Still with me? Alright good to know. Thanks to all the new favorites and follows. Special shout out to Cheshire for the review and yea I thought it was good to take a minute and show how Kara views the rest of Xavier's and a bit of how they view her. She's coming along right? Enjoy the next (extra long) chapter, review, and rest assured plenty more to come.
Kara let out a soft rumble as the wind ruffled her fur, the sky still mostly dark this early on a fall Saturday. Even she knew it was beginning to get cold, though her breakfast companion didn't seem to mind.
The two sat in silence on the huge deck that lay just outside the kitchen and dining room in the rear of the mansion. Both of them preferred the quite outside of a few rumbles. It was why Kara had suggested they meet for breakfast. Less noise. Less people.
Two pairs of ears swiveled towards the kitchen and Kara glanced over her shoulder as she knew who was coming but the idea of Kitty and Rogue being up this early on a weekend ... well the why didn't matter that much anyway.
"Morning. Two days?" Kara's question got a rumble in return and after a quick bump of foreheads Kara watched her breakfast mate brace for a moment before leaping clear of the deck and begin sprinting towards the forest.
"Kara! There you are I was -" Kitty had popped her head out the sliding door but had frozen mid-sentence as Kara was already heading towards her her eyes clearly set on the spot across from where Kara had just been sitting, "was that - did you ..." Kitty stuttered, for once too excited and confused to actually speak.
"Rahne says hi." Kara smirked, her tail flicking behind her, as Kitty let out a few more high pitched sounds before Rogue laughed and helped the excited brunette close the door and catch up with Kara.
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Kitty seemed to be barely able to keep herself from phasing through the floor as she bounded ahead of the group as they made their way downstairs towards to the level that held the gym and Danger Room. Rogue had convinced her to not drown Kara in questions and promised she'd ask about their missing werewolf friend later. Luckily Kitty seemed to have something else to distract her ... for the moment.
The group was walking instead of taking the elevator after Kara had bared her teeth at the moving box and had prowled straight for the staircase.
"Fun?" Kara rumbled out uncertainty. This was supposed to be training ... right? It had taken Raven, Kitty, Rogue and finally Ororo to convince Kara that morning during breakfast that first there was no mistake with her updated schedule and then that going back downstairs to the Danger Room for training was a good idea.
"Course it'll be fun! Now that you're done with - well you-know-your-evaluation," Kitty rushed out, "you'll get placed in a group and then you get to train to be an X-Man." Kitty looked starry eyed at the idea, earning a groan from Raven and Rogue to step a bit closer to Kara as Kitty continued to gush.
"It'll be fine. They put us all inta groups for training. Most everyone in the school gets self-defense with Professor Logan in groups of like five or eight. Then there's the junior team that's run by Scott and Jean. Course after that there's the X-Men." Rogue explained, Kara nodding her head though still not getting how this was supposed to be fun.
Training was never fun.
"Yea ... fine." Kara rumbled, cracking her neck as the group kept walking, though Raven gave Kara a few extra glances as the group headed for the girls locker room.
Being in the younger group and there for self-defense, the girls didn't have assigned lockers like the X-Men and instead headed for the pile of folded training uniforms. They weren't particularly impressive, not much more then black tops and bottoms with some light protection at the knee and elbow, a yellow "X" on both shoulders.
While everyone else started sharing their own ideas on future uniforms, Kara just held a top up at arms length with a clear frown on her face. Glancing around, Kara popped a claw and was about to make some adjustments when Ilyanna stopped her short.
"What are you doing?!" The slip blond called out, the attention turning towards Kara who had yet to put her hand down.
"Can't train in this." Kara rumbled quietly as she shot a look around the locker room, unsure what she'd done now. This was actually the first time she'd been with the entire group in a while, particularly just the girls, and wasn't exactly loving having everyone looking at her.
"We're not allowed to make any changes. Not yet anyway." Rogue explained with a shrug as she kicked her boots into an open locker and started getting changed. Kara saw everyone else getting changed and with a growl of resignation started doing the same. It was hot in the uniform. And it wasn't easy to move around.
