Pyro/John's POV
I sat down at the cure station waiting for her. It was 1:34 and she still wasn't here. I wondered for awhile if she sat me up. Nah… a pretty 'lil southern dame like her wouldn't do that… would she? I looked at the cure station watching those mutants go in and come out as humans. I don't mind humans… really, I don't. People always get the impression for some fuckin' reason that I hate humans. If there weren't any humans… then there wouldn't be Bloc Party. Bloc Party somehow inspires me. I go for nearly every show. That's why I went on the helicopter back with Mags. I didn't go with him at first because I liked him. No way! He was so… weird. World domination was no. 1 on his list. No, I just went with him because I knew he was going to Phoenix and that was where the next Bloc Party concert was. After all the rockin', I had nowhere else to go. I quickly went back to the mansion but before I went inside I heard all… ALL of them gossiping about me leaving them to join Magneto. I was shocked, my friends… well ex-friends all abandoned trust from me to automatically think I was with Magneto. I grew up to think Magneto was the bad guy and Xavier's were the good guys. After that, my temper came back. I rustled and hustled around for a bit and then after long weeks I just decided to go with Mags. I hated it at first. The camping out in the woods just wasn't… good enough for me. After awhile, Magneto made me his right hand man and I hadn't even done anything. I wasn't doing things on time, I hardly ever listened to him and I just didn't fit with him. But… he adored my power; he even said that maybe he could teach me to make fire on my own. It started to get a tiny bit better when he got all of the other people. They treated me like I was their own. I started to get along with Multiple Man, Callisto and Arclight they were okay but – I think his name is Kid Omega or something like that, anyway – he was just a shocker. He thought… thinks, that he… HE could actually defeat me in a fight! ME! I know, I know, my ego is quite large but still… this guy can like bust needles outta his skin. HOW LAME IS THAT POWER?!?!? My fantasies stopped as I saw a familiar flash of blonde walk past me. I stood up and went to it.
"Hey Drake, getting the cure so you can go back to Mummy and Daddy?" I asked, smirking. Personally, I have no problem with the Ice man besides the fact that he hurt precious Rogue, he's a good guy.
"I'm looking for someone," he said, looking everywhere.
"Oh… your girlfriend, right? She's pathetic," I said. Wondering what he'll say to my statement. I knew Rogue wasn't his girlfriend anymore. But, I still wondered what he would say.
"No way! Kitty wouldn't take the cure… oh…" Bobby accidently said. I smirked. Loser just revealed to me that Katherine Pryde was his girlfriend.
"Couldn't handle the Rogue so you moved on to Shadowprat? Geez Ice dick, I thought you had more style?" I said. Bobby's hand frosted. I remember Rogue telling me that Bobby once turned into ice when he got really mad one day.
"Don't you ever talk about Kitty that way ever again," he said to me glaring at me.
"Don't worry Ice dick, no need to chop it off!" I said. He scowled at me, "so… if you're not looking for your girlfriend… who are you looking for?" He was about to answer when I heard a 'Psst!' coming from beside me. I looked around and saw Rogue in dark green trench-hoodie. "Yo man, I gotta get outta here. Places to attend; people to please," I said whilst waving my eyebrows up and down.
"Look who's pathetic," he said to me. I decided to leave him with a present. So I made a small fireball in my hand and dumped it on his head, burning some of his hair. He realized what happened and automatically tried to put it out whilst saying, "why you little!" and instead of strangling me, I jumped away from him and ran next to Rogue. We then started to walk away into our quiet space in the woods.
"Hey Sugah, what's up… since yesterday?" She asked me once we got into the woods.
"Oh… nothing really. It is so boring with Mags, I don't even know why I'm with him," I said whilst I put my hands in my jean pockets.
"Wait… why are you with him?" Rogue asked me. I normally ask that question to myself. Why am I with that mad man?
"I actually don't know. I hate it there," I said whilst looking at her. Rogue looked like she was contemplating something.
"Then why are you with him and his right-hand-man?" Rogue asked.
"I don't know! I didn't try to be, he just automatically made me. I never wanted to be with Magneto, desperate times called for desperate measures," I said.
"Desperate times?" Rogue asked whilst raising her eyebrows. I looked down and started to kick a pebble.
