The Crimson Phoenix

Anger Issues.

“You’re kidding right?” Logan said with astonishment. Leo explained what had happened the previous day to him and Logan couldn’t believe him. It must have been really absurd to hear your friend has super powers.

Leo looked straight and didn’t reply him. Logan then realized that he was dead serious. “So you basically control fire now?!” He asked, his eyes still wide open with shock.

“That’s what it looks like,” Leo replied calmly. Logan gave him a doubtful look. He wanted to see him in action with his own eyes, but that was not a curiosity Leo was ready to satisfy at the moment… at least not in school. “It feels like I have a connection to fire, like something inside the fire wants to communicate with me.” He explained. Logan just gave him a more shocked look. Seeing this, Leo decided to stop talking about it.

They got to class and he sat in front of Leo as always. They had economics and Mrs. Avery was writing on the board. She got to the class ahead of them in preparation for a new topic. The class was going smoothly after about ten minutes. Logan leaned back to say something.

“So what are you gonna do about the powers? I mean, even if you keep the fire affinity a secret from your aunt, what about the healing thing?” Logan asked. Leo had already thought of it but was yet to make a decision. If he told his aunt about it, she’d blame Dr. Cartel for it and find a new thing to use against him. He didn’t want to see either of them hurt. Also, he actually couldn’t keep this a secret from her forever and the longer he kept the secret, the harder it would be to tell her.

“Sighs, I’ll tell her when I want to.” He said with a sign of resolution in his voice. Logan smiled and Mrs. Avery looked at him.

“Mr. Anderson, Mr. Martin, Do you have anything to contribute to the class?” She said.

“No ma’am.” Leo and Logan said in unison. ‘You’ve finally led me to trouble.’ Leo thought as he frowned at Logan.

“Then I’d suggest you keep quiet and not distract the class.” Mrs. Avery warned. She was a bit strict but easy to talk to. The two boys nodded and they went on with the class.

After class, Leo and Logan were walking in the hallway when a huge guy bumped into Leo, causing the books he carried to fall. The guy’s name was Noah and he has always been pestering Leo for a while now… actually, it was more like he was picking on him for no reason actually. He was bigger than Leo and stronger too… well, stronger than the Leo without superpowers. He played basketball and was one of the top players in the school. Leo, being a cool headed guy, decided to ignore him and didn’t bother too much about it.

“Watch where you’re going Noah!” Logan yelled and helped Leo pack his books. Noah turned back and drew closer to Logan, confronting him.

“Or what? What are you gonna do?” Noah rudely said. Logan stood up and faced Noah. Although he was angry, he knew he couldn’t beat Noah but he wanted to show Noah that he wasn’t afraid of him. Leo didn’t want to mind Noah so he pulled Logan’s hand and dragged him.

“Let’s go man.” He said. Logan gave Noah an angry look before turning away.

Noah scoffed, “Humph, wimps.” He said as he turned away. Leo suddenly stopped. That word got him enraged. It was like someone throwing a stone on his head. Normally the word would barely even make him angry but this time, considering what had happened in the past weeks, and the side effects of the GE-176, it wasn’t going to be that simple.

“What did you call us?” He asked slowly with a low tone but Noah heard him clearly. Logan looked at Leo and there was a tint of fear in his eyes. Leo was looking down, his blood boiling and temperature rising. Noah saw this as an opportunity to pester him more.

“I called you a wimp! What are you gonna do about it huh!?” He said with pride. Leo’s temperature kept rising and he was still holding Logan who felt the burning heat and quickly pushed his hand away. Leo was still burning with anger and Logan didn’t want him getting exposed.

“Don’t Leo. You’re burning up. Don’t fight him, you’ll risk exposing yourself…” Logan tried talking him out of it but it fell on deaf ears. Leo turned back and walked closer to Noah. The students around stepped back. Anyone who saw Leo at the moment, unless they had a strong will, would have the urge to step back or run. Noah, being an overconfident and arrogant player, both in sports and relationships, stood where he was, smiling like a fool. He thought Leo was still injured, since he was still wearing bandages around his body but he wore a mask that covered his mouth and nose so people won’t see the bandages and also to look cooler. Everyone in school knew about the accident though.

Leo clenched his fight fist and he wanted to give him a flaming punch on the face but a hand suddenly stopped his hand.

“Snap out of it Leo,” Logan yelled at Logan. He knew fully well that if Leo displayed his powers in front of people, he would get into deep trouble and might even kill Noah, “This isn’t you, don’t do this.” He whispered into Leo’s ears as he quickly left his burning hot hand. Leo turned back and went straight to the boy’s toilet.

“That’s right, run…” Noah kept blabbering some nonsense. Logan couldn’t take it and he suddenly turned and hit Noah on the face. Noah felt pain on his face and touched his lips. He saw blood on his fingers and he glared at Logan. He was just about to return the punch but Leo caught his fist and squeezed it.

Noah’s knuckles cracked and he felt excruciating pain. Leo kept squeezing Noah’s knuckles and he pressed him to the ground, forcing Noah to kneel. He screamed but Leo was ruthless. He glared at Noah, causing the latter to beck for mercy.

