The sound of a small purr could be heard as Sam sat in the far corner of his room. Back to the wall sitting crossed legged, his eyes shut Sam focused on his breathing as he silently thought about what to do with his current girl problem. The simple nudge of his cat brought his attention from breathing and his current ‘What to do’ thoughts and brought them to his kitten. “Hey Cammie!” the purring continued as the kitten let out a loud meow and started rubbing up against Sam’s knee. “You love attention don’t you?” he asked his cat as he picked it up gave it a quick hug.

The sound of gunfire rang out as his attention was drawn to his cell phone. Letting out a small laugh as Cammie skittered up Sam’s chest and climbed around to the base of his neck and let out a his and an attempted swat at his phone that was several inches on one of his shelves petting Cammie and then picking up his phone Sam already knew who it was, old school western gunfight was Dom’s personal ring tone. Seeing as his brother usually called him when he was in trouble or was about to be in trouble.

“Hello?” he asked waiting for Dom to speak, nodding slightly Sam bent over and stood up with Cammie still on his shoulders. “You want to come downstairs with me? Don’t think you came to the office before…” he said to Cammie who remained around his neck with a small meow Cammie started to purr as her tail wrapped around Sam’s neck. “Guess that’s a yes…”

As he walked down to his office Sam knocked once and walked in not sure what he would find. “Hey,” Sam said slightly surprised that Streak was already in their joint office. “What Dom do this time and where is he?” Sam looked around to see a young woman in the room, “Hello, don’t believe we met, my name is Sam.” Cammie let a small meow as she jumped from Sam’s shoulders and ran over to his desk to curl up into a ball in his chair. Blinking Sam extended his hand to the young woman and said, “What’s your name?”

"Animal boy?" Dominic quirked an eyebrow at the new nickname. I mean, he guessed it was alright and he couldn't really argue about it since his powers were animal based. He thought about retorting with his own clever nickname but he couldn't really think of one good at the time. Plus he didn't really want to offend her in case she wasn't that comfortable about her powers like he was with his. After getting off of the phone with Sam, he remained perched on the ceiling snickering at Shawn and Zahira. Apparently she didn't seem particularly fond of the older mutant and over hearing that he made fun of her accent, it only made him grin more. He found her accent funny and cute at the same time.

A minute of two later, Sam had finally made an entrance along with Cammie. The 16 year old frowned a bit when Sam asked what he had done wrong. Was he seriously that much of a trouble maker? He didn't try to be intentionally be anyways.

"Her name is Zahira," Dominic said leaping off of the ceiling and onto Sam's desk. "Hey Cammie. You got the right idea..." he said reaching over to rub the tabby cat behind her ears and smiled at her purring. "Hey bro, I asked her to come here. To check out the place. Maybe you can help her because apparently Shawn offended her," he grinned widely to the girl.

Zahira nodded sharply to Shawn. "Making sure." Came the girl's stiffened reply. She had heard someone coming into the room, and blinked when a male with a cat on his shoulders came in. The gloved and cloaked female relaxed slightly seeing as this was Dominic's brother Sam. She had to admit she wasn't expecting that. "I know you did, but that doesn't make it any less hurtful." Came the female's almost light-hearted reply as she turned toward Sam when he asked her who she was. She was however shocked slightly by the fact that Dominic didn't retaliate and call her a nickname, specifically one about her powers, like she had done for him, but she wasn't complaining maybe he had more manners then she did.... well she did have manners.... but they weren't overly polite.

She was about to reply when Dominic beat her to the punch. "Ya know Dominic.... I can speak fa mahself." Came Zahira's reply. "I also go by Zaira, cause Shawn says that my name is hard to pronounce or something..." She added almost wearily, as she let her eyes wander around the room, the female's eyes landed on the cat, and she made a mental note to draw the cat later tonight, maybe she'd even draw the three males standing in the room or maybe she'd even draw the cat in the room with the three males that were standing before her. Maybe, but she wasn't about to hold her breath. "Cute cat." She commented gesturing toward Cammie. She did have to admit she did think the cat was cute and would of loved to pet the creature, but it'd have to be through the gloves.... now if only she could pet the cat without gloves on she'd be golden, but she wasn't stupid enough to risk it.

