Post by Juggers on Sept 11, 2006 9:45:06 GMT -5
Since the confrontation with Callisto and the little stint of training with Angie the Juggernaut had grown progressively more bored. There was, quite literally nothing to do. He'd managed to convince Python to undertake his little project in the machine shop and the lanky man had taken time out from tending the plane to see what he could do.
Then he'd heard the plane taking off and got outside in time to see Python flying off. Turned out he'd taken Angie and Aurora with him. Not only was his project not getting completed but now there wouldn't anything good to eat either.
Now Cain was really bored.
He wandered down a corridor and absently pushed the office door open to see what Pyro was up to.
Pyro wasn't there.
This was unusual.
He wasn't in the kitchen either, or his room, or a cell, or the meeting room, or anywhere else for that matter.
Finally Cain gave up and went to see Gill in the security office.
"Oi!" Cain called into the cloud of smoke, "where the 'ell is Pyro?"
"Outside," came the muted reply.
Cain raised an eyebrow; something was clearly amiss; Pyro was outside.
Without further ado the Juggernaut thundered through the base, through the training yard to the edge of the jungle. John was there, cutting up bits of wood and not burning them. Something was really very wrong with this picture. He was going to kill that blonde cow when he got his hands on her.
"What the bloody 'ell are you doin'?"
The young man looked up and grinned his infectious grin. "I'm working," he said. "Dharma needs these bits of wood cutting to size for the building work he's doing, so that's my job at the moment." He stood up straight and stretched out the ache in his back and shoulders.
"You should give it a try sometime, it's oddly satisfying working with your hands."
"Ain't you got important plannin' and stuff to do, y'know, leader things?"
"Nothing WRONG with it as such," said John, bending back down over his work. "But it's doing me good spending a couple of hours a day out here working. We don't all have your constitutions, Cain." This much was true enough. "You've always been on at me to build up a little - " Also true, " - so look on this as exercise."
He was sawing again. And he was singing.
The Juggernaut shrugged his massive shoulders; it was all terribly baffling. Apart from the bit about building up some muscle. Pyro was always so damn skinny. He didn't eat right and he didn't do any exercise. At least he seemed to be taking care of half the problem.
"Yeah, exercise," Cain agreed vaguely.
"What we buildin' anyways?" He asked, picking up one of the lengths of wood and tossing it attempting to balance it on two fingers.
"Buildings," said John with a shrug. "Dharma's in charge, I'm just the site minion." He looked up from his sawing and squinted in the sunlight. Was that the beginning of a tan on his skin?
Whatever Emma had done to him, perhaps it wasn't all bad.
"I can't do any 'planning' things until we get wind of something to plan around," he said. "I'm not going to just attack indiscriminately. We need to make a point, Cain. Not just randomly destroy."
The Juggernaut had nothing against random destruction, but then with Python away with the plane and Angie and Aurora gone with him, their options became somewhat limited. He didn't suppose pushing trees over in Madagascar would further the cause of the Brotherhood.
"But we already got buildin's," Cain continued in even greater confusion. So far it all looked like work for the sake of work, all sweat and very little point.
It did look like it was doing the lad some good though.
"I'm enjoying myself," said John, distractedly. "So why? Is there something new going on that you think I should know about? Has the world radically altered in the last few days to the point where you think we need to put in another appearance?"
He stopped again.
"Not that Gill and Python will actually let me leave," he added, with more than a faint hint of venom.
"No," Cain said, "don't think so anyways," he looked around as if to check, shrugged again and then returned his attention to John.
"They didn't even ask me if I wanted to go," the Juggernaut continued a little testily, "Python didn't even stop to tell me 'e was goin', just up and left with me new 'elmet 'alf done."
He looked at the length Pyro was cutting, made a judgment and chopped through the wood at about the same place.
"New helmet?"
He had John's attention now. "What was wrong with the one you had to start with? Thought it kept your face pretty?"
Cain nodded, "does, needs to keep the rest of me 'ead pretty as well though, y'know, the stuff inside, I need to keep 'er out."
It was pretty obvious who 'her' was. The Juggernaut made no secret of his dislike for Emma. She might have been helping Pyro with his issues, but she was also the one that had knocked him out cold during the fight with Mystique.
Knocked him out without so much as lifting a finger.
