Title: Sirens' Song
Author: Sinayah
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Buffy, Angel, or Xmen. They belong to very rich people who don't appreciate them as we fanfic writers do.
Disclaimer 2: The Chapter Title and Lyrics belong to Oscar Hammerstein.
Authors Note: Many heartfelt thanks to my muse Zenura, without her I wouldn't have had the guts to write. If you like this story please review or send me an email, I'd really appreciate hearing what you think. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Getting to Know You
"getting to know you, getting to know all about you…"
Serena Masterton, the mutant known to her friends as Siren, was bored. Things had been quiet around the X mansion lately, not even Sabretooth or Mystique had been by to cause trouble. Serena was new to the Xmen. Professor Xavier and his team had found her in New Orleans just six months ago. The newest Xmen team member reminisced on the first time she saw another mutant.
Cerebro had detected her powers and the Wolverine had been sent to retrieve her since he'd been near by. The gruff, rude, hairy man had found Siren huddled against the wall of an alley in the French Quarter. He'd made overtures to the frightened woman, who had just fended off a group of would be rapists, telling her that he wouldn't harm her and understood what was happening to her but she only curled into herself more and shook her head back and forth, refusing to speak.
The normally impatient mutant had continued trying to calm the girl, knowing that she needed help. It took a while but Siren began to trust the scary looking man and was about to take his hand when Mystique had shown up. A battle ensued between the two mutants but stopped abruptly when the silent girl stood and opened her mouth in song.
Serenas' mutation was simple to understand if you knew your mythology. She was a sea siren. Her voice was hypnotic and would bring people under her control in a matter of moments. She could also change form. At will the small, curvaceous woman with raven hair, amber eyes, and pale skin would transform into a mermaid like creature with black eyes, gleaming fangs and long sharp claws.
When the lovely young woman started a low murmuring song that night in the alley, the two combatants had stopped fighting immediately and stood still. Using her influence on their minds Siren had questioned them both as to what they wanted from her. When the answers were given, she ordered Mystique to leave the city and then fell silent again, freeing the mutants from her power.
The shape shifter had fled in quite a hurry once released. Logan turned to the mute woman when she put a hand on his arm to stop him from chasing after Mystique. She motioned for him to stay where he was, then hunted around for her purse. Locating the bag, she had pulled a notepad and pen from it and scribbled off a note. 'Let her go. I will come with you. Will explain later.' It had said.
The trip back to the school was silent. Logan had guided the bedraggled woman to his motorcycle and driven with her to the nearest open lot where Scott Summers was waiting to fly them both back to the mansion in the X Jet. Siren had seated herself in one of the chairs and promptly fallen asleep. She never heard the conversation between Logan and Scott, nor did she notice the quizzical glances that Wolverine had sent her way throughout the trip.
* * * * * * * * * *
The transition had gone fairly smoothly. Upon landing she was taken by Wolverine and Cyclops to meet Professor Xavier. She'd opened her mind to the older gentleman, allowing him to see what her mutation was and a small portion of her history. She was willing to trust the telepath, but only up to a certain point. Her mental defences kept the powerful man from seeing the things she didn't want him to know.
The kind professor had allowed her to keep her secrets and given her a place at the mansion that night. He'd called the residents together and explained her mutation so that no one would expect her to speak to them. Since she was older than the students that resided at the mansion, in her mid twenties, she stayed at the mansion during the day, training with the professor to control her abilities and sparring with Logan to increase her already formidable fighting skill.
Now, six months later Siren was a valued member of the team. She'd found friends in the older Xmen and had been taken in by the teens as a surrogate mother since she always seemed to be watching out for them.
* * * * * * * * * *
Glancing at the wall clock as her memories faded into the present Siren muttered "Time for the daily concert." And left her bedroom. It had been apparent after two months that controlling her mutation was pretty much a lost cause. She could now control the power behind the suggestions she gave, but could not stop the hypnosis itself. Even with a miniscule amount of suggestion the people she practiced with would fall under her spell after hearing her speak for a few moments. So instead of attempting to control the mutation herself, the Xmen were now attempting to build up a resistance to her voice.
