Chapter 1: New Member Enters, Old Member Returns

Sweat dripped down her young face, trapping strands of golden hair on her flushed cheeks. Her breathing was slightly heavy as she rested in the dark, dank alleyway. As she sat there in her tattered clothing, a mixture of emotions tumbled around from within her. Most was pure bliss of the fact that she had finally escaped from the nightmare that she had lived with for so many years, but there was also fear that was gradually building up inside of her. Fear of, not just being alone for the first time in her life, but what she was becoming. Was she a monster with some sort of horrible curse? Or was she being granted with a wonderful gift to help her in her escape to freedom for the first time in her young life? As she pondered these burning questions, she heard light footsteps and turned swiftly to watch an elderly man approach the spot where she sat.

"Who are you?" she asked, standing upright shakily.

"Someone who's just like you.: smiled the man, serenely.

"How do you know?" she asked, warily.

"Come with me," he said, simply as he held out a dark gloved hand. "And I'll show you."

The girl only hesitated briefly before taking the man's hand. After all, what could be worse that the hell she had just escaped from? Nothing, right?

She was soon to be proven very wrong.

The sun's rays shown through the crack in the dark purple curtains as a lone figure jolted upright in her plush queen-sized bed, breathing heavily for a few short moments. Then she swung her long legs over the side of her plush bed and leapt off agilely, landing on the balls of her feet and stretched her arms and legs. She shuddered as a yawn shook through her body and rubbed her tired, golden eyes. She then glanced over at the small, simple alarm clock on the round side table by her bed and groaned: 8:15A..M.

"Aw, crap." She muttered, exasperatedly. "I'm late getting up again! I bet breakfast is already over and Charles is gonna interrogate me again, too. Unless-!"

She gasped and hurriedly collected stray articles of clothing spread out around her extravagant room and stood in front of her full body mirror to assess herself. Her reflection revealed a young woman in her early thirties with cat-like golden eyes, wavy golden locks that went slightly past her shoulders, and a set of rosy lips all set on a soft, heart-shaped face. She wore a silver, sleeve-less blouse and black pants with white gloves that extended a little past each elbow, and long white boots with silver laces. But her most remarkable feature was the mixture of black spots that decorated the right side of her face from the crown of her head to the base of her neck.

She grinned at her reflection then sprinted out her oak bedroom door and stopped at the foot of the stairway that led to the lobby and the large front door.

Alright, if I just walk down the stairs slowly and softly Charles won't hear me. She thought as she lifted her left foot and started to descend down the staircase to the lobby. After all, it's not like he can read my mind.

She got about halfway down the stairs when she heard several voices and froze where she was with her left foot raised to go down to the next step.

"We'll see you later, Professor." called a tall brunette boy with dark shades as he walked to the front door with his backpack slung over one shoulder. An equally tall redheaded girl was following behind him, carrying her own backpack, when she noticed Rose and stopped in her tracks. She then tapped Scott on the right shoulder, who had already opened the front door. 'What, Jean?"

Jean raised her left index finger and pointed at Rose, Scott looked with her , and both of their amazed expressions turned to over bright smiles as they stared at one of their teachers. Scott opened his mouth to greet Rose a "good morning", but Rose just shook her head and raised her left index finger to shush him. Scott cocked a dark eyebrow, but Rose just shook her head again and mouthed them a "Have a great day". Scott then turned to look at Jean questioningly, but Jean just shrugged and they finally walked out the door together. Rose waited a moment to see if anyone else would emerge from the side room at the end of the staircase, but no one did and she once again slowly descended down the stairs until her booted foot touched the hard wood floor of the lobby. She then began to creep around the side of the staircase to the doorway that led into the kitchen when she heard someone call her name.

"Rose, is that you?" a male voice called through the room that the two teens had emerged from. Rose, halfway around the staircase, froze as she hoped in vain that the man would just think he imagined that he heard something. "Rose, I know you are there. Come in here please."

Crap! She groaned as she turned around to head through the doorway the voice had come from. He must have read those two minds before they left! And I was so close too!

"Good morning, Rose." the owner of the male voice was an aging, bald man with kind brown eyes and dark arching eyebrows. He sat in a metal wheelchair, but he was no less intimidating as his solemn eyes bore into Rose's golden ones.

"Good morning, Charles." greeted Rose, a little nervous as she tried to look into his eyes with innocent calm.

