Azure Flame Wolf

"Ugh I'm so nervous!" I sat in Scott's car twitching my ears under my hood. Kitty patted my shoulder comforting me slightly.

"It will be ok Devlin, everyone is like this on their first day to a new school." Rogue nodded next to her.

"Don't worry shoog, if you need anything just look for us ok?" I smiled at that. It felt great knowing I had such good friends by my side. I really hope it will be ok, my tail wagged behind me still excited at the thought of going to high school.

"By the way you do know to use your image inducer right?" I sighed and fiddled with the watch on my wrist. It buzzed for a second and my tail vanished from sight. I lifted the hood off my head and turned to the others.

"How do I look?" Kitty giggled to herself and Rogue blushed giving color to her pale face.

"You look great Devlin," It was Jean to answer which made Scott swerve for a moment clearly jealous of the attention she was giving to me. "Just try to not break someone's heart ok?"

"Believe me that's the last thing on my mind right now." And that was true, because of the obvious and I doubt a guy will hit on me so I guess I was safe. When we finally reached the school I gulped in fear. Scott dropped us off at the front entrance and went to park his car. The moment I left the car half the people there stared at me. I sighed to myself and took a breath, before I could do anything Rogue and Kitty took my arms and walked me through the crowd everyone around us started to whisper and point at us like we were the center of the world.

"Like don't worry we got you're back… well arms I mean." I gave them both an appreciative smile and whispered a word of thanks.

"Don't look now but you already getting some looks shoog." Despite her warning I did look, all around girls were blushing and giggling like mad. Even some guys were looking at me but they were looks of envy and admiration. All of the attention all of it felt amazing and strange. When we were safely inside Kitty left us to go to her class while Rogue escorted me to my first class. "You and I have the same first period. It's History with Mr. Lancer."

When we entered the room the people in the room turned to look at both of us, Rogue told me to ignore them and told me to take a seat next to her. When we sat down a girl with a Gothic look took a seat next to Rogue.

"Hey Rogue who's the new guy? Friend of yours?" she nodded and I waved a little nervous at meeting someone new that knew nothing about what we really are.

"Hi I'm Devlin Mercer, Rogue and I both go to Xavier's Institute together." She smiled and waved at me.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sam Manson… do you mind if I call you Dev?" I chuckled and nodded.

"Sure! Have you and Rogue known each other long?" she thought for a moment and nodded.

"I think we met when she first came to Bayville high. How about you? How long have you been at Xavier's?" that was a good question.

"About a month and a half I think." Interrupting us from our conversation with a loud bang a bold chubby man with a goatee slammed the door shut and took a seat in front of the class.

"Quite down children class is now in session!" As he sat he turned to look at me and sighed. "I see we have a new student with us today, would you please stand up and introduce yourself to the class Mr…." he looked though some papers in his desk I guess looking for my name. I stood up and walked to the front of the class.

"It's Mercer sir." I turned and waved at the class and smiled. "My name's Devlin Mercer."

"Tell us a little about you Mr. Mercer." I rubbed the back of my neck and tried to think of what to say.

"Well I guess I'll go with the basics… my favorite color is Blue and my favorite food is Meat. My activities include free running, hunting and tracking. And finally I go to the Xavier institute. This is my first day here at Bayville and I hope to get to know all of you." I winked at the class and I gained a few giggles from the girls of the class.

"Very good Mr. Mercer now please take a seat and let us get on with class." The class was rather boring because I already knew a lot of history from my time at the orphanage. They had history books that I used to occupy my time when I wasn't stressing from Crest. After class Sam and Rogue invited me to lunch and I graciously agreed. We walked to our lockers and then to the cafeteria, Sam and Rogue sat at a table next to a young man with shaggy Raven black hair and another with a red beret holding onto a game-boy.

"Hey Sam, Hey Rogue!" The boys waved at the girls and Sam and Rogue pointed to me.

"Guy's meet Devlin Mercer, he's new here at Bayville." The raven haired boy waved at me and smiled shyly.

"Hi I'm Danny Fenton and that's Tucker Foley." He pointed at the boy in the beret who just murmured a hello totally immersed in his game. "Don't mind him he just got a new game and he will be stuck in it until he beats it… anyway it's uh…. Nice to meet you Devlin." I chuckled and smiled at Danny, he looked very cute and by the way he stuttered I think he might be…. Na don't get your hopes up Devlin….