Every evening at curfew, when all the residents were in the mansion, they would gather in the common room and listen to the Sirens song. She would read aloud from books or sing while her hypnotic suggestions ordered the others to do different things. Her plan was to embarrass the group so much that they would try their hardest to resist her. It started working after the first week.
The group, though they loved their newest member, hated her mutation with a passion during that first week. The dignified professor kept awakening from Serenas' hypnosis to find himself in the disquieting position of acting as someone's chair. First Storm, then Jean, Rogue, and Kitty. He'd begun to fight the hypnosis off with success after he found himself with a lap full of Nightcrawler.
Jean was the next to successfully resist Sirens voice. The telekinetic simply got tired performing menial tasks for the raven haired team mate she secretly hated. Finding herself cleaning the boys' bathroom was the last straw for the young redhead. Storm was next, having been dizzy for hours after the last session where she'd obviously been doing loop de loops in mid air for an hour. The others fell like dominoes, redoubling their efforts after finding themselves in various embarrassing situations. Now all the residents of the mansion could speak to Serena without falling under her spell, at least for short periods. Logan was still having a hard time though; he just seemed to like the sound so much he forgot to try to resist its pull. Tonight though, Siren planned on pissing him off and embarrassing him at the same time.
* * * * * * * * * *
An hour later the raven haired singer came barrelling back into her room with one hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. She locked the door behind her and started howling, dropping to her knees with the force of her amusement. She had no doubt now that the fierce Wolverine would fight her hypnosis. Said badass was downstairs at the moment, probably trying to decide what part of his body to wash first.
Though the Xmen had succeeded in building up their tolerance for Sirens mutation, a little extra effort on her part had hypnotized the people she needed to help her with Wolverine. Not that any of the girls needed to be hypnotized for what she had planned, all the girls wanted to see the mighty Logan fall, but Scott sure did and the girls were there anyway.
During the hour long session she'd had Jean paint Wolverines fingernails, toenails, and adamantium claws different rainbow colours. Storm had been in charge of the mutants' hair, which now looked like a clown wig. She'd made the big badass change clothing, a pink ballet costume; complete with starched tutu was provided by Rogue. And for the finishing touch, she'd ordered Cyclops to kiss this clown/ballerina as if he were the laser eyed mutants beloved Jean. Kissing and groping in progress, hidden video camera well placed and running, Serena had ordered Logan to enjoy himself, and not to kill anyone when he woke up. Then she had bolted.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now as she lay on her bed calming down, Wolverines low growl came over the intercom. "You know I'm gonna kill ya when I get outta the shower Chatty. What in the hell were ya thinkin?" Siren took a few deep breaths before pressing the button to allow her to respond to Logan. She was grateful to the professor for giving her a small computer that would voice whatever she typed into its keypad. She could now speak to people without having to write everything in a notebook.
"I was thinking that you haven't been trying real hard to build up a tolerance for my voice Logan. I had to do something drastic to make you try harder. That dye coming out alright?" The raven haired woman typed into the device on her arm. She really didn't want Logan mad at her, but she also didn't want him to freeze in a fight because she'd accidentally hypnotised him. The voice coming out of the computer was a replica of her own, complete with slight Ukrainian accent. The only thing it was missing was the hypnotic power.
Logan looked himself over in the mirror. The hair dye had come out fine, but he was still dealing with the nail polish on his fingers and toes. He growled into the intercom, "The dye's gone but what the hell do you women use to get this crap off your nails?" He was attempting to use one fingernail to remove the paint from another under hot water. That wasn't working very well and he was about to pop a claw when the hypnotist responded.
"Nail polish remover Logan. Come on up to my room and I'll help ya. It's the least I can do. Better go by the garage and bring some turpentine as well." Serena snickered, wondering if Logan had seen his claws yet. She soon got her answer.
