Origins Chapter 7: Playing with Fire

Now at the greasy, white, and blue Flying Chicken, Fiamma awaits her co-worker Aria. While Aria did make it on time, she usually appears later than Fiamma.  Unlike her friend, who seems almost right on the dot, Fiamma can make it ten or so minutes before the start of her shift.

The blonde worker eventually pops up in the beige kitchen. “I’m here, Fiamma!” Aria greets her pal before stopping to look at her. Fiamma’s golden crown and fiery dress are noticeable despite being under a blue worker shirt. Aria continues to speak. “Huh, you look different.”

“Well… I have a surprise!” Fiamma answers. She points her index finger up and manifests a small flame on top of it, just like a lighter. “Ta-da!”

“Woooooah!” Aria replies as she gazes at the fire with mesmerization. “You became a magical princess just like me?!”

“That’s right, Aria! I'm just like you now!” Fiamma confirms as she makes her flame go away. “Found a talking creature with a bracelet like you did.”

Aria responds with a wide grin. “Hah, that’s epic! Are you Royal Fire, then? Like how I’m Royal Air and Marina is Royal Water?”

The brunette worker nods. “That’s right! We totally need to mess with our powers!”

“Hell yeah!”

Fiamma stares at the fryers, something she isn’t really fond of at the Flying Chicken. Making oily foods isn’t exactly her wish, after all. “I think my first order of business is to make better health choices,” Fiamma says.

The worker pulls out some pieces of chicken and begins to cook them with her fire magic. “Oooh, baked chicken! I see where you’re going!” Aria comments.

After a bit of time, the slabs of chicken are fully done, only having been cooked by Fiamma’s magical hands. She slides the meat into two buns with lettuce and sauce. The brunette gives one of the sandwiches to Aria and the other to herself.

After a quick taste test, Aria lets out a satisfied ‘Mmmmm!’. “Man, these taste like five times better! You really know how to make something great even with limited ingredients?”

“I sure do! And this sandwich is definitely at least five times healthier. A great chef can make something good out of something bad, in my opinion!”

As Aria munches away at her chicken sandwich, she looks around the silvery kitchen devices to see what she can mess with herself. “Let me see if I can do something.”

The blonde worker decides to unplug the cash register on the pickup counter and holds the metal tips of the outlet against her palm. A moment later, the cash register suddenly comes back to life, seemingly without a power source.

“Oh my god!” Fiamma reacts. “How did you manage to do that?!”

“I have the power of electricity, too!” Aria responds. “Cool, huh?”

“Yeah… you’re a walking generator!” Fiamma continues. She begins to feel a bit envious of her friend and decides to find a way to one-up her. Creating a new fire in her hand, the brunette begins to try and modify it in some unique way. After a bit, the hue of the flame starts to shift from a toasty orange to a neon cyan.

“Holy crap, you can change the color of fire?!” Aria shouts.

“I guess I can!” Fiamma answers, her ego being stroked as the fire shifts from Purple to Red to Green. “That’s AWESOME!”

“Or should you say ‘lit’?”

Fiamma rolls her eyes at her friend’s joke. “Yeah, yeah.”

Aria reconnects the cash register to the plug. “Wait, wait, I got a new idea!” She holds her hand out towards her friend. “I’m your biggest fan, Fiamma!”

The blonde proceeds to blast her coworker with a steady stream of wind. The movement of air causes the color-changing flame to die out and Fiamma’s hair to swish like leaves in a storm. “Whew, that’s strong Aria!” Fiamma comments, forcing her eyes shut.

Aria stops blowing wind a second later. “Heh, sorry! Hope that cools you down.”

The brunette makes a few adjustments to her hair as she speaks. “Yeah, yeah. If you were me, you’d say that you blew me away.”

Aria chuckles slightly at her friend’s pun, then suddenly gets another idea. “Wait, I know what else to do! Let’s use our fingers as magic wands!” She suggests enthusiastically.

“Hah, I love that idea! We’re basically witches, after all!” Fiamma tells her friend, summoning a small ember on top of her finger. Aria does the same thing, but instead spawns a tiny electric orb.

The two workers begin to act like wizards, waving the flame and electricity around and making traces and shapes through the air. During this moment, they’re having the mentality of imaginative children. But, their bout of fun when a quiet ‘Um…’ is heard.

Fiamma and Aria turn to see a timid girl with pink pigtails. She’s looking at their fingers with surprise and fear. The two make their respective elements disappear from their hands “Crap, right, we need to work,” Fiamma comments.

“Let’s just continue once we’re done with our shift. Anyway, how can I take your order?”

“Uh… never mind,” The girl murmurs, before speed walking out of the Flying Chicken.

Despite the reaction of that lady, the rest of the shift at the Flying Chicken is relatively mundane. Though, time feels like it’s at half the speed since Aria and Fiamma aren’t done with their fun. Despite the boredom killing them, the two workers managed to pull through their shifts and leave more joyfully than usual.

Now off their shifts and out of their work outfits, Fiamma and Aria are roaming the large town of Ayers City. “So, uh, where should we use our powers?” Fiamma asks her friend.

