"Who are you and what do you want?" Kara shouted over the drizzle of rain. She reached mentally forward once more, only to the strong one's partner: Anger, a slight annoyance with the man beside them; tired of arguing, but adoring all the same.

Kara withdrew, confused and a little pissed that that it gave her no information to deal with the situation at hand.

"I don't like repeating myself!" she shouted again.

Silence, then muffled laughter reached their ears. Mari looked at Kara, now very unhappy. She stalked forward, straight toward the mysterious pair.

Mari ran after her, grabbing her friend's arm, and trying to pull her backward. "I don't like the feeling of this, Kara, something bad's here." She whispered.

Kara turned to look at her; her eyes seemingly glowing.

"Then stay where you are." She continued to walk ahead. She was almost to the pair, close enough to see the man was old and the woman was blue-and naked.

Off the subject, but Kara couldn't help it. She turned to the woman "Aren't you cold?"
The woman hinted at a closed lipped smile, then shook her head, looking at the man in an 'I- told- you – so' glance. Kara didn't like it. Turning to the old man, she commanded, "Name."

The man laughed again. He was in plain clothes, dark blue jeans and a heavy red sweater. His white hair fell just below his ears. His shockingly blue eyes held amusement at the girl's impatience.

Kara opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by a booming whoosh, and wind nearly blowing her away and to the ground. A stunningly neon red beam flew between them, leaving a smooth gash in the road. All three whipped their head to see a large black jet hovering estimated 15 meters away.

The man turned to Kara and held out his hand. "These people are here to kill you, I've come to stop them, hurry, come with us and I'll explain everything!" He said. She looked at him suspiciously, then back at the jet. There was a man with a red visor jumping the short distance from the opening of the jet to the ground. His hand was to his temple and another blast shot right behind Kara, who jumped out of the way. "Mari!" she screamed at her friend, who immediately started to run to her, but was stopped in her tracks by a red beam cutting her across. A white haired, chocolate skinned woman met her there, and was talking to her frantically. Kara saw with fright as Mari nodded and turned with the woman. Kara ran after them, but the man with the visor, soon joined by a tall woman with shoulder length red hair was running to them. Kara tried to reach out to Mari with her mind, but was met by a mental wall. Kara traced it back to the woman in red and glared at her, forcing her back with her telekinesis. The woman stumbled and fell to he knees, clutching at the red visored man.

The man Kara had previously been negotiating with grabbed her arm, getting her attention. "Come with us, there will be time to save your friend, I promise that."

Having no other visible choice, and being in a very vulnerable confused state, Kara nodded shakily. From seemingly nowhere, a helicopter came, the three of them scrambled aboard, and were soon away from the road, the strange jet, and the trashed explorer.

She turned to the white haired man., who handed her a helmet with a speaker from the front seats. She had the blue woman with red hair and –scales? - sat in the back.

She put it on, turning on the communication system on the side, she spoke.

"What's your name and what the hell is going on?"

"I am Magneto, but please, call me Eric." He gave her a warm smile that she didn't buy. Her own expression remained steely and demanding. Eric sighed. "Those people are called the X-men, they're a band of powerful mutants who are recruited to try and reason with the government about all these acts and such they're threatening to put out."

Kara scoffed. "In the open? That's suicide! How do they expect to do that when the government just takes advantage of the reasoning and twists it around on them?"

Eric's smile widened with seemingly pride, a teacher whose new student knew the alphabet by heart.

"I've a proposition for you." He said, turning to get a more comfortable position to face her.

She glowered at him, suspicious.

Again he laughed. "Stop being so cautious, you've nothing to fear from us." He said reassuringly. Kara wanted to get on with it, so she softened her expression a little, making it seem like she was taking his words to heart, she'd play her cards as the unsuspecting refugee for the time, maybe she could wheedle more out of this man on what's really going on. Did she believe him at the moment? Not a bit.


A/N: Thank you for the reviews!