"So have you come up with a name for them?" asked Scott. Getting Artemis placed into Jean's custody was, aside from having to insure that whoever kept her stuck in Petunia's "care" through liberal use of power, more or less smooth. The fact that the girl had been living in the woods for well over a year because Petunia dumped her there meant that she was unfit as a parent.
There was also the fact Jean worked and lived at a boarding school Artemis would be attending.
Artemis nodded. She had looked up gods and goddesses of the hunt so she could finally name her foxes, since she was tired of calling one Black and the other White.
"I'm calling her Meilikki after the Finnish goddess of the hunt," said Artemis proudly, holding up the slightly smaller dark and white female. She then held up her other fox and said "I'm naming him Wöden, after the leader of the Wild Hunt in Anglo-Saxon mythology."
"So Den and Mei?" said Scott.
Artemis nodded. Scott looked relieved. At least now they had a proper name for her 'pets'.
Artemis was a bright girl...however living in the woods for over a year had done her no favors when it came to interacting with 'civilized' people.
She had become a blunt, unapologetic girl who wouldn't hesitate to speak her mind, if she spoke at all. And no matter what the Professor or Jean tried, she refused to see what was wrong about using her psychic ability on normal humans, when she used it at all. If she wasn't conning people with her words or being an outright thief, then odds were she was subtly using her powers.
Where Jean was a major power house, Artemis seemed to have developed the more subtle nature of her psychic abilities. As a result, it was extremely difficult to even catch her at it. Even the Professor had trouble noticing her listening or nudging when she shouldn't, and he had years of experience with it!
At least they had gotten her to open up more. Even if she wasn't the most trusting except to those with obvious mutations like tails (or in the case of Hank, blue fur and hands where his feet should be).
And to add to that headache, it quickly became apparent that Artemis was a witch. Which explained quite a bit about Lily that Jean had always wondered about, but never had the chance to ask.
She wasn't the first magical child born with mutation in her genes, and she wouldn't be the last. After the headache of the American Ministry trying to remove students from the school, a compromise was finally reached. In exchange for acting as a part-time magical school, the mutants would be considered an off-shoot of the magical government and left alone.
It was ironic that the magicals were so much more reasonable than their less talented counterparts, but then again they knew exactly what the mutants were going through. They had opted to hide instead of confront their aggressors, and so were mostly forgotten and left to live in relative peace. And every time they found a magical child mistaken for a mutant, they would hand them over without a fuss to the magicals, and they would do the same with any mutants.
Tomorrow Artemis would be given her official 'mutant' codename. A way for other mutants to know where her powers stood.
Scott's other name was Cyclops, just as Jean's name when she unlocked her full powers on some poor bastard was the Phoenix.
It was an unofficial rite of passage for young mutants to earn their name. Artemis and her 'familiars' as they were classed by the Ministry, went through an exhaustive battery of tests and one very long run through the Danger Room before she was allowed out. If she couldn't handle the Danger Room, she would have had to wait another year.
The Professor and Jean had the perfect name already made for her. It would cover most of her mutant ability, plus the ones she had yet to unlock because her mother was a witch.
Jean looked happy and a a little sad as she handed Artemis her new outfit.
"Welcome to the ranks of the mutants. From now on your mutant designation and code name will be Huntress. Now once you finish your degree, you'll be spending the next few weeks with a friend of the Professor's named Hawkeye. He's not a mutant."
"Okay."
Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye had overheard about the fledgling archer who used homemade arrows and took an interest. He wanted to see how good she was. Once she finished her high school degree (she had apparently inherited her mother's intelligence, because she wasn't even ten yet) she would be in archer boot camp, which would double as Clint's vacation.
"In the meantime, we'll work on your uniform. Once you turn fifteen you're given free reign over what it looks like, since this is just the standard one. However until your considered an adult, don't expect to be brought on any missions. We might use you as an example for the new mutants though."
Artemis would make an excellent example for young mutants...so long as Jean could bribe her into behaving. A few days camping was usually sufficient.