"Call me Dev…" the rest of the day was very enjoyable, after lunch we went on our own classes leaving me to introduce myself two more times until I finally made my way to my last class which was P.E. I dreaded going to the locker room but I had no choice so I kept my eyes to the ground and changed quickly into my uniform. There in the locker room stood two people who I knew.

"Hey Dev!" Danny stood in the bleaches waving at to join him so I did. "I guess we have P.E. together… oh no…" confused I turned around to see a tall blond boy walk up to us smirking menacingly.

"Well Well so the new guy's talking to the freak!" Was he talking about Danny? I turned around to see Danny Looking grim and hurt. In anger I turned back to the blond jerk and glared.

"What's that suppose to mean?" the jerk laughed and pointed at Danny with disgust.

"What you never heard of the ghost hunters of Bayville, the Fentons'?" ghost hunters? I lift an eyebrow in confusion then turned to see Danny rubbing his arm in embracement. "They came to town hall and freaked out everyone because they thought it was haunted. When everyone found out it was a squirrel they were laughed out by the whole town."

"…So!" Danny lift his head in amazement at my outburst. "So they made a mistake, big deal! That's no reason to pick on him!" The jerk laughed at me.

"Yes it does! And what do you care? Is this fagot your boyfriend or something?" My eyes narrowed and I felt a growl erupt from my throat. In a rage I lifted the blond off his feet and glared into his horrified eyes.

"If you ever bother me or Danny again I will thrust my hand through your chest, rip out your intestines and strangle you with them!" he nodded scared to death and I tossed him across the room. He landed with a thud and scurried away like the cockroach that he was. I felt a tap on my shoulder and growling I turned to see Danny who flinched back from me afraid. I shook my head to clear it and sighed.

"S…sorry about that Danny… he just pushed my buttons." Danny smiled and chuckled.

"That was awesome! No one ever stood up for me like that…. Well not counting Sam but she might as well be my sister. Anyway… thanks Dev." I patted his shoulder and blushed at his praise.

"No problem… how long has he been picking on you?" Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Ever since that incident, my sister and I have been paying for their mistake from jerks like Duncan Matthews…" He bit his lip and looked away as if he wanted to talk but didn't know if he could trust me. "But… well things were always like that… my mom and dad 'are' ghost hunters but they never found one and because of it they've been laughed at and ridiculed… but no matter what… they still believe." I felt bad for them and for Danny, to believe in something so much and yet never see it…. well it hurts.

"I respect them for believing for as long as they had but it all really messed up my life along with my sister's. We had to move five times this year alone!" He sighed and rubbed his eyes, he looked so tired. "I think… I think if they found a ghost a real ghost… than… maybe.. never mind it's not something to bother other people with especially your friends."

'BRING!' the final bell broke us from our conversation.

"Oh uhh… it was nice talking to you Dev but I got to head home… my parents are working on an experiment and they usually make my sister and I help. See you later Dev!" Before he could move on I grabbed on to his arm.

"Hey umm... never mind sorry." I let go of his hand and watched him leave… I knew this was a bad idea but I had to give it a try. Quickly and quietly I followed Danny not letting him get more than a few feet away from me. That was until a small car stopped in front of him. Driving the car was a girl with orange hair and aqua blue eyes that almost matched Danny's icy blue ones. They welcomed each other and Danny boarded.

"Crud! I need to follow him!" I began to panic as they began to pull out into the road. I'm not sure how it happened but I felt my body shift and fell to the ground on all fours. Panicking I rushed for the street and looked through a puddle to see myself and what I saw confused me greatly. I looked just like Crest with the smoky black body and flaming blue eyes.

"Like did you see that cute guy with the pony tail!" frightened I looked up to see someone walking up the corner, if anyone saw me like that they would flip out! Without thinking I floated in the air and landed in the alley behind a trashcan. Amazed I looked down to see my front paws but not my back paws, they were completely gone!

"You mean the new guy? Totally! He's so cute! Too bad he's spending time with the rejects." Wait… were they talking about me? Then… they called my friends rejects…

'Howl!' I jumped out from the behind the trashcan and scared the girls who screamed in fear running away from me as fast as they could. Smirking to myself I jumped into the air and began flying, it felt so wonderful that I almost forgot to follow the car. I followed them all the way to a small building clad in metal that shined with a green hue. I flew in close to a window and went inside. The room was dark but I could see just fine, in the room were school books and boys clothes. Since Danny said he only had a sister I guessed it was his room.

"Danny Jazz come down stairs! We have something to show you!" a man's voice echoed loudly though the house while a young male shouted back really close to the door.

