Corrupting the youth (Erik and Gwen)

Erik and Charles had been sent to pick up two promising young mutants to add to their little 'super' taskforce. So while Charles went to go see the taxi driver Darwin, Erik was going to see a young woman called Gwendoyln. They didn't know her powers but they knew where she was and that she had some powers and that was enough for them.

Knocking on the door, Erick tried to ignore the way that all the door handles rattled a little bit.

Clamping down on his control of his power, Erik hummed a little bit to himself as he waited for her to open the door. While he was waiting one of her room-mates had taken to peering at him through a crack in a barely opened door. He blinked when he realised that there was about four sets of eyes looking at him from the doorway.

Apparently they had been having some kind of get-together and seemed very surprised and alarmed by his presence. He tried to ignore them but when one of them hissed at him he turned to them, annoyed. They whispered quickly,

"Hey mister... don't talk to her!" the voice hissed, "She's just a freak!"

Erik's eyes narrowed before he suddenly smiled. With his power he closed the door... before opening it fully with a snap. All four of them cried out in pain at being hit with the door before it closed and the sounds were stopped. He smiled pleasantly,

"All the best people are."

Gwendolyn thought that she was going to have a nice day all to herself now that the holidays in University had begun, they were nearing the festive season and although she didn't have anyone to celebrate it with, she was going to enjoy making her own Christmas meal in the flat when it was empty.

She thought that would be today but evidently from the sounds coming from the next apartment, they were having some sort of party that they had not invited her too. Which was so very irritating when she thought about it. Why didn't they want her to go?

Oh yes, that was right. She was the freak. The freak from England who didn't belong here in the States and should 'just go back to her gothic novel'.

Hearing the knock on her door, Gwendolyn stopped talking to the friendly spirit of the girl who had committed suicide in her room a full three years ago and tilted her head to one side. Who would be here to talk to her? Nobody in her flat that was for sure so, she was a little bit on edge about opening the door. Yet she did so.

Almost falling over in shock when she saw that it was a rather handsome man. What was he doing here?

"Uhm...can I help you?" she asked quietly, her hair obscuring her eyes as she had grown her white blonde hair longer to cover them "If you're looking for the party I believe its next door."

Erik smiled a little bit when Gwen opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to see that she was both refreshingly beautiful and, if he was correct, English. He bowed his head a little bit when she asked if she could help him,

"I most certainly hope so." he replied with a smooth smile, "If your name is Gwendolyn Maddox I would be very much obliged if you could give me some of your time. We need to talk about something of great importance."

He chuckled a little bit at the mention of the party next door and glanced back at the door he knew at least four being had been injured or knocked out by. Turning back to her, he smirked faintly,

"Oh I don't think it's my kind of party going on in there." he assured her before clicking his tongue slightly, "Mein gott please forgive me! I have not introduced myself."

He bowed again, taking her hand and shaking it rather lightly. The thought of kissing the back of it had crossed his mind but she looked like she would faint if he so much as neared her with his lips,

"My name is Erik Lehnsherr."

Gwendolyn couldn't believe that this man was here to see her! She thought that this might be some sort of joke that was being played on her by the people next door. Yet she had never seen this man come over before and he seemed a lot older than her fellow students so...she believed that he was really here to see her.

He must really be here to see her when he said her full name and she hoped she wasn't in some sort of trouble with the university.

"A-alright, please do come inside." she smiled very gently, moving out of the way so that he could enter her small ensuite student room "My apologies for the small space, all of the student apartments are like this."

When he introduced himself, Gwendolyn smiled softly and shook hands with Erik. The fact that he was German was making her head spin...why on earth did this guy want anything to do with her? It just seemed as if the universe had produced the most perfect guy for her and shoved him into her life suddenly.

"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about Mr. Lehnsherr?" she asked "Uhm, please, sit down."

Erik was getting impression that Gwendolyn was a little bit shocked by his arrival.

Apparently she didn't often have the pleasure of entertaining sharply dressed Germans who showed up at her door wanting to speak to her about something important. He chuckled lightly at that thought. Anyone who was used to that had a seriously messed up social life he had to admit. Humming slight as he stepped inside, he glanced around the apartment once before smiling,

"Don't worry about it." he told her before visions of being cramped in a small bunk house, sharing a cot with five other people in a group of five hundred crammed into the space of fifty assaulted him. With practice he was able to just blink and it was gone. He winked at her, "I've lived in much worse so you're doing very well on your own."

