Burning Brightly

Authors Note:

I have tried to deal briefly with those scenes that appeared in the movie, focusing on how Pyro/John reacts to these events. I am here also defining his role in the Brotherhood as well as the roles of some of the key players.

This story will be a total of twelve chapters. The rough draft is complete and I will be posting a new chapter about every three days as I do my final edits.

Please rate and review. I have no beta reader and I am genuinely interested in constructive criticism. Since I am not and have never been a teenaged boy, this is definitely a challenge to my skills as a writer.

Enjoy...


Chapter Two: Sacrifice

Being a “mutant terrorist” wasn’t as exciting as it sounded. We spent a lot of time hiding and planning. And trying to recruit new “terrorists” without letting in a spy. In fact, we didn’t do much of anything until we began to hear rumors about a possible “cure” for mutants.

By that time, our organization had outgrown the warehouse base and we had moved to an underground base out in the middle of woods we called the “Brotherhood Camp.” Mystique and her pack of spies were digging in deep, trying to find confirmation of this “cure.” Magneto was moody, spending much of his time reading and rereading the reports Mesmer brought him.

There was more to do now. It was getting harder and harder to avoid doing any “real work.” I got stuck trying to train some of the knuckleheads with physical powers. You know teach them how to fight as a team without killing each other. Most of them were what you call “Class two”…Low powered crap. Like making yourself a little bigger or having claws or something lame like that. Some of them were really freaky looking. But we weren’t all that picky.

Every army needs cannon fodder, right? And I couldn’t slack on this job, because Magneto wanted all our training sessions recorded. He would often go over them later. So I sucked it up and showed them what it was like to play with fire.

Actually, it was good to have something to do. At least I wasn’t so bored anymore. Magneto began to reserve some practice time for the two of us. Separately we were some of the highest powered mutants around. Dangerous. Impressive. When we combined our powers…It was awe inspiring. Real “Wrath of God” stuff.

When the reports confirmed that Worthington Labs was about to start churning out the “Cure” in large quantities, things got serious. Magneto stepped up his recruiting efforts, pulling Mesmer away from her monitors to be his shadow while he worked on “building morale.”

I was usually there, too. I was the Brotherhood’s poster boy, more powerful than any of them except for Magneto himself. They looked up to me. Maybe even worshipped me. They respected power. It felt good. Real good.

Hell yeah! It felt good. Life was never like this at Xavier’s.

Then Mystique got caught.

The humans had gotten smarter. They kept her moving. Not only were visitors not allowed, we weren’t even allowed to know where she was.

Magneto wasn’t happy. Not at all. Mystique had information that was critical to our plans. We needed to get her back. For that we needed to recruit on a bigger scale. And to do that, we had to come out into the open, at least to other mutants.

So we did.

Getting into the rally at Holy Trinity was easy. Any mutant was welcome and they didn’t ask many questions. It was a weird mix. I’d never seen so many mutants in one place before. Not even at Xavier’s. Some of them looked perfectly normal. And some of them were so freaky they couldn’t go outside in the daylight. All of them were worried about what all this talk about the “Cure” meant.

At first Magneto and I hung in the back, just listening. They were actually debating whether they should form a committee and make a complaint to the government. Idiots! At least a few of them seemed to understand how dangerous this “Cure” really was.

Mesmer slipped into the crowd and took a seat in the front row. I kept a careful eye on her. She was here to do her thing and if anyone caught on, it could get ugly. She wasn’t wearing her shades, but she did wear a hood to shadow her eyes. In this kind of crowd, people knew better than to look too closely.

Magneto waited for just the right moment. The skinny old man on the stage was yammering on about forming committees. Some Asian looking chick with streaks of purple in her hair was heckling him.

“They want to exterminate us.” She interrupted him.

“This cure is voluntary. Nobody’s talking about extermination.” He started to argue with her.

“No one ever talks about it. They just do it.” Magneto’s voice rose over the crowd. Everyone turned to look at us. “And you go on with your lives ignoring the signs all around you.”

When he spoke, everyone listened. He took over the little stage at the front of the old church and continued to speak. I stood behind him and watched the crowd.

“And then one day, when the air is still and the night has fallen, they come for you.”

“Excuse me, but…” The old guy tried to interrupt, but all Magneto had to do was look at him and he shut up.

“It’s only then you realize, while you were talking about organizing and committees the extermination has already begun…”

The “Cure” was a weapon that would be turned against us. Humanity would use it to wipe us out. If we let them. It was a good speech...Even better with Mesmer working her mojo on the crowd.

“Who will you stand with – the humans…or us?” He finished his speech. Dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop.

Almost as soon as we stepped off the stage we were approached by this tattooed chick and her buddies. They all had tattoos and called themselves the “Omegas.” I recognized one of them as the heckler.

These Omegas had an attitude. They started to give Magneto some lip. But, I showed them a little taste of what I can do to shut them up. Then we got to talking business.

The tattooed chick turned out to be very useful. Not only could she detect mutants, she could tell what their powers were. Super speed was just a bonus. Magneto shot me a look, and then asked the question: “Could you locate one for me?”

“Yes.”

