TITLE: Finding A Niche

SERIES: Superhero Bootcamp; Part 3

AUTHOR: Scorpio

ARCHIVE: Scorpio's Constellation, WWOMB, The Warren and all list archives.

FANDOM: x-over [The Sentinel/X-Men 616]

RATING: PG

PAIRING: None [features: James Ellison, H, Neon (Brian Rafe), Tyger, Sky, Robert Drake, Rogue, Warren Worthington III, and Logan]

CATEGORY: Crossover, Sentinel-AU in the X-Men Universe

WARNING: I've changed the age of Jim to make him a student at Xavier's. He's a 16 year old mutant in this story.

DISCLAIMER: Everything "Sentinel" belongs to Petfly Prod. and everything X-Men belongs to Marvel Entertainment Group. I own nothing and am making no money from this work.

A/N: This is an idea that I've played with off and on since the first X-Men movie was released. I've finally decided to go with the comicbook version of the school instead. The cast will probably be a mix of "New X-Men" and "Uncanny X-Men" with a few cameos from various "Sentinel" characters.

A/N 2: ~denotes telepathy~ #denotes empathy# *denotes emphasis in spoken words*

SUMMARY: Jim Ellison's first full day at Xavier's School for Gifted Children.

Finding a Niche
by Scorpio

Jim glanced into the mirror over the sink and frowned. His chin and upper lip were getting a bit hairy again, but he didn't want to shave. That might sound strange since most guys his age loved the very idea of shaving, but for Jim that just meant that his face would feel like it was on fire for the next two days.

Instead, Jim ignored the call of his razor and simply rushed through the chore of brushing his teeth. He had yet to find a toothpaste that wasn't horrible with an enhanced sense of taste. He had the idle thought of asking Logan's advice of which brand name was the most palatable. After he was finished, he obsessively rinsed his mouth out four times.

Finished with his absolutions and with H banging on the door, Jim reached over and flicked open the lock on the door to room 2-12. H didn't even wait for him to move, he just shoved passed Jim and walked to the toilet. The strong scent of urine and a sigh of relief assaulted Jim simultaneously.

"Don't lock that door again, Jim. Please, man. There was almost an embarrassing mess on the floor."

Jim chuckled even as he made his way into his own room. "No problem, H. Just try and keep it neat in here, dude. Remember, if you can smell it or see it, it's torture to me and my senses."

With that, Jim walked into his room and closed the door to the bathroom. Unwrapping his towel, he carefully applied a fresh layer of moisturizer before turning to his closet. He had a bunch of his own clothes that he could wear, but last night after dinner, he'd been handed several school outfits with the X within a circle school logo on it. There was a shorts and tank top set, a pair of sweat pants and a matching zippered sweat shirt as well as a leather school jacket. The first two outfits were for any physical activity and the jacket for wearing over his own clothes.

Jim was a bit unsure about wearing any of it though. The school logo, that bright yellow X within a circle, would mark him as a mutant to anyone who saw it. It was a symbol made famous world-wide by the X-Men and then later on by the various combat teams that they supported. He knew, in his head, that no one here would have any problem with his status as a mutant and in fact, most of them would probably be wearing this logo on their person somewhere. His heart, however, told him differently. He'd spent the last four years doing everything he could to hide the fact that he was a mutant at his father's express orders as well as out of fear of what his schoolmates would do to him if they found out his secret. It felt...strangely freeing just to consider walking around
with the symbol of mutant pride displayed on his body.

He dithered about it for a long moment, but it was finally the knowledge that he would be tested by Logan and other members of the combat team that convinced him. He slipped on the sweat pants which were dark blue with a bright gold X within a circle on each ankle. He combined that with a plain white wifebeater t-shirt and the dark blue sweat jacket. The zippered sweat jacket also had a golden X in a circle over his heart and a larger one that was positioned over his back. He threw on his sneakers and grabbed his room key with it's school logo keychain.

After pausing in thought for a moment, Jim knocked on the bathroom door. "Hey, H. You guys ready to go get breakfast yet?"

"Go around to our front door and head on in to our room. Neon's in there. We're heading down with the guys from across the hall." H's voice was slightly muffed by the sounds of his shower and the wall, but Jim hear him as clearly as if he was standing right next to him. "I'll be done in a minute."

"Will do."

Jim walked over to his dorm room door and paused with his hand on the doorknob. For a fleeting moment he wanted to quickly change his clothes and remove all visible traces of mutancy from his body. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that it was okay to be a mutant here. He wasn't an outsider. He wasn't a freak. He was one of them and they were like him and it was *okay* to be a mutant. Here.

Feeling silly about giving himself a pep-talk even though he knew deep down that he needed one, Jim opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He pulled his door shut and turned to lock it when he heard a door open up down the hallway. He stiffened up at the sound and waited for them to make a snide comment about wearing the mutant X so prominently, but they ignored him in favor of their own conversation about hardheaded girlfriends and the difficultly of raising a dozen children with accelerated growth spurts and wings.

