Blue.

The flames flooded Celeste’s senses, covering all doubt and intrusive thoughts— and after finally finding a worthy sparring partner, kicking criminals asses only became so much more satisfying. 

It was another surveillance night, Jack joining her for today, they both compiled to wear scarves to hide their faces, but more often than not it was pushed to the bottom of their priorities. Fighting was always the fun part, especially to those who deserved a good punch to humble their actions. 

Jack, although clearly rusty— pun intended, had flourished and improved greatly from their practice matches. His ability with metal was like hers with fire, an understanding that willed through them— something that was truly theirs to master and command. It was nice not to be alone in the feeling. 

Celeste was not one to hold back, and although Jack ended up slightly scorched near the end he always took it with a smile. Frankly it made him only want to dodge more, as more time allowed improvement. 

She got another good hit on the guy, spit flying from his mouth colored with blood before he was slamming into the ground. Red eyes glanced over at a figure towards the end of the alleyway.  A parallel to when she first saw Jack; a person standing at the edge of the alleyway, moonlight emoting their back and hiding their features. 

The groan from the guy below her halted her in the attention she had, and Celeste’s burning hands lifted the guy from the ground. She had an objective to worry about, “who do you work for?” a sizzle came from where it burned through his clothes. 

He groaned and thrashed in her hold, something she did not appreciate, so she moved to the walls and slammed him hard. Blood flying from his mouth once more, a wheeze flew in her face as she pushed deeper into the wall and she let the flames build back up, pulsing through her hold. 

“Who,” she pushed harder, the sound of burnin flesh meeting her nose, “do you,” he was gasping in pain from the flames that licked his skin, “work for?” 

After a couple more seconds she amped up the heat, his chest and lower face growing red from flush— he was sweating bullets. 

“Fuck, I-“ he coughed, “over my dead body.” She let her eyes dig into his, a glare that let go all her restraint, if he wanted to do it the hard way then she’ll do it the hard way. Heat erupted from the tips of her fingers, heating every ounce of skin all the way to the core of her stomach, sparks spewing off her skin and imprinting everywhere they landed. Jack’s voice came up behind her, his voice drowned out from the flames that licked all around her. Encompassing the man in her arms, as he screamed in pain from the contact, she was lifting and slamming him into the wall. A sentence hit the edge of her attention as the man’s skin sizzled before her eyes, ripping apart layers as she only turned the temperature hotter. 

“I’m not kidding, get lost.” The calmness in Jack’s voice halted her attention, as she continued the onslaught of fire upon the man when she heard another unfamiliar voice. 

“No. You should use your powers if you really want me to leave.” The high pitched voice of a far too young kid spoke towards Jack, and silence only met the interaction before the man’s screams broke through. She went back to the task on hand. 

“Fuck. Ah- shit, it’s fucking Ivan something, he’s letting us,” she let the flames die out as he continued, tears flowing from his charred face, “he told me if I grab this stuff he’ll pay good, it’s something Ivan but I don’t know his last name please I’m sorry.” He continued his blubbering, and she let his body hit the ground. Turning in a fury to the new problem at hand. 

A girl in a hoodie that was way too big on her small frame looked up at her with bright eyes that shone in the moonlight, a look wide shined upon her. Celeste gestured towards the girl in question, and Jack was by her side before she was shoving him towards the groaning man in the back. 

“Talk and restrain.” He was moving at her command, the words tumbling from his lips, “uh, I saw her and told her to hide and she started freaking out about your fire and was pushing me to show her mine.” 

The girls voice broke through, “so do you both have fire?” The creaking of metal rang from Jack as he folding it around the man’s limbs, adjusting around his burned inflamed skin. 

“Woah,” she laughed some more as she witnessed Jack’s movement, Celeste moved forward, her shoes stomping towards the girl who didn’t take her eyes off the the metal user. “That’s so cool, but why are your features green? Shouldn’t it be gray or something?”

Now Celeste wouldn’t say she went around picking on younger kids on her pastime, but looking at the size and pure audacity of the kid in front of her, she supposes a wake up call wouldn't hurt her too bad. And she was grabbing the front of her shirt, letting small flames fly up the other face, showing extremely blue features, complimenting dark skin. 

“Ain’t no playground here kid. Get lost. We won’t tell you again.” Wide bright blue orbs met her stare, and the age of this kid showed one thing, she was too young to be messing around in what she thought she was doing. But the eyes disappeared from her flames, and she was looking at the clothes she still held in her hands flicker alongside the disappearance of the girl. 

The blue features on the girl suddenly made sense, and in the moment of trying to access that she just turned invisible was all that was needed as arms pried her grip on the sweater. A thump echoed through the hall, and Celeste let her eyes look down as the half invisible girl scampered up, her big hoodie still encompassing her otherwise invisible body. 

Celeste couldn’t help the slight snort that left her body, as the girl dusted herself off, in doing so her whole body flickering back into sight. A slight offended look on her face, which was accented only with blue features, as she saw Celeste laugh into the air. Before looking back at Jack, finding him writing a note for the officers when they find him. 

She messaged the back of her hand, cracking her knuckles as she spoke lowly, “I got a first name, we can work off that.” Jack opened his mouth but another voice beat him, “It’s actually Ivan Nikolaev, the full name of the guy you're looking for.”

