Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Alex is the only character that I can claim is my own.

She glared at Logan. Any thought of keeping a low profile had just been blown out of the water. "Not anymore. I gave up that title almost two weeks ago. Kinda sucks to be recognized, though. Too many bloody people were watching TV from that stupid ball."

Logan snorted. "I thought you looked sweet all dressed up."

"I looked like one of those Barbie dolls. Trust me, that was a one time deal. I prefer my jeans over fluffy, pink dresses any day."

He just laughed. "Okay, is anybody going to apologize for such rude behavior?" He glared at the other X-Men for a moment.

Alex glanced around at everybody. "It's alright. It was just an honest mistake. It's been really nice to finally meet you guys, but I've got to run. I'll see you around Logan." She turned away and started walking down the beach.

"Are you trying to get out of telling me what's going on?" Logan smirked at her.

She glanced over her shoulder and grinned at him. "Who says I would have told you the truth anyway?"

Anything she wanted to say after that was drowned out by a sinister-looking black helicopter that came swooping down over the small beach. Without warning, it began firing on all of the X-Men. Colossus changed into his steel form and Emma became a diamond as Kitty reached out and phased Cyclops. Logan, on the other hand, just got angry. Before he could react, the helicopter swiveled and fixed its guns on Alex. She glared defiantly at it for a few seconds before running for the ocean. She quickly threw out a force field behind her to protect the X-Men. Then, with the bullets falling just inches short, she dove into the water and disappeared beneath the waves. After what felt like an eternity, she came back to the surface. To everybody's shock and horror, she was facedown and not moving. The helicopter instantly stopped firing. A dark-haired man leaned out of one of the doors.

"Devon sends his regards, princess" At these words, Wolverine charged forward with his claws outstretched. He barely made it a few feet before the force field stopped him in his tracks. The man in the helicopter didn't even notice. "He'll be so disappointed that you couldn't be found." He started laughing.

"Tell Devon that if he wants me dead, he'll have to do it himself." The man's laughter caught in his throat as he watched Alex turn herself over in the water. Her eyes glowed a brilliant blue. She lifted her right hand out of the water and everyone saw that they were the same color. "Tell him I'm done waiting for him to show up. He's just a spineless jellyfish that doesn't have enough balls to deal with his problems on his own."

The man in the helicopter just gaped at her. "Why would I tell him that when I could just kill you now? If you're lucky, I'll even bring your bullet-ridden body back for your uncle to see. What do you think of that?"

"I think you talk too much. Have a nice trip." She left a few seconds for him to ponder the meaning of her words. Then, she punched her fist into the air. The blue light extended from her hand to helicopter. With a sound like a sonic boom, the helicopter disappeared. Instantly, the blue light faded from Alex. She felt the familiar searing pain in her chest just before she lost consciousness.

Logan lunged forward again, this time to pull her limp body out of the water. He cradled her in his arms as he laid her down on the sand. When he tried to check her pulse, his hands couldn't get a grip on her wrist. He discovered they were covered in blood. The other X-Men crowded around, attempting to help.

Suddenly, Alex's eyes opened wide. She sat up so quickly that it made her head spin. She stared at all of the X-Men then at the empty sky. After a few shuddering breaths, she buried her face in her hands.

Logan glanced at everyone else for a signal of what he was supposed to do. Like the other X-Men, he'd backed away when Alex had sat up. He knelt down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, kid. We have to get you to the medical center."

She was unresponsive for several minutes. "Okay, I just hope your doctor has a strong stomach. I already know I look like hell." She grimaced as she stood up.

"Do you want me to carry you?" He looked ready to catch her if she fell.

"I'd have to be dead or unconscious for someone to carry me. I'm not helpless."

He chuckled. "I think we all know that now. By the way, you'll have to tell me why you pulled that stunt of pretending to be dead."

She gave him an oblique look. "I wasn't pretending anything. Any medical examiner would have declared me legally dead. I've been dead so many times, I've lost count."

