Sorry it took a while to put this chapter up. I was sick on Monday and my cable went out on Wednesday. Thanks to

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The sound of an alarm clock blared through Daniel's dream. He woke up with a start, glancing over to where the clock read 7:00. He found the switch to stop it and shut off the loud beeping that had intruded on his dreams. He heard a small explosion on one side of his room, followed by an echo on the other side of his hallway. He jumped out of bed, pulled on his T-shirt and ran into the hallway to find. everyone acting like nothing had happened.

"Like, Gambit and Jubilee must've blown their clocks again. I wish they'd remember the CORRECT way to switch them off."

He turned to find Kitty in her nightgown standing in the hall. "They blew up their clocks?"

"Yeah. Like, Jubilee can barely touch machines without them exploding or shorting out or whatever. And Gambit accidentally charges his clocks up now and then," she said this as if it were no big deal.

"Well that's an interesting way to wake up in the morning. Have your clock explode."

They laughed and found a line waiting for them at the bathroom. Rogue was yelling at Kurt, who was inside, to hurry up, and everyone else was agreeing.

"Is the line always like this," he asked.

"Yeah, like everyone is against whoever is in the bathroom at the moment. You can't turn your back on these people," she said with a suspicious look at everyone.

Daniel laughed, "Well, I guess I'll shower later," he called as he headed downstairs.

He found Logan and Storm waiting at the table. "Did you manage to beat the morning rush, kid?"

"Nah, I'll just shower at night."

"Good idea."

He grabbed a plate and began munching on pancakes and pieces of toast. Kurt came downstairs, his fur still damp. "These people are crazy. They just don't understand how long et takes to vash thes fer."

Daniel laughed and Storm smiled. Logan just kept reading the paper. Kurt piled up his plate and began shoveling food down his throat. The others arrived one at a time, and Daniel sat around, talking. They were going to have a Danger Room session today. Two, as a matter of fact. The first one Daniel would watch in the observation deck, to get the feel of what they were doing. The next time, Daniel would join them. Daniel didn't think this would be so bad. Probably just like an obstacle course or something. Little did he realize how wrong he was.

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"Spyke! Watch out," called Kitty.

Evan ducked underneath a pair of spinning blades that had been propelled by a cannon. This was a free for all mission, but you always gave advice to the other people. Rogue was mainly dodging energy blasts, while the others took out the cannons. Jean was using her powers as a shield, and Evan was tossing his spikes like there was no tomorrow. Daniel realized that if they messed up, that might be the case.

Kitty was using her powers to phase through traps, then unplug the weaponry. Scott was blasting anything that came close. Bobby was freezing what he could, but there were several heat cannons, making it hard to keep anything frozen for long. Jubilee was using her firework-like streams of energy to detonate obstacles and the occasional cannon. And Kurt was also dodging, teleporting here and there.

After about 15 minutes of this, they asked if Daniel was ready to come in. He didn't feel so ready, but he went in anyway. They were partnered as such; Scott and Jean, Gambit elected to go on his own, Bobby and Jubilee, Evan and Kitty, and Daniel with Rogue.

"You sure you're ready kid," asked Logan.

"I'm not getting any readier up there," replied Daniel, "besides, I still got a few tricks up my sleeve."

"Whatever," grumbled Logan.

The system started up, "We'll try something moderate for right now."

Energy cannons popped out of the walls, and the battle begun. Jean and Scott were doing a double team, Jean blocking and Scott attacking, and it was much the same with the others. Daniel and Rogue were mostly trying to stay out of the way of the others, at least until Daniel found the wavelength of energy that the cannons were using. A strange, snake-like tube with pincers on the end popped out and snagged Rogue. Daniel used a blast of energy at the base to take it out. Gambit fought his way over to help out.

"Time to see what you can do," He heard Logan say.