Jim glanced up as they walked passed and almost swallowed his tongue in shock. The boy doing the complaining had feathery wings, a mohawk-ish sort of half-feather half-hair thing happening on top of his head and a bird's beak in the middle of his face. The other boy, the one doing all the sympathetic listening, was taller and broadly built. He also had only one eye that was set right in
the middle of his forehead. The birdlike boy just kept on complaining as they walked by Jim, but the one-eyed boy saw him, smiled ruefully and rolled his single eye at his friend's endless list of girl trouble. Jim grinned back before he realized it.

Then the two of them were at the elevator and disappearing from his sight. Jim was left to stand there and goggle silently. That almost-encounter helped him to put things into a better perspective. He was worried that wearing the X would mark him as a mutant, but at least he *could* take it off and pass as a non-mutant. Many of his fellow students couldn't. Feeling better about both himself and his new situation, Jim locked his door and walked down the hall to 2-12 and knocked.

"Yo, Neon! You awake in there?"

Jim heard a few voices behind the door, but only one that he recognized. The other two were unfamiliar to him. Suddenly, the door swung open and Jim found himself face to face with a giant cat. He blinked rapidly to clear the vision from his eyes, but the cat was still there. With a fang filled grin, the cat stepped back and gestured him in.

"Hey, Jim." Neon's voice called from across the room at his desk. "Oh, this is Tyger and Sky. They live across the hall from you in 2-09." Neon gestured to Jim. "Guys, this is Jim. He just got here yesterday afternoon."

"Nice to meet you, Jim" Sky's voice was a soft whisper and Jim smiled at him.

"You too, man." Jim was tempted to ask the rail thin, light blue skinned mutant just how tall he was when he stood up. His torso and limbs were thin, but extremely long. Jim's best guess was somewhere around seven and a half feet tall, but he wasn't sure since Sky was currently sitting in the folded up Indian style and hovering two inches over Neon's bed.

Before he could work up the courage to ask about it, the human cat, Tyger, purred in much the same way a real cat would. Sky tilted his head slightly and then nodded. "Tyger wants to know what your codename is, Jim."

Jim looked over at Tyger. His body shape was mostly human if you didn't count the long twitching tail hanging down behind him or the catlike shape of his face. Or the fact that his entire body was coated in a thick pelt of golden fur with dark brown tiger stripes.

Jim shrugged, a confused look sliding over his face. "Codename?"

Neon nodded and waved a vague gesture in the air. "Yeah. You know, like how Dr. McCoy is called 'Beast' or how I'm called 'Neon' and stuff. It should have been listed at the top of your student class schedule, right by your legal name."

Understanding dawned and Jim nodded. "Oh. That. I didn't know that was a codename. I just...I thought it had to do about my dreams and visions." He grinned and shrugged. "Jaguar."

Tyger let out string of oddly catlike purrs, meows and growls. Sky tilted his head once more as if he was listening to something, but Jim couldn't hear anything even with his enhanced hearing.

"Tyger says that he thought you smelled like a cat, but he didn't know why. He wants to know if you dream of this...Jaguar you've been named after."

Jim didn't know how Sky knew what Tyger was saying, but he figured that if the blue skinned boy was wrong then Tyger would find a way to let everyone know...even if he was unable to actually speak English.

"Yeah, I dream of either running along side of or actually being a black jaguar in a jungle every night. And sometimes when I'm awake I can see the same jaguar stalking around me, but no one else has ever seen it." Jim shrugged. "A Native American Indian friend of mine back home says that the jaguar is my Spirit Guide."

Tyger purred and Neon nodded before standing up and walking over to grab his sneakers. "Yeah, Jim. You'll probably end up working with Tyger a lot. He's one of Logan's students too. He's also got enhanced senses."

Jim's interest peeked and he turned to smile at the fur covered teen. "Really? All of them, or just a few?"

Tyger purred and growled. "Sight and hearing." It was Sky who answered, though.

Jim grinned. "Cool. I've got all five enhanced." He rolled his eyes. "It can be a real pain, sometimes."

"What do you mean? I think it sounds like a blast."

Jim turned his head to grin at H as he walked out of the steamy bathroom wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. "It can be at times. Flying across country wasn't one of those times, though. I could hear the plane creaking around me and I kept waiting for it to fall apart at the seams."

Tyger let loose with a rumbling growl that ended in a purr and suddenly Jim knew that he was laughing. Jim flashed him a smile and was met with slitted cat's eyes filled with complete understanding and agreement.

H dug into his closet and pulled out a long sleeved black shirt with the same X within a circle logo that decorated his own outfit on the top of each sleeve. He slid it on quickly and then reached for his sneakers. "I wonder what's for breakfast. I'm hungry."

Everyone shrugged except for Jim who smiled. "I don't know what's on the full menu, but I've been smelling the scent of sausage for the last fifteen minutes and it's driving me nuts. So hurry up, will ya?" As if to prove his words, Jim's stomach picked that moment to grumble loudly to the other's amusement.

