Sabertooth's initial meeting of his niece didn't got exactly as planned.
She ignored him completely and focused entirely on Magneto, who she had a quiet conversation with.
Though from the look on Mystique's face it was definitely an interesting one.
He was very confused and more than a little irritated when his boss released the girl they kidnapped instead of forcing her to power it.
"We're letting her go? Just like that?"
"The machine didn't work, and if we continued then all we would have accomplished was giving the humans a legitimate reason to try and kill us. However we can manipulate them into destroying any chance for more anti-mutant laws by having Mystique take the good Senator's place, since he won't be troubling us again," said Magneto.
Truly Artemis was a fascinating child, if she was able to convince someone like himself that it would be far easier to work behind the scenes than it would be to accidentally kill a good portion of the world leaders because he hadn't known about a design flaw.
Jean took one look at Artemis coming down the stairs with Rogue, and felt like bashing her head against something hard repeatedly. Wolverine looked far too smug, and had evidently noticed she was on the jet with them before she snuck off.
"I take it you didn't have any problems?"
"Told him the machine would just give the humans more reasons to kill us and that it would be easier to have Mystique take the Senator's place and work behind the scenes. At least then he would a modicum of success and he wouldn't be killing a fellow mutant. I also mentioned that if he was really that determined to turn the world leaders into mutants then to try to figure out why Senator Kelly ended up being turned to water before he tried again."
"And how did you get here?" asked Storm, glad they didn't have to fight the Brotherhood of Mutants like they were expecting.
"Snuck onto the jet. Not my fault Jean was more focused on flying than making sure it was only you on the thing," said Artemis with a flat expression.
Oh yes, Jean would have a migraine for this later.
"So are they going to try again?" asked Scott, decided to forget Artemis had disobeyed her sister. She had saved them a lot of trouble and grief.
"Like I told him, if you're going to turn humans into mutants, at least make sure that they're not going to die so fast or at all. He seemed amused by the fact I was chewing him out for not experimenting properly and when I asked why he didn't just take convicted criminals no one cares about anymore as test subjects until he figured out what he was doing wrong," said Artemis.
It wasn't like they were doing anything but taking up space and money, and while some people might waste time and countless man hours trying to find them, she was sure they could get Sabertooth to make it look like they had escaped to another country only to end up becoming bear and wolf food or something.
That had made her 'uncle' snort in amusement at her blunt manner. Apparently he didn't mind being used as a clean-up if it meant he got to watch humans die as test subjects.
Artemis was snickering. Logan had stolen Scott's bike and she was hanging on to him while he drove around until they reached Canada's magical stations so they could legally enter the country. Thankfully it was less of a hassle than most because she had the right paperwork for both of them.
It took a day and a half to reach the lake, but already she was feeling more at home in the forests than she had at the mansion.
First thing they did was establish a 'home base'. Artemis proved to be the better of the two as she created a large underground area for them to sleep without having to worry about things like wolves...or Park Rangers.
He still found it funny she considered park rangers to be the bane of her existence.
There was no sound to her. Only her target. There was the minor sound of a string being drawn back...before a thump.
"Dammit girl, what have I said about pink?!"
Artemis giggled as she dropped down from her perch. Hawkeye had instilled a love of heights in her when he trained her in archery.
It was less of her needing training and more of an assessment and a few tips that made it easier to shoot that she would have picked up eventually.
Logan was covered in bright pink paint with sparkles. It wasn't her favorite color but it was a harmless way to 'tag' her father without hurting him.
She had plenty of experience hunting animals. They were easy. Hunting humans and mutants with superior senses were another story. Logan had spent the past two hours trying to track her while she lie in wait.
And now it had paid off. He didn't even see the arrow coming until after she shot it.
Logan went and washed off the pink. He had to admit, she was good. And the new uniform made it much harder to spot her.
What had started out as father-daughter time had turned into a rather enjoyable training trip. Having someone who shared pretty much all the same abilities (right down to the claws) made his life surprisingly more bearable. So he embraced his new role and took to training his daughter with a vengeance. Since she embraced her more feral nature, it made a lot of things easier.
Now if only her pet foxes would quit trying to filch his cuts of the hunt.
Once they were done 'hunting' for the day, Artemis settled in and brought out her claws.
Mei and Den would bring out colorful pieces of printed paper that upon closer inspection turned out to be coupons. Every time she was done cutting one out, Mei would pick it up and put it into a bag, while Den brought another sheet out.
It had confused him at first when he found out she was what some might consider an 'extreme couponer'...until he found out she didn't use them herself but merely cut them out for Storm and Jean, who did most of the budgeting for food and other supplies for a school full of teenagers, but didn't have enough time to cut coupons, let alone want to spend countless hours cutting them out.
Artemis had the free time and it gave her an excuse to use the sharp claws. Provided there wasn't anything she didn't want scratched to hell from her cutting a little too hard. So she did the coupon cutting and in exchange Jean and Storm would ignore when she raided the small storehouse where they kept the food. Considering she wasn't that big a fan of junk food and was more likely to eat healthy, it was a win-win.
