"Ladies and gentlemen. We are now seeing the beginnings of another stage of human evolution. These mutations manifest during puberty, and are often triggered by heightened periods of emotional stress."

"Thank you, Miss Grey," a plump, white-haired man stood up from the crowd of the senate room. "That was quite… educational," he said distastefully. "However, it fails to address the issue – which is the focus of this hearing – three words. ‘Are mutants dangerous?’"

Jean narrowed her ice blue eyes. She wondered how Mr. Obnoxious Senator Kelly would feel if she used her powers to shake things up a little – as in, choking him with his own necktie.

Jean closed her eyes. Breathe, she coached herself. Deep down, you don’t really want to do that. It was a horrible thought, totally, Jean realized, but typical of her overtaxed mind. Even she had to admit it: she had been so thoroughly stressed that she’d become completely hostile toward anyone unlucky enough to cross her path, including her boyfriend, Scott Summers, and her best friends, Zachary Warren and Ororo Munroe.

Which was why she was completely over the tops when Professor Xavier had put her up front on the battlefield – the Senate House. Wonderful, she thought. Excellent. Full marks.

"I’m afraid that’s an unfair question, Senator Kelly," she countered. "After all, the wrong person behind the wheel of a car can be dangerous too." Great, I get full points for that.

"But… we do license people to drive."

Jean nodded. "Yes, but not to live… Senator, it has become a fact that mutants that’d come forward and revealed themselves publicly have been met with fear, hostility, and even violence…" Someone then walked over the Senator Kelly and in a low voice, started talking over to him, handing him a package. "It is because of the present hostility that I’m urging this senate to devote themselves against mutant registration. To force mutants to expose themselves would only further…"

"Expose themselves!?" Senator Kelly’s voice rang shrilly throughout the senate room. A hush fell over the audience. "What is it the mutant community has to hide, I wonder, that makes them so afraid to identify themselves?"

Jean felt her patience evaporating. "I didn’t say they’re hidding."

"Then let me show you what is being hidden, Miss Grey. I have here, a list of names of identified mutants. Living right here, in the United States."

"Senator Kelly…"

The man ignored her. "Here I see a girl in Illinois who can walk through walls." Jean heard a small gasp from the crowd. She knew no one else had heard, maybe except the professor. Her eyes flew to Katherine Pryde, a libidinous-looking dark-haired girl. Both she and Kit knew that Senator was talking about her. Kit had the ability to walk through solid matter.

"Now what’s this to stop her from walking into a bank vault?" Jean’s mind tuned back to Senator Kelly’s verbal accusation. "Or into the White House," he turned to face the audience, "or, into their houses?"

"Senator Kelly!" Jean could see from the obstinate way Kelly had set his shoulders that he had something up his sleeves. He was cajoling the audience. The crowd murmured in agreement.

"Miss Grey," Kelly continued. "You work at a school for mutants in Westchester, New York. Can you tell the members of this committee what exactly you are teaching these mutants?"

Jean shrugged self-consciously. "Math, science, athletics…"

Kelly raised an eyebrow in distrust. "You wouldn't happen to be teaching them how to use their powers to…"

"Control, Senator," Jean intercepted. "We teach them how to control."

Kelly raised a photograph of a grainy, super-zoomed, somewhat obscured image of a car on a freeway, which appears to have melted. "This was taken by a state police officer in Secaucus, New Jersey. A man in a minor altercation literally melted the car in front of him. I don't know where you come from, Miss Grey, but from where I come from, you don't go around melting people's cars when they cut you off. You do it the old fashioned way – you give 'em The Finger." The audience erupted in a series of laughter. "But what you presume to tell this committee…"

"I presume nothing, Senator. I am here to tell you that in time, the mutating gene will activate in every living human being on this planet. Perhaps even your children, Senator."

"I can assure you, there is no such creature in my genes… Miss Grey," he said sweetly. "We are not here to weed out the mutants. The Registration Act is designed merely to assess their potential threat - if any - to national security. There are even rumors, Miss Grey, that there are even mutants so powerful, that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts. Taking away our God-given free will."

Jean scanned the crowd and found a blond-haired Zack sitting beside Scott and Roe (Ororo's nickname), rolling his eyes and making faces. Zack was probably one of the most sacrilegious person that ever walked the face of the earth. Jean had never heard more blasphemous things than what comes out of Zack’s mouth... or in this case, his mind.

"I think the American people deserve the right to decide whether they want their children to be in school with mutants, to be taught by mutants. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is that mutants are very real… and they are among us. We must know who they are. And above all, what they can do."

Kelly beamed when the audience cheered and applauded. He then seized the chance and threw Jean a smug look.

Perfect, Jean thought as she stormed down the podium, off the stage and out onto the hallway. Just perfect. She vaguely saw Professor Xavier talking to another man, but she wasn’t in the mood to find about their little banter. She took off but hadn’t taken more than three steps before she realized Scott was following her.

"Hey, wait up," her boyfriend said. "Are you okay? I –"

Jean stopped and took a deep breath, which was enough to silence Scott as he waited for her to speak. "Scott," she finally said quietly. "I’m storming off. It doesn’t really work if you come with me."

"Oh." Scott said, but stayed where he was and let Jean walk away and salvage her pride, or at least what was left of it.

Still seething and choleric, Jean stormed out of the Senate House. She had been aware of the hurt in Scott's voice when she had brushed him away, but she was simply too vexed to stop and apologize.

As she made her way down the steps, Jean quickly found herself being surrounded by reporters, moving in for her response. As microphones and voice recorders are being shoved in her face, Jean noticed dissenting signs condemning mutants, a scarce few supporting them.

"Dr. Grey, how do you feel about the Senator's Statement?"

"How is the mutant community reacting? Is it true that mutants are dangerous?"

"Is there a mutant plot to overthrow the government?"

If they shove that microphone in front of my face one more time… Jean thought as she tried to push her way through, oblivious of a kid in the crowd of reporters holding a full can of Coke.

Smiling to his friend beside him, the kid reeled his hand back and with a mighty heave, threw it over the heads of everyone towards Jean.

Perfect trajectory. Closing in fast.

Suddenly, silence fell over the crowd. All eyes watched in awe as the can and its liquid trail suspended in mid-air, a few inches from Jean's face. It simply hovered there, quivering a little.

In a low voice, Jean said, "We're not the ones to be afraid of."

Then, using her power of telekinesis, she lowered the can onto the ground. Almost instantly she became self-conscious again. She shook her head, almost as if ashamed of the display.

As the can rolled down the steps, the crowd moved away from it as though the can itself was dangerous. Then, in genuine fear, they stepped back as Jean simply moved ahead, unimpeded, still shaking her head.