Plagiarist
Chapter 3
by
SelinaSeo



(Note from the Archivist: English is not the authors first language. So be kind.)




The girl's scream got hoarse and died down slowly. She was gasping loudly and stretching her hands to get her own claws as far away from her as it was physically possible. She stared at the odd metal exposed between her knuckles with such unbearable panic that Logan almost felt guilty for having them. It was good for a mean, lonely, extremely dangerous cage-fighter but not for a young human okay, for a young mutant girl, anyway.

"What what IS THAT?!" Her voice broke as she spoke. Logan sighed. "It's mine," he said, as if apologizing, "I'm a mutant."

His last words had an incredible effect on her, as if explaining everything that had happened here. She caught her breath and exhaled slowly. *Mutant. Just copying. Plagiarizing.*

I've never had contact with a mutant on my plagia-days."

"Plagia-days?" Logan didn't want to miss a chance to turn her attention away from the claws.

"Yeah," she said weakly, lifting her eyes to look at him, "There's a day the first of you know" she looked away uncomfortably, "my monthly visit? On that day the ability appears."

"So, you don't control it?"

She lowered her head and shook it slightly, then signed. Logan nodded. He had to calm her now, to pretend that nothing special had happened and to figure out how far the copy-process had gone. He found her eyes and was going to ask her about anything just to distract her when he realized what was strange about their conversation. He cleared his throat and changed his pose to sit more comfortably on the cold floor.

"What's your name, girl?"

She rose her eyes from the glittering metal, narrowed them, her face deadly serious, and said after a moment of hesitation, "Fristaila and yours?" She added quickly.

Logan smiled, accepting the rules of this game. "Wolverine."

She frowned bending her head to the side, her eyes narrowed even more. "That's just a nickname," she said in denunciatory tone.

"You tryin' to tell me, "Fristaila" is a real name?" he responded teasingly.

She laughed. "Ok, I give up," she continued on in a pseudo-official tone, "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Amanda."

"Logan," he pressed his hand to his chest and lowered his head smiling from ear to ear. She laughed seeing the gesture and he closed his eyes for a moment savoring the sound. It was like a spring running over the stones in a deep forest where people never went, so pure and innocent. It made him feel that strange but so pleasant warmth deep in his heart. He had nearly forgotten that feeling it had been so long. This laugh, this young girl couldn't be a part of this cruel world around him, so full of pain and unfairness. She was too beautiful for it. He opened his eyes. Amanda was looking at the blades, confused.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said, uncertainly.

"You've got my full attention, darlin'." Sparks played in his eyes.

"How do you retract them?"

It was time for Logan to look puzzled. How did he do it? He never thought about it at all! It had become as natural for him as moving any other part of his body.

Amanda got the situation right. "I know, it must be like asking a bird how it flies, but" she looked at the exposed metal again. Obviously, she wasn't fond of carrying 9inch long blades like this.

"Okay," Logan said slowly, "Let's see how we do it." He stretched out his right arm, made a fist and released the claws carefully so he didn't frighten the girl. He tried to feel exactly how they slid out. Not the most pleasant sensation in his life, though. It was definitely better to pop them out quickly, the quicker, the better. "Look like yours, don't they?"

"No," she smiled and twisted her nose, "MINE look like yours."

Logan couldn't help but chuckle. Then he concentrated on the task again. "Here we go," he retracted his claws slowly, frowned and then moved closer to her, smirking with satisfaction. "Look here," he stretched his hand to her arm, "There are a couple of muscles here," he placed his fingers just below her elbow, being careful to avoid the razor-sharp metal, "Careful now. Those claws can cut through everything."

"They can?" She raised her eyebrows, surprised.

"They sure can, darlin'."

She narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Cool!"

Logan chuckled "Okay, now back to business. Or, if you're a big Freddie Krueger fan we can leave 'em like this?" he smiled teasingly.

She cleared her throat. "So you were talking about some muscles, right?"

"Yes. Try to shorten them - and the claws will retract," he said and added to himself *or so I hope*

With painstaking concentration Amanda worked with her muscles until she found the right way of moving them to make the blades move too. However, she squeezed too hard and yelped when the claws retracted abruptly. "Shit! That HURTS!"

Sadness crossed Logan's face for a moment. "I know," he said quietly. He wanted to calm her, to tell that the pain would go away soon, but he knew it would never happen. At least, not as long as she had the claws.

"Look!" her voice cut his thoughts off. Logan glanced at the girl and then where she was looking. She was studying her hands. "You see? No wounds! Those claws went directly out of my hands. I know they ripped the skinbut the wounds are gone! How is that possible?!"

He smiled at her childlike reaction. "I have um, we have a healing factor. It'll heal any wound you get almost immediately."

"Like in "Terminator -II"?"

