Part One
Children of mutants had it harder than their parents, having to deal with mutation all their lives. Some ran, some hid, some fought, but others gave up and let the ones who hated them so kill them.
Logan was on his trip up north to try and find answers to his shadowed past. He didn't know at the time he would meet up with a kid who would hook into his very soul and not let go.
The snow wasn't that dense as he pulled into a tavern when he saw a poster on the door -- it said: "See the wild fox girl of the frozen mountains." He thought it meant some kind of strip show but when he got inside he gasped and then growled low in his throat. There in a cage which was too small and filthy was girl. She was only nine or ten years old; on her arms and legs where dark black markings like a fox. Her hair, spiky and unruly, curved naturally like Logan's hair did, though downward not up. Under the hair he could see her slightly pointed ears. A matted tail lay limp on her back side as she had to lay on her stomach for any real comfort in the cramped cage. She didn't look hurt but she looked broken, like she had given up trying to fight a long time ago.
Logan forgot all about the beer he wanted and demanded to know who owned the little freak show. A guy, big and tough- looking came up.
"I does. What's it to you, shorty?" the guy snorted.
"Everything, bub. Now you go over there and open that cage and let her out or I open it myself," Logan said, extending his claws.
The guy was taken aback but didn't move. "And do what, let her go? She'd die out there now," he said.
"No, she ain't. Now you're going to open that cage," Logan growled. The guy didn't move so Logan shoved him away and ripped the lock off the cage and pulled the filty little girl from it. As he inspected her he growled low -- the nerve of them! She was naked -- the guy didn't even give her a scrap of clothing to wear. It was not so much that she needed a shirt; she had a thick fluffed patch of fur on her chest, and the rest of her body was covered in fur, too, but not as thick. Logan could tell the moment he saw her that she shivered in the cold of this place.
"Poor little darlin'...Logan'll take care of you for now," he said. He noticed a dog tag half hidden in her fur patch; he picked it up and read it. Linally -- codename Snow Vixen.
"Linally...huh. Good name." Logan then walked out, snarling at anyone who tried to take the kid -- or kit would have worked just as well from him.
As he headed back toward Westchester he found the kid didn't know how to talk but she would come when called; she understood Logan but could not speak back to him. She was nearly as helpless as an infant, most likely never taught much beyond basic and very simple skills. By the time he got back to the mansion Logan had gotten her to learn two words: "Papa Logan." This is what Linally called him. Otherwise she cried and whimpered. Though most would think Logan was too mean and rough to ever be good with kids, he secretly loved them.
Logan had her clothed in a pair of shorts but that was it. Her walking was still a bit wobbly; when Logan took her from the cage, he discovered she had not walked in so long that she had forgotten how. When Logan was spotted coming up the walk of the school grounds slowly with Linally's little hand in his as she walked carefully beside him, everyone began to ask questions. Scott was the first to reach them.
"Well, it's nice to see you back, Logan but who the heck is the kid? One of yours by a woman you can't remember, maybe?" he stated more than asked.
"Look, One-Eye, she's not mine by blood but she's my daughter now. I rescued her from a freak show up north -- her name is Linally. Any problems with this?" he asked.
Scott didn't reply as he bent to look closer at Linally. "Hello, Linally," he said. Linally did not say anything. At the look Scott gave him, Logan answered.
"She doesn't know how to talk, Cyke. All she knows how to say is my name and the word 'papa,' and I had to teach her those."
Linally looked back up at Logan. "Papa," she said softly, tugging on his pants leg. Logan picked her up and walked with Scott up into the mansion. But what was very surprising was when Rogue came to greet Logan, Linally jumped from Logan's arms and headed right for Rogue and latched onto her leg, and after a moment Linally cried:
"Mama!"
Everyone was shocked.
Part Two
"How did she..." Logan stammered. Rogue had frozen up for a moment but once she had pulled herself out of shock she seemed hesitant to pry the kid from her leg as her hands were bare at the moment. Linally seemed to realize this and after a moment took Rogue's hand in one of her own, rubbing her cheek against the back of it.
