Scott, Piotr, or Bobby?... Oh, My!

By JobbyShipper

Author's Note: Apparently I'm on a role with this. hehe. I believe I've decided that until John and Bobby are reunited, I'll be doing this back and forth formula between the two, cause I like the way it's going. Anyway, here's the next chapter:

Chapter 2: Returning to Alkali Lake

The motorcycle rolled to a screeching halt. It had stopped right behind another motorcycle already on the side of the small, abandoned roadway. Pyro got off his motorcycle, taking off his helmet, and setting it on the seat. He moved over to the other one and touched the closest handlebar.

'If Scott knew I was touching his bike right now, he'd kill me," Pyro thought to himself as he smiled. He'd never been allowed to touch Scott's bike before now. He almost successfully did once when he was 14, but Scott caught him and blasted him with a small optic blast from his visor from behind for punishment. Pyro had always been interested in learning to ride a motorcycle, but Scott wouldn't even teach him how to cause it was too dangerous for him, and he was too young to learn in the first place.

It wasn't until after Pyro left the Xavier Institute that he was finally allowed to learn to drive one, and who was his teacher? Mystique taught him everything he needed to know about riding, and she even helped him to fix up the bike that they'd stole together one night. Pyro really liked Mystique. He thought of her as a big sister as she was always doing little things for him, just to try to make him feel more at home with the Brotherhood. But after she was cured, and Magneto abandoned her, Pyro began to feel like he had made a mistake joining Magneto in the first place. He didn't want to leave Mystique lying there like that. He wanted to help her, but Magneto wouldn't have allowed it.

Just thinking about all of this made Pyro a tad upset, but he did his best to hide it, as Mystique wasn't the reason he came up here. He was here for Scott, the one guy he wanted to give his whole heart to more then anyone else. Heck, there was no one else when it came to Pyro's feelings. He didn't care about being with anyone but Scott... That was why he was still a virgin. Yeah, real shock, but it was the truth. He might've been considered a loser for that, but at least he was a loyal loser. He'd just never shown interest in anyone else. The Brotherhood sure didn't have any prizes in their group. He considered every one of them ugly... Well, except for Mystique, but then again, she was the sister he never had, so that didn't count.

Pyro sighed as he tried to get his focus back to where he currently was and what he was supposed to be doing. "Alright, Dr. Grey, where is he? The woods continue on through here forever."

"Go straight down the road for a quarter mile, John," the echo answered him. "I'll tell you when to stop."

Pyro nodded, even though he doubted that she would've known that he was nodding, and took off down the abandoned road, looking around everywhere as he did. The blonde-haired mutant remembered that not too long ago, this area had been overrun by the HYDRA, a criminal organization for spying and infiltrating that was believed to be run by someone that everyone had originally thought was dead: Lady Deathstrike. It was believed that she had perished when the dam broke, but the stories about her extremely powerful healing factor were indeed true if she had managed to survive. So needless to say, Pyro was ready to light up some HYDRA if it came down to it. He didn't figure that they would still be there, considering that the X-Men had shut them down when they came looking for the Cerebro parts that had been stolen by William Stryker during the raid, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.

While he continued to walk, he remembered also that HYDRA had been responsible for the creation of the Master Mold that created Sentinels that the X-Men had been forced to fight as well. Pyro had no idea what it would've been like to have had to deal with all of that, and he in fact never did. He himself had been sent on a mission during that time by Magneto to attack some power plant that HYDRA had also been using for one of their many schemes. Magneto, just like the X-Men, didn't like what the HYDRA had been planning and had good reason to believe that Bolivar Trask, the Secretary of Defense for the President, had been involved in all of this as well, making it part of some terrorist conspiracy to take over the country, but no one could connect Trask to what was going on. If it hadn't been for air head Bobby Drake stopping him from completing his mission, the plant would've been finished along with the plan that HYDRA was trying to implement.

Pyro sighed as he thought about Bobby. Despite the guy being an idiot at times, following Xavier's orders without question, he still felt of him as his best friend, now more then ever. He felt himself wondering what Bobby was doing at that moment. When he rode through New York City on his way up to Canada, it had been raining, so he figured that Bobby had just been sitting in his room, looking outside at the rain. That was what he always did when it rained. Pyro doubted that Bobby had changed much, so he couldn't help but actually picture him looking out that window at that very moment. A tear even came to his eye as he thought about it, but he quickly wiped it away. This wasn't the time to be thinking about Bobby Drake. He had more important things to worry about.

"Stop, John," the echo commanded, and with that, Pyro did stop. "Turn to your north and go through the trees. You will find him a half mile away from where you currently are."

