THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS!

Victor and Vincent walk out of the Story Door. Victor and Vincent look over my shoulder and onto the computer screen.

Vincent: What are you doing, X24NEKO?

Me: Finishing up the 5th chapter.

Vincent: Am I in the beginning? Please tell me that I am in the beginning!

Me: Well. . .

Victor: 'Course you ain't! It's ME that's in the beginning! ME!

Me: Done with that chapter. Now go through the Door and see for yourself!

They nodded and left.

5

Victor heard banging. He groaned and rolled over, still half asleep. He looked at the bedside clock. He only slept for three hours. The banging continued and Victor tried blocking the noise out with the pillow over his head. He pressed the sides against his ears, but with his hearing it didn't do a damn thing.

"Go away," Victor growled.

"Open up the door!"

"Go away, dammit!"

"Open the door, mutie! You aren't welcome here!"

Mutie? Victor removed the pillow and sat up. He shut his eyes tightly and growled, while gripping the pillow hard. Great! Just fuckin' perfect! The damn school kids probably told some other people and the news, too. He turned his head to the other door leading to the rest of the hotel. He could smell five scents coming from the door. He got up and the banging continued. He put his socks, boots, flannel, and jacket back on and faced the door. The door was kicked in and Victor glared at the men who broke in his room.

"You aren't welcome here," the tallest said. He was in his thirties, black, and a couple inches taller than Victor.

"I was just lookin' for a place to stay for a few hours sleep," Victor said. "I didn't do nothin' wrong. Is there a law against someone who needs a warm bed to sleep in?"

"For your kind there is here," the man said. "Freaks aren't welcome here."

"Daniel, enough!"

All the men turned to see a black man in his early seventies and he was a few inches shorter than Victor. The man walked into the room.

"Everyone is welcome here, Daniel. It doesn't matter the color or race or. . .kind. Everyone has rights. Humans and mutants alike. I remember when the white people didn't like the blacks for similar reasons they don't like white people. Did we get the same rights as them? We didn't. Not even the children. We fought for those rights and got them. It's the same with mutants and the same with mutant children. You should know that, Daniel." The black man turned to Victor. "I apologized for my son's actions, Mr. . ."

"Creed. Victor Creed," Victor said and shook the old man's hand.

"Mr. Creed. I'm sorry to disturb you. My name is John Stone. I own this hotel."

"Nice to meet ya," Victor said as the men left the room. "How'd you know? Was it on the news?"

"Yes, it was. Had pictures and everything. The first one was you than a somewhat younger version of you and the boy had shortish hair, but was a little bit linger than yours. He is your son."

"Yeah, he is. You gonna turn me in?"

"As I said to my son, everyone is welcome here. I am not going to turn you in. You have a son you need to care for and keep safe from the damn government. He's wanted like you are."

"Yeah, I knew people would find out about us, but I didn't think it would spread like wild fire that quickly. I thought we'd have a few more days until people found out."

"You better get going, son, before they find you."

Victor nodded, grabbed his duffle bag, and headed for the door that led outside. He opened it and turned back to John. "Thanks."

"Your welcome. Now, get going."

Victor nodded and closed the door behind him. He got into his truck, started it up, and drove off hoping no police car would pick him up while he drove four more hours. He kept on thinking on what John had said to his son and to him. Never before has another human being, except Lily, has been kind to him. All of them were bastards. Especially, that William Stryker. He made a deal with Victor. A deal that the feral could have the same unbreakable bones as Logan. But he broke the deal. After that he had never trusted another human until he met Lily. Lily. He missed that woman so much. She had always been single, never had a relationship, was always there for when he needed help with Vincent, was there when he needed a babysitter when he'd go out of town for a few hours, was always there for Vincent and himself, and always there when he needed to talk about his past. Especially when he talked about his baby brother. Victor sighed sadly at the memories, wishing that she was sitting next to him in the truck. He sniffed his jacket sleeved arm and sighed again. There wasn't much of her scent left on him.

A few hours later he was nearing the mansion. He only had an hour left to drive. His stomach was howling to be feed. He didn't want to risk being seen if he stopped. Just then the fuel light started blinking. He sighed, irritably. He didn't have a choice unless he drove until it died and then walked to the mansion, giving a greater chance of getting picked up in the open and no truck to somewhat hide him from view. He saw a small gas station coming up on his right. He drove only a few minutes and then turned, drove, and parked in front of a gas pump. He got out and saw that there were cameras. He retracted his claws before he got out of the truck, so hopefully that would help with not getting recognized. He kept his head down while he got the nozzle and kept his back to the camera as he filled the tank. After a few minutes the tank was full and he put the nozzle back, still keeping his head down. He entered the store and looked around. He saw a camera above the register. He walked to the fridges and grabbed a water bottle and got a bag of beef jerky. He went up to the register and kept his eyes off the camera. The clerk looked at him weirdly.

