AUTHOR: Black Iris DISCLAIMER: Do we have to keep doing this? We don't own them. Get it through your head. NOTE: No one reviewed last time! We were highly upset. .Especially Rose. *Cut to Rose attacking computer and foaming at the mouth* So please review! (Or die.) P.S.: Does anyone have us on their favorite author's list? We're trying to figure out who it is. erm. thank you!

The professor stirred in his sleep. There was something - a presence - tugging at the back of his powerful mind. It felt like another mutant had discovered his or her powers, but something was different. His eyes flew open in the darkness of his bedroom.
A cold sweat broke out over his body and he struggled to sit upright against the headboard. Both of the girls waiting in his front hall were unique - their powers had never been seen before - but one of them posed a threat. One of them, if he wasn't careful, was going to turn to Magneto. He couldn't let himself loose another one, not after John. It would be too much for the school; others would begin to turn as well.
With a quiet sigh, Charles Xavier decided to greet his new-comers.

Good morning, girls, he said to their minds.
"Holy shit!" Aria shouted out loud. "Did you hear that?!" she asked, turning around in circles on the cold marble floor.
"Of course I heard it," Kat hissed back. "But where's it coming from?"
I hate to greet you this way, it's so informal, but if you would please follow my instructions, I will guide you to where you need to go.
Aria and Kat looked at each other in silence for a moment.
"Erm. lead on?" Aria said, not really having any other options.
The professor smiled. Though she was the threat, she seemed nice enough. He didn't pry to far into her mind, though - he wanted to leave her some privacy.
With some wrong turns and lots of persuasion, Charles finally directed Aria and Kathrynne to the older girls' dorm room.
You can share the king bed at the end of the row on your left. The young woman in the bed next to yours is Rogue. She's very nice, but be sure not to touch her. Her power is. as unique as yours are, but in quite a different way.
"Whatever you say, Professor," Aria whispered, changing swiftly into her nightshirt.
Goodnight, girls. I will see you both in the morning.
"Goodnight, Professor," Kat said sweetly, also changing.
Aria switched off the bedside lamp, and they both crawled into the bed. Five minutes passed.
"Aria?" No answer. "Aria?" Silence. "Aria, you might want to pull yourself together."
"Hmm? Oh, right." She reappeared in midair and floated lightly to the bed. "Goodnight, Kat."
"Goodnight, Aria."
Sleep came willingly.

* * *

Rogue had awoken to an odd sight indeed. The bed next to her own, usually empty, had a pretty blonde sleeping peacefully on one side, and the murky shadow of another human floating above the other.
"Um. hello?" she asked, tentatively poking the blonde with a gloved finger. "Uh. time to get up?"
The girl suddenly jolted into action, exploding out of the bed and tripping over her feet towards the middle of the room. Her eyes were wild and frightened; she had an odd deer-in-the-headlights look about her. Her dress, a floor-length, spaghetti-strapped, pale-blue nightgown, was tangled about her legs, and her bare feet were spread in a fighter's stance on the hardwood floor.
During this whole escapade, Rogue had successfully fallen backwards into the bedside table, knocked over the lamp (breaking the light bulb), tripped the phone chord so there was now a dial tone breaking the stifling silence, and woken Aria, who had fallen to the bed once again.
"I. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you," Rogue fumbled, hurriedly straightening the table and replacing the phone. "It's just that. uh."
"Don't worry about it," Aria said, slipping from the bed and standing upright. Rogue's eyes widened.
"You. you're missing a hand."
"Oh. Right." Aria quickly reassembled her molecules and smiled sweetly at the terrified Mississippian.
Kat suddenly regained her composure and began muttering apologies, and bent down to her knees to begin sweeping up the shards of light bulb from behind the mahogany night table. "I'm Kat," she murmured, depositing the light bulb fragments into the waste paper basket.
"Aria," her friend said, smiling at Rouge and looking around the room. It was spacious, with dark green walls and crimson shades. A dark wood closet stood in one corner. Aria reached for her bag and began rummaging through it, pulling out one of her trademark floor-length black skirts and a dark red halter top with silver flame patterns.
Rouge was still quite shaken, but she still managed to say, with minor dignity, "Breakfast will be ready soon. Do you want me to show you down?"
Aria smiled, now dressed. "Sure!"
Kat and Rouge headed for the door, but Aria lagged behind. Kat stopped in the doorway. "You coming?" she asked, then blinked in shock. All that remained of Aria was her upper torso. Legs were conspicuously absent.
"Er." Aria gestured with one hand to her missing lower body. "Don't wait for me. I'll be down in a second.just let me get this under control,"
Rouge and Kat left for the cafeteria, laughing, as Aria wrestled with herself to pull her molecules together. She sighed; this was going to be a problem.

