Chapter 1 The Tiger
May 10th
10-year-old Greer Potter was hiding behind some trash cans in an abandoned alleyway in the city of New York in great agony. She was short for her age and her crimson red hair fell down to her waist. She was dressed in her cousins, Dudly,oversised clothes and she was completely barefoot. When she was 4-years-old her Uncle Vernon got a promotion and they had to move to the US, more specificly New York City. Less than 24 hours before she was a normal elementry school student.
School, life, everything was great for Greer until that day, the only time she managed to legitiamaly get away from the Dursleys, and thankfully Dudley was in a different class than her... The day when a man named Dr. Minos was invited to her school to give a lecture on cross species genetics. In his lecture, he claimed he could give ordinary human beings the strength, stamina, speed and agility of a wild animal through "splicing". The purpose was to create a new type of "Sentinel". A "sentinel" that possessed the intelligence of a human being, but the raw power that was needed to counter the growing mutant epidemic.
To Greer and at least 80% of the student body it sounded like a load of crap. Why would anyone want to be turned into some form of animal hybrid? She hated mutants to a fair degree but taking such drastic measures to eliminate them... was ridiculous. Doodling through the two hour long lecture and not taking in another word after Minos's boring introduction, she happily excited the lecture hall.
After coming home, Greer begrudgingly trudged up the stairs to her room. As she looked across the hallway, she noticed there was no noise or even light coming from Dudley's room... Odd considering he was always making some kind of noise from his room ... 'Maybe he's asleep...' she thought before entering her cousin's room... Aunt Petunia would blame me if he fell asleep this early...
"Dudley... Dudley are you..." She stopped short, as the room was empty...
"What the hell..."
A muffled gunshot rang behind her, followed by a stinging sensation in her shoulder. Falling to the ground, Greer released a silent scream before falling and her world went black...
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It felt like hours before Greer came to. Groaning, she tried to acclimate herself to the bright lit room.
"Oh, so our little our volunteer has awaken?" a deep voice sounded from the far corner. Snapping her eyes to the source of the sound, she saw nothing...
"Where... where am I... who are you?" Greer asked, fear starting to creep in her spine.
"You're in my laboratory... and who I am does not concern you." The voice answered back. Noticing she was strapped tightly onto some sort of hospital bed with no means of escape... Greer felt dread enter her system... Something was very wrong here... Looking up, she desperately pleaded with the voice...
"I presume you've heard all about my work..." the voice replied, ignoring her question. "The one on new sentinels and cross species genetics haven't you?"
"Let me go!" Greer spat getting more frightened by the second...
"And why would I do that?"
Hearing the hint of laughter behind that last sentence, Greer tried even harder to break free.
"What are you going to do to me?" she screamed.
"Well your uncle did request that you volunteer for our little setinal project... "
Greer stopped thrashing, Minos' words hitting her like a ton of bricks... This man... He was... He was crazy... Insane... He had turned her brother into some kind of freak...
"I knew my uncle would kill me eventually..."
"All my sentinels had their memories wiped after being spliced. Extra precautions I carried out so they do not have second thoughts about... about people like you." There was a twinge of triumph in the voice. This made Greer almost insane with anger.
" You won't get away with this... you...you..."
"You know too much." The voice boomed back and with that, five massive mechanical arms with syringes attached rose from beneath the bed, making Greer's eyes widen with fear...
"Killing you will have no benefit to me... Making you a sentinel on the other hand would."
Greer shook her head feverishly... 'No! Not that! ANYTHING but that... She didn't want to be turned into a bigger freak...'
"No please... Don't..." she begged weakly but Minos ignored her pleas...
" You WILL join my sentinel army... What DNA did should I splice with you? Oh yes, a member of the feline family, a tiger to be more precise..."
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Back in the lab, Dr. Minos held his gashed chest as he watched the figure of his latest sentinel disappear into the darkness. The little bitch had attacked him when he tried to remove her memories via injection... Somehow she broke out of the restraints and escaped. As furious as he was, Minos knew chasing her would have been utterly...pointless...It would most probably put him under the radar of the police... meaning he couldn't continue with his precious work... Life and its compromises... Struggling back to his desk he pressed the emergency button.
