Emme Pyre was a young Canadian super-powered girl, on her way to becoming a superhero, when instead she and her sister, Jean-Marie, turned to evil and became members of the villainous United Canadian Empire (UCE).

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When Emily 'Emme' Rockwell was only 8 years old, she lived with her family on an expansive tract of land just outside the town of Blackpool, located just across the Canadian side of the U.S./Canadian border.  Her father was a shady businessman in Montreal, Quebec who was rarely home.  Her mother was an abused, broken woman.  Emme’s older sister, Jean-Marie Rockwell, was her best friend and older sister she always looked up to as they grew up together.   Most of the kids in school made fun of the two of them, since Jean-Marie had red hair and Emme had black.  The playground derision only strengthened their sisterly bond all the more.

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One Saturday afternoon when Emme was outside playing. Her older sister, Jean-Marie, decided to go down to an area where there was an old well on the property; a well her father told her many times to never around.  Curiosity being what it was, Jean-Marie decided to see what was so special about it. After a mile of walking and skipping through the woods to the site of the old well, Jean-Marie saw several vehicles around the old well. During this sojourn, Emme followed Jean-Marie, wanting to know where she was going. There at the well, Jean-Marie saw four men with the tanker trucks. The men seemed to be pouring something that smelled terrible into the well.  Jean-Marie advanced on the trucks and several men surrounding the trucks and asked the men what they were doing.  The men quickly became spooked over her appearance and waved her off, cursing at her.  She told the men that whatever they were doing was obviously bad and she was going to tell on them.  One of the men grew agitated over Jean-Marie's remarks and grabbed her up. Emme, watching this, became frightened and froze in her tracks at the edge of the clearing where the well was. When Emme saw the man pick-up and dangle a screaming Jean-Marie over the open well, Emme mustered a strength or rage she'd never had before, overcame her fear, and ran at the man holding her sister and beat on his legs telling her to let her sister go.

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The evil man did just that; let Jean-Marie go, dropping her into the well.

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Jean-Marie dropped into the deep well. As she splashed into the liquid that was in the well, Jean-Marie’s screamed that her skin was burning.  She screamed in agony as the gelatinous ooze that had been discharged into the well began turning her skin bright red.

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That’s when the same evil man from the Altona Chemical Company's truck also threw Emme down the same well.

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Emme struck her head on the wall of the well on the way down and was knocked unconscious.  As Jean-Marie continued to scream, trying to cradle the limp form of her younger sister as well as keep her head above the ooze, the Altona Chemical Company trucks drove off.  Jean-Marie, try as she might, wasn’t strong enough to stay aloft in the mucky ooze and slipped below its frothing surface with Emme. As Jean-Marie gulped in the ooze from the well, she started drowning, as was Emme.  As the life was waning from Jean-Marie, she felt her lungs burn and boil.  As she tried to exhale the buildup in her lungs, she instead shot a stream of fire out of her mouth and nose, igniting the chemical ooze.  In a furious explosion, Jean-Marie and Emme were both catapulted out of the well, riding on a flume of fire and flame that shot out of the well and extended over 500 meters into the sky. 

 

Both Emme and Jean-Marie fell to the ground hard, each breaking bones in the resulting fall.  Both of them lay broken, naked and barely alive on the open field with flames dancing off their bodies.

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Emme awoke in the hospital several weeks later.​ She was discharged from the hospital to her parents; a blubbering, crying mother and a furious father. Two weeks later, Emme's sister, Jean-Marie, was well enough to be released from the hospital too, however, those two weeks before Jean-Marie came home were part of a whole new level of hell Emme was about to be exposed to.

