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Andy McGee met Vicky Tomlinson during a psychological experiment at a university, where a secret government agency known as “The Shop” tested a low-level hallucinogenic compound called Lot Six on volunteers. Most participants experienced terrifying hallucinations, but Andy and Vicky survived with strange residual powers. Andy discovered he could influence people’s actions with mental “pushes,” while Vicky gained weak telekinetic abilities. Years later, they married and had a daughter named Charlene—known as Charlie—who was born with extraordinary pyrokinetic power: she could start fires with her mind.
As a child, Charlie’s powers frightened her parents. Once, during a moment of anger, she caused her mother’s laundry to ignite. Andy and Vicky tried to keep her abilities secret, warning her never to use them. But The Shop, which had been monitoring the Lot Six subjects, discovered the couple and their child. Realizing Charlie represented a new generation of potential weaponized psychic ability, they decided to capture her.
Agents of The Shop murdered Vicky in their home, staging it to look like an accident, and attempted to take Charlie. Andy returned home in time to rescue her and used his push to make one agent kill his partner. From then on, Andy and Charlie were fugitives. They moved from place to place, always hunted by The Shop. Andy’s powers took a toll on him—each use gave him severe headaches, nosebleeds, and progressively weakened his mind—but he continued to use them to protect Charlie.
While on the run, they stayed briefly in motels, relying on Andy’s limited income and his occasional use of the push to manipulate small situations—convincing cab drivers to forget them or persuading people to give them rides. Charlie tried to suppress her powers, afraid of losing control. Once, when cornered by a man who tried to harm Andy, she set the man’s feet on fire. The terror of what she’d done haunted her, though Andy comforted her, insisting she wasn’t evil—just powerful.
The Shop intensified its search, led by Captain James “Cap” Hollister, who wanted Charlie alive for study. He enlisted the help of John Rainbird, a cold and skilled Native American assassin obsessed with pain and death. Rainbird saw Charlie not as a weapon but as a means to understand the human soul by watching her die. He volunteered to capture her personally.
Andy and Charlie eventually found refuge at a quiet farmhouse owned by an elderly couple, Irv and Norma Manders. They helped them, grateful for the kindness. But The Shop soon tracked them down. When armed agents surrounded the farm, Charlie—panicking and furious—unleashed her full power. Firestorms erupted across the field, cars exploded, and agents burned alive. Andy was horrified at her destructive strength but realized she was unstoppable when provoked. They fled again, leaving the Manders safe but shaken by the devastation.
Eventually, Andy’s health worsened due to overuse of his push. Desperate and exhausted, he tried to reach out for help, using his power to get money for travel and hideouts. The Shop finally caught up to them in New York, where Rainbird captured both father and daughter. They were transported to The Shop’s isolated research facility in Longmont, Virginia. There, scientists and psychologists studied them. Andy was kept sedated and weakened, while Charlie was treated kindly to coax her cooperation.
The Shop wanted to understand her powers and eventually train her as a living weapon. Charlie resisted at first, but Rainbird—posing as a friendly janitor—befriended her. He listened to her, brought her small comforts, and pretended to care. Lonely and scared, Charlie began to trust him. Meanwhile, Hollister continued to pressure Andy into using his abilities for The Shop’s benefit, threatening to hurt Charlie if he refused. Andy pretended to be broken, but he was secretly recovering his strength and planning their escape.
Charlie began taking part in harmless tests—lighting candles, controlling heat levels—thinking it was safe. But her bond with Rainbird deepened. He told her stories about the afterlife and pretended to be someone who understood her loneliness. In truth, he was waiting for the order to kill her once The Shop had what it wanted. Andy, realizing the truth through his limited communication with a sympathetic nurse, used his push one final time to manipulate the minds of guards and scientists, forcing them to help him reach Charlie.
One night, The Shop arranged for a demonstration of Charlie’s powers for top government officials. Rainbird planned to shoot her after the experiment, believing her death at that moment of purity would give him peace. As the event began, Andy staggered into the room, pushing people aside with his mind despite immense pain. He shouted for Charlie to run. Seeing her father suffering, Charlie’s suppressed fury erupted. Fire blazed around her; walls melted, alarms shrieked, and guards fled in terror.
Rainbird fired his gun, wounding Andy, but Charlie’s flames consumed him instantly. The entire facility exploded into an inferno. Andy, mortally injured, told Charlie to run and to never let anyone use her again. His last push was a command for her to survive. With tears streaming down her face, Charlie escaped as the complex burned to the ground.
She wandered through the woods, exhausted and traumatized, staying hidden for days. She saw helicopters searching overhead but avoided capture. Eventually, she found refuge at a remote farm where the owners gave her food and shelter. They reminded her of Irv and Norma, kind and unsuspecting. Charlie told them little about herself, only that her father was gone and bad people were after her.
Haunted by grief but strengthened by Andy’s last words, Charlie knew she couldn’t keep running forever. She had to expose The Shop and what it had done to her family. She made her way to New York City again, using her powers carefully to avoid attention. With determination and sorrow, she approached the office of a national newspaper. Inside, she asked to speak with an editor. The secretary hesitated, but Charlie’s quiet authority made the woman comply.
When the editor appeared, Charlie told him she had something important—proof of a secret government agency experimenting on people, murdering her parents, and trying to turn her into a weapon. She promised to show them everything, to make the truth known, so no one else would suffer as her family had. The editor, startled by her intensity, hesitated. Charlie looked into his eyes, and a flicker of heat shimmered in the air around her. He nodded, sensing the power and pain behind her words.
Outside, the city moved as usual—cars, people, noise—but somewhere deep beneath that normality, a small girl carried the weight of fire and loss. She had seen her father die, burned an entire facility to ash, and yet she walked forward with quiet resolve. Charlie McGee would no longer hide. She would tell the world about The Shop, and if they came for her again, they would face the fire.
In the distance, a faint wind blew down the street, carrying the warmth of something unstoppable. Charlie lifted her head toward the horizon. She was alone but no longer afraid. The fire was inside her—not as a curse, but as strength.