Author's Note: I think we all know at this point that I hate the XMFC version of Raven Darkholme with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns. So it's fun to showcase her pettiness. She's not a villain, just so we're clear. She's just not a nice person due to her personality and the personal experiences and choices that have shaped her life. I hope you enjoy! Thank you to everyone who reads this, and special thanks to those who take the time to review!

Breaking in the Newbie

"Will you come see me after the meeting?" Roxanne asks as they leave the cafeteria.

Hank looks down at her with a puzzled frown. "I was going to take you with me."

She grins wryly. "I think Mystique made it pretty clear I wasn't invited," she observes.

"You're a prospective team member," he replies innocently. "I think that's a valid reason for your presence at the meeting."

And he continues to lead her to the elevator, despite her trepidation.

Roxanne's caution gets the better of her once they're in the basement again. She stops walking, forcing Hank to pause as well. "Hank, seriously," she says, "I don't want to piss her off by showing up."

He steps closer and reaches up to brush a lock of hair back from her face. "As a team field leader, I'm asking you to attend," he assures her. "So if she's going to be mad at anyone, it's going to be me."

The feral girl gives him a speculative look. "That's just asking for trouble," she mutters.

"Well she's already gotten me taken off field work for now," Hank retorts. "What else can she do? I'm honestly past caring about her opinion, Roxanne."

With that questionable reassurance, Roxanne allows him to lead her to the Danger Room.

It's a very large, nondescript space with plain white walls and ceiling. The lack of points of reference make the room slightly disorientating. No one else is there yet when they arrive.

"How exactly do the simulations work?" Roxanne asks curiously, peering at the walls.

Hank seems just as thrilled to explain it to her as she is to hear it. Even if she wasn't genuinely interested, the way his eyes light up with enthusiasm would make listening totally worth it.

Bamf!

Kurt's arrival interrupts the explanation, startling Roxanne. She jumps slightly, earning a quiet chuckle out of Hank. The teleporter is accompanied by Scott and Jean in his little puff of smoke.

"Guten Tag," the blue mutant says cheerfully.

"Guten Abend," Roxanne manages to reply. "Hi, guys."

After returning her greeting Scott curiously asks, "can you speak German, Roxanne?"

"Only enough to make conversation," she tells him, with a shrug. Hank gives her an adoring look that makes a flush rise in her cheeks.

Peter and Storm suddenly appear at that moment, popping up like daisies out of what seems like thin air. Roxanne privately thinks that between Peter and Kurt she's going to be lucky to live out the year without some sort of cardiac episode.

The speedster grins as soon as he spots Roxanne standing there among the X-Men. "Oh, this'll be good," he announces.

Roxanne winces and instinctively shrinks against Hank. He slips his arm around her waist, a silent communication of support. This isn't going to be good, no matter what Peter says.

Sure enough, the atmosphere turns glacial as soon as Mystique enters the large room and catches sight of the feral woman.

"I said this was a team meeting," she says sharply, without any further ado.

Roxanne casts her eyes down.

"I invited Roxanne," Hank replies calmly. "As a prospective team member I felt she has a right to be here."

Mystique glowers at him. "'Prospective team member,' my ass," she snaps. "You just can't bear to be away from your new little wounded bird."

Roxanne wonders if there might be a kernel of truth in that statement, as hurtful as it is. She glances around at the other X-Men, wondering what they think about this situation.

"I think Fraulein Roxanne should be here," Kurt bravely pipes up, though he looks like he expects to be yelled at for doing so. "Dr. McCoy thinks she vill do vell on the team, and I trust him. She should be included, ja?"

To Roxanne's astonishment, the blue shapeshifter's frosty expression fractionally softens at this endorsement from the blue-skinned boy. It makes her intuition flare- does Mystique have a soft spot for Kurt? But why?

Before she can pursue the train of thought further, Mystique turns to her and gives her a disdainful look. "Fine," she scoffs. "Roxanne, what makes you think you could be an X-Man?"

The feral girl has to fight the urge to shrug.

She doesn't really have an answer to that question besides that everyone else seems to think she would do well on the team. She believes whole-heartedly in what they do, and she would love to help, but isn't sure if she can. It's not so much a question of desire to join, but a crisis of self-confidence on her part.