"Why the turpentine Chatterbox?" Logan increased the volume and ferocity of his growl, hoping to intimidate the little brat. She may have been older and more mature than the students but Siren could pull pranks just as well as Kurt and Evan. He listened to her giggle over the intercom, getting pissed all over again. Logan walked over to the full length mirror on his bedroom door and looked his nude form over once again. He couldn't see anything wrong except for the rainbow nail polish.
Realization dawned and the continuous low growl that accompanied a pissed off Wolverine turned into a thundering roar that echoed through the halls of the mansion as the man popped the foot long adamantium claws from between his knuckles and saw that they were painted in rainbow colours too. Two thoughts warred in the furious mans head 'I'm gonna kill her!' and 'How the hell did she manage to paint my damn claws?' Pulling a pair of jeans on, Logan left his bedroom and stalked up the stairs, intending to shred the raven tressed woman with his colourful claws.
* * * * * * * * * *
Outside the bedroom where Siren had taken refuge he found the three senior members of the Xmen team along with Chuck waiting for him. Seeing Scott increased his rage. When Logan had awoken from Sirens hypnosis he'd found himself being kissed, quite well, and very passionately. As his eyes were closed he had no idea who he was kissing and didn't back away immediately. When his azure eyes finally opened though and he realized he was frenching Cyclops, and enjoying it, Logan freaked. He'd barely resisted the urge to kill the other man, being aware that Scott was under hypnosis as well.
"Now Logan, please just calm down." The professor said, the epitome of calm even in the face of Wolverines temper. Storm was quick to defend their team mate, explaining to him that Serena wouldn't have done it if she hadn't felt it was necessary to get Logan to focus on resisting her influence. Jean remained silent, only wanting to watch as Wolverine eviscerated her nemesis. Scott also stayed quiet; the team leader tended to agree with Logan but didn't have a hot enough temper to get through the adults.
Wolverine felt his fury begin to ebb, knowing that Chuck and Storm were right. He hadn't been trying with his usual fervour to fight off the effects of Sirens voice. 'Her voice is just too beautiful to want to ignore. I just want to listen to her, and it aint all the hypnosis.' Logan mused. "I'm fine Chuck, just let me into her room so she can get the freakin paint offa me."
Professor Xavier conceded after taking a quick glance into Logan's mind. Knowing the man would not hurt their Ukrainian friend he motioned for the others to leave with him. As Scooter passed him he whispered, "When you start lecturing her, give her a good five minutes for me would ya." After receiving a nod from Logan, Scott disappeared around the corner, following his team mates.
* * * * * * * * * *
Logan squared his shoulders and entered Serenas' bedroom. The woman was sitting cross legged on her bed, dark head bowed, waiting for him. Without turning her head the woman tapped at her arm band computer. "I'm sorry Wolvie, please forgive me. I just don't want you to get hurt because you got mesmerized in a fight." She looked up at him as the computer finished reciting her plea, her whiskey coloured eyes beginning to fill with tears. Siren truly liked her gruff team mate. She felt more comfortable with Wolverine than she did with any of the mansions other residents. Logan often reminded her of her first saviour.
Seeing the tears in Serenas' eyes, the last of Logan's anger disappeared, despite her use of the hated nickname. He shut the door, securing their privacy and opened his arms to the lovely woman. A bright smile lit up her elfin face and she rushed into the big mans arms, throwing her own around his neck and burying her face in his wide chest. "Course I forgive ya Chatterbox." Logan wrapped his thickly muscled arms around the small woman and nuzzled her hair. He released her after a moment and pulled her back enough so that he could meet her eyes. "Just so long as ya get the paint off me before I leave this room." He managed to keep a stern expression on his face while he chastised his friend gently.
Stepping back Siren nodded and gestured for him to sit on her bed. When he complied she sat before him, taking a bottle of nail polish remover and a bag of cotton balls from her nightstand drawer and beginning the arduous task of removing all traces of nail enamel from her friends' hands, feet, and claws.
