--------------------------------------------------
 A summary of the story of the Fire of the Dragon
 with regards to how it applies to GRIT

 Summarised by Steven Scougall
 1st ver: 9th March, 2001
 2nd ver: 12th March, 2001
 3rd ver: 12th March, 2001

 With thanks to Talen and Sanjian for their help
--------------------------------------------------

Notes
-----
 * This summary covers just what's happened with the Fire in GRIT.
   It doesn't cover the origins or the prehistory of the Fire.  I have
   another summary for that, located at
      http://www.crosswinds.net/~sscougall/grit/fotd.html

 * Either the story started when Genma told the story of the Ryuu-ou
   line, or when Ryuu-ou first showed up in Nerima and wanted an
   apartment at the newly opened Mystic Manor.  I can't remember
   which happened first, so I'll just throw both of them out in the
   order it should have happened, so nyah.  ^_-

 * Also, there are a lot of names beginning with Ryuu and they're very
   similar, so I may have misremembered some of them.

 * These events are in approximate chronological order.


Now, on with the summary!


Genma tells nowhere near all
----------------------------
(Timeframe: So damn long ago I can't really remember.  I think the 
very first part of the Holy Hairclipper Quest with Jo in Korea was 
going on at the time.)
Steve, Wing, Stark and Jei were training with Ranma at the dojo in 
Ranma's advanced class.  I think that at least Ro was there as well.
   After the training session, somehow the subject got onto Ryuu-ou, 
Steve's old master.  If I remember right, Steve was explaining a bit 
of the history of his martial arts involvement and how he'd learnt to 
do really 'those really cool remote ki-blasts' of his.
   Genma became grim, for he knew the story of the Ryuu-ou line.  The 
name was not "Dragon King" as most people would translate it, but 
rather "Dragon Tamer".  It's an old line of martial artists, weaving 
in and out of martial arts history.  They're notorious for many of 
their students going berserk and blowing up various villages through 
history.  They're also notorious for being very mysterious and not 
very much being known about them.
   As a concrete example, Genma told of Ryuuji Kazaki (I think, it's 
been a while since I wrote the name) who had been the most recently 
known of student of the Ryuu-ou line.  Recently means sometime in the 
past 100 years, I can't remember exactly.  Ryuuji was an utter madman 
but a very good martial artist.  His final challenge had been in a 
small village.  The challenge ended with Ryuuji blowing up the whole 
village, killing himself in the blast as well.


Ryuu-ou shows up
----------------
(Timeframe: Shortly after the day when Ranma fought Tarou and Ryuu 
Kumon later on.)
Mystic Manor had recently been liberated from denizens of evil and the 
Wicked Witch of the West by Tegan, Lisa, and PATE.  After some 
renovation, Tegan opened it up as an apartment building with her as 
the landlady.
   There was an open day to attract tenants, and during it an old guy 
showed up.  This was Ryuu-ou.  About ten seconds later, Jei, who was 
fighting Ryouga at the time, performed a Chouryuuenbashira.  Ryuu-ou 
was extremely surprised and cornered Jei about it, wondering where Jei 
learnt it from.  Jei said he learned it from Steve.  Ryuu-ou revealed 
his name and that he's Steve's old master.
   At some point Steve showed up and Ryuu-ou cornered *him*, wondering 
why Steve had been teaching Ryuu-ou's secret techniques.  Steve 
responded with a technique he'd developed all by himself (cause small 
objects to explode), a 'well why not' and a 'beedah'.  Obviously there 
was some bad blood between the two.
   Ryuu-ou decided to settle in the area for the time and took a room 
at the Mystic Manor.
   Also at one point Ryuu-ou revealed that he was good friends with 
Happousai, further widening the rift between him and Steve and Jei.


The birth of the twins
----------------------
(Timeframe: well, duh.  ^_-  When the Saotome twins were being born, 
obviously enough.)
The only really Fire related part of the birth of Isamu and Nuriko was 
Ryuu-ou showing up to find out if the twins were Fireborne or not.  He 
determined that they weren't.