Sitting down when she offered him a seat, he hummed as he thought about the best way to handle this. Usually it was easier because he had Charles by his side and his friend could simply use his power to choose the method the person was most likely to accept. As it was he was on his own and would have to improvise,

"Well Miss Maddox I am here because I have reason to believe you are just the kind of person I am looking for to join my team." he told her with a soft, steady, smile, "A team of special individuals."

The kitchen area was behind him but Erik was aware of it enough to easily manipulate her metal kettle to hover under the tap, the tap to turn on, the tap to turn off, the kettle top to close and the kettle to settle onto the stove. He smirked as he moved a finger (purely for show) and the cooker's dials twisted until the kettle was sitting atop a roaring blue flame,

"Individuals with special talents."

Gwendolyn frowned softly at the idea that this man had lived in much worse conditions, she supposed it wasn't hard because at least she had heat, electricity somewhere to cook her food and go to the toilet. It was better than some of the houses that she had seen, especially the ones that didn't even have bathrooms inside the house.

"Thank you." she murmured softly "It is expensive to live here though."

As he sat down on the chair in the room, Gwendolyn sat down on her bed and she looked at Erik, her head tilted to one side as she regarded him. He seemed so cool and so collected. How could he be like that when there was a spirit right behind him, looking at him?

"A team of special individuals?" Gwendolyn asked, with a small pout of confusion "Do you mean that you are starting a society within the university?"

Opening her mouth, in shock, when he levitated her kettle and moved it to the cooker, turning the cooker on and starting to heat the tea pot...Gwendolyn didn't know what to say about it. She merely sat there on her bed looking at the scene in confusion, before she realised that he must be talking about the fact she could see the dead.

How did he know that though?

"W-well...that's all w-well and good but I don't believe that you w-want me to use my talents to help you. T-they are not very helpful." she stated, biting her lip, her hair used to be a golden blonde after all, now it was bright white.

Erik smiled a little bit when she suggested that he was making a society within the University. If only he could have lived in a time when such things mattered to him at her age. Of course she would think that considering he had not given her any indication of the scale of what he had come here to discuss with her.

Smiling a little bit, he began to idly levitate metal pens behind his head,

"Special individuals being mutants. People born with abilities that regular humans are not." he explained to her with a small smirk, "We are... born different. Born better in many ways. This team is made entirely of mutants my dear and we are being organised by the US government to keep mutants with harmful agendas from attacking this country."

He smirked a little bit as he realised the tea was ready and he began to pour the hot water into two convenient cups. Standing from his seat, he walked over to the cups and put the tea bags and milk in manually,

"I have the ability to control all metals. But only metals, hence why I cannot control the tea bags or the milk." he explained to her before humming, "I don't know what your talents are Gwendolyn but that doesn't matter."

He set a cup of tea down on the bedside table beside her with a small wink as he sat back down with his cup of tea and a saucer,

"We can help you learn how to control your powers better Gwendolyn. We can teach you how to harness it to your full capability." he explained to her with a small smirk, "Now... what are your abilities my dear?"

Gwendolyn looked up sharply from her lap when he said that she would be part of a group with the American Government, and that there were more people like her there. Maybe she would fit in better with them than being around normal people? It made it seem oh so tempting to her because she had never fit in her whole life. Not with her family. Not at school. Not at college.

When she heard that he was able to control metal, Gwendolyn smiled softly and nodded her head. That seemed a lot more useful than what she could do, it could be a really cool power in a fight. She couldn't use hers in a fight at all.

"That seems cool." she stated with a soft smile "I like that power a lot better than mine. Maybe we can swap sometime?"

Blushing softly, her cheeks heating in a pink blush visable from under her fringe when he winked at her. Gwendolyn thought that she should be honest with Erik because he was with the Government, and he seemed like he wasn't going to make fun of her at all.

"I...I can see and talk to the dead." she stated with a little tremor to her voice "Sometimes I can make other people see them too, or help them to do things but, I...I'm not too good at that just yet." she admitted, ducking her head away expecting him to lash out at her, physically or verbally while she admitted her powers and were vulnerable.

Erik smiled a little bit as his... 'lucky' coin levitated out of his pocket and began to lazily float around his fingers, like a con-man would play with it but he needn't actually touch the coin itself. He smirked a little bit when she suggested that they could swap powers.