“I might just allow you to hurt me, but I won’t let you go easily if you try to hurt my friends.” Leo said angrily. Noah nodded and Leo left his fist. When Noah checked his hand, he saw that his fist was red and he felt burns on it.

Leo went straight to the boys toilet and was prepared to wash his face. He stood in front of the hand washing basin and stared at the mirror in front of him. It was then that he noticed his eyes glow slightly. It was unnoticeable first glance but he looked closer and realized that his pupils were glowing slightly with a reddish yellow color. It looked like his pupils were on flames.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and when he opened them, the glow was gone. He opened the tap and washed his hand.

SSSHHHHHHH!

The water sizzled and was evaporating upon touching his hands. His hands were steaming and he could feel the water cooling his temperature down. It was at this moment that Logan came inside the bathroom.

“You okay man?” He asked with concern. Leo exhaled a heavily and calmed his mood.

“I’m good.” He replied with an expressionless face. Logan was still a bit confused though. He knew that Noah had done worse things to him but Leo did nothing but this time, he was about to give him a burnt fist… even though he did, but it wasn’t as serious as what he would’ve given him if Logan hadn’t interfered.

“What happened back there?” He asked.

“That’s a side effect of what happened to me. It amplifies emotional stress.” Leo explained to him according to Dr. Cartel’s hypothesis. Logan sighed. This was definitely going to be a big problem.

“Looks like you have to start taking meds and therapy for anger issues.” Logan joked and gave him a small punch on the shoulder. Leo smiled and they both laughed it off.

The rest of the day went smoothly and Leo quickly went to THRL after school. He wanted to report his observations to Dr. Cartel.

“Interesting…” Dr. Cartel said when he heard his observations, “It seems like you have the same general reaction as the animals being tested.” He raised his brows, ‘I’m no different from an animal?!’ He thought to himself. Then Dr. Cartel gave him his own observations from his blood cells which he tested the day he told him about his healing strength.

“I’ve tested your blood and I can see that the GE-176 has bonded with you on a cellular level.” He said.

“Can you fix it?” Leo asked. This got Dr. Cartel surprised. He thought that when men get power, they always hold on to it.

“Fix it, as in totally remove the GE-176 away from your cells?” He asked and Leo nodded. Dr. Cartel scoffed slightly, adjusted his glasses and gave Leo a confused look, “Well first of all, I cannot fix it yet. This is a newly invented compound so we haven’t worked on a cure yet since the compound hasn’t even been perfected. Secondly, why would you wanna get rid of it? I mean, it saved your life and gave you extraordinary strengths, so why give it away?” He asked confusingly.

“I almost killed a guy at school today!” Leo yelled. The scientists in the underground lab gave them a look and Leo apologized for yelling and continued with the conversation but with a low tone. “I wanted to punch him in the face with super strength and a burning hot fist. I could’ve killed the guy…”

“But you didn’t.” Dr. Cartel suddenly interrupted him. Leo looked confused, ‘What difference does it make!?’ He thought to himself. Dr. Cartel, who had been standing in front of him took his seat in the office and continued talking. “You know, the difference between those animals and humans, is our intelligence. It gives us the ability to control our emotions based on the circumstances at hand. When an animal wants to eat, it eats and doesn’t care if there’s a trap. When an animal wants to mate, it mates. When it wants to fight and show its strength, it does so.”

“But this doesn’t apply to humans. When we wanna eat, we are always cautious of the surroundings and check it the food is reachable without much risk. If there’s high risk of death, we can choose whether to take the chance or not. When we want to mate, we cannot just mate anyhow like animals do and we find an agreeing female to mate with…” Dr. Cartel explained. Leo gave him an helpless stare, ‘What the hell, you just described humans urge for sex in animal terms!’ He thought to himself.

He cleared his throat and he realized that he was right. Humans are different from animals in that aspect. “So how do I manage this high emotional uproar? I can’t afford to be annoyed in the slightest.” He requested.

“I was already thinking about what to do about that emotional problem.” Dr. Cartel sighed, “If it was an ordinary anger issue, I would’ve suggested that you see a psychiatrist, but since it’s a chemical and biological issue, I’ll suggest that you take meds and see a psychiatrist.” He then stood up and walked to his side. He held his shoulder, “Personally speaking, I’d advice that you start meditating, it works a lot.” He said jokingly and smiled. Leo laughed and gave it some thoughts before deciding to actually meditate. But when he remembered something, his face turned solemn again.

“We have another situation though,” he said. Dr. Cartel looked at him as if waiting for him to speak, “I can’t hide this from my aunt forever.”

“Do you plan on telling her?” He asked with raised brows.

Leo looked helplessly at him. “No I don’t… at least not yet. But having to stay like this is really limiting my movements and all.” He said pointing at his bandaged up body. Dr. Cartel placed his hand on his chin and pondered for a while. Leo was fully healed but he was still being wrapped up with bandages, not only was it affecting his senses but it was also limiting the number of things he could do. The healing was one thing and the powers were another. He mustn’t stay near his aunt when she’s cooking and must not be anywhere near fire or else he’d burn everything down.

“Hmm, this might be a problem. A big one indeed.” Dr. Cartel claimed as he stroked his chin and pondered on what to do.