Streak just sat there thinking for a little bit while everything seemed to happen very fast. Why’d he call Sam? He didn’t see the need. Apparently Streak was striking out left and right here with this quickly gathering group. “Dom didn’t do anything except fall on my desk Sam.” Streak let him know. “In fact I’m not even sure why he called ya.” Zaira was right the cat was cute. Even he had to admit that. Granted he wasn’t much of a cat person, preferring dogs, but the kitten was cute enough. It seemed that Zaira was keen on throwing him under the bus to Sam, like she expected him to do something about Streak. He was starting to feel very defensive; although he was trying his hardest to not let anyone in the room get a hint of it. So I have a hard time pronouncing certain names. There was nothing wrong with that. Why’s she making such a big deal out of this stuff anyways? He thought.

Well this meeting was going from bad to worse. There had to be a way for them all to get past this little misunderstanding without anyone holding a grudge. Of course the way Zaira was acting there was not telling if she was one to hold a grudge or not. After thinking all this through he decided it was probably best to not discuss anything in front of the two new students. If Sam needed any clarifying on the subject matter they could talk after they’d gotten them out.

Sam listened to Dom explain who she was as he eyed his younger brother playing with Cammie on his desk. Sam being the older brother that he was frowned slightly as he honed in on his brother’s feet as he was standing on his desk, “Dom get off of my desk and if your going to walk on the ceiling make sure you don’t leave any marks other wise you’ll be spending your free time cleaning them.” Sam looked over to Shawn and shrugged and said, “Well I am here now so might as well finish up on the paperwork…” walking over to his desk Sam eyed Dom on last time hinting that he didn’t appreciate someone standing on his desk.

Scooping up Cammie and sitting in his large leather chair Sam set Cammie down in his lap as he ran a finger along her side till she started to purr. “Za-hira?” Sam asked the girl in conformation making sure that he was getting her name right. After waiting for her response Sam smiled as he picked up Cammie and set her on his desk where she made an attempt to chase down and maul a moving pencil. His eyes leaving Cammie and trailed up to both Streak and Zahira and smiled, “Sure Streak meant nothing by it.” Letting out a small grin slip Sam continued, “he really is a good guy knows a lot about the mansion!”

Nodding slightly Sam asked Zahira, “So you’re looking for a place to stay or mainly here for classes?” he wasn’t sure if Streak had asked her these questions yet but part curious to learn more about the girl seeing as his brother was so awkward with Alexandra not to long ago.

Zahira raised an eyebrow at Sam. She slowly nodded. "Yeah..." She said her voice turning a bit distracted, as her eyes watched the kitten with and odd admiration in her eyes for the kitten. She mentally slapped herself and rolled her eyes at him. "Sure...." She said sarcasm in her voice, but she smiled lightly at Shawn, trying to show him that she meant no hard feelings without it being caught by the other two.

What caught her attention was the classes and staying here. She blinked and almost tilted her head to the side, like a confused puppy, but she stopped herself before she did. Instead of saying something normal like a nice teenage girl would of done. She did the exact opposite. She just crossed her arms over her chest. "Depends, bub!" She said gruffly. "I'm only here to check out the place, don't expect me to go to school or live here." She said firmly. She ignored her what her heart wanted so badly to do, and went straight for instinct, gut instinct and what her brain, mind and head were telling her to do, making the smart choice, you'll live longer, don't let your heart get attached, or else when people die suddenly, you'll only get hurt worse, and that's what she was following, since she had it happen many times before. "I'm only here, cause he asked me to come." She added jabbing a gloved finger in Dominic's direction, a small smile played on her lips for a few moments before she went back into the expressionless emotionless frown she had on before.

He saw her smile at him and he returned just the smallest smile. Her smile was fleeting and it gave him the impression that she didn't want the others to see her smile. Since he was facing the others he also didn't want to give any hints to the others. She apparently has very bad mood swings. He thought to himself as he listened to her answers. He was still trying to figure out what her reasons were. She seemed like she wanted to stay but for one reason or another she was trying to keep up the tough guy act so that Streak and the other guys would stop trying to make her feel welcome at the mansion.

It was an interesting tactic and he couldn't figure out why she was acting like this since she wouldn't tell them what her powers involved. Zahira was very secretive, and that was fine, but he wished she would tell them a little more. Perhaps then they would be able to help her a little more then right now.