"You're up a little late again, aren't you?" Xavier asked her calmly, his eyes never leaving hers.

"No." Rose answered. "I was having an early DR solo session this morning, that's all."

"Is that correct?" Xavier said, though he did not seem at all convinced. "Then why, may I ask, is your normally neat golden hair in such a disarray?"

'Huh?" She lifted a glove hand to her to the back of her head to feel that her usually brushed hair was an entanglement of knots. Damn! I must have forgotten to brush it in my rush earlier!. "Well, sometimes you forget."

"Yes, I suppose so." Xavier mused, his expression softening with a little of amusement. "Though I don't suppose this has to do with a certain special someone who hasn't returned yet, does it?"

"Huh? No, not at all." Rose said, quickly as Charles cocked a dark eyebrow. "Ok, yeah. Maybe a little. Or a lot."

"Hmm. I thought as much." Charles chuckled, softly. "Is that why you have not been sleeping well recently?"

"Well," she said as she scanned the room to look for some kind of excuse to get the attention away from her. She then spotted a lone figure that was crouching behind Charles. In a large, tan trench coat. "Um, Charles? I think there is someone that needs me to be introduced to."

"Huh? Oh, yes." Charles replied, though noting her attempt to distract him but let it go for now. He then turned in his wheelchair to allow Rose a better look at the newcomer though the hood of his coat was up, shrouding his face in darkness. "This is Kurt Vagner, a newcomer to the school who arrived late last night. Kurt, this is Rose Silverstone also known as Silver Cheetah . She is another one of the professor's available here at the institute."

"Guten-tag Kurt. Rose greeted him kindly, noting his German last name. She stepped forward and extended a gloved hand in welcome to the young mutant who shook it with a blue, three-fingered hand then quickly broke the hold as if he expected Rose to flinch and lash out at him. Rose smiled sadly as she remembered her own wounds that seemed similar in a way to his. "You know, this is a place where you don't have to be afraid to show the true you. So why don't you get rid of that bulky trench coat and show us who you truly are Kurt? We won't scream or runaway from you. You only have friends here. So what do you say, Kurt?"

Kurt shifted uneasily, then shed his coat to reveal a strong, agile fifteen year old boy with beautiful blue fur that looked soft to the touch, short indigo hair, blue three-fingered hands, elongated blue feet, and a long blue tail ending in a spade shape. Rose could understand why he had thought she would have fled from him earlier, his appearance truly was demonic like.

But looks aren't everything. She thought as she noticed the boy take in her own physical mutations and smiled. "So what's your special gift that got you here, Kurt?"

"Gift?" he repeated, obviously not used to describing his mutant ability a gift.

"Yes, gift." she urged, knowing full well that it would take awhile for the word to truly sink in. "What is it that you can do?"

As an answer Kurt smirked mischievously and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke that smelled oddly of sulfur and then reappeared at the far end of the room.

"Wow," Rose whispered as the elf reappeared in front of them after another 'bampf' and a cloud of smoke. "Teleportation, interesting."

"So, vhat's your power Frau Silverstone?" the boy asked curiously as his tail twitched back and forth.

"You want to see?" she asked as he nodded eagerly. She smiled then seemed to vanish as she streaked out of the room and into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Rose then streaked back to the room with an apple in her hand that already had a bite taken out of it, it all took a matter of seconds.

"Vow," breathed Kurt as Rose took another bite of the round, juicy apple. "Zat almost looked like teleporting."

"Well, sort of." Rose said, turning to Charles who nodded and turned to Kurt.

"You see Kurt, Rose can move at incredible speeds that make it appear that she disappears, but she's actually just moving very quickly." Xavier explained as Rose nodded. "She also has another remarkable ability, Rose if you would demonstrate for him."

Rose hesitated then turned to Kurt, extending a gloved hand. "Kurt take my hand."

"Okay." Kurt grasped her hand, though unsure of what would happen when he did. "But vhat vor?"

"You'll see." Rose answered as Kurt's whole arm began to shake, his eyes widened.

"Vhat vas zat?" Kurt asked after the shaking had ceased and Rose had released his blue hand.

"Just another part of my gift of incredibly fast speed," she explained, matter-of-factly. "I have the ability to send vibrations from within my body into any object just by touching it."

"Zat's incredible!" exclaimed the young boy, eyes wide with wonder.