"Sure thing dad I just got to get changed and finish my homework it' only math so it'll be a minute!" the door began to open so I rushed under the bed in order to not get caught. Danny entered the room and dropped his backpack on the ground.

"Sigh, home sweet home." I lay under the bed looking on at Danny as he walked around his room. He walked to his closet and kicked off his shoes. What I saw next made my fiery eyes widen to the point where they might as well burned a hole though Danny's bed. There Danny stood pulling off his t-shirt, my watered as I stared at his soft flat chest and stomach; he had almost no muscles definition and looked near skinny as a twig.

'No wonder Duncan was able to pick on him so easily... Even Kitty could trash him with one hand tied behind her back!' my eyes only widened as he unbuttoned his pants and slid out leaving him in a pair of blue boxers. I quickly turned my head away feeling like a totally pervert.

'This is not what I came here for darn it so stop looking at him undress!' doing my best to will myself to not look I moved my attention to the things under his bed other then myself. I saw a hair brush, a sock many recess candy packets still full with the delicious chocolate and peanut buttery treats. I felt my stomach rumble and decided to… borrow a peace. Now opening it was tricky with paws but I was able to silently rip one open and feasted on it. Thinking he was dressed I looked out to see him bending over to pick up his shoes still in his boxers. I almost chocked on the candy as I turned my head to look away. I turned around and crawled deeper under the bed and found a shoe box.

'…no No NO! You are not looking through his private things Devlin!... then again I kind of already saw him nakedish, what could it hurt? I was already pushing my limits for a guy who I just met anyway!' I heard curiosity killed the cat… but it might as well killed the wolf mutant! Inside the box were countless pictures of half naked people and not just any people, men… he had pictures of men under his bed….

'He's gay!' I felt a huge knot in my stomach and the chocolate in my mouth went bitter. I might as well have outted the poor guy! I closed the box and hoping I didn't get another eyeful of Danny looked out to see him in a pair of shorts and a light blue shirt. I sighed to myself in relief and watched as he sped through his homework. Once he was done he closed his note book and walked to the door but not before he muttered…

"I wonder what he did this time…" I quickly followed silently behind him; just as I did I fell through the ground and felt myself get dragged behind him. I looked around and felt… well… flat! Just then I knew what happened… I was in Danny's shadow! I praised myself at how much I was learning just by helping a friend. Danny dragged me all the way down into his metal clad basement where his sister stood along with a very large chubby man in a orange jumpsuit and a quite curvy woman in a blue jumpsuit surrounded a metal glowing cage. The large man turned to both Danny and his sister and smiled widely.

"AH KIDS! Come see our latest invention the Fenton-Ghostkeeper!" The man smiled and flipped a switch that opened the cage and made it shine toxic green. "This will capture any ghost and instantly disintegrate it into Ectoplasm!" Danny's sister sighed.

"Great dad… another wonderful invention to occupy more space that we don't have…" She sighed and began walking out patting Danny's shoulder. "I'll get started on dinner. I doubt mom and dad had time to cook today." She looked so disappointed and just as tired as Danny was with her parents. I smiled to myself, should my plan work all that would be over and they might get some normality back to their lives. Not wasting any more time I leaped out of Danny's shadow and howled floating in the air around the metal clad basement, everyone from his father to his mother looked shocked but full of joy and slight fear.

"It's….it's… a ghost…. A real undead ghost!" I howled softly and rubbed my head up against Danny's leg. Danny looked on in wonder and petted my head.

"Mom dad…. I'm so sorry for doubting you two…. You were right! Ghost are… what are you doing!?" I yelped in pain as a large purple beam of light smashed into my body making me fall to my side unconscious.

"Dad this is wrong you can't do this!" I shook my head feeling my senses returning to me. I stood up looking through green metal bars; I was trapped inside the cage looking at Danny and his sister yelling at their father.

"Of course we can! We have been waiting for this our whole lives! Once we shove the evidence into those government jerks we will have our funding to open up Fenton-works! Maddie! Is the car packed yet!?" he called up to his wife who shouted a yes. The large man picked up a video camera and walked up to the cage. In fear I backed away as he filmed me. "This is the find of the centenary! Once we get funding we'll dissect you atom by atom! The Fenton's will be the most famous family in the world!"

"But dad look at him! He's so scared, you can't just kill something just to be famous!" the man laughed deeply.

"Silly it's already dead! Anyway we'll be back in a week! Keep it here and make sure the power doesn't go out or it will escape." He rushed up the stairs before his children could convince him dissecting me was wrong. I sat there and heard the car rush out of the driveway and away from the house. I quickly rushed at the bars only to be shocked the moment my fur touched the bars I was shocked remorselessly. It felt so bad that I fell and yipped in pain.

