Logi slammed his front door open, the hinges rattled dangerously as he pushed past the doorway and closed it behind him. He speed walked his way over to his stove and flicked on the gas before lighting it. He slowly dropped his hand into the fire, watching the flame curl around his unblemished skin like a lover's hand wrapped around his.
He focused as the feeling of warmth seeped into his hand, then up his arm and into his torso, the heat spread like water filling a dried-up lake, something that was missing, slotting back into its rightful place. Feeling the fire still pushing its way into his hand Logi decided to help it, he grabbed the warmth and sharply pulled at it.
With a jolt the fire on the stove vanished. The stove fire had been pulled to his hand and vanished upon impact, yet the heat remained within his body. Following some unknown instinct Logi grabbed the heat, like he had just seconds ago, except this time he didn’t pull towards himself, no he did the opposite and pushed it lightly. With a sound like rushing air, his hand burst into flame.
He waved his hand over the stove, relighting it and quickly burning the excess gas built up from keeping the valve open. He stopped pushing out the fire and turned off the stove, keeping his gaze away to stop himself from being entranced.
Logi half stumbled out of the kitchen before sitting on his couch heavily. Then he surprised himself, he laughed, Logi laughed loud and hard, the tone verging on insanity as he cackled in joy and wonder. Finally stopping, the young man sat up and looked at his hands once again.
“I’ve got fucking superpowers… What the hell is happening to me? Although I have to say” His eyes glinted a bright orange as a grin struggled to push past its human limits. “I certainly could have gotten a worse ability.”
,,’\_/’,,
When Logi awoke the next morning he had to pinch himself and pull a bit of his fire to ensure it hadn’t been a dream. He stood so quickly and forcibly his bed went skidding back a solid three feet leaving long scratches in the floor. Shocked, the newly awakened fire user gaped. ‘I couldn’t do that before… right?’
Turning and walking over to the disturbed object he moved to pick it up, heat spreading through his veins as picked up the bed almost easily. Dropping it back in its original resting place. He felt the heat vanish from his muscles like a blanket was pulled off of him.
Super strength too? That was crazy, how did fire relate to strength? Regardless it was Sunday, which meant that he didn’t have to go back to work until tomorrow. Today he just needed a place to test his powers discreetly. Hurriedly he pulled out his phone and began to search. There! There was an abandoned stretch of beach. If he recalled right there used to be a port there before the currents had shifted, leading to all kinds of trash washing up, making it unusable, from there people began using it as their dumping grounds. Since nobody wanted to be around the trash it would be perfect for training. And so Logi dashed to his car and drove down to the beach.
The scent of salty air hit him hard as he opened the car door, along with the scent of warm rotting trash. He wrinkled his nose and walked out to the sand, his steel-toed boots moving the sand aside as he walked. The trash was piled several feet high for nearly a mile left and right. Logi managed to find a pathway leading deeper into the mounds. Finding a small clearing he stopped and looked around, finding a wooden dresser.
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Grinning Logi started to walk towards the dresser before stopping as a thought came to him, he held out a hand to the piece of furniture before pulling at the fire within him, he led it through his arm and out of his hand, even as the limb went up, he continued, pushing the fire out of his hand and beyond, focusing his attention on the wood before him the fire leaped from his hand to the dresser in a continuous stream of heat.
The blaze wasn’t very hot, but nonetheless, the object went up quickly, strangely not letting out much smoke. Now that the dresser was thoroughly lit Logi tried to pull the stream of fire he was emitting back. There was a strange resistance, but he yanked the blaze back, and with a sudden flash the dresser turned to ash, and flames tore through the air toward him. As always they vanished upon contact with his skin. The oddest part was that he absorbed more fire than had been on the furniture.
“Maybe I'm burning the potential energy too?” he pondered out loud
Turning around Logi tried the same thing again, with similar results, the couch he targeted turned to pile ash drifting to the sandy ground below. Deciding to do some experiments. Quickly he determined that as long as he didn’t have a direct connection to the object on fire, whether that be an uninterrupted stream of fire or skin contact, he wouldn’t accidentally disintegrate something by absorbing the fire.
Now to test his strength. Drawing on the heat, yet not letting it out he felt his body begin to feel lighter. He kept pulling until his muscles felt like they were on fire and then reduced the output to about half. With a solid push off the ground, Logi went up and up, hitting almost 7 feet in the air(2.13 meters) from a standstill. Well surpassing the world record.
His cheeks hurting from the grin on his face Logi launched his fist into a nearby fridge. The metal dented and broke, the fridge itself getting lifted off the ground from the force. Letting loose a mad chuckle Logi launched off from his point, sprinting through the mounds at superhuman speeds. Finding his dexterity also enhanced he was able to do intense feats of acrobatics on a whim. Unfortunately, even his enhanced balance couldn’t account for a greasy fridge top. Logi slipped his shoulder firmly slamming into an exposed length of rebar.
His joy turned deranged as he noted that it only left a scratch. Logi reveled in his newfound power once again, dopamine flooding his brain at the idea he was better, more than everyone around him. He supposed at this point, he should make use of his power. He had to see that wonderful fire, not just what he had, but the destruction that came with it, the smoke filling his lungs and the ash floating heavily in the air. He would again, and no one would stop him.
,,’\_/’,,
After Logi got home that night, he dreamt the dreams were vivid, he dreamt of fire, an ocean of fire consuming everything in its path, a tidal wave of fiery death and destruction, leaving only ash in its wake. He saw the ash turn to fertile soil upon which vegetation grew as numerous as sand on a beach. Alas the growth did not last forever, the largest plants blocking the everpresent sun from reaching the soil, preventing new growth, and then the fire came again, for the cycle to continue. New growth, old growth, fire, reset, Again and again, the cycle repeated, until Logi snapped awake in a cold sweat.
Looking out his window, all he could see were the skyscrapers crowding the horizon, never before had the phrase concrete jungle seemed more accurate. It seemed that this jungle had become overgrown and he had just the the excuse to burn it down