Fire! In New York (James Campbell)

[Kodah Pierce]

A slight layer of grime coated the empty construction site as Kodah laid underneath the high structure beams. The sun was slowly setting over New York City as the hot summer day came to a close. The lot that Kodah was lounging in was once destined to be luxury apartments, but when the company building the structure went bankrupt, the construction workers evacuated the site but enough remained to make a small living space out of the abandoned lot. His dirty, unwashed hair was shaggy and his body smelled like the street. His ripped Dead Kennedy’s tank top stuck to his body and his torn pants were decorated with various spikes and studs. His eyes searched around the empty area, wishing for Jacob or Nina to come find him. ”Where have you been?” Nina would shriek; her faded blue hair hanging in strands over her face. “That was one hell of a show you put on back there,” Jacob would say, the giant burn on his face completely healed. He knew neither of them would come looking for him; they were equally as scared as Kodah was. The past two days’ events were running through his head, but he couldn’t make sense of it.

He had woken up, as normally as ever, with Nina in his arms. Nina’s make up caked face looked oddly peaceful as he pulled himself away from her and to the edge of the lot to take a look at the rising sun. Suddenly a sharp pain in his chest sent him hurling to the floor before he could make it a few feet. It was as if his entire chest was on fire, and then the burning began to spread up to his throat and then to his mouth. Smoke began to blow through the opening of his mouth and his nostrils as the other kids began to wake up. Jacob was first to wake up, and was at his side trying to hold Kodah’s writhing body still.

“Kodah! What’s wrong?!” He shouted, looking to the older kids for answers. “Shit, man, I think he’s OD-ing” someone shouted. Kodah could see a few of the kids scattering from the construction lot. “Here, let’s get you to the hospital,” Jacob reached over to help Kodah up, but before he could a burst of flame hurtled out of Kodah’s mouth, grazing the left side of Jacob’s face. He fell to the ground, screaming and the pain in Kodah’s organs eased. Nina screamed and ran to Jacod while shouting at Kodah, “What did you do?!” A few more uncontrolled shots of fire spewed from Kodah’s mouth before he could pull himself off the floor. He pulled his hands over his mouth, tears in his eyes. Jacob was functional, but the burns on his face required medical attention.

As fast as Kodah could, he took off in the opposite direction running toward anywhere that wasn’t the lot. He rushed through the early morning traffic toward the abandoned apartments in midtown, hoping no one would be there.

He had heard of meta-humans, but surely he couldn’t be one of them.

Ever since then, he had been hiding in the uncompleted luxury apartments. Uncontrollably (and sometimes controllably) shooting fire from his mouth into the air, trying to avoid starting a wide scale fire in the lot; luckily he was able to avoid most of the flammable objects. He made a disturbing new discovery on the roof of his mouth; some sort of bone that extended right before the flame shot out of his mouth.

He put his face in his hands, still in disbelief over the whole situation. He hoped Jacob had gotten to a hospital, he hoped Nina wasn’t mad at him and above all he hoped that this was some sort of bad dream or an acid trip gone wrong. He couldn’t hide in the empty lot forever, he needed to get out and get food and maybe find Nina and Jacob. He stood up, but sat back down and allowed himself to let more flames escape his lips. He was getting better at controlling the fire, but he found that if he forced himself to keep his mouth shut, not emitting any flame, he would begin to feel sick and vomit. Something had changed his body and Kodah was exhausted.

[Dr. James Campbell]

It was times like these that James thought about retiring.

Sometimes, recruiting was easy. When he had to bring in the younger sibling or child of a meta who had gone to Hammel, families tended to see recruitment as a rite of passage. They were easy, and often involved sitting with the family and talking about what his son was up to, and all the benefits of attending a boarding school for free.

Other times, James would step in and take kids from bad situations. It was always hard to see parents disown their kids, or try to beat the meta out of them. It was ugly, but he tended to bond to those kids the most. He gave them an escape.

It was homeless kids and runaways that made him want to retire, however. They were hard to find, and even harder to establish trust. Sometimes he'd luck out and the kid would be desperate enough to learn how to control their power that they'd take a chance on him.

After all, despite his height, James was on the other side of forty and not athletic. They assumed they could take him in a fight, and they probably could. He'd track them down afterwards, however.

As he picked his way through the construction site, the recruiter noticed the little signs of habitation. This had to be the place. (After taking the report from the ER doctor who had treated the boy with the burn, James had consulted a friend of his in the city who could sense newly-manifested metas, if she knew what to search for. She'd pointed him to this lot, and it looked about right.)

It smelled about right too, and the recruiter covered his nose as he approached. He worried about slipping in the grime and ruining his suit, but he was more worried about the kid. From the smell, he'd obviously been sick. (And then the sick had sat in the oppressive, smothering heat of summer in the city.)

When James could see the boy, he stopped and rapped his knuckles on a sheet of plywood to get his attention. He didn't want to scare him off. "Hello, Kodah. My name is Dr. James Campbell, and I can help with what's happening to you. Would you like some water?"

