Post by Juggers on Jul 11, 2006 18:11:43 GMT -5
[Five days after Alcatraz]
John had been uncharacteristically silent during the boat ride back to
Genosha, shutting himself in his room and not being seen. His face,
whilst spectacularly bruised after being head-butted by a man made of
solid ice was surprisingly unbroken, but was now a riot of colour, his
lip split, both eyes blackened.
On the fourth day, he emerged looking tired and miserable.
For his part, Cain was mostly untroubled by the events of Alcatraz by
the time they reached Genosha; if you were able to walk away from it,
it wasn't a complete disaster. There are those who would argue that
the almost complete destruction of the Brotherhood and the elimination
of its leader counted quite heavily as a disaster.
They were not the Juggernaut.
So, when Pyro graced them with his somewhat battered, presence, it was
with a cheerful grin a large packet of crisps and a half-drunk bottle
of cola he was greeted.
"Mornin'" Cain rumbled happily from his sofa in the lobby. "You look
like shit," he observed. He waved the bottle at John and offered the
crisps. "Get some of this down ya, reckon it'll set ya up for the day!"
John stared at the crisps, at the cola, then at the Juggernaut. "I'll
pass," he grouched and sat down at the table. He rolled his shoulders
in an effort to flex the stiff muscles there. Every day had brought
new aches and pains with it.
"We should reach Genosha tonight," he observed, his tone dull and
leaden. "What are we gonna do, Cain? Now that Magneto's de...gone?
What the HELL are we gonna do?"
In the short time Cain had been with the Brotherhood, he'd realised
just how much of a pedestal the boy had placed Magneto upon. A
powerful mutant in his own right - another Class 4, if what Callisto
had said was right - Pyro was little more than a lost child at the
moment with the loss of his mentor.
Cain looked thoughtful for a long while, periodically munching on a
mouthful of crisps, "well," he said finally, "I reckon we carry on
doin' what we've been doin'"
The Juggernaut had been a loner for much of his life and it had been
that fact that had got him caught in the end; nobody to watch his
back. Magneto had set him free and for that he had owed him. Being
part of a group, more, a group that accepted him for who and what he
was had brought something new to the life of Cain Marko and it was
something he wasn't about to just let go of.
"We get back to Genosha, fill up the generators, lay low for a bit and
then make our come-back!" He grinned and rooted through the carrier
bag at his feet for something John might eat or drink.
"We don't have a leader any more," countered John. "And our numbers
are seriously depleted thanks to the BLOODY X-Men." He allowed himself a moment's pure fury - mostly directed at his one time friend and roommate, Bobby Drake - and then began to feel a bit better about it all.
"What few people we have left," he said. "Who are they going to want
to see step into Magneto's boots? There's nobody who can do it.
Mystique might've been able to - but..." He shook his head. What
Magneto had done to Mystique, leaving her the way he had, still
confused him. She had become a visible definition of the word 'expendable' and, despite the fact that a lot of her talents were
non-mutant related, Magneto had just cast her off. John had never
truly agreed with that.
Cain pulled out a packet of spicy nachos with a flourish and offered
them to John.
The mention of the X-Men brought a small frown as Cain was momentarily
reminded of getting his head busted against a wall but the memory
swiftly passed; the Juggernaut lived for the now and what was ahead,
not what was behind. He'd get that girl one day though.
"I'm 'ere, an you, an Python," the wiry man was somewhere up on deck
attempting to master his sea-sickness, "Gill is probbly still at the
base. Who knows, we got out, maybe some of the others did too."
"Maybe," said John, refusing the nachos with a shake of the
head. "Maybe not."
He buried his head in his hands for a few moments. John had always
been an emotional sort of boy, those emotions coming under some control due to the intervention of Charles Xavier at an opportune time, but now the Professor was gone, the psychic blocks he'd put in place were starting to disintegrate. It was a gradually process, but John's ability to keep himself under control was starting to fade.
He looked up.
"I'll do it," he said, and there was a sudden hint of steel in his
tone. "I'll lead the Brotherhood."
Cain stuffed the packet back into the bag, pulled out a can of Mountain Dew and resumed offering.
"Sounds like a plan," he said, "I mean, I ain't no leader, I don't
reckon Python is either an Gill ... well it's Gill ain't it."