"The stomach has spoken. We must obey."

Jim threw a wholly faked glare at H. "Funny, man. Real funny."

The other's laughed and H finished tying his sneakers. As they all filed out into the hallway in preparation of heading downstairs towards breakfast, Jim couldn't help but smile. It seemed like his first full day at his new school was turning out to be a good one. He already had two friends and was well on his way to making two more. And they were mutants like him. He didn't have to hide who and what he was with them. For the first time in his life he was free to be himself. His *real* self. And everyone would accept that and him for what he really was. Without question.

He might not be Jaguar yet, but he was well on his way to it and he had the feeling that he was going to enjoy being Jaguar much more than he liked being Jim.

*

"And finally, that only leaves the subbasement levels to tour," Robert Drake's voice was smooth and polished, but Jim could still smell the undertones of bitterness and banked anger hovering about his official tour guide. "Those levels are, of course, the more important ones. They're also the ones that you have to be careful who you talk to about them. If they aren't officially associated with the school, say nothing." Mr. Drake turned a serious look at Jim. "Understand?"

"Yes, sir." Jim nodded his head and followed the tall muscular man with the light brown hair into the elevator and watched as he punched the button for level SB-1. A panel lit up and a low powered electrical hum tickled Jim's enhanced hearing. Mr. Drake typed in a short code into the keypad and then placed his hand palm down on the panel. A green light ran across the screen from top to bottom, scanning his DNA. A high pitched beep signaled a positive ID confirmation and the elevator began to move down.

As they silently waited for the elevator to reach it's destination, Jim covertly studied his escort. Robert Drake, called Bobby by his friends and The Iceman by his enemies. His All-American good looks were enhanced by a face marked with laugh lines at his mouth and his eyes. Those lines were etched firmly into his features and gave the impression of lingering youth even as they told everyone around him that this was a man that found much joy in life. Not that you could tell it now. Newer, less defined lines, now marred Mr. Drake's face. These lines told a different story, one of frowning and glaring. The bitter anger that Jim could sense below Mr. Drake's surface was a new one. Silently, Jim wondered what had happened to change this man.

Before he could begin to even guess at what that mysterious something might be, the elevator stopped moving and the door slid open. Mr. Drake stepped out and Jim followed...only to stop short and gape slack jawed in shock. The walls down here weren't the normal wood paneling and wainscoting that he had grown accustomed to in the upper levels, instead the walls were built of shining metal. Everything gleamed in the harsh clean lighting installed in the ceiling panels and from the running lights that lined the walls at floor level. Even the air smelled rarefied, as if it had been pumped down here through great big fans and filters, chilled and purified before being released into the hallways.

"Cool, huh?" Mr. Drake's voice was an aural smirk.

"Beyond cool." Jim wasn't sure what to look at first. He had the strangest sensation that he'd just stepped out of the real world and onto a Star Trek set. He wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Worf walk around the corner in full Federation regalia.

"Come on," Mr. Drake gestured towards the right and began walking in that direction, "this is sub-level one and there are three main areas down here. The Med-Lab and research labs. Dr. McCoy run those areas. There is Cerebro which is the domain of the telepaths." At Jim's look of confusion, Iceman elaborated. "Cerebro is a supercomputer...it's designed to enhance a telepath's abilities. It's also tied into the main computer system here as well as the security-net."

They reached a large metal door with huge X engraved on it. Iceman grinned at him, but it was a nasty sort of grin. "Then there is this, the War Room."

Jim just scowled back at him. He felt a touch intimidated, both by the older mutant's chilly attitude and by his surroundings, and he didn't like that feeling. He had an urge to punch Mr. Drake in the nose but he had the feeling that the older mutant would simply laugh at his attempt and then put him down hard and fast. He wouldn't be on the active X-Men combat team if a pissed off teenager were too much for him to handle.

Drake just smirked harder at his expression. "The word 'War Room' is misleading. It's actually more than one room. There's a meeting room for the active team, a communications center, the security center for the mansion and a computer room containing a database on the majority of the world's superpowered beings."

Before Jim could ask questions or demand any explanations for the hundreds of conflicting thoughts swirling through his head, Mr. Drake punched in a code on the panel by the door. The older mutant held still as a low powered beam of light shot out and skimmed over his right eye. After the beam cut out there was another high pitched beep and then the door swished open. His jaw snapping shut, Jim silently followed the older mutant inside and found himself in another hallway. There were four doors running the length of it. Iceman pointed to them all one by one.

"We want this first door. It's the security center. The one across the way is the computer room. Down further is the meeting room on the left and communications is on the right."

There must have been a hidden sensor somewhere, because when Jim and Iceman stepped in front of the door the older mutant had indicated it swished open. Inside the metal room were floor to ceiling computer banks built into the walls with dozens of monitors showing scenes from every portion of the school and the grounds. Lights flashed, electronics hummed and beeped, automated systems buzzed and clicked mindlessly and in the middle of it all sat a smiling woman with an otherworldly beauty. She was tall with overly generous curves, emerald green eyes and rich thick auburn hair with a silvery white streak over her left eye.

