John Proudstar quotes from The Gifted

Clarice

All this damage, was it me? Is everyone okay?

John Proudstar

You were a little hard on the trees and some furniture, but people survived.

Clarice

This place needed a remodeling anyway.

Clarice

Something changed after I got sick. I woke up with this new beauty mark here. [points at a scar over her right eye] And my powers... I don't know... they're broken.

John

Hey, abilities don't break. Most mutants first access their abilities from strong emotions: fear, anger, pain. But those are all unreliable. The challenge is to tap into something positive.

Clarice

Positive?

John

Mm hm.

Clarice

Like what? We do some hot yoga and find my spirit animal?

John

Umm.. no, thanks. I'm pretty sure your spirit animal would bite me.

Clarice

No, it'd rip your head off.

John

That's impossible, my head can't be ripped off.

Clarice

Literally I have the power to bail out of bad situations. So, being scared is just a big part of it.

John

It's not all of it. In the Marines, when you want to give up they train you to focus on what you care about most. To hold onto it like your life depended on it, because at some point it will.

Clarice

Okay, so what did you care about?

John

Back then I had a lot to prove, about being Apache, a mutant.

Clarice

But what if I don't have anything?

Marcos

There's seven deep out front. Anything out back?

John

Yeah, there's four of them and then more outside the kitchen door. We're surrounded. Look, I can get us through a wall, but if they start shooting while we run, there's gonna be a fight.

Andy

Run? Why should we have to run?

Lauren

Didn't you hear them? There's an army out there.

Andy

Yeah, so what? We can take those guys.

John

Yeah, of course we can take them, but we do that people are gonna die.

Andy

Well maybe it's time these people learned.

Caitlin

Andy, you don't mean that.

Andy

Yes, I do. Listen to them mom, they hate us!

John

I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. We're talking about attacking the Sentinel Services.

We lost six people the last time we went up against them directly.

John

I know that better than anyone.

Marcos

It won't be like last time.

You're right. Last time we just hit a relocation center with a fence and some guard towers. This time it's a prison. Their systems have improved extrapolating from other attacks. We've got an 86.5% chance of failure.

Marcos

And if we do nothing, there's a 100% chance we never see them again.

Caitlin

I know we're new here, but please...

Marcos

Lorna's risked her life for everyone here in this room. Harry, your parents would be dead without her. Sage, she pulled you out of a gutter and she got you clean. I mean, she's... she needs us.

Doesn't change the math, Marcos.

Marcos

I don't care about the math, I care about Lorna.

Caitlin

No. Kids are not attacking a convoy.

John

We don't have a good alternative here, Caitlin. We're running out of time.

Caitlin

What, so you're gonna use child soldiers now?

Andy

We're not kids like that anymore mom.

Caitlin

I said no.

Lauren

Mom, please. I know you're scared. I'm scared too. But think about what you said last night, about how sometimes we have to take risks.

Caitlin

Really? You're gonna use my own words against me? Look, this isn't going to visit your uncle Daniel. This is about trained men, with guns.

Lauren

We want to fight for this. You've always said that there are things worth fighting for. Was that all just talk? You said it yourself, there are risks worth taking.

John

If the cops really are coming here, we could try and leave, but...

Uh, based on average police response times, any identifiable mutants leaving here will be apprehended before we're out of city limits.

Reed

They're looking for fugitives. The only that's gonna stop them is if they find one.

John

What are you saying?

Reed

I have to go out there, get seen, stir them away from this place, make it look like we went in another direction.

John

Even if they see you, doesn't mean they'll stop searching.

Reed

I know how these things work. They made an educated guess about the direction we went.

John

Clarice, there's a federal building in Baton Rouge that we need to get into. I know it's a lot to ask, but we think there might be information in there about Sentinel Services and what they did to Pulse.

Clarice

So, is that all? That's all we need to talk about? You need the 4-1-1 on your old Marine buddy, so I just blink you into a building? I'm just a portable door-maker?

John

What?

Clarice

Fine, if you're not gonna bring it up, I will. Your friend, Dreamer, stuck a memory in my head, without mentioning it to me, or I don't know, asking my permission. A memory I'm sure you're familiar with, because it's a memory of you.

John

Alright, I'm sorry. I asked her not to do that.

Clarice

But when she did, you decided not to say anything about it.

John

It was an emergency. She did it to save the team and afterwards... we still needed your help.

