I don't own the X-Men or those characters, but me an' Allie do own our originals. Please don't hate us...we just write the stuff...


I couldn't believe how technologically advanced the helicopter was. For the time being I forgot about how high up we were. After a few minutes of silence, Jean spoke up.

"I know you're a senior in high school, but how old are you?" she asked.

"Eighteen," I replied. She nodded.

"What kind of classes are you taking?" Jean wanted to know. I thought about for a moment, then rattled on about what classes I was taking and what I thought of each. After I was done, Jean shifted in her seat a little to look at me.

"You mentioned that you wrote stories. What kind do you write?" I grinned. She'd found my weakness. For the rest of the flight, I talked about all the little stories that I'd started in my (very little amount of) spare time. Jean seemed to be actually interested, unlike other people I had told about my various plot ideas. Somehow, I managed to forget I was even flying. I must have been distracted by talking. Suddenly, there was a slight thump. The helicopter had landed. That hadn't been nearly as bad as I expected.

When we all climbed out, I found myself standing on a helipad behind a red brick mansion with white trim. My eyes widened in disbelief. The place was huge! My bet was that there were hundreds of rooms, and maybe servants too. The lawn nearby was well-kept, and the flowers closer to the building bloomed gorgeously. Whoever did the gardening really knew what they were doing. There was even a forest on the property. A forest!

"Let's go," Storm said firmly, "you'll want to talk to Professor Xavier before settling in." Jean nodded in agreement. So, with the two women leading the way, we went inside and walked down a corridor. I was surprised to see it so empty, but then, I realized, this was probably a private hallway for teachers or something like that. Maybe most students just avoided it like the plague. After a minute, we arrived at an oak door. Jean walked right in. I gaped at her. She should have at least knocked to make sure he wasn't busy.

"Ah, thank you Jean, Storm," came a man's voice. It was somewhat deep and, though I hadn't even seen the guy, he sounded pretty nice. What was I thinking? He sounded almost like a favorite uncle or something…the kind of guy that could make just about anything better. The two women smiled a bit.

"Allie, please come in. Storm, would you mind waiting outside to show her to her room?" No, Storm didn't mind. I walked into the room alone and Jean closed the door behind me. I had to say, it was a really nice office. A large mahogany desk stood in front of huge windows with maroon drapes. I was pretty sure I could see a decent-sized balcony through them with white metal railings. Bookshelves, also mahogany, lined the walls, packed with thick volumes of what were probably scientific studies and classics or whatever. I couldn't help noticing that the textured walls were painted plain white to counter the rich wood.

After looking around the office a moment, my eyes finally landed on a bald man in a wheelchair near a bookcase off to the side. He wore a tidy looking suit that was a tan-ish color and a navy blue tie. Heavy-looking gray eyebrows hung over blue-eyes. A slight smile played at the corners of his mouth. It took me a moment to realize he knew who I was, but then, he was the one in charge, so he should know who's coming, shouldn't he.

"So…uh…what kind of institute is this?" I asked hesitantly. I watched as he turned his chair to face me and wheeled it forward.

"This," he said with a vague sweep of his hand to indicate the mansion, "is the Xavier Institute for the Gifted."

"What do you mean by gifted?" I asked. My eyebrows sank over my eyes in confusion. I didn't think I was all that "gifted," unless he was talking about my stories, but even those weren't all that great.

"No, I don't mean writings or academic gifts. While we do strive to cultivate knowledge in the minds of the students, we are especially suited to train them to control and use genetically inherited gifts. Namely mutant powers."

I burst into laughter. "A mutant training ground! You're running a mutant training ground!" The hilarity suddenly wore off. "Oh my freakin' land… You're running a mutant training ground… The girl on the debate team was right…" They wanted to take over the world! I stared at him with my mouth gaping open, and my knees were feeling wobbly.

"I'm afraid you've misinterpreted. We are not trying to take over the world," he chuckled slightly, "our mission is to promote human-mutant relations."

"Okay, that's getting really creepy. What are you doing? Reading my mind!" I was freaking out. That was the second time he'd said something about what I was thinking. My hands were starting to shake.

"Allie, please calm yourself," the Professor said patiently, "my power is telepathy. However," he added quickly, "I will not pry into your personal thoughts without permission in the future and I will never alter your thinking. Please don't touch the desk."

"What?" I froze where I was. I had been about to lean on the desk for support. This was all too much information all at once. And mutants…I couldn't be one of them…could I?

"Take a deep breath. I need you to calm down." His voice had turned soothing, as though to help cool my nerves. Obediently, I took a breath and closed my eyes. It took a couple of minutes, but when I finally calmed down and opened them again, he was still there, smiling slightly.

"Good," he said with a nod of approval, "you see, until you are trained, your powers will be activated by high levels of stress. To be specific, when you are frightened or angry or such, the temperature of your hands increases monumentally." He continued to watch me for my reaction.

I stared at my hands as though I'd never seen them before, like they were alien toasters or something. Then the thought struck me. That would explain the burn marks on the pencil and test, and how the table almost started on fire without my noticing. But wait…how did he know about my powers? Was he reading my mind now? I looked at him suspiciously.

He sighed. "You're probably wondering how I knew about them, but I believe you've had enough shock for now. Storm will lead you to your room. You can either rest there or wander about the mansion. Just take care what you touch. And please try to remain calm at all times." With that, Storm came in, called by Xavier's telepathy, from what I suspected, and I was dismissed to see my new room. I couldn't help hoping the stuff in it was fire-proof.