Washington DC

Senator Kelly smiled and clapped his heavy hands together as the limousine pulled onto the tarmac of the airport. "Looks like we have some supporters."

A brown wolf called Henry Guyrich, the Senator's aide, nodded, but he wasn't really looking at the supporters, or at Kelly. Kelly didn't really care what Guyrich thought, or what anyone thought, except for the pollsters. And right now, the polls showed that his antimutant stance was getting him a lot of attention and votes. And he was going to keep riding the issue until it no longer yielded those benefits, even if it happened overnight.

The limo came to a halt beside a large government helicopter, the piolet already waiting in his seat. The path between the limo and the helicopter was lined by a deafening crowd, barely restrained by a short rope.

Kelly immediately devided the crowd into two groups, those who are his supporters were cheering at him, while those who aren't are yelling insults at him, but he didn't care. He stepped out into the cold and waved and smiled at the camera.

He strolled down the line, he shook a few hands, muttered a few sentences into the reporter's mics and gave the thumbs up, the crowd continued to cheer and jeer. Kelly acted as if those who were against him were invisible and focused on those who were on his side. He loved this attention. He could feel it fuelling him, giving him the extra strength needed to keep going.

He finally reached the helicopter and after ensuring that all the cameras were pointed at him he gave one final thumbs up.

Behind him, Guyrich, followed carrying the senator's briefcase. As he climbed aboard, he glanced at the pilot, who nodded in acknowledgement. Nobody noticed anything out of the ordinary. Not even Senator Kelly. But if a camera were to zoom into Guyrich's face, they would have caught his eyes had turned yellow.

X – Men Mansion

The bright winter sun flooded the large solarium, warming the air around the students, Storm and Rouge. Amy Jubilee Rose and Sonic sat near the back, a pile of books on the beside them, watching as Storm lectured, and Rouge stood by waiting for something to happen.

This was all so new to them. They had never expected to be included in a class again after what happened and yet here, they were. With people that knew what they can do, and they didn't care. 'This is going to take a while for me and Sonic to get used to' Jubilee Rose thought.

Sonic had been provided with shoes made by some Dr Ray Hank McCoy that can help him with his speed and traction and Sonic had been desperate to find an opportunity to test it out, however the professor said that they will test it out after Storms class and he had been jumpy for the class to end. While Amy had been provided with gloves that allowed her to control her 'firework hands'.

Storm stood in front of them, the rabbot's skin almost radiant in the sunlight, her white hair flowing like a waterfall around her head, standing next to her was Rouge, who is the EA for this lesson. She, Storm and Dr. Grey were the most beautiful women that Amy and Sonic had ever seen, and they already decide that they wanted to be like them.

But for Amy there was something about Shadow that made him a million times more 'appealing' than all the other staff members that she had met so far, she had no idea what it was though.

"So, the barometric pressure begins to drop" Storm was saying, "Precipitation begins, and the air starts to move more rapidly. Now lightning strikes occur when strong thermal updrifts cause water droplets and ice crystals to collide, creating positively and negatively charged particles"

A mouse student named Frederick who sat in front raised his hand,

"Yes?" Rouge asked

"Are you sure about this?" Fredrick asked, smiling.

"Do not tempt me to demonstrate" The rabbot said shaking her head with a hint of amusement.

Kitty, who was sitting in beside Amy, whispered "So that guy you came with? He's really got steel claws that come out of his hands?"

Shade, an echidna was sitting on the other side of Amy whispered back "No way. What kind of mutation is that? That beats my power of being able to show people's worst fears."

Amy just shrugged, as she continued to pay attention to the class, unsure on how to respond to this statement.

Rouge noticed a young cat student called John pulling out a giant lighter. Rouge stared in confusion as he didn't seem to be taking out a cigarette or anything like that, instead he held his hand under the flame and pulled the lighter away, keeping the flame in place, hovering over his hand. John noticed Rouge and gave a small smile as the flame grew into the size of an orange. Rouge was about to intervine when there was a loud snapping sound like a small bomb, and the flame in Johns hand was replaced with what appeared to be a playing card. Looking up to the far end of the class she noticed the oldest student in the class, a green hawk called Jet, or as she called him, Gambit, holding his trademark playing cards. Rouge turned back to look at her teammate to see that she wasn't pleased.

"John what did I tell you?" Bunnie asked frowning

"Sorry." John said, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"and you Jet, you are X Men material, but I believe that you still need to learn when and where to use your power."

Jet looked as if he wanted to fire a retort, held his tongue at the look at the teachers face then nodded.

Bunnie shook her head then turned to finish what she was writing on the whiteboard.

Later that day Sonic, Amy, Bunnie and Rouge sat in an empty classroom for their counselling.

"So how has your time here been?" Bunnie asked the two hedgehogs.

The two hedgehogs looked around in wonder, at the glass walled room and winter gardens beyond. It was Amy that spoke what was in their minds "This place is so beautiful. And everyone is so nice. I just…"

She didn't know what to say, nor did Sonic. They both sat in silence speaking more with their facial expressions than with words.

"How long have you two been on your own?" Rouge asked suddenly

This question made the two hedgehogs suddenly gain interest in the floor patterns, and without saying a word Sonic replied "Eight months. We have been hitchhiking, trying to get far away from home as possible. Get away from anyone who would know what we were."

The two older women nodded "We can understand that." Bunnie said "I myself ran off from my home in Kenya to Cairo and Rouge here had fled to the southern United States."

"Sonic and I didn't know there was anyplace for us to go to" Amy said "But this is wonderful. We felt…kind of alone you know. We did have each other…but that really wasn't enough…"

"Well." Bunnie said "You are not alone anymore"

"And the professor? Can he…cure me?" Amy said under her breath.

Rouge looked sadly at the hedgehog girl and looked to her teammate as if asking permission to talk.

There over the next hour, Amy learned something she didn't want to know, but suspected. That she will have to be very careful about touching things without exploding them, that Sonic had to watch where he was going or else he will vaporize people. Rouge did most of the talking to them, as she had it worse as she would never be able to touch another person as long as they lived. Bunnie's comments on establishing a mutant community fell on deaf ears. All they knew was that they were a danger to themselves and everyone else around them and there was less then a handful of people that can understand that. Suddenly they felt more alone than they had on the road.