"Get up!"
A harsh voice and a sharp kick in the ribs woke John from nightmares of exploding heads and fire. He had to struggle through the terrors, as the dark dream wouldn't let go of him so easily. When he finally regained full consciousness, the first thing he saw was a woman.
A naked woman. A blue naked woman. Mystique.
The events of yesterday came rushing back to him just then. Alkali Lake, the blinding snow, and the pain – the pain as something monstrous tried to claw its way into his brain and consume him. Finally, he remembered the decision. Getting on the helicopter with Magneto and Mystique and flying the hell away from his old life. No more shit from the Professor and the teachers and Bobby and Rogue and just no more shit, period. He was through with all of them.
"What the hell's your problem?" he grumbled at Mystique, standing up and rubbing the spot where she had kicked him.
Quick as a snake, one blue arm lashed out and struck him hard across the face. "You don't talk that way to me, boy!" she hissed. She would have hit him again if a smooth voice hadn't stopped her.
"Now, now – " Magneto hovered towards them. "Is that any way to treat our little protégé?" He looked at John with a smile but his eyes were cold. "Forgive Mystique, my boy. She can be a harsh taskmistress. But you couldn't ask for a better teacher."
"Teacher?" John was confused.
Magneto placed a hand on his shoulder, and it was as if he also placed a claim on John's soul, so weighty was that touch. "You've joined an army, Pyro," he said, steel in his voice. "It's time you learned how to be a soldier."
"This is the Danger Room," Miss Monroe, or Storm as she wanted to be called during these sessions, announced.
Kitty, Bobby, Rogue and Peter all followed her obediently into a cavernous, metallic looking room they never dreamed existed within the lower levels of the school. Bobby had a stunned look on his face, Rogue was fidgety with sudden nervousness, and Peter was – very tall. Kitty, for her part, was fascinated.
"It's some kind of holographic simulation chamber, isn't it?" she asked Storm excitedly.
Storm smiled. "Why, yes. That is correct, Kitty. Very astute."
"How did you know that?" Bobby wondered.
"I've seen some of the specs and plans in scientific papers published on the web, mostly theoretical all of them. There's a good percentage of engineers and physicists who doubt such a thing can be accomplished in reality. They're saying the most that we can hope for is three-dimensional imagery but nothing really interactive." She stopped. From the semi-glazed expressions on their faces she knew that they had no idea what she was talking about.
Storm laughed softly. "Oh, Kitty. You're too smart for us." She said it affectionately so Kitty knew she was sincere. The older woman even gave her a little approving pat on the head. Kitty blushed, embarrassed.
"So, what are we doing here, Miss Monroe, - I mean, Storm?" she asked.
"Why don't I let Professor Xavier answer that? Welcome, Professor."
They all turned to see the Professor enter the room. He looked at each of the young students as he came in and, though he smiled at them warmly, there was a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Hello, everyone," he said. He sounded very somber. "You have all been invited here because, in light of recent events, I believe that we can no longer afford our previous complacency. The attack on this school has driven home the point that there are some in this world who do not choose to distinguish between the innocent and the culpable, blinded as they are by their prejudice. I would never condone violence as a means of action, but I also cannot do nothing when those I care for are threatened by it. So, I want to start preparing my students in earnest, beginning with the four of you, for what may come."
"What may come, Professor?" Rogue was the only one brave enough to ask.
He sighed. "I am very afraid that it might be war."
For the fifth time Mystique flipped John over her back and threw him to the floor. "You're not even trying!" she scolded him.
"Oh, fuck you!" He was hurting all over but he still stood up. He wouldn't let the bitch have the satisfaction of knowing that she had beaten him almost to an inch of his life. "Why the hell do I have to learn all this martial arts stuff anyway?" he snarled. "I have other ways to fight."
She punched him on the face and he was down on the floor again. "Oh, yeah," she drawled, "you can always set things on fire. Well, where's the fire?" She kicked him in the groin.
Tears sprung from his eyes at the added pain. "You bitch!" he cursed her weakly. He had never felt so humiliated and defeated in his life. Before their training sessions she always made sure that he didn't have his lighter with him, so he was completely defenseless.
"Listen." She ground her foot into his face contemptuously. "There will come a time when you're completely cornered and you don't have your precious lighter with you. When that time comes, it's always a good idea to have a few tricks left that your enemies don't know about. So stop your whining, little girl, and fight me."
With a furious growl, he got to his feet again. He didn't say anything but charged at her immediately.