Author: Sinayah
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Buffy, Angel, or Xmen. They belong to very rich people who don't appreciate them as we fanfic writers do.
Disclaimer 2: The Chapter Title and Lyrics belong to Oscar Hammerstein.
Authors Note: Many heartfelt thanks to my muse Zenura, without her I wouldn't have had the guts to write. If you like this story please review or send me an email, I'd really appreciate hearing what you think. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Getting to Know You
"getting to know you, getting to know all about you…"
Serena Masterton, the mutant known to her friends as Siren, was bored. Things had been quiet around the X mansion lately, not even Sabretooth or Mystique had been by to cause trouble. Serena was new to the Xmen. Professor Xavier and his team had found her in New Orleans just six months ago. The newest Xmen team member reminisced on the first time she saw another mutant.
Cerebro had detected her powers and the Wolverine had been sent to retrieve her since he'd been near by. The gruff, rude, hairy man had found Siren huddled against the wall of an alley in the French Quarter. He'd made overtures to the frightened woman, who had just fended off a group of would be rapists, telling her that he wouldn't harm her and understood what was happening to her but she only curled into herself more and shook her head back and forth, refusing to speak.
The normally impatient mutant had continued trying to calm the girl, knowing that she needed help. It took a while but Siren began to trust the scary looking man and was about to take his hand when Mystique had shown up. A battle ensued between the two mutants but stopped abruptly when the silent girl stood and opened her mouth in song.
Serenas' mutation was simple to understand if you knew your mythology. She was a sea siren. Her voice was hypnotic and would bring people under her control in a matter of moments. She could also change form. At will the small, curvaceous woman with raven hair, amber eyes, and pale skin would transform into a mermaid like creature with black eyes, gleaming fangs and long sharp claws.
When the lovely young woman started a low murmuring song that night in the alley, the two combatants had stopped fighting immediately and stood still. Using her influence on their minds Siren had questioned them both as to what they wanted from her. When the answers were given, she ordered Mystique to leave the city and then fell silent again, freeing the mutants from her power.
The shape shifter had fled in quite a hurry once released. Logan turned to the mute woman when she put a hand on his arm to stop him from chasing after Mystique. She motioned for him to stay where he was, then hunted around for her purse. Locating the bag, she had pulled a notepad and pen from it and scribbled off a note. 'Let her go. I will come with you. Will explain later.' It had said.
The trip back to the school was silent. Logan had guided the bedraggled woman to his motorcycle and driven with her to the nearest open lot where Scott Summers was waiting to fly them both back to the mansion in the X Jet. Siren had seated herself in one of the chairs and promptly fallen asleep. She never heard the conversation between Logan and Scott, nor did she notice the quizzical glances that Wolverine had sent her way throughout the trip.
* * * * * * * * * *
The transition had gone fairly smoothly. Upon landing she was taken by Wolverine and Cyclops to meet Professor Xavier. She'd opened her mind to the older gentleman, allowing him to see what her mutation was and a small portion of her history. She was willing to trust the telepath, but only up to a certain point. Her mental defences kept the powerful man from seeing the things she didn't want him to know.
The kind professor had allowed her to keep her secrets and given her a place at the mansion that night. He'd called the residents together and explained her mutation so that no one would expect her to speak to them. Since she was older than the students that resided at the mansion, in her mid twenties, she stayed at the mansion during the day, training with the professor to control her abilities and sparring with Logan to increase her already formidable fighting skill.
Now, six months later Siren was a valued member of the team. She'd found friends in the older Xmen and had been taken in by the teens as a surrogate mother since she always seemed to be watching out for them.
* * * * * * * * * *
Glancing at the wall clock as her memories faded into the present Siren muttered "Time for the daily concert." And left her bedroom. It had been apparent after two months that controlling her mutation was pretty much a lost cause. She could now control the power behind the suggestions she gave, but could not stop the hypnosis itself. Even with a miniscule amount of suggestion the people she practiced with would fall under her spell after hearing her speak for a few moments. So instead of attempting to control the mutation herself, the Xmen were now attempting to build up a resistance to her voice.