"I can't wait to get our own uniforms. I hear Professor Storm is in charge of designing them but you think she'd take my ideas?" Kitty wondered outloud as she quickly slipped on the plain uniform. It wasn't a secret that Kitty had pages of drawings upstairs with her own uniform ideas. Including some for Rogue, Mako, Illyana and basically the entire group.
Once everyone was changed they headed towards the Danger Room. Kara made sure she was the last one, quickly shooting a look around before slicing a hole for her tail, earning a brief sense of relief.
Kara stepped into the Danger Room and watched as everyone started stretching and for some reason Bolin doing a bad imitation of punching the air. Logan was leaning against a wall and nodded towards the feline who took the hint and came over.
"I want you to just hang over here for now Salem. Take it in. We'll talk after." Logan spoke quietly enough that she knew no one else could hear and not really having any issues with sitting out, Kara nodded and dropped to her haunches, content to watch for now.
Logan called everyone to attention and after shutting down a few questions from Kitty and Bolin about Kara not joining, got the kids into pairs and started running them through a number of self-defense exercises. The entire 'training' took close to an hour, during which Kara hadn't moved beyond her tail swaying slowly behind her and a slight tilt of her head. As the kids let out a mock cheer at being released, Logan made a quick gesture with his hand that got Kara to stay where she was.
Jean was in next with most of the junior team. She glanced over at Kara once but beyond that seemed content to ignore her, which suited Kara just fine. Ever since that time in the woods, Kara had gotten the strong sense that Jean didn't like her much. Or at least she certainly scented on edge whenever Kara passed her by.
Kara continued to watch as Jean, Remy, Jason, Bobby, and a few other older students Kara didn't know the name of - oh and Tabby - ran through a number of exercises, fighting as a team, and taking turns sparring with each other. Ororo and Amara had joined, Kara assumed to run point.
As the last of them left, Logan stepped back inside the Danger Room and headed over to the still pantheress.
"You get why I had you sit out?" Logan asked, his tone casual but his gaze was serious. Kara had been wondering the same thing at first but had quickly realized the answer.
"They're not trained." Kara rumbled out, Logan noting that Kara wasn't looking directly at him, but someplace far away.
"They're trained. Just for somethin' else." Logan corrected. Kara let that sit for a moment and finally looked up at Logan.
"What was I trained for?" Kara asked the question Logan had been working on since he first laid eyes on Kara. The image on the small feral slicing and shooting her way through her evaluation replaying in his mind ... along with the other things he'd seen.
"That's what we're gonna find out." Logan answered and took a ready position across from Kara, who slowly looked him over and with a small nod, rolled her shoulders and took position across from him.
"Ain't you hot Salem?" Logan's tone was critical, though the smirk wasn't, and with a quick few slashes, Kara's 'uniform' closely mimicked her preferred style of no sleeves and cropped hem ... though she left the pants. Kara took a deep breath of relief and settled across from the older feral again. Logan nodded.
"Now ... let's see what you can do."
Over the next two weeks Kara fell into a new rhythm.
She returned to classes in her preferred seat in the back near the window. She even managed to wear something other then running shorts and a tank top one day without Kitty bugging her about it. The group had done an almost good job of not acting ... strange ... at her reappearance. Kitty and Rogue doing their best to run interference, the two girls handling most questions tossed the quiet feline's way. Kara might not have said anything but ... she appreciated it.
Speaking of appreciation, Raven would never admit it out loud but it was glad to have her roommate back.
Bolin had pointed out the empath actually smiling on their way to breakfast which earned a quick smack in the back of the head from Mako and a roll of the eyes from Raven. Though the smirk wasn't gone for long. Sure Raven preferred being alone - or at least away from the over-talkative and overall disgusting student body - but it wasn't exactly enjoyable being alone all the time. And trading insults with Jason and Remy didn't count. The similarly quiet pantheress was someone that she didn't feel the need to be careful around ... or whatever. That and she was developing a great taste in music. Raven couldn't let that die.
Training with Logan was the new element. Though Kara wasn't used to this type of training.
At first Logan and her would spar at half-speed, the pair seemingly doing a complicated dance more than a fight. Logan didn't say anything while they sparred but quietly cataloged at least six different fighting styles and the way the girl moved and anticipated. Logan wanted to know what the younger feral could do ... and if she could control it.
