[hr][h1][color=firebrick]Doctor Victor Calahan[/color][/h1][hr] 


[i][u]A cafe in Courtbridge, Prince Ed Field
[/u][/i]

[hider][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgsV_N_tw6U[/youtube][/hider]

It wasn't every day that a man made of fire sat down at the bar in a cafe. Victor had seen a lot of reactions to his presence in public places. Most of them involved lots of pointing and shouting. Occasionally, he would get a mouthful of sodium bicarbonate, fresh out of the fire extinguisher. One time, during a conference in Baltimore, he had been hit with a fire hose, much to his chagrin. Few people knew how to handle themselves around a metahuman, especially one who so obviously didn't belong. 

The people here seemed to not take notice to the burning man sitting at a table outside of a cafe. It was just a little coffee shop, complete with the usual beige walls, tall windows, and the trendy brown-washed paintings on the walls. A Faded Paper Figures song played over the speakers. He sipped at a coffee (iced, to prevent himself from burning through the cup). His charcoal eyes drifted along the street, meeting the glimmer of headlights and then darting away as they passed. It was as if he were attempting to avoid their gaze. 

Sarah sat down across from him, crossed her legs, and pulled out her phone. She was playing Candy Crush, but her fingers weren't touching the screen. Victor opened his mouth to speak, but knew better. Though she wasn't wearing earbuds, the gentle nodding of her head told him she was listening to music. He snapped his fingers. A spark ignited with a bright "snap!" Sarah rolled her eyes and looked up from her game. 

"How nice of you to leave cyberspace for me," Victor said. 

"Eh, these games get old quickly," Sarah replied. "I can't help but get into the code." She sat her phone down. It kept playing Candy Crush. A latte in a thin ceramic teacup sat in front of her on a matching saucer. The barista had drawn the foam on top into the shape of a heart. 

"Tacky, but cute," Victor said. "You should get his number." 

"I'm here to to research," Sarah said. "He can wait." 

"Oh, you're so boring," Victor said. "It's not like we spend every waking moment of our lives with our noses stuck in petri dishes. We're people, not robots." 

"Questionable," Sarah laughed. "I'm not sure if I could pass a Turing test somedays." They both laughed. Sarah bumped the table by mistake. The heart shuddered and became misshapen. Victor sipped again at his coffee. The coldest he could get his mouth was a little over boiling, so he had to half-pour the drink into his mouth lest he melt the plastic. He held it with a leather-colored heatproof glove. The two were silent for a minute or two. Candy Crush kept playing. The score had reached a number of digits that few people had ever seen in such a game. 

"So any more news on Mendel?" Victor asked. 

"Yeah, article in CNN earlier today. Another few people missing, another row house burned down eastside. The city's population is half of what it was ten years ago, before this whole war started." 

"RAVEN just isn't as effective as NEST used to be," Victor replied. "They don't get the job done." 

"NEST was in violation of a lot of laws," Sarah said. "KINGFISHER was brought up on war crimes. They may have been effective, but NEST did some awful things to people. At least RAVEN isn't as brutal." 

"I wish KINGFISHER would've just listened to us," Victor said. "Back then, the doctor made all kinds of discoveries to take metas down non-fatally. Some were more effective than bullets and tear gas. They just wouldn't listen, and now look what's happened. ALBATROSS is in prison, so is CONDOR, Sam died back in Verthaven." 

"His daughter sent you an email yesterday," Sarah said. She took an iPad out of her leather satchel and pulled Victor's email up. She opened her eyes wide and the message was projected, upside-down, onto the table. Victor read it quickly. 

"Hm. Well, I'm glad she's doing alright," Victor said. "Sometimes I feel like it's a blessing that she never developed powers. Hopefully she'll get into a good school without the whole 'I'm a minority metahuman' business." 

"Yeah, hopefully," Sarah took another sip of her coffee. Her Candy Crush score was now a number unreachable by conventional science. The heart swirled into her latte was now a rorschach blot. She couldn't quite tell what shape it was in. She felt the baristo watching her from behind the bar. Victor snickered. He took a last drink and then transferred the cup to his right hand. A small ball of fire materialized in the palm of his hand. The cup shuddered, blackened at the bottom, and then crumpled. Sarah rolled her eyes. 

"I'm not drying you out when you set the fire alarm off," Sarah said. The smell of burning plastic filled the air. 

"I didn't ask you to," Victor said. He threw the melted ball of plastic over his shoulder at a trash can. It bounced off of the edge and onto the ground. Victor's shoulders dropped. Sarah laughed. He walked over, picked up the melted sludge, and scooped it into the trash bag. "A baller I am not," he said.