Name: Isabella Vermont

Logan's POV

Logan popped the cap off his beer as he walked down the stairs, thinking about the new mutant that he and Storm had taken from California. She was cute. Not amazingly gorgeous like Jean had been, but she was interesting. His mind drifted to the way her face had looked when her father had told her she was a freak, and he felt the anger building in his chest again. He was really pised about how she had been treated and he couldn't figure out why he felt so protective of a girl he had only just met. Hel, he didn't even know her name!! Even so, Logan couldn't deny the worry he had felt when she had just passed out and he wasn't able to revive her. He shrugged and took another sip of beer. The professor was with her now. Charles could help her.

Logan's mind snapped to attention as he heard a loud crash and frantic shouting coming from the testing room. As another crash shook the air he dashed the rest of the way down the steps and to the door of the room. He froze in his tracks at the sight of the new girl freaking out, crying and throwing everything she could reach. She snatched another test tube and he quickly ran in and grabbed her from behind. She yelled a few more minutes before calming down enough for him to loosen his grip.

"I'm sorry," she whispered shakily, "I'm fine now. You can let go. " He slowly released her and she straightened the sleeves of her jacket where they had gotten pulled up a bit. She drew a hesitant breath. "I just sort of freaked out. It's a lot to hear, you know."

"It's alright," Logan replied gruffly and leaned against the counter, keeping his eyes on her.

"So this is all real? You're Wolverine, you're Professor Charles Xavier, this is the mutant school, I'm a mutant, I can't see my family again? Ever?" she asked, a tear trickling down her cheek. Logan was surprised by a sudden longing to hug her and tell her everything would be okay. She took another deep breath and sighed. "So what exactly are my powers? And where is my room, if I'm going to be living here?"

The professor smiled and said "It appears, from what Storm and Logan told me, you have control over nature, although I'll have to run some tests. Logan will show you to your rooms after we do some basic diagnostics. So you'll join our team?"

"It looks like I don't exactly have a choice, do I?" she replied with an answering smile and shook the hand he offered. Logan was practically blinded by the silver light that exploded from their hands and fell down hard.

Bella's POV

Bella flinched in surprise as the light surrounded her, but all she felt was a light, caressing rush of air lightly brushing past her. She let go of the professor's hand and blinked in surprise. Wolverine rubbed his head where it had whacked against the wall and glared at her and the professor.

"What happe-" Logan was interrupted as she suddenly grabbed her head and started screaming. Voices were rushing into her mind, all of them seeming to shout for her attention, and her head was splitting with pain. She fell to the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks. Someone put their arms around her and held her up. A hand touched her hair and the Professor gasped with shock. He grabbed her head and forced her to look him in the eyes.

"Concentrate. Block the voices out. Focus only on my voice. You can do this." he told her. Bella closed her eyes and imagined her mind encased in a soundproof room. The voices faded away and she breathed a sigh of relief. She realized that Logan was holding her and she was grateful, because she was about to pass out and needed someone to carry her to her new room. Bella's last thought before the darkness hit was that she was glad someone was there to support her.

Logan's POV

Logan carried the girl to her room and laid her down gently on her bed. He straightened up and gazed down on her, a strange feeling in his chest. He carefully brushed some hair out of her face and smiled softly as she mumbled something and turned over. Walking out of her room, his mind turned to the way she had acted. He frowned and hurried back down to the lab where Professor Xavier was waiting.

"All right, Professor, what the hel happened back there?! Who is she anyway?!" he burst out when he saw Charles.

"Logan, you heard me mention that she seems to have a power over Nature. It seems that isn't her only power. I'm not certain exactly what happened, but it would appear that when she touched my hand she absorbed my power as well." the professor said thoughtfully.

Logan stared at him in confusion. "What, absorbed like Rogue absorbed before she got the cure you mean?"

"No. I don't think she would absorb the life force of a human, and she didn't take away my ability. She seems to have... copied my power in some way. She's as strong as I am, and from the way she was able to block out the voices so quickly, I have a feeling that it won't be long before he can control it as well as, if not better than, myself."

"That's impossible. She can't have copied your power just by touching you. I've touched her at least half a dozen times and she hasn't become anything like me!!" Logan exclaimed.

"Well, you have touched her," replied the professor, "but have you touched her bare skin? Your clothes were between you, weren't they? So you never actually touched her." The professor's words repeated themselves again and again in Logan's mind and he finally left the room, thinking hard.

Isabella's POV

"So is she going to be okay?"

"We won't know for sure until we do those tests."

"Professor-"

"I know Storm. We'll talk about it later, but now is hardly the time for something like that."

"Yes sir."

Bella woke up to people talking for the second time in a row. She slowly blinked and carefully sat up, holding her head. She had a MONSTER headache, and even though she'd mostly blocked them out, the voices were still there, muttering little secrets that she didn't want to be hearing. She saw the professor's head whip around towards her in surprise and his eyes widened.

"Isabella?" he walked towards her and reached out a hand. She frowned and glared up at him.

"Uh uh. No way. My name is NOT Isabella!! I HATE being called that!" she reprimanded him sharply.

"Alright then," he answered fighting back a chuckle, "what should you be called?"

"I'm Bella." she stated matter-of-factly. "What are the voices I'm hearing in my mind?" He blinked and really did chuckle this time.

"Straight to the point, aren't you? Well, it looked like you copied my power, same strength but with less control. However, from the way you controlled the sounds so quickly, I don't think control is going to be any kind of problem."

"Oh." she replied. She still didn't totally understand so she quickly delved into his thoughts, trying to hide her invasion from him at the same time. Finally she pulled out and nodded. "Oh! Okay, I get it now." The professor stared at her.

"You do?" he asked, flabbergasted. "I've had to explain it to everyone else." She realized that it was kind of a complicated idea, and there was probably little chance she could have understood it without a little explanation. The concept was simple but not easy to put into words. She sighed, realizing it had been really pointless to hide her entry into his thoughts when she was just going to have to explain it to him anyways. She told him what she had done and he and Storm looked stunned.

"You... you went into the professor's mind? Without him knowing?" Storm asked weakly. Bella immediately started apologizing profusely, thinking she had done something really wrong. Professor Xavier quickly put up a hand to stop her in her tracks.

"It's not that you did anything wrong," he explained, "but it's amazing that you were able to go into my thoughts without my knowledge, especially just hours after acquiring the ability. It would be hard enough to do that with a normal human's mind, but with someone who's psychic abilities are far above normal... Also, I haven't been able to see what you're thinking ever since you passed out. Your power seems to be protecting your mind from me, which had never happened before with other psychics. Naturally, we assumed that your way of taking the power created a connection, and it would also block you from my mind. Clearly that's not the case." he looked at her appraisingly. "I think that you are going to be a very interesting addition to this school."

Bella shivered. His words had a strange ring of prophecy.