The Phoenix Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Man on Fire

It was hot… it was really hot… That’s all he could register. Or it would be hot for a few seconds then it would go straight back to cold. It was getting on his nerves… yet he couldn’t get himself to wake up.

I need to wake up… I… I gotta get back to…

He groaned a bit, trying to force his eyes open. Though he couldn't see where he was currently, he could still see the inside of the on fire showcase. The explosion going off… sending him flying… the heat of the flames burning him.

He felt hot again as he started to clench his teeth, holding back a scream.

“Ah geeze! There he goes again!”

FWOOOOOOSH!

Cold again, though this time his eyes snapped open. He was in what he could guess was a hospital room… and was covered in fire extinguisher foam…

“What the…?”

“Before you get snippy with me, just keep in mind whatever I do, I do it out of love.”

His eyes focused on a woman who was beside his bed. She had long dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. By the lab coat and ID tag… he could only guess she was probably a doctor… and he remembered her face… from when he got out.

“You’re…”

“Shaylin Sky.” She gave a gentle look. “Glad you remembered me. Was thinking the trauma of the smoke and fire would cause a minor lapse in memory, not to mention you were barely conscious when I found you.” Her look turned serious. “Speaking of. Any pain I should know about?”

“It mostly just feels hot… Then really cold all of a sudden… I’m not sore actually…” He was surprised at his own words. Given what he had just gotten out of he should’ve been in agony but… The only thing bothering him was the temperature changes.

“Eh… well the cold I can answer.” Shaylin revealed the fire extinguisher by her side. “That would be yours truly causing that… as for the heat I’m still figuring that out… or rather my team and me are trying to figure it out.”

The young man gave her a look.

“I didn’t think it was common practice now to dump fire extinguishing foam on a burn victim. Think that’s counter productive.” He said dryly.

“And in most cases, you would be correct.” Shaylin came closer. “But your burns are… interesting ones.” She took one of his arms, showing they now had red scars on them. Shaylin moved one of her hands over them… and there wasn’t any pain… heck the skin was smooth.

“They’re already healed up.”

He looked at it stunned flexing his fingers finding they moved easily and nothing felt numb. “That’s insane… How long have I been out…?”

“About 12 hours. It’s currently…” Shaylin looked at her watch. “7 in the morning.”

He sat up slowly running a hand through his hair. It was hard to picture… 12 hours ago he was standing near the robotics lab with…

Oh no… Oh no… “Was there… Anyone else found near me…?”</i>

Shaylin shook her head.

“You were the only one I saw stumbling out of the building. There were some others injured but nothing serious according to the reports.”

He sighed in relief.

“Thank goodness… No casualties-”

Shaylin frowned.

“Well actually… A dear friend of mine was in there apparently.”

His eyes widened.

Callaghan… He’s dead…  The young man lowered his gaze. “I’m so sorry for your loss…”

“It was an accident… Though that’s not my concern right now. My concern right now, is you, Mr. I don’t know your name.” Shaylin picked up something on the nightstand, showing him his burnt wallet. “I couldn’t ID you.”

“... Oh man that cost me fifteen bucks!” He took the wallet looking over the contents. “Great… Just great… My name’s Tadashi… Ugh I’m gonna need to get a new license and everything…!”

“We can worry about that later.” Shaylin narrowed her eyes. “Right now we got your injuries to tend to and your little heat problem.”

“Yeah would like to know how that’s going.” Tadashi remarked feeling irritation flare up as he looked closer at what remained of his wallet. had to stand in line for three HOURS at the freakin’ DMV for this driver’s license! THREE. HOURS-

He felt hot again as he gasped, the wallet dropping from his hands… As flames quickly formed on them. Tadashi’s eyes widened in horror.. Yet it didn’t hurt. But it felt so hot… So freaking hot.

“W-What the…!?”

“And ya did it again.” Shaylin got the fire extinguisher, putting the flames out. “This is just gonna be common occurance ain’t it?”

“Common occurrence!? Ya think this is normal for me!?” Tadashi yelled. “I CAUGHT FIRE AND IT DIDN’T EVEN HURT! And you're saying this is the SECOND time I did it!?”

“I say common because you were doing it in your sleep.” Shaylin gave a look. “This is actually the 17th time you’ve done that. Any time it happened you were experiencing pain or seemed stressed.”

Tadashi put his head in his hands trying to digest this piece of information. He knew for a fact he NEVER had any abilities like this before. Oh he would’ve burnt up Hiro’s fighting robot years ago if he had. “This… Is going to take a moment… Unbelievable…”

Shaylin put down the fire extinguisher, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Easy…”

Tadashi didn’t reply keeping quiet.

I can’t go home like this… If I got upset over having to stand in line at the DMV and this happened… What would happen if I got just annoyed at Hiro? Or if it came out over something else and I’d hurt him?

… I can’t hurt him… I can’t…

“Tadashi… look at me.”

He looked up a defeated look in his eyes.

“Yeah…?”

“I don’t know what’s going on with your body, but I’m gonna make it my business to find out, along with my team. We’re grateful you’re not dead, but we’re gonna figure this out and if possible, reverse this.”

