Kick It Up finale: The Hot Zone

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Shiro decides to pay a visit to Chung Sheng Ho to personally thank him for all he's done. Thankfully, Charles alerts Scott and sends him to intercept Shiro before he can do any damage, and Storm directs Wolverine and Rogue to back him up. There's lots of fire.


Shiro was going to kill him. Kill him. Kill Kill KILL. Capital letters. It was his fault that Shiro was like this, losing the control and the strength that he'd developed since his re-manifestation nearly two years ago. He would not accept it. Chung Sheng Ho would die.

The problem with this plan, though, is that he'd been so polluted that he was winded by the time he reached his suite. The run from the infirmary to his room shouldn't have taken much out of him. He was built for much greater exertion. At this rate, he'd plummet before flying much farther than the Salem Center limits. But the important thing is the ends, he told himself as he tore his room apart, throwing clothes and books and papers everywhere looking for that little white inhaler. "Where is it?" he growled, violently pushing his dresser and ignoring the loud crash it made as it fell to the floor. "Come here, you little fucker." He made a grab for it, and quickly put it up to his nose.

The familiar sensation of the exploding supernova in his brain was welcomed and cursed at the same time. Shiro stuffed the inhaler in his pocket and hurled a plasma blast at his window, shattering the glass. But before he jumped out, he noticed his sports in the media collage by his bed, the project he'd picked up from school the first time he saved Yoshi Satou from Ho's men. The hockey mask with the red circle painted on the forehead stared at him, as if mocking him and daring him to go. But Shiro just smiled at it. "Let's go on a little trip, yeah?" he asked it, ripping it off the collage.

It should have been a quick jaunt from Xavier's to Manhattan's Lower East Side. "Should" being the operative word. But Shiro couldn't keep himself aloft for more than ten minutes at a time, it seemed. The cartridge of Kick was going to run out by the time he got there, and that made him even angrier. See what this had done to him? He could normally push himself at top speed for at least half an hour before needing to slow down. With Kick, he'd extended that to forty-five minutes once. But now it was like his batteries were old and depleting rapidly, losing their ability to recharge fully. What should have been fifteen minutes took nearly an hour.

He landed on the roof of the familiar building and panted, surveying his surroundings and wondering how much safer this place would be when the lord of the Korean organized crime syndicate was six feet under. (Or more likely in an urn, because he didn't plan on leaving much behind.) He was doing these folks a favor by extracting revenge, he told himself. Shiro blasted the door to the stairwell open and stalked down to the top (third) floor of the deli.

"Mister Yoshida!" exclaimed a heavyset Korean man. He waved happily at Shiro from his seat at the poker table, though his fellow players all reached for their hips. "What a pleasant surprise. How may I help you today?"

Shiro smirked and donned his mask before activating his fire form. "Shi ne," he snarled, hurling a fireball at the poker table. The explosion knocked out three of the four of Ho's men, leaving one other and the crime lord himself still conscious but struggling to get to their feet. The other criminal grabbed his pistol and didn't hesitate to fire at Shiro. But he just laughed as the bullets instantly melted upon hitting his force field. A small plasma burst melted the gun in his hand and a kick to the head knocked him out cold.

"You should be proud, Chung Sheng Ho," Shiro said as he approached his dealer, leaving scorched marks in the carpet under his feet at every step. "Look at what you've made. Isn't it amazing?"

"Shiro!"

Scott's voice came from the stairwell leading up from the second floor of the deli - he hadn't had the luxury of coming in through the roof, given that he'd driven rather than flown. Personally, he was surprised he hadn't gotten pulled over for the half-dozen traffic laws he'd broken on the way. Thank God he'd been on the bike - he'd never have made it here this quickly in a car.

He'd been a bit abrupt with the poor employees of the deli downstairs, barging right past them in response to Charles' urgent whispering in his mind. By the time he'd gotten up to the second floor, he'd heard the familiar sound of Shiro's powers. At that point, he'd taken the second set of stairs two at a time.

"Shiro," Scott said again, more out of breath than he should be – too much time sitting around these last few weeks, definitely. He took a cautious step forward into the room, hands outstretched, palms up. "What are you doing?" He heard Ororo's murmur in his earpiece, telling him that Marie and Logan had reached the roof. It took a real effort not to let his gaze move to the stairs heading up. He didn't want to tip Shiro off, not if there was any chance he could talk him down...

