Review Replies:

7candy7: Yay, new reviewer (I think). I'm glad I have ppl that read my stuff. Thanks.

Dryad Mage: Naw, she mostly gets along with everyone but Joseph. And I guess Devon when he's being a little smart a…ahem…alec.

Allen Terrill: I could clarify whose side wolf is on, but it's always funner if I keep ppl guessing.

Wolfy: We need school, unfortunately. And I absolutely hate writing Wolf. Hate it hate it hate it. (just so you know).

Proud to be an X-Nerd: Oh, no…I've taken too long on this one. I can see it now. You, out on the streets, graffiti-ing 'X-Men rule and DC drools' all over the city. What a shame. Tsk Tsk. Oh, and about Sabertooth, I don't know what he's gonna do…he's a creepy lil bugger, flitting about in my head and doing God-knows what to my muses. I think they're on strike right now, btw.

Quote:

The thing that women have got to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it. --Roseanne Barr

CHAPTER 8

"You don't have the authority to release a prisoner." Joseph's not yelling yet. I'm impressed.

My cat eyes blink slowly and lazily, almost taunting him, "She literally risked her hide ta come here 'n warn us. That's not a prisoner, that's an ally."

"She was in the party that attacked yesterday. That makes her an enemy." His jaw is doing a weird tensing rhythm.

"Yea," I nod, "but she tried ta save Emma."

"Says who?"

"Emma." I suddenly shake my head, "Ya know what, Dragon? I'm sick of this conversation. She's helping us. And yer just gonna have ta deal with it." I turn abruptly and head out the door.

"Cougar!" he snaps at me, but I keep moving. My power shields are up and he doesn't notice which way I'm walking. I stop long enough to hear him start in on Wolverine.

"Can't you do something about her?!"

The other man laughs, "Yer team leader, Joseph. Start actin' like it and not like a jackass. If all yer doing is arguing for the sake o' arguing, yer leaning more towards jackass."

"But she doesn't listen! She just does what ever she wants and to hell with anyone else."

"Look, kid, if all we wanted was a buncha soldiers, we woulda sent ya to the Brotherhood. We didn't teach just you to call the shots. We taught all o' ya to assess the situation and react as best fits. Yer right that she needs ta follow orders more," he says this louder for me to hear, "But when it boils down to it, she does. For the better of the team, the wolf should help. She knows the enemy." I'm still close enough to the door to hear Dragon sigh. Then Wolverine asks the question that I've been wondering for weeks, "So what's goin' on that's making you two butt heads so much?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," he mumbles back and walks out the room.

I frown at his back until the elevator doors close on him. My beeper vibrates just as the doors close and makes me jump. Pulling it out, I study the number and try to remember whose it is. Since I'm so difficult to find, they just set me up with a beeper and I have to go to them. Its Lisa's office number, I think.

Instead of waiting for the elevator to come back, I head towards the door marked 'STAIRS'. Wolverine is just coming into the hall and I duck away. I don't want to talk to him right now.

Lisa's door is open so I let myself in. Standing in front of the Asian woman, I watch her flip through pages and files with her lips pursed and a frown on her forehead. Her reading glasses are perched low on her nose and seem to be slipping further. "You rang?" I ask, making her jump enough to knock the glasses all the way off.

"Cougar," she breathes, retrieving the lenses and recomposing herself. "I spoke to many of the students. On the forefront of two of their minds was something about detention from you."

"Yea. Maria Garza and Shawna Bird," (look how good I am at remembering names now), "were sneaking out to a party early this morning. It was around 2 A.M, I think."

"Just those two?"

"Yea." I say again. I'm still standing. She rarely offers me a chair if I scare her coming in. Like she's trying to break me of a bad habit or something.

"All right. I'm assigning them to you for punishment times and places." She goes back to her papers.

"What?" my eyebrows raise. Detention students are usually assigned to the teachers, unless one of the X-Men give it to them, then they go to Joseph. "I don't do detentions."

She gives me the briefest of glances to answer, "You do now."

I blink. What the hell kinda bug is up everyone's butts today? "I really don't have time ta screw around with the kids, Lisa." She's not looking at me and its ticking me off.

"You can do it after all of this mess of yours is cleaned up."

"It aint my mess," I reply darkly.

Her dark eyes scan over a hand written note an she frowns again. "I am in charge of the students, Ms. Cougar. One of my students was revealed to be associated with what the government considers a national security threat." She looks straight at me now, "As you may or may not have notice, I don't exactly have time either."

