(Two)

The next day, Henry McCoy, the resident doctor and a most efficient man, wanted to do medical scans on all of their new guests. It was standard policy to have everyone's medial files on hand in case of emergency and it would give both him and Fallen a break from the work they doing on Seth's hologram codes, they had wasted no time and been at it for a couple of days now. This was a welcome break and long overdue. He had done Maylee already since it was assumed she was to join the ranks of the student body. That finished, he decided to do the write ups on Fallen and Kimble.

Henry sat his two subjects on the lab tables and started to put on all the scanning wires. The wires were attached to headdresses and cuffs he placed on both of their arms. Kimble thought all of this was hilarious of course. Kimble had been left pretty much on his own as Fallen and Henry did their work with Seth and had been thrilled when today Henry asked him to come down and join them. Logan had kept quiet about their little spat in the gym, Kimble hadn't been punished. Kimble was still lonely and really needed the company. Now that he had Fallen's attention, he wasn't going to waste it. He picked at all the wires hanging off of him and playfully leered at her. "I don't know, baby doll. All these wires, straps an things...I find it kinda arousin'."

Fallen snorted. "You'd find a good stiff breeze arousing, my dear."

Kimble pawed at some of the instruments nearby. He picked up one of the objects. It was long and tube like. "Do I wants ta know what this is for?"

Henry smiled, coming closer. "I'm sure someone of your 'talents' might find some interesting use for that, but for the moment that is for collecting samples."

Henry started with Fallen. He used complicated Shi'ar medical machines to scan her whole body. He found the results fascinating, Fallen's body was completely organic in spite of her radical mutations. With his superior scanning equipment, he could see that the Dognan had used body parts from another species as grafts to complete her pilot's body. Somehow, they had tricked her body into accepting the changes and the parts were not rejected. A further scan revealed that while she didn't have a true healing factor like Wolverine did, she had a mild version of one, just enough that her body didn't reject the new parts. She would probably be resistant to disease and age much more slowly - barring any serious injury, she could live a very long time. It went along with what she had told them long ago about how she didn't get sick as often. The muscle and nerve connections were perfect and it was not easy to see that she wasn't born this way. He knew the conversion process must have been very painful and he marveled at her inner strength and will.

Beast was also able to see from the scans that her reproductive organs were indeed badly scarred and damaged, no real surprise considering her history. Whatever potions or tools she had used to abort herself so many times had damaged her permanently. He doubted that she would ever menstruate again or bear children. Considering that Seth wasn't organically alive and was unable to reproduce himself, it probably wouldn't matter anyway.

Henry was able to use Fallen's information and data on the White Lightning to help find a drug that would ease her withdrawal pains. Fortunately it was something he already had on hand and could get easily. Fallen had cut back on her use of the Lightning anyway, but didn't turn down the good doctor's offer of help to free from its grip completely.

Kimble proved to be much more difficult to scan. The instruments couldn't 'see' him because he wasn't organic. Henry tried to take some fluid samples, but was frustrated when the samples all shimmered and disappeared almost immediately. Frustrated, but not to be daunted, he made Kimble swallow a probe and had better luck. Now he could see that Kimble was actually composed of some kind of liquid energy that wasn't exclusively Ristle. It was more like he was a walking battery that only wanted for the nearest source of power to charge him. A density scan revealed that although Kimble was mostly liquid, he did have three round objects floating freely around inside of him that were solid. Fallen explained that these were hardware components from the original hologram. These were his hard drives, where his memories and files were stored.

"I'd like to compare Kimble's readings to Seth's when we get him out," Henry suggested. "It would give us a better understanding of what may have happened during the Ristle surge."

Henry took some energy readings of Fallen powering Kimble up. This was Kimble's favorite part of the exam and he made a big show of fondling Fallen and playing around. Henry used an infer-red scan as well and could see that Kimble did indeed have power receptors all over his skin. He could track how the Ristle spread through him, elevating his body temperature. He watched as Kimble grew aroused from the power, its heat spread across his skin and his body reacted to it in a similar fashion as a man being aroused by sexual desire.

"Fascinating..." Henry would whisper.

"Wants ta see me blow a load in my pants, too?" Kimble joked, laughing.