Rogue froze up again, waiting for the telltale tingle when she sucked up the powers and mind of the little girl. But it never came. Everyone kept waiting for the girl to fall down but no, it didn't happen.
"Professor?" Rogue asked.
"I'm not sure myself but it seems she's not effected at all by your power."
Linally let go of Rogue for a second and went to Logan and pulled him over toward Rogue. Linally's hands glowed a dark purple and Logan seemed to feel a little different -- then Linally put his and Rogue's hands together...and, like with Linally no tingle happened.
Logan and Rogue were stunned -- this child was able to do something for them they thought never possible.
Linally closed her eyes, thinking hard, trying to find words. Slowly she spoke with a growl underlining the words:
"Papa an' mama...beee toggetherrrrr."
Jean had the three come down to med lab and examined Logan, Rogue, and Linally. "I dare say I nearly can't believe it," she said at the results. "What can't you believe?" Logan asked.
"Linally...she changed hers and your skin on a molecular level to something a hair denser, so now you both can touch Rogue skin-to-skin without being affected by her power. Linally can disrupt and change the molecular structure of anything she touches." This shocked the others -- they had thought her fur and animal-like ways to be her sole mutation.
"Why call her 'Snow Vixen' if she can disrupt the structure of things?" Bobby asked.
"I think the disruption skill is new. She is nearing adolescence, after all; maybe the fur was a remnant of her parents' mutation and not hers alone," Jean said.
"Well, enough of that. I think Linally could use a good scrub - - I had a heck of a time trying to clean her up and she's still a bit dirty," Logan said, fingering some of Linally's dingy off-white fur.
Rogue volunteered to clean Linally up. An hour and half went by and when Linally came downstairs her hands and feet up to the forearm and up to the knees were glossy black while the rest of her fur was a brilliant white. Her hair was a shiny white-and-black, her eyes huge haunting purple in contrast to her fur. She wore a pair of cut-off jean shorts and sandals on her feet as she walked into the room. Everyone was awed at how pretty Linally cleaned up.
The professor rolled over to Linally and smiled at her; she laid a hand on his knee as if asking something. He nodded, knowing what she meant, and she climbed up into his lap. He rolled over to place himself next to the couch where Jean and Scott and Storm sat. Storm sat closest to the end and reached out a hand to lay on Linally's forearm. Linally placed a hand on top of that one and patted it, agreeing silently that she wanted to be Storm's friend too.
The professor then asked her something. "Linally, would you like to learn how to talk? I can teach you easily," he said. Linally nodded. After a ten-minute period Linally could speak quite well, thanks to the professor telepathically teaching her. She hugged the professor.
"Thank you Uncle Xavier," she said.
"You're welcome, sweetheart," Professor X said.
Linally decided to go find Logan to show him she could talk, now she could tell him all the things she couldn't before. The little white fox girl found him in the kitchen drinking a beer of course.
"Papa?" she started. He looked up and patted his lap for her to come and sit in. She came and took the spot offered her and opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off.
"You hungry, darlin'? I bet you are -- you haven't eaten today," he said, not knowing of her new skill to speak.
Linally shook her head. "No, papa, I came here to tell you I can talk now. Uncle Xavier taught me with his mind," she said proudly. Logan's jaw hit the floor -- she had never said so much before.
"That's wonderful, darlin'! You best go tell your mama, too -- she'll be so happy," Logan said, hugging the little white furball of a girl. Linally raced out of the kitchen in search of her "mother," Rogue.
As it turned out, Linally had listened to Logan all the time when he was bringing her back to the mansion; he would talk about the other X-Men and Marie a lot. The way he talked about her just gave Linally the idea that if Logan was her father then this Rogue or Marie was her mother.
Part Three
Linally could follow scents like Logan and followed Rogue's out of the mansion, but when she came out into the grassy area between the mansion and the woods she began to get a bad feeling.
"Mama?" she asked, looking around, sniffing the air. Linally didn't like this -- Rogue's trail was gone now.
