Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #32 (Patreon)

The Statement Of Jaselle Alhambra, Part 9

Jaselle screamed with her whole body. The plasma she was composed of vibrated the air, and the air around her resounded with her cry of surprise.

Not again! This couldn't be happening again! Not a third time! She had to get back in control, she had to keep from hurting people, why was this happening?-!

It didn't last long as she regained control of herself, her surprise turning to frustration and panicked relief as she burned, a glowing, slowly dissipating cloud of plasma in the air, shining with heat and light. She pulled in her heat, pulled her plasma together as best as she could so that she felt like the right shape, or at least a blob with four tendrils for arms and legs. Jas couldn't see around her very well, since plasma wasn't very good at absorbing light, but she could feel the sun in the sky and the flow of the earth's magnetic field through her plasma, letting her know which way was up and down.

She had lost control again, just like she had feared. If that had happened down below, she—

In the middle of her angry recriminations, she turned to lava.

Lava wasn't really conducive to making any sort of intelligible sounds, but Jas gave it her best shot as she plummeted again, barely keeping her form together with viscosity and her heat in with force of will as she slammed into the vines of the Thorn Thicket below. Wood, leaves and flowers instantly began to wilt, blacken and char as they made direct contact with the lava that was her body, only to be left smoking as she continued to fall through until she slammed into the ground, splattering on impact. Her lava splashed around, and for a moment she was a smear on the ground and globs everywhere that were blackening the vines she was on—

She felt her body start to heat up, the fire within her burning with excitement, eagerness and glee as it released their heat, and in panic she held on tight, trying to keep the heat from going out of control. The heat slipped from her as she flailed around blind. She could feel the heat leaving her, and barely perceived the subtle vibrations as the wood some parts of her were on slowly burned. Jas frantically grew obsidian chips to serve as her eyes, and found herself in an inferno. Around her, vines so thick they could have been branches with finger-long thorns were burning, the fire within dancing with glee almost in time to the flames around her.

"Let me just say that I'm thankful you turned to sand beforeyou turned to plasma," she heard Yellow say inside the tin. "I still nearly go roasted, but I suppose it's the thought that counts. If you wanted to get off, you could have just told me."

"It wasn't me," Jas said as she pulled herself together while trying to pull in her heat at the same time, and not doing very well at both. "I lost control again!"

"Is it the same feeling as before?"

Same feeling? What did she—?

Jaselle's heart filled with dread.

The fire burned with excitement, eagerness and glee. That combination sent terror through her. Jas pushed aside her own thoughts and guilt at not helping out of worry about losing control as she tried to stand, to solidify, to rein in the heat. The heat slipped from her again, and Jas felt herself getting hotter as she struggled to stand upright. A space was forming around her as vines became charred, and then char, and then ash. Distantly, she head Green calling out for Blue to try and control the fire so it wouldn't spread to the houses, heard Yellow telling Magenta to hurry as Jas tried to rein in the heat again, to snuff out the flames and keep the fire from spreading. Jas tried to force the fire back into herself, forced herself to turn solid, to regain complete control.

The fire that burned inside fought her, filling her with confusion and stubbornness. She could feel the fire releasing heat through her, could feel the lava of her limbs getting hotter and hotter, could feel the flickering tongues of plasma even as she tried to be more solid. Her mind screamed in frustration as she set herself stubbornly, willing her body to do as she wanted, even as the fire resisted.

"Red, are you all right? Say something!"

She couldn't spare the effort or concentration to reply. The fire was no longer filling her with urges. Now it was a burning ball of stubbornness and excitement, and it was all she could do to hold the heat in when the fire wanted to let it out. Even so, her body was getting hotter and hotter, and the flames around her continued to burn.

"Red, it would be really nice if you'd talk to us! What's happening? Are you getting control back?"

Inside the tin with all their clothes and drones, the little piece of herself nestle there was starting to burn. Blue's ball of water threw itself at her, erupting into steam that condensed back into water that became steam again and back into water before a wave of pink sand slammed into it, fusing into a shell. For a moment, she was engulfed, even as the piece of herself turned into lava, pushing against the shell that surrounded her, which was vibrating with words she couldn't answer.

"Red, it's getting really hot out here! My meat is really getting cooked! Made of meat, remember?"

