Jean was the only person waiting outside Cerebro for the Professor. Scott and Aurora were teaching classes.

"There's another one." He said calmly as he wheeled out of the big round room. Jean didn't have to ask. "An air-warper. I'm surprised I didn't see her before. She lives in New York. I think we should pick her up." Jean nodded.

"Where?"

"SoHo. Though I'd be careful. She's 19, older than most. She probably won't trust you right off."

"Who are you sending?"

"You and Logan. Her name is Diane Fischer. 4'10", blond hair, blue eyes." Jean nodded again.

"You think she'll put up a fight?"

"Almost certainly. She's 19, remember. And her power is the kind that acts without her consent. One of the reasons I want to recruit her. Before she hurts someone.

"Are you sure about Logan? I know he means well.but he's.well, he's violent."

"Diane can hold her own, Jean." Phoenix nodded. He knew best. "You'll need the mini-Cerebro."

"And Logan." She disappeared to go find him. Professor X closed his eyes.

"Good luck." He murmured, somehow thinking that they'd need it.

Diane sighed, leaning on the wall of one of the many alleys of SoHo. Though you wouldn't know it from her face, she was sick of the city life. She'd been attacked three times that day. She glared at her feet, planted solidly an inch or so above the ground.

She was pretty much as the Professor had described her. She was extremely short, had long blond hair to her feet (In a braid), and intense blue eyes and a snubbed nose. She wore a plain blue tank top and mini, with knee-high boots. There was a silver necklace in a Celtic pattern around her neck.

She heard someone, no two someone's, coming down 'her' alley. She got ready for more trouble, carefully inspecting both the people as they walked into the alley between the stores.

One of them was a short man. He looked scruffy and was heavily muscled. He'd be trouble, if it came to a fight. The other was a tall woman with red hair and glasses. She didn't look particularly tough, but one could never tell. By now, Diane was pretty experienced. They were looking for her. Probably government types.

"Alright." She said in a soft, nonetheless commanding voice. It betrayed nothing of what she was feeling. "I know what you're after. You can't have it. I won't turn myself in. Just leave and no one gets hurt."

The one with red hair sighed, the man looked grumpy. "I know you might find it hard to believe, Diane, but we aren't here for the government, and we aren't here to hurt you. My name is Jean Grey, and this is Logan. We're here with a proposal-"

Diane cut her off with her same, eerily void voice. "Yeah, a proposal that I turn myself in and get tagged. Sure."

"We are from Xavier's School for the Gifted." Jean continued, ignoring her. "A school for mutants like you. You need training. Your power is out of control." She stared at Diane's feet pointedly.

"They're always like that." Diane said coolly. "Now, you leave, or there'll be trouble."

"Oh, good. Been lookin' for a fight." Growled the short man, Logan. Jean gave him a look, which he ignored. She gauged the man's height with her mind. Instead of backing away from him, she did the unexpected.ran forward, flipping over his head. She heard a funny *snickt* sound as she did it. Jean looked surprised for a moment, then threw out one of her hands. Diane froze midair.

"Let 'er down, Jeannie." Logan grumbled. "She wants to fight, let her fight." Jean slowly put Diane back on the ground.

"Do you believe us now?" She asked quietly. Logan walked around Diane. She vaguely noticed that he had claws coming out of his hands.

Diane nodded slowly.

Logan disappeared as soon as Jean stopped the car inside the huge iron gates. Diane ignored the fact and followed Jean up the long winding driveway. Jean kept throwing glances at her as if she thought that Diane was nervous or something.

Actually, but the time they'd finished winding up the long drive and had climbed the huge marble steps to stand in front of the giant wooden front doors, she was anticipating something, but she was not by any means nervous.

Jean pushed the door open, the slight creak not quite covering up Diane's small gasp of surprise. The foyer was huge. It went up and up, making everything echo. There was a huge marble staircase that went up to the second level. Jean headed off to the corridor on the first floor. It was paneled with wood. There were many doors leading off of it, but Jean headed directly to one of the first doors, pushing it open.

In it was the strangest assortment of high-school kids Diane had ever seen. There was a boy with frizzy hair, a girl with green skin, and another boy with four arms. One girl, who had black hair streaked with white near her brows waved to Jean, who waved back slightly. A girl with short blond hair at the same tables at the skunk girl smiled at Diane, who didn't smile back.

At the front of the room was a tall black woman with ice-blue eyes and shocking white hair. She looked up questioningly.

"Jean?" She asked in a soft voice.

"Just bringing around a new-"

"I'm not a student yet, Jean Grey." Diane said coldly. The teacher looked surprised. Jean ignored it.

"Aurora Munroe, this is Diane Fischer." Diane looked slightly resentful.

"Sorry to disrupt your class, 'Ro." Jean said, shooting a look at Diane, who looked slightly smug. She's almost, -almost- gotten the telepath exasperated with her. However, Jean, she could tell, was the sort of person who gave up on people. She'd take some work. Diane supposed she was being impossible negative, but she didn't want a -telepath- on her case. Jean, if she didn't get rid of her, would feel responsible for bringing her to the mansion. Diane didn't want to be "her little recruit".

The next room they stopped in had a medium height man with brownish blondish hair at the front. He had red tinted sunglasses. He stopped talking when he saw Jean.

"Yes, Jean?" He sounded annoyed to be interrupted, but he was attempting to be nice and calm when talking to Jean.

"Just bringing around a."

"Visitor." Diane said firmly.

Again, Jean ignored her. "Scott Summers, Diane Fischer."

Scott's sunglasses flashed red when he nodded. "Anything else?" He asked, scanning his class, or at least, looking like he was behind his glasses. His class was mostly boys.

