Wow. When I first started typing this bad boy up, I woulda been happy for three reviews. But no. I'm up to twenty! Woohooo!

Abigail Marie-Okay! You want more, you got it!

Laureate- But of course. Cornish Rex cats, Heinz 57 cats, and my cat are just as good as those Wolfhounds.

Dragonet- You'll...kidnap Doggy? NOOOO! Reviewers of the dark side of the fics unite! Protect Doggy!

Akai Kah'ghe- I was wondering who would catch that.

Diclaimer: Welcome to the disclaimer! Brought to you by the American Apple pie Institution! X-men is not mine!

Saying of the fic!

Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected become the expected?

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"What did she look like?"

"What's her power?"

"What's she like?"

Bobby grinned at them. He had them all in suspense about the new mutant.

"Like, come on Bobby!" Kitty was glaring at him. "Like, get on with it!"

"Okay," Bobby paused for dramatic emphasis, causing most of the new recruits to groan, "She's got this really cool ability.."

"What, Bobby, WHAT!?" Ray was never a big one for patience.

"She talks to animals." He grinned at the mutants surrounding him. All of them except Jean and the grownups were there.

"How is that very useful?" Roberto looked puzzled.

"Think about it!" Scott nudged him. "There are billions of animals around. She has her own personal army."

Jamie broke in swiftly before Scott could continue. "Is it true she brought a wolf?"

"A wolf? I'm not going to have to fight it, will I?" Rahne looked a little nervous. Attacking someone's pet is not a good way to make friends.

"It's not a wolf, it's a wolfhound. You know?" Bobby gestured with his hands. "Big gray dog?"

"Oh." Rahne sounded very relieved.

Jubilee tapped Bobby on the shoulder. "So what is she like?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Ray looked at him, disbelievingly. "You rode back on the helicopter with her!"

"She didn't talk at all! She just stared out the window."

"Oh!" Everybody looked at Amara. "She's not mute, is she?"

Bobby shook his head. "I heard her snap at the professor."

"She, like, yelled at the professor? Who does she, like, think she is?" Kitty demanded angrily.

Bobby took a step back. "Calm down, Kitty. She was upset because her parents were going to get rid of that big wolfhound she brought."

"Why?" Rogue popped her head out behind Scott.

"It attacked Wolverine. Sank it's teeth into his arm and wouldn't let go. The girl-"

"Why arh you callin' her the girl?" Rogue glared at him. "Don't she have a nahme?"

"Okay. Danny is her name. Anywho, Danny had to stop it."

Sam piped up from the back. "Ah can't wait to meet her! I mean, how many people we know got a dog that's brave enough to tangle with Mr. Logan?"

"You got zat right!" Kurt laughed.

"Well, we aren't going to see her until the professor says so, so I guess we just wait." Scott turned to walk away, ignoring the collective groan starting behind him.

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The mansion was pretty big. Plenty of room to run around and stuff. Doggy would be happy.

I wasn't quite sure about myself yet. I didn't know what I'd do if there weren't munchkins around to keep me busy.

I felt so out of place. Here I was, in a nice mansion, and I was wearing ripped up jeans and a paint-stained t-shirt.

The lady who was showing me around wasn't helping a lot either. She was tall, beautiful, with long white hair and a pretty dress. Her name was Ororo Monroe.

Ms. Monroe walked up the stairs talking about the other mutants.

"-and Bobby will no doubt be telling them about you-"

I had missed the first part. Shame on me.

"-so don't be surprised when they come to see you if they know your name already."

"Do I have to meet them now?"

"No. You can go to your room and unpack first." She smiled warmly at me. I gave a little half-smile in response.

I suppose I should be more enthusiastic. But there were knots in my stomach and big butterflies weaving between them. At least Doggy was there. He had been near my hip the entire time. I know he probably wanted to run around and chase leaves and whatnot.

"You and your dog will stay in this room." Ms. Monroe was gesturing to a door. She opened it, and led me into a large room with a bed, a dresser, gray walls, and a large bay window. I walked over to the window. I could see the woods from the widow. It was oddly comforting.

I looked behind me. Ms. Monroe was peering at me, waiting for me to speak. I gave her my very best smile.

"It's wonderful. Thank-you."

Ms. Monroe smiled and nodded. "If you should need me, go ahead and yell, or talk to one of the students."

"I will. Thank-you."

Ms. Monroe left. The first thing Doggy did when she was gone was make himself comfortable on the bed. I shook my head at him.

"I see how it is. As soon as we move somewhere else, you forget all your manners."

"Woof." He thumped his tail on the bed.

I sighed and unpacked my clothes. All of them had holes or stains on them. Running around in the country, taking care of your younger siblings, and getting into fights with trees and fences does that.

But I was never really one to care what others thought of me. Self-indulgence, I guess.

As soon as I stuffed my clothes into the drawers of the dresser, I plopped down beside Doggy on the bed. He put his jaw on my shoulder.

"I don't suppose we should go down." I was talking mostly to hear myself talk, but I directed my thoughts at Doggy so he wouldn't feel left out.

I looked over at him. "What do you think?"

Doggy lifted his ears and cocked his head.

