Female of The Species.

Chapter One: Discovery.

Things had changed greatly in the past two decades. Magneto ended up being right in a way in the end. Mutants were just humans evolved, and they had stayed the test of time. Humans... non-mutants didn't exist anymore. Mutants had replaced them, and at the top of food chain were Ferals. Mainly due to two class five Ferals that had healing beyond scientific measurement. They could heal from anything. They were brothers too, and were at the forefront of the 'Mutant Replacement Movement'. At least that was what it was called when all humans died out and the mutants did not. Rumour was that one of the brothers had lost his memory prior to this but thanks to a low level mutant who could phase through walls managed to remove the bullets that caused the amnesia. Now the brothers were closer then ever.

Things were not ideal however. Whilst mutants were no longer subjected to racial prejudice, things were not perfect. Ferals were now rare. A lot had ended up dieing during the MR Movement as most did not have healing and even those that did the healing didn't end up as strong as 'the Brothers'. Female Ferals were even rarer so now any female feral that was found was captured, registered, trained to be a mate, and then put up for auction to the male Ferals of the world. It was a huge event, and always held after the Male's Testing. In a way males didn't have it easy either although none were ever captured or their freedom taken away. They just had to go through the Battle Arena, and those that won five battles or more during a week stayed intact. Those who didn't were neutered. They wanted to encourage stronger Ferals through breeding, and if the male didn't measure up... Well, they left not being able to reproduce. It was a big thing, I had heard, although I had never been to any of these fights in the Battle Arenas. Only Ferals and the wealthy 'other' mutants really went to those fights.

It was found most mutations did pass on through the family line. For example, a telepath will most likely produce mental type mutations such as telekinetic, mental shields, super smarts, etc. Sometimes surprises did occur, such as a telepath breeding with a shapeshifter producing a mutation that could kill through a single touch, taking in the memories, life force, a psyche of the person, and with mutants their mutation - even permenantly - but if you thought about it the mutation did make sense considering its parents. Hence why 'Feral families' were monitored closely, and why it ended up being rare for a feral mutant to be produced outside of these families. Ferals often mated with each other. Ferals were instinctive, more some then others, and more often then not other mutants just weren't able to understand or even enjoy these differences.

Sometimes mutations did skip a generation or two, and that was what happened with me. My grandfather was a Feral, an intact Feral, and he ended up mating with an empath, my grandmother, and producing a mutant who could feel animals' emotions and talk to them. She was my mother, and since she was not feral the Council left her alone. My grandfather was a level 3 Feral, the lowest level of feral that managed to leave the Battle Arena intact. My mother mated with another feral although he was merely feral by looks with his fluffy feline ears and tail along with his cat-like agility. These along with the heightened senses made him able to survive the Battle Arena by the skin of his teeth as it were. He just managed to scrape a level 3, although most would say he was just a powerful level 2. It was because of this they spared little attention to him or my mother, even when she got pregnant. My father's parents were one low level feral who was a strong empath to boot and a mid-level telepath. They expected me to be a mid-level empath if anything.

What they produced was a strong level 4, maybe level 5, Feral. I wasn't tested. Not yet. My parents had been around level 4 and 5 ferals before and so knew what to look for. To be honest I was surprised how long my parents managed to hide me. Then again, my mutation didn't activate until I was eighteen years old. Even then it took a while for everything to develop. First I developed black stripes on my skin - or should I say in my skin? They were part of my skin anyway, and they were just like tiger stripes. First they were extremely faint, but they grew bolder by the day until they were too distinctive to be able to be hidden by anything other then clothing. The nails on my fingers slowly turned into claws. Even when filed back with a nail file - which hurt beyond words - they returned back within minutes. Next came the tail - this developed through twenty four hours starting during one pain-filled nightmare. I didn't stop screaming or writhing in pain the entire twenty four hours - even when I was awake. The tail was all skin, no fur, with the same stripes I had already developed previously. With that stage over I looked like a deformed cross between a tiger and that furless breed of cat bred in Egypt. I didn't like it, and what was even worse was that my skin was rather sensitive at this point. A week later I went through an entire week of pain where my ears broke off from my head inch by excruiating inch, and then after that cat-like ears grew higher up on my head then where my original ears had been. When you looked no one could even tell I used to have normal human ears there. With my new ears came the heightened senses, which was just as painful as everything else that came before combined, and then finally my fur came in. It started just below the bottom of my neck and then covered the rest of my body leaving the front of my neck and face furless except for my ears which had fur of its own that covered the rest of my head (ie, the top, sides and back) but for the most part it was hidden by my normal human hair so as long as I wore polo necked tops I generally looked human from the neck up. The fur was white with black stripes, and covered every inch of my body from my neck down. The only normal human portion of me that could be seen beside the fur were my nipples. Yeah, the fur didn't cover them. I was a sight to behold. After that, I covered up with clothing. Even my hands were covered in fur so I often ended up in trousers, long sleeved t-shirts, thick gloves (otherwise my claws often tore through them), boots, and hooded jumpers. Since being dressed like this was abnormal unless it was cold weather I often ended up having to stay indoors when it wasn't cold weather. This did me well until my twenty sixth year of being alive.

