Metropolis: Candlelight and Violins
an excerpt

Metropolis, California is a Metropolis which belongs almost anywhere else. Settled just near the Rocky Mountains, Metropolis is as flat as a desert but gets the weather of New England. The city has grown up rather than out, which does not help its pollution levels. Because of this, a semi-transparent, always-brown mist swims about the city and dawn and dusk. In the year 2087, this city has become a solace to two opposing sides: The freaks, a group of advanced humanoids who have developed pertinent abilities, and the zenral, a group of scientists ready to discover what disease it is that gives the freaks their powers. And to eliminate them.

Not all freaks are alike, and not all of the freak genes run in families. There have been many cases of almost random freak abilities appearing among youth all over the United States. Thus far, no international cases have been reported.

Pyros, the class to which Navina Aslyn Rose belongs, are freaks with the ability to control fire. They cannot create fire out of thin air, but merely use a burning fire to their advantage. This same control can prevent them from being burned—but with a loss of control pyros can still gain severe injuries from the fire they have come to treat as a lover and friend. With their red hair, pyros are some of the most vulnerable of freaks—although in a city as strange as Metropolis, they are not the only ones with fiery red hair.

Illusions, the class to which Mikhail Dmitri Nemerov belongs, create images out of ordinary objects. A leaf turns into a credit card, for instance, but only as long as the Illusion is concentrating on the item. No Illusions can create images out of thin air, and the objects they use to create illusions must be around the same size of the intended illusion (no making gigantic cars into cute little mice, for instance).