Ryuu-ou tells more than Genma ever did
--------------------------------------
(Timeframe: approximately a week before the second leg of the Holy 
Hairclipper Quest began)
Cologne learnt of Ryuu-ou's presence, and went along to see him.  She 
found his room covered with paper and photos of Steve, Ann, and the 
Heavensruns with notes scribbled on them.  On the paper were thousands 
upon thousands of mathematical equations.
   Cologne talked to Ryuu-ou.  First they talked about a Chinese 
Amazon, Xo Pu (Soap), that Ryuu-ou had taken away for training, 
something Cologne wasn't extremely happy about.  Cologne wondered why 
Ryuu-ou was here in Nerima, and he responded that he was watching 
Steve, and that something nasty was going to happen to Steve.  And 
according to his equations it would be happening soon.  A lot sooner 
than Ryuu-ou had been expecting.
   Ryuu-ou was also surprised to find 'so many' in Nerima, and 
wondered who the girl in the photos (referring to Ann) was, as she was 
so similar in features to Steve.  Cologne told him it was Steve's 
sister, and Ryuu-ou responded that he knew for a fact Steve didn't 
have a sister.  Cologne probably responded with "that's a long and 
complicated story", being one of the first times it was used in GRIT.  
Get used to it, Steve uses it a lot.  Anyway, Cologne explained a bit 
of what had been happening to Steve and his clones, and Ryuu-ou said 
that it explained a lot.


The first Awakening, and the first brush with the Council For
-------------------------------------------------------------
(Timeframe: Shortly after)
A little bit after the talk with Cologne, Ryuu-ou went to see Dr. 
Toufuu for the doctor's knowledge of pressure points.  He was 
challenged by Scully, the doctor's assistant, but said to tell the 
doctor that it was about 'the fire', or a euphemism for the Fire of 
the Dragon that I've long forgotten.  The doctor agreed to see him, 
and they cooked up some scheme, but off camera so we'll never know 
exactly what it was.  This was the first time the Fire was ever 
mentioned in GRIT, even it wasn't fully named.
   In any case, shortly after that Ryuu-ou attacked Steve while Steve 
was waiting tables at Zuni's.  The surprise attack was rather hampered 
by Ryuu-ou screaming an attack name that lasted a good twenty seconds, 
and waiting for the automatic doors to open.
   So.  Ryuu-ou was going for a specific pressure point and Steve was 
just trying to keep the older man away from him, which was a lot 
easier seeing as all his friends were in the place and willing to help 
him out.  Mostly.  I believe Shelley was there and he protested 
against everyone ganging up on a harmless old man, and helped out 
Ryuu-ou.
   Finally Ryuu-ou landed the attack.
   Whatever he was planning to do, obviously he and the Doctor 
miscalculated, for Steve's Fire was Awakened.  It burst free of 
Steve's mental controls and turned him into a completely different, 
almost berserker-ish, person.  It also boosted his power significantly 
(a full Rank increase) and Steve proceeded to beat the tar out of 
everyone.  He also attempted the 'blow something up by pointing at it' 
trick on Ryuu-ou, and Ryuu-ou said that wouldn't work on a living 
being - in other words, you can't remotely control somebody else's 
Fire, and quite rightly too, because that would be too powerful.
   Hitomi was in the restaurant and seemed to recognise Steve - she 
said he was the one who betrayed and destroyed her village, and almost 
killed her.  She joined the fight against him.
   A very large scale fight broke out, and spilled out onto the 
street.
   During all this Ryuu-ou explained a bit about the Fire, and the way 
you have to counter its agressive influences, and that obviously Steve 
wasn't doing it all that well at the moment.  He said that the 
Awakening had boosted his Fire beyond Steve's capacity for control.
   I can't remember the exact details of what happened next.  If I 
remember right, Steve's Fire was suddenly mysteriously drawn out of 
him and he fainted.  The Fire concentrated on a Mysterious Figure clad 
in a large billowing cloak atop a lamp-post, and was sucked into the 
figure.
   Ryuu-ou recognised the Mysterious Figure, identified him as Ryuuta, 
a member of the Council For The Fire.  Ryuuta identified Ryuu-ou as 
the same Ryuu-ou from long ago - that is, it's been the same Ryuu-ou 
for the past 2000 years.  The two promptly started fighting.  The 
others were drawn into the battle, but Ryuuta was simply too strong 
for them all.
   Finally Ryuu-ou defeated Ryuuta with a variant of the Hiryuu 
Shouten Ha, striking Ryuuta at a point on his chest and cracking 
through the council member's armour.  All of Ryuuta's Fire was lost in 
a titanic explosion that formed into a giant fiery tornado, and was 
then drawn into a small crystal.  Ryuu-ou kept the crystal for 
safekeeping, and looked sadly at Ryuuta's body.  Obviously, once they 
hadn't been bitter enemies...


