100 Situations - Rogue/Pyro T2 Prompt #75: Disaster
Title: Promotion
Fandom: X-Men (Movie)
Pairing/Character: Rogue/Pyro
Prompt: #75 - Disaster
Word Count: 2179
Rating: R
Summary: Pyro and Rogue get promoted to the X-Men, but things don’t quite go according to plan…
A/N: The X-Men aren't mine; they belong to Marvel and 20th Century Fox.
Set before X2/AU. Follows on from:
Knowledge | Experience | Change | Acceptance | Telling | Control | Splinter | Splinter II | Probation | Date | Release | Consequences
Thanks to marwen17 for giving me a direction to go with this series. Hope it worked, especially seeing as how I decided to muck around with the narrative structure just a little.
Thanks to feeferj for some initial feedback in the early stages.
Written for 100_situations.
_______________________________
Rogue crouched over John, her leather gloves lay discarded next to her, and her brown eyes were fixed on the sight of his blood on her hands. Her gaze flicked towards John’s face. He gave her a weak nod, his blue eyes going out of focus as he struggled to breathe. Rogue bit her lip, and then touched his face. She felt the tingling of her skin as her mutation became active, gasping as John’s thoughts flooded her mind. She held on only long enough to ensure she had taken enough of his mutation to defend him. John’s eyes were now closed, and she cried out desperately for help, not sure if anyone would hear. She pried his lighter from his fist, turning as she heard footsteps, her mouth forming a sneer as she recognised the enemy. The John in her head told her exactly how to control the fire, so she did not hesitate to flick open and ignite the lighter with her right hand, her left drawing the tiny flame into her palm, turning it into a fireball that she threw towards the masked men running towards her.
***
6 hours earlier…
John was transfixed by Rogue’s hand as it moved over her leather uniform, drawing his attention to all the right curves. It paused on her ass, her voice breaking through his less than innocent line of thinking.
“Do I look okay?”
He looked up at concerned brown eyes. “I think my raging hard-on pretty much answers that question.”
The concern disappeared, replaced by mischief as Rogue closed the gap between them, her bare hands running over his leather covered chest. “I like you in leather too.”
John grinned, dipping his head to capture her mouth, his hands running down her back, gripping her ass to pull her against him.
Rogue moaned, her arms wrapping around his neck. “Pity we have to be in the hangar soon.”
John smirked. “Thirty minutes is still time enough.”
Rogue raised an eyebrow. “Can’t imagine that Scott had this in mind when he said we were going to get to break in our uniforms.”
John pushed Rogue against the wall, his erection pressing into her. “You leave Summers out of this. Don’t really need to be picturing him right now.”
Rogue gasped, her hands gripping John’s shoulders as he started to undo her uniform. “We’re gonna need ten minutes at least to put these damn things back on.”
John looked at her, a foil packet appearing from a secreted hiding place in his uniform. “Twenty minutes is still time enough.”
Rogue kissed him. “Can’t argue with you there.”
***
Rogue and John ran into the hangar, trying to look like they hadn’t just had sex. Rogue was still trying to tidy her ponytail as she walked up to the group waiting at the bottom of the ramp to the Blackbird.
Jubilee turned to give her best friend a knowing look, and then waggled her finger at John. “Not a great first impression, guys.”
Scott Summers cleared his throat. “Thank you, Jubilee. Rogue, Pyro, next time please try and be punctual.”
John rolled his eyes, but nodded in agreement. Rogue mumbled something as she blushed bright red.
Storm stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest, her face deadly serious. “We’re not in the habit of promoting younger members without good reason. Make sure we don’t regret the choice.”
John raised an eyebrow, and then gave her a mock salute. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Ororo Munroe sighed, exchanging glances with Scott.
Cyclops cleared his throat as he decided to move on. “This is just a simple retrieval mission to collect some new students. Shouldn’t be too difficult which is why we’ve decided to bring the four of you along.” His gaze took in Rogue, John, Jubilee and Colossus. “Don’t be thinking this is some cake walk. It may seem routine, but I still want you on the alert.”
All four teens nodded. Storm turned and started walking up the ramp, followed by Cyclops. Rogue exchanged glances with John who shrugged and followed his leader. Rogue spared a glance at Peter and Jubilee before heading up the ramp. Her stomach was full of butterflies despite the fact that Cyke had just described it as a ‘routine’ mission. This was her first outing in uniform, it meant a lot.