I guess by now you realised I ended up being caught? Well, honestly, I don't regret what I did to this day.

Here is what happened...

Stuffing my gloved hands into the pockets of my hooded jumper, I made my way down the street towards the local grocery store. It was windy and raining something dreadful, which of course the feline in me did not like but the fact I was outside and free definately outweighed the feline hatred of water. My house, my parents' house, was on the outskirts of Southampton which made it easier to hide me. However I had to travel down the long street to go inside Southampton to get to the local small grocery store. Often, my mother would go out to the local supermarket each sunday to shop for food but since it was bad weather, and I hadn't been out in a while, plus we only needed a few bits I was sent to fetch it. Money in my UK size sixteen jeans pocket, I felt rather safe as I travelled down the street and into the ruralness of Southampton.

Whilst mutants were safe from anything racial, and humans were extinct, it didn't mean crimes didn't still happen. It just so happened that I ended up being a victim of bad luck as I strode up towards the back of the grocery store I was aiming for. It was as I was doing so I heard a feminine scream of fear and pain. The fact I raced towards the sound showed my self-protectiveness wasn't kicking in. If I had been smart and sought out my own survival I would have ignored the scream and gone about my shopping. I didn't. I strode into that dark alley and saw a man, although mutant he wasn't a feral my senses told me, who was ripping the clothing off a small female. She looked around sixteen, underage, and definately wasn't the type to fight. She probably hadn't even come into her mutation yet. The male however was old with greying hair, a bulging belly, thick facial hair, and a disgusting scent that made me guess he hadn't bathed or done any sort of hygiene in over a month.

"Hey! Stop it!"

I yelled, doing my best to smother the growl that wanted to leave my throat. The man turned towards me, showing the depths of his cruelty in his green eyes as he did so, and with a vicious flick of his wrist sent me hurtling down the alley way. I landed with a thud onto the dirty concrete floor, and before I knew it the feral in me snapped from its restraints. I ended up taking a back seat as my body prowled down the alley way with a feline grace. The predator in me was at the forefront and it seemed even the male mutant could feel it as he suddenly turned back to face me from the weak female he had turned back to when he flung me away. Before he could even use his ability my body began leaping from dumpster to piles of trash, making it difficult for him to pick me out to use his telekinetic ability, and then my body pounced on him. My glove covered claws dug into his body with strength only a feral could possess and tore out his intestines. The predator in me snarled and growled as my claws tore into him some more.

The noise must have been loud enough to draw others to us, because it was only moments later a local cop found us. It took an animal control officer with an entire box of tranquilisers to knock me out. When I came to I was in the cell that I am in now. I'm guessing the male was dead, the female had gone home, and from the bars on the fourth wall (the others made of adamantium due to feral strength) I could see other female ferals. So this was one of the Female Feral Stations. I highly doubted I was still in the UK. From what I knew there was no FF Station in the UK, so I must have been kept drugged up for a few days if they had transported me out of the UK. I knew I should be panicking or trying to escape but since this was the fate of all female ferals - a fate I had been saved from for twenty six years of my life thus far - I knew it would be slightly unfair to do so.

That didn't mean I was going to take this rolling over though. Oh no. They had another thing coming if they thought I was going to be submissive.

Especially since they had taken all my clothing from me. I seemed clean too. Clearly they wanted everything on display.

A growl rumbled in my throat. Oh yes, they were going to get everything...

Author's Note: I know I shouldn't start any more stories but this idea wouldn't leave my head. Sorry! I hope you all like it - and no I won't be forgetting or abandoning any of my other stories.