Fitting In
 

Logan dragged her through most of the forest with her struggling all the way.
“Wait! Come on wait!” Wolverine growled and stopped turning to face her.

“Look kid I don’t know what it is about you, but I’ll feel better after I get
you to the Professor.” He then started to pull her again. But this time it
wasn’t so easy. He was jerked back, and she hadn’t budged an inch.

“Ok now look, I will go with you to the mansion and talk to this Professor of
yours but I will do it without being dragged.” Logan was stunned to say the
least but he didn’t let that show. She sighed then smirked “Anyway we will get
there faster if I wasn’t struggling right? So how about we walk there like
semi-normal people.” Logan snorted, but shook his head anyway. He knew she was
telling the truth about going to the mansion. He gestured for her to go in
front of him. She nodded and sauntered with all the grace of a cat in the
direction of the mansion. Wolverine lengthened his stride to keep up with her.

She walked a little faster.

He matched her pace, not one to be outdone.

She walked faster.

He walked faster.

Faster

Faster

Faster

Faster

A laugh rang out as she broke into a run. Wolverine right on her heals. “Come
on your slow!” she laughed, taunting him.

“I’ll show you slow!” he yelled as he raced by her. His metal clad frame moving
faster than most think he could.

They were neck and neck, laughing and taunting their way through the forest.
Dodging trees, and jumping roots and dead wood.

It’ll be fun having another feral at the Mansion, he mused. But his musings
came to a sudden halt as he nearly ran over O. She had stopped right at the
edge of the forest.

They stood there just staring at the mansion. Watching the children play,
letting their laughter wash over them.

Logan didn’t say a word, he knew that this place could be a little, over
whelming. She was looking at him out of the corner of her eye, he could feel
it. And smell her apprehension. He readied himself to catch her if she ran. But
she never did.

“This is it, one more step and there is no turning back. I leave now and in a
few weeks you would forget me. And for me, my life would go on like it always
had, before you came into my life.”

Logan snorted. What an odd thing to say, he dismissed it.

He wouldn’t let her leave without a fight.

“I’m taking you to see the professor.” He said it like, that was the end of it
and she had no say in the matter, that made her laugh.

A smirk was slow to appear, like there was still some debate over whether she
would indeed LET him, HIM! bring her to the Mansion.

“Ok Mr. Alpha, lead the way.”
 
 

***********************************************

Once they hit the mansion grounds her demeanor changed. The outgoing girl from
the forest was now gone. She was replaced by a silent teen hidden in the folds
of her cape. She had pulled the hood all the way over her face. So much so
Logan wondered how she could see. He wanted to say something to the kid but
decided to pick his battles.

Logan didn’t know if it was his fearsome reputation or the grim reaper
look-alike that was trailing behind him that caused the kids to part and stare
as they passed.

Jean met them at the door. “Logan, Scott is none to happy. I believe he
mentioned something about you forgetting who the leader is.”

Logan mumbled something about the location of a stick in reference to Scott.
This caused the dark figure behind him to stifle a laugh. This visibly drew
Jean’s attention, but Logan wasn’t fooled. He knew that from the minute that
they had stepped out of the forest Jean had a telepathic knowledge of there
every move.

Jean couldn’t keep her curiosity in check any longer she had to know who this
person was and why she felt so connected to her. “So who did you find?” She
asked sweetly covering the fact that she was reaching out to the girl,
telepathically probing her mind.

“Well Jean, as you probably already know this is O,” he gestured towards her. A
loud growl erupted from O, and Jean whose telepathic wonderings had gotten to
the open entryway of O’s outer shield. Then the once open door was then
violently slammed shut, causing Jean to be knocked physically and mentally away
from O. Jean stared up at the young girl from the ground. O’s yellow eyes were
now glowing with anger.

Jean was furious nobody had ever dared to challenge her abilities before. Well
that was not exactly true, but this girl was the first to succeed, and The
Phoenix was not going to stand for it.

