Part Four.
It was late that evening when Toad decided to 'check out' the institute. Instead of his outfit of a brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up on top of a white, long-sleeved shirt and jeans with holes in the legs, he was wearing a tight-fitting green outfit with a metallic fabric o n his back. He took hold of the gate and looked how high it was. It would be impossible for a normal human. Good thing he wasn't.
Toad began hopping around the grounds. He knew he had to get inside like Mystique wanted but couldn't help wondering if he would run into Melanie.
Storm stepped out of the house wearing her X-men uniform, a strong wind forming around her. She lifted herself into the air and searched for the intruder.
Thunder roared overhead as lightning brightened the midnight sky. A heavy downpour covered Toad and the grounds of the institute. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning crashed a foot away from Toad. He started to jump as fast and as far as he could, lightning chasing his heels.
Nightcrawler went to the entryway of the institute to see what all of the noise was. A gust of wind opened the front door and nearly knocked Nightcrawler over. What knocked Nightcrawler over was the airborne Toad. They tumbled over a few times before they faced each other.
"Whoa. What are you? Some kind of ratty plush toy?"
Nightcrawler sniffed the air and held his nose.
"The name's Nightcra wler and at least I don't smell like unwashed lederhosen!"
"You blue-furred freak!"
Toad pounced at Nightcrawler only to have the blue-furred man teleport.
"As you say in America," Nightcrawler said on the chandelier on the ceiling, "Nener nener nener!"
"That ain't gonna help you boy!"
Toad jumped to the chandelier but Nightcrawler jumped down and held onto the wall.
"You're so slow!"
The two jumped down the hallways, clinging to the walls.
"You couldn't catch flies on a windshield!"
"Fight like a man!"
A crash outside Melanie's room woke her up. She opened her door and thought she heard Kurt and Todd. As a precaution, she put on her standard X-men uniform and ran out to find them. They led her to the entryway. The two bounced off the walls and crawled on the ceiling.
"Burst!"
Melanie looked over=2 0at the Professor and Storm.
"Professor? Why is Nightcrawler fighting Toad? I thought this place was open for mutants."
"We needed to make sure he actually was a mutant. He can join us, if he so desires."
Nightcrawler and Toad had listened in on the conversation.
"The only thing I desire is blue boy's fuzzy head!"
Toad wrapped his tongue around Nightcrawler's arm, making him lose his grip on the chandelier. The two started to fall when Burst attempted to break up the fight. She formed a bubble around herself and floated up to where they were. She managed to grab Toad's arm when Nightcrawler teleported them somewhere.
The three crashed into a large room surrounded by metal with an observation deck above them. The lights came on as a red light came from inside the observation deck.
"Where are we?"
"You askin' me, fool? You brought us here."
"Stop fighting, boys! We need to get out of here!"
Burst pointed to a series of lasers and weapons emerging from the=2 0walls.
The Professor contacted Jean and Scott, who just finished a training exercise.
"Nightcrawler, Toad, and Burst have teleported into the Danger Room! Get in there now!"
"Aw man! The Danger Room has automated defenses! It'll hit them with everything they got!"
Burst tried using her bubbles to create a shield around herself but was too stressed out to focus. The best she could do was form bubbles in front of the lasers to deflect the rays. Toad and Nightcrawler jumped frantically around the room. Scott and Jean ran into the room and began using their powers to destroy the lasers and keeping the others safe. Burst looked back at Toad and found him being pressed back by a wall with a second wall emerging from the floor.
"Toad, watch out!"
Burst created a bubble around Toad and floated him towards her just before the walls closed into each other.
On the observation deck, Storm and Professor began shutting down the danger room. Nightcrawler had figured out that it was a training area and attempted to shut down one of the lasers himse lf. The machine began shooting wildly and nearly hit Scott. Storm shorted out the machine using lightning. Finally, the room was shut down.
"Toad, are you okay?"
"Forget this, man! I am outta here!"
"Toad, wait!"
"Its all right, Burst."
"But, Professor!"
"He wasn't ready to be one of us."
"I blew it too, Professor," Nightcrawler said. "I'm sorry. You've been wonderful, but...I guess I just don't belong here."
Nightcrawler teleported out of the room. Scott volunteered to go look for him. Burst ran out of the room in search for Toad. By the time she found him, he had run into another mutant. He reminded her of a cowboy with his hat, boots, and jacket. In each hand, he had three metal claws coming out of in between his fingers.
"Let him go, Logan."
She turned around and found the Professor standing at a balcony.
Logan retracted his claws and let Toad h op away, muttering under his breath.
"Who's the girl?"
