It had been a five hour straight flight, and the X-Men were bored. Logan and Hank were in a deep conversation about something (possibly motorcycles); Rogue had fallen asleep, and was being tucked up in a blanket by Ororo; Bobby was creating little ice figures in the palm of his hand and Kurt was, well… being Kurt. The Professor had been giving them updates every half hour, giving them as much information as possible. Unfortunately, he didn't have much. All they knew was that the girl had used her mutation out on a street and everybody saw, and went nuts. She apparently had no family, and was living in a local care home, which she was chased out of by a mob. She'd broken into an abandoned house, and had stayed there for the past couple of days, and nobody had been able to get her. That was all they knew about this child.
"Okay, everybody, we're here" said Scott, clapping his hands and trying to get everybody moving. The Blackbird landed and they were greeted by a military escort, consisting of at least 20 soldiers and five armoured cars: two for them, and three full of soldiers. The officer who greeted them was extremely jumpy, he refused to shake hands and he kept shooting them nervous glances. All the soldiers were nervous. As they drove through London, they could see how ant-mutant the UK was. There was at least one poster explaining what to do if you find or suspect if someone is a mutant on every road, and Kitty started to panic when she saw what looked like a gang of people beating up some poor guy, roaring things like 'Mutant!' and 'freak!'.
When they finally reached their destination all of the X-Men were shaken by what they saw. The whole area was fenced off, with police barricades, road blocks and helicopters in the sky. Soldiers were patrolling around, and policemen were trying to hold back a crowd trying to get past the barricades. When they got out of the car, someone screamed mutants, and the crowd went savage, throwing things and yelling abuse at them. Hank got the brunt of it, but he handled it well, but Scott had to stop Logan from jumping into the mob, saying he'd just make things harder for everyone. They were led to the house, which, looked quite normal. Nobody could understand why the army hadn't just stormed it, yet the house was untouched.
Rogue was the person who asked what everyone was thinking. The officer just said to a nearby soldier "show them". The soldier picked up a stone and threw it at the house. It was about five metres away from the house when it stopped and came flying back. The X-Men just stared. The air around the house was, rippling. As they came closer, they noticed that tiny purple bolts of energy were crackling in the air. Cautiously, Bobby went over to the house, and the tried to touch it. His hand was met instantly by a barrier, and every time he touched the invisible wall, purple waves of energy radiated over it. They could now see how large the shield was; it spread in a dome over the entire house.
Logan then walked out to it and drew out his claws, and all the soldiers guns turned to them. He glared at them and snarled "I ain't gonna' spear any one of ya", before bringing his claws down on the shield. To everyone's amazement, Wolverine's adamantium claws met a solid wall they couldn't cut through, and Logan looked bitterly disappointed. "So, we know it's unbreakable, now what do we do?" asked Ororo.
"Couldn't we, like, tunnel under it?" asked Kitty. The head officer shook his head "we've tried". "What about Kurt, he could teleport us inside the dome" said Hank, logically. All eyes were on the Nightcrawler. "Hey, I don't know vat zee inside of zee haus looks like" he replied. "You could teleport us just inside the dome, onto the grass, but not the house" piped up Scott. The demon paused. "I might be able to do zhat" he said, thinking. "If that's the best idea we got, ah say do it" declared Rogue, and everybody agreed. Linking hands together, Kurt shut his eyes and in a puff of blue and black smoke the X-Men teleported to the other side of the wall. For a moment, they all just stood in wonder at the dome. It muffled every noise from the other side and gave everything one saw through it a purple tint. They started towards the house. The door was unlocked and the house was silent. It appeared that a family used to live there, judging by the photos on the fridge. "I think we should split up, then we'll have more chance of finding this kid" said Hank.
"Can't Logan like, track the kid down?" asked Kitty. Logan shook his head.
"No bub, I can't find a scent. I think it has something to do with that force field"
"Then I guess we better split up".