The fire within her flared in time to the flames that burned from her. Jas kept trying to stand, kept trying to form a solid body, forcing the heat back into her. The plasma erupting from her vibrated with her scream of frustration, an inhuman sound that resonated around her as she tried to force the fire into submission.

"Red, the fire's starting to spread, you need to stop what you're doing now!"

This was her body! She decided what she did! Slowly, the heat began to be drawn back in. It was an effort of will, like trying to stay awake even as her eyes wanted to droop and not open again. The fire burned, and she could feel the frustration, the confusion, the stubbornness, the want, even as she slowly wrested the heat back into herself.

"Red, you need to regain control! You're not a fire or a volcano, you're a human! Humans don't burn! Red, please say something!"

It wasn't enough. The fire still spread, too much heat already released. She didn't know how large the fire around her was growing, but she was starting to see the road around her, the ground blackened, interspersed with little burning splatters of lava that were spewing out plumes of burning bright plasma. She saw the cement road silently explode, momentarily revealing a chip of bare concrete and aggregate before the blackening again…

"Nightmare Red, answer Nightmare Green. She's the team leader, you need to do what she says."

The fire inside her roiled, stubborn and frustrated. But Jas was winning! Slowly, slowly, she was able to pull the heat back in, but it wasn't fast enough. And even as she drew in heat, she could feel the lava of her body bubbling, flaring out into plasma, releasing more heat than she was drawing in!

"Red! Red! Jaselle! Jaselle, the houses are about to catch fire, Blue can't keep it back for much longer!"

It was too much. She was too slow to wrest control. The fire around her was spreading, the vines burning even as they tried to grow back, tried to push into the space she was burning within.

"Jaselle, calm down! You can't be in control all the time! Relax!"

…what?

"WHAT?" Green and Magenta sounded equally incredulous.

"Relax! Calm down and let go for a sec! Let it do what it wants so it's not fighting you!" Yellow said. She sounded insane.

No, Jas had to maintain control! If the fire got loose, people would get hurt! She had to be responsible, she…

"Jaselle, what you're doing isn't working! Try something else! Whatever happens, you're not going to get hurt, but if you keep doing what you're doing, someone else will be! Stop panicking and calm down!"

She had no time to be calm! It was a waste of time, she had to do something, she… she…

For a moment, Jas just stood there, helpless. The heat slipped from her hands, and she felt her body start to burn, all the lava and little bits of obsidian flashing into plasma, heat and light. Distantly, she heard Magenta—Kuya Kim—saying she was too hot, that he was melting, weakly heard someone snap at him to hold on…

She let go of the heat and tried to take a deep breath. She had no lungs, only plasma, but she made the motions anyway, letting her body pull in, letting herself be filled.

Heat rushed into her, a sudden wave as all the energy she'd be releasing came back. Around her, the burning thicket suddenly snuffed out, leaving blackened char and wood that started to smoke. Surprise and relief flooded her, but before she, the fire surged with stubbornness and excitement. What little lava remained of her body burned into plasma, and she went blind as her chips of obsidian disappeared. She felt another surge of panic, but she pressed it down, taking another breath. It wasn't forced and willful. It was simple, easy and natural, and heat continued to be drawn back into her even as her body flared and grew, growing hotter and hotter, but she focused on breathing, focused on the heat.

Jaselle felt the heat rising, the plasma gathering together. She took another breath, the heat rushing in as the pressure built. As the gather plasma made to lash out, she titled her head. She was blind, her eyesight gone, but high above, she felt the sun. As plasma burst out into a furious ejection of heat and light, thefire burning once more with excitement, eagerness and glee, Jas tilted back her head and faced the sun.

Later, they told her there was a pillar of light reaching into the sky, blindingly bright, burning clouds out of her way. All she remembered was the fire burning with excitement, with glee, with innocent joy as she breathed in, pulling the heat back in even as it left her, leaving only radiance and a stream of plasma. She let the plasma stream upward as she found her body once more, obeying her will. Slowly, carefully, letting the plasma stream out even as she pulled the heat back in, she reformed her body, congealing the plasma back to lava, then back to volcanic rock. She let the plasma continue to stream as she grew back her volcanic glass, finally letting her see again, forming back her limbs, filled with molten lava just below the surface. Plasma whipped around her head and shoulders like a candle flame as she experimentally flexed stony, glowing hot fingers.

