Chapter 2

"This is a fucking joke right?"
Talyn stared at the pictures in front of her.
It showed her skeleton, fully covered in metal. Next to hers was a similar photo, only this was a man's skeleton, Logan's. The same metal covering it.

"Both you're bones are covered with adamantium," a woman named Storm told her.
She knew that already. She knew her body was filled with metal. She never knew how she knew it, but she did. She only could have never thought there would be someone just like her.
"It's ought to be an indestructible metal," Storm continued. "You wouldn't survive all this metal in your body if you would be normal."
Talyn sniffed. "What do you mean, 'normal'?"
"The mutation," Logan growled. He looked away from the x-rays. "I guess your body heals itself from whatever injury?"
Talyn nodded.
"The metal would poison you if your body would be normal. Now, it's healing all the time."
"It only took away your memory from before the surgery," Storm said. "Didn't it?"
"I guess," Talyn said. "I can only remember my life with the metal inside me, but I must be older."
"Your body was hurt too much when they placed the adamantium on your bones. It couldn't restore your memories. Logan has the same thing going on."

Talyn turned her head to look at this Logan. She had never met someone like herself before.
Sure she had met other mutants, but they all were different.
They didn't have this animal side that she had. She was always seen as a beast, never understood.
Logan had to be like her.

"Who did it?"
"William Stryker," Logan answered her question with a deep, growling voice. She could feel some tension there.
"Did you meet him?"
"Yeah." He grinned briefly. "He's dead now though."

Talyn turned her attention to Storm again. "So, how old am I?"
Storm sighed. "I don't know," she answered.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" It almost came out as a snarl.
"Well, you could be 20, you could be 200. I don't know."
"How old are you?"
Logan raised his eyebrows. "How should I know, I'm in the same shit here."
"Your cells and DNA show no aging," Storm explained. "They just… renew all the time, without degenerating. They don't even divide, they just heal."
"So, I'm immortal?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, we don't know."
"Are there more like us?"
"There are more ferals," Charles Xavier said. "People with animal-like mutations. But I've never seen two ferals with such similar mutation. You are both more human than animal, both heal incredibly fast, you have the senses of a wolf… Some ferals are more beast than human, most of them don't have healing powers though. Just animal-like features."
"Are there a lot of feral mutants?" Talyn asked.
"Not so much in comparison to other mutants," Storm answered. "The mutation is not always a step forward. When you become more beast than human, it's sort of downgrade evolution."
She snorted. "So I'm some sort of primitive species of human?"
"No," Professor Xavier smiled, "you and Logan are one of the few ferals that are actually taking evolution a step forward. I'm happy to have you two around here."

She stiffened.
"I'm not staying," she said, trying to stay calm. He sounded like he wanted to run tests on her, to experiment on her. "I'm not a fucking guinea-pig you know, I've had enough of that bullshit. I just want to be fucking normal, live somewhere without people…"
"Talyn, Talyn, please calm down!" Xavier's voice was loud and steady.
"We're not gonna run any tests on you, unless you want to. We would certainly never experiment on you." He stayed quiet for a second until he saw she had really calmed down a bit. "I'm only offering you a place to live for a while, a place where you don't have to hide from people who want to hurt you."
"Maybe, I don't know…"
"You should give it a try kid, it's not as bad as it looks."
"You can still leave whenever you want," Storm added with a friendly smile.
She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe she could give it a try.

Talyn was actually happy to find out they gave her a room of her own. It even had a normal bed in it, a little bathroom, a small television…
Yeah, maybe she could even stay there for a week, get a little comfortable, strengthen up a little, all before she would go back to her normal life. Or normal as it was… But she never really had minded traveling around by herself.
Someone knocked softly on her door. "Hey kid, hungry?"
Definitely Logan.
He opened the door without waiting for her reply. He had a cigar in his mouth and his leather jacket was zipped open, revealing the white shirt underneath it.
"You always storm into other peoples' rooms?" she growled annoyed. "And then smoke cigars?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
He only grinned.
"You're lucky I'm hungry," she added.
"Or else?"
"I would kick you out of here."
"Wish I could say that scared me kid."
She rolled her eyes. "Stop calling me kid."
He shrugged his shoulders and blew the smoke into her room. She hated the smell of cigars.
"Whatever, I'm going to grab some food, you comin' or not?"
"Yeah, yeah, easy."

"So, you're like a teacher in here?" Talyn asked him that as if it was some kind of joke she wouldn't believe. "Like a real teacher?"
Logan rolled his eyes and took a bite out of the sandwich with beef. "Yeah I am."
She laughed . "What do you teach?"
"All kind of things," he answered vaguely. "What did you do out there?" He gave a short nod towards the window and she assumed he meant what she did before she came here.
"Traveling around a bit."
"Where'd you go?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Just where someone would take me."
He looked up at her. "Not really keen on talking, are you 'uh?"
"Not really no."
"Hey Logan! Can I borrow your motor for the weekend?"
Talyn startled when the bright woman's voice sounded through the almost empty room. Logan looked up irritated.
"Fuck off kid, I'm not letting you drive that thing."
"What, I'm a good driver!" The girl sat down at their table and looked at Logan, not giving any attention to Talyn.
"Come on, I really wanna go to this concert, you're not gonna let me walk are you?"
Logan snickered. "You're not getting it Rogue."
"Please, please, please?" She looked at him with big, asking eyes and folded her hands as in a prayer.
Logan rolled his eyes. "No."
"Ah c'mon, I'll make you steak for dinner?"
This seemed to get his attention. He sighed deep. "Whatever kid, you can use it."
A high, cheerful sound came out of the girl's mouth and she hugged Logan shortly.
"Oh my god, thank you so much!"
"I won't forget about the steak," he growled low. She grinned at that, and then suddenly seemed to notice the other girl at the table, who she had never seen on the mansion before.
"Who's your friend?" she asked Logan curiously. Her voice still as cheery as before. Talyn could never understand those people, always happy.
"Hi, I'm Talyn," she introduced herself before Logan could. The other girl introduced herself as Rogue, still smiling and happy.
"Are you new on school?"
"I'm not going to take classes." It sounded hard and cold in Rogue's ears, but she knew that behind every mutant was a story. She hadn't forgotten her own story, so she would never judge on any mutant. She even could get along with Logan, unlike a lot of the other students here.
"Oh sorry, I thought you were a new student! You're not a teacher are you? I mean, I don't want to offend you or something."
"No, just staying here for a while."
"She's the girl we found in the car accident," Logan explained.
"Ah, I saw them bring you in here. You didn't seem to have a lot of damage." Rogue smiled. "Are you okay now?"
"I don't get hurt fast," Talyn said, "I'm fine."
"Well, if you want me to show you around a little bit, I'll be around." Rogue smiled once more at her, stood up, gave Logan a friendly punch on the shoulder and left again.

"She's one happy girl," Talyn said annoyed.
"Yeah, since she's got the cure she's gotten a lot happier."
"She's got the cure?" Talyn repeated, raising her eyebrows. "Why?"
"She couldn't touch," Logan said. "I mean, I would take the cure if I couldn't touch anyone," he added grinning.

That moment, Professor Xavier came in in his wheelchair, looked around the room and came to them. His eyes were serious this time, not with the playful spark Talyn had seen in there before. She could smell something she would define as nervousness, or fear maybe. She could see in Logan's eyes he felt something strange too, something that didn't really belong to Xavier.

"Something's wrong?" Logan tried to asked casual.
"We have a big problem," Xavier said serious. "We think the Cure just stopped working."