They left. "One more class." Jean said, sounding friendly. Diane said nothing. She heard Jean give a tiny sigh.

The last room was different. All the desks were pushed to one side. There were two "children" in the room. One of them was a tall girl with red hair. She was part cat, she had ears fangs, claws, and a tail. The other one was a tall boy (everyone was tall to her), with platinum blond hair. His hand was directly through the chair in front of him, and he seemed to have forgotten about it while he was staring at her.

There was a man behind the teacher's desk. Diane knew instantly it was the Professor. He was bald, had blue eyes and a calm, kind face. He would have been tall as well, but he was in a wheelchair. He smiled at her.

"Hello Diane." He said softly. He held out one hand. Diane didn't take it. The boy shifted, taking his hand out of the chair. The girl growled softly.

"Cyrene, she has no reason to trust me." The professor said softly. Diane whirled around. She hadn't heard the cat girl come up behind her. Her eyes met the leaf green ones of Cyrene's. This one was like her. Her eyes shone with loyalty, anger, and defiance. Diane shifted her gaze back to the professor.

(((You can trust us, Diane.))) He said. His lips didn't move. Diane growled.

"She.ah.has an.-aversion-.to telepaths." Jean said, speaking for the first time.

There was an angry hiss from Cyrene, and Diane had time enough to turn before the half-cat redhead was on her. She felt and instant of claws on skin before Diane screeched and slid out of her grasp. Cyrene launched herself again. She smashed into something invisible before she reached Diane. She hissed again, her eyes spiteful. "Warper." She snarled.

"Oh, good." Diane said calmly. "We both dislike certain kinds of mutants. Luckily for me, Changelings and power detectors aren't on my list."

"Cyrene, back off." The boy said, sounding worried. "Don't fight her now. Think of the impression your making." Cyrene glared at him. Jean said nothing, but the professor made a gesture to her, and she left.

"Very good, Diane. Your first lesson starts now." Diane didn't argue, she was still busy holding up her wall. "Cyrene?" The professor said, indicating for the cat to continue what she'd been doing. Diane's wall disappeared without a trace. She staggered sideways.

"Bruce." Cyrene said shortly. The blond boy touched the chair, it glowed brightly for a second, and Diane fell right through it. For a moment, her blue eyes met his brown ones.

"You're welcome." He said, as though her glance had said thank you. Diane was slightly surprised. She -had- meant thank you. Usually, most people couldn't interpret her that well. She ducked suddenly, years of training telling her that Cyrene had attacked her again. When Cyrene flew over her head, Diane rolled onto her back and used her feet to help the changeling to fly. She threw herself right. Claws slashed her arm instead of her face. She ended up directly in front of the glaring Cyrene. Diane flipped backwards, both of her feet catching the cat-girl under the chin.

"Cyrene. She's won this match." The professor said calmly when Cyrene rolled to her feet, looking murderous.

"This time." Cyrene growled. Suddenly, much to the surprise of Diane, she smiled. "You fight well, for a warper." She looked extremely odd for a second as her eyes turned gold, then green again; her fangs, ears, claws, and tail disappeared.

"Why do you say that?" Diane asked, sounding almost curious.

"Warpers depend on their power too much." Cyrene said, sounding unshakeable; nothing was going to change her mind any time soon. Diane glanced at Bruce, who shrugged. He was a warper too. The professor smiled.

"Very good Cyrene. Bruce?" The boy shrugged. He was still watching Diane with considering brown eyes. Diane, so good at hiding her own emotions, found it easy to interpret others.

Admiration: She'd beaten Cyrene. Admiration: She was beautiful. Admiration: She spoke for herself, and didn't care what other people thought of her. Curiosity: New kid. Sadness: She was lonely.

Diane's analysis of Bruce was broken by a strange noise from Cyrene. She hadn't noticed that she and Bruce were standing perfectly still, staring at each other. The professor watched silently.

Bruce had his own ideas about Diane laid out. She hid her emotions because she was afraid of them. She was lonely. She needed a friend who would talk to her even if she did push them away. Bruce, usually absent-minded and thickskulled, was very clear-headed about this. He'd talk to Rogue and do his best.

"You fight much?" He asked.

"All my life." She replied. It was like a game, talking to her, he contemplated, something he didn't do often. One wrong move and she'd win. What game it was, he had no idea. He didn't have a head for that kind of complicated thinking.

She blinked her pretty blue eyes at him a couple times and flipped backwards and handsprung across the room. Bruce followed her warily. She went forward this time, launching off the wall, turning in midair, she touched down for a brief instant on his shoulder before flipping off again. She landed almost where she'd started.

Bruce faced her, more cautiously this time. He gauged her weaknesses. Her height, her weight, her wounded arm and impulse reaction. He spun to the right. She felt his foot hit the side of her head before she hit the ground and rolled. He'd been aiming at her ribcage to knock the wind out of her.

However, he'd been expecting her to duck, and he spun the other way. She just had time to slam a wall of her power between them. The same thing would happen to him that had happened to Cyrene.

Except it didn't work. She was bowled over with Bruce on top of her. He'd won. He winked at her, but she gave him a look reminiscent of Wolverine's and shoved him off.

"You've had training." She said calmly, not even winded.

"Yup." He said, just as smooth.

"Very good Bruce, though I would have liked a little more use of your power there. If you two will leave us?" The professor asked gently.

Cyrene left, throwing another look and a smile at Diane, who nodded. Bruce touched the chair again, and left, stopping for a second at the door. "Lunch?" He asked simply. Diane raised an eyebrow. "I'll take that as a yes."

Diane turned slowly to look at the professor.

"I'll stay."