I got into the response vehicle with the notification still floating in front of my eyes.

[Fireman System]

[Nearby artificial energy detected]

I read it once.

Then again.

After that I tried to ignore it like a mature person who did not want to panic before a mission, but the problem with the system notifications was that they did not respect my mental peace.

I could look out the armored window, I could look at the seat in front, I could look at the metal floor of the vehicle, but the phrase kept appearing as if someone had glued it inside my eyelids.

Artificial energy.

That did not sound like a superhuman losing control in a normal way. It also did not sound like something I should mention immediately without having a decent explanation.

I could not raise my hand in the middle of the vehicle and say: “Hey, a magic screen that only I can see just told me something weird.” That was a pretty quick way to end up in an interrogation room again.

Vanessa was sitting to my left, checking her smartwatch. Nora was in front of us with a calm expression, but her fingers were tapping her knee repeatedly, as if she was calculating routes in her head.

Sarah was not coming with us. She was coordinating from the agency, talking through the communicator with that energy of a person who could scold you and motivate you in the same sentence.

“You arrive in two minutes” Sarah’s voice said through the internal speaker. “Remember: civilians first, damage second, publicity heroism at the bottom of the list.”

“Am I officially in that last category?” I asked while trying to make my voice sound normal.

“Oliver, you are in the category of not burning anyone.”

“That is also a personal brand.”

Vanessa looked at me sideways. “Focus.”

“I am focused.”

I was not one hundred percent, but enough not to die from distraction. The System notification started to fade when the vehicle braked hard in front of a noisy commercial area.

The doors opened and the sound hit all at once: alarms, screams, breaking glass, people talking at the same time, and the unbearable hum of dozens of phones recording.

I got out behind Vanessa and Nora.

The place was a disaster.

There was a row of shops with broken windows, a small café with tables thrown around, a clothing store with the sign hanging from a cable, and several people running in different directions as if no one had invented the word exit yet.

In the center of the commercial street there was a man around thirty years old, with torn clothes and arms covered by a kind of grayish glow. He did not look like a villain with a suit, a ridiculous name, or a prepared speech.

He looked scared.

That was worse.

A villain at least knows he is doing something wrong. A scared person with powers only tries to survive and in the process can destroy your face without meaning to.

The man hit the ground with both fists and a dry wave lifted pieces of concrete. Two people fell to the floor near a bench and several more screamed.

Nora advanced one step and raised a hand, releasing blue sparks that spread like thin lines over the pavement, forming a barrier between the altered man and the closest group of civilians.

“Vanessa, left side” Nora said. “There are people trapped behind the shelves.”

Vanessa disappeared before finishing answering. I only heard her voice from the air. “On my way.”

Nora turned her head toward me. “Oliver, no big flames. Mark routes. Do not attack.”

“Understood.”

It was easy to say.

Hard to do when a superhuman had just broken the ground and my instinct told me that shooting fire was an excellent way to ask people to stop getting closer.

But if I used too much fire, everyone was going to see the flame boy turning a minor emergency into an official New Kroy fire.

I took a deep breath, extended my hand toward the ground, and released a low line of fire. I did not push it toward the man. I guided it toward a side passage, forming a bright line that did not burn strongly but was visible enough to draw attention.

“This way!” I shouted. “Follow the line and do not cross toward the center!”

A man in a shop shirt looked at me as if he did not know whether obeying a guy without a full uniform was a good idea.

Then another wave broke a huge plant pot a few meters away and suddenly the line of fire became the best suggestion of the day. Several people started moving along the marked path.

The heat in my fingers was stable.

Good.

I was not making a fool of myself.

That was always a victory.

The altered man raised his head toward us. His eyes were unfocused and he was breathing too fast.

He had foam at the corner of his mouth and the veins in his neck stood out with a dark tone. He did not look like someone enjoying causing damage. He looked like someone fighting against his own body.

[Fireman System]

[Artificial concentration detected]

The notification appeared again, but this time it was not just text.

I felt something.

It was not like seeing with my eyes. It was more like when you know a stove is on even before touching it. A dirty, heavy pressure, concentrated in the man’s chest, spreading toward his arms like hot roots.

Shit.

The problem was not in his entire body. It was in his chest.