Blinking, Dominic let out a sigh as he heard Sam mention cleaning up any foot prints left on the ceiling and the demand of getting off the desk. The blonde always wondered how Sam could be so nice to others but to hard on him. You'd think as the baby brother, Dominic would receive more kindness, but whatever. One thing Dominic learned to do was to never argue with Sam, so he hopped off the desk.

"Only came here for me? I'm honored," Dominic smiled at Zahira. "Check out as much as you want of the place. Ask any answers you may have. Shawn and Sam are here to answer them. Then hopefully, you'll make a decision on whether you wanna hang here with the cool kids are not..." Dominic smirked crossing his arms. Then trying to look cool, he leaned back to post himself against Sam's desk, only to miss completely and fell on his back.

"....owe." he squeaked, blushing red from embarrassment.

Gazing at the girl Sam’s smile turned into a small chuckle as he questioned back, “Bub?” turning his head slightly to his younger brother who was now on the floor, “I don’t know where you found her exactly but I like her!” stated Sam as he looked down to Cammie who was now rolled over and rushing to the side of the desk to see Dom on the ground. Crouching down Cammie jumped from the desk and pounced Dom who was now on the ground as Sam let out another small chuckle and turned back to Zahira.

“Well you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, it is actually part of mine and,” Sam pointed over to Streak, “his job to go into detail about the mansion, classes…” Pausing for a second he looked down to his brother and said, “Classes that you will be joining in soon…” frowning at Dom slightly to remind him that he was still looking out for him even if he didn’t often show it.

Turning his attention back to Zahira he continued, ”Not to mention the countless opportunities this place has to offer and the entire populace of the mansion are mutant with a few exceptions here and there, so need to be afraid the other residents.” He looked to Streak who now appeared to be thinking about something. Turning back to Zahira he asked politely, “Do you have any questions, Zahira?”

Zahira smirked slightly. "Ya should be, Dominic, not many get to see my powers and live to tell the tale." She said her voice light and teasing sounding, as a she smiled almost teasingly at him. Yes she was lying about the fact many have seen her powers and died from them, most were very unintentional, while only four or five or six knew of her powers Dominic included in that small number, soon to be more. She blinked as he fell back and landed on his back. Zahira couldn't help but chuckle at him. "Ya alright? That's the second time ya landed on yer back today. Or at least that I know of, since ye've been around me at least." She commented.

Zahira blinked and quickly turned her attention back to Sam, so not to be rude, but at his comment, caused her to raise an eyebrow at him, almost looking offended. "We met in the park, it was the day or night really, that ye must of gotten mad at 'im for breaking yer curfew, Sam. And I think I'll take that as a compliment." She said as she moved past him, and toward Dominic, and knelled down toward him, her odd colored eyes were now fixed on the cat, that she raised her gloved hand toward the cat to let the feline sniff the glove or whatever the cat wanted to do.

She didn't look at them as she answered instead she was still waiting for the cat's reaction, a small smile played on her lips. "Might be better then the school I'm going to now... And I don't have to tell the other students or residence or whatever about my powers, right?" She said calmly, asking a question at the end. She blinked before finding herself glancing at him. "Me being afraid of 'em... Not likely. Ah don't want 'em to be afraid of me" She found herself saying before she could stop herself. Oh well it should at least give them some detail to her powers, if her earlier more playful statement made to Dominic didn't. "So most of these people here are mutants? And what about the exceptions are they humans that accept mutants?" Zahira asked. Zahira paused in her questioning, as she turned her head slightly to look at them. "Finally... If I do stay 're do Ah have to have to a roommate?" She asked.

She finally seemed to be warming up to them. Or was she warming up to Sam and Dom and not himself? Oh well whatever the answer was he was going to answer the questions whether she liked him to or not. "Right. You don't have to tell any of the kids what they are. Even though we do have many curious students so ya might get asked a lot. Just warnin' ya." Streak started saying. "You still haven't told us what your powers are." He said not meaning to be accusatory or anything like that. Judging from what she'd said he could guess that her powers had something to do with, or cause, death. But seeing as how he'd been striking out left and right with her, he didn't want to start making any guesses; since saying that might be a little offensive.

"Everyone here is a mutant. There are no humans staying here. However, if there were some humans that liked mutants and shared the same views that we share then sure we'd probably let them take school here or something. But that, unfortunately, probably wont happen for a while. Anyways, back on topic I guess. Ya don't have to have a roommate if you don't want to." He answered her. Sure Streak my have ventured a little off topic with his answer about humans but he thought it was important for her to know. Either way more information is better than to little.