Artemis perked up at that. She already had a few design ideas, because the Professor's taste in battle outfits was beyond horrid. Who would dare wear yellow, black and in spandex if they didn't have to?
Jean was in the kitchen when the owl arrived addressed to the 'legal guardian of the Potter Heir'.
Opening the letter, because after a while you got used to the owls, Jean's eyebrows shot up.
"Discrepancies in the Potter... To the Guardian of the Potter heir, it has recently come to our attention that the vaults under your new charge's care have been inactive for more than five years. However, there have been a number of withdrawals made in your charges name and we wish to clarify authorization. If these are valid, then no fines will be presented to those making the withdrawals. Please respond no later than... That's weird...the only 'charge' I've taken under is... Oh."
Artemis. The girl that turned out to be the daughter of her favorite cousin. Because they looked so similar, the girl had taken to calling Jean her 'older sister'. The strange thing was that it worked out better than if Jean had tried to act like her mother. Artemis certainly wouldn't have listened.
Jean took the letter to the Professor, and he agreed it was best to straighten this out now before anything happened.
"Welcome to Gringotts. How may I help you?" asked a cheerful-looking muggleborn.
Unlike the English, the Americans hadn't bothered to keep the goblins as bankers. They let them work as soldiers instead, which worked much better than forcing them to do finances. In order to get around the ICW's restrictions of goblins serving in the army, they called them mercenaries that just happened to share a common enemy. In exchange they looked the other way if any looting happened, within reason.
"We received a letter from Gringott's about my sister's finances, and wish to have a few things cleared up."
"Take a left when you reach the end of the hall and it should be the third door on the right," she said helpfully.
Jean took Artemis to the door, where they waited their turn.
"How may I assist you today?"
Jean held up the letter.
"One moment please. I'll need a blood sample to confirm her identity."
Artemis, without a single hint of squeamishness, bit into her thumb to provide a decent sized dollop of blood. The woman looked slightly amused.
"You know we could have given you a sterile knife to use," she said.
"I've bleed enough for dumber reasons," shrugged Artemis.
The scroll unfurled, revealing a complete family history for the past three centuries.
Artemis Fox (Rosemary Andromeda Evans *Potter-Black*)
Mother: Lily Potter ne Evans
Father: James Howlett *James Potter*
Uncle: Viktor Howlett *Remus Lupin, Severus Snape*
Aunt: Petunia Dursley ne Evans
Cousin: Jean Grey, Dudley Dursley, Sirius Black, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy ne Black...
Jean looked at the scroll in shock.
"What do these mean?"
"Blood or magical adoption. I'm guessing she became a Potter when James declared her his daughter, and since he had no living heirs magic declared her his child anyway. And considering how inter-married the English are, I'm not surprised there are so many under the cousin listing. Now as to why we alerted you... it seems someone has gotten a copy of her vault keys under the name of her 'magical' guardian. We can reset it to you for a small fee," she replied.
"Can we take it out of her vault?" asked Jean.
"Of course."
Jean and Artemis spent the next two hours going over the finances. Jean knew a bit about investments, plus this would help some of her fellow mutants who were sympathetic to their cause. They would also use Artemis' gold to buy out people like Stryker in an attempt to cut the ground out from under him.
Artemis couldn't care less, mostly because if worst came to worst she could always live off the land. So long as she had a nice patch of land, her bow, knife and her two foxes, she could care less if she was broke or richer than most.
Sometimes keeping things simple was easier.
They left with a small allowance to be paid to Artemis once a month from her own vault, a new wallet and card, and a new set of vault keys.
At least now they had a name for Artemis' mystery father and an uncle.
The minute the Professor searched out 'Viktor Howlett', he found a very nasty surprise.
Viktor Howlett was Sabertooth, one of Magneto's more devoted followers. Which meant Sabertooth had a brother they were unaware of, probably as feral as he was.
Well at least now they knew why Artemis took to the wilds so quickly. It was in her nature, passed down through the bloodlines.
Charles spent the briefest of moments looking for whoever James was, but Sabertooth detected his presence before he could find anything useful.