***
Jubilee and Peter were deep in conversation in the two seats in front of Rogue and John. Rogue glanced at John, giving him a shaky smile. Two hours in the air and she still hadn’t been able to quell her nerves.
John reached out, taking her hand in his. “I was thinking-and this is purely as a way to take your mind off of things-we could find a quiet little corner up the back of the jet, maybe join the mile high club?”
Rogue giggled. “It has nothing to do with you being horny?”
John feigned surprise. “How could you say that? I’m only thinking of your well-being.”
Rogue looked at him skeptically. “Right, well, thanks for the offer, but not really what I’m needing.”
John spared a glance in front of him, checking to see if the others were listening. “You sure?”
Rogue nodded, biting her lip as she frowned. John squeezed her hand, and she tried to look like she wasn’t worrying. It was harder than she thought, especially since they still had another hour of flying time.
***
Cyclops turned to address the group as the ramp of the Blackbird lowered, his face set in full Fearless Leader mode. “It’ll be the third house at the end of the street. We’re not looking to scare the folk, but we were told the parents could be an issue, so tread carefully.”
The four teens followed the two senior X-Men, John giving Rogue a wink as he pulled out his lighter. Rogue frowned at the noise the constant click-clacking created, but she kept her mouth shut. It was still better than the eerie silence that surrounded them.
“Mr. Summers-Cyclops-sir, are you sure about this? I mean, even if this town does look like a reject from Silent Hill, it’s still way creepy.”
Rogue looked at Jubilee, noticing the Eurasian’s nervousness for the first time. This only served to unsettle her more. John moved closer to her, and Rogue took comfort in the heat radiating from his body. She kept clenching and unclenching her gloved hands, unable to stop herself from fidgeting. Soon the action synchronized with the click-clack of John’s lighter.
Cyclops glanced over at Storm. “Not the most eloquent way of putting it, but very succinct. Everyone stay alert.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth, than the street began to fill with masked men. Their clothing suggested a military background, but the red armbands suggested something else.
“Damn it. Friends of Humanity. Storm - take Colossus and Jubilee - try and get to the house. Rogue, Pyro - stay behind me while we try and buy them some time.”
John and Rogue flanked their leader, staying two steps behind him. John raised a questioning eyebrow to Rogue, his eyes flicked towards her hands. She understood what he was asking, but shook her head. Now was not the time to be absorbing him. Scott Summers appeared to be having the same thought.
“Rogue, I don’t want you taking John’s power just yet. We’ll see if we can’t take them down without powers first.” Cyclops spared a glance at Pyro. “No fire.”
John hid his disappointment, merely giving a single nod in response as he stashed his lighter. The three X-Men set themselves in fighting positions. John glanced around, trying to work out how many FoH members were there. Cyclops was doing the whole reasonable talking thing, but John figured it didn’t go down too well when someone fired a warning shot from a gun. He heard Rogue’s gasp, and turned to follow her line of sight. Colossus had only just managed to activate his metal skin to protect Jubilee. Looked like it was going to take Storm and the others a bit longer to get into the house if Cyke was going to keep up with the negotiations.
“You’re not going to get the muties, freak.”
Cyclops frowned, his visor turned towards the vigilante who appeared to be the leader. “Oh really? And what exactly do you think is going to stop us?”
John and Rogue both froze as two warning shots whizzed past either side of Cyclops’ head.
The leader of the X-Men gave a weary sigh, shaking his head. “Fine, have it your way. Pyro, set up a perimeter of fire. We need distance between them and us. See if you can’t get some up past Storm and the others too. Rogue,” he turned to regard the girl, “Watch his back. The leader’s mine.”
Rogue nodded, moving to stand back to back with Pyro, her brown eyes watching the line of masked men warily. She saw Cyclops move his hand to his visor out of the corner of her eye, and then heard the distinctive noise of him firing off shots at the FoH leader.
A couple of men near Rogue made it over the fire before John had a chance to strengthen it. He grunted in frustration as he tried to keep the line of fire moving, and raise the level of the flames. Rogue dealt with the two men, using their own weapons against them after disarming them both with quick kicks, the hits with the baseball bats easily taking them out of the fight. Rogue tossed away the one she had broken, twirling the other in her hand.
“Remind to never play against you.”
Rogue spared a small moment to smile at John’s comment, and then swung the bat into the stomach of the next FoH’er who had decided to break ranks. She kicked out her leg in a sidekick that clipped another attacker in the ribcage, the satisfying noise of breaking bone reaching her ears over the noise of fighting.