The owl Jean had bought while in England, a beautiful white snow owl she named Snowflake, waited patiently for her to finish cutting up that week's worth of coupons. Once she was done cutting, filing and sealing the coupons in a weather proof bag, the owl hooted and picked up the bag carefully in her claws and flew off.
"I still don't see the appeal of cutting up paper," said Logan.
"Neither do I, but it gives me an excuse to use these and saved me carpel tunnel syndrome from having to use scissors all the time. Besides, they let me raid the pantry whenever I want a snack and always bring back goodies for me."
"Any beer there?"
"If there is, Scott and the others are really good at hiding it."
"You've looked for beer before?"
Artemis grinned.
"Meilikki acquired a taste for the stuff once, and you've never seen anything funnier than a drunk fox."
Logan snickered. That he would have to see, if only for a laugh.
"So that would be a no then?"
"There's an alcohol store not five miles from the school, and people quit trying to make sense of my organizing skills years ago. So long as they don't bust me with your stash, they don't need to know," said Artemis.
Logan ruffled Artemis' hair, which made her scowl.
"That's my kid. Always look for the loopholes."
"Of course you will have to learn what to bribe me with if you want my help hiding your stash."
Artemis was out hunting for fresh meat when she stumbled upon it.
It was a hatch of some kind...and it was man-made, used recently, and not supposed to be there.
Artemis made a point of showing it to Logan, and the two took up position in nearby trees.
Logan damn near fell out of the one he had been in when he saw a man that brought up very painful memories.
Fortunately since no one knew they were there to begin with, no one bothered to look up.
Artemis was at his side the moment they were sure that no one was coming back out for a while.
"Dad? What's wrong?"
"That man. I think he was part of the team that gave me this metal skeleton," said Logan.
"Bad?" she asked.
"Real bad. Normally I'd say let's investigate, but if they're still using it..."
Artemis winced.
"Yeah, too risky without backup. Maybe it would be a better idea to leave the area and head back to the States... I hear Portland's nice."
Logan nodded. He had a bad feeling that if they went into that place they wouldn't come out. Or if they did then they wouldn't be themselves again.
They packed up their campsite, collapsed the den Artemis made to hide their tracks and left the area by nightfall. No way was Logan sticking around that place with the vibes he got from the area.
"Check out that waterfall!" said Artemis happily. Coming to Portland had been a great idea... there was plenty of old woods to get lost in.
Besides, she was a fan of the Grimm series. Enough said.
Logan snorted. Artemis could be obsessive over certain series, thankfully none of them ever involved romantic nonsense except as a way to move the plot along. Most of what she preferred he could at least sit through without wanting someone to kill him.
About the only thing she couldn't stand was fishing shows. They bored her to tears faster than any soap opera.
The two stayed in Portland for two weeks before moving on because the park rangers had heard multiple complaints from other campers about someone filching food and beer going missing.
They were never implicated but it was only a matter of time. Especially since Logan did nothing to stop Mei's thieving habits when it came to beer.
Artemis was right, Mei was hilarious to watch when she got drunk.
Their return to the mansion was started with a simple event.
Scott punched Logan...and broke his hand in the process. Apparently he was sore over the fact Logan stole his pet project.
Jean was entirely unsympathetic over the fact her boyfriend had broken his hand punching a mutant with an adamantium-coated skeleton that happened to include his skull. He knew Logan had a hard head.
Artemis simply snickered.
Artemis had come home in time to go to the museum with the others, and as a consequence was the first to learn Jean had been having migraines of late. Apparently her powers were giving her grief because she hadn't used them in a while.
Fortunately Artemis had experience in creating shields designed to harm while at the same time keep powers in. Jean's would likely be stronger than hers because she had the power to burn, but the fact was that expending her ability to make shields would only help in the long run.
Shields could be used as a passive offense, like Artemis' thorns. Most psychics didn't bother to lock their powers away, so the odds of running into a fully formed mental defense was pretty low. Even Jean would admit that her thorns were painful, and because she was unused to psychic pain like that, it was very, very hard to ignore it or work past it.
Psychic pain was something most mutants with the ability would have trouble handling. Brute force attacks they could deal with by attacking back, but something that just caused pain as a secondary thought?
Artemis was a devious girl and Jean would be happy to admit it would be a nice perk.
Said girl was sniffing around Jean with confusion.
"What is it?"
"Why does your scent keep fluctuating between fire and feathers?" she asked.
Jean blinked.
"What?"
"Ever since I got back, your scent has been heavy with the smell of open flame and feathers. I'm not sure which kind of feathers, but still feathers."
Jean had no idea what she was talking about...but then Artemis had a weird epiphany.
"Jean, are there any birds that can survive in fire?"
"The only one I know is the Phoenix..."
"Huh. Maybe you're overdue for a burning day and that's why your powers have gone out of whack," said Artemis, tilting her head.
Jean would have thought the idea ridiculous...except it would explain a lot. Phoenixes had to be reborn every few decades in order to rejuvenate the cells...and Jean was close to thirty-five. If she were a phoenix she would be about due for a burning day.
Hell, even her mutant code name was Phoenix!
She really needed a vacation.