"Stryker. It's Minos I need to disappear."
Greer clambered through the window into her room, collapsing onto the ground as she struggled to catch her breath, her every muscle twitching in exhaustion...
"What did he do to me?" she thought in fear as she slowly absorbed how quickly and how far she had run... Sitting up, she became aware of how well she could see in the dark... and it was starting to scare her... A lot... Something flicked against her leg as she screamed before kicking it only to hiss in pain... Looking down, she noticed a tail...
"WHAT DID HE DO TO ME?" she thought in panic as her breathing quickened and her heart rate doubled...
Noticing something moving at the corner of her eye, she quickly whipped around only to be met with a reflection... her reflection... but the creature in the full-length mirror wasn't human... or animal... It was some unnatural, ungodly combination of both...
Greer shakily brought her finger to the glass... Just to make sure she wasn't dreaming and nearly chocked in near hyperventilation as she took in how much she changed... Her raven hair was now thicker and dark orange in color while her ivory white skin was now covered in soft orange fur... Fur that was befit for an animal... decorated with black stripes. Her already toned body was now even more muscular, lean muscle filling her still slender frame. Her once dainty and perfectly manicured nails and toenails were replaced with long razor sharp claws. When she hesitantly opened her mouth she saw they were filled with large and sharp canines. The delicate human features of her face remained unchanged but like her body, it was covered in orange fur with only two black stripes on each of her cheeks. Her blue eyes were now bright green with silted irises and when Greer felt tugging at the sides of her head, she shakily lifted her hair only to see her ears were now pointed and furred. To, Greer's horror... she found out she could move both her ears and tail as easily as if they were any other limb in her body. With a yelp, she scrambled away from the mirror and started shaking uncontrollably, her mind just refusing to process what had happened to her...
"No no no no..." she chanted as she stared hatefully at the thing in the mirror, refusing to accept it was her...
"I'm not this thing... I was already a freak... That is not me... Not me... Not me... Not me..."
Greer felt her lungs contract painfully, and she brought her hands to her chest in hopes of easing the pain only to feel the soft fur that now replaced her skin. Still in denial, she tried to rip some of it out only to cry out when she realized how painful it was... It was a part of her...
"God... please no...NO!" she screamed only to leap back in fear as her screamed ended in an extremely loud and animalistic roar... nearly causing her to jump out of her skin.
"Greer what are you..." Greer turned and came face to face with her own Aunt.
"My God..."
Petunia and niece stared at each other in silence and finally...
"Aunt Petunia... don't... don't... freak out..." but her mother backed away, her olive eyes filled with disgust.
"Stay... Stay away from me! Don't come any closer! Or I'll I'll...We sold you to that doctor for a reason!"
Before Greer could do anything she heard 2 gunshots, "Aghh!" Greer moaned as the memory of the gunshots flashed through her mind. Somehow... she had miraculously dragged herself from her house to some alleyway without being seen. Seeing the blood pool on the ground, Greer knew she needed medical attention and fast but she didn't know where to get it... Looking the way she did now... Lowering her brown tipped ears in dejectedness Greer felt to tired to resist the pain and tried to fall asleep only to be disturbed by a girl's voice.
"Hello is someone there?" Greer shook in panic as wild thoughts raced through her mind.
"Who is it? Maybe she can help me!" But one look at her furred body made her think otherwise... Who would help a freak like her? She could get mutant bashed... or worse... killed... The sound of footsteps got closer and Greer started panicking even more, her tail trashing around wildly.
"Uh oh, she's getting closer! I have to run! Hide!" and as she attempted to pull herself up, a tall red headed girl stepped in front of her.
"Please...please don't hurt me" Greer whimpered as she attempted to stand once again. She failed miserably when another flash of searing pain flowed from her gut to the rest of the body, paralyzing her for a moment before she collapsed back down onto the ground. In order to add some distance between her and the red headed girl, she tried kicking back and shielding herself with her arms. She waited for something painful to happen. A kick, a blow to the head... Anything... What she didn't expect was a kind soothing voice...
"You're hurt, don't move, it's alright I'm not going to..." Greer saw the foreign hand reach for her. Instinctively she felt her lips curl on their own accord before an animalistic hiss escaped her. Seeing the fear on the girl's face and how she'd backed away Greer quickly covered her mouth, horrified that she was capable of making such an inhuman sound.
