Chapter Two! Holy goodness! I'm typing again! Grrrrrr. Aren't you sick of those long-ass intros? Me too! Pyro acts the hero in this'n. Sort of.

Disclaimer- Us no own X-Men. Oh and Hybrid belongs to Anel, and Fawkes and that snake chick belong to Red Raven.

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Locked, Chapter Two

I must have passed out from exhaustion, because I woke suddenly. Sunlight glared through the curtains, worsening the headache I had from sleeping so badly. Usually the author will say the events of the night before came rushing back to them making them feel like shit all over again. Well I still had the shity feeling, and the only thing that came rushing to me was a terrible urge to use the bathroom.

"How do you feel?" Jean asked me as I wandered. Why was she up so early? And dressed.

"Like sh- ah, bad," I don't know why I refrained from swearing. I think she reminded me of my mother with that look. Mom always yelled at me for swearing. "What's today?"

"Wednesday. You should get something to eat." You should kiss my ass. Wednesday? They probably had to go to school. Sucks for them. Upon finding the bathroom I looked in the mirror. Great. Not only did I feel horrible, I looked crappy too.

There were more looks from the X-Men, only now they were understanding, pitying or still dirty. Bloody fools. I saw Rogue again. She gave me a different look. It said to be careful, not in a threatening way, but a you- should-get-goin' look. I knew something was up. The X-Men all seemed to be heading downstairs, probably time to hop on the big yellow bus and go learn their ABC's. Or maybe it was breakfast time. I wasn't hungry.

I decided it /was/ time to leave. I didn't want to be there anymore. The cops and Magneto were out for me by now. But trying to find your way out of that place is like trying to escape from a maze with no exit. I ended up outside of Xavier's meeting room. Did he live in there? Most likely, since he was in there, in the exact spot as the night before. Maybe he liked the window. He was talking to someone I couldn't see, I assumed it was Wolverine, though.

"If you take him into Canada, up to your old cabin, there's a good chance he won't be found. He'll be safe there until I can manage to convince the police that he really did nothing wrong. And he didn't. Then we can deal with Magneto, and this collar." Fuck. How had he figured it out? Well, if he saw what it looked like in my head then he might have just guessed. He could have sat in the quiet for a few hours and sorted it all out. If that was true I was really, /really/ fucked.

Magneto wouldn't appreciate me spreading the world about his little invention. At least he claimed he'd invented it. I had a feeling he hadn't though. I realized I had finally found the front door. I'd been walking and thinking at the same time and for some reason I can never concentrate on two things at once. Hiding wouldn't do any good. Magneto would find me somehow. He was crazy. Crazy people went all out when they wanted something. Besides, I didn't want to go to Canada. There were even more animals up there and less TV. So I waited for all the X-Men to leave, and then I left too.

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I pulled my hood further forward. An old lady was staring at me, probably thinking I was some street thug. Then, there was always the possibility she would recognize me from the sketch they'd had of me on the news. I'd seen it. It sort of looked like me. They'd gotten my nose and my hair wrong, but it was close enough.

A cop car cruised by, the officer barely glancing at me. I still heaved a sigh of relief after he'd gone around the corner. There wasn't much need to use my powers, but I still had to be careful. One slip and Xavier might be able to find me. There was no way out of Bayville; cops were stationed on every mode of transportation and there was a blockade on every street. It wasn't all for me. Apparently I wasn't the only mutant who had 'attacked innocent humans in a sporadic and sadistic manor.' Bullshit.

It had been one of those Morlocks, the mutants who lived in the sewers. He'd found a winning scratch ticket on the ground and had tried to cash it in. From what I'd gathered he had pointed furry brown ears and yellow eyes, the only two visible features to show that he was a mutant. He hadn't hidden them well enough, though, and had been accused of stealing the ticket. Of course he was attacked and fought back. I'm not sure what his powers were, but he beat the living shit out of one of the store employees and supposedly had been shot. Now they were on the lookout for him too.

I crossed the street, trying to seem normal, like the entire state police force weren't searching for me. My heart nearly stopped when I saw my sketch on the cover of a newspaper. The ticket guy's pic was on it too. There was an alley next to the newsstand so I went down there. Once out of line of the public eye I felt a little better. The Morlocks. I saw a sewer drain. It was a slim chance, but it was the only one I had, and I would have to use my powers to move the manhole cover. A risk, but I'd take it.

Take my advice and heed it well: don't ever climb into a sewer unless you are being paid extremely well to do so. The smell wasn't so bad; this must've just been a drainage tunnel but it was dark and dank. There was a nice little sewer sidewalk so I wouldn't have to walk in the slime water. How considerate. There were also dead rats and other things, which I'm certain were bodies, but I wasn't going to touch anything to find out.

I came to a large open space. It seemed empty but the chill up my spine said there was someone watching me. So I just stood there. What else was I supposed to do? I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated some sarcastic remark. It came without warning; someone swung their arm around my neck and put me in a headlock, then somehow pulled my feet out from under me. I found myself pinned on my stomach with one arm twisted behind me in a way that if I moved I was certain it would break, or cause some sort of damage.