Finally, she reached out to the piece of herself in the tin, and clenched it back to stone, pulling in the heat that had been flaring out and into the shell that Magenta had built around her. A part of her hoped she hadn't ruined any clothes, but she doubted it…

The plasma streamed from where she had made her face, and she had to could feel the fire's excitement. She reached for the plasma and began to stifle its stream. The fire flared, and she felt the stubbornness, but she simply stayed calm and breathed, pulling the plasma back into herself, weakening the stream. Slowly, the stubbornness faded, replaced by sullenness, even as it still burned with eagerness and excitement. The heat in the atmosphere returned to her, the air cooling. Finally, the stream of plasma sputtered and cut off, and Jas wanted to blink as the light of the plasma winked out.

She almost let out a sigh, but stopped herself as she wondered whether that would make all the heat rush out again. Hesitantly, she focused on the piece of herself in the tin. "Everyone?" Inside the tin, Magenta and Blue crowded close to her drone, ready to smother her again, while Yellow and Green were on the far side, behind what seemed like a wall of pink glass. "Is… is anyone hurt?"

"Well, I'm slightly cooked, but my insides are still alive, so I just need to digest and regrow a little," Yellow said.

"Same here," Green said. "Are you all right now, Red?"

"Yes," she said, feeling like sighing even thought she had no lungs. "I'm back in control again. I need to get out of here while I still can, before something worse happens."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Yellow said. "It might make things worse."

"Worse than me losing control again?" Jas said incredulously.

"It seems like you've lost control every time you've been far from the action," Yellow said. "If you're closer to us, maybe you'll be less likely to lose control. And if you DO lose control, I can run, and Magenta and Blue can contain you."

"Wow, you're admitting you're going to run?" Magenta said flatly as he hesitantly withdrew the shell he'd made around Jas.

"Meat, remember. I'll just get roasted. Don't complain, I got you out of your room."

"Good point. All right, I'll keep you from getting grilled."

"Thank you very much. We're nearly there, can you get us a way in and out? The door isn't open. Who doesn't leave the door open when they're in such a hurry they left someone behind? That was really rude an inconsiderate. No wonder someone was trapped."

What… oh! Yellow and Magenta were still looking for people trapped by the thicket! "I thought you said things caught fire?" Jas said.

"Yes, but Blue smothered it, and you snuffed it out," Green said. "If you're going to be down here, start clearing the roads with fire, and be careful about the houses and other plants."

"But what if I—"

"Jaselle," Green interrupted. "If you're always avoiding situations where you're afraid you'll lose control, you'll never know what to do when it actually happens, the way it just did. If you lose control, we'll help you. Until then, don't worry about it and try to help people."

Try to help people. Yes, that was what they were here for, right?

Jaselle wanted to close her eyes, to pray for guidance. She didn't have eyes to close, but her hands, inhuman as they were began to make the familiar motions, touching her forehead, navel and shoulders before her hands clenched together, head bowed.

She prayed for strength to carry this burden within her. She prayed for control, so that she wouldn't hurt anyone. She prayed for understanding and wisdom, she could know the best thing to do. She prayed for guidance that she was doing the right thing.

When she began paying attention to what she could see again, she found Yellow standing patiently in front of her.

"Twenty minutes and you didn't lose control at all," the tall woman said. "I think you'll be fine."

"H-how long have you been standing there?" Jas asked, embarrassed she'd kept them waiting, even if it was to pray.

"I told you, twenty minutes," Yellow said. "Don't worry, this is just a drone, so you're not keeping me from anything. Are you ready to try and help?"

Jaselle made as if to take a breath, drawing in heat she'd released while she'd been still. It wasn't all that much, but best not to let it build up. "Yes," she said quietly.

Yellow nodded, then turned and pointed. "The street goes that way. There are a few cars in the way, so we have to be careful, but you can start by burning what vines you can. If you managed to clear everything about the street, it should contain the Thorn Thicket and keep it from growing on this one side. That will let me get at some of the people trapped on the other street without having to worry about the vines growing back."

'A controlled burn?" Jas said.

Yellow—or more likely Yellow through a drone, Jas realized—nodded. "Yes. use your fire, give the urges an outlet. If they wat to burn, let them burn, but always make it clear you're in charge." Yellow hesitated. "It's like eating. You can only put it off for so long before you need to eat. So choose when and where and what."

Jas had always been told she should eat whatever was put in front of her when she was called to eat and be grateful for it, for there were people much less blessed than her who had to eat from garbage. But she supposed if you were sinfully wealthy like her uncle…

"I'll try," Jas said.

