A Freak like Me

Once upon a time, there was a freak who had to live in the water because she had a tail instead of legs. She lived with a whole bunch of freaks who had a tail like her, but she longed to walk on the land and be normal. She would watch the normals on the land and one day she fell in love with one of the men that played on the beach. She went in search of a freak who could change her body, like me. That freak changed her so she had legs and looked normal. The freak who could manipulate the body took away the other freak\'s voice as payment.



When the freak got on land, she pretended to be normal, but she wasn\'t, she was just a freak. She met and seduced the normal man who she\'d fallen in love with, but the normal knew, somehow, that she was a freak and cast her aside for a normal woman.



Heartbroken, the freak who looked normal, begged the other freak to change her back so she could return to where she belonged.



This wasn\'t exactly how Mike told the story, but Mike was like that female freak. He thought he could pretend to be normal, could deceive the normals. He never accepted his place.



I accepted my place a long time ago, but it seemed like these X-men wanted my place to be different. I wasn\'t sure where I belonged anymore. Was I a mutant? Was I a freak?



"Long thoughts ange" Remy jolted me out of my confusion.



I smiled at him and Wolverine shyly. They said I was theirs; that I belonged to them. They said I could lie, and that the others had to treat me the same as they did Kurt and Kitty and Rogue, however that was.



I glanced at where Scott was walking next to The Professor\'s chair in front of us. They said I could lie in front of them as long as I told them what was truth later, but how was I supposed to let them know? I squeezed their hands as they rested in mine. I wanted to test this, wanted to see what they would protect me from, what rules I could break. "Just thinking about how ugly Scott\'s pants are." I whispered, just loud enough that Scott could hear me if he wanted.



Wolverine didn\'t like Scott, said mean things to him and called him names. I didn\'t know why, but I did know that when you insulted the people normals didn\'t like, you were treated better by the normals, the guards didn\'t hurt you so bad.



Wolverine barked out a laugh, "Hear that boy scout. He\'s been stuck in a cage his whole life and even he knows you have horrible taste."



Scott turned and scowled at the laughing forms of my owners. I gulped. Would they protect me from him?



He glanced at me and smiled. I whimpered, that was surely a smile that meant pain for me. Remy squeezed my hand and pulled me back a little. He didn\'t say anything to me but I accepted that he was showing Scott not to scare me. "Wha\'s wrong mon ami? \'fraid of a little truth?"



"See professor, they\'re not a good influence on him. I think you should let Jean and I take care of him."



Frightened, I tried to hide behind Remy and Wolverine. "Woah, bub. There\'s no way you or your pretty princess are getting anywhere near him."



"Exactement. You tink you can help l’ange? You don\' even know wha\' \'e be \'fraid of. No\' even in your wors\' nightmares wo\'d you \'sperience what \'e\'s seen."



The Professor stopped them by saying, "Scott, Logan and Remy have my full support and I will not hear any complaints about them."



Scott didn\'t look like he liked it, but he nodded. I let out a relieved sigh. Wolverine had given me a place, rules. With them I knew what to expect. Scott was scary, but Jean....she looked at me sometimes like The Doctor had. Besides I had no idea how to please a female, all the guards had been male.



The Professor and Scott turned into a door on the right, but Wolverine led me and Remy down to a lower level and into a different door. There wasn\'t anything in there. Just a large empty room.



I turned to Wolverine in confusion and fear. Was this where they trained me? I panicked, trying to figure out what rule I\'d broken. No, I\'d not lied to them. No one had touched me or hurt me. I fell to my knees.



"Please." I whispered. I bowed my head, shaking, knowing that it wouldn\'t matter how much I begged. Surreptitiously I glanced around for drains. There had been drains in most of the rooms where the guards used us, to better wash up the blood. When I was in the rooms with drains, I didn\'t bother to beg, it wouldn\'t matter.



"Pup." I closed my eyes in anguish at Wolverine\'s voice. I\'d trusted them, even though I knew better. Who could I cry to when it was my idol that was hurting me?



"Look at us ange" slowly I opened my eyes. Through my tears I could only tell them apart because of the long red coat Remy was wearing.



"Have ya broken any rules pup?" I shook my head, I didn\'t think so, but since when did that matter.



I didn\'t realize I\'d said that out loud until Remy answered me, "Since you were ours ange."



Wolverine pulled me up by my shirt collar. "We ain\'t gunna hurt ya unless ya break a rule." I heard a tsk from the sky. "Alright, we\'re in place. Tell him what he\'s doing here."



"We be git\'n ready to." Remy mumbled "Idiote"



"Dis be de Danger Room." Remy tilted his head to Wolverine, "Maybe we should show \'em, non?" Wolverine nodded, pensive.



