While Jean tried to straighten out the mess with Rogue, Artemis had a bigger task. The Professor had agreed to let her and her father leave the mansion for a period of no more than two months.
Father-daughter bonding time he called it.
Artemis saw it for what it really was...a chance for her to exercise her psychic abilities without being overwhelmed by the sheer noise level she always got. She rarely practiced outside of telekinesis, because telepathy tended to overwhelm her no matter how hard she tried.
If she tried to open up the channels around a group of a dozen or more people, it was strained. Twenty or more and she was strained beyond what she could handle.
Artemis was very much a loner, and she was pushing her limits as it was living in a boarding school. It was why they let her sleep more often than not in the tree house on the school grounds instead of with other students.
She still had to take classes though.
Hence why she was going on a vacation...both to learn more about her family and to see if they could figure out how the hell Logan lost his memories to begin with. And in the process they were going to investigate a strange complex in northern Canada in hopes of finding out who grafted metal onto his skeleton.
Artemis could get away from ever having to have the same treatment done to her skeleton...she had almost perfected transfiguring her 'claws' into pure diamonds. Despite having examined Wolverine's metal claws, she knew diamonds were a lot safer than changing her skeleton to metal for several reasons.
One: diamonds didn't come with metal poisoning.
Two: they couldn't be detected by metal detectors, something her father complained about when she asked. The look on his face when he bitched about how much trouble he went through because some idiot made the damn things got her to laugh.
Three: it made it impossible for mutants like Magneto to control her movements and it didn't make her into a giant lightning rod. Yet another thing that got Logan to bitch because of all the times he had been hit since he had the metal put onto his bones.
Four: she chosen diamonds was because it was the easiest thing a child of her limited experience could do. Diamonds were a product compressing carbon and extreme heat. They took millions of years to create and were very, very hard to find. They were also so dense that only a diamond could cut another diamond with any real effectiveness.
If worst came to worst and she somehow lost her adopted father's family money, she could always remove her claws and sell them off. With how fast she healed, she could make a fortune very quickly.
The only snag being that they had no idea what the hell Magneto was up to, or which one of the recently rescued mutants he wanted. Wolverine, or Rogue.
He thought it was Wolverine, based on the fact that Sabertooth went after him first, but Artemis wasn't so sure. With Rogue's abilities she made more sense.
If he wanted someone of Wolverine's ability, he could have very easily tried to get Artemis instead, since it was quickly apparent she had similar abilities and no where near the amount of trust or authority issues.
If he presented a well reasoned argument she might even help without thinking of the consequences. It was one of her flaws...something Xavier was rather reluctant to train her out of because it took a lot to convince her.
The only reason she initially trusted Jean was because her animal instincts recognized the woman as 'family'.
But in order to do that, Artemis would have to organize her things so that she could leave for an extended camping trip with her biological father.
A difficult task considering once she had the chance, Artemis was a bit of a hoarder. A very neat hoarder who had things in easy to find areas, but still a hoarder.
Eventually she narrowed down what she would take with her in her expanded bag to a select group.
Food. She could hunt better than most humans and with her foxes driving the game to her it made that much easier than normal. However she had acquired and extensive spice collection since coming to the Institute along with a much better understanding of how to grill food over open flames. She took the easier to acquire spices and those that were cost effective to replace.
The portable spice rack was a gift from her home economics teacher once she finished his classes and he realized she was better at grilling than he was. It was designed to be taken outdoors and looked very similar to a fisherman's tackle-box, only it had bottles that were charmed to be unbreakable and spill proof. The box itself had a space expansion charm so she could carry more spices than normal, or ingredients she wanted to dry out on the bottom which came with a charm specifically designed for such a purpose.
Her hunting knife had been promptly confiscated upon finding out she owned one meant for big-game hunters, and she still had no idea where Jean hid it. Not even pranking her for a full week revealed where it was, a fact that vexed her often.
The only reason they didn't do the same for the bow was because she hid it with a strange application of accidental magic that allowed one to carry things without having to carry them at all. Artemis rarely experimented with it beyond carrying her weapons and spare arrows. The knife, however, had been kept in the sole of her boot which was why Jean had been able to confiscate it in the first place.
Clothes. She had a three shirts, four jeans, two pairs of shorts and five sets of undergarments. She could go barefoot if she had to, but she preferred her running shoes. If need be she would buy more, but she preferred not to. There was also the matter of her battle suit, something Jean assured her would be finished before they left on their trip.
Money. She had her 'credit card', which was little more than a prepaid card that filled every week with a set amount that would accumulate until she used it. Since she rarely bought anything there was a sizable amount on the card itself, and it was charmed to return to her pocket in the event she lost it. On rare occasions, Jean would increase the amount she got every week.
The foxes. Meilikki and Wöden would follow her anywhere she went anyway, and she had bought a backpack specifically charmed to carry the foxes. There was enough room that they could poke their heads out to get air, but at the same time curl up in small beds inside the bag. It was charmed so that muggles would ignore those specific pockets when the animals were inside...but only if their collars were on.
The bags were designed so that pet owners could transport their magical creatures across borders without having to deal with the headache of customs and immigration asking too many questions. So long as you kept the animals vaccinated and didn't let them breed uncontrolled, they could care less about people transporting their animals across national lines.