But given the state of the room, he wasn't feeling all that optimistic. "Shiro, why do you have a mask on?" Scott asked, keeping his voice level, calm.

At first, Shiro thought it was just a trick. Voght must have tipped off Xavier and now Xavier was playing telepathic mind games. But that wasn't his style, Shiro reminded himself as he threw Ho to the ground and turned to face Scott. No leather, he noticed. He lifted the mask to reveal his face behind the flames (which he wouldn't turn off). "I just need ten minutes and I'll get back to you. I promise."

"I don't think that's going to work, Shiro." Calmly. Scott straightened, giving himself a moment to catch his breath properly. "Look, I'm not sure what's going on... I was down in the garage finishing something up on the bike when Charles told me to get here as quickly as I could." A lie, of course; Charles had been doing more than giving him telepathic directions on the way here. Scott was just lucky he was so used to being able to multitask at the same time that a telepath was downloading information into his brain. "Why don't we just sort out what's going on here before any more property damage gets done?"

Marie had landed as gently as she could on the roof, but it had been hard after pushing herself to her top speeds while carrying Logan. Adjusting the comm piece in her ear, she frowned at what she was hearing. Had she really been so distracted that she hadn't noticed something was wrong with Shiro? She should have pushed more instead of letting it drop that day in the kitchen. She pointed to the fire escape and then to the roof access. "We've got a couple options, if we need to go down," she whispered, though she hoped she and Wolverine wouldn't be necessary. Shiro would listen to Scott. He had to.

He wasn't. Shiro shook his head, aiming a blast behind him at a gun that Ho was trying to reach. It melted into the carpet. "You know, I'd love to, but this really can't wait. You know what villains are like. You give them an inch and they'll take a mile. This fucker here can't get away."

"... I somehow don't think he's going anywhere right at the moment. Look," Scott said, glancing back over his shoulder. "I'm standing in front of the stairs. He's not getting past me. And what is he going to do on the roof? Learn to fly." Scott shrugged, keeping his voice light. "I think we've got time to figure this out. Why is he a villain?"

"He's a predator," Shiro asserted. He knew where Ho kept his stash, and slowly made his way across the room to a bunch of cardboard boxes. "He tells you that he can help you, give you the strength to do what's necessary, and then? It's all gone. You can't do anything more without him. He takes you and drains you dry and when you think you can't give anymore, he still takes." Ripping open one of the boxes, he pulled out one of the small metal canisters. "Who knows how many children he's killed by poisoning them like this?"

Drugs? Scott thought incredulously. This was about drugs? But when had... he shook the thought away, made himself focus on the situation at hand. "Shiro," he said more softly. "You clearly... know better than me. And I'm not going to disagree with you about the kind of person he is, if he's doing this... but what are you here to do?"

The cartridge blew up in Shiro's hand, and he heard Ho moan behind him. "Oh, I'm going to make him pay." His vicious - almost animal - grin was quite visible even beneath the golden flames. "I'm just returning in kind what he's done to me. I suggest you step back, though. This could get messy."

Logan was holding himself ready, waiting to get a go-ahead to put Shiro down. He liked the kid, but he had to go ahead and whack himself out on drugs. That rang a faint bell in Logan's brain, but now was not the time to go follow-up on that thought. "Come on, kid. Ease down and let's settle this like men." he muttered to himself.

Marie shifted uneasily, running her fingers through her hair. If Shiro didn't back down, they'd need to be able to get in there quickly to keep the situation from escalating. "Ah have a bad feeling about this," she said to Logan, careful to keep her voice soft. "Storm, Ah think we should get into position, just in case," she subvocalized.

"Positions, then," Ororo replied to Rogue and Wolverine, miles away from the situation but still at the edge of her seat. "Be prepared to go on my order - there will be no lethal force unless absolutely necessary."

Scott heard none of the interchange, and wouldn't have paid attention if he had; all of his attention was focused on Shiro at the moment. "You're an X-Man, Sunfire," he said quietly, trying to ignore the growing tension he was feeling. If he couldn't talk the younger man down... no, this wasn't going to happen. One way or the other. "We don't do revenge. We never have. What he's done, we can make sure he pays for - the right way." Scott's jaw clenched. "You don't get to throw your life away by acting out of anger here."