After that, we didn’t hang around long. Callisto and her Omegas were exactly what we’d been looking for when we came here. I could tell Magneto had a plan as he hustled us all out to the van we’d parked down the street. Mesmer was already waiting for us, she’d slipped out while we were talking with the Omegas.

“Who’s she?” Callisto glared at Mesmer who was sitting in the back of the van. She’d put her glasses back on under the hood.

“One of us, my dear.” Magneto waved her and her friends inside. “Mesmer, I’d like you to meet Callisto and her friends.”

“Welcome to the Brotherhood.” Mesmer nodded to her.

“Hey! She’s a…” Callisto started to say. Oops, busted.

“I know what she is.” Magneto dismissed her protest as he walked around to take the drivers seat. I started to take the front passenger seat, but he waved me to the back in favor of Callisto. I figured he wanted to smooth things over with her before she got too suspicious.

I wound up sitting beside Mesmer. Up close she looked a little pale. I watched as she reached up and rubbed her temples with her fingers.

“You O.K.?” I whispered. Last thing we needed was for her to fall apart on us. We needed her, at least until we got Mystique back.

“Headache. Big crowd.” She whispered.

“Mesmer, huh? So what’s your power?” The heckler, Psylocke, leaned over the seat. She was smiling, but it wasn’t exactly friendly.

“Back off. Need to know.” I snapped at her. These Omegas were getting on my nerves.

“Ooohhh! Must be good, then.” She smirked. “Doesn’t matter. Callisto will tell us anyway.”

Mesmer pulled off her shades and rubbed her eyes. Then she turned to look at Psylocke.

“Unless you happen to have some aspirin in your pocket, I really don’t want to talk to you. I’ve got a major fucking headache and I’d like some peace and quiet.” Her voice was quiet, but her eyes flashed silver.

Psylocke opened her mouth and closed it again. Then she sat back down without another word.

“You know, you probably shouldn’t have done that.” I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. She still hadn’t put the shades back on and her hood was pushed back.

“Probably…” She whispered. “Don’t suppose you got anything for a headache?”

“What’ll you give me for it?” I reached below the seat to snag the med kit.

“Don’t be an asshole.” I half expected her to pull her little trick on me too, but she just sighed and rubbed her temples again without looking at me.

“Here.” I opened the kit and pulled out a bottle of painkillers. “I was just fucking with you.”

“Not funny. But, thanks anyway.” She shook out a couple and swallowed them dry before handing the bottle back to me. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against her seat.

“Just doing my job.” I glanced up at the rearview mirror while I repacked the kit. Magneto’s eyes met mine for a moment. He and Callisto were silent now. Hopefully, she wasn’t going to be a problem.

The next few days were spent putting together the mission to rescue Mystique. It took Callisto a while to find her and lock on, and anytime her attention wandered, Mystique would move someplace else. We spent a most of a day chasing them before we got our chance.

Finally we caught up with the caravan of unmarked cars and the big black prison truck. You should have seen it. Magneto tossed their cars around like toys and smashing them flat. I know Callisto was impressed. So were her pals. By the time we got inside the trailer, Mystique had already gotten free from her cell.

There were two other mutants in the trailer, Magneto considered them a bonus. We were so caught up in checking them out; one of the guards got the drop on us. That’s how we found out that humans were already carrying cure weapons.

They got Mystique…I wasn’t fast enough. I torched the guard, but it was too late. He’d almost gotten Magneto. Would have, if Mystique hadn’t taken the hit for him.

And she changed…I’d never seen her look frightened before. Never seen Magneto look so shocked. She saved him. But, he left her there. On the floor of that truck, lying there naked and powerless. Human.

“Eric.”

I don’t think I ever realized before that she actually loved him. Maybe it was because she seemed so alien, with her blue skin and weird eyes. But, she was human now and she looked so vulnerable. Maybe even frightened. That was a bizarre thought. Mystique? Frightened?

“I’m sorry, my dear. You’re not one of us anymore.” Then he turned away, not looking at her. It was almost like she died right there. Is that what it would be like if one of us got hit by a cure weapon? Like we were dead to him?

Then don’t get hit. That’s what I told myself. Don’t be careless. This isn’t the X Men. This is the Brotherhood. There’s a battle coming and if you can’t fight, you may as well be dead. We can’t afford to be weak. We can’t afford to be human.

“We can’t allow this to set us back. Mystique sacrificed herself to give us precious information. The source of this poison is a mutant. A child.” Magneto explained to Callisto and her Omegas. “Now that we know, we can act and remove this threat once and for all.”

It sounded so simple when he said it. But, of course it would take some time and planning to pull it off. And now Mystique was gone. Not only gone, but human. That would be a blow to the Brotherhood’s morale.

Since when did I think about things like morale?

I thought about that and a lot of other things on the trip back to the Camp. Now that Mystique was gone, where did that leave me? Still Magneto’s right hand. Still his ace in the hole. But, that left a power vacuum that sucked so hard, even someone like me could see it. So did Callisto.

Magneto called a meeting as soon as we returned. Callisto and I waited with him for Mesmer to arrive so that he could brief her on what had happened. Mesmer entered the room and looked around before speaking.

