"Are you mentally prepared to face death?"
After leaving the Danger Room, Bobby and the others had lost all the laughter and cheerfulness they'd had at first. Their troubled expressions alone were enough to show how poorly they were taking it.
Dilos's words kept haunting their thoughts like a spell.
"I still want to go home and see my parents and little brother. Like Jia Yin said, I want to have the courage to tell them I'm a Mutant and make my family proud of me."
In the dorm, Bobby told Pyro John what was on his mind. His face was full of hope and longing, but before long, those bright feelings were replaced by disappointment.
"But I'm afraid of dying, because once you're dead, there's nothing left. Maybe someone like me just isn't cut out to be an X-Man. I don't deserve this honor or the hopes other Mutants have placed in me..."
For once, the troublemaker John didn't mock or look down on Bobby, because he was worried about the very same things.
John wanted to keep playing with his lighter or a video game, but when he tried, he realized he wasn't in the mood at all.
John was a Mutant too, but compared to Bobby, he felt even more disgust toward humanity. To be honest, he hadn't been a racist when he first discovered he could control fire. The only things that came to mind were looking cool and showing off.
That was how most young people would have felt, but John hadn't let his excitement cloud his judgment. He knew how the world treated Mutants, so he kept his power secret until an accident forced him to use it to save someone.
After John's power was exposed, the way those around him treated him changed—including