Episode 6 — Trial by Fire

Agira didn’t sleep anymore.

Not really.

Every time he closed his eyes, something inside him woke up.

A flicker behind his vision.

A pulse in his hands.

Energy—uninvited, uncontrolled.

Once, he’d sneezed—

and a metal tool across the room had vaporized.

This wasn’t power.

This was instability.

---

The warehouse had changed.

Targets lined the walls. Burn marks layered over older burn marks. Crates repositioned into obstacles.

Every day was the same:

Test. Fail. Reset.

Sometimes the beams obeyed.

Sometimes they didn’t.

---

Tonight felt different.

The air itself was wrong.

Charged.

Heavy.

Like something inside him was about to break through.

Agira stepped into position.

Target ahead.

Breath steady.

Inhale.

Focus.

Exhale—

BOOM.

Fire exploded from him.

Not beams.

Not controlled bursts.

Fire.

It tore through the air in violent arcs, slamming into the walls, climbing upward, spreading faster than he could react.

Agira froze.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

The flames didn’t stop.

They grew.

Walls caught.

Ceiling followed.

Heat slammed into him from every direction.

For the first time since the injection—

Agira thought:

This might actually kill me.

---

The fire surged toward the main entrance.

If it broke through—

everything would be exposed.

His identity.

His location.

Everything.

“Stop—”

Nothing.

The fire didn’t listen.

It pushed back.

---

A support pillar cracked—

then collapsed into the flames.

The spread staggered.

A blast tore through stacked crates—

blocking another path.

For one second—

the chaos slowed.

---

Agira moved.

He forced himself forward—

into the heat.

Hands raised.

Focused.

Not on stopping it—

On pulling it back.

The fire resisted.

Harder than anything he’d ever controlled.

It fought him.

Pushed outward.

Refused to return.

His arms trembled.

Muscles strained.

But he didn’t let go.

He dragged it—

inch by inch—

back toward himself.