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Once at home, Emme was drilled for days with questions by her father about why she was at the well, what did she see, did she see the men with the trucks, do you remember the name on the trucks...all to which she gave the best answers she had. Her father grew more agitated every day until finally he told Emme to 'forget everything she saw or remembered' and to lie to the police when they showed up the next day, asking her questions about the accident. He told her to tell them she didn't remember anything or anyone and it was her and Jean-Marie's fault for playing with gasoline and matches near the well; an outright lie.  Emme told her father she couldn't do that, only to get smacked across the face by her father.  The mother tried to get between them and was summarily beaten before Emme’s eyes.  As her father beat her mother, he ranted about how he was sick of women ‘not doing what he tells them to do’.  He exclaimed that if the girls hadn’t gone down to the well and saw the Altona trucks there, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble and he wouldn’t be as swamped as he was with their medical bills and having to cover for Altona.

 

That's when it hit Emme. The men in the trucks knew her father. They worked with or for him. Her father was the cause of the bad well water - and responsible for the bad men that hurt her and her sister...and now that same father was hurting her mother and forcing Emme to lie about everything.  Emme grew enraged once again. This time, instead of running to beat on the aggressor, Emme burst into flames with her newfound powers; flames that didn't harm her, but did burn away her clothes from her body, leaving Emme bathed in a fiery sheath.

 

Emme's father took his belt off and tried to beat Emme with it, only for the belt to burn before it hit her.  The father then picked up a heavy vase and smashed it against Emme's head, knocking Emme unconscious.

 

Emme woke up in the shed in the backyard. The shed's doors were locked, the inside of the shed was lined with stacks of bags of concrete mix and bricks...and Emme was chained to their old broken tractor.  Try as she might, Emme could not break away from captivity. She 'fired up' several times but only made scorch marks on the concrete, concrete mix and bricks. Every day after that, Emme's father came into the shed and told his 'hellspawn of a daughter' that he forced her to tell the police that Emme was taken to a psychiatrist to determine that Emme was 'retarded' and needed to be institutionalized for her actions at the well.  The police bought the story, for the time, but still expected Emme's father to give them the name of the sanitarium Emme was to be taken to so they could still 'get answers from her to finally close the report'.

 

Emme's father instead took out his frustrations on his 8-year old daughter and beat her within an inch of her life each day, leaving her bloodied and bruised and leaving Emme completely incapable of being able to ignite her powers. Emme was beaten in the head repeatedly during this time as well, leaving massive head trauma most likely giving Emme extreme concussions and brain damage. Regardless of Emme's condition each day, Emme's mother would sneak out at night and feed and give water to Emme, but was too scared to free Emme, apologizing profusely to Emme about how her father's 'unhappiness' was Emme's mother's fault for not being a good enough wife to him.  The mother also kept mentioning that Jean-Marie, Emme's sister, was doing better at the hospital and that she'd be home soon and everything would once again be better for them all.

 

The beatings, however, continued on Emme by her father until the day Jean-Marie finally came home.  The night before Jean-Marie was driven home from the hospital by her parents, Emme's father beat Emme, still chained to the tractor in the shed, within an inch of her life after Emme 'fired up' once more trying to fight against her abusive father. Her father ended that beating by knocking Emme out cold using the flat of a shovel's blade, creating one more contusion and more head trauma to young Emme. Emme was eventually awoken in the shed again, but this time, she was awoken by being shaken awake by Jean-Marie.  Emme was in a state of stupor from her last head trauma, but she remembered there being a massive, searing heat, and then next Emme being reawakened by Jean-Marie pleading with Emme to run as fast as she could. Emme ran as fast as she could, but her balance was off, and she fell quite a bit, relying on her sister to help guide her to run straight, all doing this while in a mental fog that from that day forward, seemed to always follow her for the rest of her life.

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They both ran until they could run no more which was at least three miles out of town and into the woods.  There, Emme and Jean-Marie finally embraced in a tearful reunion; a reunion that was the only bright spot in their lives since the incident at the well.  Right then, Jean-Marie swore to Emme she’d never again let anything happen to her and that she’d always be there for her until eternity. Emme, hearing that, believed that with Jean-Marie, she could truly be safe.

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Over the next few years, the two girls grew up on the street as homeless urchins.  They walked from town to town, heading north each time, trying to find a way to survive another day.  They ate from dumpsters and trash cans.  They begged for food on the street corners. They slept in alleyways and inside other people’s cars, always leaving before anyone found them there.  This went on until Jean-Marie was 15 and Emme was 13.  As teenagers, their lives took another turn; one bad, one very good.

