Evolution of a Hero

So how did a spoiled, socialite party girl (Think Paris Hitlon. Now subtract the skank, and the sex tape. Add an "evil step-mother" and at least part of a brain. Oh, and make her actually pretty) become a super-hero? Why, by being cursed by a wicked witch, of course.

Short version: Katherine Smith was burned at the stake in colonial Salem. She made a deal with a demon to survive it, which she did as a spirit, bound to the demon. Captivity by the demon, however, has made her insane, and the only thing she wants is to kill and destroy. She sees it as revenge, on everyone and everything. Certain of her descendants, born with the right combinations of magical ability inherit her powers over fire, gained from the demon, who wants loyal servants in "this" world out of the deal. So far, at least two of those servants have ended up in the Rogue Isles. Some have committed suicide, either to get away from Katherine and the demon or just driven insane, and a few have simply disappeared, never to be heard from again.

When the last previous descendant died, Fyre (just Alexandra then) started having nightmares of scenes of terrible fiery destruction, which progressively got worse. Though she eventually wasn't sleeping, the nightmares became daytime hallucinations. There were several inexplicable fires. All this was the excuse that her fiance and mother used to commit her to an insane asylum, actually a crooked establishment used to house inconvenient people. Katherine had the perfect opportunity to torment and cajole her newest victim, and eventually, the asylum burned down, killing four not-so-innocent people. Fyre told E once that it was Katherine who did that. In her mind, it was Katherine's fault. It may have been Katherine's idea, but it was Alexandra who walked through the hospital, trailing fire and searching for the people she thought should burn. She was all kinds of traumatized and drugged out of her mind, but she did it.

This, by the way, is one of the big reasons why she identified with Mason so much that she posted his bail and at least attempted to forgive him, despite E's thoughts, opinions and arguments.

She came to Paragon to ask for MAGI's help in dealing with Katherine and the demon. They saw more canon fodder... I mean, of course, another hero, and put her to work. They had an inexperienced, fragile blaster-type, and thought they'd had the perfect partner for her: a battle-hardened, healer-type with mind powers, who could keep track of her if she went off the deep-end and started burning everything in sight. Big mistake.

Fyre hated, HATED E. He was cocky, arrogant, and tried to tell her what to do. He was a "doctor," just like her ex and those "doctors" that tormented her in the hospital. Worse, he had those mind powers. Did she understand them? Not exactly. All she knew was that no one else was getting in her head. She already had a crazy-evil sorceress and a demon, and that was entirely too much. Still worse, she found out after awhile that E wasn't so bad, so she had to push harder and find more things to keep him away. E, obviously, wasn't going to stand for the way she treated him and pushed back, which gave her more ammunition.

There's no way those two would have stayed working together. Except the players made them. Stuck together, they would have killed each other. We kept the violence to a minimum.

Katherine thought she'd found the perfect ally. A villain with mind powers, put in charge of her latest victim. When she found out that she couldn't get to E, she went after Fyre more than ever, enraged. Fyre finally broke down and told E what was happening, and that helped them get along better. A little. For awhile. Sort of.

Some of the most important things to remember about Fyre: She doesn't like being a hero. She doesn't feel like a "hero," even after all this time. Especially at the beginning, she was afraid of everything. She's not the kind to run away, screaming (Um, often... ), but she was, and sometimes still is, afraid of the things they fight. She doesn't have "fun" in missions, like some of the others (except for that one mission right after I got the level 32 "nova" on blaster-Fyre and Mason and Fyre ran though the mission, blowing up large groups and giggling, where E thought she'd lost her mind). Fear translates into sarcasm, crankiness, and a general bad mood (Uh, usually). She wanted rid of her powers, so she could go back to a normal life. She still thinks, sometimes more often than others, of ditching Serra and taking off for anywhere that isn't Paragon City. She probably would, except she just doesn't think it would be that simple. And, "heroing" has become a habit. She's used to it, by now, even if she doesn't like it. At least, for now, that's enough.

And another aside... when creating Fyre's backstory, given all the horrible things that had happened to her (as I've mentioned before, once I realized how traumatized she must be from everything, I almost scrapped her story and the entire character), I realized I had to give her some sort of plus. Yes, thanks to the character creator, and some of her story, she was gorgeous. She had some money. She wasn't particularly brilliant; she didn't have any family or close connections; her powers, especially at that point, weren't all that great (I had no concept of the potential awesome-ness of the fire blast sets), her social abilities were based on her good looks and money... hey, money. Let's give her a lot of money. A LOT. I thought that was mostly cosmetic. And then various problems came up. E needs a lawyer to get Jen back, but can't afford a good one? Well, Fyre can. Jen needs guards and Longbow is suspect? Fyre can hire the best, and lots of them. Mason needs a million bucks to get out of jail? Pshaw, only a million?

And Fyre has evolved. She's a lot smarter than she was, has tons of experience, and doesn't trust anyone. No one. (Which has been and is being continuously reinforced) She's had people working on the Strym problem for awhile, and has had people protecting Jen for longer. Of course she had a plan to keep Jen safe from Strym, or anyone else that was after her. The fact that Mason, and possibly Frost, see her as suspect for that isolates her further from the group, which probably makes her look more suspect, and the reactions to that isolate her more AND adds to her distrust of the others, and people in general. Vicious cycle? Maybe, unless something breaks it.

Edit: Updates and commentary on stuff I almost forgot about: Fyre has been sort of in her own little world the past week. She's had a ton of things on her mind. Maybe most importantly, what's going to happen when Strym realizes he won't reach his Friday deadline? She feels that she's protecting the others by keeping them in the dark, but she's not sure that's how it's going to work, so that adds to the worry. She's afraid for herself, them, Jen, everyone. She's barely noticed whatever's going on with Mason and Frost, and she's trying to ignore E on purpose. She knows that not knowing where Jen is or what's happening to her must be killing him, and she doesn't want to give in and give him information that might put him at risk, or, possibly either purposely or accidentally, cause him to ruin the plan.