"I think I've seen you before. I think it was the news," the guy said.

"Really?" Victor asked, trying to sound surprised.

"Yeah."

"Huh."

He paid for the gas, food, and water and headed back to the truck. Victor got in, started it up and drove away from the gas station. He could smell that that kid knew he was a wanted mutant, but couldn't smell anything else. A few minutes went by as he finished eating his jerky and he was about to open the water bottle when his ears picked up on a sound. A siren. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw police cars appear out of nowhere. He banged his hand against the steering wheel.

"DAMMIT!" Victor snarled.

He had a feeling the kid was gonna call the police. He pressed the gas petal further down and sped up, but the police were gaining on him. He saw a dirt road ahead to his right. He turned sharply onto the road, kicking up dust and dirt. He drove down it five feet and hit the brakes. With lightning speed, Victor grabbed the three duffle bags from the passenger seat and bolted out the truck door and ran off into the woods. He had the bags over his shoulders. He heard the policemen running after him and ran on all fours. He was losing them and grinned. That grin disappeared when he heard gunshots. He saw a tree ahead and jumped up into it. He sat on a branch that was really high up and out of view. He was crouched as he watched the cops look for him. He then saw Blood Hounds sniffing at the ground and he scowled, baring his teeth. They would pick up on his scent. He turned his head to his right and saw the main road that led to Westchester. He looked at the trees and decided to travel by tree to get to the road. He leaped to the nearest one that was nine feet away. He hopped three more trees then did the same to his left. Then repeated it going forward to the road. A few trees later, Victor dropped from the tree he was on and landed gracefully on the roadside and started walking down the road.

He knew if he tried to hitchhike than he would get in more trouble than he was in now. As he walked, it felt like forever and cars kept passing by him. He didn't see any more police cars anywhere. He was glad of that. After what felt like ages he reached the gates of the mansion. He saw that there was a camera and a ID hand pad for the students here and sighed. He saw a comm device right beside the ID pad. It was probably around lunch time by the angle of the sun. As he went over he heard the gate creaking and turned around, seeing it open. He knew something was up because Charles would have contacted him telepathically or the comm device. His animal instincts were telling him to be on alert, while his fatherly instincts were telling him that his cub came first, was hurt, and was in that mansion and to get his hide there as quickly as possible. The fatherly instincts were winning the battle and Victor took off on all fours across the lawn. Then he was knocked back as something hit him.

He hit the ground and dropped the bags as shivers went through his body. He sat up and looked at his chest. It was iced in a sheet that was three inches thick. Victor looked up and saw the two of the younger X-Men at the front door. Great, Victor thought. Why the hell are they attacking me! Didn't Charles tell them I was coming!

Victor? Victor, can you hear me? Charles asked.

Charles, what the hell is goin' on! Why are they attackin' me! Victor asked. Didn't you tell them I was comin'!

Yes, I did. They were there when Vincent got off the jet.

Then why are they attackin'-- "AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Victor was pinned against the tree by spikes that were made of ice. They were in deep in his arms and it hurt bad. There was a total of three in each arm. The boy that pinned him was that Bobby Drake. He was in his full ice from as he walked up to Victor. That stripped haired girl was following him. He remembered her.

"Bobby, this isn't a good idea," Rogue said. "He ain't done nothin' wrong."

"He broke in here and is gonna kill everyone," he said.

"WHAT!" Victor snarled. "Who told ya that, boy?"

"Logan."

Victor growled. "He lied to ya, kid. I ain't gonna kill no one. I'm only here to be with my son."

Just then Logan was walking up to the three of them. Victor growled and snarled at him. Logan smirked and crossed his arms.

"What the hell, Jimmy!" Victor said.

"Logan, is he really here to kill everyone? Why would he do that with his son here?" Rogue asked

"Because he doesn't trust no one. He's gonna kill everyone because he doesn't want them to hurt his cub."

"LIAR!" Victor yelled. What's takin' so long for Xavier to get here? "That's bullshit! You're lyin'! I can smell it!"

Rogue walked up to him.

"Marie!"

She ignored Logan's call and was standing a foot from Victor. She looked into his eyes. "Ah-Ah think Ah believe you, Victor," she whispered. "What Logan is sayin' doesn't make sense."