A large energy cannon popped out of the side, and nobody would be able to stop it. Daniel stepped in front, arms crossed against his face **Here goes nothing**

The beam fired, catching Daniel dead on. He flew back before absorbing the energy, and as Daniel was reaching his limits, the flow stopped. The force of the beam had blown him away from Rogue and Gambit, and he was out in the open. 3 cannons popped up. 1 got a glancing shot onGambit, and the others fired a small explosive instead of a beam. The blast scattered the rest, leaving Rogue down on the ground. Kitty and Kurt had gone out of the room. Evan lay curled up in a ball of spikes, immune. Scott was protecting Jean, and Bobby and Jubilee were occupied with 4 of the small cannons. Two snake tubes popped out, bearing for Rogue's unconscious form. **Shit! Wake up,** he screamed in his head.

"CHER," shouted Gambit, who pulled out a fresh deck of cards and let a full house fly at the tube closest to her.

Daniel wouldn't be able to fire a sufficiently powerful blast that close without hurting Rogue, so he pulled his trump card. Letting the energy flow through him as he had done back home, he moved with super speed, scooping up Rogue and carrying her away just in time. Gambit destroyed the snake, the last of the training session. Daniel stopped as the others began yelling at him to stop. He wondered what they were yelling at. He looked up to see a look of horror on their faces. He looked where they where and saw what had frightened them. In the explosion Rouge's uniform had frayed, leaving skin exposed. When he picked her up, he had been holding on to her bare wrist!!

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Rogue woke up to find herself slung over someone's shoulder. **Ow! What happened to me,** she remembered the blast, but didn't know why she was in the position she was in now

She froze, for she sensed the one thing that she was destined not to feel naturally for the rest of her life. Human skin.

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Rogue fell of Daniel's shoulders, trying to keep from absorbing too much of him. She realized then that she had felt nothing. No powers, no memories, nothing. Her power worked even when she was sleeping, so that couldn't be it. So how could she not harm Daniel?

"Like, how did you that," exclaimed Kitty, "she touched my fingertip once, and I still felt it."

"I have no idea. Unless." he trailed off.

"Unless vhat," asked Kurt.

"Whatever happened, we don't want to press our luck, I'm calling the professor," Scott (Of course)

"Don't need to be so paranoid Scott."

"Look, you haven't seen what she can do."

"HELLO!! AH AM AWAKE HERE," Rogue's shout sounded out.

"Yes you are, chere. Ain't nobody saying that you aint," said Remy.

"Well you don't have to act like Ah'm not here."

Daniel and Scott apologized.

"Now Ah want to know what happened. Why was I on your shoulders anyway."

"Actually that's a good question. How did you do that Daniel," asked Jean.

"I can concentrate the energy within me. It makes me faster and stronger, but it will only last for as long as I concentrate the energy."

"Why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"I dunno. I guess I just forgot about it until now. I just discovered it a few days ago remember."

They walked out of the Danger Room to the Professor's office. He had no idea as to why this happened either.

"We know that your power works while you sleep, so that' not the case," began the Professor.

"And Ah can't keep myself from absorbing no matter how I try."

"Well, maybe because I had so much energy, I just didn't feel it."

"No, Ah would've taken memories. And I don't have any."

"Are you sure?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN AM AH SURE!?!?! AH WOULD SEE THE MEMORIES AS I WAS TAKING THEM!!"

"Okay okay, just asking."

"Perhaps if you would let me finish," said the Professor.

Everyone quieted down.

"Thank you. It seems that your ability to absorb energy prevents energy from being taken away from you. Rogue takes memories as a side-effect of taking energy. This might be why you did not receive any."

"Well that makes sense, I guess," said Daniel.

"Either way, I don't want you pushing the envelope. This might have been because of your energy surge, so we don't want to risk it. Is that understood?"

A chorus of "Yes Professor" answered him.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

Everyone left except Daniel. "Are you looking for new mutants?"

"Actually, I think I may have two. Both from your old home."

**With my luck it will end up being my little brother sister**

**Actually, that would not surprise me**

Daniel jumped slightly. "Sorry, I forgot you could do that."

"It's quite all right. Was there anything else?"

"No Professor. See you later."

"Goodbye Daniel."

The rest of the day was spent hanging out. Everyone relaxed until about 12:00, when Daniel remembered that he had to call his friends.

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He decided that he would call Kellie and Mandi first. They had e-mailed him the most. Kellie was over at Mandi's so he wouldn't have to have 2 or 3 conversations.