"No!" Danny rushed for me and holding onto the bars, the bars didn't shock him like it did to me. He reached out to touch me smoky fur and I backed away as best I could. "It's ok I won't hurt you."

"No Danny!" his sister rushed for him and pulled him away from the cage. "Just because you won't hurt him doesn't mean he won't hurt you!"

"Look at him Jazz! Does he look dangerous to you!?" she sighed and shook her head.

"No…" She knelt down and starred at me with her brother. Still shaky I stood and crawled closer to them but not getting more than a few inches from the bars. Cautiously she reached out and petted my nose. I was hesitant but I allowed her to pat me. "Sigh… he's harmless. So what do we do?"

"We are not leaving him here to get dissected!" He stood up and starred at the button his father pushed to open the cage. Jazz reached up and held his arm.

"Wait! What will dad do when he finds out we let him out!? He'll murder us!" I opened more mouth and barked.

'It's ok…' To my amazement and theirs I spoke. They turned to me shocked and knelt to the ground in confusion.

"H… He talked!" Danny grinned widely and held onto the bars. "You can talk!?" I nodded in understanding.

'I… I know…. Well I knew your family has been having problems….' Their eyes widened. 'That's why… I'm here…. I thought if they saw a real ghost… that it would end their drive for the hunt… at least that was what my brother taught me... if a hunter gains his pray then they feel they have completed their task…. But I suppose what I forgot is that the hunter kills it's pray… I should have thought of that….' I sat down and yipped into my paws in sorrow. I felt a hand on my head taking me out of my thoughts making me look up into eyes full of shame and regret.

"You got yourself captured… for us? But why!?" I looked up and smiled.

'If you ever bother me or Danny again I will thrust my hand through your chest, rip out your intestines and strangle you with them.' Danny's eyes widened and Jazz slowly backed away from the cage.

"D… Devlin?" I nodded my smokey head.

"Devlin!? you mean that guy you wouldn't shut up about on the whole ride here!?" Danny blushed so red that I thought he would explode.

'If it helps… I know you're gay... So am I.' saying that was a big mistake, Danny's feet wobbled and he fell into Jazz's hands… ha Jazz hands… bad joke… forget It. Jazz sighed and shook her head. 'Will he be ok?'

"Give him a second… by the way… thanks for helping get Duncan off his back.' I chuckled which sounded like a really odd bark.

'It was nothing; I would have pounded him for saying that evil word anyway!' she rose an eyebrow.

"What word?" I sighed and since Danny was out I decided to say it… she deserved that much.

'He called Danny a fagot…' Her eyes widened and I swear her eyes were burning brighter than mine.

"He did WHAT!" She shouted in a rage that would make even Logan shake with fear. "I'll kill that freeken jerk!" she shook her head and did her best to calm down.

'If it helps I tossed him across the room in the Gymnasium.' She smiled for a moment.

"To good for the punk.… thank you for that… if Danny decides to date you… you will have my blessing." My fiery eyes brightened with joy and complete embarrassment. If I could blush in this form I would have. "Just do your best not to break his heart please. Or I just might let my crazy parents dissect you!" I chuckled and nodded my head.

'Promise...' It's not like I could be with Logan anyway. Danny may not be crazy hot like Logan but he is super cute! As if on cue Danny woke up and smiled oddly.

"I had the weirdest dream…." He blinked his eyes and blushed. "Did I seriously faint?" Jazz and I both nodded making the poor boy blush. "My bad… anyway…. How is this possible? How are you a ghost wolf?... wait… are you dead?" I shook my head but stopped remembering what happened in the mountains.

'I was dead but I came back to life. But I just learned how to get into this form tonight.' They both looked on confused.

"That just adds to the questions you know." I sighed and remembered what the professor told me about exposure. "I can tell you but… you have to promise not to tell anyone… it's kind of a big secret that is not just mine to keep… a lot of people including Rogue will suffer from it if it was ever found out." They both nodded their heads in agreement.

"We promise." Nodding I concentrated remembering how I used to look like slowly I reverted back to my normal self… well except for the ears, tail and claws. I watched as they looked at me astonished.

"The reason I can do all this is because… I'm a mutant." Their eyes widened in shock.

"A mutant?... you don't look like a mutant." I chuckled at Jazz.

"And how should a mutant look like?" Jazz thought for a moment.