The coin bent and twisted itself into a variety of shapes,

"Oh I believe I would enjoy that." he admitted with a small grin, "I admit to being curious as to what it would be like to have a different ability."

He could see that his attention and wink seemed to be embarrassing her. Either that or she liked the attention very, very much. Licking his lips a little bit, Erick went to taste the tea but stopped abruptly when she told him what her power was.

The coin and the pens dropped to the floor like stones and he set his cup down on the table with trembling hands,

"Say that again bitte... you can talk... and see... the dead? Anyone?" he asked, his voice soft and breaking slightly, "You could... talk to a woman from Germany? A woman who died in Poland maybe?"

He swallowed thickly and chuckled a little bit nervously,

"Well seems you have an amazing ability." he told her before looking down at the floor slightly, "I would give anything to trade our abilities if only for a day, a minute even."

Gwendolyn shook her head a little bit and she thought that if they did swap he would end up hating her for giving him such a horrible power. There were times that it was good, but, it was a burden and a terror the rest of the times which were actually, the majority in the end. Biting her lip softly she kept quiet though, she didn't want to share anything with Erik that might make him think that she was a freak.

Would make him change his mind about her, it seemed.

The reaction that he had when she told him what she could do, was one she had seen before, when she had told one of her relatives that she could see and commune with the dead. They had lost someone, and they had wanted to speak to them again. They were not so happy when she complied with their wishes.

"Yes I can talk to the dead." she stated with a soft smile, her fingers relentlessly worked over themselves so that she kept herself busy "I can talk to anyone...but normally they have to be attached to someone, or in the place where I am right now."

Biting her lip, she tilted her head up so that for the first time Erik could see her eyes. They were glistening brown and large.

"I am sorry, if it means anything." she whispered gently "But I don't think you would want my ability, if you had to live with it every day like I do. I am...interested in coming with you to help me control my powers. W-where would I be going? What would happen with my...studies?"

Erik had convinced Gwen to come with him back to the CIA base that he and the rest of the team were staying in and he chuckled a little bit when he saw how nervous she was as they were rolling up to the front gate in the car,

"Relax Gwendolyn, you will be fine here." he assured her as he got out of the car before moving around to open hers for her, "You are among friends here, brother and sister mutants and all of you joined by bonds that mere humans cannot understand."

As he was leading her up the path he smirked when he noticed that Charles had come to greet them. No doubt he had sensed their thoughts drawing closer and come to introduce himself. Meeting his friend mid-way, he shook the other man's hand,

"Good to see you again Charles." he greeted his friend before gesturing to Gwendolyn, "This is..."

Charles grinned happily and held his hand out to shake her's,

"Gwendolyn Maddox." he declared with a small smirk, "A former resident of our shared homeland of Great Britain! Smashing, it is lovely to finally have another Brit in the building. Honestly, some of these yanks just don't understand cricket."

He winked to show the joke and Erik couldn't help but raise his hands in mock despair,

"I am not a yank and yet I do not understand that confounded game!" he clicked his tongue with a small smirk, "I am convince the English invented it just to confuse other countries."

Gwendolyn was beyond nervous. What would happen if someone didn't like who she was, if someone didn't think that she was belonging here with the rest of them? What if she didn't like someone else there and it ended up in a big fight she was sure to be losing! All these things were rushing through her head as she looked, fixatedly at her lap.

She didn't want to look up into Erik's handsome face because it would make her all the more nervous when she did so.

Stepping out of the car, Gwendolyn smiled gently as she saw someone coming towards the two of them. Maybe it was the person that she had been told about by Erik, the person who was in charge of the operations here alongside of him.

As she shook his hand, Gwendolyn nodded her head, her fringe still covering her eyes;

"I am pleased to meet you, Charles." she whispered softly "I don't understand cricket either you know, although my father was a great fan of the game. It must not run in the family."

Smiling very slightly at Erik's exaggeration, Gwendolyn fell silent again, her shyness coming over her in a large wave once more.

"It looks like a nice place to live. Are there uhm...m-many people?"

Erik grinned a little bit to see that Gwendolyn was getting along with Charles. It meant a lot to him that Gwendolyn, a person he was growing quite fond of, liked the man he was quickly coming to think of as his best friend. It was a little bit odd in his own mind he admitted. He had made such strong and fast bonds with both of these people after years of being emotionally distant from everyone around him.