With a bored expression on her face, Mystique intercepted him and flipped him over her back. Again. "I don't care even if you break every fucking bone in your body," she told him. "You will learn to fight."
"Bobby, watch out!" Kitty screamed. She ran towards Bobby, grabbed him, and phased the two of them as the burning wall came crashing down.
"Kitty! Bobby! Over here!" Rogue screamed over the noise of explosions and gunfire. She and Peter were taking cover behind a large chunk of rubble.
Before they could rejoin their teammates, a hoverbot came into view and started firing at them. Bobby reacted fast and sent a large chunk of solid ice flying through the air, knocking out the machine. His eyes widened when he saw another two appear behind Rogue and Peter. "Rogue!" he shouted out in fear and warning.
Suddenly Peter was all shiny and metallic, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off his broad chest while Rogue huddled in the safety afforded by his back. He took hold of the robots and smashed them against each other.
The four of them regrouped and started making their way through the battlefield towards the helicopter. "Damn it! Everyone get down!" Bobby said. "There's a guard. A soldier."
"I'll take care of him," Rogue said.
"No, Rogue. Stop."
Ignoring Bobby she had slipped away, stealthily moving towards her objective. The three of them watched as she crept up on the guard and, with a touch, the man was down.
They were all suddenly bathed in a bright light.
"Very good, everyone." Storm applauded as she approached them. "Exercise successfully completed. Great show of teamwork and use of powers." She beamed at her students. "Now hit the showers and get changed. We're having pizza. My treat."
"Oh, yeah!" The two guys gave each other high fives while Rogue and Kitty laughed. They all left the Danger Room together, talking excitedly and rehashing the highlights of the recently concluded session.
"That was so cool when you went all man of steel then grabbed those bots and just crushed them!" Bobby said to Peter. "Better than a movie!"
"I liked how Rogue took out the enemy soldiers by allowing them to capture her then knocking them all out with a touch," Peter said.
"My favorite moment was when Kitty made the ground intangible so that tank coming at us started sinking like it was quicksand," Rogue chipped in.
"I liked the last thing Bobby did, making that chunk of ice within seconds and smashing that bot that was about to shoot us." Kitty smiled at her friends, for friends they had become since they started training together. They had all been awkward around one another at first, except for Bobby and Rogue, but all the time they had been spending together had created a bond between the four. It was this friendship that had finally taken Kitty out of her bookish world. She was still the smartest and most studious girl in school, but she had learned to relax and let loose from time to time.
"I can't wait for the next exercise!" she exclaimed exuberantly. Training was hard work, but she was also having a blast.
"Concentration is not the key," Magneto told John. He was making a truck spin crazily in the air above their heads. The whole thing was making John very nervous. He was having visions of being crushed like an insect at any second.
"It is surrender," the older man continued. "Surrender, - to the power within you, to the freedom and completeness it gives. Never be afraid of what you can do with this gift, this fire that has touched your soul. Once you've accepted it, you will own it. And what you own, you control."
With a little gesture he sent the truck flying through the air. Just as it was about to crash to the ground, at the very last second, he stopped it. Then it rose up again and went back to floating above their heads. Throughout all this, Magneto didn't even seem to be paying any particular attention to what he was doing. It was all automatic, effortless.
"Now, Pyro," he said invitingly, "what can you do?"
He used his power to launch the truck through the air like a missile. Without hesitation Pyro flicked his lighter open and unleashed the fire. The truck burst into flame and hurtled to the ground.
He kept feeding the fire with his power, with all of himself. It grew and grew, became monstrous, a whirlwind of flame, a firestorm fueled simply by his rage. A shadow of fear came over Magneto's face as the fire continued to swell in size and began to approach them.
Pyro hadn't missed the expression on his mentor's face. "It won't touch us," he assured the man who had set him free to enjoy such power. He was right. The fire surrounded them completely but they remained unharmed. Then, with a single thought, the fire exploded and went out.
"You're ready," Magneto pronounced.
"Slowly, Kitty," Professor Xavier said soothingly. "Don't be afraid."
Shutting out everything but the sound of his comforting voice, Kitty focused on the task before her. For only the second time since her power manifested, she was going to phase through the earth. When it had happened the first time she had been terrified almost out of her mind. Walking through walls, phasing though the air, those were nothing. But to sink, - to sink though the ground where it was dark and lonely, where things slithered and murmured silently, it made her think too much of death and being buried.
