Reunion

Chapter 1

Scott sighed as he followed Professor Xavier into the X-Jet; they were going to try to get a new young mutant to attend the institute. This felt unusual because they had not found this mutant on Cerebro. They had gotten a call from an old friend of the professor that there was a young mutant at a mall that might be a good candidate for the school. Apparently the situation presented as urgent because normally the professor would take the time to find the young mutant on Cerebro so they would at least know what they were getting themselves into, but he didn't this time.

"Professor do we have any idea who this mutant is?" Scott asked as Kitty Pryde rushed up the ramp to the jet.

Initially it was supposed to be Storm that was to join them on this trip but Jawn, Charles's nephew, interfered and told them that he believed it would be better for Kitty to go. With Jawn's abilities they had all learned it was best not to question him in these situations.

"No... but we must hurry." Charles replied as Scott and Kitty strapped in for takeoff. "Our informant will be waiting for us at the entryway nearest the mutant's location when we get there. Fair warning he is a bit eccentric, his sense of humor takes some getting used to."

They got to the mall and saw a man with dark red, almost black hair, pale skin and blue eyes waiting for them. It was clear he had been there a while, but he also understood it would take time for them to get there.

"Eli this is Scott and Kitty... Scott, Kitty this is my old friend Eli Gramick." Charles said.

The man smiled and gave a polite bow.

"It's nice to meet you, follow me." Eli said then as they were on their way he turned to Charles with a knowing smirk.

"So, which one of them flew the jet?" he asked.

"What makes you think I didn't?" Charles asked with a smirk.

"C'mon, Charles, why would you do it when you could have a student do it for you."

"You're mocking me, aren't you?"

"Just a bit..."

"Well, that aside, exactly what happened?" Scott asked.

"Well today was my day off, so I thought I'd catch a movie and it got halfway through the film when suddenly the movie was over, and I had no idea what had happened. Imagine my surprise when I sensed a young girl leaving the theater in quite a rush." He paused "I tried to follow her, but she ran in there." He pointed towards a ladies room "I would have followed her in, but you can imagine how that would look."

Kitty reached for the doorknob to find it locked.

"Okay that kind of explains like why Jawn said I should be the one to come and not Storm." Kitty muttered then phased through the door.

"Hey... like... you don't need to be afraid, we're here to help you." Kitty said.

"How... how did you get in here?" The girl's fear filled voice broke Kitty's heart.

"It's my power, I can, like, walk through walls." Kitty explained gently "Why don't you come on out and talk with us... we can like so help you out."

Kitty stayed back as a young blonde exited the handicapped stall, her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Kitty felt so bad for this girl she couldn't imagine coming into her powers in the middle of a theater full of people. Couldn't imagine how alone and afraid she must have felt even surrounded by people.

"Come on, like, it's okay." Kitty said encouragingly "I'm Kitty, what's your name?"

"Kathryn but my... my friends call me Kathy."