That was another thing ... 'control.' Logan seemed particularly focused on that as far as Kara was concerned. But it did have at least some benefits. He introduced her to 'meditating' which she didn't quiet understand at first but the dark feral found herself turning to when things got ... too loud. It was like she could focus on one thing ... just breathing ... and that helped things slow down.
Rahne had found her doing it in the woods more than once and had tried sneaking up on her feral friend. So far without success as each time Kara had managed to pounce on the wolf first.
As expected, the rest of the group did make a few comments about her training alone. I mean it was a tradition at Xavier's for everyone to start off in groups. They trained in groups and either stopped there or eventually joined a team. The X-men ... Excalibur ... X-Factor ... it just seemed strange that Kara was off on her own.
But Kara knew why.
"Dangerous." Kara's rumble caught Logan off guard, her rumble not a question as the pair finished a simulation taking down some low level members of the Brotherhood. The pantheress finding the focus on 'non-lethal' more annoying then difficult. It felt like a half-measure. Like a crutch.
"Them?" Logan's tone clear that he disagreed. Kara could practically take the Brotherhood out on her own if not for the numbers. Well that and he refused to let her run the sim with a gun.
"Me." Kara replied as she flexed her claws a couple times, as if judging just how dangerous she was for the first time. Logan let the melodrama slide as he picked up his towel.
"You've been hangin' with these kids too much Salem. Since when is bein dangerous a bad thing?" Logan asked with his brow raised, unsure where this was coming from.
There was a bit of quiet as Kara just kept looking at her claws.
"Think I'll hurt friends." Kara's tone wasn't heated but the look she was giving Logan was enough.
"Never said that Salem. So far only thing I've seen you do is protect 'em." Logan smoothly slipped into a lotus sitting position while Kara dropped to her preferred virasana. They typically ended their training sessions this way.
"Then why train alone?" Kara asked what everyone else had been wondering.
"I wanted to see what ya had." Logan replied evenly. Kara's brow furrowed for a few moments as the two sat in silence as Kara worked to actually use her words.
"Wanted to see control." Kara's rumble the first tone of challenge.
"That so?" Logan's rumble right back matching hers.
"Always." Kara shot back, but Logan didn't respond beyond sitting a bit straighter as suddenly Kara's hackles shot straight up before she rolled backwards and onto all fours as Sabertooth suddenly appeared towering between the pair of ferals.
At first, Logan didn't react ... he didn't even say anything, his eyes on the pantheress only as he let her growls fill the space.
"You know Creed." Logan's tone was steady as Kara remained tensed and locked onto Sabertooth.
"I - no." Kara managed out, shaking her head slightly but never taking her eyes off of Creed. His claws. His sadistic smirk. That face.
"Bullshit." Logan shot back and as Creed took a step closer to Kara she took a larger one back, her tail whipping behind her as claws left marks on the floor, "how do you know him?"
"C- can't. Don't know." Kara growled out, her breathing picking up. Internally, the seemingly always stoic pantheress was a sudden rush of emotions, roaring at herself ... she knew this wasn't real. She knew it. But the instinct to fight or run for miles ... it was so strong.
"Can't or don't?" Logan pushed, feeling like he was as close to answers as he'd been since first finding Kara in the hole.
"I ... I'm not -" Kara entire body was tensed, her shoulders bunched as she was practically flat to the floor, Creed now steadily walking towards her and Kara equally padding backwards. Logan noticed it was the first time he'd seen the kid back down from anything ... including him.
"Creed the one you're runnin' from? Is he the one you're afraid of?" Logan growled as he watched Kara fight something he couldn't see ... something inside of herself as she clearly struggled to just admit what he already knew. The girl knew Creed and she wanted to run from him and kill him at the same time. The real question now was only how and why?
"Not weak." Kara snarled, suddenly stopping from backing down, her gaze still only on Sabertooth. She knew he wasn't here. But - it still hurt - why did it still have to hurt? At the same time a different part of Kara - a harsh part - lashed out at herself.
"Prove it." Logan was back on his feet as Kara let out something closer to a scream of rage than a roar as the feral lost it - pushed over the edge as she tore into Creed. Logan had made sure this model wouldn't fight back, not having any intention of locking the kid in a room with any form of Creed that could hurt her, but the rage he saw pouring out of the pantheress was there. It was personal.
