Chapter 10

Walking back to the mansion Sean turned round to Amy,

"So Charles was saying that your going to be concentrating on improving your abilities. I heard you were going to try a dragon transformation at some point… That would be so awesome" he boasted before Amy could answer Alex butted in "Do it now transform now" he said. "I can't" she said "It takes too much energy. And I need the situation, I can only transform in a dangerous situation I can't do it on a whim like any other transformation. I've only ever transformed into a dragon once before I couldn't stay in that form for long it drains me" she explained.

"Don't fret Amy" comforted Charles "That's why you're here, that's why we're training""

So you need a dangerous situation then?" asked Alex. "Yes" Amy answered. Alex smiled and nodded and carried on walking. Suddenly without warning he spun round and blasted an energy beam at Amy. "ALEX NO!" screamed Charles. Hank bolted and knocked him to the side catching him off guard Alex spun round to face Hank who looked equally ready to take him on. "ALEX, HANK STOP IT" shouted Charles, Sean got in-between them separating them, Angel grabbed hold of Alex who still stared at a growling Hank who's teeth were bared.

But it was too late they all looked to see Amy the light dimmed around her and she was in dragon form, she opened out her huge 50 foot wingspan that covered her to reveal a scaly face and ivory horns that jotted from her forehead. Her copper scales shone like a thousand rainbows as the light of the sun bounced off them, her body extended 40 feet which ended in a forked tail. She opened up her blue eyes and stared at Alex "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" she shouted "WHY?""I'm sorry I thought it would help you" answered Alex. "I'm sorry" he said. " I just wanted to help" Amy sighed and rolled her eyes shaking her head. "Well you didn't help!" snapped Hank "What if Amy hadn't transformed" his voice grew angrier and louder "WHAT IF YOU HAD HIT HER… YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER" Alex lowered his head shamefully Hank breathed heavily as he continued to stare at Alex. "It's fine. I'm fine. It was just unexpected that's all" said Amy comfortingly, Hank turned at looked at her he smiled and nodded Alex and Angel both noticed the way he looked at Amy and Alex instantly realised why Hank had defended Amy the way he had. Amy began to tremble her legs fell from underneath her making the ground shake as she landed. The light consumed her and she transformed back into a heap on the floor. Hank ran over as fast as his legs would take him, he ran to her side and cradled her head. She shook her disorientated bringing herself back to her senses. She opened her eyes to see Hank staring horrified she smiled and laughed embarrassed "I'm ok this is rather embarrassing" she said quietly. "Don't be embarrassed" he said back " More importantly are you ok? Are you hurt?" he asked his voice shaking with worry. " No I'm not hurt, I'm fine honestly" she sat herself upright with the help of Hank who wrapped his arm around her back to steady her. Nobody else moved they watched silently not saying a word to each other as Hank began to help Amy to her feet. She stumbled back but Hank steadied her and kept her upright until she felt steady enough to walk again, Hank walked beside her ready to catch her if she fell again. She made her way back to the group, Alex still held his head down avoiding eye contact. "Are you ok?" asked Charles, "Yes I'm fine. Honestly" she answered she looked at Alex and smiled, she hit playfully across the shoulder he looked up and smiled back and apologised once more. "It's ok.. I know you were just trying to help me. I forgive you" she said. Angel squeezed Alex's arm comfortingly she looked at Angel and smiled "I'm fine" she said to her she nodded and both her and Alex left together. "That was an amazing transformation Amy" Charles said breaking the silence "Again I'm sorry it went the way it did. But we will work on your abilities and help you to maintain that form like you said earlier a transformation like that come in very helpful. Especially if we were dealing with an adversary, you would have been extremely helpful against Shaw had you been there""Thank you Charles" said Amy smiling. Sean, Charles, Hank and Amy made their way back into the mansion. "What shall we have for tea then?" asked Sean " I'll make tea tonight if you like." offered Amy. "We haven't had a meal made by you yet. That's a definite yes" chuckled Charles. Amy clapped her hands excitedly whist giggling. "Does anyone have any ideas as to what they want, or am I deciding? She asked. "Your deciding" said Charles.