"Heya Bobby!" the woman's welcoming smile lit up the cold room and Jim noticed how Mr. Drake's expression softened at her voice. "An' who's this handsome young man ya brought foh me, sugah?"

"Hi, Rogue." Mr. Drake gestured to Jim. "Allow me to introduce one of our new students, Jim Ellison. He's one of Wolvie's feral's and his codename is designated as Jaguar." The Iceman gestured from Jim to Rogue. "Jim, this is Rogue. She's the X-Men's very own Southern Belle."

Jim reached out his hand and noticed that Rogue's was covered in a fine silken glove that tucked up under the sleeves of her uniform. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Rogue. I'm, uh..." he blushed, he couldn't help it, she was just so pretty, "scheduled to be in your Mutant History class on Tuesdays."

Her smile got even wider, but Jim noticed that her handshake was very delicate as if she were afraid to press too tightly. "That's great, sugah. Ah'm real excited about teachin' that class. Ah've done a few guest lectures an' stuff befoh, but this'll be the first class that's been all mine from start to finish."

Jim wanted to melt at the sound of her accent, but he didn't want to make too big a fool of himself. She was one of his teachers, after all and he really was looking forward to her class. He thought it would be interesting to hear about recent history from a mutant perspective where they weren't always portrayed as 'the bad guys' which is how it had always been told in his old school.

"So, what can Ah do for you two today?" Rogue's smile switched back to Mr. Drake and he grinned in such a way as to prove to Jim that those laugh lines weren't dead yet.

"I'm just finishing up giving Jim here a tour of the school and the grounds. I've got to take him down to the Danger Room for physical testing with Angel and Wolverine. So, he's going to need to be added to the security system."

"Sure thing, sugah." Rogue gestured to the door. "If ya'll just take him across the hall an' scan him, Ah'll put him into the system." She paused a second and grinned, "Just the Med-Lab an' the Danger Room, right?"

Mr. Drake nodded his head. "Yeah. He's Logan's student, so any changes in his clearance level will have to come from him, Scotty or a Team Leader." The bitterness was back with a vengeance and a light bulb went off in Jim's head. Idly, he wondered what project Mr. Drake had wanted to pursue and why it had been given to someone else that could cause this level of resentment, but when Rogue chose to ignore it he decided that he would follow her example and just leave it be.

"Come on, Jim." The Iceman lead the way out of the security room door and to the room across the hall, "let's get you scanned."

"Scanned?" Jim watched Mr. Drake open the computer room door and glanced in at all the technology. He didn't recognize anything. "What does that mean, actually."

Mr. Drake shrugged with unconcern. "Simple really. The security is based on DNA and recognition patterns. If the system doesn't recognize you, it won't let you in to the secured areas." He gestured to a large machine that was straight out of Star Trek or possibly stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. "This will scan and record your palm print, your retina and your voice patterns. Once that's recorded, you'll be able to go into the two secured areas that Rogue is currently giving you clearance to; the Med-Lab and the Danger Room."

"Oh."

Almost timidly, Jim stepped up to the first panel and following Mr. Drake's gesture, he laid the palm of his right hand down on the cool smooth glass. The X-Man then typed in a series of codes into the computer and a whining hum began to increase in pitch. Just as in the elevator when Mr. Drake laid his own hand on the panel, a green light ran down the glass from top to bottom recording his fingerprints and palm shape.

"Working." The electronic voice was curiously gender neutral. "Enter designate information."

"Designate: Jaguar." Mr. Drake's voice was startling in it's lack of inflection even as the older mutant typed a few more commands into the system. A few moments later the oddly neutral voice spoke from speakers once more.

"Designate: Jaguar entered into system. Clearance level: student. Name: James J. Ellison." A few beeps and whirs followed before the voice spoke again. "System requires retina scan and voice print recognition patterns."

"Of course, Cerebro." Mr. Drake grinned wryly at Jim. "We'll do the voice print first. With your enhanced vision, the retina scan might be a bit uncomfortable."

Swallowing, Jim nodded. "Sure thing, Mr. Drake. What do I have do?"

Waving Jim over, Iceman walked over to another terminal, this one with a small microphone set up on the top. "I'm going to set the system up for a new voice print. Cerebro will ask you your name, your designation which is Jaguar and your status which is resident student. Just speak into the microphone clearly with your normal speaking voice."

Jim nodded his head. "Oh, okay. Sounds simple enough, but...do I have to use my full name? Everyone just calls me Jim."

Iceman nodded his head. "Yeah, you do. Nicknames that are common will be listed in the system under alias. We use full legal names when we've got them because that is what the government uses in their records."

"Oh" And what could he say to that? It made a weird sort of sense, especially when you realized that the X-Men were considered to be terrorists by the majority of the world's governments. And they wanted him to become one of them. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Mr. Drake began typing into the computer again and then the electronic voice of Cerebro spoke again. "Speak your name."