“The park should be a great idea! Not many people are there during the night,” Aria recommends.

“Eh, alright. We probably won’t disturb anyone, either.”

The two princesses make their way to the large, calm park of Ayres City. Now, being soaked in the night, there isn’t much activity in the grassy field. The various trees, benches, and garbage cans are faded navy due to the lack of sunlight. What was usually a place to hang out and relax is now a playground for Fiamma and Aria.

“Alright, first order of business… I will present to you a flamethrower!” Fiamma begins. She raises her arm in the sky and creates a jet of fire. The display glows in a beautiful shade of amber.

“Whew, not bad! Watch this!”

Aria mimics Fiamma’s previous action, but this time uses electricity instead of flames. The lightning, while only appearing for splits of seconds, paints the air with raw, jagged beams of light.

The fiery princess stares at Aria’s show with awe. “Man, how am I gonna top that?” She asks herself.

Fiamma eventually gets an idea. She takes one big breath and then bursts an inferno right out of her mouth just as a dragon would. “Whew!” Aria responds with surprise. “You’d make a good firebreather at a carnival!”

“And get an even more of a deadbeat job than I already have? No thanks!” Fiamma says with playful irritation.

“Hey, you have to admit, the carnival’s a lot more fun than flipping burgers!”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty fair point,” Fiamma confesses as she crosses her arms. “It would probably get old after some time, however.”

“True,”

Another thought comes into Aria’s mind; a thought that gives her face a smirk. “Hey, I think I have something that you don’t have!” Aria teases.

Fiamma raises an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”

“Can you fly?” The blonde asks her friend. Aria leaps into the sky and floats up into the air.

The brunette hems as she wonders how she can achieve similar flight capabilities to her friend. “You know, that might be something that’s out of my league,” She admits.

“Are you sure about that?” Aria questions.

Despite her initial lack of confidence, Fiamma’s envy rises once again as she sees the cloudy princess hovering just above her. She thinks it would be cool to be able to soar along with the birds just like her friend. Maybe she can figure something out. “You know what, it wouldn’t hurt to try!” Fiamma says confidently. “I’m gonna fly just like you!”

“That’s the spirit!”

Fiamma gazes at herself, her brain trying to formulate some way to get her feet off the soil. An idea eventually strikes her head. She points her open palms downward.

Aria tilts her head. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t worry, I got this!” Fiamma reassures her friend. “Three… two… one… launch off!”

And, just like a rocket, the fiery princess manages to propel herself away from the ground by shooting a strong stream of flames from both her hands. “Ahaha, it’s working!” She says with accomplishment.

“Damn! Now that’s impressive!”

As Fiamma blasts herself higher and higher, she starts to sweat. The constant and powerful shooting of fire to make her fly is beginning to make her tired. “I don’t think I can keep up much longer,” Fiamma croaks.

Eventually, the brunette’s exhaustion overtakes her, causing her to stop igniting her hands. However, instead of just falling like most things, she oddly stays within the sky. “Hey, you’re still floating!”

Fiamma notices this and moves around a bit in the air, her movements similar to those of her flying friend. “Huh. I guess I can fly like you after all. Awesome sau-”

Fiamma freezes up, noticing something on the ground. Despite Fiamma’s attention being suddenly diverted to something else, Aria speaks as if nothing is going on. “Hah, that’s epic that you can fly, too! We should totally go through the sky like oversized insects!”

Fiamma continues to stare at the ground. “Uhhh, Aria?”

“Yeah?”

The brunette points downward. “I think I started a fire by accident.”

Aria gazes at the grass at the ground, and indeed there’s a flame quivering and growing at a rapid pace where Fiamma previously was. “Oh no, we need to put it out!” Aria squeals.

“Well, no shit! Do something!” Fiamma shouts.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just blow this fire out!” Aria answers with nonchalance.

Fiamma looks at her friend. “Aria I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”

Aria brushes off her friend’s warning. “Pfft, it’ll be just like a candle!” She reassures before holding her hand towards the fire. “Here, watch!”

“No, don’t-!”

Despite her friend’s protests, Aria sprays wind at the flames anyway. Instead of causing them to disappear like she expected, all her wind does is cause the fire to spread even more. Now growing exponentially, it has turned into an inferno engulfing the park. The flames are even starting to eat away at a few trees.

“Holy shit!” Aria shouts.

“I warned you, you idiot!” Fiamma berates her friend. “Your little wind has now made the fire a bigger problem!”

“I-I’m sorry!” Aria apologizes, starting to grab at her hair. “The hell do we do now? Can you snuff out the flames?”

“Well, thanks to you, there’s a hell of a lot more fire to put out!” Fiamma snaps. “I don’t think I can keep with it!”

“Uh… should we just call the fire department, then?”

The brunette suddenly looks fearful. “N-no, we shouldn’t do that, either! I don’t know what’ll happen if they find out that I caused this! I do not want to go to prison!”

“Yeah, I don’t want you to go, either. Okay, uhm… uh…”

Aria is unsure what to do, but Fiamma gets a plan in her head. “Wait, I know what to do! Call Marina! She might be able to calm these flames!” Fiamma commands.