"Well…. From the movies all ugly and weird not hot and sexy!" I chuckled as Danny smacked her arm.

"How about…. Now." I pressed the button on my image inducer showing them how I really look like.

"…you're still sexy." Danny smacked her arm again and I started out right laughing yet unfortunately my tail wagged and hit the cage making me scream in pain as it shocked me.

"Devlin!" I fell the ground of the cage and twitched in pain. Only a second later a ping sounded and the buzzing of the cage stopped. Two sets of hands lifted me out of the cage and onto the ground. "I'm so sorry I put you though this Dev… you didn't need to do this you know." I twitched still in pain and sat up.

"I wanted to… so this is my fault not yours… I guess… when I saw how upset you were… I just… I acted." The moment those words left my mouth Danny replaced them with… his mouth. My ears twitched wildly as I felt his lips touch mine. It felt so odd…. So… good. The kiss ended quickly because of a loud awe from Jazz who Danny glared at when we parted. "So what now?"

"What do you mean? You go home and we tell our parents the ghost escaped." I felt my ears flattened on my head and my tail coil around my leg.

"But won't that just make it worse for you two?" Jazz sighed.

"Even with a ghost they will still be the way they are now, neglectful and blind to their children." I bowed my head and apologized. "It's ok it's not like this is anything new…. Well the mutant thing is new but the neglect thing has been happening since we were born. If anything I'm Danny's mom!" I smiled and bowed.

"Ok than as an apology let me take you both out to dinner next week; my treat!" Danny blushed and turned to Jazz full of hope.

"Sure why not." I smiled and winked at Danny.

"It's a date." With that I shifted back to my ghost wolf form and rushed out of their home. I was able to fly myself back to the institute feeling elated! A guy actually kissed me! I finally had my first kiss and it was a boy, thank the goddess! I landed on grounds and reverted back to my normal form. I was so happy my tail was wagging so hard it nearly hurt but I could only feel Danny's lips still on mine. Yet all my joy turned to dread when I saw Logan's face glaring with worried yet angry eyes. He stood next to the entrance of the mansion in full uniform about to go looking for me.

"I can explain… you see I was captured and was about to be dissected by ghost crazy people… but I escaped and uhhh…. You're mad aren't you?" his eyes widened.

"Ok pup… tell me again but slowly." I sighed knowing that he was more worried than angry I came home late.

"Sigh ok ok." I told him everything about my day how I got captured tiring to help about Danny and about how crazy his parents were planning on ripping me apart atom by atom and finally I got to how I escaped.

"You told them you were a mutant!?" Ok he was back to mad.

"Yes but I know they won't tell anyone I swear!" Logan growled out a yell of frustration. "Look I trust them! They won't tell, I know they won't because… well… crud I have no idea if they will say anything or not. But… well I do trust them."

"Pup you only known them for less than a day!" I sighed and mumbled.

'That didn't stop Danny from kissing me.' I guess he heard me and that made me paralyzed with fear.

"What…" my eyes widened as I heard him say that. What the heck did I just say!?

"Nothing! I didn't say anything!" his eyes… they had a look in them I couldn't place, was it anger, disgust, Sorrow… or regret?

"No pup. You're not getting out of this one… You tell me right now what you said and don't you dare lie to me!" My eyes watered and I felt my ears lower and my tale coil around my leg. Was the whole I'm ok with you being gay was a lie? Was it all just a horrible joke he was playing on me!

"… Danny…. He… kissed me and I… kissed him back…" I closed my eyes and shook waiting for whatever he would say or do to me. When nothing happened I opened an eye to see him not standing there all. "…Logan?"

I felt cold… he was gone. The only thing there was an open door. I felt so dejected so gone, like all the feeling was just sucked out of me like the air from a balloon. I walked inside the mansion and walked to Logan's room. I opened it not finding him inside. I don't know why but I curled up in the sheets with tears falling from my eyes onto the bed below me. I looked around the room; it really changed after the first time I came here. The walls were mended and free of claw marks, the floor was clear of clothes and trash, and nice pictures of Logan and I were hung on the wall. I felt like all those times were lies now that all this father son time meant nothing to him and that burned me so much. I cried so hard that my eyes hurt… well at the moment… everything hurt me. I wanted nothing but to sleep away the pain.

"It was a lie…. Wasn't it… you never cared about me at all." My hand travelled to my stomach where he pierced my skin. "It makes sense now… that's why it was so easy for you…. to… just kill me…. maybe…. Maybe I shouldn't have even come back to life…"