Every evening at curfew, when all the residents were in the mansion, they would gather in the common room and listen to the Sirens song. She would read aloud from books or sing while her hypnotic suggestions ordered the others to do different things. Her plan was to embarrass the group so much that they would try their hardest to resist her. It started working after the first week.
The group, though they loved their newest member, hated her mutation with a passion during that first week. The dignified professor kept awakening from Serenas' hypnosis to find himself in the disquieting position of acting as someone's chair. First Storm, then Jean, Rogue, and Kitty. He'd begun to fight the hypnosis off with success after he found himself with a lap full of Nightcrawler.
Jean was the next to successfully resist Sirens voice. The telekinetic simply got tired performing menial tasks for the raven haired team mate she secretly hated. Finding herself cleaning the boys' bathroom was the last straw for the young redhead. Storm was next, having been dizzy for hours after the last session where she'd obviously been doing loop de loops in mid air for an hour. The others fell like dominoes, redoubling their efforts after finding themselves in various embarrassing situations. Now all the residents of the mansion could speak to Serena without falling under her spell, at least for short periods. Logan was still having a hard time though; he just seemed to like the sound so much he forgot to try to resist its pull. Tonight though, Siren planned on pissing him off and embarrassing him at the same time.
* * * * * * * * * *
An hour later the raven haired singer came barrelling back into her room with one hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. She locked the door behind her and started howling, dropping to her knees with the force of her amusement. She had no doubt now that the fierce Wolverine would fight her hypnosis. Said badass was downstairs at the moment, probably trying to decide what part of his body to wash first.
Though the Xmen had succeeded in building up their tolerance for Sirens mutation, a little extra effort on her part had hypnotized the people she needed to help her with Wolverine. Not that any of the girls needed to be hypnotized for what she had planned, all the girls wanted to see the mighty Logan fall, but Scott sure did and the girls were there anyway.
During the hour long session she'd had Jean paint Wolverines fingernails, toenails, and adamantium claws different rainbow colours. Storm had been in charge of the mutants' hair, which now looked like a clown wig. She'd made the big badass change clothing, a pink ballet costume; complete with starched tutu was provided by Rogue. And for the finishing touch, she'd ordered Cyclops to kiss this clown/ballerina as if he were the laser eyed mutants beloved Jean. Kissing and groping in progress, hidden video camera well placed and running, Serena had ordered Logan to enjoy himself, and not to kill anyone when he woke up. Then she had bolted.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now as she lay on her bed calming down, Wolverines low growl came over the intercom. "You know I'm gonna kill ya when I get outta the shower Chatty. What in the hell were ya thinkin?" Siren took a few deep breaths before pressing the button to allow her to respond to Logan. She was grateful to the professor for giving her a small computer that would voice whatever she typed into its keypad. She could now speak to people without having to write everything in a notebook.
"I was thinking that you haven't been trying real hard to build up a tolerance for my voice Logan. I had to do something drastic to make you try harder. That dye coming out alright?" The raven haired woman typed into the device on her arm. She really didn't want Logan mad at her, but she also didn't want him to freeze in a fight because she'd accidentally hypnotised him. The voice coming out of the computer was a replica of her own, complete with slight Ukrainian accent. The only thing it was missing was the hypnotic power.
Logan looked himself over in the mirror. The hair dye had come out fine, but he was still dealing with the nail polish on his fingers and toes. He growled into the intercom, "The dye's gone but what the hell do you women use to get this crap off your nails?" He was attempting to use one fingernail to remove the paint from another under hot water. That wasn't working very well and he was about to pop a claw when the hypnotist responded.
"Nail polish remover Logan. Come on up to my room and I'll help ya. It's the least I can do. Better go by the garage and bring some turpentine as well." Serena snickered, wondering if Logan had seen his claws yet. She soon got her answer.