He held out the bag he'd picked up at a deli around the corner. Inside was a sandwich and a cold bottle of water. If the kid had been hiding out for two days, he was probably not hydrated properly.

[Kodah Pierce]

Kodah was still lying on his back when the new arrival stepped onto the scene. He jumped to his feet, a little dizzy from the lack of food and water and faced the stranger, avoiding his eyes. The stranger’s words were kind but Kodah couldn’t shake his paranoia. “I think you’re in the wrong spot of town, the financial district is that way-“Kodah paused for a moment. “How did you know my name?”

Kodah stared at the man with an angry glare on his face. Kodah wasn’t truly angry, but the fear he felt in the pit of his stomach translated as rage. Any emotion he had was vented to fury, any other emotion seemed weak. He looked at Doctor James Campbell, feeling like an animal next to Doctor Campbell in his clean suite. He imagined how awful this must look to someone who had a PHD; dirty construction lot with a dirty kid sitting in the middle of it. He was immune to the awful smell, after being around for more than a few hours and he probably didn’t look too healthy either.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, nothing’s happening to me,” Kodah snapped, eyeing the food and water the Doctor had brought with him. “And I don’t want your food or water,” he lied. His throat was dry; earlier that day he had discovered a new growth of scales that seemed to protect his throat from the harsh chemicals that were needed to produce the fire. He wanted the water so badly but he didn’t know why someone with such a fancy title would come all the way to his hideout and offer him food and water, there had to be a catch. Was he in trouble? Was Dr. Campbell an undercover cop looking to bust him for burning Jacob’s face? More and more paranoid questions ran through his mind.

“Are you a cop or something?” Kodah asked defensively, “cause I didn’t do anything.” He liked his lips thirstily but he quickly returned his defensive stare at Dr. Campbell, he couldn’t show any signs of weakness in front of this stranger.

[Dr. James Campbell]

Oh, it was going to be one of those recruitments, wasn't it? James managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Now that he was close enough to the boy, his perception had kicked in and he would have been able to tell he was Meta even if he hadn't had the guidance that brought him there. "You're Meta-human. So am I. And I've heard you were breathing fire the other day. I think the water would help."

Again, the recruiter held out the bag with the sandwich and water bottle. He wanted to get out of the construction site, but it was so obviously unhealthy that there was no way he was going to leave Kodah behind. "I'm not a cop. I'm a recruiter for a school."

He always made a point to mention that he was recruiting or a school right away. There were kids who freaked out when they thought they were being recruited by the military to be some kind of weapon.

And then there were the kids who thought that he was there to show them how to become an X-Man.

"The Hammel Institute is a boarding school in Vermont that trains people like us." James continued. He had his pitches down smooth, but he usually had an atmosphere less disorganized than this one. "You'll learn how to control your breath, to keep you from hurting people like your friend. He's okay, by the way. He was released from the hospital this morning and didn't need a skin graft."

Maybe that was too much information, but James hoped that he could sooth any fears Kodah had about what he'd done, while still making it clear that he had put people in real danger. This is what Hammel was for.

[Kodah Pierce]

Dr. Campbell’s words rang through his head, you’re meta-human . He knew what he was, but hearing someone else say it made it feel more like reality. He looked away from Dr. Campbell and off into the orange colored sky, processing the doctor’s words. Any time meta-humans came up in conversation, it was never positive. They were a “danger to society” and a “plague upon humanity”, but Dr. Campbell didn’t look like either of those. Kodah was both a danger and a plague even before his ‘transmutation’; a street rat that didn’t do anything for society. Society, Kodah though bitterly, what has it ever done for me, anyhow?

Kodah eyed Dr. Campbell suspiciously as he reached out and slowly took the bag, without thanking him. He opened the bag and pulled the water bottle out, shortening the unfriendly distance between the two. Kodah tried not to appear desperate as he chugged the water bottle, the cool liquid sliding down his throat. He couldn’t remember a time when water had tasted so good, he stopped to take a breath, the water bottle now half empty.

“A school?” Kodah questioned, a look of hesitance upon his face. Kodah hadn’t been to a school in two years and he sure as hell didn’t want to go back now. Although if Dr. Campbell was a recruiter maybe the school wanted Kodah to be there; if they didn’t, why would they send someone all the way to talk to him?

"The Hammel Institute is a boarding school in Vermont that trains people like us." Dr. Campbell said. 'Like us', the words caught Kodah off guard. We wanted to shout at Dr. Campbell, what do you mean us? There is no us, just me. We’re nothing alike! Kodah held his tongue, not wanting to ruin any chance he might have at maybe restoring some normality in his life. He couldn’t hide in empty construction lots forever, living alone in filth. Of course he was used to living in filth, but never alone.

Kodah reached into the bag and pulled out the sandwich, eating it as fast as he possible could. The food hurt and he coughed a few times to force it down but he continued eating. He took a few more frantic chugs from the water bottle before tossing the empty plastic on the ground.

