“It’s been a month since you last dropped by,” the purple-haired woman purred in his ear. “What’s with the long hiatus?”

“I’ve just been busy, you know how it is Vira.” Dario nervously chuckled. The woman currently clasped onto his back was an ASH gang enforcer, and in his humble opinion, the most formidable of them all.

“Hmm.” Vira hummed while twirling the curved dagger in her hand. “And what, exactly, has kept you so busy that you couldn’t even bother to come visit for a little fun with the gang?”

“Graduating, work, dealing with clients, the usual,” Dario responded, trying to keep his cool.

He was a little distracted with the soft mounds pressed against his back, and the smooth, toned legs wrapped around his waist. The threat of the dagger held near his throat only served to increase his trepidation. In his earlier fight, he had blocked a knife attack with the skin of his hand, but it had come from a dull, almost blunt knife. Dario knew that Vira kept hers regularly sharpened, so he was uncertain of whether or not he could withstand something like that.

In that moment, he was both scared and aroused. Heh, ‘scaroused’ was exactly the word he would use to describe how Vira usually affected him.

“Also,” Dario continued. “I found out a little something about myself recently.” He raised his arm to show off his Status Band.

Vira’s eyes widened in astonishment. “Well fuck me sideways.” She jumped off his back and landed on the ground beside him. “You’re a Superior? How the hell is that possible?” She grabbed his arm and closely inspected the intricate golden armband.

“Yep. It turns out that you don’t manifest early on after all, but keep that on the down low.” Dario stood straighter, posing with his biceps flexed. “Don’t I just ooze a Superior aura now?” he asked jokingly.

Vira eyed him in faux contempt. “Yes… you do seem more smug than usual.” She sighed before perking up. “Well, come on in then, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

As she walked off towards ASH headquarters, Dario glanced down to stare at her retreating backside. She had a nice, round, perky butt that smoothly filled the confines of her shorts. Despite how bountiful it seemed, he knew that it was mostly toned, firm muscle.

Staring at those cheeks reminded him of the short fling he had with her almost a year ago. That had been a dangerous decision, but well worth it, in his opinion. She was two years older than him, but their brief relationship quickly solidified his preference for older women.

Vira must have sensed his gaze, as she began purposefully swaying her hips. “Well, are you coming or not?” she asked, looking over her shoulder with an amused, coy expression.

“I’m coming alright.” Dario smirked as he followed her into the building. Why was it the dangerous women that attracted him so much?

The interior of the house looked surprisingly welcoming. The ceiling was a creamy white color, with the walls being a mix of soft brown hues. Despite being slightly well-worn, most of the furniture seemed tastefully organized around the room. It certainly wasn’t a high quality Inn, but it was definitely a lot cleaner than Dario expected a gang residence to be.

“Like our new digs?” Vira asked as she plopped down on one of the couches. “Took up most of the budget, but totally worth it. We got more people to house, so we really needed the space.”

“I’m surprised you’re able to afford all this,” Dario commented. “I may not have been the treasurer, so I don’t know all the details, but I thought we barely had enough to maintain the last house.”

“Well, you thought wrong.” Vira shrugged. “We don’t tell most members how much money we really have ‘cause that just leads to people slacking off.”

“I was never a slacker, you know that. Yet, you never told me,” he accused.

“Yeah, we were going to tell you about it and bring you in on discussions about getting our new crib, but you suddenly stopped showing up.” The short haired woman shrugged. “Not our fault.”

“Well, I’m here now.” Dario raised his arms in the air before sheepishly rubbing his head. “And, to be honest, I need your help.”

“I see.” Vira crossed her arms and stared at him with narrowed eyes. “So, you only come back when you need something from us. How typical.”

“Okay, it sounds kinda bad when you put it like that,” Dario agreed before adopting a more serious expression. “But this is something serious. It could be a life and death situation for me, and I could really use some help.”

The purple-haired femme fatale looked at him, trying to discern his true motives. After a few seconds, her expression softened.

“Okay, I’ll believe you for now,” she said. “Does what you need help with have anything to do with your new… condition?”

As Dario opened his mouth to reply, he was interrupted by a deep voice coming from behind. “What condition is she talking about, Dario?”

The purple-eyed teen turned around and noticed a familiar dark-skinned figure walking down the stairs with a sleepy look on his face. He was very tall, and solidly built, with long black hair tied into a ponytail. He was one of the gang’s leaders, as well as Vira’s older brother.

“What’s up, Vaughn?” Dario casually greeted. He had known the taller man for a long time, and had a friendly history with him.

“Nothing much,” Vaughn replied, yawning. “Just wondering what a good for nothing layabout like you is doing back here.” He smiled to show he was only teasing.

“Like I told your sister, I came here because I needed some help from you guys,” Dario said. “More specifically, I need to use The Fire Pit.”

“The Fire Pit?” Vaughn asked with a raised eyebrow. “What do you need that for?”

