>Dear Mr Xavier,

>My name is Marie D'ancanto. I am a twenty-three-year-old kindergarten teacher in Alaska, originally from Mississippi.

>My son, Kaden, is six years old.

>I am aware this is unusual but my son appears to be manifesting a mutation.

>I do not consider this to be a 'bad thing' in the grand scheme of things; I myself am a mutant so I knew there would be a higher chance of him being a mutant as well. However, I was not prepared for him to manifest this young, or with the abilities he has. His mutation is nothing like mine so I am struggling to help him as the situation progresses. I am wondering if his father - who is absent through no fault of his own - may also have been a mutant and Kaden is taking after him perhaps.

>Regardless of the how's and why's, I need help with Kaden and helping him learn how to control his abilities. I am hoping you can assist.

>His abilities appear to be related to his emotions, and senses, he has also developed a strength that far surpasses his peers. This, combined with his sudden quick temper, and his ability to hear the behind his back taunting from his peers has seen him 'instigate' fights at school, which has led to him being expelled. He is currently very mixed up, he is normally a very happy, well behaved boy and his outbursts are even confusing and upsetting him, he is struggling to control himself.

>Please, if you are able to help him let me know.

>I can bring him to New York as soon as next week, when kindergarten closes for summer, we will only be able to stay for two months before I will have to come back for work. Please don't take this the wrong way but I have no intention of leaving my son at your school, he needs his mommy right now and I will not abandon him.

>Thank you for your time and consideration.

>Regards
>Marie

--

Charles scanned over the email again worriedly, he had been concerned this may be a possibility for multi-generational mutants. Manifesting at such a young age would be a difficult process for a child of this little boys age. He planned to do his best to help the boy, and his clearly loving and devoted mother. It was also good timing, with his own staff now heading in 'the family way', a pre-school and kindergarten class would be most beneficial to add to the school, and now he had a candidate for a teacher.

Quickly he typed a reply email, confirming his willingness to assist and requesting a phone number to call the young mother at a time convenient to her. As it was currently five am in Alaska, he was not expecting a prompt response so he moved on from his emails and continued perusing the mornings mail and news. An hour later a muted 'ping' drew his attention back to his computer. A brief message, from Miss D'ancanto, thanked him for his response and provided a phone number, confirming she was available to talk anytime between now and twelve thirty New York time.

Digging his desk phone out from behind a pile of paper work he dialled the number provided.

"D'ancanto residence, Kaden speaking," a young boy answered politely, after only a few rings.

"Hello Kaden, my name is Charles Xavier, is your mother able to come to the phone?" Charles asked politely, with a soft smile at the young boys manners.

"Are you the man from the school for special kids?" Kaden asked excitedly, as Charles could hear him running across a hardwood floor.

"Yes, yes I am, your mother said you may need some assistance from our school," Charles replied.

"Cool!" Kaden responded enthusiastically, before Charles heard him calling to someone in the background. "Mommy, mommy! It's the school from New York, Mr Xavier wants to talk to you!" There were a few moments of fumbling, and the amused voice of the boys mother telling him to calm down and go back and finish his breakfast, before the young woman turned her attention to the phone she now possessed.

"Hello Mr Xavier, I'm sorry for that, thank you for your call," Marie greeted him.

"It is not a problem Miss D'ancanto, you have a very bright boy there, you must be very proud of him," Charles replied, amused.

"Oh please, call me Marie, the 'Miss' drives me nuts at school, and yes, I am very proud of him, he's a real little smarty pants... it's part of what's made this so hard for him to cope with, he knows his behaviour isn't 'right' but he really can't help himself..." Marie replied softly.

"I am sorry to hear that, could you by chance explain to me more about the, changes, he is going through?" Charles asked. He waited patiently when Marie requested a moment of time, listening to her telling the young boy to behave himself, before she moved into another room, closing several doors behind her.

"Right, where were we; his behaviour. I'll admit, the first thought I had when this started was that he was simply being naughty, kids do that, *he* has misbehaved before, I'm not going to pretend my kid's an angel. So, I started out by admonishing him, he took the telling off, because he knew what he had done was wrong but then it happened again, and again, and after about the fourth time he broke down and said he really wasn't meaning to do these things, something else inside him was making him do the naughty things. If not for the fact that he got so distraught I would have assumed he was just trying to make excuses to get out of trouble...

