Harry Grey, known as Pyre to most people, sent a jet of flames at Anarchy.

The villain simply stared at the flames. As always, his power took effect, deflecting the stream into the sky.

Pyre cursed under his breath. Anarchy's other power was getting to him. He had to stay calm, before he started a bushfire or something.

Anarchy grinned, and Pyre fought down a surge of anger.

The villain walked forward, and Pyre fell back.

Pyre was almost certainly the worst possible Parahuman to fight Anarchy. The villain's deflection field didn't seem to be controllable, and Pyre needed to actually be on fire to use his power. Even if the hero avoided attacking Anarchy- No easy task, considering his emotional aura- The villain could just get close to Pyre and deflect the fire that covered him.

If Anarchy acted any differently, Pyre wouldn't fight him at all. The problem was, Anarchy didn't seem to have any sane goals. Every time he was encountered, he just attacked anyone he came across, then disappeared. Fights with heroes seemed to satisfy him more, and Pyre himself seemed to be the villain's favourite opponent.

Pyre crouched as the villain came closer, feigning exhaustion. As he did so, he picked up a small rock, and hoped that Anarchy wouldn't notice.

Then, he stood up, and fired a jet of flames into the air, above Anarchy.

The villain stopped, the flames momentarily blocking his view, but not going into his field. As such, he did not notice the thrown rock until it was too late to stop it.

The rock hit Anarchy in the nose, and blood started pouring out.

The villain, rather then screaming vengeance or attacking himself, merely grinned.

Pyre felt his anger rising again.

He hit the bastard, something that was extremely hard to do, and all it did was amuse him?

Then Anarchy did something unexpected.

"Catch me if you can."

He ran towards the city. Cursing, Pyre ran after him.

Kate Blackstone was happy.

Her family sat around the table, eating dinner. Her mother had made lasagne. Her father wanted to have a barbeque, but he had been outvoted.

It was Friday, meaning that Kate could just stay at home and read for a few days. Most other eleven year olds would be out playing on the weekend, but Kate didn't see the appeal. The fact that no-one was willing to spend time with her for any more then necessary didn't have anything to do with it.

Kate's father was talking about Parahumans again. He did that a lot. Right now, he was talking about the new gang, The Sapiens, who had an Anti-Parahuman policy. Apparently, some former Rogues had joined the other gang in the town, The Convicts, in an attempt to get more protection from them.

Her mother worked for the Keepers, the Australian equivalent to the King's Men or Protectorate. Technically, the Keepers referred to the actual Parahumans, with her mother working for the non-Parahuman government branch that monitored them, but everyone just referred to the whole lot as 'Keepers' for convenience. As such, her mother was able to keep her father informed about Parahuman news, without letting rumors come across as facts, as the media sometimes did. Kate's mother sometimes joked that this was the only reason that he married her.

The conversation on Parahumans quickly changed to Kate's father lamenting the lack of barbeque. Apparently, he had even set everything up before being outvoted, with the gas bottle and spatula and everything else. Kate really didn't care very much.

It didn't matter, really.

Jacob Finn, also known as Anarchy, ran.

Every few metre's, he'd turn around, making sure that Pyre was following him.

The flaming hero took this as a challenge, from the looks of things.

Good. Makes things fun.

Anarchy smiled, and quickly checked the time.

Another minute or so, before he makes his grand escape.

Briefly, he reached up and touched the blood coming out of his nose.

It hurt. But that didn't matter. Pain was good. It was the whole reason he did this, after all.

Quickly, he turned back to Pyre, and stopped running. The hero quickly caught up to him, and sent a jet of flame.

Anarchy effortlessly deflected the attack, and drew a matchbox from his pocket.

Time to get out of here.

Lighting a match while Pyre couldn't see him, Anarchy threw it against a nearby wooden wall.

Once the fire started burning, Anarchy stepped to the side, out of Pyre's flame.

Just need to wait a bit, and keep running around here...

The fire burnt the wood, spreading quickly.

No-one saw it at first. Everyone had hidden in their homes when they found out about the battle between Parahumans, and fire alarms going off while Pyre was around was nothing new. So no-one knew about the burning until it was too late.

By the time the fire was noticed, it had already spread to five houses. People rushed to put it out. But too slow...

In the fifth house, the fire went unnoticed, eventually reaching a bottle of propane gas.

The explosion that came shortly afterwards, on the other hand, was very noticeable.

Slowly, Kate opened her eyes.

It hurt.

What... What had happened? One minute, her family was standing near the back door, warily watching the chase outside, prepared to run. The next...

Everything was on fire. Glass was on the floor, after being blown out. The door, and most of the wall, was missing.

Outside stood a burning man.

A hero. Pyre.

He watched the fire in shock, and horror. Then...

A laugh sounded through the town.

A villain. Anarchy.

The laughing villain stepped into her line of sight, and gave a mocking salute, before running away.

With a scream of hatred and rage, Pyre chased after him.

...What?

No... Why was he leaving? She needed help, they needed...

Wait, where were her parents?

They were...

She looked behind her.

Her parents laid on the ground, covered in blood.

They weren't breathing.

Pyre snarled as he chased after Anarchy.

People had been hurt. He had seen the blood. Anarchy had deflected his fire, and now...

...It was his fault. Pyre had done this.

The least he could do was make sure that Anarchy paid for this.

The villain seemed surprised by Pyre's single-minded desire to hunt him down, but took it in his stride.

Anarchy kept running, jumping a fence into someone's backyard. Pyre leapt after him, an-

Destination.
Agreement.

-d fell, hitting the ground, face first.

Anarchy had stumbled, but was able to recover and keep running before Pyre was able to get up.

Pyre stood, and prepared to chase the villain. However, his attention was drawn away by the sounds of a fire truck approaching.

The realisation his Pyre like a ton of bricks.

The fire.

People were still in there, and he had left them to chase after Anarchy.

Pyre could have screamed, but he didn't have time for that.

Quickly, he turned, and ran for the fire.

Kate stood outside the burning building, blood dripping off her chin.

She stared at her hands.

She was a Parahuman. She had seen her parents dying, and as a result...

She could heal now. Moved faster then before, too. And...

She wiped the blood of her chin, and put it through her lips again.

The blood. After... Something... She had looked at the blood covering her parents, and felt the urge to consume it.

And now she had... Well...

Two ghostly apparitions formed behind her.

She could make copies of them. They looked like her parents, at least.

But they weren't them. They were just empty shells.

Her parents were dead.

The apparitions vanished as a fire truck arrived.

People who had come to help. After the hero had walked away, and left them for dead.

She couldn't let them know.

She had powers, and her parents were dead. They might make her join the Keepers, and be a hero alongside him.

No.

She wouldn't do that.

Her parents had died. Someone had to pay for that.

The villain had been their, his fight had caused this. But the Pyre was supposed to be a hero, he was supposed to help people.

She closed her hands into a fist, then turned and walked away.

She was going to find them. Get them alone.

And then she was going to kill them.