Julie landed in front of the brick building where she had followed Magneto just a few days ago. There was no form of a front door, so she assumed she would have to use the side door she had watched Magneto use. She entered the alleyway, but searched for the door only to see it didn't exist. She almost missed the number pad. This must be the way in. There was only one problem. She didn't have the code.

Putting her hand up to the brick wall, she pressed along the wall using her phasing ability until she nearly fell into the space where the door was hidden. She phased through the door and entered a long metal hallway. The hallway had a few different doors with who knew what behind them. She followed the hallway, until it lead into the large open room she had battled Magneto's goons in. No one there. She walked over to the table and placed her backpack on it. She noticed that a chair on the other side of the table had her name engraved along the back of the chair. Daughter Nature.

Now, how did he know my codename? Julie thought. She settled into the seat, sitting against the tall stiff metal back. She figured she would wait for Magneto here and pulled out her calculus book and paper and began working.

"Well, well, well." The voice came from behind Julie, making her jump in her seat. She looked up and rolled her eyes when she saw the filthy Cajun looking down at her. "How nice to see you again."

"You're not counting escorting me to the airport from my house and from the airport to the boarding house," Julie stated. She went back to her homework, but Gambit didn't seem to want to let her get it done.

"I couldn't believe it when Magneto told us you were going to be part of the team," he said, sitting in the seat beside her.

"Not by choice, believe me," Julie said.

"It's not so bad," Gambit said. "It'll be fun having a girl in the group."

"Is it really surprising that a girl hasn't joined you before?" Julie looked at Gambit and gave him an obvious once over, followed by a look of mild disgust. "You're not exactly the cleanest looking bunch. I mean, come on, you've got a guy who resembles a man-cat."

"Excuse you, cher, but I happen to be a very attractive man, and I know it."

"Another quality feature, lack of humility. Do you mind? I'm trying to get this homework done while I wait for Magneto. He texted me to be here, so here I am. He better have a good reason for me to be here."

"As a matter of fact, I do." Julie turned around, having to look around the back of her chair, to see Magneto walking toward her, followed by the rest of his little gang of mutants. The men all sat in their respective seats: the tall, muscular muscle man sat on the other side of Julie; the red haired pyromaniac sat next to Gambit; and the cat man sat between muscles and pyro.

"Hey, isn't she the one..." the red head began to say. He had a thick australian accent.

"Silence, Pyro," Magneto said. He stood at between the cat man, and the one fittingly called Pyro. "This is Daughter Nature. She is a promising new addition to the Acolytes." Really? What a name. "Her abilites...vary. I called you in today so you could get a feel of this place, and of the people you'll be working with. Play nice."

He turned around, his cloak dramatically whipping behind him and stormed off toward a wall that parted for him. It lead into a room, and closed behind him.

"Daughter Nature, eh?" Pyro said. He leaned forward, looking at her intently. "Clever."

"And Pyro's an original name," she retorted.

"Now, now, let's get along, cher," Gambit said, hitting Julie on the back. "That's Colossus, next to you, and the savage man next to him is Sabretooth."

Julie pointed to each guy and recited there name's, "Gambit, Pyro, Sabretooth, and Colossus. Right?"

They nodded in response. Sabretooth got up from the table and skulked off.

"Don't mind him," Pyro said. "He's not exactly the social type."

"He's more of the, kind that if you talk to him he might claw your face off," Gambit said.

"So, how did you get roped into this gig?" Pyro asked.
"Magneto's got something on me, and he also some information I want," Julie responded. "But I don't plan on being here long. I'll find a way out of this mess. I don't want the reputation of being a bad guy. Normally I'm the one putting guys like you behind bars."

"You seem kind of young to be doing this kind of stuff."

"I doubt Magneto cares about age as much as results. Besides, he must figure that if I'm old enough to kick butt I can do his dirty work."

"You still in school?"

"No," Julie said, pointing to the homework in front of her. "I do this kind of work for fun."

"Well, you look the bookworm type," Gambit said. He wore a sly smile as he said it. He was trying to instigate her, but Julie decided to ignore the comment.

Julie noted that the metal man hadn't said a word yet. She looked at him for a second, trying to figure what he said beneath the metallic skin. Chiseled face, but soft features. She couldn't gauge his eye color.

"So, Pyro, you're from Australia? And Gambit, you're clearly from the swamp lands, you look and sound like a swamp rat. What about you Colossus? Where are you from?"

He looked shocked that she had said anything to him. He opened his mouth, but couldn't seem to find the words. Finally he said, "Russia."

His voice was deep and his accent thick. At the same time, his tone was timid and shy. For being a large, intimidating force, he seemed awfully nervous to speak to her. For some reason Julie found it funny and accidentally let a laugh escape her lips. She saw him get a look of shock and embarassment.