Suddenly there was a snap made to make sure she knew someone or something was behind her. Linally dropped to her hands and crouched; then, catching a dangerous scent, she bolted into the woods. She was used to hiding. She had done it before she was put in the cage. Her purple eyes darted about, looking for a place to hide. Suddenly something grabbed her.
"MAMA!" she screamed as a huge clawed hand wrapped around her waist, another clamping over her mouth, stopping any more of her screaming. She was nearly completely helpless but she growled loudly, wiggling in the strong grip. She twisted her hand up and placed it on the forearm that held her arms pinned to her sides and was wrapped around her waist, holding her off the ground. Her eyes unfocused as she saw the pattern that made up the flesh; she touched then with a thought she yanked a line of molecules out of place.
With a bellow of pain the captor let her go. Linally jumped and hopped away and up into a tree's branches where she could see what she had done and how she did it, too. Her would-be captor held his bleeding forearm in pain as it tried to heal itself. The gash she had made was resisting until the pattern righted the error in it -- Linally knew it would not close all the way. The man was dressed in tans and browns with blond hair, his eyes wild and more fierce then anyone the kit had seen before. Who is this angry mutant? Linally thought. She had to get away, she had to get back to Aunt Storm and Uncle Xavier and Papa!
It was then that out of the woods behind the man in tan came Logan, angry as a rabid wolf.
"Papa!" Linally called from her perch. Logan looked up at her; she was scared. The man, who still held his arm, laughed.
"So she's your brat, short man? Should have known."
"Shut up, Sabretooth. I swear, I find one mark on her and I'll come kill you," Logan said, ready to fight his way to Linally.
"You could never do that, shorty...but the brat here, she's something. Opened my arm without any claws or nothing." Sabretooth grinned.
"Bite me, Sabretooth. Disruptor, run! I'll hold off this mistake of mutation."
Linally listened to her father; the name Disruptor was her new codename. She jumped down and ran for it. But when she heard Logan howl in pain she turned around with anger in her eyes. She ran back and with a snarl she leaped -- her hands glowing, she landed on Sabretooth's back.
"You leave my father alone!" she yelled and grabbed hold of his shoulders. This time she looked at the pattern that made up his bones and easily broke five of the vital ones in his upper torso in three places each. Because Linally's power slowed Sabretooth's healing factor, he was forced to run for it -- he couldn't fight with his body broken up like this. Linally growled low after him and then gave off a howl just like she used to when she made a kill out in the forests.
Logan, now healing up from the hit he'd taken, went to Linally. "Ya' did good, darlin'," he said, patting her on the head. She didn't turn.
"I couldn't let him hurt my father," she said. Logan smiled and picked up the white kit, hefting her up to sit on his shoulder as he held her in place with one arm. He walked back to the mansion like that.
The other X-Men were there when they came out of the woods, Rogue hovering nervously in the air.
"Mah baby, are you okay?" she asked, taking Linally from Logan and holding her tight to her body.
"I'm okay, Mama. The man called Sabretooth is gone," Linally said. There were questions, of course, and Logan answered them all and told how Linally was the one to drive Sabretooth off. The X-Men were very proud of their new member, for in this Linally had proved to them that she was able to hold her own.
Epilogue
The bell rang, ending class, and the students filed out quickly. The teacher sat grading her students' papers; one black hand reached up and pushed the glasses back up her nose. It was then that she heard a noise come from the doorway. She looked up and saw a few of the younger students standing in the doorway -- a boy with red, yellow, and black hair that stood in spikes, a girl with light red skin and deep red hair, and a boy with tan fur covering his body stood there. The teacher waved them to come in and pull up some seats near her desk.
"What can I do for you three?" she asked in a smooth voice.
"Well...um...we kinda..." the spiky-haired one started.
"Yeah, we, um wanted to know..." the boy with the tan fur continued.
"Ah, how did you become an X-Man?" the red-skinned girl finished.
The teacher just smiled and took her glasses off and folded her black furred hands under her chin and began.
"Well, as you know, children of mutants have it harder then their parents..."
And so Linally Marie Logan, Miss Logan to her students, began to tell her story.
The End