Jacob was surrounded by a dozen different faces all at once. At least it seemed like a dozen. He barely had time to think. The blue smoke that had overcome him only moments ago was now evaporating seemingly into thin air, and the smell was fading away. Jacob also noticed that the thing that had grabbed him in the jeep was now speaking to another person some distance away.

The frightened boy took a look around. Everything was so clean…so professional looking. He had absolutely no idea of where he was, but it seemed to be the interior of an airplane of some sort. Jacob had only been inside an airplane twice in his life, and he had slept through both of the flights, so he never got the opportunity to look around the plane. However he did recognize the plainness of the environment to belong to some sort of vehicle.

Jacob breathed in and out to try to calm himself, but it didn't work. Now that he looked about him, he realized that there were only three people staring at him. One of these was a beautiful looking lady with shocking red hair, and a smooth face. She was dressed in a brightly colored, one-piece suit that gave the impression of combat rather than elegance. Despite this, Jacob realized she made him feel better for some reason…sort of reminded him of his mother. There seemed to be care in her eyes, and an aura of kindness in the way she acted.

The other two beings were male, he thought: one was scruffy looking, gruff, muscular, and frightening. His mouth was set into an apparent position of grim determination, and his face looked slightly unshaven, the black stubs of hair roughly flecking his square chin and covering his head in a mess. There was grit and grime on his yellow and black striped uniform, making dark, dirty splotches all over the garment. Jacob guessed he had been part of the mayhem that he had heard of from inside the car. The second was harder to distinguish as male in gender, particularly because he had sapphire colored fur covering him from head to toe, instead of skin. He looked more like a blue gorilla than any person, but even his face emitted a sense of kindness and care. Jacob noticed his feet and arms more than anything, considering they were all oversized…he also saw that this one also had a uniform of some kind.

Above all, Jacob now felt that his fear had drained away. The horror of being in the control of someone he had never met before was replaced by feelings of familiarity towards these people. It seemed that they were almost family to him, and somehow they looked like they felt it too. As Jacob examined the faces of these "strangers," he began to understand why.

Mutants.

They had to be. Why else would he feel as if he belonged with them, and was rightfully in their company? As Jacob contemplated this he saw the blue creature turn to the young woman abruptly, as if she had spoken. She looked straight into his eyes, and Jacob thought he saw the faintest nod of acknowledgement from the blue man immediately before he turned and walked in the direction of the other creature that had taken Jacob here. There was no doubt in the boy's mind that he was a mutant. That was the absolutely only way that a man could look like that.

The gruff looking man also turned and walked past Jacob, muttering a comment softly to him, "It's alright now, kid."

The only one who stayed with Jacob was the kind looking woman with the red hair. She crouched down to his level, and spoke softly.

"My name is Jean Grey," she said. "I'm a doctor at-"

"Are you a mutant too?" Jacob interrupted. He frowned upon hearing his own voice. It was surprisingly calm.

Jean Grey smiled at him patiently. "That's right. We are all mutants here. Don't worry, we're friends."

Jacob opened his mouth again to ask one of the many questions on his mind, but was answered first:

"You are on a jet headed for Westchester, New York. Have you ever heard of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning?"

"Yes…my parents talked about sending me there. Why are we going there? I thought was a school for really big kids. Where-"

"I don't know where your parents are, but I'm sure they're safe."

Jacob breathed an inward sigh of relief. Something about hearing a statement of fact from this woman was soothing, as if there was no reason to doubt it. "Hey, how did you know what I was going to ask?"

The woman smiled again. "As I said before, Jacob, we're all mutants here." She added quickly, "But we use our powers to help people, not hurt them. That's how we found you."

"Hey how do you know my na- oh yeah….you came to rescue me?"

"If you can call making a direct assault on a mutant genetic and experimental research facility rescuing you," the dirty looking man had returned, and was standing immediately behind Jacob as he spoke the words in his gruff voice.

The boy whirled around to look up at him. He was actually quite short, he realized, but very stocky.

The man glanced back down at him for a short second, and then looked up at the woman kneeling on the floor. "Kids – think the world revolves around 'em. Anyway, storm says we're ten minutes away, Red, and she needs you up there for a sec."

Jean only nodded, and watched him walk back to the place he came from. "When we found you, we were staging another rescue from a place where they were keeping more people like you. That's where those men were taking you."

Jacob looked down at the floor. "Because I'm a mutant…. What were they going to do to me?"

This time Jean looked at the floor. When her gaze returned to the boy's face, something flickered in her eyes. "It's alright now, Jacob. You're with us now. We'll take care of you."

He watched as she stood and walked easily away.