Nikki stared into the bushes and wanted to explode. Her hopes and excitement were raised to such a degree then dropped to plummet to cold reality. She longed for him to return and for things to return to somewhat normalcy. But things just didn't turn out the way she expected, or wanted. Her let her palm slide from her forehead to over her eyes, which she rubbed the sleepiness out of, for pinching the bridge of her nose. Hiding, sneaking around and keeping secrets from her friends was not the type of relationship she had hoped for.

She groaned, trudging through the wet grass barefooted and back to the mansion, she tried to remember if she ran outside barefooted or if she had lost slippers or socks. She just couldn't care about that, mentally and emotionally drained, she slowly moved on through the nearly pitch black halls. Finally reaching the door to her dorm room, she felt for the door knob and walked in, not even bothering to pull the blankets over her and just laying curled on top of the neatly made bed. Turning over several times, she finally fell into a restless sleep.

Piercing greenish grey eyes shot open, the red head first waking moments were being shaken from sleep by some screaming voice. The red head blinked a few times, trying to regain her focus as the meaningless noises turned into words. One of her peers, and angry one at that, had managed to get into the room. Terror began to overwhelm her and all she could muster was her high pitched screams. In a panic, she quickly scanned the room, her eyes darting from one empty bed to the next.

"Stop! You're hurting me!" she pleaded, clenching her eyes shut.
"You fucking bitch!" the boy shouted as he began to squish her shoulders into the mattress, "This is your fault somehow! I know it! The Professor knows it! We all know it!"

However, as soon as he finished his sentence the boy was thrown off of the redhead and into the nearest wall. Not taking the time to look up at her savior, she nearly jumped off the bed and backed herself into the corner trying to regain her composure. Once she caught her breath, she looked up, hand still on her chest almost to stop it from heaving.

"Listen punk! I don't care how pissed you are; this ain't the girl's fault so drop it before I drop kick your ass out of that second floor window, got it!?" Logan snarled at the boy.

The boy nearly snarled back, glaring back at the redhead, "Do us all a favor and leave!" he nearly spat the words at her.

She had to turn her head away, fighting the tears. Nikki couldn't help but feel rejected everywhere she went. As soon as the boy was nearly thrown out of the room, she slid to the floor and cried into her knees. She could feel the tension still thick in the air.

"Listen," Logan started hesitantly unsure of exactly how to deal with emotional females, "the Professor want to see you." and with that left the room.

The redhead took a few moments to compose herself before standing up. Only in a baggy tee shirt and underwear, she threw on a pair of jeans before looking herself over in the mirror. Her shoulder length hair was disheveled and her eyes were bloodshot. Beneath the green tee shirt her abdomen gently poked out from under the material. At 16 weeks, her stomach had taken a drastic change from its usual flatness to a very noticeable bulge.

Her shaking legs carried her out of her room, down the hall, and to the Professor's office. She saw the blasphemous messages carved into the walls saying things such as "cowards", "X-geeks", and "join us or die". She shook for a moment with anger 'So that's why he was here… To do this!' She nearly snarled, how could they believe this was her fault? She hadn't done anything to cause them to believe her to be disloyal. Finally stepping into the office, she took a seat in front of the large oak desk, squeezing her fingers.

"I know you had nothing to do with this." Professor Xavier said, his voice calm and soothing.

Fierce green eyes darted up to meet the aged blue ones, "Then why am I here?" she snarled. There really was no reason for this meeting. She could not control what John and his goons did. She felt the unwanted presence in her mind. "What are you doing?"
"Searching," He simply stated, "for proof."

"Why?" then she felt it, a memory from last night being pulled out from her minds depths almost in front of her eyes, which widened. She knew what he was looking for. He was searching to see if she knew that John had visited. "Get out! Get out of my head! NOW!" she shrieked. Her finger nails raked against her scalp. The feeling was not pleasant, her mind was trying to hide these things but he kept digging and sorting through everything.

"I'm afraid that with your presence hear, it might bring more trouble here. I know what happened, despite your persistence. You've done nothing wrong. However, I have already payed for an apartment where you will be staying for the time being, that is until this mess has been sorted out. The directions have been put into the new GPS system we have installed into your car. Also, here is your new bank card. It is set up to a fund that should suffice for you until everything is back to normal." He said before leaving her agape in the office.

She trudged out of the office, putting the little green plastic card into her pocket then made her way down the hall towards her room. As soon as she made it to the safety of her room she allowed her rage to pour out, slamming the door so hard it almost seemed that it would come off its hinges. She curled her hands into tight fists against her head and screamed.

"FUCK!" She howled in absolute animosity. She tore through the dorm room with such ferocity that it would even make the infamous Magneto quiver in terror. 'That monster!' she thought as she ripped picture frames off the dresser and into the farthest wall, 'he took John away; if it wasn't for him my life could be somewhat normal!' She shredded her pillow in half, cotton falling everywhere. "BASTARD!!!" she screamed into the ceiling.

Pyro

Magneto had discovered what the group had done and was surprisingly upset. He severely punished the others but not John. The boy in question paced the room, planning on the next time he would find Nikki. He wished she had come back with him. He had excelled so greatly with his powers; he wanted to teach her so much. Together they could be magnificent. But something worried him. He had indeed been with the others when they intruded on the Xavier grounds, so why wasn't he being punished? Was this a silent treatment? Lounging on the large black bed, he stared into the ceiling deep in thought. He didn't know when he fell asleep, but he remembered the falling feeling when he was waking up. The elder mutant pulled open the heavy metal door with his gift, abruptly waking the young mutant.

"Come," commanded Magneto, "we're going on a mission."

Bewildered, the young mutant scrambled out of bed; spraying deodorant over himself to mask the fact that he hadn't bathed. He quickly followed after his leader, walking just one step behind him. "What's this about?"

"It's a rescue mission."

The teen's stomach clenched and his mind raced back to last night. Could he have found out about last night? 'No, none of the other guys saw me or her. The only one who knows is Lance. Would he have said something?' He thought all this while staring wide eyed at Magneto.
"We'll picking up Mystique," opening up the exit door to the helicopter pad he glanced back at the teen, "Suit up, you might need it."

John knew what he had meant. Grabbing what looked like small metal tank that had a tube on each side that ad a metal sparker to create the tiniest of flames; which was all he needed. The metal at the end of the tubes also had a metal clasp to hold the sparker to the underside of his wrist. Once finished fastening the wrist clamps, he slipped on a worn leather jacket to conceal the device.

Stepping out the door into the strong gust of wind, we walked across the dock and hesitantly stepped onto the slightly rocking boat. He never enjoyed boat rides. His father had owned a boat and enjoyed going on drunken joy rides. When he found out John was a mutant, about the age of 14, he had thrown him off the boat at 80 miles per hour. John had broken his arm and had to swim most of the way to shore when the rescue boat had found him. After that incident, his father went to prison for attempted murder. He had been left with his stepmother, the abusive pedophiliac whore that she was. If she wasn't groping him she was trying to beat him. He had finally had enough and burnt her hair to a crisp in her sleep. That's when she left him at the shelter.