Olly Olly Oxen Free (Pyro)

[bliss]

She had entered the grounds cautiously, her blue eyes had flittered about, almost hopefully, for any signs of life. She had no idea what happened at Alcatraz, and had been avoiding this place, completely expecting Magneto to be displeased with her, and everyone for that matter. She already knew they lost, there was no doubt about that, but how badly? And where was everyone? Would she be viewed as a traitor for taking so long to return? And how the fuck had she ended up near a dumpster in an alley? It had nearly given her a heart attack, thinking that everything had been a dream at first, but her dreams were never that long, never that vivid, and the injuries she sustained from the battle had still marred her skin. In fact, she still had a few bruises along her arms and legs, but nothing to atrocious or life threatening.

Bliss suddenly paled, wondering if the Brotherhood had been eradicated, but it couldn’t be. Magneto was powerful, he would not have died, and they could not have managed to kill the rest of them—no, mutants were survivalists, they were sneaky, and if shit really had hit the fan, they were probably hiding. Still, despite that she had to look around inside, had to see with her own eyes that the place really was empty. Perhaps those X-men had temporarily decommissioned the Brotherhood? She doubted it would be for long, and even if the Brotherhood did not specifically rise again, some other organizations would. It was kind of like fighting a Hydra, you cut off one head, and two more grow back. A lose-lose situation, for them, that is.

The female forcefully shoved the door to the place open, eyes staring at the familiar insides of the place, though it seemed so surreal and foreign at the same time. It was deathly quiet, and it looked like it could use a little sprucing up, and the lack of mutant activity was just downright strange. Bliss could distinctly remember plenty of fights going on in this manor, both verbal and physical, after all that’s what happens when you jam dangerously powerful mutants together, especially ones that can be prone to disagreeing with one another.

“Hello?” the blonde called out into the vast expanse of the place, taking a few cautious steps inside as she squinted slightly. “Anyone home?” she called again, hoping for some sort of reply besides her own echo. If nothing else, she could go to her old room and grab some of her stuff, maybe take a shower if there was running water. Her current attire was a bit dirty, sneakers scuff, socks had holes in them, her already short skirt was tattered and her shirt had a sleeve missing from it—not that it mattered, after all it was showing off her entire midriff anyway, but still, some clean clothing sounded nice.

[pyro2]

A mere two days Magneto and Pyro had stayed at the X-Men, and it was already the second time that the old man had sent him back here to get stuff. Not that he minded. Every opportunity to get away from the mansion was a relief. It was hugely bizarre to be back there, and he didn't like it one bit. If not for his respect for Magneto, he would have never done it.

He just left Magneto's office with two bags of things when he heard some noises from downstairs. And a voice. John frowned. The voice sounded kind of familiar but he couldn't place it. He walked down the hallway to the stairs and descended those til he saw who the voice belonged to. A girl he remembered only dimly. She had joined the Brotherhood just a short time before the Alcatraz battle, and he had no idea what had happened to her there. Obviously she had survived and found her way back, like he had just a few days ago. She looked pretty ragged, though.

"Not really", he replied to her question and continued to walk down the stairs. The house was all empty except for himself, fetching some stuff. "What can I do for you?" He decided to remain neutral, not really showing if he recognized her or not. She would have to know him, though. He was, after all, Magneto's right-hand man.

[bliss]

She had heard the footsteps before anything else, her body tensing for a moment. If this place was abandoned, than it would only be a matter of time before teens ran amok through it—she’d been to the party’s before, they had them at locations that were vacate, and they would trash the place, not that she was necessarily afraid, but she’d be damned before she let some stupid humans take the place over without a fight, abandoned or not.

Though, to her surprise, she recognized the male who began to descend the stair almost immediately. Bliss had seen him hanging close to Magneto most of the time, along with that blue female, Pyro and Mystique were their names, or at least their “codename’s”. The blonde had not bothered to learn their real names, never getting that close to them.

“What the fuck’s up with that?” she asked in reply to his statement of the place being empty, more or less. “Nice to know not everyone is dead,” she added, hands moving to her hips as she regarded him—he was carrying two bags with him, a little peculiar. “And yeah, mind telling me what the hell happened? I know we lost and all…but I don’t really remember much, and where is everyone?” Had they moved locations? Was that why the Pyro had those bags? She hoped so.