Amy really did love to cook and she did it well, her choice of food was spaghetti bolognaise everyone liked that kind of food so it should go down a treat. She added peppers, onions and mushrooms to the sauce and minced meat leaving it to simmer she pulled out the plates from the cupboards. "Do you want any help?" Amy turned round to see Hank coming into the kitchen, "Hi" she said a smiled beamed across her face as she seen him. "I'm nearly done now but if you don't mind you could plate out the spaghetti""No problem" said Hank he took the pan of spaghetti off the hop and walked over to the sink. Suddenly "HANK!" Amy screamed she grabbed the pan off him he looked at his arm to see his fur alight! Throwing a tea towel into the sink she whipped it out and threw the soaking cloth on Hank's arm extinguishing the flames. "Sorry" he said embarrassed. "Don't say sorry" she said panicked "Are you ok? Are you hurt? Did it burn you?". "No, it hasn't burnt me it's just cinched my fur, thanks Amy. I didn't mean to cause all that trouble" he looked down at his now blacked blue fur. "You didn't cause any trouble don't be daft. Anyway sit down you can be the first to try this and let me know what you think." said Amy. Before she began to plate up the food she took Hank's arm and inspected it. "It doesn't look that bad at all" she said relieved. Hank smiled as she stroked his fur, the butterflies fluttered about in his stomach again making him feel like he was on a rollercoaster. Her eyes met his Hank's fingers entwined around Amy's she moved closer to him they both gazed at each other, Hank went into kiss her their lips touched….."THAT SMELLS GOOODDDDDDDD!" Shouted Sean, they quickly parted and Hank slumped down on to a chair with an irritated sigh before Sean entered the kitchen. Amy began to plate up the food, "IT'S READY" screamed Sean which bordered almost on supersonic.

Charles made his way into the kitchen. "Thank you for bursting my ear drums" joked Charles, "Sorry" said Sean with a chuckle. Then Wendy made her way in and sat furthest away. She hardly ever spoke she had arrived in July almost two months before Amy and now it was early October she still even in that time she hadn't made any attempt to make conversation with anyone really not even Charles. Angel made her way in next her eyes were puffy and blood shot she'd been crying. Amy noticed immediately and walked over to her, "Where's Alex?" asked Sean that made Angel begin to cry again. "What….what did I say?" asked Sean confused.

"We had a row " she finally managed to say in a blubbering voice. " Oh no, I can guess what it was about. Is he coming down for tea?" asked Amy.

"I don't think so" she said wiping her eyes. "I walked out of our bedroom and he just slammed the door behind me". "Well the take yours and Alex's meal up to your room then he can't stay up there on his own. I'm sure Alex is feeling just as upset as you are, don't be arguing over something as irrelevant as me" she joked Angel smiled and nodded she took the plates off the table and made her way back upstairs.

Amy sat down next to Hank " I hope you don't get poisoned" she joked. Everyone tucked in to their meal the sounds of approving hums and nodding heads made her smile. Amy looked over to where Wendy was sat she kept her head down and didn't utter a sound. "What do you think?" asked Amy to her in a soft voice, Wendy looked up smiled and nodded and dropped her head down again. Amy thought of what to say to her it was so hard to create conversation, she was so shy. "So you can control fire?" Amy began, Wendy nodded " I can too but I need some help on mastering it properly. Do you think you could help me?" asked Amy she waited eagerly for her reply. Wendy looked up from her food and smiled "Ermmm yeah I suppose I could help you if you like" she replied.

"Thank you, the only way I can control fire at the moment is when I turn into a dragon, I can control water to some extent" Amy explained. "Well I'm sure once you get the hang of it you'll find it a piece of cake" Wendy said with a smile. Everyone sat there astonished that Amy had got even just a sentence from Wendy it was more than most of them had achieved.

"So is there anything you can't do?" asked Sean in a mocking voice. Amy scoffed back "My mutation allows me to do lots of things but like all other mutants I do have limits." she said.

"Well what are all the things you can do? Wendy asked now looking much more confident in joining in the conversation.

"Well you all know I can shape shift into animals, I can talk to animals. Whatever animal I turn into I gain their natural abilities like for instance birds I can fly if I'm a bird, I can hold my breath for long periods of time if I'm a whale. I can breath and control fire and water if I'm a dragon." she explained.

"What's your code name? Do you have one?" Sean asked. Amy smiled and nodded "Thunder cat" Hank smiled at her "That's an interesting code name. how did you acquire that?" he asked.

"From the African tribe that took me in" she explained. "One evening there, there was a huge thunder storm and using the cover of darkness and the noise from the thunder a group of Hyenas attacked the tribe. I chased them away by taking a lioness form, and from then on they decided that because of that I was known as Radi Paka which is Swahili for Thunder cat"

"That's a pretty cool code name" boasted Sean. "Thanks" smiled Amy.

