Ben cracked his neck as tree's and houses flew by the window of the cabby...it had been a long flight from florida..and when he got at the air port he had called for a cab...it had been an three hour drive and they finnaly were nearing the academy...The taxi stopped at the front gate. Ben got out and streched...sure was good to be standing up again. He turned around and paid the cabby and he drove off. Ben walked up to the gate and pushed it open..it swung open with a creepy creak. "Ugh" Ben shivered "Well...lets get this over with." Ben said as he walked into the academy's pavement walkway..his black tennis shoe's scrapeing against the concrete

Calley hated children. Hated hated hated hated ated—

Ate... eat...

Children who could turn into sparrows were strongly advised to avoid children-hating teenagers who could turn into tigers. Especially when aforementioned teenagers had spent two solid years eating feathered folk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The moral of this story: there is a reason why the overgrown Bengal tiger with the baby blue eyes suddenly collided with the spiky-haired blonde boy who’d just opened the gate. It was a good reason. It involved a certain really annoying girl who’d spotted a tiger on the front lawns—quite innocently cat-napping in the sun—and had decided that a game of sparrow rodeo was a fine idea. She’d shifted, and attacked. Maliciously. Even after the collision, she was still gripping the fur between the tiger's shoulder-blades, and chirping with exhilaration. She obviously had no clue A) how long it had been since Calley had eaten (an hour, thank you), or B) how good she smelled.

The tiger picked himself up off of the boy, and sat down with his head held low. Glowering.

The sparrow, of course, chirped. It might have been a greeting. It might have been pure malice in child-sparrow-chirp form.

"GAH!?" Ben said as he was pushed over by the tiger. "-hhey hey hey hey what'd i do?" Ben said as he tiger glared at him...but thoses eyes...thoses eyes almost..seemed human..."Who are you?" Ben said looking curiuosly at the tiger's eyes...

For the record: 'Who are you?' was not the best question to ask a tiger, what with the whole 'I've got tiger vocal chords' thing, and all. He settled for blinking twice at the guy, and rolling onto his back. The back-rolling wasn't actually part of his answer: he'd just realized that sparrow girl probably didn't like being crushed any more than the next person. The sudden flutter of hastily flapped wings and stream of chirped insults confirmed this theory. The stupid annoying bird child, after a vengeful peck at his forehead, flew back towards the Mansion. Good riddance, scrumptious mildly-cannibalistic treat!

This left Calley in a much better mood. With a quiet purr, he got back to his feet. Ooo... his collision-patsy was a new guy, huh? Calley knew that for a fact: he hadn't been in the Mansion long, but he'd already made sure to memorize each and every scent in the place. New guy here smelled like fog... misty fog... with a touch of--Calley stretched his neck, and sniffed at the guy's face--...cinnamon, maybe? Cinnamon fog... now that would make a good ice cream flavor. Calley twined himself around the guy's body, purring quite thunderously.

Translation: "Hello. I can't actually talk at the moment, but hello."

Ben looked confused "Gah?" was all he was able to quirk out...first hte tiger looked like he wanted to rip ben to shreds..but then it looked like the tiger was as tame as a kitten. "Uhmm hi." Ben said as he put a hand on the soft sleek fur of the tiger....and the tiger's stomach growled. "Your hungry arent you?" Ben said as he reached into his pack. "I guess i cant save this for later then." He said as he pulled out his lunch from the taxi. It was a chiken meal from k.f.c's and there was only one chicken breast left. "Here" Ben said as he lowed it down to the tiger "Eat up."

When cinnamon fogs roll over Mansion lawns, they leave behind... chicken breasts. This made cinnamon fogs the best fogs ever.

Calley happily accepted the edible offering from the guy's hand, remembering not to eat the guy's hand, as well. It was a little strange getting used to being a gigantic kitty, after living as a house cat. So far, no one who'd offered him food had lost fingers, and he rather intended to keep it that way. Meal tickets were more reliable when they weren't cursing at him and bleeding profusely. Calley gulped down the chicken, with much chewing and cracking of bones. Then he licked his maw clean of carnage... and, jumping up a little so his front legs left the ground, he gave the guy's cheek a bath. Which would be really awkward later, when he shifted back to human. For now... he was rather too used to being a friendly cat for his own social good.

Calley dropped back to all fours, and looked towards the Mansion, fanning his whiskers dramatically. Then he looked back at the new guy, fanning his whiskers again, and tilting his head. Translation: You goin' there, or what? To make his message a little clearer, he got behind the guy, and--with his head pressed against the small of the guy's back--started pushing him towards the doors.

Ben chuckled "Allright allright im going." Ben smiled as the tiger pushed him twoards the academy "H-hey...are you a mutant?"

No, I'm just a really friendly indigenous New York Bengal tiger who just so happens to be leading you to your DOOM!

...It was really for the best that Calley couldn't talk, in any of his animal forms. He settled for moving to walk by the guy's side, and looking at him with his head hung long and tilted to the side. Translation: You ask even more stupid questions than I do. Therefore, I shall behold your glory with awe.

At the Mansion door, he sat down, and stared at the guy. In case that didn't get his message across, he also batted lightly at the round door knob with one very broad paw. By the way, whoever invented round doorknobs? Calley, on behalf of the animal kingdom--monkeys excluded--did not like that person.