"Kimble!" Fallen scolded, giving him a playful shove.

"I suspect it's the heat from the chemical reaction that is serving you so well, my friend. Not the Ristle itself. What's interesting is that Remy was able to power you up as well even though his energy is chemically different than Fallen's. It shows me that you have options for your source of power if Fallen is not always available."

"Why don'tcha asks Gambit ta come down then fer a test, too? Fallen won't play," Kimble said. He had grown just a bit too playful for Fallen and she pushed him back.

Kimble shivered and melted into his woman skin, having the decency to clothe herself in the tight fitting black spandex dress. She lay back over the lab table and batted her eyes at Henry. " 'Course, I ain't too particular. Blue fur could be fun, too."

Henry hadn't been able to cover his surprise when he saw Kimble shift. Kimble had still been hooked up to the scanner and Henry had watched his energy readings change. It took energy for the change and Kimble's core temperature dropped slightly. "Fascinating..." Henry repeated, enraptured.

Kimble snorted. "I kin do lots more fascinatin' things than that."

"I don't think Henry is concerned with your sexual prowess, my dear," Fallen said.

"I been good. Don' I gits a reward fer being so nice and quiet?"

Beast laughed. "Oh, yes. I almost forgot."

He got up and opened a drawer on his desk. He took out a white box and tossed a small crinkling package at the dark haired reclining woman. Kimble caught her treat easily and sniffed it. It was yellow and smelled delicious. "What is it?"

"A Twinkie."

"I suggest you unwrap it first," Fallen said with a laugh. "But you can do with it what you like."

Kimble tore at the plastic with her teeth and licked at the cake. Yummy. She bit into it and shivered from the pleasure of it, it was difficult for Kimble to hide it when she enjoyed something. She munched happily and Henry went back to his readings.

Fallen watched Kimble eat with a kind of wary unease. It was strange to see him in this skin, to be so unlike himself. She knew that as a hologram he had no real gender, but she had always regarded him primarily as male. Now it was like she was sitting next to a stranger.

Logan interrupted their little party, walking into the lab. He had some packages in his hands, mail for Henry. He squinted at the female on the lab bench and growled. "That skin's caused ya enough trouble already. I figured you'd smartin' up and put it away."

"Didn't try it on the blue fur yet," Kimble replied arrogantly, not giving Logan an inch. She looked over at Henry, but he was lost in his gathering of information.

Logan grunted a laugh. "Maybe if ya disguised yerself as a lab specimen, ya might have better luck."

Kimble sighed and returned to his pilot skin. He was full and a little sleepy from the Twinkie. "I thought I wuz, but it didn' matter I guess."

"You must forgive me, Kimble," Henry apologized. "Shape shifting energy beings have never really done it for me, I'm afraid."

"Maybe Fallen kin finds me some more skins. Never know."

"You got enough skins, boy," Logan growled. "Don't need you shiftin' all over the place, causin' all kind 'a trouble."

Wolverine had been doing his best to stay away from Kimble and put some space in between them. He was still pissed off about Kimble's comment at the dinner table two days ago, but was trying to let it go. It didn't keep him from noticing he wasn't the only one disgruntled with Kimble's behavior. He had heard Scott whining to the Professor about Kimble's roaming eyes and flirtatious manner. It was a testament to Logan's restraint that he hadn't reported the incident with Kimble in the gym, something he guessed would come up anyway. He knew it was just a matter of time before Kimble got in trouble again. He just hoped he wasn't around when it happened. He didn't like being labeled as the bad guy, let someone else have a crack at reining in Fallen's little brat.

Kimble coughed and spat up the probe, no longer in the mood to play. Henry saw the look in Kimble's eyes dim and the low slump of his wings as his spirits tanked. It was an attitude that was becoming more and more normal for him and Henry didn't like it. Beast gave Fallen a quick injection and suggested they all go for a walk.

(break)

Fallen was enjoying the short hike here in the woods. Logan had decided to come along with her and Beast so she had plenty of company. Kimble had gone off a short distance ahead, but not out of sight.

The Mansion was situated at the head of a hundred acres of private land, all covered in lush woods. Whenever a neighbor's land would come up for sale, the Professor was quick to snap it up. He owned the three large houses that bordered the property and some of the other X-men on the senior staff lived there.

