Inside Dr. Cartel's laboratory, a glowing silhouette sat on the chair beside the medical bed where Logan lied on. He was burning with a small yellowish-red flame and his skin was glowing slightly. He sat in a lotus position with his hands placed on his lap and a completely expressionless face. His eyes were closed but the aura he exuded was one of beauty. Even the color of his hair had changed from phoenix black to yellowish red. Anyone who sees Leo in this state would feel their hearts falter and they'll feel like worshipping him... together with the shock that'll overcome them.
Logan, who was lying down beside him was no exception, as even he was feeling a huge sense of emotional attraction towards Leo. At the same time, he was feeling energetic and the pains in his body were starting to fade away. He observed Leo's glowing body and marveled.
'Although this is the second time I'm seeing you like this up close, the feeling still looks new to me.' He thought and he had the urge to touch but he held back. However, curiosity got the better of him and he brought forth his hand to touch him.
Just as his fingers were nearing Leo's arm, the latter grabbed him with swift action. Logan was scared and jolted slightly. Leo opened his brightly burning eyes to look at Logan. There was little or no expression on his face. He stared at Logan for a while before turning to look straight.
"There is no need for that." He said before releasing Logan's arm. His voice was... beautiful. It sounded like Leo... but yet another person. It was feminine and so smooth but fearsome, giving the feeling that something high and beautiful had spoken.
Logan was dumbfounded and slightly scared about that. However, he was also extremely flabbergasted too. Leo's hands were burning with flames, but despite holding his arm, his own hand didn't burn. He didn't feel it to be hot. Instead, he just felt a warm sensation on his hand and his wounds began healing a little faster.

"Whoa..." Logan marveled at the 'magic' in front of him. 'I am definitely not getting used to this.' He thought again. Leo closed his eyes again and the flames on his body began to dissipate. His glowing skin began to dim, and his aura started getting constricted. He learned this after a few attempts with his basketball teammates.
When all the flames disappeared and his skin back to normal, he exhaled heavily with his mouth, causing a lot of steam to flow from it. He opened his eyes but they were still burning. However, they were also starting to reduce and the flames died down until only his pupils were burning.
He looked at Logan and smiled while grabbing his hand.
"How do you feel now?" He inquired. Logan returned the smile and he tightened his grip on Leo's hand.
"How do you expect me to not feel okay when you've already done this much for me?" He returned. Leo gave a relieved smile and tears of joy slowly began to break from his eyes.
Logan gave him a smirk before trying to sit up. However, he still felt some pain in the side of his upper abdomen.
"Nrrgh. Owww." He groaned and winced in pain. Leo quickly offered him a helping hand.
"Easy there, boy. I'm not going anywhere." He said. Logan scoffed before checking himself out.
"Well, the way I see it, my rib cage is still fractured." Logan examined. Leo sighed. He had been circulating his energy for the past one and a half hours. Although he wasn't too tired, he didn't believe that all that long circulation only managed to heal a few bruises of his friend.
He dropped his head on Logan's bed and closed his eyes as he contemplated what to do.
'We've only got a few hours left. I'm not sure I can heal a broken bone given that amount of time.' He pondered. 'If I increase the intensity of the flames, I could kill him. Keeping that state takes a lot of effort and delicate control. If I make a mistake, the healing flames could get destructive...' he began weighing his odds and he could see that there were so many odds against him.
Suddenly, Logan's hand touched his back. Leo opened his eyes and he saw the peaceful smile on his best friend's face.
"You don't have to do this Leo. It's fine." He said. This almost moved Leo to tears. Suddenly, he did something that stunned Logan.
PA!
The latter slapped himself on both cheeks, "Who am I to think that I should give up." He scorned himself before taking a lotus position again and maintaining full concentration. He closed his eyes and he began to circulate his flame energy again. He could feel every nerve in his body, every muscle, every organ. He was able to open up his energy core and make it flow throughout his body after about five minutes and the flames slowly spread through his body until his entire body was covered in yellowish-red flames. He kept muttering his mantra inside his mind and he controlled the energy in his body.
He maintained the flames so they don't turn destructive. However, he knew this wasn't enough... so he pushed further. He did it slowly and his desire to heal his friend increased.
Logan, who was just observing the flames on Leo's body heal him suddenly noticed a spike in the intensity of the flames. The heat radiating from him increased and the small flames on Leo's body grew in size.
"What the hell..." Logan muttered as his friend became consumed in flames. He noticed Leo mutter something. He knew what Leo's mantra was and he at first, thought it was the same thing. To his surprise, it was completely different this time.
Leo was unaware that the flames on his body had spiked, but he could feel his efforts being used on something. He began to meditate on his mantra and he gained some insights.
"The flames of the Phoenix... flames of rebirth. Fire is destructive. It is a destroyer of worlds. However, fire can also be seen as an element that grants life. Plants require light from the burning sun to grow. Humans need the heat from fires to stay warm. When a forest gets burned, it gives rise to new life. Fire... is life. And the flames of the Phoenix are perfect for giving life." He muttered.
At the same time, the flames further increased and slowly, Leo began to levitate.
Logan watched his friend fly with a shocked expression. Although this wasn't his first time seeing this... but it was too shocking to him. Leo looked like a fire god from below and he had the urge to bow to him.
Suddenly, Leo opened his burning eyes and looked fiercely at Logan. The latter got scared. The trauma from the beating Leo gave him was still fresh in his mind. Leo's eyes didn't look too friendly and It felt like the eyes of a god were staring down at him. He felt his scalp tingle and the pressure coming from his friend made his heart palpitate.
Leo's expression was grim as he raised his hand forward,
"Wings of the Phoenix" He declared. His voice sounded so ethereal that one could tell that it was not of this world.
Before Logan was aware of what was happening, he felt a burning sensation on his back, causing him to stand. However, the Leo... or whoever it was, spoke again.
"Stay still, mortal. Let the wings cover you." He said. Logan didn't have time to be shocked by Leo's statement as he noticed a large pair of wings emerge from his back. The wings were completely covered in flames and they span up to around three meters. It was more like the wing was made of fire and it stretched itself first, making Logan resemble a man who could fly with his flaming wings on him. Logan looked at his wings with utter shock and tried touching his back. However, the wings curved and covered Logan's body like it was shielding him from something.