Epilogue to the first battle
----------------------------
(Timeframe: Immediately thereafter)
Steve woke up and discovered his Fire was *gone*, and he couldn't do 
any of his remote ki manipulation moves anymore.
   Ryuu-ou explained a bit about the history of the Fire - that 2000 
years ago or so, there was an evil dragon that was finally killed by 
the god Susa-no-wo, and that the dragon's ki exploded out of it in a 
titanic explosion and infusing the area around the site of its death.  
Before too long, its ki, now being known as the Fire of the Dragon, 
was infusing most of the world and occasionally humans were being born 
with it.  Because it's dragon ki, not human ki, humans can't handle it 
properly and its rage can overcome their mind, turning them into 
berserkers, and then their body, making them explode.
   Ryuu-ou declared that it was probably safest that Steve not have 
the Fire anymore, and said he wouldn't restore it.  Steve didn't want 
it restored anyway, he said, but did request for Ryuu-ou to... er... I 
can't remember.  ^_^;  Something like 'not let this happen again to 
anyone.'
   Finally, Ryuu-ou revealed that yes, he was the same Ryuu-ou that 
had existed for 2000 years, ever since the dragon's death.
   Shortly after, Ryuu-ou mysteriously disappeared from the Mystic 
Manor.
   The story seemed to be over, but as we all know now it most 
definitely wasn't.


The ex-dragon
-------------
(Timeframe: Not really applicable in this case, but it started becoming
apparent after the Fire was first publically named in the fight against
Ryuuta)
Gaeld is an ex-dragon that once pissed off a very powerful wizard.  
This wizard locked Gaeld in human form for the rest of Gaeld's natural 
lifespan; Gaeld found a loophole and managed to change this so that he 
would be locked in human form for the rest of his natural *draconic* 
lifespan, drastically extending his life as a human.  It was supposed 
to be for thirty years or so, but it's been well over a thousand now, 
and Gaeld's still going strong.
   In all that time Gaeld has been looking for a way to completely 
counteract the curse and become a dragon again.  He learnt about the 
existence of the free-floating Fire that some humans have learnt to 
use, and is incredibly insulted about these human monkeys using the 
dragons' natural birthright.  He's been collecting what he can of the 
Fire, as it's likely to help in changing him back to a dragon, but 
probably also to keep human hands off it.


The Fire's starting to show up everywhere
-----------------------------------------
(Timeframe: After the fight against Ryuuta, but before the encounter 
at Jusenkyo, IIRC)
During the fight against Ryuuta, Kish Shelley discovered that his 
fighting style, Akaruigenkotsu-ryuu, resonated strangely with the 
Fire.  Later on, he discussed things with Ryuu-ou.  The two 
investigated, and discovered that Shelley has 'holes' in his ki 
signature that are more like an "anti-Fire", instead of just the 
absence of Fire that most of the population has.
   This incredibly strange discovery was enough to jog Ryuu-ou's 
memory.  He remembered that the Shelley family does have something to 
do with the Fire, and had met Kish's ancestors some time ago.  They 
had given Ryuu-ou a scroll for safekeeping, which Ryuu-ou then passed 
onto Shelley.
   However, before any more investigating could be done, the second 
part of the Holy Hairclipper Quest started and further investigations 
were put on hold.