“JEAN!” All three of them looked up to see Professor Xavier floating down the
stairs in his hover chair. “Jean, I’ve taught you better than entering
someone’s mind uninvited.” He scolded her. She lowered her head. “O, my name is
Professor Xavier, would you follow me please?” O grunted, giving Jean another
low growl as she passed her. Jean shivered there was something about that girl.

Jean looked at Logan, confused. Logan was shaking his head. “What were ya
thinkin’ red? Ya know betta then ta pry inta someone’s head.”

“I was just curious I didn’t mean anything by it.” She said getting herself off
the floor and wiping the dirt from her behind. Logan shook his head at her lack
of understanding, tuned and started to walk away.

Jean did a double take. Jean saw it but she didn’t believe it. How in the world?

“Uh, Logan?” He stopped and turned toward her. “What Red?!” She ignored the
gruff response and walked cautiously up to him. She started moving her hand
around him like she was touching something that encircled him. Something that
he couldn’t see

“What? What cha doin’, red?” He could smell confusion and a bit of fear on her.
That made him a little uneasy but his annoyance still winning out. What was she
up too?

She scratched her head. “Did you do something to your shields?”

“No?” Logan instantly let his annoyance take a back seat to Jean’s concern. She
wasn’t usually wrong about these things. “What do you see Red?”

“Your shield….” Jean shook her head she just couldn’t believe it, all the
things that occurred in the past few minuets now forgotten. “Well your shields
are usually green, but now...” If Logan’s shields were defective or worse
tampered with, he would be totally vulnerable to any Psy attack.

“So now..?” Logan was far from patient. If someone has been messing with his
shields he would rip them apart. He hated psy’s they made, his skin crawl. It
was something about there powers, he always thought that they were
untrustworthy, like they wouldn’t come through when you needed them the most.
He had tried to shake it in the past but the feeling was too deep to ignore.

“Come on, we’re going to see Bets.” With that he was being pulled through the
mansion.

***********************************************

The Professor led her through the hallways telling her bits and peaces about
each room they passed. He ignored the chuckling she made when he showed her the
class rooms. He would discuss her taking classes when they reached his office.

“This is the Danger Room. I don’t usually show this to new students but, any
student who can out run four of our teachers for that length of time, deserves
to be allowed to train here.”

“Wow, thank you Sir.” She looked down from the observation booth at the two
mutants sparing. One had long brown hair but the odd thing was that her bangs
were white. She was flying around the large room throwing what ever she could
at the smaller brown haired woman. She amazingly was deflecting the attack,
when the flyer was out of ammo her eyes went black and a psyonic ball of energy
went flying from her. The flyer just barley missed being hit. “They are both
really good. I knew it could happon but I’ve never seen a telepath powerful
enough to create a psyonic bolt before. That was amazing!”

The professor was pleased with her excitement and admiration towards Betsy,
maybe he would use it to get her to open those massive shields of hers and see
what she is hiding. If she doesn’t open then willingly he knew they will never
open.

“Well maybe along with your other classes I could have you train with Betsy.
You have great abilities, maybe she could teach you how to control them.” This
brought another flood of laughter from O. Her laugh was very bubbly and worm,
but when coming out from under that large black cloak it made it almost eerie.

“I would not let either of them get within 10 feet of me. They are both out of
control. Look at them they are really trying to kill each other.”

The professor looked what she was saying was true, the program had finished
running and they were fighting each other. The robots smashed to scrap. He
flipped on the intercom.

“Rouge, Betsy, what are you doing? The Danger Room is for training not for
petty fights. Do I make myself clear? I will talk to you both later!” The two
stopped immediately at the sound of his voice and hung their heads at what he
said. He nodded approvingly and turned his chair around and hovered out the
room.

He didn’t notice the glares that were exchanged between the two. But O did. She
shivered those women were empty. There was no feeling in those two. She walked
out of the booth feeling very cold.

But then something caught her eye. Logan was being pulled into the Danger Room
by that red headed snoop. They both looked concerned. She couldn’t hear what
they were saying but it couldn’t be good, she hoped everything was as it should
be.