Electronics. While she wasn't as enthusiastic about computers she did use them, mostly to compare plants and know what was safe to eat and what wasn't. She also owned a magically powered satellite phone that could get a signal almost anywhere in the world...one that didn't have a massive phone bill attached. It would lock on to the strongest satellite signal...and through the wireless airwaves that surrounded the earth would transmit the signal back allowing her to call people.
It was an absolutely last resort, because she hated cell phones and preferred talking to people face-to-face.
While Artemis was busy getting ready for a long camping trip, the X-Men had a new problem.
And it was in the form of the same idiot who argued with Jean on capitol hill trying to create that stupid Mutant Registration Act that so eerily mimicked the same nonsense the Nazis pulled in the forties.
A fact Artemis had been very quick to point out, bringing up well documented historical facts that were very hard to refute and almost impossible to tear down as arguments. Realizing how close they were to copying the same thing the Nazi political party did in Germany had been a harsh wake up call.
The odds of any more bills trying to brand mutants or otherwise document them like animals were now next to nill. Especially after Artemis pointed out that the mutant 'species' did qualify under the same requirements as a minority under the US laws.
Meaning anyone targeting a mutant for being a mutant was liable to get arrested and thrown in jail for being a racist bigot.
Frankly Artemis couldn't wait for someone to fall into that trap, if only to set a precedent and hopefully give mutant kind equal rights once and for all.
"What happened to him?" asked Artemis, having finally come in to find Senator Kelly unconscious and looking like hell.
"We don't know," said Ororo. "He just showed up at the door demanding to see Jean, and from what we can determine he's been exposed to radiation of some kind."
"We've got trouble," said Scott.
"What's wrong?"
"Rogue's missing. Logan's gone off to try and find her, but we have no idea where she's gone," said Scott.
"I take it the Professor went looking for her using Cerebro?"
She knew of the great machine that amplified psychic ability, but she had never dared to try her luck at it.
It wasn't because she didn't have the power to handle it, but because she couldn't handle the sheer noise level of an entire world's worth of people.
"Should I go with you in case you do find her?" asked Artemis.
"Absolutely not. If Magneto is after your...father... then he might very well capture you instead since you're younger and easier to convert," said Jean.
Logan had quickly proven himself to be more stubborn and mule headed than most European pure bloods when it came to trying muggle items. Artemis on the other hand was another story.
Capturing her would be much easier, and converting her was possible if given the right incentive.
Not to mention she wasn't even fifteen yet, which was the bare minimum of allowing a mutant out into combat situations. And that was only in extreme circumstances. Until then she had to stay behind the battle lines whether she liked it or not.
Artemis didn't mind. While her healing ability made her an excellent front soldier, she preferred being a support specialist. Specifically sniping if she could get away with it.
There was a sudden alarm shortly after the Professor found Rogue. Someone had gotten into Cerebro and left a slow acting poison in the machine.
There were only two active psychics capable of being in the field with any degree of success. Jean went to try and reclaim Rogue from Magneto since Artemis couldn't handle her psychic ability just yet.
Sometimes being a kid sucked.
Logan wasn't angry. No, he was downright pissed and ready to carve someone up.
It wasn't entirely because they had paralyzed him and captured Rogue with ease. It wasn't because he had come back and found the Professor out cold from a poison that would take a few days to work itself out of his system.
No, it had everything to do with the comments Sabertooth made about his recently-found daughter. He didn't know how the hell the bastard found out about Artemis before he did, but it was pretty clear he intended to capture and 'train' her since he was apparently a lost cause. If it weren't for his helmeted boss, Logan would have gutted him, brother or no.
Either way he had walked out of that mess with a very bad migraine and a pissed off attitude that was leagues away from his general bad mood.
Artemis came closer and his migraine started to go away. For some strange reason being around his kid...and wasn't that a real trip, even after coming to terms with the fact he had a kid... seemed to calm down the more feral side of himself.
Suddenly there was a commotion in the basement.
Senator Kelly had literally turned to water and died. Whatever machine Magneto was using to turn humans into mutants, it had an unstable reaction.
And considering the only reason he would try this stunt would be to turn the world leaders mutants, Artemis had a right to be concerned.
Odds were he didn't even know his device was unstable.
And if that was the case, then he might spark an all-out mutant genocide before he found out.
Artemis had to do something, even if it meant breaking one of the Professor's rules.
Artemis hated the standard X-Men uniform. The colors were horribly tacky, but it did provide plenty of protection she otherwise wouldn't have.
However Artemis had an advantage the others didn't have. They weren't expecting her and she could use magic.
Particularly scent-erasing spells, since she knew Sabertooth would be there. She was stealthy enough not to be seen, and she would be bringing rope. A lot of rope.
Logan noticed her sneaking onto the jet, and made sure to hang back.
He kept his voice low. Low enough that they wouldn't hear him unless they were looking for it.
"Sneaking onto the mission are we?"
"Magneto hates humans, but I doubt he's stupid enough to kill all the world leaders and leave Rogue behind if he was aware that the machine is flawed. That's just asking for a lot of collateral damage for nothing."
"I'll cause a distraction, you tell the jerk. Just watch out for Sabertooth," said Logan under his breath. She nodded. After the jet landed she slipped out the second the door was open wide enough. She was thin enough to slip out before the others even noticed she was there.
Jean wasn't looking for Artemis, so she never thought to scan for her sister while she was flying.
Time to do a little sneaking around. Though she did snicker when she heard the metal detectors go off.