Todd was sitting in the backyard of his foster home on the swing, watching a bunch of the other kids play in the dirt. The whole lot was fenced around by a metal chain fence. Thankfully today, everyone was ignoring him, as he and the foster mother had told them that he was being transferred to a new place, one outside the city limits of New York. He was just now waiting for Mystique to come pick him up.

His fingers liked the feel of cold metal chain under his finger, but not all of the metal was nice and cold, but rusty, so he was careful to avoid contact with that. The plastic seats were also cracked. It could easily be seen that everything, including the children were worn. It had been luck that the other mutant had found him, or perhaps more of bad luck. He wasn't sure what to think of the blue lady yet.

He had never bothered to learn the names of any of the other children there, but then they hadn't bothered to learn his. It had been that way since childhood that he hadn't been able to get along with other children. His looks set him apart and it was an easy assumption by many that his mother had abandoned him because he was ugly, something he didn't doubt.

He also had problems with the way he walked and the way he talked. Some called it bug like, others frog like, others even still toad like. Because of this, in all physical activities he was shunned, made to be the last one picked, if he was picked at all. It was the same today, but less so. They had picked those that they wanted to play with or socialize with and Todd had gotten left out.

The only other one that was alone was alone by choice, smoking a stolen cigarette between his or her fingers. Todd hadn't asked, because if the kid was male, he was extremely scrawny, and if it was a she, it was a female with a very flat chest. The kid choose to ignore Todd and he it. But it was also noticeable that the kid noticed everything that went on around the place, something Todd hadn't noticed before.

The foster lady came out and passed out sandwich triangles, reluctantly giving Todd one as he technically wasn't one of her brood anymore. She also took the cigarette from the kid and stomped it out before going back into the house, leaving the one kid very miffed. Suddenly, everyone was surprised as a dog leapt over the fence into the yard.

The next thing Todd knew, his entire hand, not to mention his sandwich was in the mouth of the dog. He was able to withdraw his hand minus one sandwich but covered in slime. "Eeww! My sandwich!"

A couple of the younger kids came and began to pet the dog, while it stood around, looking for something. It sniffed for a bit, then went over to Todd and stuck its cold nose into his backside, as if double checking something. It then sat back and began to howl, causing Todd and a few others to cover their ears. A man came running over. "Where's the dead body?"

"What do you mean where's the dead body?" Todd commented, not thinking this was funny, expesully when the dog pawed him, in a confused way.

"That isn't a dead body!" the man told the dog. "Heal!"

The dog obeyed the command and hurried over to heal at his feet as he opened the gate to retrieve the dog. Todd glared at him. "Of course I'm not a dead body."

"You're very odorous," the kid who had been smoking commented. "Cadaver dogs are trained to pick up scents… dead things to be exact. You smell like rot."

This caused Todd to glare at the other kid. "What the hell are you talking about!"

With this, the kid went and turned on the hose, all of the other kids running into the house, not wanting to anything to do with what was going on. Todd felt himself getting drenched and saw the man cover his nose, not to mention the dog faint. He rolled his eyes skyward, not to happy about the situation. "Yeah, yeah, so I stink, so what? What exactly is a cadaver dog."

"A cadaver dog is a dog that is trained to find dead bodies," the man commented. "I was off duty and had opened the door… we just moved here, and he darted out as if he was after something."

"Well, do I look like I'm dead!" Todd commented.

"If you weren't walking and talking, I'd say yes, you're a sickly green color," the man commented. It was then that the foster mother hurried out.

"What is going on here?" she asked.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but my dog caught the scent of what it thought was a dead body and went and tried to do its job," the man said.

The ladies eyebrows raised up. "Todd Tolansky! I am so glad that you are not going to be here any longer. Sir, I am so sorry!"

"It really isn't that big of a deal," the man commented. It was then that Mystique drove up and the woman pushed Todd towards the car. He climbed in and sure that kid was smirking at him.

"What is that smell! It smells worse then when you tried to pickpocket my wallet!" Mystique commented.

"I'm wet, duh!" Todd snapped. "It always gets worse when I get wet."

"Uughh, I'm rolling down the windows," the next comment from the woman made Todd glare out the window. "It smells like a dead body!"