Tadashi gave her a grateful look.

“Thank you… That means a lot. I’ll try to keep.. THIS down to a minimum… I just don’t wanna be a menace. I just wanna be me.”

“I know…” Shaylin gave a gentle look. “I’m gonna do everything I can. You’re under my care so… I’m with ya till the end of it.”

“Thank you… Seriously. I’ll do my best to not make it difficult.” Tadashi smiled a little.

“There’s a smile.” Shaylin chuckled. “Anyways… Oh! I almost forgot. You were muttering a name when I found you. Mind telling me who Hiro is?”

“Hiro’s my little brother. He was at the showcase with me… He was the kid with the crazy microbots.”

“Ah! How did I forget that? That was incredible!” Shaylin laughed a little. “Smart kid.”

Tadashi chuckled pride in his eyes. “A total genius, graduated high school at thirteen and now going on to college. I’m so proud of him… Sure he’s a total knucklehead sometimes but he’s MY knucklehead… He’s everything to me.”

“We’ll focus on getting you back to him… Also, just so you know.” Shaylin picked up a chart, jotting things down. “You’re at San Ramon Regional Medical Center.”

“Good to know.” Tadashi nodded. “Just glad I didn’t die… That wouldn’t be fun at all.”

“No it would not.” Shaylin examined his arms again. “Just wish I understood this… Though… That’s something I didn’t notice.” She was looking at his hands. “Looks like you got some extra oil on ya.”

Tadashi followed her gaze noting it as well. “Yeah… That’s weird… I don’t remember my skin being like that before.” He moved his hands together rubbing them… As sparks started to form. As soon as he stopped it was gone but it left him feeling worried.

“Interesting…” Shaylin muttered, making another note on her clipboard. “Well… hopefully the lab results will tell us something.”

Tadashi sighed giving a nod.

“Yeah… And here’s hoping it’s not: “Congratulations you’ve become the human barbeque!”

Shaylin shook her head. “We’ll be the judge of that.”

Knock knock knock.

“Oh good, my shift’s over. Looks like it’s Lily’s turn to look after ya.”

“Lily?” Tadashi blinked.

Shaylin smirked before opening the door.

“He’s awake this time sweetie.”

“Yay!”

A little girl, about 8 years of age, who shared some likeness to Shaylin walked on in, a medical textbook clenched to her chest.

“Mr. Phoenix!”

Shaylin chuckled, patting her head.

“His name is Tadashi. Be nice to him, okay?”

“Okay!”

Shaylin gave a wave before leaving them alone.

Tadashi gave her a small smile taking note of the textbook. “You gonna read that whole thing?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“Uh-huh!” Lily giggled, pulling a chair up next to his bed. “Well maybe. I went through two others while you were sleeping. Not sure if I will if you're up.”

“Anything’s possible.” He chuckled impressed. “Dedicated reader… I can respect that. Wanna be like your mom huh?”

“Yeah! My mama’s really smart! She’s one of the best doctors here, and she helps a lot of people, even when she’s not in the hospital she gets straight to work.”

“That’s what she did for me when she found me. Didn’t hesitate just ran right over and started trying to help… Which I’m very grateful for.” And not freaking out over the whole fire thing either.

“Just how she is…” Lily looked at his arms. “... Those don’t hurt do they? I wasn’t sure when you were asleep since I couldn’t ask you.”

Tadashi gave her a reassuring look. “They don’t hurt anymore. When your mom first found me, they hurt a whole lot. But not anymore. I promise.”

“Good.” Lily smiled. “Well not sure what we can do. I get the feeling you probably don’t wanna be out of the room.”

“Not yet kiddo. Don’t really know what sets off this stuff.” He gave a sheepish look. “Would rather not get a bunch of nurses mad because I had the sprinklers turn on. Part of me really wishes I had my robot right now...”

Lily titled her head. “What good would a robot do?”

Tadashi smirked. “My robot’s a healthcare robot. He can diagnose ANY disease with just a scan.”

“Oooooh… Huh… That sounds familiar actually. My mama goes to a lot of these showcase things at… S… Shoot… what was it…? SMIT? No that doesn’t sound right…”

“SFIT?” Tadashi offered.

“Yeah! That’s it! SFIT! She goes to them because of one of her friends there. She’s always interested in seeing the technology advances. I remember her mentioning something like that when she came home.”

Tadashi turned a little red… Some steam coming off the top of his head.

“S-She saw my presentation then… My robot, Baymax was what I had last entered as an attempt to renew my scholarship.”

Lily blinked.

“Why are you all red? And… you got steam coming off your head.” Lily waved her hand over his head. “You feeling okay?”

“Ehehe… I don’t like showing off... “ Tadashi gave a sheepish look. “And that presentation while I was happy with Baymax’s performance...Eh… I was just really nervous so I wasn't’ sure if I was even making sense… Doesn’t help the whole duct tape and…” He paused bringing a hand over his own head. “... Dang you're right.”

“I know Mama jokes about some of her friends being so mad or embarrassed they have steam coming off them but I don’t think she meant something like this.”