"Chuck, give me something challenging, but keep a corner clear for my boy. And boy scout, keep your trap shut."



Remy chuckled and stepped in front of me. I shuffled up behind him and pressed into his back. I was so confused, so uncertain, so unbelievably scared. I had no idea what was going on.



Remy threw an arm over my shoulder and pulled me up next to him tightly. "Just watch little angel." He told me in French.



He used a few fingers under my chin to point my face at where Wolverine was standing. The room seemed to go on forever and a landscape rushed towards us. I flinched into Remy\'s side. He chuckled, "Peace angel" at his assurance I checked on Wolverine.



We were outside. I could see the stars and feel the wind. It was night and there was destruction all around us. Except for the few feet around Remy and I. It was still the grey concrete of the room. "Its a projection ange. Its no\' real." I watched as three men in black fitted clothes, wielding swords, rushed at Wolverine. I yelled out "NO"



The feral ducked under one sword as it was aimed for his neck and thrust his claws into the chests of two of the men at his sides. The one behind him dodged in a circle and swiped in for another strike. Wolverine raised his arm and let the sword sink into his flesh. I heard the metal kink against his adamantium bones. Reflexively, I pulled in my ability so as to not know of his pain. The claws on his right hand decapitated the man in black, all without losing the cigar from his mouth.



The world flickered around us and was suddenly gone. We were back in the same room. Flustered and confused I turned in a circle, trying to find the men Wolverine had killed.



In a flash, I remembered my hero\'s wound and ran up to him. I pulled his arm down so I could see it. Already it was healing and I let out a relived sigh and sped up the process.



"Its alright pup. I\'m fine, \'ts noth\'n." He used his other hand to pull the cigar out and bellowed up at the ceiling . "I expected a challenge, that may be a hard for you, one eye, but it\'ll take more then that to even make me sweat."



Remy chuckled wickedly as he came up behind me. For once, I didn\'t turn to watch him come. Not only was I to focused on speeding up Wolverine\'s healing, but I\'d not broken any rules. Anyway, if they were going to hurt me, then watching wouldn\'t really stop them. Not if they were both as talented and dangerous as Wolverine.



My body hummed with pride for my hero. He was so strong and brave. If anyone could protect me, Wolverine could.



"Angelous." The sky called for me in The Professor\'s voice. "Professor? Where is he?" I asked Remy. He pointed to a small window high on the wall. I squinted trying to see it.



Remembering how I\'d changed my eye color that morning, I adjusted my retinas to be able to focus at such a distance. I could just make out The Professor and Scott sitting in front of monitors through the window.



Remy tapped me on the shoulder and I readjusted my eyes back to normal. "Did ye\' jus\' alter somat?" I nodded and tried to keep the fear off my face. He\'d seemed really sad when he saw me changing my face in the bathing room.



"What did ye\' change?"



"My eyes. I wanted to see The Professor." Remy glanced up to gage the distance and nodded, impressed. I beamed at him.



"What else can you change Angelous." The Professor\'s voice floated down to me.



"WELL I CAN." Wolverine put his hand over my mouth and stopped my shouting. "He can hear you fine pup, no need to yell."



"Oh." blood rushed through my capillaries and I tried to control them. I decided to ignore it and answer the professor\'s question.



"Well, I\'m not sure."



"Can you make your arms and legs stronger? Faster?" Scott\'s voice sounded strained, I assumed he was still angry at me for the pants comment.



I glanced at Remy and Wolverine for guidance. "Try it ange"



I used Wolverine as a pattern and fitted my arm muscles to match his. I opened my eyes and held up my arms. They were heavy, but I could feel the strength in them. I knew that with practice I could change it within seconds. My body was unable to handle the weight of my new muscular arms and I was forced to change my entire torso to match Wolverine\'s to compensate.



A table shimmered into existence and Wolverine smirked around his cigar. "Ever arm wrestle?"



They showed me how and he and I were evenly matched. Remy put his fist around our joined hands and let go after a count of three. I strained against my hero\'s impressive strength. Neither of us moved an inch. I had only a few seconds to decide whether or not to win. If I won he might get angry, but I wanted to make him proud. Proud like I had felt when he killed those pretend men. Besides, Scott and The Professor were kind of there, and Remy had said I could lie. I knew that lying with ones mouth and lying with ones actions were the same thing. I hoped that they knew that too.



I increased the density of my triceps, biceps and deltoid until I felt Wolverine\'s arm giving ground. Sweat broke out on his forehead and he grunted. He snarled at me. Pain shot through me at his anger and I relieved the pressure. He slammed my fist into the table and I couldn\'t stop a small cry of pain, the physical kind this time. It hadn\'t hurt like his anger had.



Almost immediately, I healed the articulation between my first and second metacarpals and phalanges, but my mind was on Wolverine. He was scowling at me.