Clarice

Oh, I get it. You didn't want to tell me because you wanted to use me. FYI, you're not making this any better. I've got my own issues to sort out, my own people to find.

Sonya

So you never told me, how did your conversation go with Clarice?

John

She left, so I'd say not well. It's about par for the course these days.

Sonya

If you're talking about Pulse, that wasn't your fault.

John

How do you figure that? I left him, I let Sentinel Services take him.

Sonya

You thought he was dead.

John

I was wrong! I should've saved him. I'm starting to think that maybe the X-Men made a mistake, choosing me to be part of The Underground.

Sonya

Johnny! You can't think that way. I know you want to live up to who your father was, but you're doing all you can.

John

It's not enough. We have more refugees in there than we could possibly save. I can barely protect a bunch of veterans.

Sonya

You were chosen for a reason. The X-Men said: "A war is coming".

John

They didn't say we'd win.

John

You're tough to track, you know that? You didn't leave much of a trail.

Clarice

Yeah? That was intentional.

John

Hey, listen. Sorry, alright? What happened with you and Sonya, I should've told you.

Clarice

You think? You know I still see that memory she put in my head? It's like a bad soap opera I can't escape.

John

I'm here to convince you to come back. You're not safe out here right now.

Clarice

You're concerned for my safety. That's why you came?

John

No, that's not all. The Underground needs you.

Clarice

The Underground, got it. Sorry, but that's your battle, not mine.

Sonya

Johnny, are you alright?

John

How can I be alright? Maybe Esme has a point.

Sonya

But she's just a scared kid, Who has no idea what she's talking about.

John

She was right about one thing. Pulse. I left him behind and they took him to that lab.

Sonya

That's not on you, Johnny. And continuing to blame yourself is not doing anybody any good. Besides, don't you think it's strange that she knew about Pulse? I mean, she just got here.

John

She's a telepath, Sonya. Maybe she picked it up off me. It doesn't change the fact that I gave up on my friend, and they turned him into a monster. I'll be damned if I let that happen to anybody else.

John

This would've been so much easier if we had Pulse with us.

Marcos

Yeah.

John

He could've taken out every automated gun in that place.

Marcos

Of course we'd be hearing tales of his awesomeness for months.

John

I miss him.

Marcos

Yeah, me too. But John, you weren't the only person who left him there that night. That's on all of us, not just you. Today we get to make it up to him.

John

We need to decide what to do.

Marcos

As far as I'm concerned, the psychics are a non-starter.

Lorna

Because their tactics make you uncomfortable?

Marcos

Uncomfortable? They murdered a dozen people without even blinking! We don't know the first thing about them!

Clarice

We do know one thing about them. They saved our asses.

Marcos

They saved themselves, and pulled us right into an all-out war with Sentinel Services.

John

Congress could declare martial law.

Clarice

So? They didn't need martial law when they killed my foster parents.

Lorna

Exactly. Why should we fight with one hand tied behind our backs? We need all the allies we can get! Do you want to cling to your ideals or do you want to survive?

Marcos

We can't just chuck our principles because it's convenient! You know, the X-Men chose us for a reason, and it's not because we can kill. If we wanted to kill people, we would've done it a thousand times already, but we didn't! We have to be better than that. Now, we need to take out the Hound program, and we will, Lorna, but we have to do it our way.

Lorna

I don't see a move here. The Hounds are already out there. They're kicking our asses.

It's a secret program. We can kill it, but it has to happen soon. Our sources tell us Dr. Campbell is working his political connections to take it national.

John

What do you mean?

He's attending the Humanity Today Summit in Charlotte, tomorrow.

Clarice

"Humanity Today?" Is that seriously what they call it?

I guess they thought it sounded better than "Kill the Muties."

Clarice

Back in Clark County, I had trouble with some purifiers, basically got run out of town. I was pissed, started looking for people who felt the same way. I found some mutants who were pushing back and it turned out that they were part of the Brotherhood.

John

You joined the Brotherhood?

Clarice

I didn't join anything! I helped them with a few things and when they asked me to do stuff I wasn't down for, I bailed.

John

Why didn't you tell us?

Clarice

Sage asked me what I was arrested for. Nothing I did with them.

John

That's not how it works and you know it!

Clarice

I know I shouldn't of worked with them, but–

John

It's not about that. It's about hiding it from us.

Clarice

Look, I didn't tell you this before because for the first time in forever I felt safe. I just didn't want to lose that.