Her silence quickly grates on Mystique. "Uh huh," the shapeshifter mutters, with an air of triumph. "How about this- what can you do?"

This Roxanne feels more comfortable answering, because it's more fact-based. "I'm a feral mutant," she replies. "I'm fast, agile, and a lot stronger than a normal person of my size. Some stuff I'm still learning about myself, but I know I have acute senses and heal faster than a normal person."

Understatement.

"Can you fight?" Mystique presses.

Roxanne does shrug this time. "I guess?"

"So not really. That's what I thought," the shapeshifter sneers, rolling her eyes. "You've definitely got potential, but you're a waste. You're just another kid I have to babysit because Hank and Charles-"

"'Just another kid to babysit?'" Roxanne blurts out. "I'm not a child. And these guys-" she gestures towards the other X-Men- "deserve to be treated with respect. Last time I checked, they saved the world last year."

"They got lucky," Mystique retorts.

"That doesn't mean they're not capable," the feral woman counters. She can't believe how dismissive Mystique is of her teammates, many of whom have awe-inspiring powers that Roxanne can only dream of. "I've seen what they can do, on the news and in the papers, but you act like they're more hindrance than help. Just- beneath you." She shakes her head sadly. "No wonder none of them respect your leadership."

The words hang in the air, and Roxanne immediately regrets them for a second.

But a glance at the other X-Men's expressions tells her that she most certainly wasn't wrong.

She takes a deep breath. "What you've been doing is no way to lead. You need to-"

"I don't need to do shit," Mystique snaps, her expression livid. "The real world is a fucked up place, and these kids can't afford to be coddled. I'm training them for that. I definitely don't need any advice from a snobby little princess from the boondocks who spent her whole life sheltered away with fucking Father Time."

"That was uncalled for, Raven," Hank interjects, glaring at the shapeshifter. Roxanne appreciates his timely interference, because the cruel reference to Gramps has made her grief hit her afresh. It takes a moment to gather herself.

Mystique rolls her eyes again and looks at the feral woman with disdain clearly evident in her expression.

"Please don't refer to my grandfather that way," Roxanne says, as calmly as she can. She can barely speak through the tightness in her chest. "He is- was- a great man. He also died just two days ago. Have a little respect for the dead."

"Raven-"

"Shut up, Hank," Mystique warns. "If your little princess needs your protection she's got no place on this team." She sneers. "As if she does, anyway. Watch-"

Without further warning, Raven kicks Hank in the stomach, spilling him backwards from the force of the blow.

Even as he collapses to the floor in an ungraceful fall Hank's analytic mind can appreciate Raven's strategy. Incapacitating him- even temporarily- leaves Roxanne to face the shapeshifter alone, because despite their ill will towards Raven the other X-Men will be too afraid to interfere.

Hank raises his head in time to see Raven try to deal a similar blow to Roxanne, who easily sidesteps the attempt. This forces the shapeshifter to roll with her momentum into a somersault rather than trying to awkwardly recover her balance on one leg. Raven then tries to lunge at the feral woman from the crouch she landed in, but Roxanne easily evades her again.

And again.

Hank knows that as a shapeshifter, Raven's tactics rely heavily on the element of surprise. Her success often depends on sneaking up on people while disguised as someone else and then attacking them while their guard is down. The method has served her well for many, many years.

In open combat, though, it's clear that against an opponent as quick as Roxanne that Raven's skills are most definitely lacking.

Because Roxanne is fast- very fast. Nowhere near the same level as Peter of course, but still able to move with a speed that makes it hard for Hank's currently human eyes to track as she dodges and eludes Raven's strikes-

"Man, we should've gotten some Jell-O," Peter quips, with evident amusement. He's watching Raven's fruitless attempts to land a hit on Roxanne with obvious glee. "Or a mud pit."

"Yell-O?" Kurt repeats, confused. "Vhy?"

Peter grins mischievously. "You haven't seen-"

"Don't you dare," Ororo warns the speedster. She's very protective of the blue teleporter's innocence.

"But-"

"Peter," Hank scolds, though he hasn't taken his eyes off the grappling pair in front of him. Should he intervene, or would that confirm Raven's assertions that he's too protective of Roxanne?