“On it!”

Aria pulls out her phone and dials Marina’s phone number. The two princesses wait with bated breaths, hoping that Marina isn’t too sleepy at this hour. After all, the longer they wait, the more damage the fire will cause.

Eventually, Aria’s phone picks up. “Hello?” Marina asks from the phone in a tired tone.

“Marina, get to the park real quick! It’s on fire and we need your water to put it out!” Aria yells.

“Huh? B-but i-it’s past three AM…” Marina murmurs.

“Slap out of your sleepiness, this is an emergency!” Fiamma barks, listening in to Aria’s call. “Get over here ASAP!”

“E-emergency? I’ll try.” Marina says, this time with a bit more awareness. “See you.”

Marina hangs up. “She better get her ass here,” Fiamma says impatiently. “The damn park is at stake!”

Minutes feel like days as the two floating princesses wait for their friend to appear. All they can do for now is just dreadfully watch the flames spread even more and consume the once-friendly park. Even a nearby tree collapses and starts to disintegrate into ash.

Eventually, a blue car arrives close to the flames. Marina pops out of it. “S-so… what’s going- ...Holy-”

Marina freezes up as she witnesses the inferno in front of her. “There you are, Marina” Fiamma shouts at her. “Put out this damn fire!”

Marina notices Aria in the air, but seeing Fiamma, especially in that unique outfit, makes her hesitate a bit longer. She eventually snaps out of her confusion, knowing she has a job to do. “Y-yeah, on it!” Marina responds.

The watery princess begins to spray water onto the fire, and it starts to shrink from the cool liquid. Both Aria and Fiamma sigh in relief as they see their black-haired friend dealing with the situation with relative speed. As the fire decreases, Fiamma even helps Marina by snuffing out the flames with her powers.

Eventually, all that’s left is a charred, scarred field in a haze of smoke and steam. The once-green park is now a mixture of black and brown, with patches of green where the fire didn’t reach. Aria and Fiamma both land on the ground now that it’s safe to be on.

“Oh thank god… Thank you so much, Marina. We owe you one.” Fiamma sighs.

“Sorry we had you wake up at this time,” Aria adds.

“H-how did this happen?” Marina asks. “A-and why are you in that dress?”

Fiamma sighs, then begins to explain. “Well… basically, I became a magic user like you two, I messed with my powers a bit, and caused this to happen by accident.”

“Ah… uh… good for you?” Marina returns, unsure how to respond. “So… you can make fire?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Well…” Marina says, before interrupting herself with a yawn. “I’m gonna go back to bed. T-try to control your powers better.”

Aria waves at Marina. “Bye, Marina! Thanks again!”

As Marina drives home, Fiamma and Aria are both left unsure what to do next. “So… what now?” Aria says.

“Let’s just… head home,” Fiamma answers, internally too embarrassed and guilty to keep messing around. “We probably shouldn’t mess with our powers anymore, unless we want to cause another fire to appear.”

“Heh, alright, that seems fair enough.”

The two friends head home and rest up for the next day. Back at The Flying Chicken, their memories about the vent are still fresh in their minds. Fiamma is especially hit, the guilt from yesterday affecting her performance.

Aria looks at her friend, taking notice. “You okay?”

The brunette sighs, running her black-coated hand through her hair. “Yes, I’m fine. It’s just… about what happened last night. I really didn’t mean to cause all that destruction.”

“Yeah… that was pretty awful…” Aria replies. She leans next to the cash register, looking a bit gloomy, before letting out a small chuckle. “You know, they reported the fire on the news.”

Fiamma lets out a groan. “Don’t remind me. They did report about the fire, but at least they didn’t know who caused it.”

“Hey, that’s a plus!”

“I guess I learned one of the oldest lessons the hard way: You play with fire and you get burned. Especially if you can create and control it like me.”

Aria gives her friend an awkward smirk, but it fizzles out as she realizes something. Huh… guess me, Fiamma and Marina are more powerful than we thought.

“I really need to learn how these new abilities work, I swear,” Fiamma comments, making Aria lose her train of thought.

“Y-yeah, me too. I know it’s been several days, but I wonder if I’ve seen what I can do at my full power.”

“Let me say this, Aria,” Fiamma begins. “We could just cause a bit of mayhem, or we could probably destroy the entire city with a flick of our wrist. Either way, we’re gonna need to treat ourselves with more responsibility.”

“True. I think we need to learn some self-control, huh?”

“Yeah. We’re basically walking natural disasters when you think about it! Just in the form of a queen.”

Aria giggles again. “So you’re saying I’m a tornado in a can?”

“You might as well be! And you could be a damn powerful one at that!”

The blonde stops leaning. “Well, hey, let’s not ponder back on the past too much and try to focus on work, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

The two workers do their best to continue working as normal. It’s not the easiest considering that they burnt down the park by accident, but Aria’s random thoughts are helping her a bit more. One of them in particular makes Aria’s brain run.

I haven’t really seen Tierra in a while, haven’t I? I wonder what she could be up to?

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