Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.

To firewhisperer: Yep Hart's an empath. Yes that is one of the many uses she can find for shadows, it will be very entertaining to watch dear Naomi don't you agree?

Chapter 7

Naomi rocked back on the hospital bed and was looking rather interested at her knees. "He wasn't always so bad." She began softly, "Mom always said when I first came home from the hospital dad almost wouldn't let her hold me." She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, trying to avoid looking at Storm's eyes. "That was until funny things started happening."

The room was quiet for a moment, "Like?"

Naomi thought through all the stories her mom had said in passing, she'd laughed them off as just a silly little joke that hung over the head of their family but it made more sense now knowing what she could do. "Like, one day they put me in my playpen walked to the door and turned around to look at me again, I was sitting on the floor next to the dresser, giggling and playing with my toes." she smirked. "When I was a little older I made shadow puppets on my bedroom wall, you know, a butterfly, a bunny, simple stuff. I guess I made a spider one too cause it became rather lifelike and mom took me out of the room and called an exterminator claiming there were giant spiders in our house."

She bit her lip, "About then was when I started getting punished when I did things, I didn't know it was wrong so dad told me it was. At first it was time outs, and maybe spankings. Then it turned into more..." Naomi couldn't think of the word, "as I got older. I was ten when he painted out my windows and put black tarps over the other side of them so I wouldn't scrape off the paint. Not that I would, he scared me by then." She touched the bridge of her nose again, "Then this started happening, I didn't try using my powers, but for some reason they would react when ever I saw dad coming and these black marks would appear."

"Your powers were trying to protect you." Storm stated, "When you got that cut, did your powers do anything?"

Naomi shrugged, "I don't remember. He came up behind me and hit me with something, I think a lamp or a chair... I remember mom screaming and I fell to the floor, something broke and the next thing I remember is mom stitching me up." She blinked, "Dad was sweeping up the floor."

Storm was quite for a moment, "You shouldn't have to be subjected to that sort of treatment Naomi, you should of called the police." The girl shook her head vigorously. Storm sighed. "Come with me, I'll introduce you to Emily."

Naomi lightly got off the table, her bare feet on the floor, "Where are my clothes?"

"You, Curse, Cat and I are going to go shopping before dinner. Chameleon's tastes in clothes change almost as quickly as her hair color."

"Curse said she had a brother?" Naomi asked following Storm out into the hall, also a stark white with light coming from everywhere, then to the next door over.

"Yes, Prism. He's her twin, they both change colors but he has an active power of bending light. She's in hopes her power only matures slower." Storm opened the door and stepped back.

Naomi walked into the room, most of the lights were out. She could see the glow from several monitors and heard the beep of the medical machines in sync with the occupants heart. More lights came on as she moved into the room.

Laying on the table was a girl, she looked a few years older than her. "Hi Storm, not often you make someone come down here." The voice came from no where. The girl's eyes were closed and a tube was down her throat.

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's in a coma."

"Yep, been this way since I was five." Her voice said, "My higher brain functions perfectly as you can tell, its the other lower functions. The simple stuff that people take for granted, like breathing, moving, going to the bathroom like a normal person, eating that I can't do."

Naomi didn't stray too close to the motionless girl. "How did it happen?"

Storm looked over to Naomi meaningfully, "From what Emily remembers, her parents knocked her out with prescription pain medication, then drove her to a river and dropped her in it, because she was a mutant."

"The meds were what tampered with my brain mostly, hypothermia and nearly drowning only made it worse." Emily stated, if a voice alone could smirk hers did at this time, "See we have a lot in common, you should come visit me more often." There was a pause, "I think the reason they tried to kill me was because I started projecting pictures into their heads at a very young age, about three months actually. I preferred to talk to them with my mind then aloud, eventually they would just flinch and try to ignore it when ever I spoke to them. They wouldn't let me have friends cause they were scared that I'd do the same to them, I probably would of too." Another pause, this one about the length of a person giving a shrug, "So instead of risking having people talk and spread rumors they tried to hush it all up. I'm sure you heard about from your parents or on TV occasionally even now, the little girl who wandered away from her rich mansion home and drowned in a deep river."

Naomi fled from the room.