Letting out and audible 'oof' Dominic smiled when Cammie pounced his stomach and smiled even wider when Zahira walked over to play with the cat. "I'm fine, thanks for your concern." he responded, though he was still a bit nervous about her powers. That scene of that tree wilting from her touch ran through his mind and he scratched the back of his head nervously watching Cammie swing a paw at Zahira's hand. No need to be worried since she was wearing gloves. Sitting up a bit, Dominic pouted as Sam mentioned enrolling him into classes. He scoffed at the idea because he hated school just like the next teenager. He didn't care whether it were classes at public school or at the mansion. School was evil.

Turning to Zahira Dominic gave her a smirk. "Well, I completely forgot about the school part of this place. Maybe we should take that bald guy's we met in the park invitation and check out The Sanctuary." he chuckled. Partly kidding, but partly serious. If there was a place out to help mutants also, he kind of wanted to see what it was all about. Was it better than the X-mansion? He looked to Sam and Shawn for his answers. "Yeah, what exactly is this Sanctuary place that helps mutants?"

Zahira nodded to what Shawn said. She rolled her eyes. "Goodie I'm gonna get asked.... allot... I'll try and be nice and not snap at them then." She said shaking her head as she sighed. "Good cause I really don't want a roommate..." She said shaking her head. Why didn't she figure that question was gonna come up sooner or later? She knew it would... Now how to explain her powers without them getting freaked out, or thinking she was gonna kill the cat.

Zahira blinked at hearing that everyone here was a mutant. But she had heard there were exceptions, and that confused her, so went ahead and asked. "Then what is with the 'exceptions', that Sam said?" She asked curiously.

She smiled as the cat swiped at her gloved hand, with her other hand, she petted the cat. She rolled her eyes slightly at Dominic, she could sense he was still nervous, and good lord this is what she was afraid of. "My powers have a time limit of five minutes of skin to skin contact before they acivate.... and besides I wouldn't let anyone do that for that long anyway.... I'd break their arm or kick them or anything really before the time limit even got past a minute..." She said rolling her eyes as she got up and stepped away from him, before turning back toward Shawn and Sam. She figured she might as well tell them now....

Zahira sighed before she jumped into explaining. "I can kill plants, animals, humans or mutants with a single touch of skin to skin contact, but my powers don't accivate until 5 minutes is up... however I always stop the contact before five minutes is up...." She said as she kept her eyes level with theirs. She wanted to see what they would do, or say, or they would keep true to this school's word.... Would they still allow someone like her to stay here? Even though she was a threat in some cases...

His eyes shifting from Zahira to Cammie he let out a small twitch of a smile as he cat sniffed the glove and let out a small sneeze as the small tabby cat let out a small meow and then started to purr as she pushed her head into the gloved hand that was in front of her. As Zahira continued to speak and asked questions Sam deemed it necessary to let Streak go ahead and answer her questions.

All Sam needed to do was nod to Zahira as Streak explained and answered all of the questions she seemed to have at the time, turning his attention to Dom however Sam’s eyes frowned slightly and said, “The Sanctuary has a school as well I believe, besides how can I let my little brother be on his own all alone at the sanctuary away from me?” Sam whined sarcastically as he gave a wink to Zahira to let her know he was only joking with his brother.

His attention turned back to Zahira as Cammie pawed at he glove playfully letting out some loud purring sounds. Clearing his throat and answering Dom’s question Sam spoke, “It is sort of like this place,” Sam said as he referred to the mansion and continued, “From my understanding it is similar to a homeless shelter for mutants, I stopped by there once or twice when I first came to New York, but it seemed to me that the Mansion was calling out to me.” He smiled and looked to his brother slightly curious, “If you really want to check it out some time Garret works there from what he told me.” Recalled Sam as he thought back to the Valentine Ball when Garret gave Sam his business card offering Sam to stop by anytime.

Letting out a loud Meow as Cammie ran from Zahira and jumped into his lap Sam petted the cat and smiled, “Streak is right, Humans if they follow the rules and try to coexist with us inside the mansion then I don’t see why we would turn them away granted the change would be difficult for everyone for a time but in the long run I think it could be beneficial for everyone.” He paused and lifted up Cammie and smiled as she let out a small meow, “This was the exception I was referring to. There are a few pets throughout the mansion.”