Obviously, he was giving it serious thought.

Then he picked up a big paw and threw it over me. His version of a hug, I think.

I grinned and scratched him behind the ears. His tongue lolled out and his tail started wagging.

I always knew that Doggy was special. But it occurred to me that maybe he was special in a different way. He did understand me, but that was in the kind of emotional way, like if I was sad he would sit next to me until I felt better. Most dogs do that.

But it now occurred to me that maybe Doggy actually did understand what I was saying.

That would be so cool.

"Doolittle!" Somebody knocked on the door. I was pretty sure it was Mr. Logan.

I gently pushed Doggy's chin off my shoulder and went to open the door.

I was right. Mr. Logan.

"Yes, Mr. Logan?"

"Professor wants you to come meet the others. You and the hound ready?"

I turned and motioned for Doggy to come over. He slid off the bed reluctantly and trotted over to me.

I followed Mr. Logan through the halls, down the stairs and into the study, where I suddenly felt very self-conscious.

There were dozens of eyes staring at me. I stood slightly apart from them, with Doggy as a spacer.

Most of them were city kids, and probably had never seen a dog quite as big or as muscular, or as intimidating as Doggy.

He was a good spacer.

"Danny, I would like you to meet the other mutants of the Xavier institute. Everyone, this is Danny. She is an animal empath."

The other mutants, all about my age, all said hellos. I thought I caught a couple southern accents here and there, but I wasn't sure.

"Due to Danny's gift, she has brought along her dog to help her develop the gift."

It would have been great if he told me that. But I couldn't complain, because Doggy was sitting right next to me instead of being put down.

"So, I'm counting on you all to make sure Danny and Doggy feel welcome here."

There was an explosion of snickers from the other kids. I had to resist the urge to laugh myself. Doggy and Danny. The duo.

Doggy whumped his tail on the ground. I think he was laughing too.

It turned out to be a great icebreaker. Pretty soon I was surrounded by kids giving me their names.

"I'm Jamie- Woah!" Somebody accidentally bumped into Jamie. As a result, the room was suddenly full of the same kid.

There were groans from everybody and the group quickly started to evacuate the study so there'd be more room. Doggy and I followed them.

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The grounds were quite pretty, I decided.

Doggy was currently sitting at my hip watching the other mutants trying to disentangle themselves from the dozen Jamies that were wandering amongst them.

The group moved outside when there proved to be too many Jamies inside.

When they finally managed to get away from the Jamies (who were now disappearing at an alarming rate) they ran up to Doggy and I.

The first to speak was a guy in shades.

"I'm Scott Summers-hey!" He was swiftly pushed away by two other girls, both with dark hair.

"I'm Amara," The girl nodded to the other on in a yellow jacket, " and she's Jubilee. We call her Jubes."

Jubes was about to say something when a girl and a guy came through both of them. Through them!

"Hi! I'm like, Kitty Pryde! And this is Kurt." She gestured to the dark haired boy that she dragged with her.

"I'm very pleased to finally meet you!" He had a german accent. It was nice. I was about to reach over and shake his hand when Amara broke in angrily.

"Will you guys stop doing that?!" They were still halfway through Jubes and Amara.

"Oh, uh..Ve're sorry." With that, they both disappeared, to reappear behind the group.

Teleportation. Nice.

"Hey let us through!"

"Stop hogging the limelight guys!"

Two guys in the back pushed their way to the front. One was very tanned, and the other had a mostly shaved head with weird looking bangs.

The tanned one was first to speak, earning a glare from bangs.

"My name is Roberto DeCosta, and this is-"

"I can introduce myself!" Both guys were glaring daggers at each other.

"Then, like, introduce yourself!" That was Kitty Pryde in the back.

Bangs broke off the glaring contest to smile at me and hold out his hand to shake. I took it.

"I'm Ray Crisp."

"You already know me and Jean!" Somebody yelled from the back. I looked over to see Bobby grinning at me.

I felt Doggy tense up beside me and looked down to see a big brown wolf. And before my eyes, that wolf turned into a girl.

Wow. Wolfgirl lives again.

"I'm Rahne." She grinned at me. Her accent sounded Irish. I smiled back.

"Hey, let us southerners through!"

So I did hear southerners!

A gothic looking girl and a tall blonde country boy came up to the front.

"Ah'm Rogue. This is Sahm." Sam and Rogue? At least I wasn't the only country girl.

"Um, well...My name is Danielle Nesmond. But everybody calls me Danny. And this is Doggy." I gestured to my companion. Again, the explosion of snickers.

"Why is he called Doggy?" I looked over to see Jamie, with no added extras.

"My little brother named him. He thought it was a good name."

"Gotta bunch of brothers?" Sam questioned.

"No. Lots of sisters though."

He grinned. "I know what that's like."

Soon I was bombarded with questions, about my life, about what I liked, and even about Doggy.

And as sad as I was that morning, it was suddenly all okay.

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I know this wasn't as funny as the other chapters, but I'll make up for it in the next few chapters.

Tune in next time:

Danny discovers the many ways animals speak!

Bobby discovers why it's not a good idea to prank someone who can talk to animals!

Doggy is seeking musehood! Help him with reviews!