"The two of you come inside and I'll get you acquainted."
The three went into the Professor's study.
"This is Logan, but his mutant name is Wolverine. He's a senior member of the X-men. Then this is Melanie Wilbur."
"Any relation to Martin?"
"Yes. Believe it or not, Melanie, Wolverine and Martin were both here around the same time."
"I understand he died before you really knew him. I'm sorry."
"He died with my grandmother in a fire when I was little."
Melanie looked at Wolverine for a minute. At first, she thought he was in his thirties, but to find out he was the age of her grandfather was a shock.
"You look like Martin. Blonde hair and everything. Hope you won't be as strict. He was too much of a goody-two-shoes in my opinion."
"She's not like that, Logan, but she does have his heart in20reaching out to others. You told Todd about the institute, didn't you?"
Melanie swallowed hard and looked away.
"I thought it was a good thing to do."
"I understand your heart was in the right place but you cannot just give out information like that."
"I'm sorry, Professor."
"Its all right, kid. I made a few mistakes when I first came here," Logan said putting a hand on her shoulder.
She turned around and walked out of the room.
For the entire night, she couldn't fall asleep and kept looking at her cell phone.
"I wonder if Toad is mad."
The clock read 1:15. With nothing else to do, she changed into her clothes for the day and grabbed the keys for her Tahoe.
The next day, Toad was called by Mystique to the school. He was still in his Brotherhood uniform and she was still posing as Principal Darkholme.
"I can't believe this! You were actually20inside and you ran away?!"
"Hey, I freaked. So sue me. I did what I could."
"And no doubt the good Professor wiped your mind so you can't remember anything!"
He shook his head no. She opened the door and screamed.
"Get out!"
Toad hopped out as fast as he could, praying that a teacher wouldn't send him to the principal today.
As soon as Toad was out, Mystique changed into her true form, with her fire-red hair and blue skin covered by a white and dark blue outfit.
The ground began to shake.
"Don't be so hard on the boy, Mystique. We don't want to thin out ranks now, do we?"
She clung to her desk.
"No, sir. I'll be more careful."
Paper clips and her name plate floated in front of her face.
"Mind you are, for this is only the beginning."
A figure appeared outside the window, his glowing eyes the only feature one could see from the dark robe and helmet.
The school day started with Kurt finding out a new breakfast item called the 'Breakfast Burger Gut Bomb.' He gave one to Melanie but she was never a big fan of hamburgers. She kept turning her head as she walked on the school grounds.
"You okay, Melanie? You look distracted."
"I'm just looking around. How did you feel after last night?"
"Exhausted."
"Me too. See you at lunch, okay?"
She ran into the school and started scanning the hallways.
"Melanie! Hey!"
One of Melanie's new friends, Katie, ran over.
"Hi, Katie. What's up?"
"Can I please see your math homework??"
Melanie turned bright red.
"D-Don't be mad but I actually skipped lunch yesterday and had the tea cher help me with it."
"What? But you understood it during class!"
"Not really. I just took guesses. She took my work when we were done to make sure I wouldn't give it to anyone."
Katie smacked herself in the forehead.
"Darn it!"
"Ask Cindy for help. She's a whiz at math."
"Great idea! I owe you one!"
"I'll hold you to it," she said walking away and still scanning the halls.
After a few minutes, she found who she was looking for outside school by the dumpster, eating flies.
"That your idea of a good breakfast?"
Toad jumped back in surprise.
"What do you want?"
She frowned and sat down a few feet away. "I didn't mean for everyone to attack you. I'm really sorry. Please don't be mad."
Toad watched out of the corner of his e ye as she pulled out a box from her backpack.
"It took me a while but I found a place that sold these in New York City."
The box contained chocolate-covered crickets.
"I know you like eating bugs so I thought maybe you would like these."
She looked away.
"I don't know what kind of bugs you like though."
He stared at her as she turned pink. Her fingers were tapping nervously on her legs. Toad grabbed one of the crickets and ate it.
"Hey, these are pretty good."
She looked back at Toad with a smile on her face.
"Really?!"
"Yeah."
Melanie looked at the box and took one out.
"I don't know if you-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Melanie started eating the cricket. At first, she really liked it but groaned. 0A
"What's the matter?"
After she started picking her teeth, she smiled.
"I had a leg between my teeth."
The two started laughing as Toad continued eating the crickets. Melanie pulled out a plum from her purse.
"I'm impressed. Most girls would be too freaked out by this."
"Well," She winked at him. "It's a good thing I'm not like most girls."
Toad turned a light shade of pink.
"Yeah. Real good thing."
"So did you ever think of something interesting things to do in this town?"
