Author´s note:
Wow, sooo many reviews, I´m impressed. You guys make my day, you really do :D
Meow: Yeah, seems he is, doesn´t it? Let´s see what will come of it...
PsychoSpiff: Nice to see I got you by surprise! ;-)
Eraina: Thanks, glad you liked it. :-) And I´m happy you liked the last line... wasn´t that sure if it worked as well as I had intended.
2wingo: sounds like a possibility... the cure has made him think differently of some things as it seems... although Erik would of course never admit it.
Blue Flyhight: Wow, you couldn´t possibly tell something nicer than calling my scriblings something of a worthy review. This really made my day! Oh, and sorry for not waiting for your beta-read. I wasn´t sure whether you had recieved my mail from the day before yesterday, so I hope you don´t mind. As I am horribly busy right now with my exam paper I decided to better post today than tomorrow as I don´t know when I´ll have time to do chapter no.15. might be any day. Might take a time.
Emperor K. Rool: Yes, he probably begins to realize Pyro´s a little poser. I thought something like that must have crossed his mind in X 3 in that scene when Pyro tells Magneto he would have killed Charles anytime if he had ordered him to. I think Erik lost a great deal of respect in Pyro then.
Angel of Snow: Oh, and soooo many thanks to you again:-) All those great and nice reviews. You know this is something that really makes one feel truly great the whole day. So, although I already did, here you go again: THANKS:-D And here you go, another chapter.
Genkai Shihan: Nice to have another new reviewer, so welcome and thanks for your nice words. :-)
Okay, after all that... here you go... read and enjoy... and review ;-)
Chapter 14
Single-handed
How quickly some things changed, Erik thought when he was standing with his feet only inches away from the face of the young mutant who such a short time ago had still affirmed his uttermost loyalty to him. Pyro´s face was grey with the dust he had fallen into, he was giving another ragged breath and finally after what seemed like an eternity, lifted his head slowly. He did not even let his eyes stray towards Erik and Erik was surprised to notice the courage of the youngster. Maybe he had some backbone after all... still... enough was enough.
"Who allowed you to get up?" Magneto´s words sounded cold, cruel almost and sent a shiver down his spine. When had the tide turned the young mutant against him? Such a shame. The boy had potential. It was too late, however, to let sentimental thoughts like this stray into his mind. Never before would Magneto have suffered a humiliation like the one John had given Erik those last few days. And Magneto was not willing to change this routine whether it had been a homo sapiens, Pyro had bullied or not. All that counted was that Magneto had recovered... which made it hard for Erik to ever admit to himself that he had indeed been a homo sapiens for a limited span of time... and what was more: one who had been at the mercy of this young and insufferable prat. A God among insects. He had been wrong indeed.
To his feet, Pyro continued his struggle to get back on his legs with the stubbornness of a child that was learning to walk and get up from the ground. Erik could even understand it. Being humiliated like this, being thrown to the ground, facing the dust was nothing any homo superior should have to endure. But still... maybe some deserved it. "I said don´t!" His voice was barely more than a dangerous growl when he gripped Pyro by the belt with his powers and with more than a gentle reminder of who had won this fight flung him back onto the dusty street and in the same moment tossed him around so the youngster was facing him. The gaze John gave him would have been fit to kill. Erik smirked.
"And now get out of my eyes." he said with a low voice that was almost blended over by the approaching sirens, yet very well audible for the young mutant. "Get out of my reach before I regret having let you go." With a jolt, he released the young mutant and Pyro hastily stumbled to his feet. Erik found he had been mistaken; the boy´s gaze was just as much fear as fury. The youngster´s voice was a strange (and in no way imposing) mix of a boy´s fear and childish stubbornness when he said: "No. Those times are gone." He straigthened himself and seemed he was about to leave. "As I told you before, I am no boy anymore. You´d do better to count me in as a factor to deal with, old man."
A flip of the young mutant´s hand was enough to let Erik know what he was up to. He almost sighed with annoyance and resignation, ducked from the flame with ease and kept any other bolt of fire from erupting from John´s hand by ripping the lighter glove off John´s hand. The lighter flew lightly into Erik´s hand where he let it hover over his palm for a second before he crushed it beyond repair. "Don´t." was all he said.
Later, Erik was not entirely sure what had betrayed John´s accomplices... whether it had been John´s triumphant glance to some imaginary point behind Magneto´s shoulder or whether he had sensed first that the girl approaching him from behind was still stupid enough to wear her necklace. Maybe it had been a bit of both, he mused when with a light movement of his hand he snapped the invisible chain in two and with another movement slung the necklace around the neck of the other youngster who as he could see when he turned his head was by her side. The boy choked.
Erik sighed and raised an eyebrow without giving the choking teen a second glance. Seemingly totally unmoved by what was going on around him – Pyro staggering away, the mutant whose name he didn´t know getting to his knees with his hands at his throat and the police most audibly approaching -he looked at the thin air right to where the young nameless mutant had gone to the ground and addressed the night, barely able to hide his amusement from his words.
"Young Miss Shade, I think we´ve met before." He turned around entirely, his boots making ruffling sounds on the broken bricks he was standing on. "Show some manner, young lady." he demanded in a voice that bore authority and airiness in the same way. "I would very much regret having to hurt your young friend. We´ve been through this masquerade already, haven´t we?"
For some seconds she hesitated, then the slender form of the black-haired, dark-eyed teenage girl materialized in front of him. Erik gave her a triumphant smirk. "Well, well, that wasn´t that hard or was it?" He ignored the half frightened, half angry glare of the girl when he released her young friend and the smile faded entirely from his face when he cocked his head towards Pyro´s direction.
"Off with you." he said coldly.
Shade bolted at once, shooting an angry glance at him, leaving her necklace on the dusty ground where it had fallen when Magneto had released the boy from choking. The boy, however was not that clever, waving both his hands in a wave-like movement when he ran past Magneti to follow Shade. A wave of water erupted from the young man´s hands, but the boy was already some metres away which left Magneto enough time to block the wave with an iron shield quickly formed from the iron bar that had sent Pyro to the ground only moments before.
"Please." he said, sounding half bored, biting back a smile when the gush of water hit the shield, was thrown back and soaked both teenagers. He did not bother to even look after them when they ran, but he could hear Pyro hesitating before he left to follow his chicken hearted friends.
He remained where he was, standing in the middle of the street that was by now, almost deserted. Only a hand full of troublemakers had remained and were continuing to fight rather half-heartedly down at the other end of the road. He looked up to watch them, recognizing from the corner of his eye Mystique in the shape of Raven Darkholme approach. She stopped when she had reached his side but kept a distance of a few metres facing the same way he did.
"What a show," she said slowly, sarcasm clearly echoing in her voice. "Magneto fighting three teenagers single-handed." Their gazes never met. "I wouldn´t say I´m impressed." she added.
He snorted but it half sounded like a chuckle. "I see. I knew you had a reason not to come to my aid."
Now she did look at him. Directly. Even from the corner of his eyes he could tell anger was flashing in her eyes again. "You didn´t count me in when you left the lair, so why should I have stepped in for you?"
He didn´t answer. The sound of the sirens drew nearer. The first police car turned into the main street. He raised his hands and lifted from the ground. "Time to go, my dear" he said, stressing the last two words as he knew they were the least she would want to hear.
When he looked down at the dusty ground he left below him, he recognized something lying there. More from a reflex than from actually thinking he reached for it with his powers. The necklace flew into his outstretched hand.