Halfway through their drive, Kristen's excitement had faded into anxiety. Colin had fallen asleep 30 minutes into the drive. He was fortunate to have a second mutation that allowed him to fall asleep quite literally anywhere. Whether or not this was an actual mutation, Kristen didn't know, but she did know there was nothing natural about it.

She watched his chest rise and fall on the beat of the song playing softly on the radio. She let the motions of his breathing ground her, distract herself from thinking about every worst case scenario running through her head. Kristen closed her eyes and let her breath fall into the rhythm with Colin's, the deep motions soothing her racing heart and attempting to relieve her of her worry.

"It's not as easy as it seems." Kristen's eyes snapped open as Charles spoke from the driver's seat.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on your mind, but I could feel your anxiety. What I meant was, it's easy to clear your mind, trust me," Charles continued, glancing at Kristen through the rearview mirror.

"You have nothing to fear, Kristen, you are with friends now, isn't that right, Erik?" Erik was silent for too long for his answer to give Kristen any peace.

"Of course, we want to help. And in turn you will help us."

"For now, rest. We have a long road ahead of us."

The way Charles spoke made it seem like he wasn't just talking about the physical road they were currently on. Kristen rested her head on Colin's sharp shoulder, her anxiety lessened only slightly, and let the telekinetic's breathing lull her to sleep.

Kristen had only left Sundale once before, when she was eight. It had been two years before her mutation surface, one year before Colin's, and two months before her family completely fell apart. Kristen, her mother, Alice, and her sister, Elaine, met Colin's family at their beach house for the weekend. This was the first time Kristen had been invited to the beach house, which was the fanciest building she had ever been to. As the adults and Kristen's 18 year old sister laid out on the sand, she and Colin frollicked through the waves. They ran from the tide as it rose to catch them, and body surfed on the waves. It had been the greatest weekend of her life.

One month later, her sister eloped with a businessman and moved to New York and never spoke to the family gain. The next month, Alice had to sell their car to pay the rent. There was not much time for vacations after that, let alone enough money.

Kristen dreamed of that weekend at the beach, the last time her family was happy together. Now her only family was Colin. She woke up to her only family slapping her lightly and showing off his improvisation skills by singing a made up song about waking up.

"Why are you like this?" Kristen groaned.

"Like what? I'm only human, Kris," Colin replied. Kristen woke up enough to realize they had stopped in front of a very official looking building. She hastily exited the car and stared sat the impressive building as she spoke.

"No, you're only mutant."

An attractive blonde woman exited the building and greeted Charles with a hug. Charles led the woman to Colin and Kristen and happily introduced them.

"Colin, Kristen, this is my sister Raven." Raven gave them both a warm smile as she shook their hands.

"Raven will be taking care of you for now, Erik and I have business to attend to, I apologize." Charles excused himself and Erik, leaving the two new mutants in the care of Raven.

"Don't look so worried! I promise I'm a lot funner that those two combined, especially the German one," Raven said, whispering the last part with a smirk. She motioned towards the front door and began walking.

"C'mon, let's meet the others." She led them into the building, where Kristen saw many

official looking men in official looking suits. They stared at the mutants as they passed, and most of them gawked at Kristen. She was quite used to the staring, she knew how shocking she looked. What with the nasty scars that sprawled across her face and body. Back at the Wallflower, her boss Johnson didn't like her waiting on new customers. He didn't want to scare them away. But if any newbie tried to say anything about it, anyone who knew Kristen would stand up for her. Especially Arnie, the sheriff with a heart of gold.

Colin pulled her closer as they passed more staring agents, even glaring at some until they looked away. Kristen didn't care about them, though, let them stare. What she was worried about was meeting the other mutants. She usually loved meeting new people, that's why she liked being a waitress. She liked being around people, but for some reason meeting these people was making her more nervous than she had ever felt. Maybe it was because this was the first time she was going to meet people like her.

She wiped her sweaty palms onto her dress as they approached the door at the end of the hall. Time seemed to move slower as Raven reached the door and pulled it open.

The moment she was in the room, she could feel them. Their energy and their power was like nothing she had ever felt before, nothing she knew she could feel. It was how she felt when her power knew Colin was near, she could feel his energy. She couldn't stop herself from walking as her power pulled her towards the energy source.

They were sitting in a cozy area in the middle of a recreation room, scattered across several couches and armchairs. They looked up at her, Colin, and Raven as they entered, all conversation ceasing. Kristen hugged herself, trying to keep her body from getting closer. Her scars began to ache with the need for power that was so close to them. She heard Raven introduce her and Colin to the group, but it was fuzzy. She followed Colin and sat next to him on the couch. They were so close, so full of power. She just want to reach out it take it from them.

"Kristen what are you doing?" Colin asked. Kristen snapped out of it and looked around to see everyone staring at her. She had been reaching for nothing, her hand shaking slightly in the air. She pulled it back and held it to her chest before giving everyone a small smile.

"Nothing, I just...need some water." She replied. She noticed a minibar across the room and quickly walked to it. The conversation slowly returned behind her, and she heard someone ask Colin if she was okay. Kristen didn't listen for his reply as she searched the cabinets for a glass, only to find that they were on the top shelf, about a foot out of her reach.

She groaned and stretched onto her tippy toes, thanking her mother for all the years of ballet, and tried to grab the glass. Her fingers were still a few inches away when a hand scooped it out of her grasp. Kristen fell back onto her flat feet and looked to the body the hand belonged to. He was tall, blonde, handsome, and powerful as hell. Her scars began to ached to touch him and absorb all the energy his mutation was exuding. He smirked at her and nodded to the glass in his hands.

"Did you really think you could reach this, short stuff?" He asked. Kristen scoffed.

"Short stuff? Really? I'm not that short," She said as she tilted her head back to look him in his ocean blue eyes.

"Course not, short stuff. Here, get some water. You don't look too good." He handed her the glass. As she reached for it, her fingers brushed his and everything was fine. Then she exploded.