"Magneto said you 'ad potential anyways, so it makes sense I 'spose.
Smart bloke that Magneto." Cain munched some more of his crisps and
was silent awhile.
"So 'ave YOU got a plan then boss?" He said with a grin.
John refused the Mountain Dew.
"I HAVE as it happens, yes," he said. "You're right. We need to lay
low for a while. Let the world at large believe that the Brotherhood
has disbanded. But woe betide. WOE betide. Because you, me, Python,
Gill...and...and whoever else is left...we're gonna carry on the fight
for mutant rights. Magneto might be de...missing, but his dream is
DAMN well gonna carry on."
He slapped the table with an open palm, his eyes excited, looking more
alive than he'd done in days. Admittedly, for the first day, he'd been so dosed up on painkillers that he'd been pretty much permanently
stoned, but still.
"The Brotherhood lives on," he said, in a low, passionate sort of voice.
"Yeah!" Cain agreed, dropping the can back in the bag. He fumbled
through some more stuff eventually coming up with a handful of pop-
rock packets. He offered them to John.
"We'll do 'im proud I reckon," the Juggernaut went to clap the lad on
the back but changed his mind at the last minute, realising that it
probably wouldn't end well.
"An with any luck we'll get to stomp some X-Men along the way!"
John stared at the pop rocks.
Then he took them. If you couldn't subsist on sugar alone, what point
was there to life?
"Stomping X-Men is our new focus," he said, with the first grin in five days. "I claim Bobby Drake as mine. I'm SO gonna toast his slimy backside the next time I meet him."
Cain claimed a small victory as he found something John would actually
eat. Then he went back to his crisps and cola.
"An I'm gonna get that little bitch that can run through walls," he
smacked a fist into a meaty palm. The family sized packet of crisps
still occupying that palm detonated with a pop and showered the area
with sour cream and onion snacks.
John brushed bits of crisp off himself.
"Kitty," he said, vaguely. "Her name's Kitty. Um. I'd kind of like
it if you didn't crush her completely, though. She was...y'know. Sort of ... it doesn't matter."
He blushed furiously.
"Well yeah," Cain replied, oblivious to his companion's discomfort, "I
'spose not completely, eye for an eye an all that, not like there's any real damage done." He paused and thought.
"Still need to get even though," Cain continued, absently picking up
stray crisps and munching on them.
"So," he finally continued, "onward to Genosha, where I reckon there is a pizza with my name on it!"
"You're obsessed, aren't you?" John was distracted enough to stop
worrying for a little while. "Nearly every sentence you've put to me in the past ten minutes has somehow involved food. Why is that, Cain? I mean this with the greatest of respect, you understand, but you hardly need feeding up, do you?"
John rubbed his nose thoughtfully.
"Food," he said, vaguely. "I'll have to work out how to get supplies
into the island and feed whoever we have left..."
And there he was, worrying again.
Cain shrugged, "dunno," he said, "doc used to say I 'ad a high
metabolism or somethin', means I eat a lot but burn it all up dead
quick." Burning energy was something the Juggernaut did very well, even when he was standing still.
"I reckon there was enough food at the base to last awhile when we
left," he continued, "unless Gill has eaten it all while we were away,
but that'd make 'im one fat bastard." Cain chuckled as the image of a
puffer fish was immediately brought to mind.
"Anyways, I still reckon there'll be somethin'."
He glanced at the unopened packet of pop-rocks in John's hand, "you
gonna eat them or what?" he asked.
John stared down at the candy in his hand. "What," he said, and handed them back to Cain. "Don't have much appetite."
To Cain's knowledge, the boy had eaten virtually nothing since the last proper campfire meal they'd had shortly before Alcatraz. Kid seemed to exist on water and nervous energy alone.
No wonder he was so scrawny.
"You know," Cain said as he ripped open the packet, "when we get back I'm gonna make you eat somethin' before ya turn into wafer-boy or somethin'."
He grinned, emptied the packet into his mouth and took another swig of cola.
Some time later, both mutants emerged on to deck in a change of clothes, the Juggernaut still chuckling inanely to himself and Pyro shaking his head. He looked back at Cain and rolled his eyes.