"Then one day he completely lost it at his karate class... there's this one kid, the real troublemaker, who is in his class at school, he's just started first grade, this kid is also in his karate class, and his junior hockey team, the kid picks on him relentlessly, and I've taught Kaden to just ignore him but that day it was like... I could see Kaden was distracted, and this kid was picking on him, just saying horrible, terrible things to him, Kaden and this kid were paired together for their drills and Kaden just snapped all of a sudden, I saw his eyes when it happened, like his eyes changed, went really dark, and his whole face just morphed into this... well, a snarl, like a dog about to attack. The kid tried to pull the manoeuvre they were supposed to be practicing, and Kaden went off on him, this kid is a year older than Kaden, a good eight inches taller, and quite chunky, even for a seven year old, but Kaden just... threw him, literally picked him up and threw him to the floor, pinned him and began laying into him.

"The teacher and I, and two other parents, all raced in, it took three of us to hold Kaden back... he was growling, teeth bared and all, he even lashed out and hit the teacher. It wasn't until I managed to push him to the floor and almost lie on top of him, that I finally managed to calm him down, and again his whole demeanour changed, back to normal, then he immediately burst into tears, I took him straight home and when I asked him what happened he told me... and I know this makes it sound like he's nuts but he said, the wolf that lives in his head, told him he had to fight the other kid, he had to be stronger, he had to protect his mommy - because it was me the other kid was saying bad things about - Kaden said he wouldn't, he wouldn't do what the wolf told him to do but when the other kid swung at him the wolf pushed him out of the way and took control of his body and made him fight.

"Honestly, based on what I saw, that is what it looked like, like something literally took control of his body, and that scared me, terrified me, then Kaden burst into tears again and started begging me not to be afraid, he kept saying he would never hurt me and I didn't need to be afraid, when I asked him what he meant he told me he could smell it, he could smell that I was afraid; so then I had to sit him down and reassure him that I wasn't afraid *of* him, I was afraid *for* him, because I knew he was scared. When he was calmed down again I asked him what other things he could smell, he could tell me, from the smell, what the neighbours two houses down the street were having for dinner - and I did go down the street later that evening and confirm that was what they had for dinner. I asked him if he could hear or see things too and he listed off a whole lot of things, being able to hear the refrigerator running downstairs, walking around the house at night with the lights off because he could see everything anyway, he told me he knew when I had bad dreams at night because he could hear my heartbeat get faster, from the next room...

"Then at hockey practice a week later a whole bunch of kids, led by the troublemaker were picking on him, the same thing happened again, Kaden ignored them, ignored, ignored, and then his face changed and he snapped, he threw a hockey puck, threw it from his hand, hard enough to dent one kids helmet and continue on to crack the plexiglass window rink-side, I get pucks are hard, but even hitting them with a stick, which sends them flying a lot faster than a throw, normally wouldn't do either of those things. And then, yesterday, again, the troublemaker was picking on him, I didn't see what happened this time because they were on the playground at lunchtime, but the lunch monitor said Kaden was literally baring his teeth and growling, and he knocked the bully unconscious, there wasn’t a mark on Kaden though, even though the monitor said they’d both been hitting each other, and the other kid used a rock even at one point. And that's how my six-year-old got expelled from first grade. Now the school has got the Police and CPS involved and they want to send him to psychiatrists and get him on drugs to 'combat his behavioural problems' and... I don't know what else to do..."

Charles could hear the tears in the young mother's voice as she finished her explanation.

"Well I have good news," he replied softly, "I don't think your son is 'nuts', as you termed it, by the sound of it your son is what we call a feral, ferals have a base instinctual mutation, in some ferals this is limited to only heightened sensitivity, the ability to see, hear, feel, etcetera, better than normal, in other ferals however the mutation can manifest a fully separate psychological entity that uses the senses to function at a much baser, instinctual level. The even better news is, I can assure you, it is something that can not only be controlled but trained, one of our on call staff is also one of the latter kind of ferals I mentioned, and I am certain he would be most willing to help young Kaden train his wolf, so to speak."