"I'm not acting as an X-Man here, Cyclops," Shiro snapped. "I'm a free agent for the next few minutes. I reject your rules and your pussy-footing." The temperature in the room seemed to increase as he spoke, and his flaming aura grew brighter. He pulled down the mask again, gnashing his teeth behind it. "This shit is harming young mutants with his 'product,' and I'm thinking that this is an any means necessary sce . . ." He stopped mid-sentence, catching a faint red glow out the corner of his eye. Shiro laughed. The heat signature was strange, different from most people, but unmistakable.

"I should've known," said Shiro as he turned back to Scott. "The classic 'try to talk while we sneak up behind him with a psycho' routine. I've read the mission files, you know. It's not going to work." With that, Shiro blasted at the window and charged out, aiming a flying uppercut at Wolverine, who was perched on the fire escape.

Logan leaned backwards just a bit, letting the flaming uppercut fan his face and give him an instant tan. He countered with an elbow snapped at Shiro. He knew the boy, knew how he fought, and given how unbelievably stoned out of his gourd the kid was, no matter what Logan did someone was going to get hurt.

He was resolved that that someone should be him. After all, if he got brutalized he would heal. If Marie or Scott got brutalized, they would be down for a good long while.

Marie flew out of stairwell, reporting the situation to Storm, as soon as she saw Shiro head for Logan's position. The situation felt surreal; she had never been on a mission to take down an X-Man, especially one she considered her friend. She trusted Logan to hold his own in the fight, so instead of heading to lend him a helping hand, she turned her attention elsewhere.

"It would probably be better if you weren't awake for this," she said to Ho before administering a light rap to his skull that caused him to slip into unconsciousness. The last thing they needed was the Korean crime lord getting any bright ideas to try and take advantage of the situation. Marie quickly went about moving all the criminals' bodies behind a counter in the apartment, hoping it would help shield them from the flames emanating from Shiro. Ducking behind the counter, she ran a hand through her hair and turned her attention back to her teammates.

Scott had let Marie take care of the unconscious and headed for the window instead. He shouldn't have; he wasn't in leathers, he was supposed to be letting Marie and Logan handle this at Ororo's directions if talking didn't work. But he wasn't ready to give up on that just yet, damn it!

"Shiro!" he snapped, seeing the young X-Man fighting with Logan. "You want to kill someone so badly that you'll fight your own teammates? Think about that, damn it!" Persisting might at least distract Shiro enough for Logan to knock him out.

Shiro's force field took the brunt of Wolverine's attack, but he flew back far enough out of Logan's reach so that he'd fall off the fire escape if he tried again. "This doesn't concern you!" he shouted back at Scott. He was almost unintelligible between the roaring of his fire and his frustratingly thickening accent. He could barely concentrate now. Too much stimulation. "Shut up shut up shut up!" He just needed a moment to think. Why couldn't he think?

Marie went to stand by Scott, keeping her distance from Shiro as she watched him warily. She knew she could withstand any heat he could throw her way, but she didn't want to push him into a frenzy. She had expected him to calm down at their arrival, but he seemed to be doing the exact opposite. She was reminded of the last time she'd been with a team trying to talk an X-Man down. Why does it always have to be fire? She bit her lip and started to hover, ready to fly over if needed.

Logan grinned at Shiro and flipped him the finger. ~Have you forgotten duty and compassion so quickly, samurai?~ he taunted in his islander Japanese. ~Your duty is not to yourself!~

Ororo couldn't understand Japanese, but she could surely recognize that tone of voice. "No taunting, Wolverine," she said sharply into the comms. "Rogue, do not allow Sunfire to escape. Whatever you must do, keep him there with you." She knew the younger woman was likely to have qualms about subduing her friend, but they couldn't allow relationships to get in the way of safety. If Shiro left in this state of mind, there was no telling what damage he could do to himself and others.

"Got it," Marie subvocalized. She flew out the window, keeping her distance from her friend as she moved circled behind him. "Come on Shiro, easy now," she said, keeping her hands palms up in the air. She cast a worried look at Scott standing in the window before turning her attention back to Shiro. "Why don't we go back inside and talk?"