"Why the turpentine Chatterbox?" Logan increased the volume and ferocity of his growl, hoping to intimidate the little brat. She may have been older and more mature than the students but Siren could pull pranks just as well as Kurt and Evan. He listened to her giggle over the intercom, getting pissed all over again. Logan walked over to the full length mirror on his bedroom door and looked his nude form over once again. He couldn't see anything wrong except for the rainbow nail polish.
Realization dawned and the continuous low growl that accompanied a pissed off Wolverine turned into a thundering roar that echoed through the halls of the mansion as the man popped the foot long adamantium claws from between his knuckles and saw that they were painted in rainbow colours too. Two thoughts warred in the furious mans head 'I'm gonna kill her!' and 'How the hell did she manage to paint my damn claws?' Pulling a pair of jeans on, Logan left his bedroom and stalked up the stairs, intending to shred the raven tressed woman with his colourful claws.
* * * * * * * * * *
Outside the bedroom where Siren had taken refuge he found the three senior members of the Xmen team along with Chuck waiting for him. Seeing Scott increased his rage. When Logan had awoken from Sirens hypnosis he'd found himself being kissed, quite well, and very passionately. As his eyes were closed he had no idea who he was kissing and didn't back away immediately. When his azure eyes finally opened though and he realized he was frenching Cyclops, and enjoying it, Logan freaked. He'd barely resisted the urge to kill the other man, being aware that Scott was under hypnosis as well.
"Now Logan, please just calm down." The professor said, the epitome of calm even in the face of Wolverines temper. Storm was quick to defend their team mate, explaining to him that Serena wouldn't have done it if she hadn't felt it was necessary to get Logan to focus on resisting her influence. Jean remained silent, only wanting to watch as Wolverine eviscerated her nemesis. Scott also stayed quiet; the team leader tended to agree with Logan but didn't have a hot enough temper to get through the adults.
Wolverine felt his fury begin to ebb, knowing that Chuck and Storm were right. He hadn't been trying with his usual fervour to fight off the effects of Sirens voice. 'Her voice is just too beautiful to want to ignore. I just want to listen to her, and it aint all the hypnosis.' Logan mused. "I'm fine Chuck, just let me into her room so she can get the freakin paint offa me."
Professor Xavier conceded after taking a quick glance into Logan's mind. Knowing the man would not hurt their Ukrainian friend he motioned for the others to leave with him. As Scooter passed him he whispered, "When you start lecturing her, give her a good five minutes for me would ya." After receiving a nod from Logan, Scott disappeared around the corner, following his team mates.
* * * * * * * * * *
Logan squared his shoulders and entered Serenas' bedroom. The woman was sitting cross legged on her bed, dark head bowed, waiting for him. Without turning her head the woman tapped at her arm band computer. "I'm sorry Wolvie, please forgive me. I just don't want you to get hurt because you got mesmerized in a fight." She looked up at him as the computer finished reciting her plea, her whiskey coloured eyes beginning to fill with tears. Siren truly liked her gruff team mate. She felt more comfortable with Wolverine than she did with any of the mansions other residents. Logan often reminded her of her first saviour.
Seeing the tears in Serenas' eyes, the last of Logan's anger disappeared, despite her use of the hated nickname. He shut the door, securing their privacy and opened his arms to the lovely woman. A bright smile lit up her elfin face and she rushed into the big mans arms, throwing her own around his neck and burying her face in his wide chest. "Course I forgive ya Chatterbox." Logan wrapped his thickly muscled arms around the small woman and nuzzled her hair. He released her after a moment and pulled her back enough so that he could meet her eyes. "Just so long as ya get the paint off me before I leave this room." He managed to keep a stern expression on his face while he chastised his friend gently.
Stepping back Siren nodded and gestured for him to sit on her bed. When he complied she sat before him, taking a bottle of nail polish remover and a bag of cotton balls from her nightstand drawer and beginning the arduous task of removing all traces of nail enamel from her friends' hands, feet, and claws.