I was born with a gift or curse, some say it is evil and others that it is divine. I guess to me it is a matter of how it is used. You see I can create fire or control it, burn stone or the very air you breath. I am a Pyromancer but the few people I grew up with called me Mancer. I did have a second ability that emerged when I was ten and going through early puberty.

I could see hints of the future. They called it clairvoyance and I did not tell my ... keepers I had it. Ten was when I rebelled and made them start to pay me for all the tests and other things they had me do. With the credits I earned I bought the key to my freedom. I bought games and a comp to learn and search the data systems.

My mother had died giving birth and my father was the one to sell me to the clinic. I had classes fourteen to sixteen hours a day unless they had tests for me. With the power of my mind I could make stone burn. What frightened them was that I had been able to make any and every metal they brought me burn.

Since I had gotten the comp I had used my credits to buy and sell on the open market. By the time I turned sixteen I was rich many times over. That was when I found out they were going to operate and remove some of my brain. I was not going to allow that and packed everything. An hour later when they unlocked my door I was ready to leave.

The attendant that brought my dinner in on a tray jerked and dropped it when it burst into flames. I slung the bundle of blankets and sheets over my shoulder and started for the door. Before I reached the hall, alarms were going off and armed attendants ran into the hall. I melted the tranq guns as I kept walking and set off the fire system.

Hours later I was before a judge with several legal motions and the lawyer for the clinic was trying to force the court to send me back. I think when I brought up the fact that the clinic was planning to operate on my brain the judge made his decision. It took longer to get him to agree to me being responsible for myself.

I found out all the school work put me beyond the normal schooling. I started working on advanced degrees in bio chemistry, chemistry and chemical engineering. What I really wanted to do was to be a fireman but I had to be eighteen. After two years I had my degrees and had passed all the exams and physicals to become a fireman.

Next was to give a private demonstration to the chief of the fire department. That got me hired on the spot. It was a couple of days before I had my badge, credentials, uniforms and equipment. I reported to station seven early in the morning and the captain and several firemen looked me over.

The questions had just started when the alarm went off. They ran and I went change into an under suit and put on a fire hood that covered most of my face. I jumped onto the fire vehicle as it was leaving and held on. When we got to the huge sky building the floor plan had been sent so I knew the fire was on the one hundred and twelfth floor.

While they were unloading and rushing to carry equipment in I walked to the lifts and used my badge to access it since it was locked down. When I reached the floor the fire was on I walked off and ignored the warnings and the alarm. I followed the smoke until I saw fire from an open door.

I stopped to look inside and took a breath before letting the fire come. I sent it in before I felt how the other was burning and pulled it away and into the middle of the room. It went out as I walked in and pulled the fire out of the kitchen area. I turned to walk towards the back and pulled the fire out of each bedroom.

I made sure it was all out as I left and stood in the hall. I saw the other firemen as I listened and felt and turned to walk the other way. I heard one yell using their suit speakers and glanced back as I opened the apartment door. Fire was filling the room and I looked at it and pulled.

It resisted and I moved into the room as two of the fire suits reached me. The flames swirled around as I pulled and brought them around and into a ball in front of me. I let them go out as I understood why they had resisted. I pulled the flames out of the kitchen and started moving the other way when my shoulder was grabbed.

I turned and looked up into the helmet, "stay behind me unless I tell you to run."

She growled, "get out..."

I yanked, "it was started with accelerate and there is a lot more."

I turned and pulled the flames out of the hall. They surged and almost wrapped around me and the captain before they died. I heard her cursing as I walked down the hall and gestured to one side, "we need to open the units on the other side!"

I could feel the fire a lot stronger now and stepped into what looked like a lab. I pulled and gave the flames air to breath before yanking it away. The fire died as I looked into the room and turned to the captain in the suit, "you need chem retardant powder."

The suit nodded and I turned to open another door. Fire reached out and vanished as I took control and put it out. I looked at the barrels of chemicals that had not yet caught on fire, "same in here!"

I turned and moved to the last door and stopped as I reached out to feel the door. I shook my head and glanced back, "thermite."

I opened the door and extreme heat exploded out and around me as I took control and pulled the flames away from the source. The flames vanished and I stepped into the room and looked around. The captain put her hand on my shoulder, "do not touch anything."

I shook my head but pointed to the back wall, "the fire broke through that wall and into the other side."

She nodded, "we are clearing the apartments now."

I looked around again before I turned and went around her. In the hall I moved aside as fire suits brought in chemical extinguishers. I moved towards the lift and relaxed and let the tension go. I could still feel, even taste the fire and finally pulled the fire hood off. I took deep breaths and glanced at the captain as she walked to me.

She bent and hissed, "we are going to talk."

I nodded and she stood and gestured, "help clean up."

I put the hood on and moved to the firemen as they pulled equipment out. It was a couple of hours before we were back at the station. I removed the hood and went to wash it under water. When I turned the captain and several others were there and looking at me. I sighed and straightened, "I was going to tell you when the alarm went off."

I turned to look at a picture of an ancient fireman carrying a child out of a burning building, "they call me a Pyromancer. I control fire with my mind."

I looked at them and the captain shifted, "you read minds?"

I shook my head and smiled slightly, "just fire. I had a friend when I was younger who could. He said all adults think about is sex. He used to say they thought about it every minute of the day. He called them sex fiends."

She grinned as the others laughed, "next time put on a suit or do not go in the building."

I shook my head, "I need to feel the fire."

She gestured, "get with Siegfried and work it out. No one enters a fire that is not in a suit and protected."

Siegfried turned out to be the station suit mechanic and he did work it out and very quickly. I was fitted with a suit in a couple of hours and it had gloves that came off. The wrists sealed so the suit could maintain oxygen and the face plate opened and sealed. I had each and every fireman come to talk while I was being fitted.

I snapped awake and rolled out of bed to the alarm. I ran to the lockers and started putting the new suit on before running to the vehicle. This time we went out to the edge of the city and into an area full of warehouses. The fire was small and only at one end and the others followed with hoses.

I sent a stream of fire into the burning area before I understood the flames and pulled. Two minutes and the fire was out and we were cleaning and packing up. The captain grinned as we loaded up the vehicle, "do you have a girl Devlin?"

I blushed, "girls are afraid of me."

She glanced around to make sure no one was around, "want a couple of fuck buddies?"

I looked at her and then around and then back at her, "I have never..."

She smiled, "my daughter has wanted a lover and I would not mind sharing."

I hesitated and then nodded, "I would be honored."

She slipped me a card, "come to my apartment after the shift ends."