Blaze Fighter
“Well, this seems like a good apartment.” The large muscled tiger said as he entered.
Behind him another tiger shorter and younger, but just as muscled and very much identical entered.
“You see dad; I told you it’s a great place.”
“I never said it was a bad place, Tony. I just don’t see why you wanted an apartment in the first place. I mean, I know you’re growing up, but if you stayed home then you wouldn’t have to worry about paying rent.”
“Sorry dad, but I just need my own place.” Tony said.
“Oh, I see.” His father said.
Tony hated to see his father upset. With his mother gone the old tiger didn’t want to lose the only family he had left. If things were different then Tony would have stayed home, but he couldn’t risk it, not with his “condition”.
“So, who’s your roommate?” His father asked.
“Don’t know,” Tony shrugged. “He didn’t show up yesterday. He might come today or tomorrow but I don’t really care. I took the biggest room so it’s all good.”
“Well, if things don’t work out remember you can always come home.” With that the old tiger left the apartment.
****
“98…99…100,” Tony set his weights down on the floor and left his room. He never worked out alone, he and his father would always go to the gym together. It was his father who made sure that he was in shape and never slacked off. He owed a lot to him.
As Tony was drinking some water the door to the apartment opened. Tony looked in surprise as a white rabbit walked in through the door. As the door closed the rabbit immediately spotted the shirtless tiger in his red gym shorts.
“Oh, H-hello I didn’t know anyone was in here.” The rabbit said.
“Well, move in day was two days ago. So, most of the students have already unpacked.” Tony said.
“Oh, right,” The rabbit said. “I would have gotten here on the first day but I had a lot of stuff to pack.” The white rabbit pointed to the three large suitcases that were at the door.
“Wow, those look… heavy.” Tony said.
“Yeah, I almost missed the train trying to get them on.” The white rabbit said. He then tried to carry the suitcases but was only able to get one to move.
“Hey, how about I help you with those?” Before the rabbit could respond Tony had picked up the other two and was already taking them to the other room. “Man, what do you have in these?”
“Just my clothes, my laptop, some equipment--”
“Equipment,” Tony said as he set the suitcases down in the smaller room. “What kind of equipment?”
“The kind I’ll need for my classes. I’m majoring in physics.”
“So, you’re a geek.”
“I prefer the term genius.” The rabbit said as he glared at the big tiger.
“Whatever, so you got a name?” Tony asked.
“It’s Billy Chaves, and yours?”
“Tony Omar,”
****
The next few days weren’t very interesting, Tony and Billy had both gotten their class schedules and kept to themselves. Tony would exercise and watch Television while Billy would lock himself in the other room doing…strange things. Though Tony doubted they were as strange as what he could do.
Tony walked into the apartment and was surprised to see the white rabbit laid out on the couch. From the looks of it he was up all night.
“Guess I’ll just let him sleep.” Tony said as he quietly made his way back to his room. He took one last look at the rabbit before closing the door. “He does look pretty cute like that.”
****
Tony had almost drifted to sleep himself, but the smell of smoke alerted his senses and his animal instincts kicked in. Tony rushed out of his room and saw smoke coming from the kitchen. Rushing towards the kitchen he saw Billy surrounded by fire and doing a very poor job at putting it out.
“T-Tony,” Billy yelled. “Get the fire extinguisher, call the fire department!” Billy yelled as the fire slowly traveled to his foot.
Billy went wide eyed as he saw the fire going up his pants and started shaking his leg wildly.
“Billy, hang on.” Tony said without thinking. Tony rushed through the flames and grabbed Billy and set him on the couch. Without thinking he then waved his hand and the fire ceased. Tony then turned around to see if Billy was alright, but when he turned around the rabbits jaw was hanging open.
“What?”
“T-tony, your fur! It’s on fire!” Billy shouted.
Looking at his arm Tony could see that his fur was on fire; he quickly put it out and turned his attention back to Billy. “You’re not hurt are you?”
Billy just continued to stare. “How did you do that?”
“W-what?”
“The fire, it never even hurt you, you ran right through it. The heat didn’t even stop you and then you just put it out with a wave of your hands.”
Tony bit back his lip, he didn’t like where this was going.
“How did you do it Tony?” Billy asked.
“I-I can control fire.”
“You what,”
“I can control fire okay; it’s something I’ve been able to do since I was a kid.”
“T-That’s amazing,” Billy said.
“No, it’s not. I’m a freak.” Tony said as he sat down on the couch. “You have no idea how much trouble my powers have gotten me into. I even once burned a kid because I couldn’t control my temper.”
Billy looked at Tony for a moment. He was being serious. “Look, why don’t we go into town and get a drink or something, we could talk about it if you want.”
