Chapter 2:

The first piece of advice that Erin Maguire gave her new clients, once a contract had been negotiated and signed, was typical of her work in this field.

"Start with comic books," she told them.

Of the two main comic book publishers, and several minor ones, that were approached, Marvel seemed to be the most interested in the possibilities. Granted, they were a little uneasy about the whole mutant angle, given current public opinion. They'd hoped to change the origins of the X-Men's powers to something more along the lines of a lab accident gone awry, not an uncommon scenario in the world of comic books. However, comics based on some of Ms. Maguire's other clients had already proved profitable for Marvel, which gave Ms. Maguire some leeway when it came to negotiating terms for the use of the X-Men.

Ms. Maguire had already known where Professor Xavier stood on the subject, based on their first interview alone, and she hadn't wanted to let him down by agreeing to too many concessions on the mutant issue. So in the end, a compromise was reached. The X-Men would remain mutants in their comic book incarnation. However, their mutations would be the result of their parents' exposure to radiation from a secret government weapons project. Someone at Marvel had coined the tagline 'Children of the Atom', which had honestly sounded a bit dated. Yet somehow, the writers made it work.

Ms. Maguire made arrangements for a private meeting with the X-Men, in uniform, at Marvel's offices, so that Marvel's writers and artists could get a feel for them. Some concerns were expressed that Kurt Wagner, with his blue-skinned, spaded-tailed appearance, might be too difficult for readers to relate to, at least at this stage. Marvel's primary goal right now was to build an audience for the comic, and it was strongly suggested that the reading public would be better able to identify with characters that more closely resembled themselves physically. Therefore, it was decided that Kurt's comic book counterpart would be saved for a later installment, assuming that the sales figures were strong enough to keep the title going.

After that meeting, Marvel's staff were more or less on their own when it came to scripting adventures for the superheroes. To their credit, Marvel did quality work in their portrayal of the X-Men, given what they had to work with. Any information shared with Marvel about the team was kept to a minimum, for security reasons. As a result, the comic books themselves were mostly centered on the X-Men facing threats of various kinds while in uniform. Off-duty time was portrayed as being spent in uniform at a fairly standard superhero secret headquarters: training, receiving intel about new threats to the public, or working through occasional personality clashes between teammates. It had been obvious to Marvel's staff, even after just a brief meeting, that there were some tensions and borderline hostilities between certain members of the X-Men.

It took time for the comic books to make their impact on the market. But once they had, and sales figures indicated a positive response from the buying public, the next step was tie-in merchandise. With an expert representative like Ms. Maguire on their side, the X-Men were soon seeing comic book style images of themselves plastered on a variety of products. As requests for the use of the characters began finding their way to Ms. Maguire's inbox, she noticed a growing trend. By far, the most requests were for Wolverine.

Ms. Maguire wasn't the only one who had noticed this. Logan himself had been keeping a close watch on the woman during her occasional trips to the school, which she visited whenever she wanted to get the Professor's opinion on something that she felt was too sensitive to discuss via phone or email. As a result, Logan couldn't help but be aware of the rising status of his comic book alter ego. This gave his own ego what the majority of the mansion's other residents felt was an unnecessary boost. The situation also made Scott a little indignant. He was the team leader, after all, and he felt that that position deserved acknowledgment.

Ms. Maguire couldn't really explain the rising popularity of Logan's superhero persona. The best that she could come up with was that the primary market for comic books was young males, and they must all want to be Wolverine, probably because he ended up kicking the most ass. It was during an event that would forever be remembered as 'the ice cream incident' that the downside of Logan's newfound popularity reared its ugly head.

Ms. Maguire was paying another visit to Professor Xavier when the Professor asked Logan to supervise the unloading of a shipment of ice cream novelties, which had just arrived for the school. It was standard procedure for a member of the faculty to be on hand whenever deliveries were made, just to make sure none of the people doing the unloading saw anything they shouldn't. Logan arrived at the unloading site to find a number of students milling around, hoping for a chance to snag some of the ice cream. The teenagers who attended Xavier's school were generally of the opinion that there really wasn't a whole lot to do in Westchester, so things like new shipments of ice cream attracted attention. Both Logan and the students watched as the large, nondescript boxes were unloaded into the school's industrial-sized freezer. Like many large institutions, Xavier's school bought in bulk.