Kara kept at it, breaking down and tearing into the still smirking Sabertooth until she eventually ran out of steam and the program, picking up on her slowing heartrate, ended with Kara on her knees, taking deep breaths as she shook from the adrenaline dump.
The danger room was silent again for a while, nothing but the reverberations on the metal from Kara's breathing. Logan gave the kid some time to come down, a low growl as he stepped closer and crouched down the only remains of her feral state. Kara wasn't sure she had the energy at the moment to even glare at Logan ... but she managed it.
"C- can't." Kara rumbled out, doing her best to hide that she was still shaking, her hackles yet to fully settle. Logan nodded, putting an arm under the pantheress as he helped her up.
"Enough for today Salem. Head up to your room and take the rest of the day off. We'll pick this up next time." Logan hadn't been sure what would happen but he'd been close enough to know the kid was gonna need some time to recoup. He'd told Raven at breakfast to make sure the feline wasn't disturbed the rest of the day. He was sure she'd figure out how.
Kara glanced up at Logan, giving the spot Creed had disappeared a final look before nodding her head and with a sigh, dropping back to all fours as she padded out of the Danger Room.
The young feral acted on instinct and somehow managed to avoid anyone who'd actually speak to her, most kids outside enjoying what might have been the last bits of good weather before the real cold came on, and with relief, Kara managed make it to her room in peace.
Raven looked up at the creak of the door opening and had to glance down to catch sight of her roommate but her book slowly dropped to her lap as she watched Kara actually seem to struggle to make it to her bed.
"Are you ... what the hell happened?" Raven hadn't given Professor Logan's comment this morning to keep an eye on her roommate much thought beyond putting on some music to drown out any noise and grabbing a couple waters and protein bars and placing them by Kara's bed but Kara was looking ... rough. She hadn't been under the impression Kara was in detention with Wolverine but even then Remy and Jason hadn't come out of one of those looking this worn down.
"Kara do you -"
"Tired. Head hurts." Kara growled in between chugging down two bottles of water before collapsing into her bed and seemingly dropping immediately to sleep.
"Okay ..." Raven's tone was skeptical but she stuck to their room for the rest of the day, only once having to use her powers keep their door closed and shooting a text to the 'group' to mind their business for once. When Raven finally left to do some quick research in the library and grab dinner, she came back to find Kara still asleep. The only evidence she had woken at all the remains of the protein bars and two more empty water bottles.
But Raven paused as she was headed over to her bed, her powers picking something up ... which was new. One of the many reasons she preferred rooming with Kara was the feral seemed to never ... well she would never say 'feel anything' ... but never so much that it triggered her empathic powers. It was a welcome relief from the overally hormonal teenagers she was always surrounded by.
But - but she was definitely getting something. Raven knew what it was but looking back over at Kara she was still surprised by it. Looking closer Raven noticed that the pantheress might have been asleep but she certainly wasn't resting. The tail twitching over the side of the bed, the claws sunk into the mattress, the forehead pressed into her pillow ...
"You're scared." Raven muttered to the quiet room, feeling bad at how surprised she felt. Though that quickly turned to anger at whatever Professor Logan was up to but just as quickly to curiosity. Because this raised the question: what was the seemingly always in control feline afraid of?
"You can do a better little one." and Piotor chuckled a little in amusement as the usually unreadable feline gave him a look that could almost be interpreted as a teenager eyeroll.
"The measurements are correct" she rumbled but the big man shook his head.
"Net, not what I meant. Measurements are perfect. Too perfect. This, this almost look like photograph." Kara cocked her head, so what was the problem then? She looked at the wall where the other kids had their 'art and crafts' all pinned up for display. Sometimes Professor Rasputin put them throughout the school. Kara had only agreed to attend his class with the promise that would NEVER happen. Well she thought hers was - well it looked like something at least. Everybody else's work read like disjointed blobs of nothing to her.
Kitty's one had glitter for some reason, Rogue's was a bunch of shapes and words, and Mako's ... well she wasn't exactly sure what his had on it but it smelled.
