*ducks flying objects* What?! It didn't take me that long to get the damn thing out. By the way, Ray, where'd ya get that coffee? Nummy! *floats of in caffeine induced haze*

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters,

March 5, 12:40pm

Jubilee pulled her uniform over her head and sighed as she made sure the skintight unstable molecule uniform fit snuggle. Middle of the day practise. And she was the teacher.

"What is Frosty thinking? I mean really."

"She's probably thinking you're the only one with the smarts to keep those three in line." Jubilee scrunched her nose as Angelo walked in and gave her the once over.

"Yeah, but really, classes today? Their team mate just brought the farm and they don't even understand the whole of it, and she wants me to run them through classes?" She shook her head and began to add the necessary accessories to her outfit. They would be working in the Danger Grotto again, considering the woods were now of limits to anyone except Jubilee.

"Speakin' of the whole of it, chica. Frosty's pulling some strings and we're going in tonight." Jubilee nodded then went to find her three students.

Lab apartment,

02:15pm

"Oh boy."

"You have something?" Scully looked up from where she was resting on the couch to see her partner's stark white face.

"It's going to attack again."

"What?"

"The creature, werewolf, whatever it is. It attacks on the night of the full moon right? We have last months, this month and the cases two years ago to back that up. But this month was different. The victims from the other cases died from blood lose, after they had lost a limb or two right? So they were alive at the time of dismemberment. This month Deana died of something else, and whatever it was didn't dismember it."

"So the hunters scared it off before it had a chance."

"Maybe, but what if instead of just meat, this creature is hunting for live food? It didn't get its food, so it will probably hunt again tonight." Scully watched as he paced, then something else occurred to her. She dived for the stack of reports and began to sort the autopsy reports out on to the coffee table in front of her. "What?"

"Not live food, Mulder. Well not just live food anyway. Look at this. First, we have Deana." She handed her file over to her partner. "Deana could take energy from around her and send it out to somewhere else." She took another report and skimmed it, then nodded. "This was last months. A boy named Lachlan Smith. Twelve years old, was a mutant with the ability to make sonic waves. According to his parents, he wasn't very strong, but he could still shatter bullet proof glass if he needed to." She handed that file over as well.

"Now this is where it gets to guess work. Third victim we have is from two years ago. A man around forty years old, apparently a hermit, known only as Ben. We assume that he was human, but what if he was a mutant? Forth, from the month before Ben was killed, a woman bleed to death after what was thought to be a wolf ripped her arm off. It says here that she was camping, and that she had a kid, a little girl. The little girl was never found. Now this part really is guesswork, but…" She drew a deep breath.

"The marks on the arm that was torn off, show that the wolf bit her about five inches below the shoulder. Normally, a wolf would take an arm below the elbow because it would give more leverage. So what if this woman dived in front of the wolf and let it grab her, because it was trying to take the girl instead? The mother was a normal human being, they have a sample of her DNA on file, but no one knows is the girl was human or not."

"You think this thing is going after mutants?"

"Maybe. I'd have to ask Jubilee some questions…if this thing is going after mutants…where is it going to find some around here?"

They exchanged glances, and then Scully grabbed her keys.

Xavier's,

02:45pm

::Xavier's?::

"Special Agents Mulder and Scully. We need to speak to Jubilation Lee."

::Jubilee is not available at the moment Agents. Is this urgent?::

"'Fraid so. She told us we could speak to someone else if she couldn't be here."

The agents exchanged glances at the silence from the intercom, then the gates opened.

::Someone will meet you at the front door Agents.::

When they got to the front door, Monet was waiting for them.

"Agent Mulder, and you must be Agent Scully. I am Monet St Croix. I take it you have some questions about mutants?"

"How did you know-"

"Jubilee warned us that you may want to talk. Please, follow me." She took them, at a much slower pace then last time, into what appeared to be a teachers' kitchen. She gestured for them to sit, then turned a kettle on. "Tea? Coffee?"

"Coffee thank you. White for both of us." Scully smiled at the woman, but got only a frosty look in return.