The encounter at Jusenkyo
-------------------------
(Timeframe: During the beginning of the Holy Hairclipper Quest)
Steve had gone with one of the groups to Jusenkyo.  One of the very 
first things that happened to them was another Mysterious Figure 
teleporting into the midst of them, this one called Ryuutarou and from 
the Council For the Fire.  He promptly restored Steve's Fire and 
started fighting him.
   During this fight a very useful ability of Stark's was demonstrated 
- he can draw in Fire that's being thrown about and use it to enhance 
his other abilities.
   The tide turned and Ryuutarou was getting severely beat on.  He 
attempted to teleport away and discovered that he couldn't - his use 
of the Fire to teleport was blocked.  Obviously the person he'd come 
to Jusenkyo with, a female Mysterious Figure named Ryouko, had 
betrayed him and trapped him at Jusenkyo.
   He did eventually escape, but obviously he couldn't make it back to 
the Council For the Fire in time, as evidenced by what happened in 
Nerima a few weeks later.  (See 'The Big Fight Against the Council For 
The Fire', a bit further down.)


The mysterious scroll
---------------------
(Timeframe: The party at the Tarou house)
Not much happened here.  During the party at the Tarou house, where 
lots of really fun fun stuff happened (including Steve getting drunk 
and accidentally revealing that he had been interested in Ukkyo but 
wasn't so sure anymore while she was standing behind him), someone 
snuck in and slipped a mysterious scroll into Steve's belongings.  
This someone was obviously Ryuu-ou.
   When Steve found the scroll, he found that it had a lot of arcane 
lore and knowledge and even a few spells, all relating to the Fire of 
the Dragon.  He subsequently read up on it all, tripling his effective 
knowledge of the Fire overnight.


The mountain
------------
(Timeframe: The next couple of days after the party at the Tarou 
house)
Steve, Jei, Kappa, Wing, Mist, Lao Wu (Jei's seifu), Wong (Jei's 
rival), and anybody else I happen to be forgetting, were descending 
into the insides of the mountain beneath the temple of non-aggression.  
They were seeking the Key of... something.  Peace, maybe?  In any 
case, the key was testing the Mighty Heroes in various ways relating 
to how they handled wrath.
   Steve's test was extremely unsubtle.  Basically, he had to Awaken 
his recently reacquired Fire and deal with the inherent wrath of the 
Fire and deal with it without becoming a raving psycho berserkering 
loony.  Against Mist and Jei's better judgement, he went ahead with 
this test.  It was tough going at first, but he got better at dealing 
with it remarkably quickly.
   Later on, the group was fighting the male demon of Wrath in the 
depths of the mountain.  Wrath wasn't particularly intelligent and was 
just a big hulking brute, but a frigging ENORMOUS hulking brute.  So 
while he couldn't plan out his moves all that well, he didn't 
particularly NEED to.  His hits hurt lots and nothing the Fearless 
Heroes could do were particularly affecting the demon.
   At one point the demon was chasing the spear that Jei was holding, 
and Steve realised this.  Completely frustrated with the way nobody 
else was doing anything, he leaped ahead and kicked the spear out of 
Jei's hand.  The spear didn't particularly like this and flung Steve 
away with an explosion.  This threw Steve and Jei directly into the 
path of the demon; they fought and Steve was brutally skewered by a 
very large talon, finally paying the ultimate sacrifice and dying in 
battle.
   Obviously, he got better.
   What happened is that the original Dragon of the Fire came to him 
in a vision, and said that its explosion 2000 years ago was all part 
of a plan for it to eventually resurrect and get revenge against those 
that killed it.  It had mellowed somewhat and so didn't care about the 
second part, but still liked the idea of resurrecting.  He needed 
Steve's body to do it, though.
   And the two ressurected in a very snazzy lightshow.
   The battle went on, with the demon finally being defeated and the 
Key retrieved.
   The dragon accompanied the group back down to the Kung Fu school at 
the base of the mountain, and caused quite a stir amongst the students 
the next morning.  The dragon then said it wouldn't be staying with 
them any longer - it was still weak, and had only a fraction of its 
Fire, and it needed to go out into the world and retrieve its old 
Fire.  They parted ways.


