Second Chapter!

GiraffePanda2 Does Not Own Anything Except Kate! Sorry if there's some OOCness in this.

-Meeting the Mutants-

After grabbing what little she possessed and throwing it in a bag, Kate was ready to go. Minutes later, she was sitting in the back seat of the car. Charles was driving and Erik was in the passenger seat. After a few hours, and a couple of feeble conversations, Erik and Charles decided to switch drivers. While Charles was getting into the passenger seat, he looked back at Kate, and laughed. He nudged Erik and nodded in the young girl's direction. She was curled up against the door, her tail wrapped around her body. Erik's face softened for a moment, but he quickly turned around and focused on the road.

~Later, later, later~

"Kate." Kate heard her name being called, but she just curled closer and shut her eyes more tightly.

"Okay, admit it. That was kind of adorable."

"Adorable won't defeat Shaw, Charles."

"Erik."

"…Okay, fine, it's slightly cute. Now wake her up before I do."

Kate opened her eyes slowly and stretched out, her tail unfurling along. She sat up and popped her neck and asked Charles and Erik, who were looking back at her. "We there yet?"

"Already here." Erik told her, and Kate eagerly shot out of the car with a smile on her face. She was very anxious to see the other mutants. Kate grabbed her bag out of the car and faced Charles. "The others….." She started to ask, suddenly looking down and being shy. "Do they have mutations…? Like mine?" Charles hesitated, and Kate's face fell. But Erik smirked and just said, "See for yourself." Kate looked ahead of them at the impressive secret CIA base.

Raven was coming towards them, going straight for Charles she called out. "Charles!" Embracing him, he returned it warmly, and Kate felt a sudden stab of pain in her heart.

"Who's this?" Raven asked, shooting glances at Kate. Kate, instead of answering, slowly let her tail unfurl and flicker around back and forth. Raven's eyes grew wide. Suddenly she smiled and told Kate, "You're gonna fit right in." She grabbed Kate's hand and started to pull her away from Charles and Erik. Kate allows herself to be taken away by the pretty blonde, but not before shooting a panicked glance at the two men. Erick stifled a laugh and Charles just smiled and mouthed, 'Good Luck'.

Raven and Kate, after trading names, entered a room with a small mini bar, a fish tank, and some couches. Kate thought she saw a pinball machine in the corner. But what intrigued the young mutant most about the room was the people inside of it. They looked only a bit older than her. A lean African-American man was joking around with another handsome blonde fellow. A redhead boy who looked like he was in college was jugging down a soda, a nerdy-looking guy with glasses and a beautiful girl with black hair who was picking at her nails.

"Hey! Guys!" Raven called out to the group of teens. Kate felt all eyes on her, but she smiled and waved despite her blush.

"We got a new recruit." Raven explained. After everyone introduced themselves, they all settled on the couches, and the group of teens resumed their previous conversations before Kate arrived. Kate didn't mind though, she was used to being left alone. She lived in the attic of a library, she was usually quiet and well-behaved, but her curiosity got the better of her sometimes, resulting in trouble. After all, curiosity killed the cat, right?

Raven interrupted Kate's thoughts. "We should think of codenames. We're government agents now; we should have secret code names. I wanna be called Mystique."

The redhead, Sean, laughed and said, "Darn, I wanted to be called Mystique."

Raven laughed and told him, "Tough! I called it!" And then something amazing happened. Blue scale like things crossed over her body and suddenly there were two Sean's in the room. "And I am way more mysterious than you." After that she turned back, but Kate was still watching her, still in awe at what she had done.

"What you about you, Darwin?" The shape-shifter asked the African-American ex-cab driver. "Uh, well, Darwin's already a nickname and all. And it sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all." As he said this, Darwin moved over to the fish tank and stuck his head in. His skin suddenly grew gills and he pulled himself out. Everyone clapped, including Kate, who was now wondering what the rest of the mutants could do.

"What about you?" Darwin asked Sean.

"I wanna be called Banshee." He told them eagerly.

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank, the nerdy-looking guy, asked him curiously.

Kate decided to interrupt then, "Banshee's are from Irish mythology, they are seen as female spirits who come as the messengers of death. They often wail right before someone is to die." Kate was going to continue but stopped because of the looks on everyone's, but Hank's, faces. Sean raised an eyebrow at her but told everyone to cover their ears. They did so.

Sean started to concentrate and leaned down to a glass sitting on the table. He opened his mouth and a high-pitched, LOUD, shriek rang through, breaking not only the glass but also the window. Everyone slowly lowered their hands and started to clap, except for Kate who was scratching at her ears painfully, regretting her heightened sense of hearing.