"You'll learn how to control your breath, to keep you from hurting people like your friend,” the doctor continued. Jacob was out of the hospital? Maybe his burn wasn’t too bad then. Kodah felt terrible about what he did to his best friend, although he wasn’t sure they were still close after what he had done. But maybe Kodah didn’t want to control his breath, maybe he wanted to hurt people. He shuddered at the thought, hoping to never fully turn into the monster that lurked in the depths of his thoughts.

“I’m no good at school,” Kodah replied, pulling the last cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. He brought the cigarette to his lips, only to involuntarily spit out a small breath of flame, almost like a hiccup. “God dammit,” Kodah muttered as he threw the cigarette to the ground and smashed the charred remains into ash. He searched through his pockets to find another cigarette, but couldn’t find a spare. He muttered a few more obscenities before returning his attention back to Dr. Campbell.

“I’m not really education material, if you can’t tell.”

[Dr. James Campbell]

James was quiet as he watched the boy eat. He was right, it was obvious this was the first substantial thing Kodah had eaten in a while. The recruiter wished he'd brought another water bottle with him. It didn't matter if the boy was going to be a pain to recruit; he was just a kid, and James had a son not too much younger.

He managed to keep a straight face too when the boy took out a cigarette. James hated the smell of smoking, so he wasn't unhappy when the fire breath ruined it. The smugness over that wouldn't be appropriate, so he carefully ignored it and focused on what the boy was saying instead.

"It doesn't matter if you're good at academics. We have excellent teachers who can help you there. What you should be concerned about is your power. You don't want to hurt yourself or someone else with it, and that means training. The Hammel Institute is the only place in the U.S. for you to do that." The recruiter looked at a block of concrete and brushed it off slightly, as if he was going to sit down. But he reconsidered when he realized exactly how dirty it was, and stayed standing up, instead.

"Are you still hungry? Thirsty? I can get you another room at the hotel where I'm staying so you can clean off." He already had the room booked, actually. They would have to drive to Vermont because there was no way James was taking Kodah on an airplane before he learned to control his breath better.

"How about this," James continued, "I get you a place to get cleaned up and order some pizza, and then I'll tell you more about the school."

Whether Kodah liked it or not, he was going to Hammel, but James would prefer if the boy wanted it for himself.

[Kodah Pierce]

Despite Dr. Campbell’s assurance, Kodah was still skeptical. A school whose second focus was academics? It seemed too good too be true. There had to be something that Kodah was missing; strangers didn’t show up out of nowhere and offer them food and a place to stay. Kodah’s skepticism was overwhelming but if he didn’t go with Dr. Campbell to Vermont where would he go? He couldn’t stay in New York, there was too much that could go wrong. He’d get arrested for Arson or experimented on by crazy scientists. He couldn’t imagine being cooped up in some laboratory and tested on; that’s what happened to anyone who was “different” in all the movies and TV shows that Kodah had seen while he stilled lived in Jersey.

Kodah seemed at home in the wasted lot but Dr. Campbell looked a little out of his element. He offered to book a room at a hotel, catching Kodah off guard. He couldn’t remember the last time he had stayed at a hotel. He couldn’t remember the last time he had taken a shower either; if Nina hadn’t insisted on combing through and rinsing Kodah’s hair every few nights, his hair would have been dreaded as thickly as Jacob’s was.

He knew he had to make up his mind about the school quickly before Dr. Campbell left Kodah to his own devices. He didn’t seem to pushing Kodah’s attendance at the school too forcefully, so he must have had some sort of choice. He was still thirsty and his stomach growled, craving for more food as he finished the sandwich. Pizza sounded heavenly but Kodah shrugged his shoulders.

“Sure, whatever, as long as there is some food.” Kodah pulled his jacket off the floor and threw it over his shoulder. The only possession he had were the clothes on his back and the lighter he always carried in his pocket. He’d go along with Dr. Campbell for now, he was too desperate not to. If he showed up at Hammel and hated it, he could either get kicked out or run off.

He turned to face the Dr. with a nonchalant expression, trying to hide any hint of anxiety that lingered in his voice. “I guess I’ll go to your school, old man.” Kodah said, moving toward the exit. He paused for a moment then looked at Dr. Campbell with a sarcastic smile on his face, “but only cause you asked nicely.”

[Dr. James Campbell]

James was thankful that he wouldn't have to spend more time in the disgusting deathtrap that had been Kodah's shelter for the last few days. He knew his son was not likely to ever be in this kind of situation, but he hoped Nikki would have the sense to find someplace less likely to contain cockroaches or construction equipment in disrepair.

"It's been a while since I've been to New York, so I'm going to order from my favorite place. Is there anything else you'd like? Garlic bread, maybe?" James had actually grown up in the suburbs of the city, in a neighborhood full of Bronx Italians. He couldn't get excellent pizza up in Vermont like he could here.

Dr. Campbell gave Kodah a wry smile as they left the construction site. "It's not my school, though I am married to one of the trainers and my son is a student. It's there for people like us."

Maybe this trip wasn't going to be so hard after all.