"Why\'d ya let me win bub?"



I whimpered and whispered, "You were mad, you snarled at me. Please don\'t be mad!"



Remy put one hand on my shoulder and used the other to force my face up so my eyes met his red on black ones. "You shoul\' no\' let anyone win. Logan, \'e wanted to win \'cuz o\' his own strenth. You took away his right to win far and squar." I whimpered. I didn\'t understand, all I knew was that Wolverine was mad because he won. Was he supposed to lose? Was this a test I unknowingly failed?



I ran around the table to put my head in my hero\'s lap. "Please let me be yours still. I can be good. I promise to beat you from now on. Please don\'t give me away. Please don\'t give me to Jean. I want to be yours, please."



X-men POV



Logan pulled his pup up into his lap and held his head still with both hands. "There\'s nothing you can do that will make me give you up. Remy neither." Angelous pulled back to check with Gambit, but Logan didn’t let him go. His green expressive eyes refocused on Logan\'s face. "You changed your muscles, made them stronger during the arm wrestle didn\'t you?" He nodded and Logan could smell his fear. "That was good. It was good to use your powers to beat me. In this room, you can use your powers anyway you want." Logan watched his sweet little Adam’s apple bob once. Angelous nodded, so Logan let him go.



"I snarled because I wanted to win. You let me win. I didn\'t win. Understand?" His pup glanced up in the direction of the window and then nodded. Logan heard his heart rate pulse and knew he was lying. Impressed with the boys ability to let them know when he was going to lie, Logan winked.



"We\'re going to test you here. I want you to throw everything you\'ve got at me." The smell of fear clouded his senses and Logan had to swallow back a growl. This boy was his, but the fear was intoxicating. It coaxed his feral side, seduced it out from the recesses of his mind. Logan ruthlessly pushed it back.



Chuck had told him that he and Gambit had full authority over the boy. Logan had shrugged. He had been planning to claim him anyway, this way he got the attractive mutant too.



Ferals were an animal branch of the mutation. A melding between humanity and their other, dormant, identities. They were animalistic and Logan had a hard time coexisting with the others. Sometimes he caught himself identifying the others in pack terms. Chuck was the old Alpha, and Scott was the current, although Logan had been thinking about replacing him. Jean was the Alpha\'s mate and therefore the top female. The kids were just pups, but Gambit....



When Gambit had moved in, the pack dynamics in Logan\'s mind had shifted. He wanted a pack of his own, and he wanted Remy as a mate. He\'d not done anything about it because he wouldn\'t let the animal win. He decided to wait until everything settled down before claiming Remy as his own.



But before he could, little Angelous had stumbled into their lives. Logan knew that Hank was feral too and had recognized Beast\'s desire for a pack. Maybe he would take the boy, Gambit and Hank and make a new pack. One where Scott couldn\'t boss them around. Gambit would probably want to take Ororo too.



"But Wolverine."



"Logan." He told his boy.



"Huh?" Logan chuckled. Angelous must have picked that word up from one of the kids. "Ya always call me Wolverine and I know what ye\'r think\'n when ya do. Call me Logan."



"Now get up and show me what ya got."



The boy crawled off him but shook his head. He refused to hurt him. "Chuck."



Only a second later another swordsman appeared next to him. He let the sword sink into him unopposed. He gasped but kept his eyes on Angelous. Remy put a hand on the boys shaking shoulder. "Ye have to stop \'em. \'e\'ll just keep hurting Logan \'til ye\' do."



The swordsman spun around and aimed for his leg. Just before the metal sunk into Logan\'s flesh, the masked man froze.



Angelous\' green eyes glowed with power and the swordsman buried the sword in his own stomach. He shimmered out of existence before he could hit the ground.



"Good." Logan grunted.



Angelous ran to him and sobbed into his chest.



"Ange, we have to know wha\' ye\' can do." Remy pressed up against Angelous\' back, making an Angelous sandwich. Gambit wrapped his arms around Logan and squeezed his ass. "Gumbo." Logan growled. Remy just winked at him.



Logan pushed them off him and glared at the Acadian. "Ya got some nerve boy."



Angelous watched while Logan and Remy flirted with eyes clouded in concern and Logan remembered the discussion they\'d had earlier about how flirting confused him. He gestured to Gambit with his head.



"No worries ange. Remy be teasing ol\' Wolverine. Notin bad. You sho\'d tease him too." Remy winked at Logan again and he held in a sneer. Gambit had to know how the innocent little one affected him, Logan was sure the other mutant felt it too.



He changed the subject. "I want to know what ya can do." Angelous begged him not to make him kill anyone else and Chuck instructed the boy that he could make the enemies sit or knock them out.



