I roughly landed on a rooftop after leaping from another nearby, losing my balance for a moment before managing to get my footing before falling onto my face. I looked around, seeing the docks around me as I twirled my bat in my hand, hoping some fucker would do something worthy of a beating.

As I began to start moving again, I quickly stopped, seeing a big shard of glass on the ground and picking it up, making sure my face was covered enough. I wore a bright red hoodie with the hood up alongside a red bandana over the lower half of my face, the upper half being only partially visible thanks to the hood.

I tossed the glass away and took a seat on the edge of the roof, feeling a bit winded after having roof hopped for the last hour looking for some action. Aren’t the docks supposed to be a shithole for crime, what happened to make it good?

Luckily, it doesn’t take long for it to return to normal, hearing some voices speaking a building or two away. Two males sound somewhat aggressive, and a single female who just sounds annoyed and familiar.

I got up and took a few steps back before running and jumping from the roof, landing with a roll to absorb some of the impact before looking down into one of the alleys, seeing where the voices were coming from. Down below, I can see Amethyst being threatened by two guys down below, both being slightly fit white dudes wearing tank tops and baggy jeans, one holding a knife to her while the other seems to be on lookout. Luckily, they never look up.

I began to slowly creep down the fire escape of the building, trying to not be noticed as I listened to their conversation.

"Just give us your money, you dumb bitch. Can’t you listen?" The thug with the knife speaks, still keeping it pointed at her.

"Fuck off, that knife doesn't scare me, this is my money asshole!" She yells back, the thug backhanding her after she finishes.

"Shut the fuck up, yell again, and I’ll gut you!"

I jumped down from a couple levels up, landing rougher than I would have liked. The two men turn to face me, the one with the knife now pointing it towards me.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

"Still figuring that one out." I chuckle before igniting, bright flames enveloping my body as they had a few nights ago.

The one with the knife gets a big smile before speaking. "Nice party trick. Lemme show you mine."

He suddenly disappears with a slight shimmer where he had been. I glance around in confusion for a moment before I feel a searing pain in my upper back.

“Shit!”

“Shit!”

I call out, hearing another voice right behind me yell the same as I turn, seeing the thug behind me holding his slightly burnt hand. I reach over my shoulder and grip the handle of the knife before yanking it out and throwing it to the floor. After shaking his hand a bit more, he vanishes again, appearing at his knife and grabbing it a moment later before blinking out once more.

I hear his foot land just behind me, moving to the side just enough to hopefully miss another attempted stabbing before whipping around with my bat and cracking him across the jaw with it. He yells out in pain while stumbling backward, holding his mouth.

"Motherfucker!" He exclaims before teleporting again.

I don’t see him as I look around. Probably hiding, coward.

"Gun!" I hear Amethyst suddenly yell out. Looking back towards her and the other thug, I can see the latter has indeed pulled out a pistol and is aiming it at me.

He pulls the trigger after a second. I flinch and close my eyes as I expect to be shot. However, nothing happens... That is, until I look around and see everything is different... It's like the world is still shaped the same but made of raging flames. I don’t have much time to think about it before everything goes back to normal. I glance down and see no wounds on myself, glad I didn’t have to find out if I’m bulletproof or not. The thug is staring at me in utter fear before I rush him, slamming my bat into his wrist and feeling it crack from the impact as the gun flies from his hand, sliding down the alley several feet away from us.

He groans in pain while I swing the bat into his gut, making him double over before bringing my weapon down onto the top of his head. He crumples to the ground like a sack of potatoes before I hear a sound behind me; the blinking thug is standing there, looking scared at his friend’s condition.

"What, you want some too!?" I yell at him, beginning to charge, but he blinks away before I can reach him.

I turned to look around, seeing him standing beside Amethyst and holding his knife to her throat.

"Take another step and I’ll open her up."

I hesitate, knowing I can’t reach him before he’d stab her. My grip on the bat tightens as I try to think through what I could do, but I decide I just have to try. Once taking the first step, the world explodes into flames once again, but I keep running... Am I running? It feels different, like I’m gliding through the air or flying even.

The world returns to normal as I reach the thug. His grip on his knife is loose with fear as he seems unable to stab the knife into Amethyst as it’s not in her neck. I tackle him off of her and ride him to the ground, beginning to pummel him with punches the moment his back makes impact with the concrete below. My ignited fists leave knuckle shaped burns in his cheek and jaw, a few teeth flying out of his mouth as blood pours from it, he goes unconscious after the first dozen or so blows but I give him a dozen more just to make sure he doesn’t get back up anytime soon.

I glare down at his battered and burned face before getting off of him, grabbing my bat from a few feet away and beginning to stroll off, but stop when hearing Amethyst speak.

"Um... thanks for saving me."

I look back at her, a nervous smile plastered on her face, that’s weird for her. I open my mouth to respond but realize she might recognize my voice. My mouth seems to begin speaking on its own, my voice coming out with the crackling of a campfire, disguising itself.

"No problem, are you okay?"

"Yeah, they didn’t hurt me. You turned into fire, not like on fire, but you became fire, like a ball of it."

That’s new, must be why the world looked like fire, weird.

"Part of my powers, I need to be going though, get somewhere safe,"

"I will, I’m Amethyst by the way, I know you don’t have a name for yourself yet so I won’t ask... bye."

She turns a bit stiffly, making her way out of the alley quickly, but glances back before turning the corner, quickly blushing as she sees me still looking and rushes out of sight.

Once I’m sure she’s gone I look at the two men I beat, smiling at the sight before looking up at the rooftops, trying to think how I’ll get up. I quickly get an idea and try to concentrate, seeing if I can do that fire form thing again, and do so after a moment. I get a strange feeling from it now that I’m not running on adrenaline, feeling the immense heat but it doesn’t hurt, alongside the weightlessness that comes with it. My attention turns to the rooftop I came from and try to will myself towards it, quickly flying up there and popping back to normal the moment I reach it, stumbling and falling to the ground. I’m gonna need to work on that.