“Nora” I said without taking my eyes off the man.

“What?”

“His chest. Something is coming out from there toward his arms.”

Nora did not ask how I knew. Blessed practical woman.

“Are you sure?”

“Not sure enough to swear it in court, but enough not to ignore it.”

The altered man hit the ground again. Nora launched a blue discharge that did not attack him directly, but hit the pavement in front of him and raised a curtain of sparks.

The superhuman stepped back by instinct, growling from pain or fear, I could not tell.

From the left shop I heard Vanessa’s voice. “I have three civilians. One injured in the leg. I need a clean route.”

I looked around. There were too many people in the way and several curious people recording as if having a phone made them immune to the debris.

I used two low parallel lines of fire, like a kind of improvised lane from the shop door to the safe zone behind a fountain. They were not high flames. They were signals. Controlled heat. Enough light to say this way without burning shoes.

“Behind the fountain!” I shouted. “If you are recording, at least record from far away!”

I do not know if it was my heroic authority or the fear of ending up roasted, but it worked.

Vanessa appeared for a second carrying a woman in her arms and disappeared again almost immediately. Behind her came two trembling employees, following the lines of fire as if they were the most reliable path in the world.

That felt good.

Feeling useful always feels good.

The altered superhuman brought both hands to his chest and screamed. The gray glow on his arms increased and several cracks appeared in the ground around him.

Nora clenched her teeth and reinforced her blue barrier, but even she had to step back half a step.

“If he keeps accumulating strength, he is going to break the entire street” Nora said.

The artificial pressure in the man’s chest was pulsing faster. The System did not give me a kind explanation, but my body understood enough.

If Nora kept containing him from the outside, he was going to explode in any direction. The flow toward his arms had to be cut.

“Vanessa” I said loudly. “I need you to hold his arms from behind when Nora makes him turn.”

“Do you have a plan or are you improvising with confidence?”

“Both.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“Nora, make him raise his guard.”

Nora looked at me for a second, then smiled slightly. “You better be right.”

She launched a blue discharge at the ground in front of the man. He reacted by raising both arms to cover himself, exactly as I expected. At that instant Vanessa appeared behind him, grabbing his elbows and pulling backward with impressive force for someone who had just rescued civilians.

I advanced two steps and extended both hands toward the pavement, not toward him. I formed a low circle of fire around his feet, not to burn him, but to force him to stay still by instinct. The man looked down at the fire and hesitated.

That second was enough.

Nora crossed the distance and pressed two fingers charged with blue electricity against the center of his chest. It was not a huge discharge. It was precise. Short. Controlled.

The gray glow on his arms flickered.

The man let out a muffled groan and fell to his knees. Vanessa did not let go, she only lowered with him to prevent him from hitting his head on the ground. Nora kept her fingers on his chest a few more seconds until the glow finally went out.

Silence did not arrive immediately. There were still alarms, people crying, employees coming out of the shops, and curious people recording. But the main danger had ended.

I turned off the circle of fire and felt my legs heavy.

I had not shot a big flame. I had not defeated anyone with an impressive attack. I had not posed for the cameras.

But no one was burned.

That was much better.

Vanessa raised her gaze toward me while securing the man’s arms with special ties. “That was risky.”

“But it worked.”

“This time, yes.”

Nora looked at the unconscious man, then at me. “How did you know it was the chest?”

I stayed still.

That was the kind of question that could open horrible doors.

“I saw it in the way he moved” I said trying to sound casual. “The arms were receiving strength, but the center was here.”

Nora did not seem completely convinced, but she did not pressure me either. Vanessa looked at me a second longer than normal and that was enough to know that she did not completely buy it either.

Perfect.

I survived the emergency and now two women were suspicious of me.

Progress.

***

At the agency, Sarah received the first data package from the mission while the medical teams arrived at the commercial area.

The vehicle cameras, Nora’s portable sensors, and Oliver’s thermal record appeared together on the screen. Sarah reviewed the sequence once, then again.

Oliver had pointed out the accumulation point before Nora’s sensor marked it as an anomaly.

Sarah left the coffee cup on the table without drinking.

“Interesting” she murmured, looking at Oliver Clarke’s name on the report. “Very interesting.”