"Freak," he muttered before wandering off in search of Python.
John had been uncharacteristically silent during the boat ride back to
Genosha, shutting himself in his room and not being seen. His face,
whilst spectacularly bruised after being head-butted by a man made of
solid ice was surprisingly unbroken, but was now a riot of colour, his
lip split, both eyes blackened.
On the fourth day, he emerged looking tired and miserable.
For his part, Cain was mostly untroubled by the events of Alcatraz by
the time they reached Genosha; if you were able to walk away from it,
it wasn't a complete disaster. There are those who would argue that
the almost complete destruction of the Brotherhood and the elimination
of its leader counted quite heavily as a disaster.
They were not the Juggernaut.
So, when Pyro graced them with his somewhat battered, presence, it was
with a cheerful grin a large packet of crisps and a half-drunk bottle
of cola he was greeted.
"Mornin'" Cain rumbled happily from his sofa in the lobby. "You look
like shit," he observed. He waved the bottle at John and offered the
crisps. "Get some of this down ya, reckon it'll set ya up for the day!"
John stared at the crisps, at the cola, then at the Juggernaut. "I'll
pass," he grouched and sat down at the table. He rolled his shoulders
in an effort to flex the stiff muscles there. Every day had brought
new aches and pains with it.
"We should reach Genosha tonight," he observed, his tone dull and
leaden. "What are we gonna do, Cain? Now that Magneto's de...gone?
What the HELL are we gonna do?"
In the short time Cain had been with the Brotherhood, he'd realised
just how much of a pedestal the boy had placed Magneto upon. A
powerful mutant in his own right - another Class 4, if what Callisto
had said was right - Pyro was little more than a lost child at the
moment with the loss of his mentor.
Cain looked thoughtful for a long while, periodically munching on a
mouthful of crisps, "well," he said finally, "I reckon we carry on
doin' what we've been doin'"
The Juggernaut had been a loner for much of his life and it had been
that fact that had got him caught in the end; nobody to watch his
back. Magneto had set him free and for that he had owed him. Being
part of a group, more, a group that accepted him for who and what he
was had brought something new to the life of Cain Marko and it was
something he wasn't about to just let go of.
"We get back to Genosha, fill up the generators, lay low for a bit and
then make our come-back!" He grinned and rooted through the carrier
bag at his feet for something John might eat or drink.
"We don't have a leader any more," countered John. "And our numbers
are seriously depleted thanks to the BLOODY X-Men." He allowed himself a moment's pure fury - mostly directed at his one time friend and roommate, Bobby Drake - and then began to feel a bit better about it all.
"What few people we have left," he said. "Who are they going to want
to see step into Magneto's boots? There's nobody who can do it.
Mystique might've been able to - but..." He shook his head. What
Magneto had done to Mystique, leaving her the way he had, still
confused him. She had become a visible definition of the word 'expendable' and, despite the fact that a lot of her talents were
non-mutant related, Magneto had just cast her off. John had never
truly agreed with that.
Cain pulled out a packet of spicy nachos with a flourish and offered
them to John.
The mention of the X-Men brought a small frown as Cain was momentarily
reminded of getting his head busted against a wall but the memory
swiftly passed; the Juggernaut lived for the now and what was ahead,
not what was behind. He'd get that girl one day though.
"I'm 'ere, an you, an Python," the wiry man was somewhere up on deck
attempting to master his sea-sickness, "Gill is probbly still at the
base. Who knows, we got out, maybe some of the others did too."
"Maybe," said John, refusing the nachos with a shake of the
head. "Maybe not."
He buried his head in his hands for a few moments. John had always
been an emotional sort of boy, those emotions coming under some control due to the intervention of Charles Xavier at an opportune time, but now the Professor was gone, the psychic blocks he'd put in place were starting to disintegrate. It was a gradually process, but John's ability to keep himself under control was starting to fade.
He looked up.
"I'll do it," he said, and there was a sudden hint of steel in his
tone. "I'll lead the Brotherhood."
Cain stuffed the packet back into the bag, pulled out a can of Mountain Dew and resumed offering.
"Sounds like a plan," he said, "I mean, I ain't no leader, I don't
reckon Python is either an Gill ... well it's Gill ain't it."