Cyclops had already dealt with the leader, but the FoH’ers still came at the X-Men. Storm, Jubilee and Colossus had made it as far as the second to last house, when even more masked attackers appeared. Rogue heard the familiar noises of Jubilee’s fireworks, but she didn’t have much time to think about it as a gunshot sounded far too close for comfort. She spun around in time to see John fall to the ground.
“No!” She threw the bat down, forgetting the fight, dropping to her knees at John’s side. “John!”
Her hands covered the wound in his side, trying to stem the flow of blood. Around them, Pyro’s flames began to flicker and die down.
John took a gasping breath. “Unh-Rogue.”
Rogue tried to ignore the feeling of dread that was threatening to overwhelm her. “I’m here.”
John tried to smile. “I think now’s a pretty-unh-good time for some of that voodoo you do so well.”
Rogue smiled despite the situation. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
John’s face contorted in pain. “Just do it, Rogue.”
Rogue ripped off her gloves, putting her hands back over the wound. It felt like ages before she could tear her gaze away from the sight of his blood on her skin. She looked at him, her stomach tightening when she saw the weak nod he gave her. She sucked in a breath, biting her lip in concentration before touching his face. She waited until she felt his power start to flow through her, the flames around them beginning to make their presence felt in her mind before letting go. She took his lighter from his hand, sneering at the FoH’ers that approached. They had no idea who they were dealing with, and before she even thought about it, a fireball was launched in their direction.
She heard Cyclops yell something behind her, but she only had eyes for the FoH’ers. Her gaze locked onto one standing to her left, a gun held in his hand. If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn he had just trembled in fear as she ignited John’s lighter.
“Run.” Her voice sounded cold and vicious, the single word telling the man everything he didn’t want to hear.
She gave him ten seconds to put as much distance between her and him as his legs could manage before she launched fire at him, his back engulfing in flames. She ignored the scream of pain that came from him as he fell to the ground, directing the stream of fire at the FoH’ers trying to block in Cyclops.
She heard more voices, and only barely registered that Colossus was picking up John and carrying him towards the Blackbird. Jubilee and some frightened looking kids weren’t far behind Cyclops as he charged up the ramp. It wasn’t until Storm placed a hand on her shoulder that she stopped. The weather witch’s eyes silently told Rogue it was over, and she followed Ororo onto the jet.
_______________________________
Fandom: X-Men (Movie)
Pairing/Character: Rogue/Pyro
Prompt: #75 - Disaster
Word Count: 2179
Rating: R
Summary: Pyro and Rogue get promoted to the X-Men, but things don’t quite go according to plan…
A/N: The X-Men aren't mine; they belong to Marvel and 20th Century Fox.
Set before X2/AU. Follows on from:
Knowledge | Experience | Change | Acceptance | Telling | Control | Splinter | Splinter II | Probation | Date | Release | Consequences
Thanks to marwen17 for giving me a direction to go with this series. Hope it worked, especially seeing as how I decided to muck around with the narrative structure just a little.
Thanks to feeferj for some initial feedback in the early stages.
Written for 100_situations.
_______________________________
Rogue crouched over John, her leather gloves lay discarded next to her, and her brown eyes were fixed on the sight of his blood on her hands. Her gaze flicked towards John’s face. He gave her a weak nod, his blue eyes going out of focus as he struggled to breathe. Rogue bit her lip, and then touched his face. She felt the tingling of her skin as her mutation became active, gasping as John’s thoughts flooded her mind. She held on only long enough to ensure she had taken enough of his mutation to defend him. John’s eyes were now closed, and she cried out desperately for help, not sure if anyone would hear. She pried his lighter from his fist, turning as she heard footsteps, her mouth forming a sneer as she recognised the enemy. The John in her head told her exactly how to control the fire, so she did not hesitate to flick open and ignite the lighter with her right hand, her left drawing the tiny flame into her palm, turning it into a fireball that she threw towards the masked men running towards her.
***
6 hours earlier…
John was transfixed by Rogue’s hand as it moved over her leather uniform, drawing his attention to all the right curves. It paused on her ass, her voice breaking through his less than innocent line of thinking.
“Do I look okay?”
He looked up at concerned brown eyes. “I think my raging hard-on pretty much answers that question.”
The concern disappeared, replaced by mischief as Rogue closed the gap between them, her bare hands running over his leather covered chest. “I like you in leather too.”
John grinned, dipping his head to capture her mouth, his hands running down her back, gripping her ass to pull her against him.
Rogue moaned, her arms wrapping around his neck. “Pity we have to be in the hangar soon.”