"Well Amy I have to hand it to you, that was one of the best meals I have had in a long time" said Charles. "Are you saying the rest of us can't cook?" asked Sean. "Yes" Charles said abruptly. "

Damn that's harsh"

Charles laughed out

"Sean you wash, Hank you can dry" he said before he made his way out of the dining room.

"Come on Amy I'll show you how I can control fire" said Wendy as she got up from her chair.

"Ok" Amy followed her out of the kitchen and outside.

"Clear your mind" she said as they reached the courtyard. "Concentrate on nothing around you. Imagine that the core inside of you is beginning to heat up getting hotter and hotter". Amy tried to imagine as hard as she could she closed her eyes as tight as she could the sound of bickering birds and fidgeting animals filled her ears. She tried to block out the noise as best she could but the harder she tried the louder they seemed.

Suddenly Wendy burst into flames "OH MY GOD" shouted Amy. "It's ok it's ok" said Wendy reassuringly "This is what's meant to happen"" Does it not hurt?" Amy asked. "No, does it hurt you when your in dragon form and breath fire?" she asked. "No it doesn't" Amy said laughing quietly to herself. Wendy extinguished the flames and looked at Amy. "What's wrong can you not concentrate?" she asked "Not properly there's too much going on out here. I can hear every noise and every conversation" she said looking around at the birds and the rabbits which were no more than 50 feet away. "Oh yeah I forgot about that" said Wendy with a smile. "Maybe I'll try again tomorrow instead. I'm still feeling a little tired from what happened before" Amy said with a defeated sigh.

"Ok then, well I'm going to go back inside" said Wendy as she walked back off to the mansion.

"I'll see you later" shouted Amy "Thank you" Wendy waved at Amy before she shut the door behind her.

Amy continued to walk around the grounds of the mansion various animals followed her and walked beside her foxes, voles, raccoons even a deer made an appearance she sat down on a bench, the same fox which had sat with her at the lake jumped up onto the bench and lay down next to her. The impressive white stag walked over regally and sniffed Amy, his velvety nose nuzzled her arm she brought out her hand and he placed his nose in her palm. She stroked his forehead and moved her hand over is branch shaped antlers, all of the animals felt safe around her, they could trust her, they could talk to her. Hank walked outside to get some fresh air he noticed Amy sat on the bench which was now surrounded by a myriad of animals. Birds sat on every available spot on the bench, some were sat on Amy's shoulders. Rabbits, raccoons and foxes surrounded the bench the stag had invited his 3 hinds over now which all nuzzled in for a fuss off Amy.

Suddenly all the animals but the deer bolted and ran back into the trees, Amy looked round to see Hank making his way over her heart began to race and her stomach fell as if it was going to pop.

The deer looked at him wide eyes the white of their eyes visible, the Stag lowered his head and scuffed his hoof along the floor and grunted loudly at Hank. He stopped dead as the stag's grunts grew angrier, Amy placed her hand on his back and whispered something into his ear he raised his head looked at Amy and nodded he made reassuring calls to his hinds as Hank continued to walk over.

"Hey, seems you've got quite a fan club going on" joked Hank. Amy laughed and nodded.

"This is Geno" Amy said turning to the white stag, Hank looked at him as he stood tall with his head held high upon the mentioning of his name. Hank looked at Geno giving him a small wave and a smile. Geno grunted gave Amy one last nod he summed his hinds away with his antlers and they ran off back into the trees. " How are you? Your not suffering from food poisoning yet then I take it?" she asked Hank smiling. "That was an amazing meal Amy if only I could cook like that" he laughed "And maybe not set myself on fire" he said before sitting next to her Amy laughed "Well it wasn't funny at the time looking back though it is now" she said giggling Hank laughed along with her. She suddenly stopped and her face became serious. "What happened back there…" Hank cut across her before she could finish. "I'm sorry…I just…" he tried to find the words. "Why are you apologising? I didn't want you to say sorry. I wanted to know if you meant it" she asked. Hank looked at her "I've course I meant it" the words that he had wanted to tell her began to fall out from his mouth on their own. "I like you so much, I really like you. I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met in my life. And then there's me… well I don't need to go into detail about my appearance. " he said almost shamefully.

"Hank, there is nothing wrong with you when I look at you I see the most handsome man I have ever seen in my life…I like really like you too" Amy said.

Hank blinked hard trying to take in Amy's words he smiled at her and took hold of her hand he moved himself closer to her he brushed her golden locks of hair from her face and gently kissed her on the lips, Amy kissed him back, then they wrapped their arms around each other and began to embrace in a long and passion kiss.