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During their five years on the street, both girls learned the extent of their new powers.  Jean-Marie’s powers were stronger and ranged, while Emme’s were more close-in and less intense.  They quickly realized that the fires they generated from their own willpower did not burn or hurt them, or each other.  Both never needed to warm themselves by a fire since both were able to generate enough internal heat to always stay arm, regardless of how cold it was during the harsh Canadian winters.  They learned to master their powers over time, but, as with all learning, there were stumbling points.  Sometimes Emme set things on fire unintentionally, but soon found, by watching and learning from her sister Jean-Marie, that they could also control fires within meters of their bodies and as such were able to extinguish flames as well as create them.  As such, a local homeless man caught both Jean-Marie and Emme practicing their powers one night and told them they had a ‘special gift’.  Jean-Marie was quick to explain her powers were given to her by evil men rather than a gift.  In their ensuing discussions, Jean-Marie felt comfortable enough to tell the homeless man what happened to them.  When she told the homeless man about Altona Chemical Company, he bristled with anger.  He told the girls that “ACC”, as he called them,  was under investigation for multiple infractions of dumping chemicals illegally, however, some ‘legal eagle’ known as Seth Jenkins had exonerated ACC over the years.  He knew for a fact ACC was dumping chemicals in a river he’d been sleeping near a few years ago. When the homeless man went to the police about it, they arrested the homeless man and promised to free him if he kept his mouth shut.  As the homeless man continued about the ACC’s additional atrocities he’d seen on TV since then, Jean-Marie took on a dark mood – a dangerous mood.  She wanted to make ACC pay for doing what they did to her and her sister. Emme, emulating her sister, followed her mood as well.

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Jean-Marie wanted revenge, ergo, so did Emme.

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The next day, Jean-Marie collected all the money they had and got bus tickets back to Blackpool, where she intended to cross the border into the United States through the woods and obliterate ACC once and for all. In Blackpool, they got off the bus and walked down familiar roads that once rode bikes on years before.

 

Without realizing it, they’d walked right up to their old house; it was now abandoned and decrepit.  Curiosity being what it was, they climbed the rickety fence and made their way into the old house.  They climbed the stairs to their old rooms.  Wallpaper was moldy and peeling; the floors were warped and water soaked from a hole in the roof.  Yet amidst the deplorable conditions, they both enjoyed those few moments reminiscing about a childhood that could have been better than anything since the well.  Jean-Marie spied an old teddy bear in the corner of Emme’s side of the closet and gave it to Emme.  Emme hugged it and mentioned it was her favorite toy.  Although the teddy bear was musty and dirty, she hugged it as if it were family. These were feelings she'd forgotten about; love and hope.

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That’s when Jean-Marie and Emme met their old home’s current squatters; a band of teenage meth-heads.

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What started as a friendly “who are you?” questions quickly catapulted into a gang rape.  As the girls were being immobilized, Emme and Jean-Marie looked across the floor at each other, smiled, and both burst into flames.  Using their powers as if they were veterans, they quickly scorched each of their assailants, scattering them around the room.  When one boy took out a gun and shot at Jean-Marie, she burst into flames and melted the bullet before it hit her as nothing but mere slag.  She then told the would-be murderer/rapist that he’d ‘burn in hell’ and ignited the teen in a cauldron of fire.  The gun-shooting teen burned to ashes before everyone’s horrified eyes.  As each of the meth-heads scrambled to escape the room, Jean-Marie helped Emme up and ensured she was alright.  They both slowly walked as flaming figures down the stairs, following the meth-heads…right down into the basement.  There, the meth-heads had set up a meth lab, with barrels of dangerous and explosive chemicals all around.  As the meth-heads tried to escape through the back door, Jean-Marie shot a length of flame ahead of them, blocking their escape.  When the meth-heads pulled out their knives and guns to attack the sisters, again, both looked at each other and ‘fired it up’, causing the entire house to blow into pieces and sending the roof over 20 stories into the sky before it came crashing back down.  Both Jean-Marie and Emme walked from the blazing debris that was once their home, unscathed, albeit naked.  Neither had yet found clothes that were ‘fire retardant’ enough for them to not burn through.