Maybe it was because he had been so emotionally distant from everyone around him?

Charles could probably take a peek and tell him but he respected Erik enough to not do so unless given express permission. Sometimes Erik thought about what it would be like for someone else to have Charles' power. Someone with less rigid morals.

Charles groaned in an exaggerated fashion while Erik made a fist pump in the background,

"Oh no! No, come on Gwen! You were supposed to be my support in this!" he teased her with a smirk before grinning and waving it off, "At least your father was a man of impeccable taste! Unless he supported Australia, in which case he was a cricket-traitor!"

Erik smirked a little bit and got a sudden idea,

"Charles, do you know the rules of cricket?"

Charles grinned wide,

"Haven't the foggiest." he told them both cheerfully before counting off on his fingers, "That'll be seven members of the team, excluding me and Erik but including you Gwendolyn. Including my little sister Raven."

Erik smiled a little bit and ruffled Gwendolyn's hair slightly,

"They're all around your age, they're good people. You'll get along fine with them."

Gwendolyn frowned softly when she heard Charles calling her 'Gwen' she didn't think that she had ever really had a nickname before but she liked it. Sort of. The whole talk of cricket however was something that bored her and she wasn't really interested in that much, but as long as her new friends were interested in it she was prepared to take a back seat and listen to them talking about it.

"I'm pretty sure he supported England." she stated with a small smile "So don't worry about that."

Even though Charles didn't know the rules of cricket it seemed as if he was surely passionate about it, unless he was just playing it up so that she might come out of her shell a little bit? Unfortunately that wasn't going to work, her eyes were roving around the scene taking in all the details and looking, for those ever present entities.

"Ah...seven. That is not too many." Gwendolyn mused quietly "Do you think this is genetically passed on then, as you and your sister are both special?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

Pouting softly, Gwendolyn looked up at Erik and poked his stomach;

"You didn't need to ruffle my hair." she whispered softly "I'll uhm... go inside then."

As she walked on ahead, letting the two have a discussion on their own if needs be, Gwendolyn's head turned from side to side as she entered the building. There were still no spirits here, which although good was...extremely unusual.

Charles grinned a little bit and gave her a sly wink to show that he had been playing up his love of cricket just to try and get her out of her shell. Of course he also told her that by using his ability to speak into her mind directly.

While cricket is important, I just wanted to hear you speak a bit more. Erik thinks you have a beautiful speaking voice after all.

Did it count as flirting if he was doing it on the behalf of a friend who wasn't even aware that it was occurring? Charles said no.

"No they are a small group and you'll fit right in I'm sure." Erik told her before smiling slightly, "Raven is his adoptive sister but the mutation is genetic. It is passed down by the father as near as we can tell."

He rubbed his stomach in mock pain while Charles stuck his tongue out at him before tucking it back in before Erik could see him doing it. Charles grinned,

"We'll be with you in a moment." he told her before turning to Erik when she was through the doors, "She seems like a lovely young woman... no ulterior motives for bringing her here?"

Erik blushed a little bit,

"What?" he shook his head, "No, nothing like that."

Charles didn't blink,

"I am a mind reader Erik."

Erik blushed a little bit more,

"Alright, I thought there was a spark..." he blushed a little more, "I mean we were looking for more mutants and why not her?"

Charles rolled his eyes a little bit before leading Erik inside, grinning at Gwendolyn as he did so,

"So... like what you see?"

Gwendolyn jumped slightly when she heard Charles' voice in her head and she knew that this must be his power, however she was more than a little bit wary of him now if he could speak inside of her head and mess with her mind. What else could he do if that was his power? Hopefully, as Erik had said, he was a very good man and therefore wouldn't use it to do horrible things to her.

Although, what he did say made her blush slightly from underneath her fringe and made her think that he was telling the truth. After all he was a mind reader, he could have easily read Erik's mind and found out that was what he really thought.

As the two of them caught up with her, Gwendolyn smiled slightly wider and nodded her head, looking around the rather lovely place. Of course it was made better by the distinct lack of dead people floating around in her field of vision.

"Ah yes." she stated shyly, gripping her bag tighter "It is lovely, what is even better is that it doesn't seem to have any..."