"But I don't want photograph…" and Kara was starting to understand why Raven liked rolling her eyes so much and settled for fixing her amber gaze straight on the giant Russian.
"I want ... feeling." and the panthress' face shifted from annoyed to confused as she was passed a new piece of paper and some pastels.
"Can't do feeling." and Colossus laughed before signalling for her to join him at the easel, seemingly not noticing what she had pointed out. Kara growled as she took her seat, tail thumping a little as she started to sketch out a skeleton for her-
"No." and there he was standing over her again.
"From here." and Kara gave a strange look as he pointed to his chest and then to hers.
"From the heart." Piotor clarified before drawing all the blinds and clearing away all the art models, leaving the panthress alone with nothing to draw reference from.
Kara snarled as her tail flicked. It had been an hour and she had drawn- she had drawn… This was so stupid and just so ugly. Why was everything just so ... complicated here. Ask her to sketch out the whole mansion from a birds eye view. Two point perspective, three point perspective ... whatever, she could do it. She knew her, her vantage points, values, contrast, anatomy. She could draw! It was one of the few things she was actually good at. Least that's what Rogue and Kurt had told her a bunch of times. But thinking of her - her friends got her thinking about her training. Which got her thinking about Logan. Which got her thinking about -
"Hate it." Kara huffed, dropping the pencil she'd been using before suddenly grabbing her things and darting out of the window before Piotr could even get a word in. He looked at the spot where the feline had disappeared before letting out a huff of disappointment ... before he looked back over at the now abandoned easel.
At first, the broad Russian smiled at what he saw. But the more he looked, the more the smile faded.
"Feeling ..." Piotr thought to himself as he carefully folded up the page and tucked it in his portfolio.
"What happened?" Storm rejoined the rest of the X-Men outside the still smoldering remains of what had once had been - supposedly - a Mutant Response Division facility, a government agency focused on the 'rehabilitation' of mutants ruled to be too dangerous for the rest of society but hadn't actually broken any laws. Those mutants ended up in prisons ... for a little while at least.
The X-Men had taken in a few new mutant refugees that had brought this particular facility to their attention. It wasn't facilitating anyone ... the staff had been selling mutants to the highest bidder. Mutants in America had it better then in some other parts of the world but this wasn't something new and all the information the Professor X needed to hear to send in the X-Men to investigate.
While Logan had been for dropping the X-Wing right on their front door and tearing the place to the ground, Xavier was more cautious, not feeling the time was right for a direct assault on MRD, and instructed the team to head for the off-site base the warden and his men had been using to smuggle the unfortunate mutants away from the facility to their eventual destination ... and likely enslavement ... or worse.
But when the X-Men had arrived at the collection of low slung warehouses they'd found still smoldering ashes, trashed vehicles, torn open cages ... and bodies.
"Jail break? The mutants that pointed us here managed to escape ... maybe some others followed their lead? Tore the place down as they left?" Iceman proposed, glancing around at the wreckage and doing his best to count how many it would take.
"No jail break." Logan muttered, the last to return from taking in the compound. He'd found tracks he scented as the remaining mutants ... he hoped to hell they kept running.
"What makes you say that?" Scott asked, his tone a tad deeper then necessary even as he tried to not make it seem like this was his first scene like ... like this.
"For one Scooter this happened from the outside in ... not the other way round. Second, if you paid attention, you'd see those cages were slashed and bent in not out. And third... all these assholes died from the same man." Logan growled as he took off his cowl with a grimace. The way these guys were killed ... one by one ... clean slash marks ... laid out like that as if to prove a point ... Romanoff's warning rang in his head.
"I'd go straight into that school of yours and put an end to it. Cause Logan I don't care what kind of weapon that kid might be ... it's going to bring something worse to your door."
"Logan?" Beast had clearly been saying something but Logan's movement had the team looking back at him.
"Time to go." Wolverine growled as he turned back towards the jet, "unless we wanna have a chat with the SHIELD team headed this way."
The rest of the X-Men took a second to figure out what Logan was talking about but the sound of helicopters was getting close enough for someone without super-hearing to pick it up.
Without another word the X-Men headed for the jet. The fact it was SHIELD showing up and not MRD not being missed by Logan or Ororo who shared the same look of concern ... but that was a fight for another day.