The woman got inside your head.
The idea made Cain's flesh crawl.
"Oh," said Pyro. "Her." He rubbed his nose. "She's sort of helped me out, so I have trouble criticising - but yeah, I see where you're coming from...here, would you kneel on this bit of wood to hold it steady for me whilst I work on it?"
He thought for a while. "How bad did I actually get, Cain?"
Cain put one massive, booted foot on the piece of wood. It still had a hole in it from earlier.
"Huh, well Python locked ya in a cell for your own good mate," he rumbled, "Angie came to see you and you was proper broken up, bleedin' all over the place from tryin' to tear the walls down with ya bare 'ands."
He stretched.
"She fixed you up though, stopped ya bleedin'." He paused, "oh, an you set Mystique on fire which is always fine by me."
John winced. He had occasional memory flashbacks to what had happened, but the whole picture was taking longer to come into focus. He knew that when he'd undergone his sessions with Emma, she had focused heavily on the driving emotion behind his increasing madness.
The guilt.
The guilt at the blood on his hands, at the deaths he was directly and indirectly responsible for.
It was that part of John that prevented him from otherwise being able to tune out the necessary part of what they did. So Emma had taken all that guilt and carefully wrapped it up, placing it inside one of the mental 'boxes' that Xavier had been so fond of. The only person likely to spark those feelings off in him again would be a parent, or parent figure - and John had none of those. His natural parents were dead, and the other father figures in his life had been Xavier and Magneto, both of whom were also presumed dead.
"S'ok now though," Cain continued, his foot still pressing the beam in place, "you're lookin' much better, soundin' better too, less crazy."
"Oh," said John, not really too sure how to respond to that. "Oh, well that's something then."
They worked in silence for a while.
"Are you happy with me as leader?" John asked, eventually, blurting the question out suddenly.
The Juggernaut ran a hand over his scalp and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, can't complain," he rumbled, "you do alright by us I reckon, got in an out of Baltimore. Well, 'cept Dead Man, but then 'e wasn't the full ticket anyway."
"That's OK then," said the young man, nodding, and he went back to his work in what was obviously a happier silence.
Oh yes, John Allerdyce had changed dramatically since Emma Frost had been allowed access to his head. But not so much that Cain didn't recognise the former over-enthusiastic and impulsive boy he had been.
Then he'd heard the plane taking off and got outside in time to see Python flying off. Turned out he'd taken Angie and Aurora with him. Not only was his project not getting completed but now there wouldn't anything good to eat either.
Now Cain was really bored.
He wandered down a corridor and absently pushed the office door open to see what Pyro was up to.
Pyro wasn't there.
This was unusual.
He wasn't in the kitchen either, or his room, or a cell, or the meeting room, or anywhere else for that matter.
Finally Cain gave up and went to see Gill in the security office.
"Oi!" Cain called into the cloud of smoke, "where the 'ell is Pyro?"
"Outside," came the muted reply.
Cain raised an eyebrow; something was clearly amiss; Pyro was outside.
Without further ado the Juggernaut thundered through the base, through the training yard to the edge of the jungle. John was there, cutting up bits of wood and not burning them. Something was really very wrong with this picture. He was going to kill that blonde cow when he got his hands on her.
"What the bloody 'ell are you doin'?"
The young man looked up and grinned his infectious grin. "I'm working," he said. "Dharma needs these bits of wood cutting to size for the building work he's doing, so that's my job at the moment." He stood up straight and stretched out the ache in his back and shoulders.
"You should give it a try sometime, it's oddly satisfying working with your hands."
"Ain't you got important plannin' and stuff to do, y'know, leader things?"
"Nothing WRONG with it as such," said John, bending back down over his work. "But it's doing me good spending a couple of hours a day out here working. We don't all have your constitutions, Cain." This much was true enough. "You've always been on at me to build up a little - " Also true, " - so look on this as exercise."
He was sawing again. And he was singing.
The Juggernaut shrugged his massive shoulders; it was all terribly baffling. Apart from the bit about building up some muscle. Pyro was always so damn skinny. He didn't eat right and he didn't do any exercise. At least he seemed to be taking care of half the problem.
"Yeah, exercise," Cain agreed vaguely.
"What we buildin' anyways?" He asked, picking up one of the lengths of wood and tossing it attempting to balance it on two fingers.