"Oh thank you!" Marie replied, relief evident on her tone.

"I will however say, it will take much longer than two months... now, now," he broke in, when it sounded like Marie was going to interrupt. "I agree with you, that Kaden needs his mother, very much, during this phase, you are correct that it is not 'normal' for a child to manifest this young and he will need you through this process, so, I would like to offer you a position on our staff, we are opening our rolls to younger children in the very near future, siblings of current students, children of other staff members and past students, and we could do with someone to manage a small mixed age class, a day-care to kindergarten level class. The remuneration would be, competitive, the class size no doubt much smaller than you are used to, and accommodation and meals for both yourself and Kaden would be included, if you would be interested we could even assist with moving expenses, the position would be available as soon as you are able to relocate," Charles offered.

Marie was quiet for a moment before she replied with a sob, "That- that sounds fantastic, thank you so much, I would love to work with you, and thank you so much for your help... If I hand in my notice today I can be ready to relocate at the beginning of the holidays, moving costs won't be an issue, our current lease is furnished so we'll only need to bring our personal belongings which will all fit in my car... Thank you so much, so, so much, shall I say we'll be there... June ninth, if that works for you?" she suggested, through tears.

"That would work perfectly, we will see you in ten days," Charles replied, before the two signed off their conversation.

With a grin Charles dug out his contacts list and dialled his last known number for Logan, he was just the man for this job, it might be exactly what he needed to entice him back. As he prepared himself to make the call, he couldn't help reminiscing on the circumstances that caused Logan's departure two years prior. The loss of the little girl Logan had been trying to rescue on that fateful lab mission was traumatic, for everyone, not least of all Logan, who had had the girl in his arms when she had been shot, and killed instantly.

The fact she had been shot *through* his own body, and that Jean had advised on autopsy that it was unlikely the girl would have survived anyway given her condition, had not been enough to comfort Logan. He had tried to drink himself into oblivion several times, on one occasion consuming so much alcohol Jean had had to pump his stomach and put him on an IV, until he become coherent enough to remove it and stagger out of the medical bay.

It was Charles's own actions, or rather inaction, that had finally led to Logan suddenly packing up and disappearing, but Charles would not apologize for refusing to remove the memories from Logan's mind, that was not how the brain was meant to work but Logan had refused to hear. After a few months Logan had called, much to the relief of everyone, but so far, he refused to return. Maybe hearing another child was in need, a way for him to 'make up' for his perceived failure, would be enough to entice him back, a substantial sum of money would no doubt sweeten the deal... he hoped.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang, and just as Charles was about to give up, and hang up, a gruff voice suddenly interrupted the shrill ring tone.

"The fuck do you want!" Logan growled, sounding decidedly irritated.

"My apologies if I woke you, are you not still in Spain?" Charles asked curiously, used to Logan's snappish responses.

"I'm in Australia, it's two am, and I'm about to get laid, so if we could hurry this conversation up I would appreciate it," Logan replied, and a decidedly drunk sounding woman giggled in response in the background.

"We have a situation that requires someone with your expertise," Charles began.

"I'm not your fucking hitman try someone else," Logan snapped.

"You misunderstand, we have a young mutant boy, six years old, who will be arriving shortly with his mother, he has a very strong feral mutation and, obviously, a prepubertal presentation, this boy appears to have a fully separate psychological entity, like your Wolverine, which he is struggling to manage, it has already assumed control of him on several occasions, which has seen the boy expelled from his school. My limited knowledge on this subject may be able to assist to a degree in controlling outbursts but it is going to take someone with more first-hand experience to teach the boy how to manage the feral," Charles explained, "Would you be available? At your usual contract rate of course."

After a moment Logan sighed, and when he spoke again his tone had softened. "Yeah Chuck, I guess I can do that, when is the kid arriving?"

"June ninth," Charles advised.

"I'll try to get back for the ninth, might be a little late though, I'll see you when I see you," Logan replied, hanging up before more could be said.

With a grin Charles set the phone back in its cradle. "It will be good to see you again old friend," he said to himself, as he turned back to his work.
You must login (register) to review.