Ah. There's the problem. "Don't blame yerself for Nathan being one of the bad guys."

"Ms. Frost assigns potential students based on location and age. Its my job, as headmistress of this school, to review their files, do research on them and interview both the children and their families. Somewhere during this process, I missed him being 'one of the bad guys'."

I open my mouth to speak just as Amber and Dani knock. The latter addresses Lisa, "The first half of the students are ready. Bill has the jet prepped and he's ready to load them."

"Cougar," Amber says just after her, "You have a phone call."

"Ah, Cougar," Mr. Wagner stops in mid stride at the mention of my name, "Joseph is in a conference call with Emma and Cyclops and your presence is requested."

I grunt, more from frustration than anything, and turn back to the woman who's now standing behind her desk, "You deal with the kids."

"Cougar," Amber says again, quietly, "the phone call…"

"Take a message," I answer her absently. Its probably just some parent about their cry baby kid. Around her, I ask Nightcrawler, "Where're they at?" I'm already moving out. The crowd seems to be moving with me.

"Ms. Cougar," You know, she's the only one who calls me that, "the girls are already assigned to you. I'm not about to change things for your stubbornness."

"Zey're in Joseph's office," Kurt answers me.

Back to the headmistress, "I'm not stubborn, I'm obstinate. It sounds less negative." Every once in awhile, I like to remind everyone that I'm not an uneducated country bumpkin by being semi articulate.

"Cougar, you might want to take this," Amber says again.

"I'll get back to them," I snap.

Dani speaks out again, "Lisa, what about the students?"

"Send them out. Cougar," Lisa continues to harass me all the way to Joseph's door. "This is an order."

I stop for a moment. Slowly I turn back to her, "You aint got the authority ta give me orders."

"They're approved by Joseph." She looks at me like I should have known that.

I curse under my breath as I turn the knob to Joseph's office door.

"But Cougar--"Crayola almost whines at me.

Miss Frost's voice greets me coolly via speaker phone, "Has Cougar finally joined us."

Instantly, I feel like telling her to shut up. "Can't you just read my mind 'n find out?" I goad her instead. It's funny how weirded out psychics get when they can't sense your presence.

"Sit down," Wolverine growls at me, clearly meaning 'quit looking for trouble'.

I plop myself down next to him and scowl across the desk at Dragon, "Why the heck am I suddenly in charge of detention students?"

"You issued the detentions. You can deal with them," I'm answered lightly.

"Oh, yea, that makes perfect sense. As long as anyone else issues the detentions, they're sent to the teachers, but when its ME--"

"We're not on the phone to listen to your bickering over student matters." How can she sound so prissy ALL the TIME?

"Shut up Frost." I groan immediately regretting my words.

Wolverine reaches over and smacks the back of my head just as Joseph yells, "Cougar!"

"OW!" (metal bones hurt, I'm not being a wimp) "Hey, we're all thinking it!"

I hear Emma sniff haughtily and Cyclops speaks up, "Cougar, if you're not going to be of any use to us, you may be excused."

"What use're ya lookin' for?" try to smooth things over.

"Actually," Amber speaks up, having been forgotten in the back, "Cougar, you still have a phone call…"

I'm getting a headache. "Who is it?"

Cyclops brushes her off, "We're having a meeting right now, Crayola. Take a message."

She answers me anyway, "It's your brother."

"What?" Nobody calls me here. I call everyone once a week. This can't be good.

"Cougar has a brother?" Joseph sounds confused.

"Yes she does. Remember she took a week off this last summer to visit her family."

Shaking my head, I stand up. Cyclops' voice says just as I start walking, "Well take a message and she'll get back to him."

We both ignore him, "What line is he on."

"Cougar, this is an important meeting," my team leader reminds me.

Amber looks worriedly between us and I demand again, "What line?"

"Line three…" She answers, still looking between us.

"Cougar." Frost calls out just as I walk through the door.

Two rooms down is my office. I rarely use it, but now's a good time. I close the door, pick up the phone on the way to my chair and push the flashing Line 3. "Hello?"

Silence, then, "Sister!" He always sounds surprised to hear from me.

I sigh, relieved that he doesn't sound like someone died or anything. "Roman," I greet back.

"Ya know, I was on hold for like, twenty minutes."

"Yea, we're a bit…unorganized…this week. What's up?"