John smirked. “Thirty minutes is still time enough.”
Rogue raised an eyebrow. “Can’t imagine that Scott had this in mind when he said we were going to get to break in our uniforms.”
John pushed Rogue against the wall, his erection pressing into her. “You leave Summers out of this. Don’t really need to be picturing him right now.”
Rogue gasped, her hands gripping John’s shoulders as he started to undo her uniform. “We’re gonna need ten minutes at least to put these damn things back on.”
John looked at her, a foil packet appearing from a secreted hiding place in his uniform. “Twenty minutes is still time enough.”
Rogue kissed him. “Can’t argue with you there.”
***
Rogue and John ran into the hangar, trying to look like they hadn’t just had sex. Rogue was still trying to tidy her ponytail as she walked up to the group waiting at the bottom of the ramp to the Blackbird.
Jubilee turned to give her best friend a knowing look, and then waggled her finger at John. “Not a great first impression, guys.”
Scott Summers cleared his throat. “Thank you, Jubilee. Rogue, Pyro, next time please try and be punctual.”
John rolled his eyes, but nodded in agreement. Rogue mumbled something as she blushed bright red.
Storm stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest, her face deadly serious. “We’re not in the habit of promoting younger members without good reason. Make sure we don’t regret the choice.”
John raised an eyebrow, and then gave her a mock salute. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Ororo Munroe sighed, exchanging glances with Scott.
Cyclops cleared his throat as he decided to move on. “This is just a simple retrieval mission to collect some new students. Shouldn’t be too difficult which is why we’ve decided to bring the four of you along.” His gaze took in Rogue, John, Jubilee and Colossus. “Don’t be thinking this is some cake walk. It may seem routine, but I still want you on the alert.”
All four teens nodded. Storm turned and started walking up the ramp, followed by Cyclops. Rogue exchanged glances with John who shrugged and followed his leader. Rogue spared a glance at Peter and Jubilee before heading up the ramp. Her stomach was full of butterflies despite the fact that Cyke had just described it as a ‘routine’ mission. This was her first outing in uniform, it meant a lot.
***
Jubilee and Peter were deep in conversation in the two seats in front of Rogue and John. Rogue glanced at John, giving him a shaky smile. Two hours in the air and she still hadn’t been able to quell her nerves.
John reached out, taking her hand in his. “I was thinking-and this is purely as a way to take your mind off of things-we could find a quiet little corner up the back of the jet, maybe join the mile high club?”
Rogue giggled. “It has nothing to do with you being horny?”
John feigned surprise. “How could you say that? I’m only thinking of your well-being.”
Rogue looked at him skeptically. “Right, well, thanks for the offer, but not really what I’m needing.”
John spared a glance in front of him, checking to see if the others were listening. “You sure?”
Rogue nodded, biting her lip as she frowned. John squeezed her hand, and she tried to look like she wasn’t worrying. It was harder than she thought, especially since they still had another hour of flying time.
***
Cyclops turned to address the group as the ramp of the Blackbird lowered, his face set in full Fearless Leader mode. “It’ll be the third house at the end of the street. We’re not looking to scare the folk, but we were told the parents could be an issue, so tread carefully.”
The four teens followed the two senior X-Men, John giving Rogue a wink as he pulled out his lighter. Rogue frowned at the noise the constant click-clacking created, but she kept her mouth shut. It was still better than the eerie silence that surrounded them.
“Mr. Summers-Cyclops-sir, are you sure about this? I mean, even if this town does look like a reject from Silent Hill, it’s still way creepy.”
Rogue looked at Jubilee, noticing the Eurasian’s nervousness for the first time. This only served to unsettle her more. John moved closer to her, and Rogue took comfort in the heat radiating from his body. She kept clenching and unclenching her gloved hands, unable to stop herself from fidgeting. Soon the action synchronized with the click-clack of John’s lighter.
Cyclops glanced over at Storm. “Not the most eloquent way of putting it, but very succinct. Everyone stay alert.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth, than the street began to fill with masked men. Their clothing suggested a military background, but the red armbands suggested something else.
“Damn it. Friends of Humanity. Storm - take Colossus and Jubilee - try and get to the house. Rogue, Pyro - stay behind me while we try and buy them some time.”
John and Rogue flanked their leader, staying two steps behind him. John raised a questioning eyebrow to Rogue, his eyes flicked towards her hands. She understood what he was asking, but shook her head. Now was not the time to be absorbing him. Scott Summers appeared to be having the same thought.