Logan was so stunned that he couldn't believe his eyes. "Whoa... what's going on with me?" He muttered to himself as he watched the wings cover him from head to toe. Gradually, the pains he was feeling in his body began to disappear.
His broken rib was reattached, repaired, and healed before the bruises disappeared.

"Wait a sec... holy crap!!" He exclaimed when he noticed that he was being healed. After about thirty minutes, the flaming wings started dissipating until they disappeared completely. Logan stared above at Leo. His burning body, beautiful face, and a pair of godlike eyes stared at him.
"Who... are you?" Logan forced the words out of his mouth and asked him. Leo looked at him with a completely emotionless face. He stared at Logan for a while before looking forward and closing his eyes.
"I... am a god." He said and slowly landed on his feet. The flames from his body disappeared and he suddenly slumped. Logan quickly moved forward to catch his falling friend. He noticed that Leo was still breathing... however, he had passed out.
"He's... asleep," Logan muttered before putting him on the medical bed. He smiled at Leo and tucked him into the blanket.
"A few minutes ago, I was on this bed. Now you're the one on it. How ironic." He mused before loosening up the bandage on his body. He didn't need it anymore so he threw it in the waste bin.
He was just about to take his seat beside Leo when he suddenly heard a thump near the door. He quickly turned to the door and slowly walked to check who it was.
The door of the lab creaked as Logan opened it to see who was there. To his complete surprise, he found a young and beautiful lady, dressed in a black suit and skirt. Her face had an expression of shock on it as she lay lifelessly on the floor. Logan recognized the lady and he was stunned.
"What the hell! What's Mrs. Angela doing here?" He questioned.
*************
In an almost empty small bar, two men sat in front of the counter while the bartender attended to them. There was an ambulance outside the bar and two aid rescuers lift a stretcher with a man on it into the ambulance. They did this four more times and they didn't bother to inquire about anything from Twitter the bartender or the only two customers there. They went back into the ambulance and drove away.
The two old men drank from their cups while enjoying the silence in the bar and the small joyful and busy sounds from outside the bar.
"O'Neil Edwardo..." one of the men said as he lifted his cup and looked at the contents in the glass like he was examining the wine, "One of the best wines in town. Brewed in Great Britain, this wine costs over $1500." He continued before finishing the contents of the cup in a single gulp.
"I bought this wine for meetings like this." He said and poured himself another glass. The man sitting beside him simply sipped from his cup. His face was void of any expression and he acted uninterested.
"It's a good wine." He commented.
"Mhmm." The old man nodded and gulped the wine in his cup again in one quick swallow before dropping the cup on the counter. "So... what brings you here, Dr. Cartel?" He inquired. Dr. Cartel exhaled deeply before facing him.
"I need your help." Dr. Cartel replied, his face a bit tense this time. The old man beside him, General Raven, scoffed and kept looking forward at the shelf filled with different kinds of bottles of wine, both expensive and not so expensive but not cheap.
"Hmmm. You rejected the devil. Now you're seeking favors from him." He commented.
"The BSO was running unauthorized operations and collaborations with the THRL. I couldn't let that continue any longer." The doctor argued.
"No..." General Raven blurted with an annoyed tone before facing the doctor and pointing at him, "...you could continue. You own the THRL, you call the shots. You can do whatever you want. But you had to let one little kid faze you..."
"That 'little kid' saved the city from the destruction of a monster..." Dr. Cartel argued but was cut short by the General.
"Which you created," he said. The General right. Dr. Cartel was the one who created the monster that almost destroyed the city in the first place.
"You think I had a choice?!" the doctor slammed the counter and yelled. He was so angry and frustrated. "General McCoy had me by the neck. The late and former head of the BSO wanted me to create special and genetically enhanced beings just to satisfy his own needs. That monster was one of them."
"He did it for his country..." the General retorted but he was interrupted by the angry-looking eyes of the doctor.
"...At the expense of innocent lives," he yelled, gaining the attention of some people in the bar. They turned to look at him but soon minded their business as they did not want to get beaten up by the General.
The fuming Dr. Cartel continued his statement. "Have you any idea how many people died that day? if it wasn't for the same 'little kid', the city would've perished."
"I'm not saying what the former head did was right. I'm saying that you're not clean either. And also... he's still a high-ranking military officer and you and I both know that that kid should be jailed for killing a General of the United States Military." He claimed.
"General McCoy did the wrong thing by ordering me to create monsters and not kill them off." Dr. Cartel blurted.
"And what about the monster you hold? Have you killed him yet?" The General returned with an angry voice.
"Leo is not a monster. He's just a kid." Dr. Cartel argued. The General scoffed.
"Of course, he's just a kid... a kid with godlike powers." He scorned. Dr. Cartel was about to reply to him but he swallowed his own words. He sat back down and tried his best to calm down.
"I didn't organize this meeting for us to argue about what we both did wrong. I need your help with something big. The whole city depends on it... if not even the world." Dr. Cartel clarified. Upon hearing the last statement, the General sighed and dropped his head before facing the doctor beside him.
"What do you need?"