Chapter Text
Calvin and Marcia Beale were enjoying dinner at the fire station with their coworkers one evening when the bell signaled someone had activated the “Safe Haven” drop box, a climate-controlled compartment for people to anonymously drop off a baby they couldn’t or didn’t want to keep without consequences. The group immediately went into action.
Marcia opened the compartment and revealed a tiny baby wrapped in a white towel. She picked up the baby and held it close. She carried the baby to one of the ambulances and gently laid it on the hospital bed. They opened the towel to reveal a baby girl. She had blue eyes and hadn’t made a sound, even when they took off the towel. She and several members of the team, including her husband, quickly drove the baby to the hospital.
Marcia cradled the baby again in her arms when they arrived and sat in the exam room when the pediatrician on call came to examine the newborn. She was relieved to discover the baby was in perfect health, and the doctor estimated that she was just under a week old.
Later that evening, when the couple had completed their shifts, Marcia couldn’t get the image of the sweet baby girl out of her mind.
“Cal, what do you think of adopting the baby?”
“Are you serious?” he asked.
“We’ve always wanted children of our own, but…”
Cal didn’t immediately answer. He appeared to be deep in thought. Early in their marriage, Marcia had to have a hysterectomy for health reasons, making conceiving a child of their own impossible.
“I feel like this baby was brought to our fire station for a reason.”
“Well, we wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with birth parents who might change their minds.”
“Exactly. I always worried that if we adopted a child, a birth parent might change their mind and we’d lose our baby,” said Marcia. “I want this baby to be ours. I felt a bond with her the moment I picked her up.”
“Okay. Let’s contact the hospital.”
The Beales spoke with the hospital social worker, who discussed the adoption process. They learned that there would be background checks, home inspections, and several other requirements that needed to be met before they could be considered for adoption of the baby girl.
A judge in family court was able to fast-track the couple to become the baby’s foster parents. This would place the baby girl in their custody, and an adoption hearing would happen at a later date.
The couple named the baby girl Chloe, and they were thrilled when the adoption soon became official.
One day, when Chloe was four years old, she was playing outside while her mother sat knitting on the back porch. Her mother heard a “whoosh” sound, and she looked up to see a blur of red going in circles around their yard.
“Chloe!” She exclaimed.
“Yes, Mommy?” Chloe asked.
“How did you do that?”
Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know. I just ran as fast as I could!”
Chloe’s mother looked her over. Chloe wasn’t even panting. “And, you’re not tired?”
Chloe shook her head.
“Okay, sweetie. Why don’t we go inside, and I’ll fix you a snack?”
“I want pretzels!”
Once they went inside, Marcia texted her husband.
M: Chloe has something to show you when you get home.
C: ??
M: You’ll have to see it for yourself.
Once Calvin got home, Marcia led him and Chloe out to the backyard. Marcia turned to Chloe.
“Chloe, show Daddy how fast you can run!”
Chloe’s father began to grin, but his face quickly shifted into a mix of shock and concern.
“Okay, sweetheart. That was great!” said Cal. “Come on back over here, okay?”
“Yes, Daddy?” Chloe asked.
“That was super fast.”
“Yeah,” she replied, grinning.
“How did you know you could do that?” He asked.
“I don’t know. I just tried to run as fast as I could.”
“Right. Well, sweetheart, you need to be careful.”
“Why?”
Cal sighed. “I’ve never seen anyone run that fast. Not even grown-ups that we see on TV in the Olympics.”
“Really?” Chloe’s eyes lit up.
“Yes, but…” Cal took a moment to think. “Well, you run so fast that it’s going to make people scared and nervous.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re probably the fastest person ever. We’ll have to practice running slower. You can’t run like this at the playground because it’s not safe for the people around you.”
“Why?”
“You run so fast you won’t see someone if they’re in your way.”
“Oh.”
Chloe spent a solid week practicing controlling her running speed with her dad, and she soon had it under control. Her parents said she could run as fast as she wanted if she was in their yard without any other kids around, but she couldn’t run fast anywhere else. Chloe pouted a bit, but she followed the rules.
A few years later, Chloe was playing catch with her dad in the backyard. She missed the ball, and it rolled under her father’s pickup truck. She ran over to the driveway, lifted the truck with one hand, and grabbed the ball with the other.
“Chloe, how did you do that?” Her dad asked.
“Do what?”
“You lifted my pickup truck with one hand.”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to get the ball.”
“I see that. But, sweetie, even Daddy can’t lift the truck with two hands. Watch.”
He put two hands under the front bumper and showed her that he couldn’t move it at all.
“Oh,” Chloe paused for a beat. “Is this like how I can run really fast?”
“I believe it is,” he said.
“Does that mean I can’t lift really heavy stuff in school?”
“Have you been lifting heavy stuff in school?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Cal thought for a moment and hoped he was correct in his assumption that Chloe hadn’t demonstrated this at school because it surely would have warranted a phone call.
“Okay, honey.”
With practice and support from her parents, Chloe was able to keep her powers a secret. As she got older, her powers became easier to control.
However, one morning, when she was a freshman in high school, she woke up floating about a foot above her covers. She let out a scream and dropped onto the bed.
Her parents came running in.
“What’s wrong?” Marcia asked.
“I was floating above the bed. It freaked me out.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?” Her father asked.
“It wasn’t. I don’t know how I did it.”
“Can you try to do it again?” Her mother asked.
Chloe lay back down and tried to float. Nothing happened.
“I can’t. I don’t know how I did it.”
“Well, let’s hope you don’t do it at school,” said her dad.
Chloe gave her dad a nervous smile and began to get ready for school.
Luckily, she didn’t have any incidents in school. However, she did wake up several times over the next few years, floating above her bed.
One day, the summer before Chloe was set to go off to Barden University, she looked up in the sky and saw a plane with a fire on one of the wings that was rapidly descending. In a rush of adrenaline, Chloe flew up into the air. She was able to hold up the plane and slow its descent until it landed in an open field. She flew away, hoping she’d gone unnoticed.
Later that day, it was all over the news how a plane that was about to crash had somehow managed to land safely in a field. No injuries were reported, but several passengers reported feeling like something underneath had lifted the plane. A few others reported seeing a red flash in the air.
“It looked like red fire in the sky,” said one passenger.
When the local news station covered the story, Chloe told her parents what had happened.
“Dad, I know you told me not to use my powers, but I just had to stop that plane.”
“Since when were you able to fly?” Her dad asked. “You’ve only ever floated above your covers.”
“Since now, I guess. I just felt like I wanted to help, and then I was in the air,” said Chloe. “Mom, Dad, I think I was meant to save that plane. Maybe that’s why I have these powers. I’m supposed to use them to help people.”
“We can’t have people seeing you. The press would never leave us alone, and you’d never have a normal life,” said her father.
“But…” Chloe began to protest.
Her mother looked pensive. “You know, Cal, I could make her a disguise.”
“Like one of those comic book superheroes?” Chloe asked, chuckling.
“Why not?”
“Okay,” said Chloe. “But, make it red, okay?”
“I will. And I’ll make a mask as well, so they don’t see your face. I have a hard time buying that people really can’t tell that Clark Kent is Superman because of the glasses.”
Marcia made the costume, and Chloe quickly became known as Red Fire, as that was how witnesses described her as she flew away.