There's some mumbling on his side and he says to someone in the background, "Yea, I got ahold of her."

From the back ground I hear another man greet, "Hi Calla!"

I smile to myself, "Tell Wayne I say hi back. Doesn't he have a house of his own?"

My brother relays the question and I hear from the background, "Roman's house is funner. And he doesn't nag me like my girlfriend." To which my brother laughs and I smile again.

"Oh," he gets back to the phone, "'What's up' you asked? Nothing much, except our little sister is in the nut house."

"What?!" I yell, sounding very much like my mother.

"Yea, they said she was hearing voices and her college sent her to the psychiatric hospital."

"Well of course she hears voices, she's a psychic!"

"That's what we said, but the college said that she passed the Mutant Test."

The Mutant Test. It's one of the biggest mutant debates at this time. It tests for the presence of the active, and inactive, X-gene. Some say its against constitutional rights. Some states allow the yearly testing of kids enrolled in private schools. They want to allow it for public now too--just for the records, they wouldn't kick those kids out, of course. I'm rolling my eyes right now. Its like a new form of Mutant Registration, or a reform.

I run my claws through my hair like a comb. "Ok, so she told someone she was a mutant. They alerted the campus and to get rid of her, they had her committed on the grounds of a staged blood test. What does she have to say about all this?"

"That's why I'm calling you. They won't let anyone talk to her or visit her. They say she's a legal adult and they don't have to allow outside contact."

Leaning back in my chair I gently chew my lower lip in thought, "What kinda hospital is this exactly?"

"I looked it up on the internet. Its known for being one of the few that accept mutants readily. They're also associated with some local college for psychiatrists and, get this, they recently have three graduate students working there with projects related to mutations of the mind."

"Oh, that sounds merry," I answer without cheer.

"Yea. So I'm working with our parents and a couple lawyers, but I was wondering if you could, you know, do whatever it is you do to go check on her."

Officially, my family doesn't know that I'm an X-Man…X-Woman. Of course, we've all been on the news before. Even without the cameras focusing on me, they've managed to pick me out a couple times. Boy did I get it from my mom the first time she saw 'her baby' being thrown across the city by The Blob.

I sigh into the phone, "We're actually in the middle of a bad…thing…right now. How long has she been in there?"

"A week."

I sit up straight, "A Week!? Why the Hell didn't someone call me before?"

"Chill. No one told us right away. We only found out the day before yesterday. She hadn't called mom, so mom called her and got her room mate. She said that Laura was picked up last Sunday."

"Beautiful." My claws drum against the desk as I think, "All right, I'll run up and get her. Bring her down here for evaluations or whatever."

"You really think there's something wrong with her?"

Laura, my sister, had never struggled with her powers, she'd simply grown into them. I'd offered her to come to Xavier's but she'd declined. She could pass for normal and there for was trying college life on her own. "She's never had problems with her powers before. We'll see what we can find out here."

"All right," he sounds resolved, "give me a call when you guys get back."

"Yea, I'll probably be in a fight when I get back. How bout tomorrow?"

He laughs, unaware of how unfunny it is. "Yea, sure. Talk to ya later."

"K, Bye," I reply automatically.

He barely says, "Bye," before hanging up on me.

I hang up the phone and lay my forehead against the cool wooden desk. What a day, I tell you. My mind thinks quickly, what I should do, what I should say, and more importantly, whose butt I should kick. "All right," I say out loud to myself, "Lets go have some fun."

I leave my office and head back to Josephs, bothering to knock this time before opening the door. This time, all the older X-Men are here and look up at my appearance. I cross my arms and stay in the doorway.

Frost's impatient voice slithers through the speaker, "Oh, for God's sake, what is it this time?"

I deliberately ignore her, "Joseph, I need the mini jet."

He blinks his hazel eyes at me, "Are you kidding?" How un-leader like, right?

I shake my head, still unsure of what words to use, "I got some family business. It'll only take an hour, including travel time."

He continues to stare at me. Everyone else stares at him. The speaker phone is, surprisingly, silent. Finally, he stands up and motions me out the door. Shutting it behind us, he asks in a quiet voice, "I need to know the details, Cougar."

Understandable. "My little sister's college put her in a mental institution for hearing voices. She's a psychic, but they said she tested negative for the Mutant Test."

"Wait," he shakes his head with a frown, "They can't do mutant blood tests for schools."