"How can that be? You obviously don't have a healing factor like Logan." Kitty was a bit skeptical.

Alex grinned. "No, I don't have a healing factor. If I did, I wouldn't need to get bandaged up. It's a little trick I learned when I was a kid. I can slow my heartbeat down so far that it's not even perceptible as a pulse."

It was at that point that Storm, Nightcrawler, and Marvel Girl stumbled onto the beach. "What's going on? We heard gunshots," Ororo exclaimed.

"We're okay. Some bozos just decided to use us as target practice," Scott stated dryly.

"Was anybody hurt?" Kurt scanned the faces to make sure that everyone was unharmed. When he spotted Alex, his eyes widened. "Mein Gott! Do you know who you look like?"

Logan choked back a laugh while Alex tried desperately to suppress a grin. It wasn't the first time that she'd been met with that kind of reaction. "Alex Fox, at your service. I've been told that I look exactly like my mother, Sylvia Fox. I tend to think that's a bit of an exaggeration." She gave a slight bow and held her hand out. Her eyes widened faintly as she felt his velvety hand grasp hers.

"I'm Kurt Wagner. It is a pleasure to meet you, Alex." He held her hand for a few moments longer than was necessary.

"Hey, Kurt," Kitty called. "She really needs to get that bleeding stopped." He dropped her hand like it was on fire, suddenly aware of the uncomfortable tension that surrounded the group.

Rachel spoke up for the first time. "Joshua left for Salem Center. He won't even be back for another hour. Hank's the only one here that can handle that kind of injury." She'd felt extremely jealous of Kurt's reaction to the girl. Still, she couldn't be completely inhospitable.

"As long as Hank can use tweezers and can sew, I think I'll live." They started walking slowly towards the mansion.

"You're bleeding an awful lot. Can you tell how many times you got hit?" Cyclops was concerned but he didn't want to press their luck. The girl was obviously very independent.

"I only managed to catch one bullet." She pointed to a small rip in her wetsuit. The astonished expressions of the group led her to explain. "I broke the stitches I had from a previous accident. The wounds have had almost no time to heal so it was easy to tear the stitches out."

Logan raised his eyebrows. "From what I've heard, this isn't your first serious accident. Didn't you get attacked by a shark?"

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "That wasn't serious, Logan! The shark didn't even really bite me. He just kinda nibbled on me a little bit. I was back in the water the next day. Besides, who says that my stitches were from a serious accident?"

She was baiting him and he knew it. "Fine, princess. What do you classify as a serious accident?" He smirked at her, knowing that she would take offense to that term.

Her eyes narrowed, but they were the only thing to change in her expression. "Well, hairy man, I'd have to classify a serious accident as a bullet from a rifle that was shot at close-range being lodged less than an inch above my heart. So far, that has been the only serious accident I've been in. Nothing comes close after an experience like that." She grinned, satisfied that she had bested him.

"So why are you running?" He studied her face carefully for any clue of what was going on. Her whole face closed down, offering no hints of her thoughts. She didn't speak so he tried another tactic. "What about those guys in the helicopter? What did they want with you? Where did you send them?"

"I think it was fairly obvious what they wanted. As for where I sent them?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine. If you're worried that they're dead, though, you might as well forget about me being sorry."

"Aren't you even a little remorseful?" Kitty sounded shocked.

"Of course she isn't, Katherine. Those men were obviously after something that Alexandra didn't know about. That's why they were trying to kill her. She couldn't give them what they were searching for." Emma's voice was cold and calculated.

"Did you actually have to read his mind to figure that out," Alex sharply retorted. "Besides, you're only half right. I gave them exactly what they wanted?" She was staring off into space, even as she walked.

Several of the X-Men that had been on the beach suddenly got a sickening feeling in the pit of their stomachs. Surprisingly, Piotr was the one to speak up. He hadn't spoken since Alex had asked about his death. "What was it that you gave them?"

She clasped her hands together to keep them from trembling. "A demonstration."