"Buildings," said John with a shrug. "Dharma's in charge, I'm just the site minion." He looked up from his sawing and squinted in the sunlight. Was that the beginning of a tan on his skin?
Whatever Emma had done to him, perhaps it wasn't all bad.
"I can't do any 'planning' things until we get wind of something to plan around," he said. "I'm not going to just attack indiscriminately. We need to make a point, Cain. Not just randomly destroy."
The Juggernaut had nothing against random destruction, but then with Python away with the plane and Angie and Aurora gone with him, their options became somewhat limited. He didn't suppose pushing trees over in Madagascar would further the cause of the Brotherhood.
"But we already got buildin's," Cain continued in even greater confusion. So far it all looked like work for the sake of work, all sweat and very little point.
It did look like it was doing the lad some good though.
"I'm enjoying myself," said John, distractedly. "So why? Is there something new going on that you think I should know about? Has the world radically altered in the last few days to the point where you think we need to put in another appearance?"
He stopped again.
"Not that Gill and Python will actually let me leave," he added, with more than a faint hint of venom.
"No," Cain said, "don't think so anyways," he looked around as if to check, shrugged again and then returned his attention to John.
"They didn't even ask me if I wanted to go," the Juggernaut continued a little testily, "Python didn't even stop to tell me 'e was goin', just up and left with me new 'elmet 'alf done."
He looked at the length Pyro was cutting, made a judgment and chopped through the wood at about the same place.
"New helmet?"
He had John's attention now. "What was wrong with the one you had to start with? Thought it kept your face pretty?"
Cain nodded, "does, needs to keep the rest of me 'ead pretty as well though, y'know, the stuff inside, I need to keep 'er out."
It was pretty obvious who 'her' was. The Juggernaut made no secret of his dislike for Emma. She might have been helping Pyro with his issues, but she was also the one that had knocked him out cold during the fight with Mystique.
Knocked him out without so much as lifting a finger.
The woman got inside your head.
The idea made Cain's flesh crawl.
"Oh," said Pyro. "Her." He rubbed his nose. "She's sort of helped me out, so I have trouble criticising - but yeah, I see where you're coming from...here, would you kneel on this bit of wood to hold it steady for me whilst I work on it?"
He thought for a while. "How bad did I actually get, Cain?"
Cain put one massive, booted foot on the piece of wood. It still had a hole in it from earlier.
"Huh, well Python locked ya in a cell for your own good mate," he rumbled, "Angie came to see you and you was proper broken up, bleedin' all over the place from tryin' to tear the walls down with ya bare 'ands."
He stretched.
"She fixed you up though, stopped ya bleedin'." He paused, "oh, an you set Mystique on fire which is always fine by me."
John winced. He had occasional memory flashbacks to what had happened, but the whole picture was taking longer to come into focus. He knew that when he'd undergone his sessions with Emma, she had focused heavily on the driving emotion behind his increasing madness.
The guilt.
The guilt at the blood on his hands, at the deaths he was directly and indirectly responsible for.
It was that part of John that prevented him from otherwise being able to tune out the necessary part of what they did. So Emma had taken all that guilt and carefully wrapped it up, placing it inside one of the mental 'boxes' that Xavier had been so fond of. The only person likely to spark those feelings off in him again would be a parent, or parent figure - and John had none of those. His natural parents were dead, and the other father figures in his life had been Xavier and Magneto, both of whom were also presumed dead.
"S'ok now though," Cain continued, his foot still pressing the beam in place, "you're lookin' much better, soundin' better too, less crazy."
"Oh," said John, not really too sure how to respond to that. "Oh, well that's something then."
They worked in silence for a while.
"Are you happy with me as leader?" John asked, eventually, blurting the question out suddenly.
The Juggernaut ran a hand over his scalp and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, can't complain," he rumbled, "you do alright by us I reckon, got in an out of Baltimore. Well, 'cept Dead Man, but then 'e wasn't the full ticket anyway."
"That's OK then," said the young man, nodding, and he went back to his work in what was obviously a happier silence.
Oh yes, John Allerdyce had changed dramatically since Emma Frost had been allowed access to his head. But not so much that Cain didn't recognise the former over-enthusiastic and impulsive boy he had been.