****
“I got my powers when I was thirteen,” Tony said as he explained the origins of his powers to Billy. “A couple of kids in a higher grade then me tried to beat me up. I took down a couple of them, but they had me pinned down. I saw one of the kids pull out a knife and I started to get scared, but before that I heard them talking about my mom.”
The water that Tony was sipping started to boil as he tightened his grip on the cup. “I got so mad and then the next thing I knew fire erupted from my body and it pushed the other kids back. They all ran away scared after that and I was pretty freaked out myself.”
“Wow, so what happened next? It seems like a tiger that could ignite his body would be something the news would be interested in.” Billy said as he took a bite out of his burger.
“Actually that’s the weird thing,” Tony said. “The next day, the same guys that jumped me didn’t remember a thing. They didn’t even remember me; they thought I was some new kid even when I had been at the school since the beginning of the semester.”
“Well, maybe--”
Before Billy could finish a gunshot was heard. Looking across the street they could see police cars heading towards a nearby store.
“What’s going on!?” Tony shouted as he ran towards the scene followed by Billy.
Getting a closer look they saw a bunch of crooks wearing bandanas over their mouths and they all had the same purple claw marks running down the black shirts they were wearing.
Billy started shaking. “I’ve heard of those guys,” Billy said. “They call themselves the Dark Claw.”
One of the Dark Claw members shot a police officer in the leg. The dog let out a howl as he stumbled to the ground holding his injured leg.
Tony was about to rush to the dog, but a Billy grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you doing?!” Billy yelled. “You go out there and you’ll get killed!”
“I can’t just stand here and do nothing, I have to help!”
Billy shook his head. “What use your fire powers? They’ll start shooting at you instead. Not to mention it will make you the biggest news in the country.”
Tony realized that Billy was right, he knew he had the power to stop them, but if everyone knew what he could do it could ruin his life forever not to mention put his dad at risk. He needed some kind of disguise.
****
“Damn it! I’m out of ammo and I can’t get to Matt.” The Blue Jay said as another bullet whizzed by his head. “Where the hell is the swat team?”
Meanwhile Detective Matt was struggling to get out of the crossfire.
“Well, well,” A voice said near the dog. As he turned around he saw a bat with a purple bandana wrapped around his mouth staring down at him.
“Hey, mutt,” The bat said. “Let’s see if all dogs really do go to heaven.” The bat raised his gun. Matt stared at the tiny black hole, one click and it would all be over.
Just then a wall of fire appeared between the dog and his would be killer. Looking to his left the dog’s eyes widened.
There stood a large tiger wearing a red and white hoodie covering his face, with flaming paws.
“Who… what the hell are you?!” The bat shouted.
The tiger didn’t answer instead he threw a ball of fire at the bat, knocking the gun out of his hands.
“Gaah! My hand!” The bat shouted.
“Harvey, what’s wrong?” An elephant shouted.
“It’s that guy,” The bat pointed at Tony with his unburned hand. “He’s some kind of freak!”
“Freak,” Tony growled.
“Take this you flaming bastard!” The elephant and a whole bunch of other members of his gang let out a barrage of bullets on Tony, but the air around Tony had heated up immensely. All the bullets melted before they could even reach Tony and bounced harmlessly off the tiger.
Tony raised his hands forward as they caught on fire. The fire rushed forward. Soon every gun being held by a Dark Claw member melted in their hands causing them to scream in pain. Tony then rushed forward, delivering a punch to a rhino’s gut. He then turned around and karate kicked an ox that was heading for him. He was enjoying this.
After a few more minutes every gang member had been beaten to a pulp. “Mercy, please no more…” The elephant said.
Tony smirked figuring the gang had learned their lesson. He dropped the elephant, letting him landed with a loud thud.
“Freeze!” A voice said.
Tony looked behind him and saw a blue jay pointing a gun at him.
“I don’t know how you did that, but you’re under arrest.” The blue jay said.
Tony slowly raised his hand, but then snapped his fingers. A second later the police car next to the blue jay exploded. The startled blue jay ducked for cover as Tony ran towards the alley way.
****
“Tony that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire life!” Billy said as they entered their apartment.
“Thanks,” Tony said blushing a little from the compliment.
As they sat down on the couch Tony turned on the T.V. and what happened next surprised him.
“Earlier today a Tiger wearing a red and white hoodie single handedly defeated members of the known Dark Claws gang. The tiger was said to be a master fighter with blazing hands.
“Looks like you finally made the news Tony,” Billy said. “You’re like a superhero.”
“I don’t know about that,” the tiger said with a grin. “I don’t even have a name or a costume.”
“I can help with that.”