The big fight against The Concil For The Fire
---------------------------------------------
(Timeframe: A few weeks later, in the "One to Carry On Part III" 
thread.)
I can't remember the exact setup, but at Zuni's there was a group of 
GRITters (including Gaeld, Av, Kiwi, Megumi, Nezumi, Hitomi, and Ro), 
and a couple of the Ringwraiths.  (Gothwraith and Bizwraith.)  Ann 
came in with Shiro to get lunch, and the wraiths identified her as a 
demoness.  Completely dumbstruck and more than a little surprised, Ann 
wanted to know what they meant.  Before they could explain much, a 
very large contingent of the Council For The Fire, led by the 
Council's leader Ryuuichiro, dropped in, identified Ann as The One To 
Carry On The Fire and tried to kidnap her.  (With the dragon flying 
around the world and taking back the Fire, the Council wanted Ann so 
as to use her to generate Fire and put it back into the world.)  This 
naturally turned into a big fight.
   All the other GRITters naturally joined in, and Ryuu-ou showed up 
and jumped into the battle as well.
   Gaeld wasn't fighting for any particular side, just himself.  As he 
killed each member of the Council For, he took their Fire for himself.
   During the fight Ryuu-ou showed that 'teleporting' through the Fire 
has a significant drawback - if a Fire blast intersects with someone 
moving through the Fire, the barrier between that person and the Fire 
is wiped out, and they die.
   Almost no time passed until the Council members got a clear shot 
and Awakened Ann's Fire.  But something weird happened - not only did 
her Fire awaken, but her demonic side awoke as well, the two feeding 
off each other and ending with Ann still very much in control of her 
senses and drastically powered up and with cool facial tattoos.
   The fight continued on.
   I think this was the sequence of events that then happened:
   Ann was severely beat up and Ryouko (still undercover) got to her 
under the guise of kidnapping her.  However, her intentions were very 
different: she started a spell that would draw ALL the Fire in the 
ENTIRE WORLD to Ann and into a holding crystal - the ultimate aim of 
the Council Agaist the Fire.
   The Dragon of the Fire, alerted by this incredibly large scale 
movement of the Fire, flew to where it was going, found a fight going 
on, and joined in.
   With all the Fire blasts going around, Ro emulated them and ended 
up with the Fire himself.  With it still in his body and absolutely no 
idea of how to combat its influence, he then used the Kaenryuusei Bu 
to merge with the Earth's ki.  The end effect was him instantly going 
berserk and the threat of the *planet* going berserk in the next few 
minutes. Ryuuichiro decided that that wasn't such a good thing, 
dropped the feud between him and Ryuu-ou for the moment, and 
neutralised Ro's Fire.
   Ryuu Kumon had showed up, became extremely angry about all these 
people possessing the Fire, a power he would never have, and started 
killing them out of spite.  Ryuuichiro asked why he was so mad about 
it, as Ryuu was after all a Fireborn.  Ryuu, dumbstruck by this 
revelation, stopped for a moment.  Gaeld, who had Ann under mind-
control at the time, had her awaken Ryuu's Fire.  Ryuu went absolutely 
nuts and activated the ultimate void technique, once again putting the 
planet into danger.  Ro used the Kaenryusei Bu as a shield and carried 
Ryuuichiro into the center of the void, where Ryuuichiro showed Ryuu 
Kumon how to control his Fire.  His mind back, Ryuu deactivated the 
attack and all was back to normal.
   Well, relatively normal.


Epilogue to the big fight
-------------------------
(Timeframe: Immediately thereafter)
Ann offered the crystal holding the world's Fire to the dragon.  The 
dragon's reaction was not what she thought it would be: he destroyed 
the crystal and the Fire went back into the world.  He explained to a 
shocked audience that even a dragon could have too much Fire, and he'd 
already reached his limit.
   The ultimate aim of the Council Against The Fire so casually 
destroyed, Ryouko and Ryuu-ou were positively shellshocked and didn't 
know what they'd do.
   The dragon, by now, had absorbed a sizeable fraction of the world's 
Fire, and so the power of the world's Fire is now reduced; this 
effectively halves the power of remote blasts.  (Notably the 
Chouryuenbashira.)