“Where’s Mystique?”

“I’m afraid that everything did not go as planned, my dear.”

“Yeah. You could say that.” Callisto spoke up. Magneto waved to her for silence.

“What happened?”

“As I said before, the humans would draw first blood. And they have.”

“Mystique is dead?” I couldn’t tell if she was upset or not. Her tone of voice gave nothing away and those shades made it hard to read her expression.

“Worse. They have stripped her of her birthright.” He pulled out a weapon that we had taken from one of the guards. “They have made their ‘cure’ into a weapon. And it has claimed its first victim.”

“Is she all right? Where is she?” Now that did sound a little like concern. Mesmer was one of Mystique’s recruits wasn’t she?

“She is human. Quite likely she is in custody at this moment.”

“You left her? But, I thought you and Mystique…” Mesmer glanced at Callisto, who leaned back in her chair with a smirk. Something about the way she looked at Mesmer made me think of sharks circling.

“We can’t afford to let our personal feelings interfere with our purpose here.” He looked at her earnestly and sighed. “We can’t allow the lines between ourselves and our enemies to become blurred. When all of this is over we will make every effort undo what has been done for all of those who have been ‘cured.’”

“I see.” Mesmer sat down to my left. I thought I saw her glancing at Callisto, but it was hard to tell.

“Raven, as a human, will be much safer where she is for the time being.” Magneto’s tone made it clear that the subject was closed. He opened a folder on his desk. He looked at it for a moment while we waited for him to speak. I resisted the urge to pull my lighter out and mess with it.

“This loss will require some adjustments on our part.” Magneto looked up again and folded his hands in front of him. “Mesmer, you will continue to coordinate our agents and attend to your usual duties. You will continue to report directly to me, or to Pyro in my absence.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Callisto, as you are most familiar with them, you will be in charge of integrating your Omegas and the new recruits with the rest of the Brotherhood. I wish you to see to their training and housing. You will report to myself, or again, to Pyro in my absence.”

Then he looked at me with a smile.

“And of course, all this means that Pyro will be my second in command.” He looked at Mesmer, then at Callisto. “Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yeah.”

“Excellent. Now, I do have something special to ask of you Mesmer.” He rose and walked around the desk to stand over the girl with the open folder in his hand.

“Sir?”

“We were successful in recruiting two very valuable mutants. I have a mission for this one, ‘Multiple Man.’” He offered her the folder and she took it, glancing at the first page. “I wish you to persuade him to take on this task.”

“This is going to get him caught.” Mesmer looked up at him. “That’s going to take some convincing.”

“I have every faith in you and your abilities.” Magneto reached down and removed her sunglasses. Mesmer started to reach for them, and then drew back her hand. She looked down, avoiding his eyes. He tilted her chin up until she was forced to look at him.

“Mystique believed that no mutant should have to hide what she was. Each of our gifts is precious and has its own beauty.”

“I am not Mystique.” Mesmer pulled away from him, looking down at the report.

“Do not fear your gift. It is when you fear it that it begins to control you.” Magneto tucked the sunglasses in his pocket. “Mr. Madrox is waiting in the conference room. Go. Speak to him. Persuade him.”

“To sacrifice himself?”

“We don’t wish Mystique’s sacrifice to be in vain, now do we?”

“No, sir.”

“Very good.” He returned to his seat.

She closed the folder and stood up. I caught a flash of silver when she glanced at me. Then she left the room quickly, not looking at Callisto. As soon as the door closed behind her, Callisto leaned forward.

“Do you really think you can trust her? Are you sure she’s not manipulating you?” Her question was directed at Magneto. He held Mesmer’s shades between his fingers and seemed to be thinking about something.

“My dear Callisto, she has been with the Brotherhood longer than yourself, or even Pyro here. I can assure you she has given me no reason to distrust her.” He set the shades down on his desk.

“She used her power on one of my people.” Callisto stood and leaned over his desk. “And I bet she was using it at the rally. How do we know she hasn’t used it on you?”

“Psylocke was being a pain in the ass.” I spoke up. I didn’t like the way she was hassling Magneto. I pulled out my lighter and flicked it open.

“Of course she was using them at the rally. Why else would we have brought her?” Magneto smiled at her.

“As for myself, I have spent time with some of the most powerful minds on the planet. I am quite capable of determining whether someone is attempting to influence me.” He tapped his temple with one finger.

“And he’s got that helmet.” I pointed at the thing, sitting on the desk. Yeah, it looked dorky. But, if wearing a bucket on your head could keep someone like the Professor out of your thoughts, it was worth it.

“Yes.” Magneto reached over to stroke it with a finger. “This is proof against more than just telepathy and has held against much more powerful mutants than our Mesmer.”

“She’s a class three charismatic…What beats that?”

“A class four telepath.” Magneto stood. “Now, I believe we have new recruits who will require accommodations. And there is a war to prepare for. Perhaps you should begin.” His tone was stern, and only an idiot would continue to argue with him. Callisto wasn’t an idiot.

“Yes, sir.” She stepped back, then turned and left us alone.