"I – I don't think I can do it!" She was starting to panic.
"It's all right. It's all right, Kitty. I will not ask you to do something you're not entirely comfortable with." He smiled at her. "We'll work on this, but on your terms, I promise."
She was almost crying in relief that he wasn't pressing her. "Thank you, Professor. I'm sorry but – I just can't! Not now! Maybe not ever."
"I understand." He took her shaking hands in his tenderly. "Fear can be a very overwhelming emotion. And I never want you to be afraid, Kitty. If you're not ready, then we'll wait until you are so we can conquer this fear together."
"Thank you," she whispered, feeling ashamed at having disappointed him like this.
"Oh, never," he said. "You could never disappoint me."
And Kitty knew that he was telling the truth.
"What is this place?" Pyro wondered.
"A school," Magneto said. "One of those ultra-conservative Christian schools who preach that all those not of their faith are damned. While religious bigotry in itself is detestable, our issue with this place has to do with the very public beating suffered by one of its teachers a week ago. He was revealed to be a mutant after he healed a student burned in his chemistry class."
"He healed someone and the humans beat him up still?" Pyro sounded disgusted. "So I guess we're here to teach them a lesson."
"No," was Magneto's response. "I am here to watch. You are here to teach them that lesson."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked though he already knew the answer.
Magneto smiled. "Burn it down."
The exercise had been going badly. They were at simulation level 5 and they were clearly not ready for it yet.
"This is turning out much harder than I thought," Bobby said ruefully.
"You think?" Rogue snapped. "We need another plan of attack."
"Attack? Rogue, we're already beaten," Bobby pointed out.
"So we're just gonna surrender?" She was furious.
"Please, no fighting among ourselves," Peter told them.
"I still say that we surrender. Or, at least, run away," Bobby insisted.
"Maybe that's it," Kitty spoke up.
"What's it?"
"At the very beginning, Storm said that this was going to be an exercise in strategy," she reminded them. "Well, Bobby's suggestion, running away, can be strategy. You know, he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. We need to come up with a better plan of attack like Rogue said but we can't do it right now. So, we retreat."
"I'm in," Bobby said immediately. He looked at Peter and Rogue.
"It makes sense," Peter admitted.
Rogue made a sound of disgust. "Fine. We retreat."
They retreated. As they were making their way through a field strewn with casualties and broken machinery, tentacles of steel shot up out of the ground. They all scrambled to get away but Peter was caught and dragged under.
"Peter!" Without even thinking twice, Kitty phased though the earth.
Pyro entered the school easily enough. The classrooms were empty when he checked and he thought, no problem. He could torch everything within a few minutes.
"Hey, you! What are you doing wandering in the hallways? Why aren't you at the gym for the assembly?"
He was surprised to see a red-faced guy coming towards him.
"And why aren't you in uniform, young man?" the guy demanded. "You go on to the gym right now and after that you will be serving detention. What's your name?"
Now he understood exactly what Magneto wanted him to do.
"John Allerdyce," he said.
"Well, you come with me right now, Mr. Allerdyce." The guy grabbed his arm and started to lead him towards the gym. Pyro followed willingly. All the while the guy kept muttering something about transferees and new students.
The gym doors burst open and a screaming human on fire stumbled through. Pyro walked in after him with his hands aflame.
"Congratulations, everyone," Professor Xavier said. They were having a little ceremony after the four students successfully completed level 5. It took three failed runs but the fourth time proved to be the charm. "In honor of this occasion, and of your accomplishments, allow me to present your new uniforms."
Rogue gave a little squeal of excitement as the Professor, with Storm's assistance, handed each one of them a dark gray box. Kitty was the last one to receive hers.
"Well done, Shadowcat," the Professor said. "Welcome to the X-Men."
When Pyro came out of the burning school, he saw that Mystique had joined Magneto. She was carrying some kind of box with her.
As he came nearer, he saw the smile on Magneto's face. And there was a look in his eyes that Pyro found strange at first until he recognized it for what it was.
Pride.
He couldn't remember anyone ever looking at him like that before.
He stopped a few feet away from the two older mutants. Silently, Mystique handed him the box. He opened it and was puzzled by what he saw inside.
"It's an igniter," Mystique explained. "A little flamethrower, if you will, that's been designed to be worn around the wrist."
Something in her face told him that she wouldn't appreciate it if he said thank you. Instead, he looked back at Magneto.
"Welcome, Pyro," Magneto said, "to the Brotherhood."
The end