Yellow tilted her head. "Don't worry," she said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "We're here to help you too, Jas. You don't need to learn how to do this alone. None of us do. If you're having trouble, tell us. We might not understand right away, but we'll all try."

Jas nodded uncertainly.

"Great! Now let's go and burn stuff!"

––––––––––––––––––

Whether it was her prayer or Yellow had been right, Jas didn't lose control again for the rest of the day. When she felt an urge building in the fire, she simply vent plasma in small, controlled bursts. There were many vines that needed to be burned, with some having grown as thick as trees. Her plasma blasted through those like wind through dust, and she had to carefully pull the heat back in lest it become too much, but the act seemed to sate the fire burning inside her, and the eagerness and excitement never became overwhelming.

Yellow, or at least her drone, stayed by Jaselle's side, directing her since the thick growth of bougainvillea vines made it difficult to find her way, obscuring landmarks beyond the path she burned. A few trees, shrubs and fences were a bit singed, but with the two of them working together, they were able to avoid damage to the houses. Jas burned upward through the vine until it finally opened to the sky, then continued to cut her way through the street, leaving dark ash behind them. The growth was so thick that without her plasma it would have been hard to see, but the flames she made provided more than enough illumination.

Back in the tin, the others were speaking to each other, while Yellow gave a constant, running update on what she and Magenta were doing. It seemed that even when Jas had lost control and caused a fire, people still hadn't evacuated, though many people had been temporarily blinded by the stream of plasma she had unleashed. That didn't stop them from pulling out their phones and recording, even as more emergency vehicles from the local government—which were just vans and light commercial vehicles with stickers slapped onto them—started appearing. Officials tried to get people to evacuate, or at least leave the area, but between the cars full of people's possessions clogging up the other streets, there being no prepared evacuation area, and the sight of Yellow and Magenta seemingy just walking into the Thorn Thicket and pulling out people who'd been left behind, not a lot of people were willing to leave.

As soon as people realized that Yellow and Magenta were bringing people out, families who were missing someone or had accidentally left people behind had crowded around them, begging the two to get their relatives, telling them the addresses of their houses so they'd know where to go. Others had started attacking the Thorn Thicket with more hand tools with renewed vigor.

Green, for her part, had turned all the other plants in the neighborhood against the thicket, and they were all clinging and feeding on the thorny vines like parasites. She said it slowed down its growth, but Jas really couldn't tell. Green had also begun to counter-grow against the vines, helping her cousin keep the growth contained and keeping the pathways that Jas had cleared open while she directed Blue as best as she could. Blue had continued to make ice to keep the Thorn Thicket from growing out even further, and the ice was being partially successful, though the thorns had begun growing further upward, either to get over the ice or because there was no other direction to grow.

Jas only heard this as she burned her way through the thicket, following what was visible of the road and Yellow's directions. The latter's drone clearly found the heat Jaselle generated difficult, but despite her earlier protestations of being made of meat, she didn't utter a single complaint, though she occasionally had to step back and regrow her body, shedding dead or even cooked parts off before she was able to direct Jas again. Jas burned and burned and burned, and even being careful of houses and cars on the road, and in one instance a bed that had been left on its side in the middle of the street, she was able to work quickly, the wood no match for the heat of her plasma.

Eventually she began to see light through the thorny vines, and it wasn't long before they got to the edge of the thicket. Jas reined in her plasma, resorting to throwing small globs of lava to burn the vines in her way, but she need not have bothered. In front of them was a wall of ice, and while the lava splattered and made the ice crack and flash to steam, the ice quickly grew back. Jas didn't push. She didn't actually need to get out. Instead, she continued clearing what vines she could, sending her plasma burning upward until there were no more vines in the way, and she was looking up at the noon sky.

There was… a lot of smoke in the sky, but… well, she'd been burning a lot of wood. Green, undried wood at that.

"All right!" Yellow said cheerfully. "Now, the other end of the street!"

Jas turned towards where she was pointing. At the other end of the street, thorny vines were growing. They were noticeably moving across the rod and enriching over the blackened, ashy ground she had already burnt across.

The fire inside her burned with excitement and eagerness.

Jas nodded. "All right. Let's cut down the rest."

She began to run down the street. With every step, the fire burned brighter, the excitement, eagerness and glee rising.

Jas didn't lose control.