"Something like that," - he chuckled. "Terminator - II, huh? That's interesting."

Logan felt a bit strange. It was so weird to say such things about himself to this girl he barely knew. He knew how it felt to share some of his past with another person. He had been through this with Rogue. But that had been different: to talk about the Weapon X Project - and to teach the young girl how to retract metal claws. It was weird. It made the two of them close somehow. He couldn't quite explain it.

Amanda was happy. Fear and weakness were replaced with excitement. For several years she had been copying different people: workers, punks, businessmen, cops, once even a prostitute. She got used to all of that: the searing pain while her eyes changed, the different hair-color and other stuff like that. But it was her first copying of a mutant and it was AMAZING! Obviously, those claws were quite painful and pretty scary but they were cool. She had never had anything even close to this. And that 'healing factor'?" It was impossible! Incredible! Cool! What had he said? <it'll heal any wound you get immediately> a crazy thought came into her mind. She moved the muscles on her right hand and after a second the claws came out. With slight hesitation ( *Be careful, they cut through everything*) she moved them to her left hand (*This is NOT a good idea!* *But I wanna see the way it works*) and made a small cut on the side of her wrist careful to avoid the veins. It was less painful then she thought it would be - the claws were definitely razor-sharp. Unbelievable things started happening with the wound right in front of her eyes. The edges of the cut stuck together, forming a scar that got lighter and disappeared in a moment.

"Cool," - Amanda whispered and heard a barely suppressed chuckle from the left. She turned her head and blushed. She had absolutely forgotten about Logan. It must have been funny for him to watch her last actions.

She lowered her head and mumbled, "I just wanted m-m-m to see it," she threw a glance at him, - "That was unbelievable!"

He smiled genuinely. Logan was puzzled by the feelings that were overwhelming him. He wanted to hug this tiny girl tight and never let her go and it was getting hard to fight this wish. He was ready to protect her from everything and everybody in this horrible world. Her smile, the joy in her eyes gave him more pleasure than any woman had ever given him. It woke up and put together every drop of kindness that was left in his crushed soul, perhaps even doubling it. Any talk with Xavier, any hug from Rogue, any smile from Jean couldn't bring him that serene relief. All of them knew him and most of his problems and they wanted to help him, but they always worried about what to tell him and what to conceal. Somewhere deep in their souls they treated him as a barely controllable psycho they had to be extremely careful with so he wouldn't go over the edge. All the stuff about Weapon X that he shared with them they pitied him for what had happened. They were proud he lived through it and hadn't gone insane, yes. But they pitied him and this little girl didn't. She didn't know who he was, what he was, what he was capable of, she knew nothing more than his name. His only NAME and the mutation he had involuntary given her. The awful claws that released and retracted so painfully; the healing factor - well, that was gonna be a handy thing now that she had mutant powers that manifested all the time, not just once a month. Who knew who might uncover her secret now? He'd done an unforgivable thing to her and she didn't hate him for it. She was happy. She accepted his mutation. It was the same as she'd accepted him, with no past, no future, not knowing shit about him. She liked him just as he was, not demanding to stay with her, not thinking if it was right or wrong. Not bothering. Just liking.

"Hey, Logan!"

He shook his head and glanced at her.

"When was the last time you aired out this truck? I" - she inhaled too deeply and began coughing, - "I [khch] I can't breath! Those smells [KHCHKH] it's unbearable! How [CHCHK!!] could I not notice it before? [KCHCH!!!]"

Logan frowned and suddenly burst out laughing.

"What?!" she asked angrily, her nose wrinkling up, fighting the smells."That's also mine."

"The stink???!"

"No, the mutation," he explained still chuckling.

Amanda rolled her eyes "Another one? How many more do you have up your sleeve?"

He couldn't help but laugh again. Some minutes after, he was surprised by his own behavior - he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so much. "Don't worry, it's the last one. We have heightened senses."

"Okay you mind if we go outside? [kch] just for a minute while I get used to this new stuff"

Logan leapt up to his feet and opened the door. Amanda nearly ran out of the truck, still coughing. As soon as she got outside she inhaled deeply and exhaled with satisfaction.

"That's better. Much better," she paused and then added, "And there are so many scents flying around and waiting for me to catch them. I never thought they could be SO different!" A happy smile returned to her face, "It's like another world! All those flowers and leaves, and even branches! Different animals hiding in the underbrush" she inhaled as deeply as she could, filling every inch of her lungs with the scents that surrounded her. Logan leaned against the side of the truck, admiring her. Pure joy and excitement played in her eyes. "Another world" he had never thought about scents like this. They were important to him, he needed them to recognize people, to follow the track to find the enemy and kill him if possible. It had always been possible for him. Except one hard case. Logan shook his head getting rid of the image of green calculating eyes. He didn't want to spoil the moment by thinking of Sabretooth. He took a cigar out of his pocket and lit it. Then realized his mistake and looked at the girl. She didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

"I hope, smoking doesn't bother your heightened senses?" he chuckled. It was so ridiculous that this little girl had the same things he had. He couldn't get used to the idea.

