A Touch of Malice. ( Open to first Hero to post! )

Flashfire flew through the sky, the fire elemental form glowing brightly in the night. He had just recently had a serious conversation that really made him question everything he was. Was he Flashfire really truly or was he James trying to hide himself. He flew to distance himself from the world that he might better understand himself. It was as Flashfire flew like this over an abandoned industrial building that he heard the screams. He quickly found the source and flew to them.

Flashfire landed and quickly extinguished his flames. He was surrounded by flammable petroleum. Being careful, he looked about and saw a family of four tied tight to a segment of railing, the little girl holding a detonator to what obviously went to the explosives all around the pillar the four were tied to. Quickly moving towards them, Flashfire asked, "What's going on? Who did this to you? Hold still, I'm going to see if I can get you out of this." He then proceeded to look at the details of the entrapment of this family, and ways he might release them.

Flashfire was just about to figure everything thing out when he heard the very minor sound of a gun going off. He dove to the side of of pure instinct, almost launching a fireball in retaliation. Stopping himself at the last moment, Flashfire mentally noted to himself that he can't just go lobbing fireballs wherever he pleases, not if he was to be the hero he wanted to learn to be.

Standing quickly, Flashfire looked about, seeing no one. He called out to the shadows, "This was a nice trap you setup here. If I didn't know it was just my ego talking, I would say you especially put this up for me. Why don't you let these people go, and we can talk about what it is you want?" Flashfire held his hands behind him, making it look as though he was wiping some of the grime from the floor on his lower back. Really though, he released a small, but extremely hot, ball of fire no larger than a penny. Using his body to screen it from the general direction the shot had come from, Flashfire directed it to the chains holding the hostages. Being very careful to control where the heat was going, he began using it as a blow torch to cut through the metal binds.