Ruse •X-men•

Prologue 0.4

Dannielle had been the last mutant for the pair to bring back to the facility. She'd been introduced to the other six people who had been brought back as well. Unlike the others though, Dannielle wasn't to take part in any of the fighting.

When Charles had sensed her presence, all he felt was the overwhelming feeling of self-hate and sadness. It reminded him of Raven and when he discovered that she was only a six year old girl, he had made up his mind faster that you could flick a switch.

Dannielle was now seated in between Raven and Hank. Not only did Raven fawn over her, but so did Angel. It took a good five minutes before they'd stopped combing their hands through her long, thick main of dark hair and let her sit down, quickly following in tow. Dannielle was small for her age, her feet barely touched the ground and she took up little to no space at all as she contently sat on the sofa. She had always been fed well, her mother always told her that she'd become bigger than a house if she kept eating and eating, but she never listened.

"We should think of code names." Whatever conversation they were previously having seemed to be thrown out of the window when Raven spoke, "We're government agents now, we should have secret code names." Raven shrugged with a small grin.

"I want to be called Mystique." Her grin never faded when she told the group.

"Damn, I wanted to be called Mystique!" Cassidy' voice had a light humours tone that verged on flirtatious, yet everyone let out a chuckle as he sat back in his chair, taking a small sip from the glass of cola in his hand.

"Well tough, I called it." With in a flash, a shiver of what looked to be blue scales covered her figure, changing the blonde girl into the ginger sitting diagonal to them. In an instant everyone sat up as the look of amazement covered their features.

"Because I'm way more mysterious than you." Dannielle clapped with a giggle and watched as Cassidy (who had put his drink down) and the others followed in suit.

"Darwin what about you?" Raven changed back to her blonde form and looked over to the said man.

"Well, Darwin is already a nickname and you know, it sorta fits. Adapt to survive and all." He gave a small shrug before standing. "Check this out."

Darwin walked over to a tank which had been placed on a bench behind him. Silently, everyone watched as he dunked his head in the tank. It took seconds for the sides of his head to chance into gills, replacing his ears in the process. Dannielle clapped once again with the others, never had she seen people who were different like her. Darwin pulled his head out of the tank and shook it slightly before pointing at Cassidy.

"What about you?" With those words, Cassidy leaned forward slightly as his elbows rested of the arms rests, his fingers intertwined.

"I'm going to be... Banshee."

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank asked, his curiousness was shared by the others.

"You might want to cover your ears." He replied, standing and taking a few steps forward before leaning in front of the table. Everyone had covered their ears, including Dannielle as they watched him take a huge flip of air in and attempt to aim at five glasses lined up in the centre of the table, only he completely missed. Instead Cassidy's high pitched echo went straight into the glass window and shattered it.

He stood in shock as the group laughed in surprise. Dannielle uncovered her ears and looked back up at him with a wide grin. Cassidy pointed to her with an identical smile.

"Your turn!" He sat back down and watched as the young girl hopped up from her seat.

"What do you want to be called, Danni?" Raven asked, watching as he smiled quickly changed into a concentrated look.

"Hmmm.... what about Ruse?" She asked with a slight shrug. Everyone else looked between each other with small frowns, not only was her vocabulary amazing for such a young age, but her choice was slightly strange for such an innocent child.

"Why Ruse?" Dannielle picked up one of the full glasses from the table and held it up, showing them all the dark liquid inside before she tipped it upside down. As a natural instinct, the group flinched forward expecting to see the cola stain the carpet breath their feet, only it quickly evaporated into a cloud of thick smoke.

Coughing, Raven covered her mouth while hank and Alex waved their hands in front of their faces in an attempt to get rid of the smoke but when it did finally clear, Dannielle was no where to be seen. Panic flooded the group as their heads turned in search of the child.

"Dannielle!" Raven called, her head turning in every direction until she looked over at hank with panic stricken eyes, they were supposed to look after her while Charles and Erik were in the meeting.

"I can control any things physical form. I can make it come to me, I can make myself move from a persons sight. I sometimes hear other people's voices in my head." Everyone turned to the source of her voice, jumping in surprise at how sudden her re-appearance was, yet all she could do was grin.

"So I trick people who are mean to me!" Dannielle walked around the couch and sat back down with Raven. It was concerning that the little girl had so much power, none of them even developed theirs much later but the fact that she was so intelligent was shocking. It was amazing and pure, just like the bright smile that graced her small, beautiful features.