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As the police and fire department arrived, Emme and Jean-Marie, using their street-living skills, made off with clothes from a neighbors wash line in their backyard, took some shoes from another house’s car and hoodies from another house’s mud room.  Even though both sisters could have extinguished the flames of their old burning house, they instead left it to be extinguished by the firemen…and time. During this time, Emme, who should have been scared or terrified of what happened, instead, felt nothing. She didn't feel remorse, morality or any sense of wrong or right, just...nothing. As such, Emme smiled and, in her mind, rationalized that what she and Jean-Marie did that night was okay.

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As luck, or perhaps, fate, would have it, the house was being watched by a Canadian Drug Enforcement Group.  Surprised at what happened, they called in two Canadian superheroes to stop and interrogate the two girls.  The two Canadian superheroes intercepted the girls just as they were about to cross into the United States by way of a game trail in the woods.  The two Canadian superheroes asked the girls nicely to come back with them to explain what happened at the house.  The girls were very nervous and afraid they’d get arrested, for which the two Canadian superheroes promised they would not be arrested, regardless of the outcome.  At a government border crossing station, the sisters, the two Canadian superheroes and several Canadian Drug Enforcement agents sat down and talked while providing the girls with the first normal meal they’ve had in years.  The girls gave the authorities a fake last name they’d used on the streets; Fyrette. During this same time, Jean-Marie had to talk Emme down from 'firing up' and hurt people (in this case, the superheroes), something Jean-Marie never had to do with Emme before.

 

After a couple hours of discussions and some guarded responses as to the sister’s parentage and if they knew who the house once belonged to, the authorities held a meeting with another few government officials.  The resultant: the Canadian government wanted to ask the girls to volunteer to help create a new superhero team for Canada.  After some discussion and concerns, the girls, who had nowhere else to go but to destroy ACC, accepted the offer. Emme was a tad dissatisfied that they weren't going to go off and kill the Altona Chemical people, but changed her tune with the authorities promised to help Emme become a superhero. Emme was excited about the idea of being a superhero and as such dreamed thereafter about the day she'd finally become one.

 

Jean-Marie was immediately placed into the superhero training program, however, Emme, after being analyzed by doctors and psychiatrists was instead told she needed some 'mandatory' schooling first before she could ever think of being a proper superhero. In truth, Emme was too young to be a superhero, but that wasn't the main issue. Emme's head trauma had created abnormal brain swelling, causing a form of diminished IQ and borderline retardation, even affecting her balance and agility to a lesser degree, making her ability to 'sling fire and flames' far more dangerous to those around her.  As such, Emme would never be able to meet the government's criteria for their superhero program. Instead, Emme's 'government handlers' kept shining Emme and Jean-Marie on about Emme's 'eventual' superhero career. Regardless, the sisters felt happy about their new lot in life. They had a roof over their heads, three meals a day, clean clothes, cool new superhero costumes and a future; a future that would soon take a diabolical direction change.

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Weeks before Emme was 'supposed to' don her new superhero costume and join the superhero ranks using her new poorly-created superhero codename of 'Halifax Heat' (which was never going to happen anyway; they'd instead created a false lab report stating that Emme's fire powers were now creating 'deadly neurotoxin gases' each time she used her powers, thus planning on forcing Emme to promise to never use her powers ever again), the sisters were outed as the two children that had actually burned and killed their biological father and beat their mother at their original home (all based on a woefully, poorly performed police investigation done years before but kept hidden to save the police chief's career until after he'd retired). 