"I'm ... sorry I didn't mean to... I couldn't... Oh God... I can't control..."
"Its fine, really..." The red headed girl smiling faintly as if trying to reassure the both of them before slowly removing her jacket.
Greer backed away, as the girl approached her. But stopped when the girl lifted her hands in a surrendering position... Slowly, Greer allowed the girl to approach her before relaxing slightly when the girl proceeded to wrap the jacket around her bloodied middle.
"Thank you..." she croaked before she unintentionally hissed again when the girl's hand accidently bumped against her stomach.
"I'm sorry... " the girl apologized before she gestured for Greer to stay still.
"You're hurt real bad... Is there anyone I can call? Friends? Family?"
Greer opened her mouth before the reality of her situation struck her... Gripping her constricting chest she shook her head slowly, tears prickling at the corner of her eyes at the memory of her mother screaming.
"No... There isn't anybody..." she said weakly. The girl's eyes softened with understanding as she watched Greer lie back in defeat...
"Look... Lets be friends ok? My name is Jean, Jean Grey... I'm here to help you..."
"Help me? Aren't you... Aren't you afraid of me?" Greer replied uncertainly as she pressed herself against the wall in fear. She eyed Jean's hand with alien scrutiny all the while suppressing the urge to hiss again as it landed on her furred shoulder.
"Why would I? You have a really special gift"
"Special gift? More like a curse," Greer spat back not believing her ears... This must be one of those crazy mutant activists she had been hearing about... Who else could act so normally around someone like her?"
"Look... I understand that you must be terrified about your new powers. I was too when I got them and trust me I hated them to." Jean replied soothingly as she placed another hand on Greer's furred shoulders.
"You... You have powers?" Greer asked in disbelief. She couldn't believe it, she was in an alley bleeding to death while having a conversation with a mutant... An actual living mutant...
"Yeah..." Jean grinned and did a gesture with her hand. The empty beer bottle that lay next to Greer jerked and the rose into the air landing in the garbage bin. If this happened earlier that day, she would have tried to get as far away from someone like Jean... but the more she looked at the red head... The more confused she became... Jean wasn't one of those disfigured abominations or demented raving maniacs she had seen on television... Jean... From the looks of it... was completely normal... Except for the thing she did with the beer bottle...
"That's amazing..." Greer admitted a little hesitantly before giving a small smile... Deciding to trust this Jean Grey who blushed at her compliment...
" Well it kinda is, but I couldn't have done it without help from the institute..." "Institute?"
"Yeah, it's a special place for gifted youngsters like you and me, people who are..."
"Mutants" Greer interrupted flatly. Jean was surprised by the hint of sourness in Greer's tone.
"Look I know the name isn't flattering but..."
"I'm not a mutant." Greer replied defensively but looking at her furred hands, her claws, the look of confusion on Jean's face, she almost submitted to her overwhelming urge to cry.
"I'm not this thing... I'm not" she murmured softly.
Jean couldn't help bite her lip as she watched Greer bury her face into her hands. The grief emulating from this girl was so intense Jean could actually feel it herself... And it was heart wrenching... reminding her of how she too was terrified of what she had become when she found out she could move things with her mind... However unlike Greer, her family hadn't abandoned her... They had helped her find Professor Xavier and if it weren't for him she wouldn't have made it this far. Jean clenched her fists Greer, a mutant or not deserved, this chance as well.
"Look... I know this must be horrible for you... But I know people who can help you... But you have to trust me... Do you trust me?
Greer raised her head wearily before nodding slowly at Jean... She didn't see what else she could do...
Seeing Greer agree, Jean smiled reassuringly before concentrating as hard as she could. Finally she established the link she needed. " Professor... prepare the black bird, I've found someone... Um... she's quite like Kurt and can you please bring Mr. McCoy along... she's in bad shape..."
To Be Continued...
A/N: I copied most of this from Tigra of the X-Men by chesirecat9116 but the author hasn't update the story in two years and I thought I could add a Harry Potter spin on it.
This has elements of both the X-Men comics and the cartoon X-Men Evolution in this story.