Burning Desires: Part 2

"Burning Desires: Part 2" is the series premiere of Network League. It originally aired on December 2nd, 2023. It depicts the appearance of Blaze, as hostilities increase between Pyros and the space world, while at the same time, a plot by his brother threatens Blaze's life.

Plot
The Network League hurries to Pyros to warn Blaze, but they are ambushed and taken prisoner by General Mack's soldiers. Ger says that he plans to destroy the surface world to keep Pyros safe, and sentences them to death by drowning. They are held in a chamber filling with rising water, kept passive by headbands that make them unable to use their powers. Then Anala appears and knocks out their guards, and frees them. She says she suspects her husband is still alive, and asks for their help.

Elsewhere on the ocean floor, Blaze is chained to the side of a rock outcropping, above a water fissure. As he struggles to get free, Ger arrives and shows how he plans to ensure his succession to the throne: he has brought Blaze's infant son, and pins him to the rock beside Blaze. With a mocking goodbye, he uses a blast from the trident to send the outcropping on a slide down the cliff face toward the lava.

Blaze wrenches desperately at his chains, managing to free one arm, but the other is held fast. He grabs the sharp metal buckle from his belt and hacks at the chain, but without effect. As they draw nearer to the lava, and his son cries, Blaze raises the buckle, and brings it down with a roar...

At the Royal Palace, the League reports to Anala that Blaze is nowhere to be found. Then he returns, carrying their son. Anala embraces him, then gasps in horror: his left hand is gone, the stump of his wrist wrapped tightly with the baby's blanket as a tourniquet. Blaze then tensely asks where his brother is.

While Blaze is being fitted with a prosthetic, Hendrix calls from the surface and tells them that the temperature at the Space Arctic Circle is rising dramatically; if it continues, the water cap could melt, causing catastrophic flooding all over the globe. Blaze resurfaces from his operation and reveals the source of the trouble: the Doomsday Thermal Reactor. He admits that he had it built as a weapon of last resort, if it ever came to war with the space surface world. But he never armed it; instead, Ger has done that, using the nuclear material from the submarine, and activated it. Blazer swears to stop his brother, and the League insists on aiding him.

At the SpaceArctic Circle, the League is joined by Hendrix in the Cyberjet, before clashing with General Mack's forces. The Pyronites soldiers manage to hold the League at bay, but Blaze breaks through, as do Steven and Hendrix.

In a glacier cavern, Blaze reaches the reactor, and confronts Ger, who has the advantage, with two good hands and the royal trident. Ger destroys the controls with a blast from the trident. While Blaze engages him in a brutal fight, Steven and Hendrix try to shut down the reactor. Hendrix quickly determines that he will have to shut it down manually from the inside. Steven creates a body shield with his gem, and Hendrix climbs inside the reactor.

As they fight, Ger loses the trident, but lightly wounds his brother with a Pyronite knife. Suddenly, the fire beneath them crumbles, and Ger is left dangling off a ledge in space, with Blaze standing over him. Ger begs for his brother's help, but Blaze simply picks up his trident, coldly stating, "I believe this is mine." Ger loses his grip and falls with a scream into the abyss.

Batman closes the manual shutoff valve, and the reactor shuts down. The world is safe.

At Atlantis, Mack and his men plead that Ger forced them, and they would never have otherwise gone against their king. Blaze coldly orders them to be locked up.

With the League present, Blaze reflects on his mistakes, but resolves to go on working for peace between Pyros and the surface world, for the sake of his son.

Continuity

 * Blaze doesn not appear until Season 2

Production notes

 * Creator insisted that the blanket with water when his arm is cut

Trivia

 * In Part II, Hendrix is shown alerting the rest of the League to the rising temperatures from the Linguistics Cave. On the commentary, the producers said that during the first season, the idea was for Hendrix to be spending most of his time in Calimonia and having little to do with the League hands-on.
 * In the DVD commentary for Part II, Creators admitted that the rogue Pryonites happening to have a fire chamber "doesn't make any sense" considering the fact that they already live with fire.
 * In Part II, the death of Ger is a reference of The Lion King, the roles however, are reversed, with Ger asking his Brother for help as opposed to the The King begging his Brother for help.