She's certainly holding her own, he must admit, though thus far she's only defended herself rather than attacked. Raven's frustration is clearly mounting more and more with every passing moment. It makes him fear that she will do something to goad Roxanne into an ill-advised move that could-

At that moment Raven pauses in her offensive, glowering at the feral woman for embarrassing her and evading her blows so easily. She seems to momentarily reassess her circumstances.

The shapeshifter's eyes meet Hank's, and she grins viciously.

Uh oh.

Raven is frustrated that this little girl is so neatly dodging her hits without even trying to fight back.

It's downright embarrassing.

And she hates that.

She thought she would easily be able to smack the little redhead around a bit and show her who's in charge here, but the girl is turning out to be more of an opponent that she originally believed. A more self-aware woman than she would admit to herself that Roxanne's raw talent could definitely be an asset to the team, but right now her back is up and her pride is on the line.

The most aggravating thing is that the girl won't fight back. Raven is giving it her all and this little pipsqueak is dodging her easily, without attempting to land even a single blow in return.

But then Raven gets an idea.

She glances over at Hank and grins. Oh, she's going to enjoy the reaction from the little feral girl, and Hank's discomfit.

"You want Hank, huh?" Raven asks in a low voice.

Roxanne looks wary but doesn't reply. She seems to be waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were.

"You can have him," Raven taunts. "Just know I had him first, and I could snap my fingers and he'd come running back."

Roxanne's fists clench momentarily, and then relax. Clearly, this is the right path to take, with more pressure.

"You're just a second-rate replacement for me," the shapeshifter continues, softly, so the other X-Men can't quite hear her. "Have fun with my sloppy seconds." She grins. "I'll always be his first love, and you're never going to compete with that, little girl."

This finally rattles the little feral enough that she drops her guard. Raven takes a vicious delight in the way the younger woman almost visibly deflates.

She immediately takes advantage of her distraction and lands a solid punch to the feral's face.

Raven knows a moment of triumph as she watches blood gush out of the girl's nose, now crooked from the blow. Maybe it's so broken that it will heal that way, and her pretty little face won't be so perfect anymore-

But the bleeding stops almost immediately, to Raven's horrified bemusement. And her nose pops back into place just as quickly.

Roxanne deliberately wipes the blood off of her face with her sleeve. Her lips pull back in a sneer, baring her dainty little fangs. "You may be Hank's past," she murmurs, in a soft, quiet voice that's all the more unsettling for its sweetness because it doesn't match the murder in her eyes. "But I'm his present. And maybe even his future, you spiteful old hag."

If this were happening to anyone else, Raven would laugh at the retort. But it's not happening to someone else, and she lets out an indignant shriek of outrage as she reaches out to scratch this stuck-up, disrespectful little bitch's eyes out.

Roxanne is ready for her, though. She grabs Raven by the wrist and jerks sideways, flinging her across the room with the same amount of effort, it seems, it would take to toss a ragdoll.

Raven lands painfully on her side and attempts to scramble upright, but the feral gives her no time. She springs across the room and lands as silently as an owl in front of the shapeshifter, kicking her feet out from under her and grabbing her neck to slam her face into the floor.

In a movement almost too quick to track, the feral wraps Raven's arm around her back into a painful chicken wing hold, pressing down with her knee against the blue woman's spine to keep her firmly pinned. To add to her predicament, Raven becomes aware of three dagger-sharp points pressed against the tender skin under her jawline.

Claws, Raven realizes. She's got claws just like Logan.

"I forgot to mention these," Roxanne observes dryly, pressing her claws further into the shapeshifter's skin. If Raven were to so much as swallow she would stab herself. "What do you think?"

Raven doesn't reply verbally. She conveys her hatred by throwing daggers through her visible eye, though the surly effect is likely ruined by the way her face is currently smashed against the floor.

She's not sure if her pride will ever recover from this.

Roxanne blinks and shakes her head slightly. Horror quickly dawns on her face, and she releases Raven before backing away. "Excuse me," she says, retracting her claws.

She practically runs from the Danger Room, leaving an awestruck silence behind her.