Jack’s look dropped at the information dump, and he was scrambling up, note squeezed between two poles. “Woah. Red, she’s clearly too young so we can’t-, “ Celeste was putting her hand up, silencing his sentence, as she turned towards the girl in question. Her stance seemed strong— well less strong and more wide and with close inspection was accompanied by a slight shake. 

Celeste stated bluntly, “what’re you trying to get out of this?” 

It was a standstill, as no movement was shown from either. Something Celeste had no time for. Flames erupted from her hand, and with a slight movement shot towards the girl. And she barely scrambled away, dirty white vans skidding across the dirty concrete as she scrambled near the alleyway wall.

“Not gonna ask again.” Fear ridden eyes fell on her again, “I- well i just, i just listen around, i’m bored and got nothing else to do.” The earlier confidence faded from her tone, and she was swaying with her words. 

“I- I just wanted to let you know. That’s it.” She really did not have the time or energy to unpack all that. The slight sirens in the distance grew slightly louder, they had a couple minutes to leave. Jack was looking down at his shoes, kicking the ground as he waited, surrounded by the restrained criminals. 

A tst fell from Celeste’s lips, she turned towards Jack again, a small point up and he was already climbing the side of the wall, metal creaking as he pulled his way up. 

She pointed her finger towards the blue hair girl, the edge of her fingertip lit in a small flame— bright enough to show the edges of her covered face. Piercing red eyes ripping through the small girl, who only froze from the attention.

“Get lost. Don’t make this a habit.” 

Of course, due to pure luck or stupidity, it started to become a habit. Celeste had only been fighting criminals for a couple months now, she had burned enough assholes and power hungry freaks to know a true challenge. With all her experience she had never encountered a foe that had become such a thorn in her side as the blue girl who always, without fail, showed up at the wrong time. 

The amount of times Celeste found herself having to remove the supposedly invisible girl due to no actual camouflage was far too many for her liking. After another mission turned south with a rescue to finish it off she fell to her last resort before she would actually commit a federal crime at the ripe age of 17. 

Jack’s apartment was once again empty, his mother gone for the 2nd week in a row, a habit she’s apparently had for a while now. her new boyfriend's apartment better suited her anyway. Celeste didn’t want to look too deep in that statement. But soon enough after finding the blue haired menace attempting to hide in the shadows after a drug bust they dragged her to the apartment. 

Celeste moved all her blankets from the couch, her temporary bed for a couple days, better than her foster parents house. She moved to get herself a drink, blue eyes watched her every move, especially after the wrap was removed from her face. “You want something to drink?” The girl's fingers curled around the rips in her jeans, she coughed out, “Water.” Soon enough 3 cups of water fell on their island, and Celeste sat next to the girl, Jack on the other edge. 

She was flipping through different channels, indecisiveness was truly the worst  enemy— she was tossing the controller towards the freckled boy, the small curse and clicking from him faded as Celeste turned her attention on the young girl, her eyes glued to the screen. 

“Show me your powers.” The girl instantly froze up, before turning to look at her with wide eyes. Celeste continued, “go on. Show me what you got.” The girl blinked, her dark blue eyelashes brushing her cheeks, and with a deep breath she disappeared into the air. A second of silence followed, which was enough for Celeste to quickly jab in her side, blue flickered back into existence and she gasped as she looked upon Celeste.  

“If you wanna hang around, you gotta get your powers down.” She looked back at the screen, Jack had moved streaming platforms, the background clicking catching her attention again. 

She brought her hand forward, lighting every bit of her palm in a small pool of flames, and she looked back at the girl. “How long can you stay invisible?” A mummer left her mouth, “I don’t know.” Well that wouldn’t do. 

“Alright, first person to turn off their powers loses, Jack go grab your metal balls.” A scoff left his lips, “Please don’t say it like that, there are children present.” But a quick hand movement had 3 balls flying towards the green haired boy, as they began to spin in the air orbiting his palm. 

Jack settled for a ghibli movie, after Lily spoke from her imprint on the couch stating she never watched them. Spirited Away was a good start anyway, of course Celeste made no easy task of simply watching the movie. Practice was always in her schedule ever since she started hanging with Jack, the green boy would verbally protest but always joined in. 

“Jack, fly through the ring of fire.” He complied, balls of metal swirling around her controlled flames. Sending little sparks towards the invisible girl started out as a ploy but when it started actually bothering the concentration of the other she continued, the slight flickering in her visibility the only sign of annoyance. Other than that she kept to her silent state. 

It eventually got to the point where Jack began to blow out her flames, metal balls creating enough force to mimic a slight breeze to fray her flames slightly, she only let them grow. Jack retaliated with more movements, attempting to form the metal around the flames to pat them out. It ended with a running match all over the apartment, their movements mostly silent with the occasional hard landings. The clattering of metal in the sink was similar to the ringing bell as she did a victory dance. 

“Suck it, carrot boy!” She spun a couple times before blue met her vision and she was fumbling in her steps, catching herself before she actually fell. “Girl! Jesus when did you get there?” The blue girl just smirked, a missing tooth shown for all the world as she came into full view, “I win.” There was no heat emitting from her palms, and the laugh from Jack behind her brought a smile to her own face. She could get used to this.