The phone rang twice before Mandi's mom picked up. "Hello?"

"Is Amanda there?"

"Oh, sure Daniel, hold on."

**Crap, I forgot she remembers my voice** he thought to himself

He heard "It's Daniel" in the background, followed by a shuffling or bumping with sounds of a scuffle.

(In the background) "Give it" "NO I wanna talk" "He asked me Kellie" "Only because it's your house" "OW" "Ha got it"

Kellie answered, "HEY DANIEL!! WHAT'S UP!! HOW ARE YOU DOING?"

"Pretty good, for a mutant. Just finished practice today."

"REALLY!!?!? THAT'S SO COOL!!"

"Not if you nearly get killed by a laser cannon the size of basketball net."

She laughed, "Sure, I bet it's REAL boring up there. Hold on."

He heard a couple of "Goodbye's" in the background, followed by a door slam.

A small beep and the strange noise like wind announced that he was on speaker phone. "Hello?"

Mandi spoke first "HEY! My mom just left so it's safe to talk."

"Oh ok"

Kellie shouted "IS IT REALLY COOL THERE?!?!?"

"That depends."

"What do you mean?"

"If you like, training while dodging explosions, rowdy breakfasts, and a rival team of mutants that are pissed off at you."

"That place sounds SO COOL."

Daniel sighed, "Typical you."

"How many other mutants are there," asked Mandi.

"Let me see. about 10 that I've met. But there will be a few more coming in tomorrow. That also doesn't include the rival group."

"Neat. What are they like?"

"Yeah! How many buildings can they blow up in a single burst," Kellie asked.

"Will you calm down!!? They are all nice. One of them is like me before I met you guys, but other then that, everyone seems really friendly."

"Oh, well that's cool."

"Tell us about their powers," insisted Kellie.

"Will you hold on a sec? There's a telepath, a telekinetic, one who controls the weather, one who can walk through walls, one who can teleport, one has ice, another has explosion like thingys, one guy shoots eye beams," at these Kellie cheered, "AHEM!! Thank you. Another can control the weather, one can absorb life energy, and one can charge stuff up with energy till it explodes."

"They sound cool," Kellie again.

"They are. Some are pretty powerful too,"

"I bet you can hang in there though," said Mandi.

"I did okay, but not spectacular. I almost got blasted through the wall this morning."

"Where do you live?"

"It's in it's own little neighborhood. We're in this huge mansion. And when I mean huge I mean HUGE!!"



"Oh, we have 3 suprises for you" Said Kellie.

Daniel could tell that they were big suprises by the way she said it.

"Well, everyone misses you, and there's a dance this week. It's like a return to school thing."

"Didn't they hold one last week?"

"Yeah, but now my school is having a dance this year."

(Author Note: Daniel discovered powers on Friday b4 Spring Break. It has been It's around Friday of Spring break now. Sorry if I skipped a few days.)

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you and the others go do different schools."

Mandi broke in, "Hey! How come we are 'the others'? We others have feelings too!"

"Oh I'm sorry Other # 1!! Give my apologies to the other Others."

Kellie burst out laughing, and Daniel could practically see 'the look' on Mandi's face.

"Anyway, continue."

"Well, the dance is Friday, and I hope you can make it. Everybody's going to be there, and we all want to see you."

"I'll see what the Professor says."

"And the 2 BIG surprises are."

A loud explosion rang through the depths of the mansion. "I'LL CALL YOU BACK," Daniel yelled, and the line went dead.

He went downstairs to find that Evan had been practicing on a dart board, while Jean had accidentally walked through. She had instinctively put up her shield, which deflected the spike to graze Scott's glasses. The slight breach had allowed the energy to flow through, destroying the phone lines and cable for a long, long time.

Daniel groaned, **Looks like I won't be able to call them from here for a while**

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That's it for this chapter. Next time I will try to include 1st day at Bayville High, and a bit of the Brotherhood conflict. Thanks to the people who tried to help with the new mutants, but it looks like Bobby and Jubilee are the only one's I'll be including for a while. Thanks again!!