"She's in a private college. In North Dakota, where they CAN do mutant blood tests in ALL schools." I continue when all he does is frown deeper, "Anyway, they won't let her talk to my family. That hospital has mutant research going on in it right now."

"So. You want to go up there and raise hell, guns blazing?" Ah, there's that condescending tone…

"No. I was thinking more of slinkin' around and figurin' out what's exactly goin' on. Then grab her and get back here."

He stares at me, obviously thinking things over. "All right. You get one hour; take the mini jet that Rogue and those guys came in. I want you to take a team member with you, too. I don't want you three states away if something goes wrong and you run into trouble, especially when we need you back here."

Neat. A babysitter. "Fine, but send someone you won't need here incase trouble runs into you."

He lets out a short humorless laugh, "I need everybody here, including you." Looking over my head, his eyes become unfocused with thought. At length, he decides, "Wolverine will go with you."

"Are you retarded?" I ask loudly, "Wolverine's the last one you wanna be without."

He looks convinced though, "Exactly. It'll mean you'll hurry back and he'll keep you in line." Without further discussion from my part, he marches back into his office. "Wolverine, you're going with Cougar to North Dakota. Now."

From my angle in the hall, I can see Logan's eyes narrow at the orders, "Ya need me here, kid."

In the classic manner of Cyclops, Dragon leans into his desk, "You said you'd help. Well, I need you to keep an eye on her and make sure she gets in and out with out any problems. She'll brief you in the jet."

A grunt that can almost be a growl comes from the other man. From the speaker comes Mr. Summer's voice in an unamused tone, "Dragon, members of my team are there for support, not to be commandeered into side missions that shouldn't be a priority at this time anyway."

I try to think of something to diffuse the situation. But before I can think of anything Logan replies gruffly, "It's all right, Cyke. We'll only be gone an hour, right Cougar?" He doesn't bother to look at me, he's staring down Joseph, whose doing remarkably well, I have to admit.

"I'll get the jet ready," is all I say and leave them to diffuse the situation themselves.

I go to my room and get a spare uniform. All black, made from some kinda skin tight material that is NOT spandex…a gold belt with various tools (knives, some kind of super rope, a lock pick set and an emergency holographic simulator incase I get into trouble); my good gloves; soft soled black boots for sneaking around; and a long black trench coat because I'm subconscious in such tight clothes. I pull my hair into a braid in the back as I walk towards the kitchen to fill in Wolf.

She's sitting at the counter island, eating a roast beef sandwich and using her little kid voice with Emma.

"Do you eat raw meat?" the girl asks in her high voice.

"Yea. The wolves I play with would run away if I lit a fire to cook it."

The child's face scrunches up, "Ana says eating raw meat gives you worms. She says Cougar eats her meat too raw too and that she'll get worms too."

My friend's nose picks me up and she looks at me while answering, "That's only if the meat isn't fresh." To me she asks, "What's goin' on?"

"Laura's in a nut house, so I gotta go and bring her here. I should be back in an hour. Keep an eye on things, wouldja?"

She nods, "Yea, sure. Do you want me to go with?"

I shake my head, "Naw, I'm set up with a babysitter already." With a frown, I look down at the child, "What are you still doin' here?"

She shrugs her small shoulders, "I'm on the second plane. Will I get to swim while I'm there?"

I shrug back, "Dunno. Ask when you get there. But I gotta go. So, Nay, keep an eye on the school, and Emma, behave yerself."

I get nods from both of them, then start for the hanger.

Wolverine's already there, with the jet turned on. Apparently, he's flying. "Get in," he growls at me." This is my mission, so I oblige.

We're off the ground before I even have myself strapped into the co-pilot seat.

"Fill me in," he growls again, maneuvering the plane up and out.

"My sister's school sent her to the nut house saying she was hearin' voices. She's a psychic, but they said she passed the Mutant Test and was just crazy. They won't let her contact the family, or talk to them themselves. The school has a couple mutant research projects going on right now, so I wanna go see what exactly she's doin' there." I lean forward and type the coordinates into the jet's computer and it automatically adjusts it's direction. "I wanted this ta be a solo mission, so don't get all grumpy with me that ya gotta come too."

He grunts back at me and stares straight ahead. Mr. Grumpy pants…

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank goodness for slacker classes, otherwise I'd NEVER get this chapter done. I SHOULD be studying for an anatomy test, so all ya'll better be thankful that yer a priority:D Hope you liked it. Action in the next chapter, I think.