Being back on the street, she had been unable to really watch the new casts about the incident, and as far as the paper went…well, when it came to English, she was not a very strong reader. She was, after all, from Sweden. “I’m Burlesque, by the way, or just Bliss.” Might as well introduce herself—it had not really crossed her mind that he would not recognize her, but even if he hadn’t, she would have expected hostility from him, instead he seemed to observe her almost blandly in a way.

[pyro2]

John studied her briefly. "Yeah, I remember, you joined us just before Alcatraz." There was no reason to introduce himself since she obviously recognized him. He had reached the bottom of the stairs now and put the bags down, looking her up and down. "You look as if you just survived a car crash or something..." The battle had been a while ago, what had she done since then? He himself had looked pretty civilized when he had walked in here.

He sighed. "No idea where everybody is, I guess most of them didn't make it. Magneto is around, though. Just not here..." He saw no reason to tell her everything immediately. "As for the battle... yeah, we lost." He shrugged. "Shit happens. Cure doesn't work though, not longer than a few weeks." The one piece of good news he had. Maybe it would cheer her up. "What are your plans?"

[bliss]

”I know,” she replied with a small sigh as he commented on her attire, once again glancing down at herself in mild disdain. “Haven’t had anything to change into since the fight,” she explained, though it was a rather poor excuse—she probably could have stolen something, or returned here sooner, but she hadn’t, which explained her less than appealing appearance at the moment.

“Was hoping to grab some old clothes from here and at least change so I don’t look like a cheap prostitute,” she added, the thought causing a smirk to curl around her lips. She would much rather look like an expensive prostitute, though usually Bliss looked much more put together than any Lady of The Night she had come across…probably because most of the harlots were using their body’s as ways to get more drugs, and someone who is cracked out is not typically very good at dressing themselves, or so she observed.

Blue eyes glanced back at the fire mutant thoughtfully. “I figured he would survive, for as old as he is, he’s fucking resilient,” or maybe just insanely powerful? He had perfect control over his abilities, or near perfect. “Nice to know the cure is a dud, though. You’d think they’d focus their energy on curing cancer or something obtainable, but the stupidity of humans is outmatched,” she mumbled, slender arms moving to curl themselves over her chest. Being a mutant was not a disease, it was an evolution, and one cannot stop evolution.

“Well,” Bliss began slowly, her face screwing up for a moment at his inquiry. “I guess that depends. Magneto is alive, but from the looks of it, the Brotherhood has seen better days, still though…if he’d have use for me, I wouldn’t be opposed to joining him again.” Not to mention she had nowhere else to go, besides the streets.

[pyro2]

So far he had kept a pretty neutral face but her remark about the cheap prostitute made him smirk too. "Now I know where I've seen your outfit before..." There were enough of those running around in New York. But he nodded in agreement to her request to get some of her stuff. "Be my guest...", he gestured to the staircase. But he couldn't help but wonder what she had done since Alcatraz that she had no chance to change. It did seem a bit... odd.

Her next remark got her a crooked smile from the fire mutant. "Yeah. Besides, mutants are fucking hard to kill. I hear Xavier, Cyclops and Jean Grey are all alive and well... wonder how that happened." He had of course more than just heard it. He had seen it. But he still didn't want to play with completely open cards with her. There was no real reason to trust her - yet. He definitely agreed with her on the utter stupidity of humankind, though.

Her reply was cautious and Pyro studied her face for additional non-verbal reactions to his question. "The Brotherhood is scattered, beaten, essentially fucked", he explained, only slightly exaggerating. Of course this was pretty much where the group had been when he had joined Magneto, and they had managed to build something pretty impressive out of it. Surely, it could be done again. But he wanted to hear a bit more from her than that. "Why would you wanna join again?"

[bliss]

”Why the hell do all of them come back to life, but the ones on our side are still pushing up daisies?” she asked, though it was obviously rhetorical, seeing as she doubted the other mutant would know the answer. Though, she only knew of Xavier’s death, and the last time she checked, Jean Grey was on their side…and a lunatic. Obviously she had died, though, at least for a little while, and seeing as he had failed to mention her earlier, she could only assume that the redhead was no longer with them. Not that she cared, after all, even when she was supposedly with them, Bliss never really felt that she was actually with them. That woman had a few screws loose from the rumors she had heard.