There was that feeling. Like someone had run a fingernail down her spine.

Daring to look up, she saw a spirit, his mouth was hanging open, his jaw - swinging loose from his face. A hole, leaking blood at the top of his head. He merely sat on the reception desk, not moving, but his eyes watched her as she stood there, she could feel them on her.

"Never mind." she sighed sadly, her eyes locked onto the chair at the reception, she didn't want to move them in case the ghost moved suddenly and scared her.

Erik was still blushing when he and Charles walked back into the building but thankfully Charles was content to speak first. That took a lot of the heat off of him and he was able to cool his blush down before it got too bad. He would never forgive his friend if he had caused him to lose his cool and aloof status! He was supposed to be the cool one after all.

Charles smirked a little bit at the surface thoughts that Erik was almost shouting at him before grinning a little bit,

"Well I'm glad that it's to your liking!" he told her before he paused when he saw her tense up a lot more, "What's the matter? Doesn't seem to have any what?"

When she seemed to see something terrifying, Erik placed a hand on both her shoulder and that of Charles,

"If I had to guess you've seen a spirit here." he guessed quietly, "And I'm also going to guess that it wasn't one of the nice ones..."

Charles looked around the lobby area,

"Can you tell us what you see Gwen?"

Gwendolyn was too busy looking.

Looking and waiting.

Waiting for it to move.

Sooner or later they always moved. Maybe though, this one would not and she would be forced to eat her words, she didn't think that would be the case though. She thought that this ghost might actually just be still for a change, it didn't seem to be angry with her and it seemed quite content to watch her stand there and watch it.

Still though, she wasn't ready to move her eyes away from it.

Not wanting to speak in case it aggravated it, Gwendolyn jumped massively and closed her eyes in fright when Erik placed a hand on her shoulder. It had not been expected and it had broken her concentration. Opening her eyes Gwendolyn squeaked and wanted to hop back, as the ghost was crawling its way towards her on the floor.

Slowly, she focused her energy onto the ghost and her breathing became short and sharp as it came closer to her. Torn between standing stock still and running the fuck away, Gwendolyn hoped, now that the two of them could see it, they would tell her what to do.

At first neither Erik nor Charles knew what she was seeing that was so terrifying.

Charles had the option of delving into her mind but he refused to do that without her express permission as it was a very personal thing and he didn't want to abuse any trust she had place in him. But for Erik it was worse because he was totally unable to do anything about it, regardless of whether or not he thought it would be a good idea to do so.

"Charles do something for her..." he pleaded with his friend, "She's obviously scared witless!"

Charles gritted his teeth and was about to plunge into her mind when her power spiked that suddenly they were able to see the ghost too. Not that they could do anything to it, as Erik found out when he immediately sent the entire metal detector machine at it... only to pass straight through it. Charles swallowed thickly,

"Gwendolyn... come on Gwen..." he spoke to her, "I know you're scared, you have every right to be, but you can't let that fear control you. You can control it...!"

Erik nodded his head,

"It's your power and your power responds to you Gwen... you can do it!" he told her with conviction, "Reach deep inside you and stop your power! Stop seeing the ghost, banish him if you can... you can be rid of it!"

Gwendolyn didn't know what to do! She wanted the ghost to go away, she didn't want to see it dragging its blood along the floor towards her, blood welled up from its mouth and it spat it forwards onto the floor. It almost reached the bottom of her shoes and she needed to do something quickly before it got even closer to her and she couldn't do a thing about it.

When she heard the reassurance from Charles, and from Erik, Gwendolyn blinked and she looked up at both of them, slightly shocked by the confidence they were placing in her...but it did make her feel like she could do it!

Nodding her head, Gwendolyn didn't know how to do it, but she tried willing the ghost away but nothing happened. Mostly because she had been willing it to go away since she saw it appear a few minutes ago. Trying something else, Gwendolyn summoned up her courage and decided that she had to speak to it to get it to go away.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to get a handle on her power and she projected her energy towards the ghost. With a shaking voice, she whispered;

"G-go away."

As it flickered, almost as if it was a bad hologram her eyes widened under her fringe and she tried it again, but louder this time, expelling more energy; "Go away!" she cried, and, low and behold it did. At the same time though, so did most of her energy and her legs felt shaky. Leaning against the wall of the CIA base, Gwendolyn shook softly.