“Well… I guess for me it’s literal now.” Tadashi turned redder. “Ugh… This is embarrassing…”

Lily giggled a bit.

“It’s kind of cute.”

“Heh… Thanks?” He smiled sheepishly.

She gave a shy look.

“It might be really weird, but I think it’s kind of cool… Though must be confusing too.”

“It really is.” Tadashi rubbed the back of his neck. “I wish I could see those results first hand… It just feels weird waiting on the answers instead of trying to find them myself.”

“I get ya.” She smiled gently. “Ehe… I apologize for the nickname earlier… It was the only thing I could think of to call you before I knew your real name, Tadashi.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been without a nickname out of all my friends.” He chuckled smiling warmly. “So it’s cool with me.”

“Yay!” She giggled, looking at her medical text book. “I guess… I could share… If you’re interested.”

“I’d really like that… I wanted to be a doctor myself one day…”

“That’s awesome!” She stood up on her chair, allowing herself to climb up onto the bed next to Tadashi. “Want me to hold it or you wanna?”

“Maybe you better.” He grinned sheepishly. “Don’t wanna accidentally start a fire… Thanks Lily.”

“You’re welcome, Tadashi.” She opened up the book, holding it up so they could both see. “Don’t want ya bored so… this’ll work…” She gave a shy look. “I don’t meet a lot of people who wanna read with me besides my mama.”

Tadashi hesitated a bit before patting her head. He could empathize. “That was how it was for me til my little brother learned to read… And even then we don't’ share a lot of the same tastes so I usually wind up reading stuff like this alone. Always more fun with someone else.”

“Yeah!” Lily nuzzled his hand. “Hehe… You’re really nice for an adult.”

“I try to be.” Tadashi smiled softly. “Just wanna make people smile.”

“Well, you got me to smile.”

“Very true.” He chuckled ruffling her hair a little bit.

She giggled again, moving a bit closer to him.

“So…” She looked at the header. “Looks like we’re reading about the nervous system.”

“Oh that’s a fun one.” Tadashi grinned.

“Yep!” She settled in next to him. “Let’s get started then.”

Tadashi nodded bringing an arm around her. “Right.”

oooooo

Shaylin was looking over the lab results… baffled at what her colleague was telling her.

“The cells on his skin have become fire resistant… You gotta be kidding me.” She muttered, running a hand through her hair.

“And it’s not just his skin either.” Her colleague, Gabriella, crossed her arms. “With the blood tests we were looking at there might be other changes we’re not aware of yet. Though of course the obvious things is that he’s running on a higher body temp than the average person, but it’s not frying his brain and his blood cells seem really rich with oxygen as well. Next thing I do want to examine is his lungs.”

“Good plan.” Shaylin hummed in thought. “Though I will not be surprised if they don’t have damage. He hasn’t had any trouble breathing from the looks of it… Then again we couldn’t really strap an oxygen mask on him regardless…”

“So true… But I would like to make sure there isn’t something that’ll sneak up on this kid. Just hope he cooperates.” Gabriella sighed shaking her head. “Just… Why this kid? He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“All things happen for a reason… Oh, almost forgot. Kid caught fire even when he was awake. Seems it’s only his arms though thankfully.”

“Only his arms… Noted… Explains some things but… Even when he’s awake.. How’d he react? Did it get worse when he could see it?”

“I was able to put it out, but they caught fire the moment he was expressing some frustration. And something else I noticed was some kind of oil on his hands, and not your average skin oil either. He tried rubbing it off and there was sparks.”

Gabriella hummed in thought. “That… Is interesting. Hrm… I want a swab of that oil off his hands if you can get me a sample. Might have some clue to how it’ll work. But if their activated further by emotions… Hm…”

“Maybe his nervous system is involved… Like I said the oil sparked when he tried friction on it… I wonder if just internal body heat could cause sparks.”

“I guess we’ll find out.” She sighed. “This will be one heck of a mystery to solve… And he’s probably gonna get sick of us needing samples eventually..”

“Probably.” Shaylin sighed herself. “I just wanna help him… he doesn’t deserve this…”

“No he doesn’t… We’ll find a way Shay.” She squeezed her shoulder. “Just gotta find all the answers. See what triggers it… Make sure this isn’t gonna come back to bite him later…”

Shaylin nodded. “Right.”

“And in general just keep the interns away from him. I mean I know they can’t help but tick off pyromaniacs but… I don’t want the chief yelling at us.”

“Yeeeah let’s not get that wrath brought up on us and the poor patient.”

She nodded.

“For now… Let’s just hope for the best. He’s alive, speaking, seems stable in health at least for now… So we got some time to figure out this mystery… Heck maybe call in one of your hundreds of favors.”

Shaylin rolled her eyes, chuckling.

“I’m just famous for those aren’t I?”

Gabriella smirked.

“You got Simon to lay off the interns for six months because of one. Heck yes you are.”

“True… true…” Shaylin got a determined look. “I told I’m gonna do everything I can for him, so I’m gonna live up to that.”

“Then let’s get to work and ensure you keep it.”

Next: The Phoenix Chapter 2

Previous: The Phoenix Prologue