This would be a whole lot easier if shifting back to human wouldn't leave him butt-naked in front of the Mansion. Note to self: talk to a technomancer about getting shifting clothes, or at least a clothing hologram he could use while he was running to locate more tangible wardrobe options.

"Allright allright im goin in." Ben said with a smile..then remembered something "Ya know..onyx would have loved to see a tiger like you. onyx is my tiger..i had to leave her in florida. She's a white tiger..one of the very few left. I raised her from a little cub..but ah." Ben said as he turned the doorknob and opened the door "Enough of my rambleing"

Calley waited until the door was open and the new guy was reasonably out of the way. Then he sprang inside, and sprinted all the way across the floor and up the stairs to the second floor with the kind of leaping bounds that left various small children scattering and looking semi-scared, semi-close-to-laughter in his wake. Take that, small children! The teens he passed looked slightly less amused. One of 'em even tried to light his tail on fire. That's right, punk--mess with the tiger who knows were you sleep. Brilliant idea.

Approximately a minute and a half-later, a rather energetic teenage boy wearing borrowed blue jeans and a T-shirt--both a little big on him, given the fact that he had absolutely zero fat over his lean muscles--came hopping down the stairs. He was utterly nondescript, except for his baby blue eyes. Normal height for an East-coast boy; a bit Italian-looking, but obviously a mutt; short brown hair in a standard cut; bare feet. So maybe the bare feet was a bit more descriptive. But the point was, he didn't stand out in a crowd. Except when he did things like run down a flight of stairs for the sole purpose of skidding to a halt in front of the new guy.

"So, hi!" He gasped out, doubling over to put his hands on his knees. "I'm Calley. Yeah, I'm a mutant. And yeah, I can shift to a tiger. And Onyx sounds cool. I'd love to met her. Though you really shouldn't keep tigers as pets. What's your name? You thinkin' of comin' to school here? I'm horrible at Math. What's your powers?" ...For some strange reason, he was having the hardest time catching his breath.

"yipe!" Ben said as calley jumped in front of ben..ben fell over and sat up....this guy was the tiger "Woah woah woah!! One question at a time please." Ben cought his breath and stood back up. "And onyx is less of my pet and more of my friend. and yeah i guess ill go to school here..im not really sure though." Ben chuckled "I dont think anyone is good with math....uhh save me. I dont like math but im a wiz at it. my powers?" Ben asked...he wanted to know ben's powers? "Well..i can push things over with wind...and i can see a bout seven seconds into the future...and a few other's but those are secret."

Calley peered down at the guy, then watched him stand back up. Heh. Note to self: Cinnamon Fog was easy to tip over. "Hmm," he said, melodramatically straightening himself up--which still left him significantly shorter than the new guy, "you did a pretty good job, answering my questions, there... but you missed the most important one: What's your name? Cool powers, by the way." And they weren't going to get into Calley's opinion on keeping wild animals as 'friends', either. He stared up at the guy with open curiosity, tapping one bare foot against the floor thoughtfully. "So, do you know what I'm going to do for the next seven seconds?" Just asking that question made Calley want to do something erratic. He managed to contain himself, somehow. "Does what you see ever not actually happen? 'Cause that'd be weird if the future was actually set, 'n' totally unchangeable, 'n' all. Do you see the different possibilities, 'n' stuff, or maybe just the most likely thing? Can you see the future for just things that're in front of you, or can you pick a spot--like, say, the middle of Central Park--and see seven seconds that're happening there? And was that too many questions?" It was one at a time, at least. Cinnamon Fog had just forgotten to tell Calley to space them out.

ben sighed and put his hand in his head. "My name is ben. And yes i do see what's going to happen in seven seconds...your going to jump out of your skin because a tarantula got out of its cage and is gonna to land on your shoulder."

"And no ive only seen things in the future that happen to me and the pepole around me at the time." Ben chuckled a little "I dont know how to see over distances. but i have a friend who has the ablitiy called "far sight" She can see over the distance of three miles without even moveing."

"Really?" Calley asked. "You're not just trying to mess with my--SWEET!"

As predicted, a tarantula who'd been rather unwisely attempting to crawl on the ceiling landed on Calley's shoulder. And the resulting little dance he did, trying to spin around to see it better, could certainly look like he was 'jumping out of his skin'. Just for the record: turning towards your shoulder does not actually get you closer. No matter how much you do it. Calley finally stopped, and put his hand in the big hairy awesome spider's creepy crawling path of awesomeness. It deigned to step onto his fingers. Grinning, Calley held it in front of his face, and felt its surprisingly delicate steps as it explored up his arm. "Cool," he said. Click, his brain said--whoot; he officially had a tarantula form. "Very cool. So, ah, what were we talking about, Ben?" He looked back up at the spiky haired teen, letting his arm lower again as the big spider made its way up to Calley's other shoulder. And started up his neck to his hair... Heh! That tickled.

ben chuckled at calley's excitment..then when he saw calley look at the tarantula..ben figured something out "You can turn into any animal? Serously?" Now that was a cool mutation..not dorky like ben's powers. The ability to turn into any animal...hmm. "If you had a nickname id call you "beast boy." ...but then again i can be a little talkitive." Ben scratched the back of his head. "I dont remember what it was we were talking about in the first place." He said in a chuckle