"What is it you need to know?" Mulder took the lead.

"Did you ever hear of an old hermit by the name of Ben?"

"A few times, before he died. He lived up on the hills above the town. Not just one, but any of the hills. He liked to move around quite a lot."

"Did you know if he was a mutant?" She blinked at him, then sighed.

"You are very fast, Agent. Yes, Ben was a mutant, and he often came up to the school to interact with any mutants we had here at the time."

"What was his mutation?" Scully accepted the cup of coffee and added some sugar from the bowl on the table. Monet handed the second cup to Mulder and thought about the question.

"Do you know what bio-kinetic energy is?"

"Energy created by organic material that can be stored in an object. Technologically impossible, but there have been several theories on how it works." Monet nodded.

"It isn't a common mutation, actually one of the rarer ones, but Ben could create bio energy and store it. He could do anything from start a fire, to make rocks explode. He wasn't all that strong with it, but he had trained fairly well."

"So that makes three mutants taken by this thing, and one human who may or may not have sacrificed herself to let her child get away." It was a clear invitation to give some answers, and for a second they thought she would refuse.

"Hhm. Well you are very bright. Both of you. Mrs Reynolds came up here with her daughter on a camping trip. It was one of the few ways for Jillian Reynolds to have fun without having a mob chasing after her. Jillian was a visible mutant from birth. Her hair was bright blue, her eyes were clear white and her skin was purple. She could manipulate water, and with training, would have been able to breathe under it, but even with Mrs Reynolds sacrifice Jillian was still taken.

"One of the students was hiking and found what was left of her in a pond. There really wasn't much left. By then the investigation had been over for more then a month, and we didn't find out about Jillian's remains until two months after Ben died, because the student who found her is mute and deaf.

"She didn't know what to do about it, and being mute, didn't know how to explain it so she didn't try. When Jubilee went hiking with her later on, she saw Jillian's shirt and a few human bones still in the pond and came to the right conclusion. Because Jillian's bone were the same purple colour as her skin had been, Jubilee made the judgment choice of burying her rather then letting the government get their hands on something like that."

She sat down at the table quietly, waiting for them to ask another question.

"So, this thing does go after mutants. And it wants them alive. Which means, since it didn't get that last night, it will be hunting again tonight. So Monet, where would it find some mutants around here?"

"I'm sorry to say, I can't answer that. There could be mutants any where."

"But it hunts in the woods, and this school is the closest thing to those woods. And you did state, when telling us about Ben, that you do have mutant students here."

"We do. But the mutants that aren't out on school holidays know perfectly well that they are not to go out side after dark, and a curfew has been instigated in town. No one will be going out into those woods."

"Which might induce it to going to somewhere it won't normally look. Like into town, or onto these school grounds."

"Perhaps, but this school has good defences, thanks to the accidents some of the mutant students get into. Plus the older students all know how to use a tranquilliser gun, for when the wolf pack gets rowdy around some of the newer students. It's the towns folk who are in the most danger."

"Alright. Thank you for telling us all this. I think we'd better get back down and have a talk with the Sheriff about making sure no one breaks that curfew."

"Good luck. I suggest you be careful if you plan on tracking it. Just because mutants are it's favourite meal, doesn't mean it won't attack a human if threatened."

Monet waited till they were gone, then turned to one side of the front door.

"They are smart." Jubilee came out from where she had been watching them leave; her uniform melting into the background using its camouflage technique. It looked, for a few seconds, that her head and hands were floating on thin air, then she deactivated it and it returned to the normal black and blue.

"Yeah, but they don't really have any clue as to what they're trying to get. Doesn't matter how smart they are, there isn't a human alive who could kill the Weyr."

"Except you and Logan."

"Bullshit, M and you know it. The Weyr may be afraid of me, but it knows that I can't kill it. And Wolvie's good, but he's still just a puppy compared to that thing."

"Do you think it will hunt tonight?"