The beautiful dark-haired girl, whose name was Angel, stood up from where she was sitting between Kate and Raven. "My, uh, stage name is Angel." Sean let out a whistle as she took off her jacket and turned around. A life-like huge tattoo butterfly wings covered her back, and then they suddenly popped out and turned real. "It kinda fits."

Everyone gasped stood up. Kate looked up at Angel and told her, in awe, "They're beautiful." Angel winked at her and said, "That's not all." She looked out the window and suddenly spat out a loogie. It hit the statue and it burst into flames.

Acid spit. Kate thought to herself, sweetness.

"What about you?" Angel asked Hank, who shied away from the sudden spotlight.

"How about Bigfoot?" Alex, the handsome blonde from earlier joked. Hank looked ashamed and Raven came to his rescue.

"Well you know what they about guys with big feet." Raven looked down at Alex's, "And, uh, yours are kinda small." Everyone but Kate Alex laughed. Alex turned a bit red and scowled but Kate just cocked her head to the side.

"I don't get it." She said out loud. "What do they say?" All the teens turned to look at her incredulously. Angel gave the young, clueless, girl a smile and started to whisper in her ear. Raven pulled her back and told Kate, rather nervously, "Nothing important sweetie, just forget about it." Raven glared at Sean who was trying, and failing, at holding back laughter.

"What's your power?" Kate innocently asked Alex from beside him. Everyone jumped. No one had noticed the young girl moved quietly over the back of the couch and to the chair where he sat. Alex narrowed his eyes at and then almost sheepishly told them. "I can't do it here."

Darwin pointed outside, "Could you do it out there?"

Alex sighed and went outside, everyone started to follow him but he warned them, "Stay back." He got ready outside but everyone peeked around the corner of the window. "Stay back!" He warned them again, and they did it, only to come out again. Alex sighed, frustrated, but he took a breath and released big red rings of energy from his chest. They banged around outside, destroying the statue.

Silence followed his show of power. Until, once again, Raven broke it. "Havok." She said.

Everyone stared at her. "We should call you Havok." She told them simply. Alec climbed back into the room through the window, a bit sheepish now and turned to Kate.

"What about you shorty? What can you do?"

Kate took a step back and shook her head. "Mine's not something I really like to show off. It's really more of a deformity than a mutation." Angel swung an arm around the girl's shoulders. "Oh come on, it can't be that bad."

Kate still didn't look convinced.

"Hey," Darwin told her, "you're among friends now, you can tell us." Kate slowly nodded.

"Just, um, don't laugh, okay?" She asked them. "No promises," Sean told her and Alex elbowed him. Kate just giggled and turned around. She let her tail escape from her clothes and made it flicker back and forth.

"That's a tail." Hank stated. Kate gave a chuckle and said, "Yeah, I know." She crouched to the ground and then shot up, leaping to the hang onto the chandelier. She hauled herself onto it and crouched there, looking down at them.

"I'm part animal." She explained.

"You're part cat?" Sean asked her, disbelievingly. "No." Kate deadpanned. "I'm part lion. See, Lion tail." She jumped down to the couch, landed on all fours and stepped off gracefully. "I don't just have a tail, though." She admitted.

"Oh, really?" Alex asked her, raising an eyebrow. Kate nodded and opened her mouth. Fangs sprouted from her teeth. Her nails grew longer and were now pointed. She took a hostile position, crouching slightly with her back arched.

"Calm down kitty." Sean joked to her and she turned to him rather abruptly, hissing. Sean leaped back, afraid.

Kate stopped and took a step back. Her fangs and claws withdrew, but she didn't put her tail back into her clothes. "My claws and Fangs can retract, like a lions, but my tail is always there. That's why I wear baggy clothes, to hide it." Kate explained.

"Amazing." Hank told her, a little breathlessly.

"Yeah, it can be pretty helpful. I have a better sense of smell and hearing. I can see better in the dark and I am more graceful. But it's not all good. Like, I'm terrified of dogs, doesn't matter the breed, and I prefer my meat really rare."

Everyone laughed a bit at the end.

"Plus, I hate water, can't stand when it rains. And I get sleepy when I drink milk." Kate muttered the last part.

Raven smiled at Kate and hugged her. "Welcome to the family, Kate."

You can all guess what happened next.

Yeah, stuff happens…..

That's it for now.

Bye! ~GiraffePanda2