* * *

Rouge entered the dining hall with Kat right behind her. Kat was astonished at the vast array of people seated at the various tables. She hadn't known that there were this many mutants in the world, let alone the United States. She followed Rouge to a table in the corner and sat down as Rouge began to make introductions.
Rouge inclined her head toward a boy about their age, with robin's egg blue eyes and hair the color of caramel. "This is Bobby." she said. Kat thought that this "Bobby" was actually kind of cute. Bobby smiled at her, and she smiled back. Just then, his fried egg spontaneously combusted, splattering him and everyone at the table with egg yolk. Kat turned scarlet.
"I'm so sorry.I haven't really gotten a hold of my powers yet." she rushed, handing him a napkin. Bobby just laughed.
".my boyfriend." Rouge finished. Kat nodded. Damn. Taken. She looked around the table and noticed Aria was still missing.

* * *

Aria muttered darkly to herself. She'd tried six damned times to leave the bedroom as a whole, but her legs just didn't seem to want to cooperate. The cool thing was, she could still move around without them, kind of like she was flying. She had also discovered that when she was totally. erm. "dissolved", she didn't have to rely on a breeze to carry her about; she could basically fly on her own. But that wasn't going to help her get down to breakfast in a presentable manner.
Finally, on her eighth attempt, Aria managed to keep herself together. She tip-toed lightly down the hallway, her skirt swishing out behind her. She twisted the jade ring on the middle finger of her right hand nervously - for some reason, she felt like she was being watched. Walking faster, she heard quiet footsteps behind her. She stopped suddenly and whirled around. Before her stood a man.
He was tall, a little over six feet, with dark hair in a never-before- seen cut, and piercing, cold eyes. He stopped walking when she did, and now he just stood before her, looking at her expectantly.
"You want to tell me who you are?" he asked, his deep voice reverberating through the hallway.
"No, but if you care to tell me, there'll be no complaints," Aria replied icily. The man narrowed his eyes. Aria took a moment to take in his whole figure.
He was rather buff, really - his biceps and shoulders looked about as big as her waist. He was wearing dark jeans with, she noted with a bit of a smirk, a slight flare at the bottoms, a patterned button-down shirt with the top two undone, and a black leather jacket. All in all, he wasn't that bad looking, but Aria would never admit that to anyone but herself. And maybe Kat. Plus, she reminded herself, he's an ass.
"Look, you really don't want to mess with me."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Just give me your name. Are you one of the two who came in last night?"
"So you've spoken to the Professor, then."
"It would appear so."
"Then yes. I am one of the girls. My name is Aria."
"Shadow?"
". Come again?"
"The Professor called you Shadow."
"Did he, now?" Aria raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"Well, I guess I can live with that."
"Do you eat?"
"I would, if I could find the cafeteria."
"I'll show you."
"No, that's all right. I'm a big girl; I can handle myself."
"You're missing a foot."
Aria glanced down and blushed slightly. Keeping her cool, she lifted her eyes.
"Yeah, well, new powers and all. You know how it is."
"Uh."
"So what did you say your name was?" she asked, cutting him off.
"Wolverine. Logan."
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Logan. See you around." And with that, she disappeared completely and floated smoothly down the hall towards the muted voices that could only come from the dining hall.

* * *

Kat had been eating her cereal and quietly laughing with the others at her table when Aria had materialized behind her.
"Boo," she whispered. Kathrynne shrieked and jumped up from the table, successfully shooting a small ball of energy into the air.
"Wow, Kat, never knew you were this jumpy," Aria mused from her position off to the right from her friend. Kat, her hand pressed to her chest and panting heavily from surprise, picked herself up off the floor.
"Don't do that!" she said, collapsing back into her chair. Aria, however, ignored her and moved onto other things. She noticed Bobby sitting across the table; he was looking at her rather oddly.
"What, you never saw anyone materialize?"
"Other than Nightcrawler? No. And that's not even the same," he said, still looking skeptical. Aria was obviously confused, so he shook his head as if to say, "Forget it."
"You have, um," Aria said, indicating a piece of egg still on Bobby's face. He managed a weak smile as Rogue wiped it off with a napkin. Aria raised an eyebrow and sat down next to Kathrynne.
"So where were you?" Kat asked once she had finished eating. Aria, who was eyeing the last blueberry muffin on the table, quickly snatched it out of Bobby's reach; he had been going for it, too. Aria chewed a bite off the top.
"Well, after I finally got my legs to stay in their respective places, I was walking down the hall and I met this ass of a guy. L- something."
"Logan?" Bobby and Rogue asked simultaneously.
"That's the one."
"He's not an ass," Rogue protested, but Bobby simply chuckled to himself. "You just have to. get used to him. He grows on you, I promise!"
Aria raised an eyebrow as she finished off her muffin.
"Come on, guys," Bobby said. "The Professor's gonna be here any minute." Kat looked at him questioningly. "He likes to talk to us for a while after breakfast and before classes. Says it lets him get to know us better."
The four turned their attention to the front of the dining hall, where Charles Xavier himself had just wheeled in.