The Two to Carry On the Fire
----------------------------
(Timeframe: While everyone was in Hokkaido)
While Steve was in Hokkaido and heading back to the hotel after a 
visit to the town centre, he discovered a tiny bit of Fire within him.  
This was incredibly surprising because he thought it had all been used 
to resurrect himself and the dragon.  He investigated, and discovered 
he had a tiny speck of Fire in his ki-centre that couldn't be budged.  
And this speck was generating *more* Fire, and attracting Fire to 
itself.
   In a flash of insight, he realised what it was - there was a random 
verse on that scoll of Fire teachings, and it said that such a speck 
was the mark of the One to Carry On The Fire.  It means that for as he 
long as he lives he'll have it and he'll always have the Fire.
   This development was more to stop me from taking his Fire away 
again (which I'd done twice already) than anything else.  ^_^;  
However, Steve has since been able to use this to generate Fire 
himself.


The Councils merge
------------------
(Timeframe: Some time after the Big Fight against the fight against
the Council For, off screen)
The two councils met.  The point of contention between them had been 
whether the Fire should be in the world or not, and the dragon had 
quite clearly indicated that it was going to be staying in the world 
regardless of whether it should or not.  Their point of contention 
destroyed so casually, the two councils decided to go back to being 
the Council of the Fire, which had existed waaaaaaay back when the 
Fire first entered the world.
   This happened off screen and was referenced with a throwaway 
comment in a later thread.  Kind of a pity, as this act marks the end 
of the old age of the Fire.


The 'pureblood'
---------------
(Timeframe: Umm... I can't quite remember.  Shortly after Blade and
Ukyou returned from China, and not too long before Kiwi was taken by
Stahlfaust corporation to NY.)
Blade's old, and presumed dead, lover Tonya showed up.  She was
extremely amnesiac and carried his old sword as well.  Your supposedly
dead lover showing up tends to have an effect on anyone, and Blade was
no exception.  He left, to go to his training ground and think.
   He didn't get much time, however.  Incense showed up with Mint and
Lime, there was some trashtalk, they fought, and Incense promptly
blasted Blade with a massive blast of the Fire.  At point blank range.
Blade didn't die, but he did end up in the middle of his very own
personal crater.
   Ryuu-ou showed up with a middle-aged man - the original dragon of
the Fire, now in human form and calling himself Ganryuu Hino.  This
was mainly for Ryuu-ou and Ganryuu to comment on the huge amount of
Fire that Incense had - even more than a normal dragon would have.


The darkness within
-------------------
(Timeframe: During the time the groups were in NY)
While searching out another of the Keys in New York, Steve, Jei, 
Stark, Zing, Mariko, and others, ran into a large group of GRITters 
that were in New York to rescue Kiwi from Stahlfaust.  The two groups 
decided to stay together for a while.  Note that now Hitomi was still 
in the group, and still distrustful of Steve but starting to see that 
perhaps he wasn't the one who betrayed her village.
   No, Steve wasn't the one who betrayed and killed her village.  The 
guy who did that was a clone of Steve who had been hopping through 
alternate dimensions for a while, and had been mostly consumed by the 
rage and hatred of his Fire and had become a very very vicious person.  
And he'd just shown up in NY.
   A whole lot of things happened which I don't particularly want to 
remember, because at the time I was being a very bad GRITter with 
regards to the way I was running this new villain on the block.  But 
essentially Shi teamed up with Caine, masqueraded as Steve in an 
attempt to get everyone hating Steve, fought against the Mighty 
Heroes, and generally showed just how much of a jerk the Fire can make 
you.
   The NY story culminated in a big multiple-way battle that featured 
the Q-Men, the BRIM, the GRITters, and Shi all fighting against each 
other.  Ryuu-ou and the dragon showed up, alerted by the large amounts 
of Fire being thrown around, and joined the fight.  But they paid the 
ultimate price, dying in the battle against Shi.
   Finally, in an impressive display of teamwork, Shi was killed by 
Steve, Scott, Hitomi, and Stark.
   But Steve was shaken.  He and Shi had been the *same* person up 
until a year and a half ago, then Shi embraced the power of the Fire.  
In such a short time, Shi had become a completely different, nastier, 
person.  What Steve (and the audience) had seen was how dangerous the 
Fire could be.
   What everyone had *also* seen was how counterproductive the Fire 
could be.  Its power had been so great and so seductive that it was 
*all* Shi used, and this over-reliance was what finally did him in.


