Burn My Way Through

December: Choice A, Silence

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When he was younger John used to welcome the silence, it meant his folks had stopped fighting and maybe things were okay again and it meant he didn’t have to hear the anger in their voices.

People say that when you’re a child you can’t remember things like that but obviously they’ve never been a child trapped between two parents unhappy but completely unable to do anything about it because of circumstance and fear.

When he was in regular school with other kids supposedly like him, silence usually came after they’d had their fill of making him feel like shit. Only so many times a kid could punch you before the cries stopped coming and all that was left was dry heaving. They left him alone after that, not for long, but it was usually long enough.

During the time he was a student at Xavier’s, the silence usually meant that curfew was up and lights were out and there was nothing more you could do without fear of reprimand and consequence. Not that he’d ever let that stop him. He’d even persuaded Bobby to break the rules once or twice but the instances had been rare.

Over time, silence had become his escape because one wrong word and the weight of Xavier and his X-Men came down on him like a ton of bricks, righting his wrongs and making him feel like every thought and feeling was of no consequence. It was their way or the high way.

He’d grown tired of watching humanity trample all over mutants without anyone saying or doing anything and tired of being treated like a child. Magneto had offered him a chance and he’d taken it with both hands.

After Alkali Lake, the silence had taken on a whole new meaning. It was no longer a reprieve or escape; it was simply the quiet before the storm. The silence was always what came first and everything else followed second. For better or for worse.

Muse: John Allerdyce (Pyro)
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Word Count: 331

October: Choice D, Costume/Mask

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First of all, costumes are just dumb and what lame ass thought up masks?

I mean seriously, have you seen “superheroes” these days?

It’s just plain pathetic, I mean I know Magneto wears a cape and shit but you don’t see him gallivanting around in full blown leather attire unlike a certain team of crime fighting heroes I could mention.

Plus there’s this whole, we wear the same thing so we’re together, a team, yay defeat the bad guys bullshit they’ve got going on. Not that I’m not a team player or anything like that but I don’t think you need to dress the same to think the same.

I was never good at making nice with the other children in school, team sports with the dumbass uniforms? Never my thing. It’s like you’re putting a big giant X on your forehead and asking someone to hit you.

If you’ve got a point to prove, something to fight for, something you think is worth dying for? You don’t hide behind a costume or a mask.

Muse: John Allerdyce (Pyro)
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Word Count: 175

September: Choice D, Outcast

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The word tends to go hand in hand with being a mutant but John’s always been an outcast, long before his X-Gene manifested itself and he found himself with the ability to control flames.

He was a social misfit, his parents were never rich enough for him to afford the cool clothes and after watching the so called in crowd John had made a decision from a really young age that he never wanted to fit.

John was different, excluded and the subject of bullying but he wasn’t the sort to take anything from anyone, dumb ass jocks included so he always went home black and blue. He must have been a sucker for punishment because he just kept going back to school, using the latest split lip to sneer at all those that thought themselves better.

He’d always known he’d shown them the error of their ways, had always known that one of these days revenge would be sweet. Turns out the outcast was right because the gene kicked in and the school went up, sometimes if he closes his eyes he can still hear the screams.

From that day onwards, he was called a mutant and regarded with fear and hatred. His loving parents shipped him off and even in a school full of mutants he was an outcast. Pyro was just never meant to fit in, least that’s what he always thought.

Everything changed when he met Magneto and he saw the power and the potential. He could be anything and do everything he’d ever wanted. Magneto wouldn’t lecture him and he saw John as a ‘God among insects’.

He made a choice and he chose to side with the Brotherhood. John left behind the X-Men and the two people that he might have called friend but in reality he was nothing more than a third wheel to their doomed relationship.

The only thought that had been running through his mind as that helicopter had lifted away from the frosted ground of Alkali Lake was simple and rebellious in nature.

Fuck society, it wasn’t like it had ever done anything spectacular for him.

Muse: John Allerdyce (Pyro)
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Word Count: 356