"God I hope not. Even I need some sleep sometimes. Plus Frosty's sending me and Ange to grab the kid tonight." Jubilee held the door open for her teammate and walked in after her. "Do me a favour will you? Those two will probably try to find it tonight, so keep an eye on them. The minute you feel Weyr static, yell for me or tell Gateway to get them out."

"Of course."

Lab apartment,

06:37

"Ready?"

Scully strapped her back up piece to her leg and covered it.

"Yup. Let's go meet the others." They walked out, through the hallways and into the front office where the sheriff, two deputy's and a handful of trackers and animal control people were already gathered around a large map of the area.

"Alright everyone, if this thing is hunting mutants like the agents here have suggested, then it will probably center around the School, and that end of the woods. If anyone knows of a different place where there might be mutants, speak up now."

"A couple of the Tyler kids were acting weird the other day. For a second I thought I saw one of them turn orange, but then he was back to normal. The other one, Cassie I think, was floating a few inches off the ground. There's been rumours that some of the kids have been asked to go to Xavier's."

"Right, Mike, Robbie, Cameron and Mark, you four go up to the Tyler's; keep an eye around the woods there. The rest of us will place ourselves in pairs, from here," He stabbed a finger at the map. "To halfway up to the School. Frost won't like us being any closer, I don't think. Keep the radios open and your eyes as well. Tranquillise unless you don't have a choice, we wouldn't want to hit one of the normal wolves, seeing as they are a protected species. We'd have the eco-people on us like that. Any questions? Good. Move."

Walter handed out the tranq guns, giving all of them four darts each, then gave them a place to stand their watch.

Mulder and Scully found themselves sitting in the chilly night air, closest to the Xavier school.

"So when do you think this thing is going to start hunting?"

"Wouldn't have a clue. I doubt it's just going to waltz out onto the road for us to shoot though."

"Please don't say it, please don't say it." Scully whispered, hoping that he really wouldn't say it. Which he would she knew.

"Let's go have a look, huh?"

"He said it." Knowing from experience that he would go without her anyway, she grabbed one of the tranq guns and made sure it was loaded. "Mulder, if you get me killed, I will be very, very unhappy." He smiled at her and they turned on their torches.

Five minutes later they had gone nearly half a mile from the car, and still hadn't seen or heard anything unusual. The insects were all chirping, and Scully, girl scout that she had been, saw nothing to indicate that there was a disturbance around that didn't have anything to do with two clumsy humans making their way through the woods.

"There's nothing out here, Muld-"

GRRRRRR

"Then again." The two agents both turned to look at the shadows behind them, where the growling was coming from. For a second Scully thought it was one of the local wolf pack, but then it let them see its face. As it came into the light of their torches, the large brow of a Neanderthal and the long nose of a wolf became readily apparent and they knew they weren't dealing with anything human. The werewolf padded forward, much as the other wolf they had seen that afternoon had. It sniffed them, always moving forward, then began to focus on Mulder. It continued to sniff as it moved, seemingly searching for something.

Scully watched it walk toward her partner then started to move her hand to support the tranq gun, trying to bring it to where she could aim properly. The werewolf stopped, looked at Scully then its eyes centred on the gun. It began to crouch into an attack position and Scully prepared to swing the gun up to the right firing hight.

"Weyr! Scat!" The bang of a gun announced the presence of another person as a flare flew toward the werewolf. It took off into the darkness, trying to escape, and began to run. The agents whirled around to look at their rescuer, but couldn't seem anyone. A voice came out of the darkness. "You should be more careful Special Agents. Just because you are human, doesn't mean you are not a target. The Weyr won't attack again tonight. It chose you as prey Agent Mulder, and failed. Once it chooses its prey, it won't stop till it gets it. If you leave now, and go back into town it won't get you, and no one else will be hurt tonight."

"Who are you?"

No one answered.

"Mulder, if you're the target now I suggest we get out of here." Scully grabbed her partner by the back of his jacket and hauled him along. Mulder, though curious about who had been speaking, was not in the right mood to argue with her. For once he was too scared to go mystery hunting.

Off through the trees, Monet hovered and loaded the flare gun again. Just in case.