"A-A morpher!" Momma Maverick exclaimed in shock as she looked at the little one partially hiding itself behind her eldest son's back. The child flinched a little bit, taking her tone as a bad thing and quickly ducked out of sight behind Modo's back. Modo glanced down at the child and set a large hand on top of it's little head and ruffled it's hair gently. Affectionately.

Good god her son was already imprinting on the child. She could tell by the way he touched it that regardless of her wishes; it was too late to say no. The morpher would be staying in their home or Modo would hate her forever. She sighed and dropped down into the chair she'd pulled out upon Modo's insistance and buried her face in her hands.

It wasn't that she was narrow minded, or a biggot, or even a hateful person.

But a morpher, while similar to their own people in many ways, were also different in many ways. Keeping the child, letting Modo and Vinny become attached to it would be a horrible thing to do since there was no guarantee that it would survive.

After all the scholars had theorized that the fall of their race had to do with illness, disease, physical deformities, mental deformities, breeding, lack of food, lack of water- There were so many factors and variables that she wasn't sure what exactly what to think or say.

All she knew was that her eldest son was already attached to the child and she had to keep it alive or he'd die mourning it. And to make matters worse it had been experimented on by their government, who all probably knew of it's existance and what it would be capable of once it matured. Which meant that they would be looking for it.

She looked at her eldest son who was now kneeling in front of the little one talking to it in low hushed tones and felt a surge of panic. If the military ever found the morpher, they would kill them for trying to hide it. For trying to give it a home and a family. "Bring the little one here Modo and let me see it-"

"Her." Modo said in an almost snappish tone before softening his voice back to normal. "It's a girl."

Mamma Maverick blinked at her son and wondered how he knew that as he stood up and took the little one's hand in his and led it over to her so that she could see it a little better. She sucked in a ragged breath as the faint light illuminated the child's features.

My, but it was no wonder Modo believed it to be a girl. It's features were distinctly feminine. The shape of it's head, it's build, it's height and development of it's body all practically screamed, Female!

She smiled at the little one, thinking how pretty she was going to be once she was older and asked softly. "Do you have a name?"

The child looked between her and her son with an uneasy look on it's little face and she felt her chest ache a bit as Modo said. "I don't think she has a name, mom."

"Well, first thing is first son, if she's going to stay here you need to refer to her as a he, him or bro. The military would have likely noticed that she's leaning more towards being a girl than a boy, which means that when they look for her they'll be looking for a girl. And it will be difficult for them to find said girl if she is disguised as a boy."

"Also morphers go through a certain period in their young lives when they spend a few months as wholly male then change once they begin to go through puberty, to female for their heat cycles. While she's a boy she'll need certain things. Such as grains and fruits to eat. The nutrients will help her when she goes into her heat cycle. And when she's a girl she will also need to be kept away from males for a while. But I'm sure that you and Vinny can scare them off."

"And since she'll be raised as a boy. She'll need a temporary male name. Some male clothing, and a male's education. Once she's settled in here, I want you and Vinny to take her out into the fields and teach her how to shoot and fight. She may need the knowledge later on." The words just in case went unspoken between Modo and his mother, but the young mouse got her point easily enough.

"Alright-" Modo agreed without hesitation earning a curious look from the child as she tilted her head back and looked up at him, her little ears flattened back against her head as Modo reached out and grasped a tuft of her long hair between his fingers. "I guess one of the first things in order is a haircut, then naming her, then getting her into some new clothes."

"I'll cut her hair-" Momma Maverick said as she started to get up when her son stopped her for a second. "Just don't cut it all off. Long hair is acceptable for our males so just cut it up to her shoulder blades. If it becomes bothersome later on as she gets older then we'll cut it shorter."

Mamma Maverick looked at her son for a moment then suddenly smirked and said half teasingly. "Modo, I never knew that you liked long hair on your girls." Causing her son to bristle to the point where his grey fur stood on end as he flushed and almost shouted.

"That's not it!"