"Then take my powers and see for yourself, kid," Victor whispered back.

Rogue nodded and took off her glove and raised her left hand to Victor's right cheek.

"STOP!"

Rogue, Logan, and Bobby spun around to see Jean, Scott, and Storm running to them. They stopped dead, staring at Victor pinned to the tree. Jean and Storm ran over to him while Scott looked at Bobby. Even though you couldn't see his eyes you could tell he was glaring. Rogue moved to give Storm and Jean some room.

"We're gonna have to get them out and quickly," Jean said.

"Can you melt them, Storm?" Rogue asked.

She shook her head. "No, I can't. Maybe that new girl can help. She has the power of fire."

"I already brought her," said a new voice.

Everyone turned to see Charles and a blonde haired teenaged girl with red stripes in her hair.

"Can you try and melt those ice spikes in this man's arms?" Jean asked her.

"I think so." The girl walked up to Victor and raised a hand to a spike in his left arm. Her hand glowed a red-orange color and she carefully wrapped her fingers around the spike and with in seconds it melted and water mixed with the flowing blood ran down the arm. She grinned and melted the remaining spikes. "There."

Victor fell from the tree and Jean and Storm caught him and helped him lean against the tree and his wounds started closing. "Thanks, kid."

"Your welcome," the girl said.

"You can go back to your drawing, Ember," Charles said.

"Okay," she said. "Bye, mister."

"Name's Victor."

"Okay. Bye, Victor." She walked away.

Once she was gone, Charles turned to Bobby, Rogue, and Logan, scowling. "Scott, Jean, Ororo, you can go back inside and back to your classes." They nodded and left. Charles looked at the four mutants in front of him. "What happened?"

"I was standin' outside the gate," Victor said. "I was just about to go to the comm device on the gate to tell you that I was here when the gate opened. My animal father instincts won over my alertness and I rushed in here. Next thin' I know, I'm bein' attacked. I already told ya that. Then I was pinned to the tree by Iceboy and then he tells me that Jimmy told him that I was here to kill everyone. Then Jimmy comes up and tell him it was 'cause I didn't trust anyone here with my cub. Only that Rogue girl believed me. Then you guys showed up."

"Bobby, Rogue, go back inside to your classes. I've got to talk with Logan and Victor alone."

They nodded. Rogue looked at Victor with sadness in her eyes. Then she looked at Logan and glared at him, then followed Bobby inside.

Charles turned to Logan and sighed. "I am very disappointed in you, Logan. I only hope your punishment will make you think twice before doing something like this again. You know what happens now. You are confined to the mansion and will be suspended of your duty as an X-Man for two weeks."

Logan turned to Victor, glaring and growled at Victor then walked back to the mansion. Victor growled, clearly angry. Charles wheeled closer to Victor as he slumped to the ground and leaned against the tree.

"Are you okay, Victor?"

"Yeah, the wounds are almost healed. That girl, Ember, can come in handy."

"Yes, she can. There's something you should know. Logan attacked Vincent yesterday. He was behind us and we had our eyes on him, but nobody noticed that he stopped following us. Vincent should tell you the rest."

Victor nodded. "He attacked because he thought Vincent was me."

"Yes."

"There has to be someway to turn this around. He doesn't remember me and him being brothers. We didn't get along after one mission and he walked out on me. On what I did back then. If only he could see how close we were together before we met Stryker. I protected him. But I couldn't when he got adamantium bullets to forehead." Victor sighed and got to his feet. "Where is Vincent?"

"He is with Hank. I believe they are still in the rec room."

Victor picked up the bags and followed Charles inside and into the rec room. They entered and Victor smiled at Vincent. He was still asleep and was curled up in the blanket. Victor looked at Hank who was doing some paper work. He looked up and smiled and nodded hello to Victor and Charles. Victor walked to Vincent, set the bags down, and squatted beside him. His claws were retracted and he stroked Vincent's cheek with a thumb. Vincent squirmed around and then settled. Victor grinned and chuckled. Vincent's eyes slowly opened and saw he was looking at his father.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Victor said.

"Hi, Dad." Vincent sat up and rubbed his eyes with a bandaged hand. "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago."

"Dad, why's your jacket sleeves all bloody?"

"Had some difficulties when I entered the gates."

"Oh. You stay at a hotel for the night?"

"Yeah, I drove until four-thirty slept for a few hours and started driving here. The police saw me and I took off into the woods and ended up here."

"So, what are we gonna do now?"

