[AN: I don't know what to say here... Just Hi I guess... Oh, yeah, sorry for the weird chapter cut last chapter, I was just bulking the chapter up by continuing the story for a bit, but then this next part was so large that I had to cut off. Anyway, lol, something that I've been having to remind people of, since they were talking about being Wolverine for a con, Wolverine is only 5'3". Yes, that's right, big bad ass Wolverine is only 5'3". I told him he had to crouch down because he was too tall, lol. Anyway, here's the chapter, I hope you enjoy it, please feel free to message me, review, or just read!]

Kerri saw Kurt appear in the distance, and she decided that they would probably be safer together.

She closed her eyes for a moment, hoping that her super agility or endurance was still around with the random super vision and hearing, then she opened her eyes and ran towards Kurt.

At first she tried to focus on not falling, but it was almost counter productive, and she realized that it was easier if she just focused on running and let her body instinctively take care of the leaping, jump- climbing and not falling.

She stopped by Kurt, who watched her run towards him with some pretty good moves. "I think we should try to not get separated too far, but what should we do to fight this thing, any ideas?"

Kurt nodded his head at her thought of not getting separated. "I can't help you too much, zhat is zhe rules, sorry, Kerri."

Kerri sighed, but jumped back as a laser shot in between them. "Don't forget zhat ve are fighting vhile you zhink about es."

Kerri jumped up a short wall, finding a spot that looked safe to observe from for a moment.

Seriously, what could she do against this huge robot thing? Her powers worked on people who could see. Kurt could see, but that didn't help her fight the robot.

She was still a little nervous about using her powers in front of Kurt, but knew that's what she needed to do and, after all, he'd asked her to be his girlfriend after he'd seen her shift before.

Maybe she could try to make something, but it was hard on her body to create even something small, and even if she could make something as big as a sword, it would be like stabbing this thing with a toothpick.

A leg shot past her and she followed it with her eyes, seeing it heading at Kurt. 'No!' her mind called, but Kurt easily jumped out of the way. He leaped again as a laser shot at him from somewhere on the ball-shaped body of the enemy.

He was getting farther and farther away from her and she was getting nervous.

She forgot about him for a moment as a laser shot at her. She jumped out of the way, but didn't have much room to maneuver on the small space on top of the destroyed wall.

She looked back to see how Kurt was doing, seeing him on the ground, a laser hitting where he had just been, a leg flying at him.

"No!" This time she said it out loud and Kurt teleported out of the way, right into the path of another laser shot.

Her thoughts sped through her mind so fast she thought for sure that he'd be hit before she even got done thinking; she needed to save him, she needed to get down there, she couldn't jump down there, or get that far fast enough. She needed a way to get there fast. Wings. She needed to turn into something with wings and get there and save him.

"Kurt!" He looked up at her as he side stepped out of the way of the laser, but the leg was still flying at him, and he didn't seem to notice. Something that flies fast.

Peregrine falcons can fly up to two hundred miles per hour, a voice said the random fact in the back of her mind. That wouldn't be big enough to protect Kurt, though.

'What flies?' She asked herself frantically, knowing she didn't have much time.

Gargoyles. Falcon the voice insisted. A jumbled picture came into her panicked mind. 'Shift,' she thought, not taking time to sort it out.

In a second she changed, her feet expanded sideways, bursting out of her shoes as the muscles enlarged and reformed on the front of her feet, large claws growing out to help her grip the floor, or whatever she landed on, her nails grew sharper and harder as well. A long tail came through her pants, the hooked blade like fin near the end cutting them to make an exit, her shirt exploded outwards in shreds of fabric from the back as enormous falcon feathered wings extended outwards.

She crouched and leaped up and forward, going into a dive toward Kurt.

Kurt's eyes winded and he had a moment to think, 'She is an angel...' Before she crashed into him, knocking him down.

Kerri landed on her target, overshooting and knocking him to the ground a few feet away from where they started.

'Protect!' Her brain yelled out to everything around her, and she grabbed him close, pressing him to the ground, somehow making a barrier of stone reach up and around them.

The barrier shattered around them as the machine's leg hit it, then pulled back to launch another attack.

Kurt looked up at her and around, surprised at sudden shower of rocks.

"No," Kerri cried out, her eyes still closed. "No!"

From the control booth Xavier and Logan watched in quiet shock as light seemed to gather around Kerri.