Dario raised his arm and showed off the golden Status Band on his arm. “I need it to help me figure some things out, things related to me being a Superior.”

Vaughn looked at him in surprise before turning to Vira with a questioning look. “Don’t look at me,” she said. “I just found out about it too.”

“Well, this is certainly a surprise,” Vaughn muttered. “But, did you have to come here and drop that bombshell at two in the morning though?” His face scrunched up in annoyance. “I’m half tempted to kick you out and tell you to come back in the afternoon.”

“Maybe we should hear him out. After all, he’s a Superior,” Vira said wryly.

“True, sister dear, he has official authority now.” The corners of Vaughn’s lips twitched. “You’re not here to arrest us all, are you, sir?” He raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Oh come off it, you know I’d never betray you guys.” Dario rolled his eyes. “Achieving my childhood dream doesn’t suddenly change who I am as a person, come on.”

“We know, Dario, we know. We’re just messing with you.” The gang leader chuckled. “Now, why don’t you tell us what you need The Fire Pit for.”

“As you know, I’m a Superior now, or ‘supe’ as they call it,” Dario began. “This only happened recently, like a week ago, and I still have to figure some things out. My powers are still a bit of a mystery to me, and I was hoping to find out more about how it works. I think The Fire Pit can help me with that.”

“What is it that you can do exactly?” Vira asked from her prone position on the couch. “Can you shoot fireballs or something?”

“Err, no, nothing that cool,” Dario muttered. “I’m naturally stronger now, and a lot tougher. I can take a lot of damage and heal pretty fast too.” He saw Vira open her mouth to ask something, and interrupted her before she could speak. “No, I don’t want you to test that.”

The tanned woman closed her mouth and shrugged. “Your loss.”

“Anyways, I’m strong and durable, but there’s another aspect to my power.” Dario hesitated since it was risky letting more people know about his Assimilator status. However, these were his people, so he didn’t mind sharing a little bit. “I think I can get even stronger and do more things if I absorb heat, which in this case means fire. I don’t know for sure though, so I came here to test it out without actually having to set myself on fire.”

The two siblings glanced at each other, deliberating with their eyes and body language before looking back at him.

“Okay, why the hell not?” Vaughn turned and gestured, telling Dario to follow him. “Come, we moved The Fire Pit out back.”

That was the thing he liked about the Dundev siblings, they were always straight to the point and did things fast.

Dario followed Vaughn through an adjacent hallway with Vira closely following behind. During their walk, he had to fend off the occasional butt pinch from her. Eventually, they exited the backdoor and walked down a few steps over to an open area with varying sizes of logs stacked in a corner next to some kind of large metal object.

The Fire Pit wasn’t actually a pit and was more of a dark, circular, metal ring with a one meter radius. The ring itself was a curved trough covered in strange markings and glyphs. The ASH gang had discovered it in a forgotten alley somewhere and brought it home, believing it to be an interesting, if not useless, piece of junk.

However, it turned out that if any kind of wood was placed inside its curved interior, it would immediately light up all the symbols and glyphs covering it, whereupon the entire ring would burst into flames. The first time it occurred was a fairly hilarious event that resulted in some singed eyebrows and minor burns.

Regardless, no one could deny that it was supernatural in nature. Now that Dario knew more about Superiors, he came to the realization that it was once the creation of an Artificer. Why it was left abandoned in some alley was still a mystery, but one he was grateful for.

“How do you want to do this?” Vaughn asked, standing next to The Fire Pit.

“I’m gonna stand in the middle, and you light it up. Simple as that,” Dario replied.

“Are you sure?” Vaughn raised his eyebrows in surprise. “It gets really hot in there.”

“Yeah, that’s the point,” he said with a smirk. If he could survive being in a burning building, then he could definitely handle The Fire Pit. Probably.

“Let him do it,” Vira chimed from her seat on a nearby log. “I’m sure he can take it.”

“Alright.” Vaughn shrugged.

Without any more fanfare, Dario walked to the center of the ring and waited.

“You ready?” the older Dundev sibling asked, his hand holding a wooden log over the curved trough of The Fire Pit.

“Do it.”

Vaughn heeded his call and dropped the log.

The effect was instantaneous as flames burst out around him, completely surrounding his field of view. The noise was immense, and all he could see was a wall of nearly blinding yellow fire that quickly changed the air around him. Dario was blasted with a wave of intense heat, and for a moment, felt like he was back in the burning building. Thankfully, that was exactly what he wanted.

He closed his eyes and focused on his inner Assimilator energy. He struggled to find tranquility amid the loud roaring sounds of the flames burning around him. Eventually, he was able to block out all the noise and pay attention to any minute change inside him. If he was right, then it shouldn’t take long to notice...