A small frown settled upon her countenance when he mentioned the Brotherhood’s current predicament, inquiring why she would want anything to do with it. Now, Bliss was no genius, but she could tell he was feeling her out, and probably trying to see just how loyal she was, as well as how trustworthy. “Well, for starters, I don’t exactly have anywhere to go—except for the streets again. I mean, do you think I’d still be in these clothes if I had an actual home?” A delicate eyebrow rose at him, lightly gesturing toward her torn clothing. “I mean, sure the Brotherhood is fucked for now, but it’s the ideals of the Brotherhood I liked anyway, not the people or the mansion, those were just bonuses—not to mention I’d actually like to be apart of it when we win, y’know?” the last part caused her to grin widely, obviously attempting a light joke, though she was being completely serious. Who didn’t want to be on the winning team?

The female really did not want to be associated with the organization only when it had lost, and she did want the world to know it was no joke. If the Brotherhood looked like a joke, then she looked like a joke, and Bliss couldn’t have that, could she? Besides, she actually respected Magneto.

[pyro2]

John smirked. "Valid question... maybe we are the bad guys after all... no second chances for those..." Actually he suspected it had something to do with the telepathic abilitiey in case of Xavier and Jean. Well... Jean was maybe a different case all together. The way Magneto had explained it to him, her powers were simply unmatched, maybe dying was not even an option for her. Scott, though, he had no clue how he managed to come back.

Interested, he listened to her explaining why she wanded to remain with the Brotherhood. Her first argument (no place else to go) led to a frown but it got better when she continued to talk. And he gave her a light smile for her little joke. "So, you like the ideals, huh?" Pyro personally didn't care so much for ideals. He just saw how the human majority treated mutants and believed that Magneto's ways were more effective to change that than Xavier's. The whole mutant supremacy thing that Magneto had occasionally going... he didn't care much about that. "What ideals would that be?"

He wondered how she would react if he revealed that they had moved in with their enemy from Alcatraz now. That they lived, worked and trained together to prepare for a common threat that wasn't even really here yet. For him, it was still strange and without his enormous respect for Magneto and his leadership, it would have been hard to convince him to do this. He had no clue what she might feel towards all of this. But fact was, in their current state they could use all Brotherhood people they could possibly find...

[bliss]

”I thought it was always the assholes that never died, though? If that’s the case, maybe everyone’s just hiding and thinks everyone else is dead?” she shrugged, fully aware that it was wishful thinking, but it was also possible. Perhaps a few more would pop up here and there? One could only hope, seeing as this current team of three (she was including herself for the time being) could only accomplish so much so fast, and how did the American saying go? The more the merrier?

Naturally, she had been observing him the entire time she was talking, and was not surprised by his displeasure when she mentioned she had nowhere to go—and why would he be? If that was the only reason she was interested, then that would mean she was flighty and unreliable, not good traits at all, but she was just the opposite of that. Once she made up her mind, there was very little that could change it. “That we fight back,” she began, resting most of her weight on her right foot now. “The humans want to eradicate us, like we’re rodents or something—I’d rather not roll over and just take it. I’d rather beat them to the punch and get rid of them first if it comes down to that,” the blonde shrugged, pink lips parting lightly as she allowed her tongue to run over them, wetting them slightly.

“I’ve found that throughout history, fighting is a pretty consistent way to achieve what one needs to be achieved—and Magneto is fighting back,” Bliss breathed, not particularly good at articulating things, though she hoped her reasoning came across fairly well. “As long as Magneto doesn’t turn into Xavier, I don’t see a reason to go out a find someone else—Magneto already has my respect.”

[pyro2]

Pyro gave a quick loud laugh. "That might explain why I'm still here, huh?" There definitely was a whole bunch of X-Men people who would describe him pretty much exactly with that word.

Her arguments got more convincing, though. She showed some fighting spirit. Pity he had no idea how she actually did at Alcatraz, if her deeds actually matched her words in battle, if she really didn't roll over if things got tough. So he guessed he just had to take her word for it. "Yeah...", he said slowly, hesitating, "...he is fighting back..." Pyro's hand vanished into his jeans pocket, came out with a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, lit one, offered her one, blew some smoke and felt suddenly much more relaxed.

