Chapter 2
During the plane ride, as Danny quickly grew bored, she contemplated the possibility of bringing one of the Hierarchy out of her World and onto the plane. Don't even try it. Slightly annoyed, Danny settled for correcting the rest of her Physics text book. By the time she had finished correcting the entire, 2684 page book, the plane had landed and she was getting into the large black van. Sprawling out across the backseat, she called upon the Flutter Hierarchy, a small bird-like Hierarchy, with jet-black, ragged feathers, a long slender but crooked beak, and sharp teeth. Its eyes were crimson in color and it sounded like two pieces of jagged metal scrapping against each other.
The Flutter hopped about from car seat to car seat, occasionally pecking holes in Logan's shoulder when it found out he healed automatically. "Would you make the damn thing stop," snapped Logan after swatting it away for the umpteenth time.
Danny snorted and replied, "He can't help it. He's curious and playful." When Logan glared at her through the rearview mirror, she sighed and gave a shrill whistle. The Flutter returned to her and she dismissed him back to her World. "Happy now," she snapped. The man merely grunted in answer, still a little perturbed by the fact that she could bend reality.
As the van pulled up through a large gate and down a long driveway, Danny glanced briefly at the large mansion. Momentarily amazed at the size of it, she quickly did the math in her head, slowly realizing the amount of matter located in this one spot and how she could use it to her advantage. Grinning, she popped out of the car and shut the door. Just as she meant to move forward, she was tugged backwards. Glancing backwards, she swore the blackest curse words she knew. When Logan gave her a look, she sneered. Going back, she tried to wrench open the door, but it was stuck. Swearing an even blacker oath then before, she kicked the car.
"Hey, what gives," asked Logan. Danny gave him a look, and then took three steps from the car, revealing her hair…stuck in the door.
"Yet again, the blasted vehicles of this world show their contempt for me. This is the twentieth this has happened." There was a slight chuckle as the Professor was lowered to the ground on his ramp. She flipped him off and then attacked the door with a new burst of energy. "If this car does not open anytime soon, I'm gonna warp this door in something rather nasty and leave it that way."
"Maybe it you unlocked it," said Logan as he unlocked the car. The door popped open and Danny was free. Blinking, she quickly regained her composure and, gathering up her long mane of hair, stalked off with as much dignity as someone who had just gotten stuck in a car door could.
The Professor rolled along beside her and said with amusement, "Maybe if you would put your hair in a braid, it wouldn't get stuck all the time." Danny frowned and thought on it. As they entered the main hall, the Professor turned his attention from the Reality Bender to the residents of the house.
Would you all come to the main entrance, please, he called out. There was a series of replies from twenty different people in the large house and then he pulled away from their minds and turned his attention back to Danny, who was currently focusing on a young girl who had just come through a wall.
"Ah, Kitty, you've arrived," said the Professor.
"Hey, pipsqueak," greeted Logan.
"Hi, Professor! Hi, Logan," replied the girl. She was about Danny's height with longish brown hair, creamy skin, and was athletically built. Her golden-brown eyes were focused on Danny's exceedingly long hair which was currently draped over the girls arm.
"Wow, you have, like, really long hair," said the girl in a Valley girl accent to which Danny flinched.
"Thank you," she replied quietly, her eyes still closed in a slightly pained expression.
Seeing this, the girl asked, "Like, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, hun," replied Danny. "Nothing at all."
As twenty people came down the spiral stair case, Danny flinched at the noise that was like a herd of stampeding elephants. Lining up along the bottom steps of the stairs, the teenagers looked at the girl and seemed to get really excited. "Who's the new girl," asked a teenage girl with red hair and green eyes.
"Children, this is our newest addition, Daniela Manners," said the Professor.
Flinching at the use of her full name, the girl snarled fiercely, "It's Danny."
"Isn't Danny a boys' name," asked a voice whom Danny couldn't guess who it belonged too.
"Who gives a shit if it's a boys' name. I won't answer to Daniela," she snapped, spitting the name out like a curse.
"Quit cussing," snapped Logan. She made a face at him, but refrained from giving him the finger when she saw how scandalized some of the students were.
"And you all are," she asked. The Professor and Logan left the students with her in the entrance hall, Xavier off-handedly giving Jean instructions to show Danny to her room.
The students quickly introduced themselves as Ray, Tabitha, Sam, Scott, Alex, Bobby, Jean, Jubilation, Amara, Jamie, Kurt, Rogue, Kitty, Evan, Roberto, and Rahne. There were two adults with them whom introduced themselves and Beast, or Mr. Hank McCoy, and Storm, or Ororo. It was Beast who surprised Danny the most seeing as he was blue and furry.
"Who'd a thunk it," Danny muttered when she met the man. "The Cookie Monster does exist." The man growled as the students and Ororo laughed.
He turned to Kurt, a young man with bluish-black hair, and snapped, "I'm not the only one who's blue and furry." Kurt immediately stopped laughed and looked sheepish.
"What's he mean by that," asked Danny.
Kurt shrugged, and then hit a button on his watch. The illusion was dropped and before Danny stood Kurt, only blue, furry, and with only three fingers and two toes and behind him, a forked tail waved back and forth. "I know, I'm not so good looking," he said with a German accent.
Danny shrugged and replied off-handedly, "I've seen worse." Kurt stared at her as she dropped her hair and tucked her arms behind her head.
"Wow, you have really long hair," said Kurt, amazed as her hair pooled about her feet.
Danny smirked and replied, "It's never been cut."
"Isn't it hard to take care of," asked Jubilation. "I mean, don't you have problems with it?"
"She did get caught in the car door outside," said Logan as he passed by. Promptly, he got flipped by Danny, but didn't notice and neither did the students who were too busy laughing.
"Yeah, what of it," she said, crossing her arms. "Car's hate me and I hate them."
As Jean led her off to a side room, Danny took in her surroundings. The room she was now in was beautifully furnished with a wide-screen T.V. and three nice couches set so all faced the screen. Sitting done, one of the students, Evan, asked, "So what are you're abilities?"
Smirking, she replied, "Put it this way, whatever is in my head, I can make real." Seeing their confused stares, she rolled her eyes and said, "I can bend reality…to a certain extent." While the others looked awed, Jean asked, "What do you mean, 'to a certain extent'?"
Sighing, she said, "I can't Bend any living thing other then myself. Anything I Bend has to be dead. And if I Bend it, it has to become alive and cannot resemble anything this world's creator has already made so it has to be from my imagination. It doesn't take much, but if I Bend too much, I get tired. Bending also causes some physical aspects of mine to change unless I Bend a part of myself, so I can bend and not change appearances against my will."
"What did you bend," asked Jubilation. Danny smiled as her hair lifted up and began to braid itself. After enduring a multitude of questions, Jean finally called it to a stop, saying that Danny must be tired as an excuse, and led the girl up to her new room.
The room in question was large and cream-colored with two fair-sized beds, one bureau and a desk with a lamp. Thanking Jean, Danny shut the door and grinned. Rubbing her hands together she stared at the room, or, in her mind, the clean canvas. When she was done, the beds had become one and were now a maple four-poster with crimson drapes and intricate carvings. The carpet, deeper then before, was crimson as well. Her desk was more elaborate and had outlandish carvings all over it. The bureau had become larger and also had intricate carvings. The windows were tinted deep red as was the bulb in the lamp, which had become rather intricate, with the metal in strips twining around one another. In summery, her bedroom was now rather evil looking. Flopping on her new bed, Danny burrowed herself under the black silk blankets and was asleep in seconds as the sun went down.