It was like a glare effect, two rings of light, one big, one small. The small one pressed out while the big one pulled in, passing each other, and a pressure started to fill the area.

As the two rings of light came back toward each other Kurt could feel Kerri tensing all of the muscles in her body, then suddenly, all at once she let go, going limp, and an explosion happened.

Or something like an explosion.

The robot was suddenly ripped apart, shrapnel flying through the air, raining down like heavy, deadly snow.

Kurt wrapped his arms around Kerri and teleported away with her unconscious body.

"I think we should keep her out of the danger room until her extra power has subsided," Xavier said in the control room, stunned.

"You got that right, bub," Logan answered, not showing that he was equally stunned.

Kurt appeared holding Kerri's limp winged body, her tail trailing on the floor.

"Kurt, take her to the med lab, I'll inform Hank that you're coming."

Kurt sat in class, worrying about Kerri. He couldn't help but feel like it was somehow his fault, after all, she had been protecting him when she passed out.

She'd been unconscious for two days now, and Kitty had gone down to the med lab this morning, dragging him to class.

The day ended as the last bell finally, finally rang. He waited until the rest of the class had left, then teleported down to the hallway to the med lab.

He opened the door and walked in, seeing that Kerri was laying on her side, facing away from him, her wings out, hanging over the side of the bed with her tail, the hospital gown open down the back so her wings could extend, her arms wrapped around herself and her knees pulled up, her toes curled under, hiding the claws on them.

She was just the way he'd left her.

He walked over to the chair he'd left this morning and sat down, pulling out his homework and setting it on the edge of the bed.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her tail move up over her legs.

He studied it, it looked like his almost, but a sort of stony grey, almost silver color that matched the outsides of her wings, the insides of which were a creamy color with a black dot pattern on them. There was something at the end of her tail that looked almost like a fin, but it was only on one side, folded over like a webbed digit. He noticed that her tail was much longer than his, and more whip like as well. It moved again, sliding up her leg, then back down.

Kurt was surprised as her legs and hips started twitching next to him.

He leaned back, worrying what to do, the Professor had told him not to worry, that she was fine and her mind was intact, just sleeping, and that she needed rest, but she was shaking so much...

Kurt worried for a moment longer, then Dr. McCoy entered the room. "How is our patient today, Mr. Wagner?"

"Sie is shaking... Vhat do I do?" Kurt asked, nervous.

Dr. McCoy came closer, looking at Kerri's shaking body, it was like a harsh shiver. He looked at the machine that was monitoring her brain waves and told Kurt, "It looks like she's having a dream or a nightmare. Don't worry Kurt, she'll be fine." He went into his office to look at the x-rays he'd taken of her.

Kurt sat back down, watching Kerri twitch. He ran his hand down her face, hoping it wasn't a nightmare she was having.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Kerri was wandering through a parking lot with her father. There was a fair going on and they were walking around, enjoying the evening light and the attractions.

Kerri had on a cat eared headband and a cat tail from Halloween, even though it was only August. Her dad held her hand, leading her around.

There was a sign announcing a freak and geek show by a large tent, and a man with a striped hat and a cane stood out front, bringing people in.

"A mermaid monkey! Let's go look, daddy!" Kerri looked up at him, pleadingly.

"What does geek mean?" Her father asked her.

"Someone who bites off chicken heads at the circus." Kerri answered him.

"Good. Are you sure you want to see that?" Her dad asked her.

"No, I just wanna see the mermaid!" Kerri answered.

They entered and went into the "Freaks" side of the tent. "Wow, that's cool! Even though you can see the stitching," she giggled at the taxidermy half fish half monkey.

As they moved down the line in the tent, they heard a noise a short distance away. When they found the source of the noise, there was a cage, it was large enough to hold the creature in it, but not much bigger.

Inside there was an older lady, she was large around, but short, her skin was fat and rubbery, her nose was large and snouty, her ears were large and pointed, but flopped over.

Kerri could recognize the pig characteristics, and that this old woman was knitting something with her pig like hands.

She walked forward to the bars, and when the woman looked up at her, her face hardened. "What do you want, little cat? Lucky you can walk around."

Kerri tilted her head. "What do you mean? My legs aren't broken. What are you knitting?"

The pig woman looked at the little girl in front of her. "You're normal enough to walk around, you better hope Mr. Jardine doesn't see you. He'll find a cage for you too."

"You mean someone put you in here?" Kerri asked, confused. She looked up at her dad. "Dad, we have to get her out."