Fallen was a little unsteady from the medication Henry had given her to help with the Lightening. She swayed a little as she walked, but Beast was there holding her up. The late afternoon air was fresh and made her feel much better, she was happy to be outside and back into the world again.

Kimble was off ahead of them, eager to explore. He would fly ahead and bring back things he found, asking for Henry to be identify what they were. Kimble would then show them to Fallen, the Siskan was curious and filled with wonder like a grade school kid out on a field trip. Logan was not so happy about it, he and Fallen were trying to have a conversation and Kimble kept interrupting them with his questions and excitement. Logan had little patience for this man who acted like a child. After the tenth interruption, Logan snarled at him to just fly ahead and stop being a pain. Even after all this time, Wolverine still struggled to accept that this creature who looked like a grown man was nothing more than a child. He was having trouble curbing his temper and couldn't stop himself from grumbling.

Kimble was put out, but obeyed. He went a short distance ahead. He heard a rustling in some bushes and went to go check it out. He parted the branches and found himself face to face with what he thought was a cat. Kimble had never actually seen one, his experience with animals of any kind was seriously limited, but Fallen talked about them all the time. This one was pretty cool looking, it had a white stripe and everything. Kimble grinned, "Here kitty, kitty!"

Logan broke into a run when he heard Kimble shout but stopped short when the blast wave hit him - Kimble had been skunked full in the face. He was flapping around wildly, smashing into trees and bushes as he fled from the terrible creature that had attacked him so horribly. He had his hands over his eyes and was gagging from the spray going into his mouth. He careened blindly and smashed into Logan, flooding his sensitive nose with his reek.

"You stupid asshole!" Logan shouted, dumping Kimble off of him.

"Help me! Help me!" Kimble cried, flailing about. Tears streamed from his eyes in a flood.

Fallen and Henry came up behind Logan, concerned at first, but then laughing wildly at the whole thing.

"Glad you think it's funny!" Logan complained. He stood with his arms spread out, gagging himself from the stink.

"Fallen!" Kimble begged, holding his hands out and seeking the comfort of his Mistress.

She backed away, giggling. "Oh no, you don't! You keep that to yourself!"

"I cain't see!"

"It wears off, buddy," Logan said without sympathy.

Logan led them to a nearby stream and stood by while Kimble washed his face and rinsed out his eyes and mouth. Kimble was better afterwards, but still miserable. They made him walk behind them back to the house, but even so, Logan was reeking from when Kimble had slammed him. They got to the house and Logan stripped down to his underwear. He dragged out an old washtub and made Kimble get into it. He used an old bottle of dog soap to wash Kimble down. He had wanted Fallen to clean Kimble up, he was her problem, but then he figured he was already stinky so he may as well do it.

He was not gentle. Kimble sat still, miserable and whimpering as Logan used a washrag to scrub away at his sensitive skin. When he complained, Logan told him to shut up and stop being a baby. Kimble was whining softly and looking to Fallen, but she could hardly stop herself from laughing. Kimble's chemical nature allowed for partial absorption of the oils in the skunk spray, he was going to stink badly for a while. This bath would help but it certainly wasn't going to rid Kimble of this terrible stink.

Kimble's skin was raw and aching when Logan was done. He wanted Fallen to repair him, but she figured the sting would remind him to be more careful. When he was finally released, he fled to one of the nearby outbuildings. He saw it was a barn and flew up to the loft to bury himself in the sweet smelling hay, his whole body hurting from the abuse.

He came slinking back to the house a few hours later but everyone complained about his stink and avoided him. He finally crawled into the Storage Room and hid some more among the bins, crying softly. It wasn't his fault he didn't know what a skunk was. This was so unfair. He curled up and did his best to sleep, but the stink of his own body and his stinging skin made that impossible. He just put his head down and whimpered.

At first Logan was angry over the whole thing, but then realized that now he could actually track Kimble by scent. He just had to follow the skunk. He was getting a sick kick out of Kimble's misery. Serves the little bugger right, he figured. Teach him to be a little more in control. He wasn't a child even though he acted like one.