"What do you want?" someone said in a whispery voice, though it sounded like that was as loudly as they could speak.

"I.. I need a place to stay. The cops are after me," I was scared, I'll admit. There were shapes in the shadows.

"Liar. What type of powers does a human have?" I couldn't tell if it was male or female.

"I'm not a human! I'm pyrokinetic, but I need my lighter to make fire." Their grip loosened slightly and I felt them stick their hand in my pocket. I almost protested then decided against it. They stuck a gloved hand in front of my face, holding my Zippo. It flicked on.

"Prove it," they grated. I didn't need any encouragement. I flung them off with the fire then turned to see who it was. /She/ had green skin and when she smiled at me I saw fangs, and a forked tongue flicked out at me.

"Welcome to the Morlocks." She said, and then tossed me my lighter.

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Spyke sneered. He didn't trust me. Why would he?

"Every time the humans start to at least tolerate us, one of you Acolytes goes and ruins it. Why should we let you stay with us?" if I hesitated it could ruin the small chance I had.

"Because, I.. you don't know what Magneto can do to me. If he finds me."

"Then why don't you tell us?" the former X-Man queried. Very well.

"There's a collar. I don't know the mechanics of it but it suppresses your powers. No, not suppresses. It snuffs them out completely. So you can't even feel them there like usual, in the back of your head. Makes you think you never were a mutant. It also controls you, so you can't touch it to unlock it, and if you try to attack the one who's got the controller it zaps you so bad you pass out." there were murmurs of unease in the small group of Morlocks. They looked like freaks but I knew none of them would give up being a mutant if given the chance. There were more around us, all in the shadows. I kept glancing over my shoulder, to sounds of laughter at my paranoia. I shuddered; it felt like that collar was around my neck right then. That's why I don't like to talk about it. That thing only adds to paranoia.

"Well.. we'll have to talk about it, just hang out. Okay?" I nodded. By the looks on their faces I thought there was a pretty good chance they'd take pity on me. Pity sucks but it can come in handy in a tight spot. The shadows shifted and a girl emerged. I couldn't see anything on her to indicate that she was a mutant. She looked normal.

"You have more to worry about than Magneto," she said.

"What? The police? Please, they won't catch me." she shook her head.

"Naw man. The Friends of Humanity? You ever hear of them? I tracked them here. They'll be after you and Fawkes." I guessed Fawkes was the ticket mutant.

"I've heard of them. Those idiots came after Gambit once. He told me about it." she didn't bother asking who Gambit was.

"Good. Then you know to watch your back." She looked like she wanted to tell me something else but she must have decided not too.

"So.. what're you here for? Friends after you too?" she shook her head.

"No. I'm after them. They took my little brother and my best friend. I'm trying to find out where they're being held. The leader of the Bayville division is one of the guys who kidnapped them." Honorable. And I was here to save my own ass. Oh well, not my problem, and she didn't look like she wanted sympathy anyway.

At a loss for any other subject I decided to ask what her powers were. "Transfiguration," at the look on my face she rolled her eyes, "I can shift shapes. You know, to tigers and stuff. I can only do animals though. It hurts when I try to change into people." She already knew what my powers were after seeing me toss snake-girl, so she didn't bother to ask about them.

Spyke and co. finally reemerged from their little meeting. I was glad for that, since 'Hybrid' was going on and on about revenge or something. It was really annoying. Now I would learn my fate.

"You can stay, but you'll have to help out getting food and clothing. You obviously can't just walk into the store but you can help us with raids and stuff." Raids? I figured I really had no choice but I wasn't sure if I felt comfortable with going out in public, especially to commit more crimes. The Morlocks waited for my answear.

"Sure, what've I got to lose?" Another big mistake.

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"What are we waiting for?" I asked impatiently. Fawkes glared at me and held a finger to his lips. It had to have been at least a half hour since we'd arrived at the warehouse. Spyke, Calisto and a few of the other Morlocks were spread around the area waiting for Hybrids signal. I hated waiting. I had to move around but I couldn't because then we would get caught.

A howl sounded in the distance. Fawkes gestured for me to follow him and then started off through the bushes. I got scraped by almost every plant known to man and my pants were ripped up by the time we got to the edge of the building. Fawkes smirked and shook his head. I could almost hear him saying 'amateur'. I hoped I wouldn't have to do this long enough to become an expert.

"Do your thing, man," Fawkes directed. I took out my lighter and aimed the fire towards the wall. Soon an entire section of it was nothing more than a bubbly puddle of aluminum. It was dark inside, so again I had to make fire, more for my own vision than Fawkes's. There were boxes upon boxes of merchandise, ready to be shipped to wherever. We were here for food, though. Fawkes led me through the warehouse. It turned out he had the same powers as Wolverine, only without the adamantium and with animalistic features, so he soon sniffed out the food and ordered me to begin unloading boxes of non-perishables. I hate being ordered, but at least if I refused my life wouldn't be threatened.

Hybrid loped up in wolf form with Spyke and the others, but Fawkes told her to go stand guard. Good, because I didn't really like her. We loaded up our packs as quickly as possible, since there was a good chance there was some alarm we'd tripped coming in here. Well there was.