"No, the cages are to protect us from the people who come to mock us," the pig woman told her.

Kerri's father had told her that the world wasn't always so excepting, but that you had to take the good with the bad sometimes.

When they left the tent, she heard someone saying, "A mutie freak got out, look at that."

Kerri looked around, then up at her dad. She got closer to her dad holding onto his arm. She was now aware of all of the people staring at her, and she could hear them talking, calling her a mutant, saying she should be in the freak show.

"Ow," Kerri mumbled, trying to pull the headband off, but getting it tangled in her hair. Her dad kneeled down. "What are you doing?" He asked, untangling her headband.

"Everyone is looking at me... They think I'm a mutant... Are they going to put me in a cage?" She asked nervously.

"No, of course not. Now, what do I always tell you?" He asked.

"Always be comfortable being yourself."

"That's right." He handed her the headband.

"But I'm not a cat..."

"I know, but if you want to wear those, it's part of who you are."

Kerri looked down at the headband, thinking for a moment, then she put it back on, hugging her dad.

Kerri walked down the halls in the school. She had just gotten to this new school, and she was wondering around looking at all of the new sights.

A group of students passed, and she hid behind a nearby curtain.

"Ja, zhat vould be fun!" A voice came to her. She looked out and saw a boy walking past.

He was tall to her, and his black hair fell around his face to his shoulders. He looked back at another student and she saw that he had blue eyes.

She got a strange feeling in her chest, it tightened like she was being squeezed. She wanted to be by this boy for some reason, wanted to listen to him talk, talk to him, maybe.

It was so strange to feel this way, she'd never been drawn to someone like this before; she wasn't attracted to him, but at the same time, she was.

She could see as he walked away that something strange was going on with his appearance, a sort of, light? Brightness? She wasn't sure how to describe it, but she knew it was strange.

Kerri was in the danger room with Kurt, they were trying to stop the robot.

Kerri had to stop the thing from crushing him, she had to stop the thing from shooting him... She had to save him, because...

Because she really liked him... She had deep unknown feelings about him... Maybe it was too soon to tell what they were, but she had to keep him around long enough to find out.

She leaped at him, landed on him. 'Protect!' Her brain cried out, calling to the ground, the air, anything.

The rocks came around them, then shattered.

She knew that the robot had to die, there was no other way to protect Kurt. She couldn't think of anything to do, she wished Logan was here, he could kill it, his claws would slice through it with no problem.

She imagined his claws tearing the robot into little pieces of metal, her muscles tightening, then...

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Kurt looked down at Kerri's face, he was sure that she was having a nightmare. His hand smoothed down her face again, and he sat down, trying to get started on his homework.

Kerri started to shake again, her tail whipped toward him, then away, the web part pulling back a little, a bone like hook slashing through the bar at the foot of the bed.

Kurt stared, shocked at the cut metal. He hadn't noticed that when he looked earlier.

Kerri shot up in the bed, the monitoring wires popping from her forehead and her stiff muscles protesting her rapid movement.

Kurt noticed that Kerri's eyes were strange, the pupil was small and round, while the iris was her normal color, only lighter, with visible intense folds. Kerri opened her mouth, showing her fanged teeth in a threatening gesture.

She turned and saw Kurt. "Where is it? We have to beat it..." Her voice was urgent, her eyes darting around the room, trying to adjust.

Kurt looked around. "Vhat? Vhat do ve have to beat?"

"The robot... Where am I?" She asked, realizing they weren't in the danger room any more.

"Zhe med lab," Kurt told her. "Are you ok?" He asked as she started trying to stretch her wings.

"Yeah, just... You know how you sit funny and your leg falls asleep? Muscles I don't even have hurt," Kerri said. "I just need a minute to..."

Kurt blushed as she leaned forward and her gown slipped down her shoulders. He turned away to preserve her privacy, but Kerri put her hand on his arm. "Don't look away..."

Kurt looked back. 'Aber..." He stopped when she stretched her wings up and shook her back, the shiver moving up to only her wings, then they disappeared, leaving only a smooth expanse of skin.

"Sorry, I can't change if someone's not looking." Kerri sat up then looked down, she was wearing a hospital gown, she looked under the blanket that was over the top part of her legs, worried that she'd be nude down there, but she saw a pair of large, baggy pants. "Who's pants are these?"

Kurt blushed and cleared his throat nervously. "Zhey, ah, zhey are mine... Zhey needed zhe hole for your tail..."