Amanda shook her head <no> and came to him, shining. "It's wonderful! It's YOU're wonderful!"

He raised an eyebrow.

"You're wonderful, Logan, 'cos you gave this all to me!"

He smiled warmly. She was so childlike and so animated, with her eyes sparkling in excitement.

She glanced at him and said, "Tell me something about you," she paused a little, "I mean, if you want to. . . You don't have to"

Logan brought cigar to his mouth and inhaled deeply to gain some time. He definitely didn't want to. He suddenly felt uncomfortable, almost scared. What if she knew what he was? Man with no past. What things could he have done in his past? He could be anything, even a mass-murderer like Sabretooth. He couldn't deny the possibility considering all the uncontrollable rage he sometimes felt. The past he knew wasn't any more pleasant. Weapon X. Cage-fighting. More that enough to make this girl run away in a heartbeat. He exhaled and smiled mockingly, "Nah, you're in my truck, you have my mutation now, so your story first."

To his relief she hadn't noticed his hesitation. She was too overwhelmed with emotions to notice.

"Where do I start?"

"How about from the beginning?"

She smiled. "I was born here, in Canada; had a lot of friends, skipped classes just like any other teenager. And then, when I turned 14 my Big Problem started and changed everything oh, hell! It turned my whole life upside down! At that time I already knew how people usually treated mutants. So when I first copied someone, I was terrified. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to tell anyone, even my closest friends, you know, my school was m-m-m pretty racist. Fortunately, my first 'object' was some lady I didn't even know. She didn't know me either, so I was safe. The worst shock was when I looked in the mirror and saw my hair change color. It was blond and it turned dark brown"

"Blond?" Logan interrupted her.

"Yeah. So what?"

"You had light-brown hair when I first saw you."

Amanda smiled and shook her head. "You don't miss a trick, do you? You're right. When I copy someone, I keep their features until I copy somebody else."

"So, you never return to your real appearance?" - Logan was shocked.

The girl sighed. "I have no real appearance anymore. I'm a plagiarist. I rob the other people.

*and I thought I had it bad.* Logan thought.

"So, back to the story, - she smiled, "My hair turned dark-brown and my eyes oh, I actually don't remember, but they changed too. I bought contact lenses and told my classmates and my mom that I'd colored my hair. Some girls were surprised that I managed to get the color so well. But then then I started loosing my friends. They said I got nervous and bad-tempered. It must have been caused by those pulls, God damn them. They made me nervous. But how could I stay calm when I was always worrying about when it would happen again? My cycle still isn't regular, so it's a big problem, and" - she blushed, "You probably don't want to know about all that stuff, right?

"Forget it. Go on."

"Ok, so I had a couple of nerve wracking days every damn month. After a while, after I had a few more slips in spite of all the precautions I took, I must have gotten unbearable. I lost all my friends. Even my mom started mentioning mental problems. The last thing I wanted was to be packed off to a mental hospital and it looked like I was getting dangerously close to that. So right after graduating I ran away from home. I traveled through Canada, working on the side. Chambermaid in a hotel, waitress in a cafe, singer in a bar, once even a babysitter - all that got me enough money to live in a nice way. But, the Big Problem kept happening. I had some more accidents. Some of them were awful! Once I copied an old blind man. You can't imagine how I looked forward to my next plagia - time! And once when I copied a prostitute oops, - she reddened again. - That's me and my big mouth."

"Forget it," Logan smiled. He was enjoying the little silver peal of her voice and wouldn't mind even if she started telling him an X-rated story in detail. He chuckled to himself. He wouldn't mind that anyway.

Amanda paused. Emotions caused by all the new sensations shook her up so much that she told him more than she had planned to. Much more than she usually told complete strangers. And he was one. Who was he? He had a comfortable truck with practical furniture inside, a beat-up camper too. Obviously he liked traveling. He was a mutant. He wasn't talkative. He was nice, sexy bad idea, Amanda! Don't let yourself get distracted. Yes, he's nice and sexy. So what? He's got his own girls. Perhaps even a wife. Her eyes involuntary slid to his hands. No engagement ring. Come on, he might have put it somewhere in the truck for safekeeping, or for some other reason. Anyway, he's NOT FOR YOU



CHAPTERS:   1   2   3   4   5   6




All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of these materials in any form is expressly prohibited. No money is being made from this archive. All images are also (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities; they are not mine. This website, its operators and any content used on this site relating to the X-Men are not authorized by Marvel, Fox, etc. I am not, nor do I claim to be affiliated with any of these entities in any way.