — and not one inch of her was catching. Her skin was fine, her clothes were fine, everything was fine.
Fire was just pouring off her like it belonged there and she was the one stuck holding it.
Sky stood in the doorway, blinking slow as the girl's glowing eyes snapped to him, and her whole face crumpled.
"Wh-who…" Her voice cracked on it, small under the roar of her own hair. “Who are you?”
Footsteps pounded up behind him — Prism catching up, the woman right on her heels — and the mother shoved past him right into the bathroom.Dropping straight to her knees at the edge of the tub, the woman reached out with shuddering hands, tears thick in her throat. “It's alright."
Sky just stood frozen in the doorway, half-dead blue spark in his chest twitching as he stared at a kid burning from the inside out.
“Look at me.” Her voice broke all the way open now. "It's alright, Aura. Baby, it's alright, Mama's here—"