"Magneto said you 'ad potential anyways, so it makes sense I 'spose.
Smart bloke that Magneto." Cain munched some more of his crisps and
was silent awhile.
"So 'ave YOU got a plan then boss?" He said with a grin.
John refused the Mountain Dew.
"I HAVE as it happens, yes," he said. "You're right. We need to lay
low for a while. Let the world at large believe that the Brotherhood
has disbanded. But woe betide. WOE betide. Because you, me, Python,
Gill...and...and whoever else is left...we're gonna carry on the fight
for mutant rights. Magneto might be de...missing, but his dream is
DAMN well gonna carry on."
He slapped the table with an open palm, his eyes excited, looking more
alive than he'd done in days. Admittedly, for the first day, he'd been so dosed up on painkillers that he'd been pretty much permanently
stoned, but still.
"The Brotherhood lives on," he said, in a low, passionate sort of voice.
"Yeah!" Cain agreed, dropping the can back in the bag. He fumbled
through some more stuff eventually coming up with a handful of pop-
rock packets. He offered them to John.
"We'll do 'im proud I reckon," the Juggernaut went to clap the lad on
the back but changed his mind at the last minute, realising that it
probably wouldn't end well.
"An with any luck we'll get to stomp some X-Men along the way!"
John stared at the pop rocks.
Then he took them. If you couldn't subsist on sugar alone, what point
was there to life?
"Stomping X-Men is our new focus," he said, with the first grin in five days. "I claim Bobby Drake as mine. I'm SO gonna toast his slimy backside the next time I meet him."
Cain claimed a small victory as he found something John would actually
eat. Then he went back to his crisps and cola.
"An I'm gonna get that little bitch that can run through walls," he
smacked a fist into a meaty palm. The family sized packet of crisps
still occupying that palm detonated with a pop and showered the area
with sour cream and onion snacks.
John brushed bits of crisp off himself.
"Kitty," he said, vaguely. "Her name's Kitty. Um. I'd kind of like
it if you didn't crush her completely, though. She was...y'know. Sort of ... it doesn't matter."
He blushed furiously.
"Well yeah," Cain replied, oblivious to his companion's discomfort, "I
'spose not completely, eye for an eye an all that, not like there's any real damage done." He paused and thought.
"Still need to get even though," Cain continued, absently picking up
stray crisps and munching on them.
"So," he finally continued, "onward to Genosha, where I reckon there is a pizza with my name on it!"
"You're obsessed, aren't you?" John was distracted enough to stop
worrying for a little while. "Nearly every sentence you've put to me in the past ten minutes has somehow involved food. Why is that, Cain? I mean this with the greatest of respect, you understand, but you hardly need feeding up, do you?"
John rubbed his nose thoughtfully.
"Food," he said, vaguely. "I'll have to work out how to get supplies
into the island and feed whoever we have left..."
And there he was, worrying again.
Cain shrugged, "dunno," he said, "doc used to say I 'ad a high
metabolism or somethin', means I eat a lot but burn it all up dead
quick." Burning energy was something the Juggernaut did very well, even when he was standing still.
"I reckon there was enough food at the base to last awhile when we
left," he continued, "unless Gill has eaten it all while we were away,
but that'd make 'im one fat bastard." Cain chuckled as the image of a
puffer fish was immediately brought to mind.
"Anyways, I still reckon there'll be somethin'."
He glanced at the unopened packet of pop-rocks in John's hand, "you
gonna eat them or what?" he asked.
John stared down at the candy in his hand. "What," he said, and handed them back to Cain. "Don't have much appetite."
To Cain's knowledge, the boy had eaten virtually nothing since the last proper campfire meal they'd had shortly before Alcatraz. Kid seemed to exist on water and nervous energy alone.
No wonder he was so scrawny.
"You know," Cain said as he ripped open the packet, "when we get back I'm gonna make you eat somethin' before ya turn into wafer-boy or somethin'."
He grinned, emptied the packet into his mouth and took another swig of cola.
Some time later, both mutants emerged on to deck in a change of clothes, the Juggernaut still chuckling inanely to himself and Pyro shaking his head. He looked back at Cain and rolled his eyes.
"Freak," he muttered before wandering off in search of Python.