"S-s-sorry." she sniffled, wiping at her eyes under her fringe.

Erik squeezed Gwendolyn's shoulder comfortingly to show her that he was right beside her while she went through this terrible experience. And dear god was it terrible! He had never seen anything as bad as this... the closest thing to this he had seen had been his time in the camp and all the horrible things he had seen there were kind of muted now, a self-defence mechanism.

Charles could feel the battle in her mind waging between her fear and her will. Her desire and her determination not to be bullied by the ghosts anymore. She would fight back and she would win. He could feel it even without reading her mind,

"That's right! You tell it Gwendolyn!" he encouraged her, "It exists because of your power... and it can go away because of your power!"

And then... it was gone!

Erik grinned and was quick to catch Gwen when she fell, her legs too shaky to hold her up it seemed. Holding her bridal style, he smiled down at her happily,

"You did it Gwendolyn." he told her softly, "You stood up to it and you banished it... I told you we would help you with your powers. Though this was not how I meant it to happen."

Charles grinned as he led Erik, with Gwen, through the facility until they arrived in a posh-looking bedroom. As she was set down on the bed, Charles smiled at her and pulled up a seat at her bedside, Erik doing the same,

"How are you feeling Gwen?"

Gwendolyn was feeling so strange. Both Charles and Erik were helping her, they were proud of her and they weren't calling her a freak because of what they had seen of her powers. It made her so happy but at the same time she didn't think that it was real, she thought that it was just something she had been daydreaming, and she would awaken in the car with Erik driving by her side.

Gasping when Erik caught her and she was pressed to his chest in a bridal style lift, Gwendolyn blushed softly and she pressed her hand to his chest to steady herself. The sensation she got of his muscles under his black tshirt however made her cheeks flame even more and she swiftly removed her hand.

She was still shaking softly even in Erik's arms, but, it made her feel safe. Happy. To have someone behind her while she went through that. Now that they were in a bedroom, and she was lain down on the bed, her cheeks were bright red for a completely different reason. Embarrassment. How degrading to have to be carried around like a baby?

To be such a burden!

"I...I'm sorry that you have to do this I...I know you must be busy." she whispered "Please, you don't have to stay I don't mean to be a...a burden."

When Erik asked her if she was alright, Gwen pushed back her fringe to one side so that one of her large brown eyes could be seen, glistening as always although this time with a hidden triumph.

"I...I'm feeling okay." she smiled shakily "Good. I didn't know, I could do that."

Erik hummed a little bit as he carried Gwen to her room. He was really enjoying holding her like this if he was honest. He enjoyed the familiar weight and warmth of her body against his own and... and Charles was listening his thoughts right now wasn't he?

The smirk his friend gave him was answer enough.

Blushing a little bit, Erik shook his head a little bit,

"I've got nothing more important than this." he assured her quietly before smirking a little bit, "And you're by no means a burden. You just beat a real evil spirit Gwendolyn, you are nowhere near being a burden I can assure you."

Charles smiled a little bit as he fetched her a glass of cold water and a headache tablet, just in case she wanted something to help with any side-effects,

"You were always able to do it Gwen." he told her with a grin, "You just needed to believe that you could use it."

Erik smiled a little bit and gave her hand a gentle squeeze,

"With willpower like that you'll make a brilliant addition to our team."

Gwendolyn bit her lip softly when she heard that Erik had nothing more important to do than to cater to her and make sure she felt better. She was sure that wasn't the case but...she was happy to be able to be pampered for a few minutes. It was a rare occasion for her after all, she never had someone to take care of her like this.

An evil spirit? She wouldn't say he was particularly evil. Just...scary.

"He wasn't evil." she hummed, tucking her knees underneath her chin as she curled up into a ball "He was just scary...but I'm glad to have him out of my sight even so."

Smiling softly, Gwen took the water and tablet that Charles gave her with a soft blush and she took the tablet with the water swiftly finding that she did indeed have a headache. Perhaps he had known that she would need the tablet before she knew it herself?

"Thank you, both of you." Gwen whispered "I don't think I would have been able to do it without you."

The sensation of Erik's warm hand against her own small cold one made Gwen bite her lip in nervousness, but also, a tinge of excitement ran through her body, and she squeezed his hand right back.

"I don't see...how much use my power is going to be in a fight but, I will be glad to help you." she smiled serenely at Erik.