"~Fuck off, gai-jin~!" Shiro spat at Wolverine. "You think you know so much, but who's the one who nearly sliced his teammate's leg off? And who goes around trying to kill old ladies? You think you can judge me? You all think you can judge me? I have more power in my fucking little finger than the rest of you have altogether. You judge me? Hah! I judge you!" With that, he shot off like a rocket at Rogue, intent on colliding with her in a Cannonball-like move. He may not have super strength, but momentum was on his side.

Marie blinked, hesitating for less than a second before the trained part of her brain took over and told her body to move. Rogue quickly ducked out of the way, reaching up to grab Shiro's ankles as he barreled over her. "What in the world do you think you're doin'?" she cried out, swinging him back towards the building. She winced as the momentum carried him through the already broken window and she surged forward to block the window, hoping that he might calm down now that the wind was knocked out of him.

Scott dodged quickly enough so that he wasn't bowled over by the still-fire-shrouded Shiro as he landed back inside the apartment; Marie's throw had been a little harder than she'd probably meant. Adrenalin, probably. As it was, Shiro landed nearly at his feet, and Scott, his heart pounding in his ears, forced himself to stay put and not back away further.

"Shiro," he said as steadily as he could, "you said he gave you the strength that was necessary and then took it away. I don't believe that. I don't think strength comes from a drug, and I think you're stronger than this drug, whatever it is." Reasoning with a junkie, Scott? But he had to. "This isn't you," he said, his voice pitched just loudly enough to be heard over Shiro's flames, the words coming out quickly but precisely. "You don't attack your teammates." He put every bit of persuasion he could into his voice. "You're not at the mercy of your temper anymore - I know you're not. I watched you train that bad habit out. I gave you your leathers, knowing that you'd learned how important it was to stop and think before you made a decision in a tactical situation. Do that now, Shiro. Please."

Scott's words did give Shiro pause. Mostly because he had to get to his feet, and that seemed to be a very difficult task. Something or someone was holding him down, trying to keep him from getting up. Who was pressing down on him? "Getoffgetoffgetoff . . ." he muttered, starting to panic. He flailed, and finally managed to pull himself up and back away from the other three.

They were trying to kill him. Just like Ho. Promises promises no more. He wasn't going to trust them, they'd just take away everything of his if he let them. He wouldn't, because it was his power and just his and no one else was allowed to have it. He raised his hands in front of him. "You can't have it!" he shouted, letting loose like a flamethrower. If he had to share it, then this would be it.

This had gone on long enough; it was time to end it. "Wolverine, distract Sunfire," Ororo instructed the team of two tersely. "Draw his attention. Rogue, you must subdue him. Prepare for skin contact, if you must."

Logan grinned ferally and popped out his claws. "You want to play this the hard way, we can do that." he said, and then advanced in order to strike. The heat was ferocious, but Logan really didn't care much. It was just meat - it'd grow back. Hurt like a bitch, but it'd grow back. Couldn't kill the kid or even seriously bend him a little, which was seriously limiting his options. His big advantage was that Shiro wasn't thinking straight, and would use his power over his hands. There had to be a way to take advantage of that.

"Stop it!" Shiro shouted, half demand and half plea. His attention was focused solely on Logan. He could smell the (much) older man's roasting flesh and it turned his stomach, but he didn't stop. If he stopped, then that'd be it. No more, game over, Battle Royale exploding collar. And at least Wolverine could take this.

Marie glanced down at her gloves, debating taking them off based on Storm's order, but she couldn't quite bring herself to do so...it reminded her too much of how things had gone with Stanley. That was the last resort and she would have to be very careful if it came to that. She still held out hope that they could talk him down.

She knew Logan could heal, but she didn't want to risk Shiro injuring him severely when she could easily withstand the flames. Flying forward, she grabbed Shiro and spun him around to face her. Upon seeing the mask on his face up close, combined with the flames emanating from him, she began to realize there was only going to be one way out of the situation.

Scott had heard Ororo's order over his own earpiece, but hadn't paused, hadn't even stopped for a moment to consider throwing himself into a fight he was out of for a reason. Shiro's flamethrower trick had set most of the apartment alight, and as unsavory as the unconscious men were, they didn't deserve to burn to death. As Logan advanced on Shiro and Marie flew back into the fray, Scott focused on getting the now-stirring drug dealers on their feet, shouting at them to make for the stairs and get the hell out of there.