"Uh… yeah. I never went on the helicopter to go with Magneto. I knew he was going to his base back in Phoenix and I also knew that Bloc Party's concert was in Phoenix too, so I went with him to go to the concert," I said. Rogue looked at me with her mouth gaping wide open.
"You're not joking, are you?" She asked. I shook my head; no.
"No. I really enjoyed the concert and I went back to the X-Men but did a little sneaking around to jump out at you and Bobby. I wanted to scare you guys. Anyway, when I was going around the school. I heard everyone talking about me leaving the X-Geeks to go with Mags. At first I was confused; why would they think I went with Magneto. But afterwards, I was furious. Why would they think I would betray them?! I then left them and had nowhere to go. Around a couple of months, Magneto and Mystique crossed paths with me and I decided, oh who gives and went with them," I finished my speech. Rogue looked shocked.
"Ah'm sorry. Ah guess only Bobby and meh knew you wouldn't leave us without a real explanation and we never actually did talk about you because it made us sad ta think you would leave us like that," Rogue said. I smiled a sad smile, "Y'know, if ya didn't leave us to go ta that concert Johnny, we would've probably been at the Mansion right now and Ah probably wouldn't have gone ta Mississippi and touched Carol which means, Ah wouldn't have mah other powers. Also, Bobby and Ah would probably still be together not because we love each other; no, only because Kitty used ta have a BIG crush on you and because we were both too shy to end it. Ah'm so glad ya left Johnny and Ah'm not meaning that in an offensive way; just saying Ah prefer this life, now." Rogue said, I nodded.
"Yeah, me too. Even though I'm not entirely happy with Magneto, life wouldn't have been as good as it is now if I didn't go to the concert," I said, "so… What's happened since yesterday?" Rogue shrugged.
"Nothing mu- Wait! A lot of things has happened. Um… well, Siryn, you know Siryn," I nodded, "well, she accidently touched meh and didn't die. She automatically thought of the cure. Now everyone in the mansion thinks Ah'm a traitor. Kitty hates meh. Bobby thinks our friendship is back. He is so thick headed. Ah'm avoiding him and he still tries to talk ta meh the way he used to. Logan left, again. Scott hardly ever leaves his room besides when he eats and the Professor is always dealing with the new mutants and only Jubilee and Warren know about meh not getting the cure!" She said. Warren…who the hell is Warren?
"Who's Warren?" I asked suddenly getting defensive for some reason. Apparently Rogue noticed this and I bet she smiled a little, but I couldn't be quite sure.
"Oh, Warren's new; he only came a couple of weeks ago. He and Ah became friends really easily and yesterday Ah got really sad so Ah wanted ta getta way from everybody so Ah went on the roof unfortunately Warren went on his daily fly then so he caught meh on the roof so basically Ah told him everything," Rogue said.
"What do you mean, 'daily fly'?" I asked; still confused.
"Oh yeah, Warren or Angel as his mutant name has wings like birds. When people saw him flying in the sky, they thought he was an Angel; hence the name. Yeah, so he like flies around the mansion every single day and unfortunately he caught meh," Rogue said. I nodded.
"So… did you do anything else?" I asked. She nodded.
"Oh yeah, Jubes and Ah went ta a water theme park yesterday, it was fun. But Ah don't think ya would like ta go there, would you?" Rogue asked. I shook my head.
"No… water makes me feel uncomfortable and useless if there is a lot of it," I explained.
"Hey, do you think you might be able to create fire on your own? Like, Ah mean, instead of just manipulating it, you can create the fire without gas?" She asked me. I looked down; I felt tears prickle my eyes.
"I haven't told anyone this. But, when the Professor first met me… I think he felt something powerful in me so he basically ripped my ability to create fire in my mind. Before that, I could nearly make it by myself b-but then he ripped it, it really – sniff – hurt. I-I," I just broke down crying. I hardly every cry, I like being the tough guy but I never really realized how important that was to me. I felt Rogue take me in her arms. She hugged me and told me, "it's alright," many times.
"Ah don't know about this, but maybe Ah can- hm…. Let meh try, Ah know Ah'm not as good as Xav-Ah'll try," Rogue said. I then felt her invade my mind. Unlike Xavier, her invasion didn't hurt, I then felt her tugging on something and then CRASH! I had to hold my mind to stop the pain. It hurt so bad, I fell to the ground. Rogue quickly went to the ground to help me up and as quickly as the pain came, it went away. I breathed in deep breaths, "Are you okay?!? Ah didn't mean for it ta hurt bad!" She said to me. I breathed in and out again.
