Stars: Beast, Shadowcat
Appears: Iceman, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Xavier, Spyke
Cameos: Jubilee, Berzerker, Magma, Cannonball
 

Summary

Beast is out having a midnight run. He's spotted by some cops and they start following him. He ends up at the school and peeks into one of the windows.

Next morning he's apologizing to Xavier for his behavior. Xavier tells him that his need to get out is natural. Beast is still having a hard time reconciling his new life to his old personality. Kit overhears their conversation and with Xavier's help they talk him into taking some of the kids on a field trip to the Redwood Forest. Beast chooses to take Iceman , Wolfsbane, Sunspot), Spyke, and Kitty.

In the forest, the kids and Beast are shown enjoying nature and doing research. Rahne and Sunspot flirt a little, and Evan goes through serious readjustment problems. He ends up with poison ivy. Beast is romping around having the time of his life, but then he becomes depressed. Kit asks him what's wrong. He tells her that he's beginning to enjoy the animal he's become, but he doesn't want to, that it's not who he is. Kit tells him then maybe it's who he's meant to be.

Kit goes off to gather up the other students, while Beast wanders off thinking. He's spotted by some hunters and is videotaped without realizing it. Back at the hunters camp they all get excited over the footage. Turns out they're a bunch of Bigfoot hunters. They all gear up to go and capture Beast.

Beast gives the kids an assignment and tells them to meet him back at their camp in four hours. Rahne teases Roberto about being an overachiever. Beast takes off again, but he soon runs into some of the hunters. He takes out one group, but the two most macho hunters tranquilize him. He ends up getting trapped in an electrified cage. Back at the hunter's camp they all ogle Beast. The macho hunters talk about getting him stuffed. The resident scientist is outraged.

Meanwhile the kids are out searching for the missing Beast. Rahne morphs into a wolf and tries to track his scent. Beast ends up talking to the scientist when they're alone. The scientist is shocked at first, but realizes that he's not really Bigfoot and is going to release him when the macho hunters return. They tell the scientist to pack up that they're leaving. The scientist whispers to Beast that he'll find a way to free him.

On the road, a major rain storm has started. The hunter's trucks are taken out by a mud slide. Beast ends up washed into the flooding river and his cage sinks with him still trapped inside. The kids show up and Bobby creates an ice dam while Roberto powers up and saves Beast. Once he's safe they all go back to help the hunters who are still trapped. When the macho hunters are free they immediately go after the Beast again. The kids destroy their guns and scare them so badly that they take off running. The scientist tells Beast he wants to know more about them, Beast tells him one day he will.

Later the macho hunters try to tell the others about the kids, but the scientist shows up and tells them that it all sounds very interesting, but it's really not any proof. On the way home in the X-jet, the Beast tells the kids that they're not the only ones that learned something on the trip, and that they all are who they are meant to be.