"It's nothing special." She replied modestly, smiling at the boy's enthusiasm. Then she looked over at Charles. 'Look Charles, I know you want to talk about 'you-know-what' again. But could it wait this time? After all, Kurt needs to be settled in properly right? And I could use a decent breakfast."

Charles studied her for a moment, then smiled kindly. "Alright, just for now though Rose. I still want to discuss that later."

"Yes, Charles. Of course." she answered, mentally dreading that discussion in her head. She then smiled and glanced at the two mutants. "Then I will see you two later. I hope you find your room to your liking Kurt. I know you're gonna love it here."

"Ja." the blue elf smiled crookedly, though his eyes still showed shadows of pain. "I zink zat I will."

"You will," she assured him as she turned to go back out through the door. "Just be yourself."

She then sprinted out the doorway and back to the kitchen to the gleaming refrigerator. She opened it, grabbed tow eggs from the side door then closed it, and headed over to one of the cabinets by the sterile stove. Rose reached up into the top shelf of one of the cabinets and produced a small frying pan and a small, silver bowl. She cracked the eggs, threw away the shells, sprayed thee pan, tipped the bowl of eggs into the pan, and turned on the stove. After a few minutes she grabbed a plate and sat down at the kitchen table with a fork and a glass of orange juice.

So, we now have three teenagers with new found abilities living within the mansion This should be interesting, especially when more arrive. Rose thought to herself as she stared out the large, glass window while taking a bite of her eggs. Though it would be more fun if a certain someone were back.

Rose laid on top of her plush bed as she stared at white blankness of the ceiling above her. She was once again thinking about a certain someone, then immediately wished for a distraction for the up millionth time when-

Rose, Charles' voice telepathically called to her. We need you downstairs by the main floor entrance now.

Perfect timing Charles! She thought though she knew he could not hear her. She leapt off the side of her bed and quickly pulled on her boots before streaking out her open bedroom door and to the lobby of the main floor. As she descended down the staircase, Rose could hear a lot of noise coming from the kitchen that also led to the Danger Room.

As she reached the lobby floor, the female mutant stared as a toad-like boy streaked out from the hallway that led to the Danger Room, through the destroyed main floor, and out the front door. Rose made to follow him and barely made it out the door when she heard a familiar voice that tingled every fiber in her being and instantly brought a broad smile on her face.

"Going somewhere, bub?" the familiar voice asked as he bore down on the young boy who laid at his feet obviously frightened. The man had a dark t-shirt, blue jeans, brown boots, and a cowboy hat, but the most remarkable thing about him was the metal claws protruding from the knuckles of his hands. Which were tipping up the brim of his hat to reveal beautiful blue eyes and dark indigo hair that was shaped like a W.

"No, Logan. Let him go." said Charles from a balcony above Rose as Logan stepped aside to let the boy pass.

"I came back here because I smelled trouble," stated Logan as he watched the boy flee, then glanced up at Charles. "Though it could have just been stink boy there."

"I wish it was." said Charles quietly before smiling warmly. "Welcome back old friend we missed you, especially-"

"Logan! You're back!" called Rose happily as she jumped him, hugging him tightly.

"Hey there Goldilocks!" Logan greeted her warmly as he managed to keep his balance while still hugging her tightly. Then pulled away from the embrace to get a good look at her. "Did you miss me?"

"A little ." she breathed, still smiling broadly as Logan cocked a dark eyebrow and pulled her face closer to his so that their lips were breaths apart.

"Oh really?" he asked unconvinced as his warm breath caressed her skin. "A little or a lot, Rose?"

As an answer, Rose closed the gap between their lips and kissed him passionately as Charles chuckled quietly to himself in the background.

"So, have ya had any of those nightmares lately Goldilocks?" Logan asked when they finally broke apart for air. Then noticed the red rings around her golden eyes. "I guess so." Guess that means I'll be sleeping in your room tonight, huh?"

"What?!" Rose exclaimed, red blush spreading all over her cheeks at the thought. "No, you don't have to."

"Relax, I don't mean like that." he chuckled, loving the way her soft cheeks brighten. "Besides, it won't be any different from any other time right?"

"Alright." Rose said realizing he was right, then laced his hand with hers and leaned against his shoulder as they walked to the front door of the mansion. "I'm really glad you're back Logan."

"So am I Rose." Logan whispered as he kissed the top of her head as they entered the mansion. "So am I."