There! He could feel it! His pool of Assimilator energy was slowly rising faster than usual, and he felt exactly like he did during the rescue of that girl in the building. Any hint of drowsiness instantly burned away and he felt fully awake. He deemed his experiment a success, and he couldn’t have been any happier. It finally confirmed his theory, which meant he could assimilate heat.

The Bloody King was an Assimilator like him, and he was able to absorb and manipulate his source of power to his whims. Following that logic, if Dario’s source of power was heat, then that meant he could absorb and manipulate flames too, right?

Dario stretched his hand forward to touch the flames directly.

“Agh!” Dario immediately retracted his arm, staring at it in pained confusion. “Okay, that didn’t work.” He cursed for a few seconds while cradling his slowly healing hand. “What did I do wrong?” He closed his eyes and started meditating once more.

Unfortunately, he was unable to go any further as it became increasingly more difficult to breathe. Dario abruptly realized that being in the center of a raging inferno was a bad idea for his lungs.

He began to choke and gasp before falling to his knees. He quickly looked at the various glyphs adorning the metal ring and found a familiar circular blue symbol. He crawled over to it and punched it before collapsing on the ground. The flames immediately disappeared.

Thankfully, he was able to deactivate The Fire Pit before he could lose consciousness.

“Are you alright?”

Dario looked up at the concerned faces of the Dundev siblings. “Yeah, I’m good. Although, I may have misjudged the situation a bit. I just need a short breather. Literally.” He chuckled. Despite the quick end to his experiment, he was still somewhat satisfied with the minor results. He would have to try it again, but probably not while standing in the center next time.

“See, I told you he could take it,” the female Dundev said. “Pay up.”

Vaughn grumbled while handing over a few coins.

After a few moments of catching his breath, Dario stood up and dusted himself clean. “I’m glad you regard my health in such high esteem guys,” he reproached, stepping over the metal ring.

Before they could respond, the backdoor of the house opened and out walked a little blonde girl around the age of eight, dressed in sleepwear.

“Wuzz going on?” she blearily asked while rubbing her eyes. In her arms was a brown teddy bear clutched tight against her body.

“Ava!” Vira called out with a smile. “Come meet Dario!” She gestured towards the slightly taller, purple-eyed teen beside her.

The small child sleepily shuffled over and stared up at him with bright blue eyes. “Hello,” she muttered in a soft voice. “Nice to meet you.” She took a whiff of his slightly singed body. “You smell funny.”

For the moment, Dario pushed any thoughts of his experiment to the back of his mind and smiled, bending down to reach eye level with the girl. “Nice to meet you too.”

Street rat gangs were often looked down on by society, and Dario could understand that outlook, but he also knew of all the good they were capable of. There were many children living in The Slums, and they were quite frequently ignored or discarded. One of the reasons he joined the ASH gang was their generosity in sheltering wayward souls. He was lost, once upon a time, but was rescued by them and he hoped to one day pass on the favor.

“Is your name Ava?” he asked.

“Ya,” she said, tilting her head. “What’s your name?”

“My name’s Dario, but you can call me big bro.” Dario grinned.

“Yay! Another big bro!” The small child moved forward and hugged him. “I’ll be the bestest little sis!”

Dario hugged back, feeling both awkward and moved. He was an only child so he never knew what it was like to have a little sister.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping right now, Ava?” Vaughn asked with a stern look in his eye.

“I can’t sleep,” she muttered. “I had a nightmare.”

“Aww, sweetie, come here.” Vira scooped the young girl up into her arms and began carrying her back to the house. “Don’t worry, you’re safe with big sis.” She began whispering soothing words into the child’s ear as they walked inside.

“Wow,” Dario muttered. “I’ve never seen Vira like that before.” In the five years he had known her, he had rarely seen her softer side, and never to that extent.

“Yeah, Ava’s the youngest around here, so she tends to get a lot more care. She also went through a lot recently,” the gang leader informed him with a sombre tone. “Ava’s parents died during a mugging, and her foster parents were killed in a home burglary. We found her wandering around the streets in dirty clothing, trying to steal some food from a fruit stand.” He shook his head with an air of melancholy. “A fucking fruit stand man. She was starving when we found her a few weeks ago, and she was lucky that we got to her when we did.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah.”

They stood still in quiet contemplation before the backdoor opened once more, and the small form of Ava came waddling towards Dario with a pouch in her hands.

“I’m sorry,” she said with embarrassment. She took Dario’s arm and placed the coin pouch in his hand before rushing back to the house. “I won’t do it again!” she yelled just as she went back inside.

Dario looked down and opened the familiar pouch. Inside were all the coins he had brought with him.

“Oh yeah, sorry about that,” Vaughn said sheepishly. “She picked up the habit of stealing and it stuck with her. She thinks she can help us out by pickpocketing people and bringing the money to us. We thought it was cute, so we let her be.” He shrugged unapologetically. “She won’t do it to you again, I think.”

“Right. Of course.” Dario sighed and pocketed the pouch in exasperation. “Girls will be girls, I suppose.”