Nodding slightly when Zahira spoke about her powers Sam gave a sympathetic smile it she certainly knew about her powers which was have the battle the other half was trying to figure out how to control said power. His eyes turned to Dom slightly a tad curious if Zahira had informed Dom of her powers, regardless if she did or not the outcome would have been no matter to Sam. “Well…” Sam began trying not to sound mean or he was issuing her a restraining order on the residents, “We will defiantly need to tell the teachers, the students and other residents are your responsibility to tell if you so should choose, the teachers here are very helpful and understanding and will help you any way they can.”

Smiling and continuing he said, “It must be tough to have a mutation such as yours, but if you want we can help you try and get a hold on that mutation so you don’t have to feel alienated.” He tried to sound sincere as he set Cammie on his desk and continued to watch Zahira, “I was a tad curious about the gloves earlier but it seems that you have quite a grasp on your mutation, so is there any more questions you have for us?” Sam asked curiously.

Zahira smiled at the cat, and continued to pet said cat, that was until she had gotten up, and Cammie bolted toward her owner, who was Sam. She watched the cat for a few moments more before she switched her eyes toward Dominic who was still on the ground. "Are you going to get up anytime soon?" She asked him, her lips twisting into a small smile.

Zahira blinked. The elder brother's sarcasmed tone didn't reach the girl, then again she never had siblings before, and despite all that the wink he had given her, made her understand. She figured out that he was only joking with Dominic, although she didn't comment on this at all, she simply waited.

Zahira blinked. "We met him before. At the park... He thought I was gonna commit suicide. And no I wasn't going to. It was raining and I...." She paused, wondering why the hell she was telling them this. "I guess... you could say.... I was... a bit paranoid.... then again it was around 2 AM, it was dark and poring, and I felt like I was being watched. So I ran... Planning on running all the way to my apartment until Garret grabbed my arm thinking I was going to commit suicide, and that's when Dominic appeared, thinking... well I don't know what he was thinking..." Zahira said awkwardly. Now she really wondered why the hell she had just told them this. She shook her head and sighed and decided to not say anything more.

She nodded to what Streak and Sam spoke of about the humans, and then the pets. That's good, now she didn't have to worry about doing anything, now she knew that these pets had owners and she had to be careful with the pets as well.

Zahira saw Sam's eyes move toward his brother. "Yes Dominic knows of my powers, He was the first person I told because he told me of his powers. If you two had listened to our small conversation earlier, when I reminded him of my power's time limit you would of guessed that he already knew." Zahira said calmly.

Zahira frowned at him. She looked away. She knew that would of come up. She just knew it! That question, statement or fact, whatever it was, always came up, somehow and someway. "I knew you would say that!" She snapped at him, before she could stop herself and she really didn't want to stop herself from snapping. She turned away from him, and glared at the wall. "Fine tell the teachers, but I refuse to have them tell the other students or other residence. I don't want to be feared." She said the last part of the words with such emotion, it could only be clear that she had been feared and she didn't want that again. In fact it would seem she just wanted a semi-normal life, without being feared by the entire school, just because of her powers. If her powers did become public... she had no doubt that news and rumors would spread around the school like wildfire. After all this was a school.

Zahira took a calming breath before looking at Sam and Streak and then Dominic. But she kept her eyes on Cammie. "You don't even know the most of it." She said quietly, forcing back her anger, after all it wasn't their fault, and she didn't even understand why she was so angry all of a sudden. She didn't even understand it herself. Maybe it was cause she didn't really know how to act since.... well they were going to give her a place to stay, and school, classwork and stuff like that for free. Free Zahira wanted to destroy the word or at least kill whoever invented the word, if it was one thing she knew. It was that things always come with a price of some-sort and she wanted to figure out what this group would get in return for letting her stay here for free. She sighed, seeing as she didn't have time to dwell on that. "As for controlling it. I don't even think there's any way of controlling it. It's been with me since as long as I can remember..." She said shaking her head.

She looked up when Sam asked if she had anymore questions. "What do you guys get in return for me staying here, going to classes here, eating and sleeping here and even getting my own room? for free? What do you guys get in return for all that? You must have an alternative motive or something?I" She demanded them. She really couldn't grasp that the all this was free with no strings attached. They had to have some sort of alternative motive for all this free stuff. And in exchange for this free stuff... what did they want from her?