Ho wasn't waking up. Scott gritted his teeth and hauled the man up off the floor, heading for the stairs himself and sparing only a moment to look back - just in time to see Marie and Shiro nearly nose-to-nose.

Pulling the mask off of Shiro's face, Rogue tossed it across the room. She would try one last time. "Shiro, please, stop, please..." Her tone was that of a desperate woman and she held her breath as she awaited his response.

Rogue was awarded with a punch to the face. A slight cracking sound suggested that Shiro wouldn't be drawing much for the next few weeks. The fires stopped, though his aura still shined as brightly as a star, and he took a step back. "Get away from me!" he roared. He could hear his heart pounding, and everything around him was becoming a blurry. From the smoke, of course. That was the only explanation. He still felt fine, aside from that faint tingling in his left arm and the profuse sweating and the achiness and this absolute blinding anger at everyone and everything.

Screwing his eyes shut, he flung himself at Rogue and tried to attack her again. "~LEAVE ME ALONE~!"

Praying to whatever deity might listen, Rogue wrapped her arms tightly around the angry Japanese man. "Forgive me," she whispered. There was no time to remove her gloves, she couldn't let Shiro hurt himself or anyone else...he needed to be stopped, but she would have to be careful not to draw too much from him. Leaning forward, she pressed her lips against his gently, holding him close so that he couldn't move away.

Pretty girl kissing him. That was unexpected. He tried to fight back, but her grip was so strong that he couldn't move. He began to feel heavy and the world grew dark and cold. His fire extinguished, and he fell limp in her arms, drained of his powers and his consciousness.

It took every ounce of Marie's control not to drop Shiro to the ground the instant the connection was broken. This absorption wasn't like the ones she'd been practicing and her head was reeling as she started to lower herself. The thoughts that streamed through her consciousness were wild and chaotic and she struggled to push them down, not able to channel them below the surface of her mind. Shiro dropped out of her numb hands, falling several feet to the floor as fire blazed from her hands. An angry scream erupted from deep within her as she fought to keep the fire from shooting out of every pore.

"MARIE!" Logan shouted as he watched Shiro drop - maybe falling on his head would knock some sense into him - and Marie struggle with what she took from the boy. She was fighting hard, and his heart skipped a beat at the thought that this time maybe she'd finally go under.

Marie turned in the direction of the shout, but her name didn't fully penetrate her consciousness. "~Back off, leave me alone!~" she cried out, flames enveloping her body as she threw her hands up in front of her. She was confused as she looked at Logan, two streams of thoughts running through her mind about him. Part of her trusted him completely, but another part of her was wary and told her that no one was to be trusted. They all wanted to hurt her, take away her power. It was hers, all hers and they all needed to go away and leave her be. Landing, her face twisted as she fought for control.

"Marie, please listen to me," Ororo's voice came over the headset. "You must keep control. Trust Logan, he will not harm you. You are strong, you can handle this, no matter how powerful it is. I know you can. Search for the control, do not panic, let it find you. Please, Marie, be calm, you can do this." Though her tone was calm, the words poured out in a jumble.

"Can't stop it," she groaned, her voice coming out a little deeper than usual and very tense. She curled up into a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth as her body cycled between feeling hot and cold. The fire stopped growing stronger around her, but it didn't diminish, and her mind was taking her through memories that were not hers.

"Yes, you can." said Logan, advancing on where lay curled into a ball. "Come on, kid, you're stronger than this. I know you are." he urged, bending down heedless of the residual flames and heat to cradle the girl in her arms. "Let's go," he subvocalized to Storm.

Slowly, Marie began to rise to the surface of her thoughts, using the techniques taught to her by Twoyoungmen and following the sound of Logan's voice. Breathing in and out, she stilled her racing heart and began to enter a trance like state, the fire flickering around her as she concentrated on her breathing. After a long pause, the fire finally began to shrink, collapsing in on the whimpering form cradled in Wolverine's arms. The instant the flames were out, so was Marie.

As soon as Ororo heard Logan's murmur she straightened, hitting the button that would page Clarice to join her at the comms. "Transport is on its way. Tinky Winky will be coming to your location to bring you back to the mansion. Stay where you are, and contact me if anything changes. You will be home soon."