Hopefully he would dismiss it as a random mutant and not someone deliberately seeking him out.
Artemis concentrated. She had never had a wand to do magic before, and she saw no reason to buy a stick now to continue that gift. Her teachers insisted she get one, if only for the delicate work, but said nothing about learning to cast magic without it.
"Well done Ms. Fox. I daresay you have a natural knack for wandless transfiguration. Keep this up and we might let you learn how to become an animagus early," said Mrs. Calvert.
"Animagus?"
"Animal transformation. Not usually recommended for those under fourteen, primarily because there's always the risk the animal would take control and they'd get stuck, but in your case I seriously doubt that would be an issue. You're naturally in-tune to your animal instincts, so the real issue would be the transformation."
Most children couldn't handle controlling their more feral nature if they started the transformation. But in Artemis' case, it was more like she had to learn how to handle her senses being upgraded beyond what she was used to.
Artemis perked up at that. If she could take animal form, it would make getting food that much easier and she wouldn't have to worry about those pesky laws about children. At least, not until she wanted to.
"You really think she's ready for that level of transfiguration?" asked Mrs. Burkhardt.
"She's already far past what the European mages would be at in concerns to self-transfiguration. Most children over there wouldn't even think of going with something as strong as diamond or think about the ramifications of using metal to replace the bones," said Mrs. Calvert.
Most people would think to turn their bones into metal, never considering the downsides like poisoning. Artemis, however, knew that metal attracted lightning like ticks to a dog. So instead she compressed carbon to the point it became diamond. Low grade diamonds, but diamonds nonetheless.
Since going to the bank, Artemis had a better idea of what the claws were supposed to look like. They were already a lot more solid and sharp than before, not to mention a higher quality.
"Is that an owl?" said Artemis, where she was working on her telekinesis. Where she lacked in power, she made up with speed and subtlety.
Scott closes his eyes before swapping out his visor for his sunglasses.
"I think so, but why isn't it going to the Owlry like the others?"
Shortly after the integration of the magical classes, the Professor added an owlry so the birds wouldn't disrupt lessons or draw attention. So the fact an owl was deliberately ignoring it's instincts to head to the building said volumes.
"Head inside and we'll see what this is about," said Scott to Artemis. She nodded, and the owl immediately veered to meet her. Scott frowned.
He sent a mental call to Jean. After a while, Jean learned to filter out the voices, so if someone was sending a thought directed at her, she picked up on it.
When the owl landed, their confusion only increased.
"Why would Hogwarts be sending a letter to Artemis under her old name when she's already registered as one of ours?" said Ororo.
"From what I understand they see her as a 'savior' and they've been using her as some sort of fairy tale character. I've put a stop to most of it, but the older books are still in circulation," said Jean.
She had gotten a few angry letters that never made it to her. The school was safe from howlers, because they were unnecessary pieces of magic that didn't solve anything. Upon learning of the existence of screaming letters, the Professor put that on the list of things not allowed on school grounds. There was a ward that covered the entire Institute, and you couldn't get fifty feet of hearing distance with one.
Mrs. Calvert cast a standard detection spell, and her frown turned into an angry grimace.
"This is laced with a compulsion and tracking charm. If Artemis had touched this, she might have been forced to attend Hogwarts whether she wanted to or not, and it would have given her location away with little to no trouble to the caster."
"Might have been?" said Jean.
"We haven't been testing magic resistance or compulsions. That's something we generally avoid testing for until the student reaches puberty. Though considering who she is, that is a serious lapse on our part," admitted Mrs. Burkhardt.
Jean looked at her sister.
"Well?"
"No way am I going to that backwards place. Hogwarts is a joke, and the only thing I would do if I went there would be to disappear in the forest they have right outside the castle," stated Artemis flatly.
Jean took out a piece of parchment they kept on hand for letters to the magical community. She wrote a firm 'No thank you' and explained that Artemis was already getting a magical education, before she rolled it up and tied to the owl. It hooted before leaving.