 

Both Emme and Jean-Marie were quickly charged with murder, creating a false identity and lying to federal authorities.  Both were also blamed for the well explosion that occurred on their property and the acres of woods that were set afire as a result, a fire that resulted in burning down several homes (and some government 'secret' monitoring towers).  Before the girls could even defend themselves, the media got a hold of the story, spouting the government was training ‘little murdering teenage girls’ as superheroes, citing public outcry that the girls be immediately arrested for their parents’ murders. Emme was turned over to foster care that night and Jean-Marie was told she was under ‘house arrest’ pending review of her testimony.

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Everything was falling apart.

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Jean-Marie, who'd taken the superhero name of 'Bonne Fyre' by this time, was given a one-shot chance to help take down an ex-national war hero who'd turned into a terrorist (according to Canadian authorities) named Colonel Chanteau. In so doing, Bonne Fyre was forced to make a difficult decision of either arresting Chanteau or saving him. After seeing Chanteau invoke compassion to one of the Canadian superheroes she'd teamed with that night, Bonne Fyre chose to side with Chanteau instead.

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That same night, Colonel Chanteau, three dozen of his United Canadian Empire Troops, a dark-energy teleporter named Netherbride and Bonne Fyre arrived at Emme’s foster care center and ‘liberated’ Emme from Emme's assigned foster parents.  Emme and her fellow liberators were teleported to Colonel Chanteau’s base on Wolfe Island.  Both Jean-Marie and Emme were given their own rooms and told to take all the time they needed to talk and discuss things.  After a long discussion, Jean-Marie and Emme decided to give Colonel Chanteau a chance for the next two weeks; if they didn’t think he was the man they’d believed him to be, they’d leave.

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It didn’t take but one week for Emme and Jean-Marie to agree to permanently side with Colonel Chanteau and the UCE.

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During that first week, Jean-Marie and Emme were hunted like rabid dogs by both the Canadian and United States governments.  They were cited as ‘criminals’ and were stated to have been 'converted into terrorists'; lethal force was authorized to subdue the both of them.  The sisters were dumbfounded they were being categorized this way.  After several generous gestures from Chanteau, both sisters gladly decided to join Chanteau’s newly formed super-powered group, the “UCE Enforcers”. 

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Over time, both sisters grew to like their new UCE family.  They felt like a real family for the first time ever, with Chanteau being the kindly 'father figure'.  Eventually, the sisters went on missions with the UCE, only to be shot at several times by Canadian and U.S. troops, one time with Jean-Marie being shot by a sniper in the shoulder.  Emme, furiously protective of her older sister disintegrated the sniper to ashes as a result.  Jean-Marie eventually recovered, however, the sisters' love for each other and their newfound (UCE propaganda-driven) hate they now had against the Canadian and United States governments fueled the darker side of their souls, more so Emme than Jean-Marie.  Once Canadian heroes, the two sisters now reveled in killing and maiming anyone who was against the UCE. 

 

Even after the UCE’s grand plan called Operation: Gambit, the UCE's attempted yet failed takeover of New England with nuclear weapons, both sisters considered their actions justified and forthright.

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Today, Emme, now going by the codename "Emme Pyre" and her sister Jean Marie AKA Bonne Fyre, are two of the most dedicated super-powered members of the UCE and the UCE Enforcers.  So long as the sisters can be together and free from persecution from their past, they’ll continue to call the UCE their home and family…no matter what the world calls Colonel Chanteau AKA “Emperor North” and his ‘global terrorist organization’.

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On a side note, Emme has become more violent, more vicious in her attacks and also very sexually active. Emme has been 'entertaining' UCE troops and Enforcers with her carnal knowledge and skills, making her a highly desired young woman. She enjoys flirting, but enjoys the sex more. She doesn't make have any relations that last longer than a week at the most...ever. Being the older sister, Jean-Marie is a bit concerned for Emme's extreme changes...changes that seems to be creating a growing rift between the once-inseparable sisters; changes that Jean-Marie has tried to help fix and 'moderate', however, Emme's mentality of late has led Jean-Marie to realize that she may soon be losing that once young, innocent victim that was once Emme and instead see the formation of a cruel, sociopathic, sex-crazed, out of control murderess that is Emme Pyre instead.

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