* * *

"Good morning," he said, his voice slightly amplified by a small microphone in his hand. There was a low rumbling reply from the students. "I see you're not all quite fully awake yet, but I would like to present two people to you. They are new to our school; they came last night, as a matter of fact. Aria? Kathrynne? Please stand."
Aria stood dutifully and smiled slightly as the others, but Kat seemed to be frozen in her seat. Aria tugged her up by her elbow; Kat had never been good with being called on in public unexpectedly. Kathrynne finally rose fully and cracked a small smile. The Professor spoke again.
"Everyone, meet Aria Bendell and Kathrynne Cassaway. They graduated from their own high schools before coming here; they will be staying with us for an undetermined time. I ask that you all be your lovely selves and welcome them." He smiled warmly at the two girls as they sat back down.

* * *

"Kat? Aria? I'd like to meet with you briefly in my office, please." The Professor had found them after breakfast had finished, and was now leading them down yet another identical hallway. Kat's boots clicked on the floor, but Aria made no noise at all. She was floating; her feet didn't want to stay solid for some reason.
They turned into a large room with an office desk (no chair, obviously), book shelf-lined walls full of thick volumes, and the same crimson drapes over the floor-ceiling windows that graced the entire school. The Professor wheeled himself behind his desk and faced the girls, who sat in two identical chairs.
"When you came to us last night, I felt something different about you, but I couldn't seem to place it. As you already know, I am psychic, so it was rather odd sensation, not begin able to know something about someone at will, but now I know what it was. Could you each, in turn, describe to me exactly what your mutations are?"
The girls merely looked at each other and back at the Professor. He smiled.
"Kathrynne, you may go first."
"Well, I don't really know. I discovered my powers by accidentally incinerating my Latin textbook," (this inspired a small chuckle from the Professor) "and I can heal." Then she added as an afterthought, "I also made Bobby's eggs explode, if that helps you."
"So. you can concentrate energy? At least, that's what it sounds like to me," said the Professor. "Can you heal others?"
"Well, I don't really know."
"Ow!" Aria yelped. She had just purposefully bitten her hand until it bled. "No time like the present to find out, right?" Kat eyed her suspiciously.
"You are so weird." But, nevertheless, Kat reached out her index finger and gently touched Aria's wounded hand. Nothing happened.
"Try again," the Professor said quietly. "Concentrate the energy."
Slowly, Aria's skin fused back together and her pain subsided. When Kat pulled her hand away, the only trace left of Aria's wound was the small trickle of blood that had escaped. Aria wiped this on the hip of her skirt.
"That was cool," she commented, examining her previously-injured hand. The Professor smiled widely.
"There. I knew it was something like that. So, Kathrynne, that's what you can do. Concentrate energy. I am impressed. I have never seen anything quite like it." Kat blushed furiously under the Professor's praise.
"Thank you, Professor."
"And you, Aria?" he continued.
"Well, erm. as you probably already noticed, I turn invisible. Well, not really. I sort of. dissipate. My molecules separate, but I can somehow keep them together with my. separated. mind." she trailed off. "It's confusing. I can also float along without the help of a breeze."
"Well, well," mused the Professor, looking at the girls, "you are very unique. I have never seen either of your powers, to tell you the truth. I just. I just want you to be careful."
"Careful about what?" Aria asked. The forever inquiring.
"There is another mutant you should know about. His name is Magneto, and he believes that there is a war coming between humans and mutants. He wants to kill all the humans. Everywhere. His mutation is that he can control metal and magnetic fields, so if you see something similar, I want you to promise me that you will stay clear of it."
Kat nodded vigorously, eager to stay away from danger, but Aria was skeptical. She didn't agree, but didn't voice any opposing thoughts she might have been having. The Professor noted this, but didn't make a scene about it. He would keep his eye on her.