"Don't worry, the pain's gone but… what did you do?" I asked still holding my head and her hand to stop me from collapsing.
"When Ah went into ya mind, Ah found a big… big… Ah dunno but it looked like a bomb or something. It was your ability to create fire. Ah don't think the Professor got rid of your power properly b'cause the bomb was gonna go off sometime and when it went off, you would too. He basically made it faulty so when you would get really angry, it'd go off and your mind basically would shatter so you would die. Ah tried to get rid of the bomb in a non-painful way but unfortunately, Ah failed but anyway, now you can make fire on your own," she said. I was shocked.
"Y-you mean, the Professor wanted me to die?" I asked. She shook her head.
"Ah don't think the Prof wanted you ta die, Ah think he just had a lot on his mind and didn't do the process properly," she said, "anyway try out ya new power!"
I then looked at the grass and used the same technique that I normally use to manipulate fire; suddenly, fire burst out of my hand and burnt the grass in just stayed in a sphere sort of shape. I then made it larger, smaller and went on to harder things like TVs and the Eifel Tower. Rogue then clapped; I immediately shut off the power.
"Hey! That means you can make fire too!" I said, she shook her head.
"No, Ah don't think so, Ah only have the part of ya mind where you couldn't create fire only manipulate it,"
"Why don't you absorb me again," I asked, she laughed.
"Sugah, Ah don't think ya wanna feel lahke dying again, b'sides, Ah kinda lahke ma Zippo," she said whilst flipping it's cap in the infamous, John Allerdyce way. Clip, snap, clip, snap.
"Fine," I said before I burst myself into flames. Before I could burn my clothes, I immediately turned the fire to blue. I then changed back into my normal human self. I saw Rogue look at her watch.
"So… what d'ya wanna do? It's only 3:20," she said.
"Hm… what do you girls do?" I asked.
"Uh… shopping. Wait a minute, Ah haven't gone shopping in awhile and Ah really need to get new clothes. Care to join meh?" She asked.
"Sure," I answered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Are you sure you've gotten enough clothes?" I asked, counting only two bags. She frowned.
"Yeah, why?" She asked. I looked at her skeptically.
"I've gone with Mystique to the shops and came out with hundreds of bags… I'm kinda used to the whole 50 bags per hand rule," I said. She laughed.
"Yeh, Ah know, ma mu- uh… Mystique is quite the shopper," she said but then she looked like she regret saying it.
"You've been shopping with Mystique?" I asked. She looked down.
"No… of course not!" She said; but it was obvious she was lying. I changed the subject.
"Hey, I bet you twenty bucks that I can get that girl to buy me that hat!" I said pointing to a lady who had black hair and looked like a nerd
"Okay, sure," Rogue said. I smirked. I walked up to the counter and looked at the nice black hat, I then 'accidently' fell on her and I heard Rogue laugh.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry. I never meant to fall on you," she said to me. I smiled my smile that I use to catch cute girls with at her and I bet I heard her suck in air.
"No, I think it was my fault," I said to her.
"Uh…" Was all she said.
"Hey, I really like that hat, y'know, but unfortunately I don't have any money, do you like it?" I asked whilst pointing to the hat.
"Uh… yeah, I have money, I'll buy it," she said with a hazy look in her eyes.
"Really, that would be awesome if you could," I said leaning in closer to her.
"Uh… y-y-yeah sure," she stuttered whilst she grabbed the hat to pay for it. I looked around for Rogue and when I spotted her, I winked. She shook her head. I went up to her.
"Oh, thank you," I said whilst I grabbed the hat after she paid for it, "I guess I'll see you around, by the way, I'm Nick," I said a fake name and went on my way, I heard her call out to me,
"I'm Janette,"
I walked to the direction where Rogue was at and smirked at her,
"the twenty dollars please," I said. She gave the 20 bucks and raised her eyebrows.
"Didn't know you had it in ya. How long have you been seducing girls and leaving them?" She asked.
"A very long time," I answered whilst taking the money. "So… what now?" I asked.
"Um… dine with me?" She asked whilst pointing to a very expensive restaurant.
"Sure," I said whilst I took her hand and headed off to the restaurant.