“O?” The professor reentered the booth. He looked down to see what she was
staring at. He sighed she was staring directly at Logan. He never understood
why girls fell for him but something’s not even he could figure out. “We must
continue on.” O nodded her head but still seemed reluctant to leave. She slowly
relented and followed him out the door.

***********************************************

“Betsy, Betsy, take a look at this!” Betsy reluctantly broke off her staring
contest with Rouge. That girl needed to learn respect, and she was just about
to teacher her some, when the professor butted in and now Jean. Oh well there
is always time.

Betsy turned towards Jean and Logan, and was startled. “What in the world have
you done Jean?” Logan’s usually pale green shield was now a blazing red.

“I haven’t done anything, I don’t know why this happened.” Betsy seemed like
she was staring through Logan. This made him shift nervously under the
scrutiny. He always hated being stared at.

Betsey’s mouth formed a stunned oh. “Wow, I’ve never seen this before.” Her
face broke into a wide astonished smile.

“Well, I’m glad ya find amusement in the fact that someone’s been messin’ with
my shields.” He was not finding any humor in the situation.

“Well, you’ll be glad to know that your shields have not been tampered with.”

Logan and Jean looked at each other still confused.

“Rouge, why don’t you take that rock, that you aren’t trying to figure out how
to hit me with, without hitting anybody else.” She said over her shoulder “And
throw it at Logan.”

“What?!” The chorus of astonishment was almost defining.

“Trust me. It’s not like it would kill you anyway.” She said still partly
laughing as she backed away.

“Sorry Shuga’ but she may be a stubborn, argent witch, but she ain’t never
wrong when it comes to thangs like this.” Jean moved away fast as Rouge got
into position. Logan braced himself, Betsy was right he would survive it but it
would hurt like hell!

Logan saw the bolder falling and it took all his will power not to jump out of
the way. But he couldn’t help closing his eyes and covering his head as it
fell. Logan heard a loud crash and wondered where was the blinding pain. Had
Rouge missed? Unlikely she prided herself on her aim.

Logan slowly opened his eyes he couldn’t believe it. About 10ft. away was the
bolder, smashed. The three girls were standing around it looking as shocked as
he felt.

“What the hell!?!” Logan joined them. “Did ja miss?”

“I neva’ miss suga’” Rogue said her pride pushing through her astonishment.

“The stone it bounced right off you!” Jean said.

“It’s not a mental shield it’s a physical one. Logan you must have mutated and
developed a new shield.” She reached out again to feel it.

“So your tellin’ me that I don’t have the psy shield anymore?” Logan was
concerned he needed a psy shield more than a protective shield. He could
survive anything but he wouldn’t know how to survive a unguarded psy attack.

“No that’s not it. You have both. That red shield is surrounding you, all of
you, including your original green one." Betsy still couldn't believe it, it
was amazing.

“Um Betts, how is dat possible suga’?”

“You think I know?” She spun around resuming the fight that was interrupted to
many times for her liking.

A loud growl snapped them out of there pointless arguing.

“Shut up! Tell me has this,” he paused trying to control his anger, “new
shield, left me vulnerable to attack?”

“Ya, how do we know that it wasn’t put there by an enemy to desert Logan when
he most needs it?” Jean was really getting worried.

“I don’t know! How am I supposed to know!? Why don’t you go ask Hank,”
remembering Logan’s aversion to the med lab she quickly adds, “or the
Professor.” But that that was answered by an even meaner response.

“Well take your pick it has to be one of the two. Now if you both don’t mind I
was just about to teach this flyin’ disaster a lesson.

Jean and Logan left the danger room fast. Neither of them wanting to get caught
in the middle of that fight.

“Why don’t you just go down and see Hank. He’ll run some quick tests and then
it’ll be over and you’ll have your answer.” Logan was growling low and soft, he
really didn’t like the idea of going to the med lab, but it was definitely
better then talking to the Professor.

Jean smiled “Hank has just gotten back and is on his way back to the lab.” She
patted him on the shoulder and turned and walked away. Logan hated that smug
look she got when she knew she got him.