Kerri blushed and said without thinking, "So, I've already gotten into your pants."

Kurt's eyes widened and his blush deepened. "Ahhh..."

Dr. McCoy came out of the office and told Kerri with a grin and a chuckle, "I see that you've attacked the bed already."

The next day Kerri was released from the med lab, and told that it seemed like she had burned through her extra energy by tearing up the robot.

Kerri sat down at the table for lunch, Kitty right behind her. "You got out just in time to go out this weekend! I want to go to the club!"

Kerri was confused. "Don't you have to be twenty-one to go to a club?"

"No, only eighteen, at some of them," Kitty told her, taking a bite of her food.

"I'm only seventeen, though," Kerri told her.

"Close enough, we'll get you in," Kitty said.

"Kitty, I, uh, don't zhink zhat is a good idea..." Kurt said. He'd been to the club with her before, and knew the kind of dancing that happened there. It was dark, close, sweaty, even touchy sometimes.

"Why not, Kurt? Afraid that some one might grope you again?" Kitty teased.

Kurt blushed and looked at Kerri, worrying how she'd take the news that he'd been groped.

"You get groped there? I don't know... Sounds creepy..." Kerri said, looking unsure.

"Ok, sourpusses, we don't have to go." Kitty sighed and took another bite of her food. "What's playing at the movie theater?"

Kerri got to the bottom of the stairs, finding she was the first one to arrive.

She laughed as she thought about Kitty getting to her door, any minute now, and seeing that she was missing. She wondered if Kitty would think she ran away or something.

Kerri swished her tail around, having to pull her pants down a good ways so that it didn't get stuck in them.

The jeans she was wearing were nice, they even had a design she'd drawn on them. There was a waterfall starting at her thigh and crashing into a pool surrounded by rocks, which were on the rolled up cuff. It was drawn in black ink on dark blue denim, so it just looked like a bunch of scribbles if you didn't look close. The other leg had birds flying above a ship on water, which was hidden under the rolled up cuff, since she had drawn it before it was warm enough to roll up her pants. Her boots were pulled up to meet the rolled up pant legs, and she had on the top that Kitty had "fixed" for her.

She nervously paced back and forth, her tail swaying, and tried not to let anyone see her, still a little worried about her tail.

Her father's voice came back to her, "What do I always tell you?"

Kerri stopped pacing. When she had been unconscious she'd been not in a dream world, but in memories.

When she'd gone to the county fair and first seen a mutant, and been exposed to the awfulness that man could think of.

She'd asked the pig woman, "Why do you need a cage to protect you?" The pig woman had shown her some of the scars on her back, some from whips, some from knives, some, she'd said, were just from people doing what they do.

It had been a lot for her little seven-year old mind to handle, she'd always suspected that some people were mean because they could be, but she'd never even thought of some of the things they could do.

She'd cried for the woman that night, how her life had gone, and the pain she'd suffered.

How fair was it that she could wear ears and a tail because she wanted to, and just take them off when she started having problems?

Her father had comforted her, telling her that he was proud that she could see through all the lies they tried to put up about mutants, and that she was going to grow into a smart, beautiful woman one day, and that he'd always be proud of her.

She'd almost blocked out that memory, along with most of her memories of her father. When she'd been living at home, it had been easier to just remember that he'd loved her, and not remember anything specific, because they'd always found a way to hurt her, not usually physically, because someone might actually notice that, but mentally, verbally, emotionally, and even socially.

They'd turned her from a happy, caring little girl, to a quiet, withdrawn adolescent, who was too wary of people to talk to them most of the time. And when she did talk to them, she sounded like an encyclopedia a lot of the time, so kids stopped talking to her.

She'd also remembered the first time she'd seen Kurt. She was drawn to him, even then, even when she couldn't see his real self.

She blushed as she remembered her first feelings for him, and turned to continue her nervous pacing.

There was a Bamf sound, and she turned her head to see where Kurt had appeared, but he had landed right in her path, after falling a few feet to the ground so he didn't accidentally teleport into anyone or thing, and she ran into him.

Kurt grabbed Kerri so she didn't fall over, though he knew she could probably catch herself with no problems. He tried not to blush, and refused to admit that maybe it was because he wanted to hold her close

"Sorry...Are you ok?" He asked, still holding her.

Kerri looked up at him. "Yeah," she pushed her tail back into nothingness and looked to the ground, trying to make the blood stay out of her cheeks.