"James J. Ellison."

"Working." There was a brief pause. "Speak your designation"

"Jaguar."

"Working." Another brief pause. "Speak your status."

"Resident student."

"Working." There was a longer pause filled with humming electronics and flashing lights. "Voice patterns accepted. System requires retina scan."

Mr. Drake waved Jim over to a stool and gestured for him to sit down. A little wary about this next procedure, Jim swallowed hard as he watched the older mutant reach up and pull down a piece of equipment from the ceiling that was attached by a mechanical arm. It looked like something out of an optometrist's wet dream. Mr. Drake simply smirked.

"This will take the retina scans. It's simply a beam of light that will slide over your eye from top to bottom and then from right to left. It won't give off any heat, but it is bright. You'll have to hold very still for this scan. Okay?"

Jim nodded and braced himself with a few deep breaths. As Iceman went about setting up the machine so that it was lined up with his right eye, he remembered a trick that Logan had told him yesterday at the airport. If something was irritating one of his senses then he should focus on another. Jim wasn't sure how loud this scan would be, so he ruled out hearing. Instead, he decided to focus on scent.

As Mr. Drake began typing into the computer system one more time, Jim took in a deep breath through his nose. The most common scent was one of metal and plastic from the machines. Right behind that was the faint scent of ozone from the various lasers. Then there was the Iceman. Jim could smell his cologne which was both musky and spicy all at once. Under that were the scents of soap and shampoo, sort of vanilla-ish. Under that were Mr. Drake's own personal scents. His skin, his sweat and his breath. Clean, masculine, healthy and with just a hint of bitter anger riding throughout it all.

A bright painful light stabbed into Jim's brain and he didn't think, he just inhaled deeply and focused on Mr. Drake's scent. He let the smell of the older mutant roll around inside of his lungs until it dispersed through his whole body, sliding into every little nook and cranny. Jim was suddenly certain that he would be able to find Mr. Drake in the dark just by scent alone.

The light disappeared suddenly and that was almost as shocking as having it slam into his brain in the first place, so he breathed in deep again. Mr. Drake's scent was closer this time, purer and more tangible. Jim knew that he was over to his left, just out of arm's reach, and he didn't even have to look to confirm that. He could smell it. That unique swirling mix of musk, spice, vanilla and clean healthy sweat that his brain had labeled Robert Drake.

"Jim! Jim! Wake up and snap out of it!" there was a hand shaking his arm hard, but he felt disassociated from it. That scent was deep in his nose and his mind. "Jim!" Then the scent began to change. The curls of bitter anger melted away to make room for something a bit sharper and more acrid. At first Jim couldn't place this new edge to Mr. Drake's scent, but then it hit him like a
hammer's blow. Fear.

Instantly, his eyes snapped into focus and his whole body tensed up. "What? Where? Who?" He swiveled his head around to try and find whatever had upset the older mutant so badly, but they were alone.

"Thank God!" Relief colored Mr. Drake's voice and the taint of fear began to bleed out of his scent. "Are you okay? You were like...asleep with your eyes wide open. I couldn't get you to respond."

Jim blinked in confusion for a moment and then blushed when he realized what had happened. "I'm sorry Mr. Drake. I...I didn't mean to do that." He shrugged. "See, sometimes I have trouble with my senses and they bother me a lot. Normally when that happens I just put on my walkman and listen to music. I focus so hard on what I'm hearing that everything else fades away. It's like...I don't know, a trance? Well, I just did it again. I didn't mean to, it just happened."

The Iceman nodded at him for a moment and then frowned. "Was it the sound of the computer that did it?"

Jim blushed even harder and shook his head. "No. I...I didn't know how loud the test would be, so I tried some of Logan's advice and focused on a different sense. I chose my sense of smell. I...uh," Jim's was blushing so hard he kept waiting for his face to burst into flames, "um...well, I kinda got lost in a trance over you. Your cologne or something..." Jim figured that was close enough to the truth for him, this was embarrassing enough without admitting that Jim had been more interested in Mr. Drake's personal human scents.

Mr. Drake grinned. "Oh? Is it good or bad?"

Jim shrugged through his blush. "I...I like it. I just was trying to figure out if I recognized it. I don't."

The Iceman grinned and gestured to the door. "Well, at least I don't smell bad." He lead the way back to the security room. "I think that you should let all of your teachers know about how you sometimes slip into a trance if you get all caught up in one of your heightened senses. It's a bit...freaky to see you like that if you don't know why it's happening. Okay?"

Jim nodded even as his mind replayed the scent of Mr. Drake's growing fear. Fear, he was just realizing, that had been for him and his safety. "Okay, sir. I'll do that. I...I didn't even think of that, but you're right. It's a good idea."

They stepped back through the door and into the security room. They found Rogue waiting for them with a big smile on her face. "All done, sugah?"

