St. John, John or the name he actually preferred, Pyro, had been a student at the mansion for nearly a year. 11 months and fours days since Storm and Jean had collected him from behind a dumpster in New York where he had been beaten and left for dead. He had to admit not many came here in as poor a condition he'd been in. Hell, the first three weeks he'd been here had been spent in med bay. In the following months, Pyro had gotten used to the odd occasions when he knew a new arrival was invited to Mutant High. The teachers, no X-men, would assign study hall and disappear. This time Jean and Charles had gone on a hunting trip with Cyclops.
There were two main groups here at Mutant High, runaways typically those rejected by their families and the small group who still had loose links with their biological parents and siblings. Pyro had never had a particularly happy home life, more like a strained existence at best and a prison with liberal beatings at worst. Some people should not have kids and Candice and Marshall Allerdyce were two such people, abandoning their only son at the first sign of him being a freak.
He'd had nearly three years on his own, getting by with the occasional handout, the less frequent temporary home, but mostly by stealing or hustling. He'd even worked for various periods. He was a good mechanic, car thief and stooge for scams, when he hooked up with some grifters. The best experience had been as a scared 12 year old desperate to leave Australia far behind, completely in denial of his new abilities, so he'd stowed away had been on board a container ship. The Philippino crew had found him and then let him work for the food he ate and not bothered him. He'd travelled from Sydney to Panama and then hitched north to New York as a twelve year old, by the time he got to the Big Apple he'd learned enough tricks to get by and serious burned the few creeps who would not leave him alone. Since his arrival at Westchester, he'd been in therapy to get over his abandonment and anger issues.
Pyro had to admit he did not get on with his peers. Life on the streets, meant he'd had to be tutored extensively to make up for three years of missed school. Maybe he'd have caught up enough after Christmas to actually sit in with those in the same age as he was, nearly sixteen. August had dragged, Bobby his room mate was away, at home or on holiday with the perfect Drake family. Pyro was doing summer school. He was sick of being labeled stupid or dysfunctional by the rest of the kids. He was an outcast among outcasts.
Three of the eighteen year old boys were waiting in his usual smoking spot. He really should learn these peoples names.
"Look its Stupid! Got through your Grade 7 course book yet, Johnny." said the first greaseball.
Pyro did not rise to the occasion, just lit up his cigarette. Funny most of the kids had never even conversed with him, just stuck with the rumours and jibes put out by the older kids. "So what is your mutant ability, being a freak and weirdo? Huh!" with his the other kid pushed him.
Pyro smiled and played with a ball of fire in the palm of his hand. "I could burn you all and don't think I haven't done it before." What ensured was a scrappy fight, all four boys getting injured before Pyro was overwhelmed. The next thing he knew Storm was having a freaky and Piotr was carrying him to med bay again. This being his fourth incident of fighting but Pyro was the type never to walk away from a confrontation. Playing with fire was the only thing that made him feel truly alive.
...
The Pleasures, his foster family, had gone shopping, leaving Alex in bed, with his man flu. He stumbled into the bathroom and downed a handful of Tylenol. The damn stuff was just not shifting the headache he had been suffering from since his return from Cairo. He'd been in San Francisco three weeks and was a shadow of his former self. He was not sleeping, not eating and the headache was getting worse. It had started out as a dull throb and now it was stabbing through his skull. He was going to the hospital today. He needed to get this sorted out. Alex had not taken his antidepressants this morning, maybe that's what was causing his headaches.
He felt worse on the bus as the other passengers seemed to press in on him. By the time he stood in the waiting area to see the doctor he'd had enough, the people surrounding him were all too loud, too close, too much. He stood to leave and promptly fainted. He woke in a hospital bed feeling like death warmed up, his head was throbbing, the pain spiking due to the hushed discussion Liz and Edward were with a doctor. Alex rasped "Please be quiet... turn out the lights and can I have something for my migraine?"
The bastard doctor then shone a light in Alex's eyes so he started to wretch. Pile burned up his throat and he spat the vile liquid out over himself not caring about the mess. "Please can I have something for the pain...Please, its really bad."
X rays, MRI and CAT scan, blood and urine tests. Alex felt like a pin cushion and only slept when they doped him to high heaven. His third day in hospital, there was no sign of a cause of his headache nor any signs of illness. No infection, his brain was perfectly normal and then the doctor suggested it was psychosomatic or that Alex was faking and had a serious pain killer dependancy. He got back to the Pleasure's house and all pain killers had been removed.
He lay in bed and spent hours staring at the ceiling. The next day Edward came into his room and ranted at Alex, who lay on the bed in the same clothes he'd worn yesterday. Edward pulled up the blinds and ordered his foster son to shower, get off his backside and come downstairs to eat something. Each word seemed to rip through the air, stabbing through Alex's weary body. He ignored Edward and continued to lay on his bed only moving to crawl to the toilet, to puke up bile, pee and to sip water. He then started to hallucinate, he thought he could hear Liz and Edward talking of committing him, but they were downstairs and Sabina had her stereo on, playing god awful music in the next bedroom way too loud. He then overheard a phone conversation between Edward and Mrs Jones... Ambulance on its way...clinic in Oakland... depression... anorexia... addiction to pain killers. If he stayed lying here he was going to the funny farm.
After three tries, Alex got up, picked up his wallet and somehow managed to get out of the bedroom window and across the yard without alerting anyone. He did not stop until he got off his fourth bus in the middle of nowhere. He walked away from the highway and into the wilderness, not caring of the direction he was going, the further he walked into the emptiness the better he actually felt. It had been two days since his last pill or injection.
He woke to see a clear blue sky overhead and realised he felt better than he had in weeks. He sat up and noticed he was in the middle of a fucking desert. He had his wallet, no phone, no luggage, no water or rations and no idea where he was. Alex lay back down, he was dehydrated, hungry and he really did not care. He felt at peace for the first time in weeks. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the sound of the wind. He listened to the small sounds of the desert, then he dozed off. He was hallucinating again as he could hear a calm voice speaking to him, telling him they were coming for him, that they would be there soon. Alex spelt peacefully, relaxed with the sound of the gentle voice running through his head.
Alex Rider lay unconscious and did not see the sleek black jet land fifty yards from his prone body. A tall young woman with dark red hair levitated the teenager into the cool rear bay of the airplane and administered emergency first aid. A bald man sat and observed the boy, an emerging telepath and empath. A powerful mutant with an horrific past who had escaped from foster parents who were about to commit him. The cocktail of antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood suppressants would have destroyed the teenagers emerging gifts. The boy would learn to shield his mind, control his emerging abilities and find a home in Upstate New York at Xavier's school for the Gifted.