"That's the last of it," one of the workmen said as he approached Logan with a clipboard.

Logan signed for the shipment and then handed the clipboard back.

"Thanks," the workman said. He then studied Logan speculatively for a moment. "You know, you kinda look like that guy."

"What guy?" Logan asked.

"That guy in the comics," the workman replied.

He then handed Logan a promotional flyer for the ice cream company's newest line of frozen treats. Pictured on the page was, among other things, a photo of an ice cream pop shaped like Wolverine's head. Logan stared at the image for a moment in shock before storming off towards the Professor's office, flyer in hand. The Professor was just wrapping up his meeting with Ms. Maguire when Logan arrived. If looks could kill, then Erin Maguire would've dropped dead on the spot.

"Logan?" the Professor questioned, noticing the menacing look in Logan's eyes but not understanding the reason for it.

Logan slammed the flyer down onto the Professor's desk. Both the Professor and Ms. Maguire studied the printed sheet, Ms. Maguire's eyes widening slightly in surprise. Logan noticed.

"You didn't know about this?" he asked her skeptically.

"The impression I got was that the manufacturer was going to use pictures of the characters on the wrappers, not that the characters would actually be the product," Ms. Maguire replied. "I'll have to get on the phone with them and sort this out. Where did you get this?"

"From some guy unloading ice cream for the kids," Logan told her.

That's when it suddenly occurred to Logan exactly what, in all likelihood, had been delivered in those shipping boxes. He raced back towards the kitchen, hoping he was wrong, hoping that it wasn't too late to salvage the situation. But his worst fears were realized when he reached the kitchen. In the short time he was gone, the students had already gotten into the ice cream.

Rogue and Jubilee were standing by the kitchen doorway, whispering between themselves. Each of them was holding a Wolverine shaped ice cream pop.

"Hi, Wolvie," Jubilee said brightly.

Logan winced. He hated when she called him that, and she knew it. Unlike most of the other students at the school, Jubilee had never really seemed afraid of Logan. But then, Logan had long ago come to the conclusion that the kid wasn't completely sane.

Jubilee bit off some of the hair from her ice cream pop, and Rogue tried to stifle a giggle. Logan glared at both of them. Just then, one of the male students, John Allerdyce, noticed Logan's presence and made a smart-ass comment. For the most part, Logan tried to tolerate the kids. The fact that he hadn't threatened Jubilee with irreparable harm yet proved that he had a grudging respect for the girl. However, John Allerdyce was one of those arrogant teenagers who constantly got on Logan's nerves. Logan slowly turned to face the boy.

"You wanna repeat that?" Logan asked with narrowed eyes and a dark tone to his voice, extending his adamantium claws for added intimidation.

The kitchen suddenly became very quiet. Satisfied that he'd made his point, so to speak, Logan retracted his claws and stalked out of the room. He was barely out of sight of the doorway when he heard the students start murmuring to each other. Not long afterwards, John Allerdyce made another smart-ass remark, this one about biting Logan's head off. The comment triggered a round of snickering from the amused teenagers. The whole situation was, for Logan, nothing short of humiliating, and there was no doubt that Logan's badass reputation would take a while to fully recover from this.

Logan stormed off down the halls, a feral rage taking hold of him. He blamed Erin Maguire for this whole mess, and began to visualize the numerous, terrible things he could do to her. Yet, Logan had a hunch that the Professor wouldn't be too happy if he were asked to help dispose of a body. So Logan tried to push his murderous thoughts aside, working to reestablish control over his anger. A less lethal, but equally destructive, idea came to him. He knew where Ms. Maguire had left her car. If he slashed her tires, scratched up her paint job a little, maybe broke a window, it would help him cool off without hurting anybody.

Exiting the mansion, Logan began approaching the car from behind, walking purposefully towards it before extending his claws. Even Logan's heightened senses couldn't see through the car's tinted windows, and Ms. Maguire must've been holding her breath as Logan approached because Logan didn't notice any obvious warning signs that the woman in question was already in the driver's seat. He was therefore taken by surprise when the motor started up and the car roared to life, accelerating down the driveway like a bat out of hell before passing through the school gates and disappearing down the street.