"No, no, I'm not laughing at you," Julie said. He didn't look convinced. "I'm sorry. I just had a random thought go through my head...I just, you seem...shy. Am I right?" He nodded in a noncommittal way. "You just don't seem like the type to be timid. I mean, look at you. You could probably pick up a couple tons and bench press them. Most guys with that kind of power are loud and obnoxious because they think the whole world cares what they have to say."

"I...I am not strong in this language," he said.

"Well, I'm sure it's vastly different from Russian."

"When he first got here he couldn't speak a lick of English," Gambit said.

"Oi, he would start spurting out a bunch of gibberish and we had no idea what he was trying to tell us," Pyro said.

"So many accidents could have been avoided," Gambit said, shaking his head.

"That one time I clearly yelled 'GOOSE!'" Colossus said.

Julie busted out laughing, as did Gambit and Pyro. Colossus looked lost.

"It's 'duck,' mon," Gambit said. "When you want someone to get down, you yell 'duck.'"

"Oh," Colossus said.

"So, cher," Gambit said, "what exactly is your mutation?"

Julie bit her lip. This was always a little hard to explain. "Well, it's not exactly one mutation. I have multiple."

"Such as..." Pyro said.

"I mean, I can fly, I can read minds, telekinesis, the ability to morph...there's a lot of them. I don't really like listing them," Julie said.

"Show us," Gambit said.

"What? No!"

Gambit and Pyro looked at each other, sharing a devious smile. Gambit creepily put his hand close to her leg, resting on her chair. "Come on, cher. We'll make you if we have to."

Julie immediately got freaked out. "Don't make me hit you." She began to feel the chair tingle beneath her. Looking down, she saw that the chair was sparking, like the playing card she had seen Gambit thrown the last time they fought. She jumped back, practically landing on Colossus, causing them both to hit the floor, just as the chair exploded.

"What the hell?" Julie said, jumping up. The chair was now a molten mess, resembling more a piece of modern art than a place to sit. Heat hit her back and she whipped around to see a wall of fire surrounding her, leading back to Pyro, who seemed to control the flames from the pack strapped to his back. "Seriously?"

The wall of fire turned into a flaming whirwind that headed toward her. She let the flame pass over her, and let the flame attach to her skin. Her skin melded with the flames, and she became one with the fire. She turned to face Gambit and Pyro, who were both slackjawed at the sight of her. Putting her hand up she let a stream of flame fly toward Gambit. Pyro would only have reflected the attack. Gambit rolled away, just missing the fire landing where he stood. "Yeah, I can play this game too."

She inhaled, and with her exhale the fire seemed to fall off of her skin. Colossus looked at her, amazed that Julie had no burn marks on her. Not even a singe. He muttered something in Russian.

"Look, I really don't feel like playing 'my powers are bigger than yours.' I promise, you will lose. Now, can I just finish my homework?" Julie stormed over to the table, moving the molten metal mess with her telekinesis, and replaced it with Gambit's seat. She sat down, grabbed her iPod, put the headphones in and got to work on the homework.

Gambit and Pyro shrugged and left the room. Colossus sat beside her, wanting to say something, but clearly she was upset. Finally, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"What?" Julie barked, pulling on earbud out of her ear.

"I just wanted to say that was really...cold?" Colossus said.

Julie smiled. "Close. 'Cool.'"

"Yes, cool."

"Thanks. I don't mean to be touchy about it. It's just hard sometimes. All these powers in me and sometimes it's just overwhelming for me. I'm still learning how to control all of them. Not that I lose control a lot, but still...it happens." Julie looked up at the metal man. "Sorry, I'm rambling."

"It's alright," he said. "It's nice to talk to someone other than those two."

"So, can I ask why you wear that metal skin all the time? Is it permanent?"

Colossus shook his head. "No. I guess I've gotten so used to wearing it that I forget to take it off."

Slowly, the metal seemed to retract from his skin, revealing his pale skin. His hands showed markings of manual labor, as did his bulging arms. Julie looked up at his face and saw that the small wrinkles in his face revealed he smiled often. His blue eyes crinkled at he sides, showing that even when he didn't smile with his mouth, he did with his eyes. And man were they nice to look out. Julie could see the good nature in his eyes.

Snap out of it! She thought to herself. She tried to shove down the warm feeling inside of her, which only transferred to her cheeks. Damn is he attractive. But he works for Magneto. But he seems nice. The internal debate seemed endless.

"How old are you Colossus?"

"Twenty."

Too old. No way. Sometimes Julie hated being a girl.

"Well, I'm just going to get back to working on this. It's due tomorrow and I have a few other assignments I need to do."

Colossus nodded, looking down at the floor slighly embarassed. He got up and walked away, Julie watching him the whole time. She saw the metal skin slowly return and she wanted to kick herself. Way to go. Now he thinks you think he's a freak. Seriously, learn to act normal!

"Colossus!" She called out before he left the room. He turned around. "I think you look good without the metal."

He paused for a minute. She was too far away to see the small smile on his lips. He nodded to her then left the room. Julie sat back in Gambit's seat, a big smile on her face. Boy am I in trouble.