Vanessa was scared out of her wits. The young women had just for the first time stepped into the massive grounds of the Xavier institute. The place she would now be living.

At the age of 11 Vanessa discovered her 'dark powers' as she jokingly called it. Her powers consisted of controlling and manipulating shadows within a range around her. Soon though she noticed as she got older her powers got stronger- and harder to control.

"Your room is this way if you'll follow me." Said a girl with chestnut brown hair. Vanessa had for gotten her name all ready. Kate, kit something among those lines was all she could recall.

She followed her down the vast hall ways looking around and the Oriental rug stretched up and down the corridor and the different painting on the walls to brighten up the place. This institute sure was beautiful she thought.

"Here, now if you need help my room is just next door and if you get lost just go back down the hall turn right and you'll reach the main entrance- someone should be nice enough to help you."

"Thanks" Vanessa muttered. She walked past the other female to her bed and sat down setting her two bags besides her looking at the ground. Kitty, the 'other girl' whose name Vanessa forgotten noticed how uneasy the newest member of the institute was.

"If you forgot my names Kitty." She happily said, almost as if she knew that she had for gotten.

"Nessa..."

"Huh?"

"Well my name is Vanessa but people have all ways called me Nessa..."

"Ahhh. Interesting nick name. I got mine from my family."

Nessa smiled softly daring to make eye contact.

"Mine too."

The two girls chatted and Kitty offered to help put away Enema's things. By the end of their mutli topic conversations an hour later the room looked a bit more lived in and cozy.

"Well I hope you feel a bit better. "Before Nessa could even answer back kitty cut her off. "I'll leave you be for a bit. I'll be back soon I want to see some one real quick"

"K"

Nessa was a bit shocked to see the girl dissolve thru the floor but then again she remembered the real purpose for this school. She all so remembered when Professor Xavier recruited her.

The night had been restless for the redheaded girl. The wind blew viscously at her window, making a tree branch smack against it repeatedly. Her dark violet eyes started at the full moon shinning silver beams into her bedroom.

October was a cruel and terribly cold month. Nessa hated it. The constant rain and damp weather made her depressed. She loved warm and semi sunny places. Her pale skin she was granted from her Irish heritage made her prone to sun burn, so she preferred shade. Warm shade.

She sighed to herself. It seemed she would get no sleep this night. Lucky her it was a Sunday which meant school in the morning. Just fabulous. She attempted to close her eyes and rest. She calmed her breathing and tuned out the sounds from outside and relaxed her body thinking of warm summer days so recently left behind.

Just as she was on the brink of sleep a sudden gust of wind grabbed hold of the stiff tree branch and brought it backwards, then released it with a sudden CRASH through her window.

Snapping her eyes open shadows from the edges of the small bedroom formed around Vanessa's body engulfing her. The only visible feature showing was her eyes, once dark violet now a bright all most burning yellow color. At this point Nessa lost control of her body and awoke hours later 12 miles from her home in nothing but her pajamas and sox.

When she returned home she found her room in shreds. Posters, pictures, bed sheets, curtains, desk, everything was sliced, diced and minced. Her parents called the cops claiming someone broke in but they knew what had really happened.

The next day a strange man in a wheel chair showed up claiming her could help Vanessa. Mr.. and Misses Gaiman listened to what this professor Xavier had to say. When Nessa came home from school she heard her family out and the newcomer, wheelie as she mentally nicknamed him where telling her.

The only things she got were this.

Leave home

Safe

Help

Why should she leave her home? And safe for who? It wasn't like she meant to destroy her room, but never in a million years would she have hurt her family. And what help? She was fine. All of this sounded more and more like her family wanted her gone and out of their hair.

As if reading her mind "wheelie" spoke.

"Nessa, there's no need to worry. My school helps young people control their powers. I'm not saying you have bad control, you have done well all these years handling yourself. But I believe your powers are just at the brink of expanding. I think with my help we can safely manage your powers to an easy level and keep you in safe control of them."

What he said didn't really help. It still sounded like a bad idea to her, but none the less she agreed to coming along with him to see what this 'institute' was like.

A sudden knock on her room's door brought the maiden out of her thoughts.

"C-Come in?"

"Kitty you forgot to plug the-"

Silence. In her door way stood a boy. Not just any boy, but a fuzzy one. Along with a tail. The sight was a bit shocking for Vanessa, so much so she did the first thing that came to mind.

She screamed.

XXX