"Dr. Grey," I began, "do you sense anyone else here?"

"The HYDRA aren't here, John, so stop worrying about them."

"How did you..."

"I was a telepath, remember?"

"Oh, yeah... Sorry..." Pyro started moving again in the direction that Jean's echo had told him to go in. He looked around everywhere as he kept moving in the straight path. He didn't want to get lost in these woods, as it was an area that he didn't know very well, but it was only moments before he saw Scott's body, lying unconscious on the ground like he had seen in the vision that Dr. Grey's echo had given him.

Pyro moved over to him quickly and got on his knees in front of him. There was a gash on his forehead, but the blood had since dried. Pyro put a hand on Scott's head and rubbed his hair as he bent down to him. "Scott, can you hear me?"

"If he can hear you, John, it isn't registering. You must remember that I've been doing everything I can to keep him stable, but I can't keep it up much longer. You have to get him out of here."

"But it might kill him to be moved, Dr. Grey," Pyro said, fear in his voice. "What if I start to move him, and the spinal injury he sustained triggers something. I'm too afraid to risk it."

"John, I can keep him stable while he's being moved. Get him to your motorcycle and tie his arms around you with a rope. You do have a rope, don't you?"

"Yeah, I keep it under the seat in the hidden storage... but..."

"Stop it with the 'buts', John. If you want to save Scott, then get to work carrying him to the motorcycles."

"Ok... Ok... Sheesh..." Pyro looked Scott over, trying to figure out what to do. He knew he didn't have long to think this over, but he couldn't help but notice Scott's haggard look. It was a look he didn't often see on him. It was pretty much rebel like: jeans, boots, leather biker jacket, red shirt. He was a little worried with Scott not wearing sunglasses though. "What do I do about his eyes? They could accidentally come open and kill me."

"He always keeps a second pair of shades under his bike seat, John. Just get those when you get him back to the motorcycles."

Pyro reached under Scott's back with his left hand, and moved his right hand under Scott's legs so he could pick him up, but he simply couldn't resist doing something first as he leaned down and kissed Scott on the lips. The kiss wasn't a long one, but he knew it would be his one and only chance to touch Scott's lips, so he had to take that chance, and then lifted up with what strength he did have in him and started trying his best to carry Scott away from the forest and back toward the road.

"You couldn't resist yourself, I see."

"Sorry, Dr. Grey."

"It's alright, John. I figured you'd do that anyway."

"Why were you always so excepting of my feelings for Scott anyway? Most women would've taken things a lot differently."

"Being a telepath gave me insight into feelings, John. I was able to understand things that most will never understand. It was hard at times to keep myself from revealing the secrets of those around me, but I eventually learned to control the urge."

Pyro came out of the forest and back onto the road. He shifted Scott in his arms a little. It was very hard on him trying to carrying to older man, as he wasn't very strong in the first place. He spent more time dealing with his looks then his body, and he was starting to regret that as his back was killing him.

"How's he holding up, Dr. Grey?"

"He's fine, John. You're doing a great job. I'm proud of you, and I'm sure Scott will be as well... As long as you don't tell him about the kiss, that is."

Pyro smiled a little at that remark and kept going, sighing with relief when he saw the motorcycles. After finally getting over to his, he gently set Scott down, moved over to Scott's bike, and got the extra pair of sunglasses out from the compartment under his seat. He moved back over to Scott and put the glasses on him. He moved over to his bike next and got the rope out from under his seat.

"What do I need to do about Scott's bike?"

"Don't worry about it for now. Once you're back at the mansion, have Logan or someone take the jet out to get it for him. For now though, Scott's the main concern."

"I know... I just wanted to make sure." And with that Pyro took Scott into his arms again and gently sat him on the back part of the seat, and jumped onto the front, keeping Scott from falling forward. He took the rope and did his best to tie Scott's arms around his stomach. "I don't know if this is gonna work, Dr. Grey. I don't want him to fall off the bike going full speed down a road."

"Don't be concerned with that. I'll do my best to keep him steady as I can. You just focus on driving."

"Dr. Grey?"

"Yes, John?"

"Are you going to be in Scott's head permanently, or are you a temporary entity, or what?"

"I don't know, John. Something like this has never been heard of before. If the professor were still around, he could answer that question for the both of us."

Pyro nodded and started the motorcycle. He turned it around using his legs, just to make sure that Scott wasn't going to fall off or anything and then started going as quickly as he could down the road. The trip back to Westchester County would be a long one, but at least Pyro had Scott with him. An unconscious Scott, but he had Scott nonetheless, still alive.