“Rogue, I don’t want you taking John’s power just yet. We’ll see if we can’t take them down without powers first.” Cyclops spared a glance at Pyro. “No fire.”
John hid his disappointment, merely giving a single nod in response as he stashed his lighter. The three X-Men set themselves in fighting positions. John glanced around, trying to work out how many FoH members were there. Cyclops was doing the whole reasonable talking thing, but John figured it didn’t go down too well when someone fired a warning shot from a gun. He heard Rogue’s gasp, and turned to follow her line of sight. Colossus had only just managed to activate his metal skin to protect Jubilee. Looked like it was going to take Storm and the others a bit longer to get into the house if Cyke was going to keep up with the negotiations.
“You’re not going to get the muties, freak.”
Cyclops frowned, his visor turned towards the vigilante who appeared to be the leader. “Oh really? And what exactly do you think is going to stop us?”
John and Rogue both froze as two warning shots whizzed past either side of Cyclops’ head.
The leader of the X-Men gave a weary sigh, shaking his head. “Fine, have it your way. Pyro, set up a perimeter of fire. We need distance between them and us. See if you can’t get some up past Storm and the others too. Rogue,” he turned to regard the girl, “Watch his back. The leader’s mine.”
Rogue nodded, moving to stand back to back with Pyro, her brown eyes watching the line of masked men warily. She saw Cyclops move his hand to his visor out of the corner of her eye, and then heard the distinctive noise of him firing off shots at the FoH leader.
A couple of men near Rogue made it over the fire before John had a chance to strengthen it. He grunted in frustration as he tried to keep the line of fire moving, and raise the level of the flames. Rogue dealt with the two men, using their own weapons against them after disarming them both with quick kicks, the hits with the baseball bats easily taking them out of the fight. Rogue tossed away the one she had broken, twirling the other in her hand.
“Remind to never play against you.”
Rogue spared a small moment to smile at John’s comment, and then swung the bat into the stomach of the next FoH’er who had decided to break ranks. She kicked out her leg in a sidekick that clipped another attacker in the ribcage, the satisfying noise of breaking bone reaching her ears over the noise of fighting.
Cyclops had already dealt with the leader, but the FoH’ers still came at the X-Men. Storm, Jubilee and Colossus had made it as far as the second to last house, when even more masked attackers appeared. Rogue heard the familiar noises of Jubilee’s fireworks, but she didn’t have much time to think about it as a gunshot sounded far too close for comfort. She spun around in time to see John fall to the ground.
“No!” She threw the bat down, forgetting the fight, dropping to her knees at John’s side. “John!”
Her hands covered the wound in his side, trying to stem the flow of blood. Around them, Pyro’s flames began to flicker and die down.
John took a gasping breath. “Unh-Rogue.”
Rogue tried to ignore the feeling of dread that was threatening to overwhelm her. “I’m here.”
John tried to smile. “I think now’s a pretty-unh-good time for some of that voodoo you do so well.”
Rogue smiled despite the situation. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
John’s face contorted in pain. “Just do it, Rogue.”
Rogue ripped off her gloves, putting her hands back over the wound. It felt like ages before she could tear her gaze away from the sight of his blood on her skin. She looked at him, her stomach tightening when she saw the weak nod he gave her. She sucked in a breath, biting her lip in concentration before touching his face. She waited until she felt his power start to flow through her, the flames around them beginning to make their presence felt in her mind before letting go. She took his lighter from his hand, sneering at the FoH’ers that approached. They had no idea who they were dealing with, and before she even thought about it, a fireball was launched in their direction.
She heard Cyclops yell something behind her, but she only had eyes for the FoH’ers. Her gaze locked onto one standing to her left, a gun held in his hand. If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn he had just trembled in fear as she ignited John’s lighter.
“Run.” Her voice sounded cold and vicious, the single word telling the man everything he didn’t want to hear.
She gave him ten seconds to put as much distance between her and him as his legs could manage before she launched fire at him, his back engulfing in flames. She ignored the scream of pain that came from him as he fell to the ground, directing the stream of fire at the FoH’ers trying to block in Cyclops.
She heard more voices, and only barely registered that Colossus was picking up John and carrying him towards the Blackbird. Jubilee and some frightened looking kids weren’t far behind Cyclops as he charged up the ramp. It wasn’t until Storm placed a hand on her shoulder that she stopped. The weather witch’s eyes silently told Rogue it was over, and she followed Ororo onto the jet.
_______________________________