Mr. Drake nodded and smiled back. "Sure are. We got Jim here in the system with hand print, voice print and retina prints."

"Great." Rogue waved Jim over to a computer terminal with the same type of keypad that he had seen in various places around the school. "Come 'er, sugah. Ah'll show ya how to work the security panels."

Jim walked over to Rogue and she gestured to the panel in front of them. "This is a basic security panel. The first step is to type in the code that Ah set up foh ya. Ya code is set foh; J.J.E.star.2.dash.1.0. If'n ya type that code into an area ya have access to, Cerebro will ask ya for ID confirmation. That's the palm, voice or retina prints that Bobby set ya up with. If'n ya type that code into an area ya *don't* have access to, the system will respond with an Access Denied signal."

Mr. Drake leaned down over Jim's shoulder. "Go ahead and give it a try."

With a shrug, Jim slowly typed in his initials, hit the star key and then typed in his dorm room number. The security panel flashed red and Cerebro's voice spoke over the speaker. "Access denied. Designate: Jaguar does not rate an Alpha level clearance." Then the screen flashed red then green before settling back into it's ready mode.

Rogue grinned and crossed her arms over her ample chest. "Well, there ya go, sugah. If'n ya have any problems getting into the Med-Lab or the Danger Room, let me or another of ya teachers know right away."

Jim smiled up at her, "Okay, Miss Rogue. Will do."


*

Jim panted heavily from where he was sprawled across the floor. He was absurdly grateful for the thin foam mat that had been spread out underneath their feet even though he was sure that he was still going to end up bruised from tip to toe. Logan stood across the room watching with his arms crossed over his chest and a surly scowl on his face next to a tall handsome blonde man with large white feathered wings. Mr. Drake stood over him with a concerned look on his face.

"You okay there, Jim?"

Jim offered up a tired grin and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "Yeah, I'm good." He reached out and grabbed the hand that Mr. Drake offered him and let the older mutant pull him back to his feet. "I've been knocked on my ass plenty of times during football practice and during the games themselves. It's just that I'm used to getting tackled, not being smacked down like a red-haired stepchild."

The Iceman let loose with an amused snort and chuckled. "Don't worry about that. You've got good upper body strength for your size and you're quick on your feet. Between Cyclops and Wolverine there," he gestured to the short heavily muscled mutant across the room, "you'll be knocking people on their asses yourself soon."

With a grunt, Logan pushed himself away from the wall and walked over towards them. "Listen t' the Icecube, he's telling ya the truth. Ya got good instincts, ya just don't have the skills t' back 'em up, yet. But ya will. Icicle here's been practicing hand-to-hand for over ten years. I'm impressed that ya managed as many hits on him that ya did, kid."

The part of Jim that was starved for affection and praise wanted to beam with pride at having earned positive comments from both Logan and Mr. Drake. Feeling unaccountably shy about it, Jim merely offered a quick grin and then looked down at his sneakers.

"For this next test, I want ya t' hunt down Wings here." Logan gestured to the white winged field leader of the active X-Men combat team.

Jim's head snapped up in confusion. "You want me to hunt him. In here?" Jim looked around the dojo style Danger Room and frowned. "Uh...there's no where for him to hide."

"Sure there is, Kid." Logan glanced around at the sparse clean lines of the room. "But that ain't what I meant."

With a quick fierce grin at his teammates, Logan tipped his head slightly and addressed the ceiling. "Cerebro," he growled out, "Run program Logan-522-Canada. Delete subroutine Sentinel-Alpha-1 and subroutine Gamma-gamma-10-A."

"Working."

It was the same disinterested computer generated voice that he had heard in Sub-level 1 when Mr. Drake had entered him into the security system. Jim was just wondering how many locations were wired into the Cerebro computer system when the entire room began to shimmer and fade away. With a gasp, Jim took a few involuntary steps back as the Danger Room was revealed to be a large plain metal room with thousands of sensor plates on the floors, walls and ceiling.

Jim gazed in wonder up at Logan, "So *that's* why I could smell metal everywhere even though I couldn't find any."

Logan chuckled and nodded even as the room shimmered again. This time the shimmers resolved into green grass under his feet, tall swaying trees surrounding them and a mountain off in the distance with a clear blue sky overhead.

"Wow!"

"Damn good holograms, aren't they?"

Jim turned wide blue eyes towards the winged mutant and nodded in agreement. "Yes, sir," he agreed. "It almost seems real."

Mr. Drake and Mr. Worthington both scowled even as Logan smirked harder.

"What do you mean *almost* real?" Mr. Drake's voice was skeptical. "It seems real to me."

Logan gave him an oddly shrewd look, "Yeah, Kid." He gestured to the forest that was suddenly surrounding them. "What's wrong with it that it don't seem real t' ya?"

Jim flushed and began to worry that he said something wrong. "Um..." His eyes cut left and right as if looking for a way out of the situation.

