Disclaimer: I own nothing- it's all comic people and the movie producers. I'm just borrowing it for a bit.

Author's Note: First X-Men fic. Yeah… Own character, kinda angsty, may not always make sense, but it does in my mind. Comments and helpful critism is more than welcome. Now, onto the fic! (And if you've read my Harry Potter fic, you'll know I have a fetish for the name "Rebecca". To explain this, I just wish it were my name is all. And I like naming my characters the same name to see how many personalities I can give them. I'm just weird. grin)

Chapter One: The Animal

I am alone, as I should be. There is no company an animal could want more than itself. And you should never cage an animal. No; never cage an animal. They don't like it very much. I have found this out from experience, two years of it. They explode when you keep them in a cage for too long. That man will learn to appreciate that now…

I hate Florida weather and its sudden showers. It does not help me at the moment. It only leaves a nice trail of blood for the police and their dogs to follow. I went home to get my stuff, that's all, and how am I dealt with? Am I spoken to with dignity and respect? No. Am I shot at by my father and the police because of what I am?

Yes.

I love my family, I truly do. I missed them with all of my heart while I was being held by that man. I thought they had misunderstood feelings, and would come to get me from my living Hell. But that was when I was still foolish, still a child. I know better now, especially after having been shot at by one of the people that created me.

I'm lucky to be alive. I was going to die where I was; it would've been a slow, painful death, drawn out by a man whose own mind is as sick as a pervert's. No. That man is a pervert.

I escaped from him a month ago. It took me one long month to travel back to my home: to Jacksonville, Florida, where I thought I was loved. I had found an abandoned log cabin soon after I had escaped from that man's clutches. I found I was near New York, but had no recollection of where his lair was. I only remembered a few things: why I had been brought there, what was done to me once I was there, and my escape. After that, everything was a big, black spot within my mind. And I had no one to help me.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a baying dog. Soon, a chorus joined in, and I felt as though I was surrounded. My upper lip rose into a sneer, and I jumped, bag, body, and aching limbs, to the nearest tree trunk. I went like this for some time, leaping from tree to tree, in order to confuse the dogs. It was something I had learned how to do while I was still young, from watching too much TV. I could lose almost any animal, or person for that matter, that was trailing me. It was a technique I had grown to love over the past month, and I cherished my mutations now more than when I had first received them.

I got down from the tree I was currently holding onto, and began to run. I stopped in the middle of a small, open area, and bounded to a tree near by. I clutched the bark, and looked down; I was only twenty feet above the ground, and I knew I needed to go higher. I clambered up the side of the tree, and fled into the safety of the leaf-littered branches. And I waited.

Men with their dogs came into the clearing. The dogs sniffed about, becoming very confused when they came to where I had last stood. I felt sorry for them. I never knew what it was like to feel owned, for I had been all human at one point. Then I was given a master, and I was forced to be his slave. I was an animal now, like them; but unlike them, I had escaped my master. My life was my own again.

"Come on, Dog," said one of the men, and clapped a leash onto the biggest dog's collar. The hound strained against its leash, baying as loudly as he could; this stirred the others into a baying frenzy, and I laughed at their stupidity, feeling idiotic for ever feeling the least bit of pity for them at all.

"There's nothing here," the man continued. He turned to another man: "She's gone. We're never gonna find her in this." He waved his hand about, indicating the storm.

"The storm's getting worse, anyway," the second man replied, wincing at a bolt of lightening. "We're gonna need to put out a notice to the public that a dangerous mutant is on the run."

I growled at the last remark. I may have been dangerous, but only when provoked. They had provoked me, so I maimed one of them. An eye for an eye. A missing limb for a bullet wound.

I controlled my anger, and my growl turned into a smirk. I was the most wanted creature in all of Jacksonville, possibly all of Florida. Governor Jeb Bush, if he still was governor of Florida, would confirm that there was a dangerous mutant on the loose, and put Florida into yet another state of emergency. This would spread throughout the news stations, because mutants were the big thing now, and soon the entire country would be hunting for me, for mutants, for my new family.

I laughed quietly at this thought, and waited for the men to leave. They all did, and very quickly. I stopped myself from jumping on the shoulders of a last straggler; he had done nothing to me, so I let him be.

I hopped from the tree, landing noiselessly upon the ground. Looking about, I decided my course would take me north. I did not care if the bullets remained in my body, although my healing capabilities should have taken care of them long ago. I looked at my shoulder, and saw that my wound still bled, though only slightly.

"Damn," I said under my breath. "What the hell is wrong with my powers?"

Whatever, I thought. They'll come back eventually. I returned my attention to the north, and began walking in that direction, pulling my jacket tightly over my shoulders.