Logan was sure the boy had killed before, but let it go for now. He would make his boy tell him when Scott wasn\'t around.



Testing took the rest of the day and they discovered that Angelous was a treasure trove of ability. The decided that his gift was the ability to force his will on the body at the cellular level. He could use the various processes in the brain to control motor function, essentially forcing movement. A puppet master was an apt description of that part of his abilities, but it wasn\'t the only one they discovered.



He could change his body structure, his skeleton, muscles, nerve functions. He could make himself stronger, taller, harder, denser, lighter, and faster. He could also change his appearance at will. They discovered that he could change anyone else this way too when he made Logan skinny. While it was permanent on himself, or at least lasted longer then a few hours, it only lasted for thirty minutes on Logan and two hours on Remy.



They tested out a theory that he\'d hesitantly expressed. He explained that the cells lived, grew, replicated, and survived through various processes that all required specific energy and elements. Angelous could, through touch, transfer the energy or elements from another directly to himself, essentially sucking the life from them, just as Rogue did. He did not, however, develop their powers during this energy drain.



During one particularly painful, on Logan\'s part, test, they realized that Angelous could control a mutants power if he concentrated enough.



They discovered that while he could control up to 10 simulated humans or mutants, if he wanted to use the mutants power, he only had enough focus for one at a time. He blew up whole buildings while controlling Gambit.



The red headed mutant said it was relaxing, like floating in a dream. Angelous confessed that he released endorphins in Remy because he didn\'t want to hurt him.



Gambit wondered if Angelous\' power could simulate sex. He swore to himself he would ask his angel.



They realized he could heal himself and others, but they that this had to be either another ability or something else entirely. Only when he was healing did he and the other glow.



They kept Angelous\' experiment with Logan\'s claws from The Professor. Later in Remy\'s room, they explained to Angelous what they\'d discovered, what it meant, and why they kept things from the professor.



"Gambit has powers I don\' want everyone to know. You neve\' know when ye\' gonna be betrayed, its better to have an Ace up ye\' sleeve." He winked at Angelous, knowing that the boy didn’t get the reference but that he understood the attitude behind it.



"So what do they not know?"



"Well I\'m sure Chuck knows what we know. He probably pulled it from our heads." Logan pointed to Angelous\' skull and the boy frowned.



"He said he wouldn\'t do that."



"Ah ange, and we tol\' \'em tha\' was all ye\' coul\' do." Angelous blinked and his eyes unclouded.



"Okay, you\'re saying that we didn\'t tell anyone that my healing feels different then the rest and that I can permanently control pain levels and nerves because everyone hides things and lies" They nodded, but told him they would never lie to him. "So, what do they not know about you?"



Remy winked, "Gambit can feel what people feel and has de\' charm."



"Charm?" Angelous asked.



"Oui. You kin make dem move, Remy kin make dem decide to do tings. Like he made you calm down."



Angelous smiled, "that warmth."



"Oui, dat de\' charm."



The boy turned to Logan and he grimaced. "I don\'t have anything they don\'t already know, although I go feral more often then they probably want."



"When do you go feral?" Angelous asked, not showing any of the fear the others would have shown. It relaxed Logan some, he had been worried that the boy would be scared of him. "I go hunt." He shrugged.



Logan glanced at Gambit from the corner of his eye and realized that the Acadian had already known. Crafty bugger.



"Why ye\' ask no\' ta be given to Jean?" Remy asked, reminding Logan of his earlier begging.



"She doesn\'t like me. I heard her telling Scott that she was going to ask The Professor to block me. What does that mean?"



Remy and Logan tried to keep calm but both men caught the others eye and an unvoiced pact was made. "L\'fille wan\'s The Professor to put a block on some of ye\' mo\' dangerous pow\'rs. Ye\' no\' a child ange, an\' I don\' tink \'ed do it wif ou\' ye\'r permision."



Logan captured Angelous\' attention and put in his opinion, "Remember how I said we\'d never lie to ya?" The boy nodded. "Chuck can\'t get in either of our heads. Mine\'s a mine field and Gumbo\'s is has a static shield. If we figure out he\'s messed with you, we\'ll make him fix it. Got it?"



Logan didn\'t smell distress and so was confused by the tears and the launched body. Gambit just chuckled and rubbed his hand over the boys back. Logan had been hugged more times by this one boy then he\'d ever remembered...not that that was saying much.



Remy regaled them with stories of his life on the streets until Angelous swayed on the bed from exhaustion. Logan took that as his cue to leave but when he tried to get off the bed, the boy begged him to stay.



Gambit leered at him but Logan could detect a hint of vulnerability in his red eyes. The feral pulled at his boys until there was one on each side.



They fell asleep burrowing into his barrel chest and for once even Logan\'s feral side was content.