Logan sighed. "We're not mad at ya, Kid." He shook his head slightly. "It don't seem as real t' me as it does t' the others, either. I just wanna know *why* it seems off t' ya."

Glancing up to see that Logan was serious and that he really wasn't mad, Jim took a deep breath in through his nose. "Well,...it *looks* real and it *sounds* real, but...well, it doesn't *smell* real. All I smell is the metal walls and ozone." Jim blushed slightly. "And, well...you guys too." Jim gestured to the ground, "I don't smell grass, though. Or trees. Or even animals."

Logan chuckled and nodded. "Thought so. I have the same problem with the Danger Room. Holograms don't hold any scent besides ozone and heat."

Jim nodded and ignored the oddly thoughtful look on the other two men's faces as Jim walked over to one of the trees and rested his hand on it's rough bark. He closed his eyes and frowned even as he sank his sense of touch into the holographic tree. He could feel the rough-dry-raspy bark, but nothing else. He concentrated harder and 'searched' deeper for that intangible thing that he *knew* should be there, but wasn't.

"Jim!" A loud shout in his ear and a rough shake of his shoulder snapped him back to the here and now. He turned dazed eyes up to see the concern in Mr. Drake's eyes and the banked worry in Logan's.

"It's doesn't feel alive."

They both blinked at him.

"What'd ya mean, Kid?"

Jim shrugged and struggled to find the words to describe what he meant. "It doesn't feel like a live tree. It...it feels like a dead one. I mean, it *looks* alive and it has the right texture and everything...but it's not alive. It doesn't *feel* alive.

"Huh." Logan grunted and then gave him another thoughtful look. "An' ya can feel the difference between a live tree an' a dead one?"

Jim shrugged. "Trees have sap and water and sunlight running through them. I can feel that movement if I try hard enough. It's faint, but there. It's...alive." He shrugged again. He didn't have the words to describe what it was like to feel something's life-force pulsing under his hands and connecting it to the universe around them. He only knew that these holographic trees *didn't* have that spark of life inside them.

Logan grunted again and then shrugged. "Fair enough, Kid." He gestured to Angel. "Wings there is gonna take off an' hide somewhere in the forest. I want ya t' track him down. Ya don't hafta try an' capture 'em, just *find* 'em."

Angel grinned at him. "Close your eyes and cover your ears, Jaguar."

Jim felt a secret little thrill at being called by his codename. So far, Angel was the only one that used it. Logan called him 'Kid' and everyone else had been using his real name. Unable to stop his grin, Jim squeezed his eyes closed and put his hands over his ears. It wasn't enough to prevent him from hearing the soft swish of large wings unfolding as the feathers slid against one another, nor did it stop his ears from hearing the whoosh whoosh whoosh of those same wings as Angel took to the air.

Finally, after what seemed a long time, Logan tapped him on the shoulder and grunted, "Get t' it, Kid. Hunt me down an X-Man."

Jim opened his eyes and pulled away his hands even as he grinned up at the older mutant, "Yes, sir."

Turning around in a circle, Jim considered what would be the best way to do this. He couldn't see Angel since he was well hidden from sight, so that left his other senses. Touch was out and so was taste. That left hearing and scent. Closing his eyes, Jim breathed in deep. He worked hard to tune out the all pervasive smell of metal. Then, he stepped to the side and breathed in again. This time he tried to tune out the familiar scents of Logan and the Iceman. He took another step to the side and breathed in again...there, down under the other stronger scents was another one. It was faint, but it carried with it an oddly soothing mix of dusty feathers and the tang of a citrus based cologne. Another step and the scent got fainter, so he turned back in the other direction. It got stronger. He grinned.

Turning to glance over his shoulder, Jim called out to Logan softly. "I got his scent. He went this way." Then he strode off in the direction that the scent was strongest.

He followed the trail deeper into the woods, pausing every so often to breath in deeply to test that he was on the correct path. Stalking slowly around a bush, Jim heard a low purring growl rumble in the tree above him. Glancing up, he saw the sleek black jaguar that was his Spirit Guide crouched on a tree branch above him. The great cat's jewel green eyes were locked to a position
slightly to the left of where Jim had been heading.

"Hey cat." Jim grinned when the jaguar looked down at him and purred before it's attention was pulled back to the forest. "You hunting with me?" The purr got slightly louder for a brief moment.

"Kid?" Logan slid silently up besides him.

Jim merely pointed up to, what to Logan seemed like an empty tree branch. "My cat is back. I think he's intrigued by the idea of hunting down a giant man-bird." Jim flashed his teacher a cheeky grin, "Don't worry. He's not a real cat, so he won't really eat Mr. Worthington."

Logan chuckled softly, but then his scruffy face grew serious. "So, Kid. Where's he at?"