The artificial cure and a Development
-------------------------------------
(Timeframe: Final parts of the NY threads)
In the dying moments of the NY fight, a mysterious boy showed up.  His 
name was Kon Tatsu no Aoryuu, and he used a power called "The Waters".
   The GRITters didn't know this at first.  All they saw was a very 
tall boy run into the scene and fall unconscious as they were leaving 
Liberty Island.  They took pity on him and took him back with them, 
and Steve generously offered his room in the hotel as a place the boy 
could sleep the night.
   A pity for Kon Tatsu that Steve was staying on the roof.
   Anyway.  Steve and Kon Tatsu talked, and Kon revealed the existence 
of the Waters, a power that had been manufactured 1000 years ago as a 
counter to the Fire.  Kon demonstrated this by using the Waters to 
counter Steve's Fire.  Steve suddenly felt a hell of a lot calmer than 
he ever had before.
   But if it worked, and neutralised the Fire, then why aren't the 
Waters much more promininent?
   If you ask Kon, he'll say it's because there are only two people in 
the world who can use the Waters - Kon's teacher Kail and Kon himself, 
the first person Kail ever taught about the waters.  So now the 
question changes slightly - if the Waters works against the Fire, then 
why hasn't Kail spread its knowledge throughout the world more?
   Now, that question I *know* hasn't been answered in GRIT yet, so I 
won't say here.  ^_-
   The morning after the fight on Liberty Island, some GRITters were 
training in Central Park.  During a lull, some experimentation with 
the Fire was made - Scott drew out the anger in a remote ball of Fire, 
and while such an inherent part of it had been removed Steve could 
still remotely control it.


Further developments about the Waters
-------------------------------------
(Timeframe: Over the course of the tail end of the NY threads and 
during the Segue threads)
The Waters can be used for quite a few things, it seems.
   Here, I'll quote Talen:
   "Also, it was demonstrated that the Waters - the 'cure' - can be 
used to understand things over a vast distance. Further developments 
in Nerima by Blade have shown pretty clearly that The Fire and The 
Waters aren't mutually exclusive (as suggested by Kon Tatsu, speaking 
of Jei), and that the Waters _can_ be used like the Fire. So 
theoretically, you could do the inverse."


The Sumisuke siblings
---------------------
(Timeframe: During and towards the end of the Segue threads)
Two new people showed up in Nerima - Ben and Jesse Sumisuke.  Ben is a 
short, underaged Avatar of Justice with a Really Big Sword, and Jesse 
is a foulmouthed 'undertalented' young woman with a fetish for 
collarbones.
   These two are Fireborne, yet haven't displayed any of the 
supposedly 'standard' techniques that Steve, Ann, Ryuu-ou, and about 
three dozen council members have displayed to date.  While we've seen 
different applications of the Fire before, this is the first time 
we've seen there could be entirely different schools of Fire usage.


The true power of the Fire
--------------------------
(Timeframe: During the 'The Last Day' battle in Atlantis threads)
During the battle in Atlantis, Steve was being smacked around by 
Apollo rather handily.  This is what happens when you go up against 
the Villain Of The Week by yourself, please note.  (Kids, don't try 
this at home.)  In any case, Steve needed more power to go toe-to-toe 
with Apollo and concocted a plan - he would boost his power to 
previously unthought of levels, to the point where he wouldn't be able 
to control the Fire's inherent rage for very long.  That is, ten 
minutes.
   He did so but as is the way of things he was stopped from fighting 
Apollo and fought the Mystery Girl instead.  Their powers matched, 
they couldn't do much to each other.  They fought some more, and then 
Steve's time limit was up and he had to restrain his power.  Burnt 
out, he promptly fell unconscious.
   Later on the probably final battle, against Halo, had begun, and 
everything tried against him had *no* effect at all.  Feeling useless, 
and incredible angry because of the apparent death of Chyron, Steve 
tried building his Fire higher and higher, reached a point where he 
just didn't care about having too much Fire, and started sounding a 
LOT like Shi.
   Thankfully Ann managed to beat some sense into him before he 
actually acted on the Fire's impulses, but Steve was shaken - he'd let 
the easy power of the Fire tempt him.  Finally he understood why 
people let it take them over.  First hand, he finally knew just how 
dangerous and seductive the Fire really is.