"But the thing is... he actually is with Xavier now..." There was a small sly smile on his lips. He was really, really curious about her reaction. His initial response had been disbelief when Magneto told him what his plans were, and if she was really passionate about the Brotherhood and its ideals, she should be at least considerably irritated.

[bliss]

She studied the fire mutant, taking the offered cigarette graciously, having him light it before sticking it between her lips and inhaling. Bliss was not a chain smoker, but she would occasionally partake in the nicotine, especially if it was being offered to her for free, after all it did have a calming effect. Her fingers plucked it from her lips, blowing out the smoke, though at Pyro’s next words she choked, a hand rising over her mouth as she coughed violently for a few moments, having not been prepared for that at all. It was hard to wrap her head around, for she knew they had been friends, or at least they respected each other, but their views were very different from one another.

“The hell is he doing there?” she managed to wheeze after calming herself, clearing her throat slightly. What kind of hell was going on for Magneto, of all people, to be with Xavier? What did that even mean? “With Xavier” was a bit vague, but she still did not like the sound of it at all. Her head began to ache slightly as all the possibility began to roll through her mind, causing her to raise the cigarette to her mouth again and inhale, now glad she had the nicotine to calm her nerves.

“I knew the Brotherhood had it bad, but damn,” Bliss mumbled, smoke wisps passing through her lips as she spoke. "Please tell me it is part of a ploy to recruit more members or something?" the blonde added, hopefully.

[pyro2]

Her reaction was indeed irritated, more than that, as Pyro noticed with some satisfaction. She nearly choked and it took her a few seconds to cope with her violent physical reaction to the news. John smirked. This was a pretty convincing display of loyalty for the Brotherhood. So it was probably safe to tell her more.

"His reasoning is... reasonably reasonable...", he explained with a thin smile. "Doesn't mean I like it", he quickly added and inhaled some smoke. "Apparently there is a new threat, some super-dangerous supermutant with incredible powers, worse than Jean. And he seems to have decided that he wants to wipe out mutants and humans alike. No idea why, planet would be pretty boring afterwards, I imagine, but hey..." He shrugged, indicating that the ways of super-dangerous supermutants were obviously mysterious. "So Magneto, in his wisdom, has decided to partner up with the X-Men to prepare for the battle to come."

He sighed. "And here we are, moving in at the mansion..." It was pretty clear that he wasn't happy with it but that he, for now, had decided to follow Magneto's lead. "So... if you're still interested to rejoin the Brotherhood..." He left the rest open but it was pretty clear what it meant: She could either join them at the mansion or was on her own.

[bliss]

She used her free hand to push aside her bangs, taking another drag of the cigarette as she did so, mulling over his words silently for a few moments. She had to admit, she did question Magneto a bit on this decision, not finding it to be the best of ideas, but he was supposed to be the smart one, the leader—he knew what he was doing, right? Whoever this super mutant was, though, had to be extra scary to cause this unorthodox pairing of enemies. Still, the thought of actually helping the humans was not something that sat well with her, after all she highly doubted that they would be contributing to the fight, but then again, she did not want to die, either. Had to take the good with the bad, she supposed.

“I really, really, really don’t like the sound of teaming up with the X-men,” she admitted freely, after all Pyro seemed to share the same disdain as herself. “But, if Magneto is desperate enough to do so, something bad is coming—I’d rather be prepared for it than on my own, so I’m in. Doesn’t mean I like it, though,” she sighed, not feeling very eager about moving into Xavier’s little school at all. “I just hope this decision does not come back to bite us in the ass—assuming we survive this battle or whatever it is against this super mutant.”

[pyro2]

She seemed to take all this in and contemplated it for a bit. John continued to smoke and watched her. When she finally talked, he nodded. "Welcome to the club." He also was rather unhappy about all this but his reasoning had gone along similar lines as hers. For now, maybe it was the right thing to do, considering the potential threat. Cleary, if Xavier and Magneto were scared enough to put aside their differences, something big had to be up.

"I doubt that anything could bite us in the ass worse than what has already happened at Alcatraz...", he replied casually. "Well then, it's decided, you're coming along. My car is nearby. So why don't you get your stuff from upstairs and we get going? Magneto will be thrilled." He gestured again towards the staircase and leaned to the wall to indicate that he would wait here while she did what she had to do. "Don't take all day, though...", he added, well aware that if it came to girls and their clothes or looks, time could become an issue.