When we were about halfway done, we heard barking and then a yelp of pain. Either Hybrid had gotten into a dogfight or we were about to get our bloody asses busted. Fawkes extended his claws, he only had one in each arm, but he could still kick ass from what I'd seen. Spyke and Calisto ran off to help him while the rest of us grabbed what we could and ran. We came to the exit I'd made just as a bunch of blokes in riot gear reached it.

"Freeze, mutants!" One of them shouted. Scaleface transformed into this giant dinosaur, which made some of the cops drop their weapons and run away, but there were others who decided they could stand up against the dragon beast.

"Pyro! This way!" Someone shouted. I followed their voice into the woods. Suddenly I tripped on something. I looked back, it was Hybrid. Still in wolf form. For a second I thought she was dead, and then she raised her head and looked at me. There was a sound of someone running through the trees and she stood and raced off in that direction. I decided she must have just been stunned because she couldn't have just run off like that if she was really hurt.

Someone screamed. It was a man screaming and I hadn't seen any women with the mutant hunters so I hoped it wasn't one of the Morlocks. I dropped my bag under a bush and took out my lighter. Somehow, I couldn't run. I had to help because they were helping me. It was only right. There was another scream, a little girl this time. Torpid.

A man stood above her, about to hit her with his gun. I threw him a good thirty feet in the air. She ran over to me. I was about to ask her if she was okay but I heard a click.

"Down!" I shouted. In the place where we'd been standing there was a spray of bullets. I think my brain must have broken, because I stood and ran in the direction they were coming from and tackled the man who was shooting at us. He pushed me off and then began beating me in the face. I tried to hit him back but he only hit me harder. Suddenly he froze. Torpid lowered her hand. She didn't say anything; in fact, I didn't think I'd ever heard her speak. I wondered if she could.

I wiped the blood off my face. He didn't hit very hard but my forehead felt bruised and my lip was bleeding. She gestured towards the warehouse.

"No. You're going back to the Morlocks. I'll help the others." She looked disappointed but she turned and hurried off in the other direction. I started towards the warehouse. I only wished I had my flamethrowers.

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I stuck my head around the corner. Calisto was on the ground, knocked out. There was a nasty gash on her forehead and she was in handcuffs. I punched the guard in the head and then kicked him in the stomach. Fighting fair was for dumbasses. He fell without a sound. Calisto moaned and I knelt over her. It only took a few seconds to melt the chain. I didn't want to risk melting the actual cuffs and burning her. She stood slowly, with a strange look on her face. Like she was surprised that I'd helped her.

"You alright then?" I asked. She nodded. Why would she be surprised? Did they think I was that selfish? I felt my paranoia kicking in. Why would they think that? Of course I wasn't just going to let them get caught like that. Calisto took off towards the roaring sounds, most likely made by Hybrid and Scaleface. Hybrid would tell them I'd just tripped over her and done nothing to help, and they'd believe her. No one ever believed me. Torpid couldn't talk but I was sure that if she could she'd tell them I'd gotten the shit beat out of me by that human and she'd had to help me. I realized what I was doing and tried to calm myself down. One look didn't mean anything. I pushed those thoughts away and ran to help the others. But the damage was done. I was pissed.

I blasted a group of humans into the sky. I was going into what Gambit called 'Pyro Mode'. He thought it was funny when I got pissed and started to blow up everything that moved. Someone shot at me and I melted the gun in their hands. They screamed as the molten metal touched their skin. At some point I had set the warehouse on fire. It began spreading to the trees.

I saw someone in there, their form illuminated by the fire. They saw me looking and took off, but I wasn't letting them get away that easy. The figure stayed at least twenty feet ahead of me for about ten minutes. I began to feel tired. Running and trying to control fire at the same time is very exhausting. I slowed and finally stopped. Where were they? They couldn't be far. I held my lighter up, trying to conserve energy by not making a ball to float around the woods. It suddenly flew out of my hand, into the bushes.

"What the-" something hit me in the head. Hard. So hard my vision blacked and when it came back I was on the ground. I gasped at who I saw.

"Magneto. I.. don't!" I began scrambling backwards. How had he found me? He didn't say anything only hovered towards me, until my back hit a tree. I was too scared to run and my head hurt too badly to think. I looked down at my shirt and saw it was covered in blood. My blood. "Oh shit. Please," he still said nothing. Why wasn't he trying to kill me? Wasn't he going to use the collar? I didn't know which one would be worse. Someone was coming towards us. I turned my head in the direction of the noise.

"Here comes your punishment." I looked back at him just in time to see the metal bar flying towards my face.

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OHHH, suspense! What happens next? Does Pyro wear the collar? Did you know getting hit in the face /wasn't/ his punishment? Is Hybrid the most annoying OC ever? Will Anel be pissed when she finds out I wrote that? Why do I keep asking these questions when I already know the answers? Well I don't know the answer to that one. Now Raven responds to the ONE review she got. You non-reviewing non-reviewers!

LotusPen-Thanks! I agree, everyone makes him crazy; I'm trying to keep him in character without doing that.