I take a deep breath looking through the window of the bakery. The owners have long since gone to bed. But my stomach is growling too much to wait for morning. I narrow my eyes slightly and the locked window unlocks, creeping open quietly. Next I focus on the food racks. I will a loaf of bread to rise and float to me. When I have a hand on it, I levitate my meager change to the counter and then close the window.

"Impressive." I spin around frantically, almost dropping my bread. Standing there is a man of about 23, wearing a weird costume of red and black and a helmet. I cock an eyebrow.

"Who are you?" I ask sarcastically. I expect him to say something cheesy like Super Boy or Hero Man. He notices my incredulous smirk and nods slightly. A metal pole firmly cemented into the ground pulls itself out and suddenly I'm pinned to the brick wall.

"Magneto. But you can call me Erik Lensherr."

"How about I call you something much worse." He laughs.

"Quite a temper you have Parker." I grind my teeth together. Now he's really pissing me off. I don't like it when people know me and I don't know them.

"What do you want, Magneto?" I demand.

"A young girl like yourself. With those kinds of abilities, you could be of great service to me."

"Well I'm not for sale."

"I can offer you shelter and food that you don't have to steal. Let's be real here, ever since you got your powers you've not had a home or a family. Almost nine years of running. It's gotta get old Parker." I narrow my eyes, trying to see how it is that he knows me. But I come up blank. Almost like I've hit a brick wall, and not the one I'm pinned to. "You won't be able to read me Parker. What you probably observe as a dorky helmet is actually a very effective way of keeping kids like you out of my head." I'm taken aback. He has a helmet for kids like me? Does he even know what I am? I'm sure to him I must seem like a telepath. And in fact, I do have a bit. Just enough to levitate things and read minor thoughts. But I'm no telepath. Not like the great Professor X or Emma Frost. Huh. People even the government don't know about. And people I never meant to find out about.

"I'm not a telepath." I state very bluntly.

"Then you have a very funny mutation that mimics it well." He doesn't believe me. I scowl and close my eyes. Moments later his little hat is on the ground glowing red. It melts in on itself and Magneto is gaping at it.

"You'll have to get another one made up Erik Lensherr." He looks at me with a mix of anger, surprise, and pride in his eyes.

"Maybe we should start over. I'm Erik Lensherr. I have a proposition. One that could give you a purpose as well as a home. I would be honored if you would fight with me to help the others of our kind." He says calmly. I look at him a moment. While we did get off to a bad start, he does seem to have cool powers, and he's not bad looking. I nod my head slightly. The metal bar drops instantly and Erik swoops to pick up the bread. "It's a little spoiled now. But I have some lovely food back in my base of operations. Would you like to come with me?" he asks politely.

"Sounds wonderful Erik." I say in my most well practiced monotone voice.