They split up into pairs: Scott and Hank, Kurt and Bobby, Kitty and Rogue and Logan and Ororo. They walked through the house, calling for the kid. Logan and Ororo were checking upstairs, when they heard a noise from one of the rooms. Logan motioned to Ororo to keep quiet as they crept towards the door. Gently, they pushed the door open, before being faced with another force field. They could see a girl around 10 or 11 standing at the far side of the room. She had tanned skin, the colour like milky coffee, and black hair which reached halfway back. Her arms were raised in front of her, shielding herself. But they caught a glimpse of her eyes, and they saw they were wide with fear.
"Who are you? How did you get past my force field? I'm not going, I'm not going to the army! I'm not going to be a lab rat!" Logan and Ororo looked at each other. This was going to be difficult. "Hey kid, calm down, we ain't gonna hurt ya, we're here to help ya" Logan said calmly, in the voice one might use to talk to a wounded or frightened animal. The girl was still glaring at them, focussing on them, trying to figure out whether she should trust them. "Why should I trust you? You could be lying. You could be working with the government to make me go. What do you want from me?"
This was when Ororo spoke up. "We're like you, were mutants". The girl still wasn't happy with that answer. "Prove it. Prove it and I'll take down the force field and listen to what you've got to say. Otherwise I'll throw you out". Logan chuckled. "Yeah, bub, and how d'ya plan on doing that?"
The girl placed her hands together, then opened them. In her palms was small ball of purple energy, crackling. She moved her palms and the ball got bigger. She then hurled it at the wall, where it blasted part of the plaster away. "Now imagine that, just bigger" she said, smugly. "You still haven't proved that you're like me yet". Logan growled and there sound like a sword coming unsheathed and the girl jumped when his claws came out. Ororo opened her hands and suddenly it started snowing outside of the girl's window. "Wow" she whispered. "Do you believe us now?" smiled Ororo. The girl gave a small nod, and lowered her hands. The force field wavered before a rush of purple energy streamed towards the girl. She flinched when it touched her and her eyes went indigo, before returning to brown. Ororo and Logan stared. "What did you just do?" whispered Ororo.
"I took don the force field, and the energy went back to me" she said, like it was obvious. "So, why are you here if you're not from the army?" This was when Logan stepped in with the talking. "We, midget, are part of the X-Men, a mutant team from America. I'm Logan and this is Ororo"
"So you're a group of mutants in America. That doesn't explain why you're here. And I'm not a midget. Do you want to recruit me or something?
"Sort 'a. We're from the Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters. Basically it's a boarding school for mutant kids. We find 'em, then we pick them up and take them to the Institute, and give them an education, a safe place to live and a family, kind 'a. It's mutants only, so ya wouldn't be on ya own, kiddo." The girl looked thoughtful.
"So, you're saying that in America, there is a school just for mutants, and you're here to try and recruit me for this school. Is that what you're saying?" Ororo nodded.
"That's what we're saying".
"What if I don't won't to go? Would you force me?"
"Not at all. It's your decision. But if I were you, I would go. It's this or the British army."
"I'll take this, please. I don't want to be a lab rat." Ororo smiled, Logan stayed stone faced. Ororo guessed he was having flashbacks of when he was experimented on. "Logan," she said gently, "why don't you radio the others that we've found the girl. I'll stay here and help her get her stuff." Logan nodded, mutely and walked out of the room. The girl looked puzzled. "Is he ok, did I do something wrong?" Ororo shook her head. "No, sweetie, you didn't. It's just that, Logan was once experimented on in a lab, they tried to turn him into a weapon. He lost nearly all his memories of his life before the experiment because of it. That's why he's strongly against mutants in experiments, so he always comes with us when we raid a laboratory, trying to find mutants. He got really angry when he found out the government wanted to experiment on you, it made him think of his own time in a lab. But I think this has brought back too many memories for him, which is why he had to leave."