"First, ya have ta heal up. Might take a day or with you gettin' your healin' factor being slow. I think we will have to live here for awhile. Just until the wanted ads die down."

"But what if it never does?"

"It might. You never know."

"Yeah, I guess. What am I gonna do? Am I gonna do classes like everyone else?"

"Yeah, but not until you heal up. I'm gonna be helpin' you with your mutations, too."

"Victor, I'll show you and Vincent to your room," Charles said.

"Yeah, okay. Can ya walk, cub?" Victor asked.

"Yeah, I can," Vincent said.

He got up and he and and Victor followed Charles upstairs. Charles led them to the room to the right of Logan's room. The only other room with an en suit.

"Here you are," Charles said. "There should be another bed in there."

Victor nodded, opened the door, and walked in. Vincent followed. They looked around. It was a nice room. It was a tan color, had a king bed to Victor's left, a queen bed five feet across from the king for Vincent, a good size TV, two dressers, a few lamps, and the en suit. Victor and Vincent went to the bathroom and looked around. There was a shower/tub combo, sink with a mirror, the walls were blue, and the floor was white tile. They went back to the room and went to Charles.

"Nice room," Victor said.

"This ain't nice, Dad. It's awesome!" Vincent said.

"I'll leave you to unpack," Charles said and left, heading to his office.

Victor set the bags on his bed and started taking out the clothes and such. Vincent sat on his bed and watched his father. Then there was an aching pain in his arms. He forgot about the ice packs last night.

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yeah, cub?"

"When you're done can we go down stairs and get some ice packs for my arms? They are really aching and Jean said that she would give me some but never did and I just remembered."

"Sure, cub, let's head down," Victor said.

They left the room and walked to the kitchen. They entered and saw some of the X-Men. Scott, Storm, and Charles were at a small breakfast table. Vincent went straight for the fridge and dug around in the freezer for a couple ice packs. He saw the blueness of them in the way back. He leaned in more and reached further, but he couldn't reach them. He leaned in further and grabbed two of them then made his way out of the freezer.

"Got them." Vincent put on of the packs on his arm and the aching started to stop and his arm turned cool. "Much better." There was a huge rumbling noise and Vincent looked over at his dad and burst out laughing. "Hungry, huh?"

"Starvin'. I didn't eat anythin' beside beef jerky," Victor said.

"I'm hungry, too."

"There's some sandwich stuff in the fridge," Scott said.

Victor nodded and got bread, cheese, lettuce, and meat. He set the food on the counter and made a couple sandwiches for himself and Vincent. He put them away and handed a plate to his cub. Vincent took it and started eating.

"Thanks a lot," Victor said and took a bite of his sandwich.

Scott nodded. "It's amazing how much you have changed, Victor. And it all from finding Vincent."

"Yeah, mostly. After some bad things happened I decided to try and change. It was going okay. I met a nice girl named Lily. Very good friend. Then when I found Vincent I completely changed."

"Did you need any books on how to care for a baby?" Storm asked.

"No. I already knew what kind of things babies need and how to care for them, but I did need a little help with clothes and a really good formula. Lily helped with that."

"What was Vincent like was little?" Charles asked.

"Like any kid that was little. The one thing that boy hated was having his claws filed. He couldn't control them then and he refused to learn. They had to be filed three times a week. I don't know how, but that cub found a new place to hide ever since he learned to walk."

"Probably still could if I tried hard enough," Vincent said, smiling.

"Maybe. You ain't as small as ya used to be."

"What was his mother like?" Scott asked.

Victor and Vincent looked down.

"We don't talk about her," Vincent said.

"She worked-or still works-for Stryker. She left Vincent on my doorstep, afraid that Stryker would experiment on him," Victor said. "Turn him into a weapon."

Later that day, Vincent was laying on his bed and his father was on his own bed. He and Victor were watching a hockey game. He had a couple ice packs on his arms. He wasn't betting on which team would win, but it was very interesting watching his father's reactions to Canada losing to the Americans. He was jumping up and down on the bed, urging Canada to win.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. . .WHAT? Nononononono! Take the puck back! Get it back!"

"Dad, it's just a game," Vincent said. "No need to get all worked up."

"This ain't just a game. It's the championship! We've won for years and now the Americans are about to take that from us!"

"Was Mum Canadian?"

Victor shook his head and looked at his cub. "No. She was British."

"And she worked for this Stryker guy?"

Victor nodded. "She might still work for him. Who knows?"

There was a bunch of cheering and they looked at the TV screen.

"The Americans won." Vincent said.

PLEASE REVIEW!