Jim stilled and took in a deep breath. He still had the scent and it was coming from the direction that he had been headed. Then, he tilted his head slightly to the side and listened closely. He could hear the holographic wind blowing through the holographic trees. He could hear his own breathing and heartbeat. He could hear Logan's breathing and heartbeat. He concentrated on his hearing and tried to focus it in the direction that the scent had come from. Faintly, he could hear a third heartbeat coming from that direction. Jim pointed. "He's that way. I can smell him and I can hear his heart beating. He's calm and...up high. I don't hear his wings beating though, so he's not flying." Jim frowned in thought. "Maybe he's perched in a tree?"

Logan grunted softly. "Let's go find out, Kid."

Nodding, Jim once again took the lead as he walked through the forest. His nostrils flared as he tracked the scent of his prey and his ears stayed tuned into the steady thumping of his heart. Silent as smoke, the spirit of the jaguar followed along, jumping from tree branch to tree branch without rustling a single leaf.

They were getting closer. So close that Jim's nose was filled with the scent and his whole body thrummed with each bang of his prey's heart. Mindlessly and automatically aware of his Spirit Guide on an instinctual level, Jim began to subvocalize a rumbling growl deep in his chest in imitation of the great cat's own hunting noises. A quick odd look from Logan was the only indication that the older mutant gave that he could hear the noise that no one without enhanced hearing would be able to detect.

Stalking around one last bush, Jim suddenly crouched down low and motioned for Logan to follow him. Reaching out with one hand, Jim slowly moved part of the bush aside and pointed up into the branches of a tree fifteen feet away. "There he is," he whispered, "about twenty feet up in that tall tree over there."

Logan leaned over and looked through the break in the foliage. "You can see the white of his wings since he's facing the other way."

Logan turned his head towards Jim, a fierce grin on his face and a dangerous glint to his dark eyes. "Well, now. Good job, Kid." Those dark eyes cut over towards Angel perched in his tree and then back again, "Shall we go flush our bird out o' his nest?"

Jim's answer was a quick flash of teeth and a subvocalized growl. The hunt was on.

*

"Well?"

Logan glared at the glass of scotch in his hand for a moment before looking up at Scott Summers. "The kid's good. Real athletic. His fightin' skills are about on par with a typical high school kid. More wrestlin' moves than real hand-to-hand combat or street fightin'. He's strong an' quick though, so he'll learn it easy enough."

Scott nodded and took a sip of his own drink even as he leaned further back in his chair. "Yeah. Both Bobby and Warren said the same thing. I currently have him placed in general fitness training and beginners hand-to-hand, but Bobby feels that he'll probably be able to pick up the beginning level techniques pretty fast. Warren thinks that the general fitness training might be too easy for him since he was on his old school's football team."

Logan considered that for a moment and then shrugged. "Wings is right. The kid's in excellent physical shape for his age. If ya put 'em in with kids that've never lifted weights or run laps before, ya not gonna challenge 'em any."

Scott thought about that in silence for a long moment while Logan pulled out a cigar and toyed with it a bit. He knew if he lit up in here that Scott would get pissy, but that wasn't what stopped him. If Scott got pissy, then he'd have Jeannie upset for sending her husband home in a mood and no man wanted that if he could avoid it. Instead, he rolled it around his fingers and took another swallow of his scotch.

"I'll tell ya what, though." Logan pointed at Scott with his cigar. "That spirit cat o' his, the jaguar?" Scott nodded and Logan continued. "I think I figured it out. At least a part o' it."

Logan shifted slightly and put his glass down. He reached for the bottle and topped off his scotch. A raised eyebrow asked Scott if he also wanted more and when the other man shook his head Logan set down the bottle and shrugged.

"The jaguar shows up when the kid has the strongest chance o' going feral." Logan picked up his glass and looked down into the liquid. "It shows up in his dreams every night 'cause it's a part o' him. He says he is either running *with* the cat or he *is* the cat. But it's always there." Logan took another sip and shot Scott a serious look. "When it shows up on it's own, Jim's close t' the edge. It happened at the airport an' it happened down in the Danger Room when he was huntin' Wings."

Scott frowned. "But then what about his Precog abilities?"

Logan shrugged. "Don't know. It might be tangled up in his senses. Hell, it probably is. I mean, a person's senses is how he relates t' the world. Ya see it, ya smell it, ya hear it an' taste it all around ya. Precog is still perceiving the world...just the future world instead o' the present one. And if Chuck was right the other day, his Precog is like a mental alarm system warning o' danger t' come."

Scott paused for a second as if considering all that and then nodded slowly. "I guess you're right. It does make sense." He took a sip of his drink. "I think I'll have either Jean or Emma take a peek in his head. A telepath might be able to figure out how his Precog works. I also want Hank to take a look at him. Make sure that there's nothing wrong with his body or his senses before we start hitting him with full out training."

"Good idea." Logan finished his drink and put the glass down. He flashed a fang filled grin up at Scott and waved his cigar in the air. "Now, if that's all, I'm gonna go an' have me a smoke."

Scott nodded and grinned. "No problem. Just take it outside so I don't have to hear an earful from Jean about it."

Logan smirked and stood up. Two strides took him out of Scott's office and into the hallway.