The girl just said "oh" and was silent. Then she said "I'm sorry for threatening to blast you out of this house with an energy ball". Ororo laughed. "That doesn't matter. Now, let's go get your things". The girl led Ororo over to a small wardrobe in the corner of the room, where she pulled out a black rucksack. "Is all your stuff in there?" asked Ororo. The girl nodded. "I didn't have a chance to go back to the care home to get my stuff. The care workers had put my stuff in the bins, so I had to raid them and salvage what I could before I got spotted." Inside the bag was some jeans and shirts, a pair of black converse trainers, a crumpled photograph and a book. Ororo the noticed the girl pulling out a quilt from the back of the wardrobe. It looked handmade. "Where did you get that?"
The girl smiled, wistfully. "My mother made it for me, when I was a baby. That quilt and the photograph are the only things I have from my parents, so they're special to me. And the quilt is the only thing that's been keeping me warm at night these past few days."
"Your mother sounds like a nice women"
"Thank you, I'm told she was. I was only one and a half when she and my parents died. They were in a car crash on their way to the supermarket. I was with my grandparents, and they offered to take me in, but social services wouldn't let them. They died a few years back."
Ororo was stunned. "I'm sorry to fear that. My parents died when I was younger too".
"I know this may sound terrible, but I don't miss them. I guess it's because I never really knew them, so I don't think about them. I did when I was younger, I used to hope somebody would come and take me away from the care home, but nobody ever did. Not until now". Ororo didn't quite know what to say, before she then remembered something very important. "I've just realised I don't even know your name. Why don't you tell me about yourself on the way to our jet." The girl's eyes lit up. "You've got a jet!"
On the way down the stairs, the girl began telling Ororo all about herself. Her name was Jasmine Ahmed, she was 10 years old, loved all animals and science and her favourite colours were teal, red, black and indigo. Everybody was surprised when Jasmine and Ororo came out of the house; nobody had really known what to expect. They certainly hadn't guessed that the troublesome mutant who'd held off the army was a small, shy ten year-old girl. Bobby and Kurt couldn't top grinning and imitating the field officers face when he saw his men had been beaten by a little girl. Scott and Hank were surprised, but did a good job of hiding it. Logan just smiled when he saw Ororo and the little girl were safe, whilst Kitty and Rogue broke down over 'how adorable she is!' Needless to say, every member of the X-Men had a good feeling about the young mutant.
The flight back to the US was uneventful. Jasmine asked tonnes of questions about The Institute, New York, the staff and students and mutants; everyone tried their best to answer them. Kurt was delighted to discover Jasmine knew a little German, and they spent an hour sitting in a corner, talking in German and Kurt helping her expand her German vocabulary. It was 10:30pm when they arrived back at the Institute, and everyone was exhausted. Jasmine, however, was fast asleep, and was annoyed to be woken up. Everybody agreed it would be better if Jasmine met the Professor and the other students tomorrow, and Ororo and Kitty took Jasmine to her room and showed her where everything was.
Jasmine couldn't believe how quick the day had seemed to be. The Institute felt surreal. Jasmine was scared that she would wake up and find herself back at the house, or in a lab somewhere. She didn't want to leave this safe place. Sighing, she pulled the duvet up over herself and fell asleep. Tomorrow, she was to meet the Professor, whoever he was.
The yellow eyes watching the house through the bushes blinked. The X-Mansion's inhabitants were all asleep. Silently, the figure got up out of the bushes and headed to front door of the mansion. With a wave of their hand, the camera's died and the garden lights went out. The electric locks on the main doors clicked, and the figure went inside. They walked down the corridors, checking each door and keeping an eye out for movement, until they stopped outside Hank's lab. A pale, white hand reached out and pushed open the door, then walked over to Hank's filing cabinet. As quickly and quietly as possible, they flicked through the files before finding what they were looking for. They grabbed the file, then fled out of the building. It was only when they were safely outside in the shadows did the figure wave their hand and the electricity came back to the school. Nobody had noticed a thing. The figure smiled to themselves, then fled the crime scene before someone saw them.
DUN DUN DAH! Who is this mysterious figure who broke into the mansion? What was in that file? And how will Jasmine's meeting with the Professor turn out?