Author's Note: Less reviews this time, but I suppose that's okay. Please keep reviewing! I cannot express in words how encouraging and important it is to the author to hear someone's opinion on his work whether that opinion be good or bad. Most of you are author's so you know the feeling. Sorry that this update took so long, I've been busy lately. Now to respond to your reviews!
AquaRias: Sorry you had to wait so long, hopefully you'll love this chapter as much as you've loved the rest. Thanks for the review and please keep reviewing!
EvilEyeKat: Thank you so much for being so faithful in your reading and reviewing. I'm glad that you're so curious to find things out, this chapter should reveal some information, but not too much. Hopefully it'll satisfy your curiosity for a while.
Sal: At this moment I only own Schizoid, he's the only OC in the fic so far, but we'll see as it goes along.
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Chapter 4: Roommate
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Scott and the Professor came back up from the Medical bay, coming out of the elevator in the hall as the doors opened for them. Jean was still down in the medical bay going over the tests and their results trying to come up with a decision, and Storm had decided to stay downstairs doing some work in another area of the basement. Thus leaving Scott and the Professor alone to discuss a few things.
"Are you sure?" Scott asked as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Yes Scott. I believe that he is perfectly sane and perfectly capable of adapting to life here at the institute, and I would like for them to room together, it could be beneficial to both of them." The professor answered.
"It's your decision." Scott said with a nod, sounding as though he still didn't agree with it, but understood that his opinion did not matter in this case, it was up to the professor.
"Come. Let us go speak with Edward. We should let him know." The professor said with a nod as the two of them started down the hall in the opposite direction of the kitchen.
The Kitchen
Schizoid sat in the kitchen, his hair was still red now, it had been blonde, but had switched to red when he and Kitty came to the kitchen. He was seated at the table, as Kitty worked to cook something. The discussion had died a bit, as Kitty was trying to search her mind for something to talk about.
"So where are you from?" Kitty asked.
"Which one of us?" Schizoid asked. "We're from different places." He said standing up a bit. "Do you want a drink?"
"Hm?" Kitty asked looking over her shoulder as she tried to cook the mashed potatoes. "Sure. I'll take a soda."
Schizoid opened the fridge to find that it went further back then it looked like it did from the outside, he finally found the cans of coke on the bottom shelf on the left. He reached in and grabbed two, placing Kitty's on the counter, while he opened his and got out two glasses and some ice. He placed ice in the glasses and then poured some soda, and handed Kitty her's.
"Thank you." Kitty said with a smile as she took the soda. "But you never answered the question." She pointed out.
"What question? Did we ask a question? Did you? Did we answer it? No? What question?" Schizoid asked before taking a sip of his soda.
Kitty laughed a bit. "You're just trying to avoid it. Where are you from?"
"Where is who from?" Schizoid asked with a curious look in his eye.
"Where is Lucas from?" Kitty asked, specifying the question so that he would answer it. She was quick at trying to get him to open up a bit, and perhaps a little naive as to his situation.
"Lucas is from Boston. His dad worked on a fisherman's boat and lived on the edge of the city." Schizoid answered with a smile before sitting back down.
"And Markus?" Kitty asked with a smile as she drank some of her own soda.
"Markus was born in Scotland." Schizoid answered. "Went to Oxford, came here after he graduated cause he got a job in Atlanta."
"I see." Kitty said as she gave the mashed potatoes a stir. She went over to the fridge and took some left over meat loaf, putting it in the steamer and then in the microwave. "So what about JT?"
"Jack is from New Jersey. Cape May to be exact." Schizoid answered.
"So you really are three people?" Kitty asked.
"We think so." Schizoid answered.
"How did you all get into one body?" Kitty asked. "Was it one of your mutations?"
"No." Schizoid answered. "We don't know how it happened. Or why. Neither Markus or JT has a mutation that could do that." He said with a nod as he took another drink of soda, watching as she started to heat up the meat and then went back to stirring the potatoes.
"What about Lucas?" Kitty asked, just assuming that all three of them were mutant.
"Lucas is human." Schizoid answered. "So we're human and mutant, not that it matters, best of friends." He added rather quickly.
"Lucas is human." Schizoid repeated. "He didn't have any mutation by the age of seventeen, and doctor's didn't find anything."
"Doctors?" Kitty asked as she turned off the stove and got a pair of plates out of the cabinets.
"Lucas has a lot of history with doctors." Schizoid said shaking his head as he refilled his glass of coke.
"What kind of history?" Kitty asked curiously as she scooped out a serving of the potatoes onto the plate and the microwave timer went off.
"He doesn't want us to tell you." Schizoid said standing up. "Need help?" Schizoid asked.
"No. I got it." She said with a smile as she took the meat out of the microwave and put a piece of the meatloaf on each plate next to the potatoes. She took the two plates and put them across from each other on the table before going back and getting her glass of coke and sitting down.
Schizoid sat back down, and paused as he was about to eat. "Do you... Do you pray before you eat?"
Kitty giggled. "My family is Jewish, so I pray after I eat when I'm back home, but you can feel free if you want to."
Schizoid smiled. "We're not sure. It's never come up before..." He paused. "Lucas is Baptist, but Markus is catholic, and JT is Jewish as well."
"Guess you guys don't talk about religion much, huh?" Kitty asked.
"Well we did, but that was all just discussion, we never expected the other to practice the other's... practices." Schizoid said as though he was searching for the right words. "We'll figure it out later. Thank you for the food." He said looking at Kitty.
"You're welcome." Kitty said as they began to eat. She wasn't exactly sure of what to think of this guy, that was obvious by the look on her face. Was he just making it all up, or was he really crazy, or was he telling the truth? She knew that he was basically a joke to her other friends, and those that had met him either didn't know what to think of him, or thought he was crazy. She didn't think he was a joke, she felt kind of bad for him actually, not that he was a sad case, she just could only think of the difficulties his new arrangement must bring. "So where did you three meet?" Kitty asked ever so curiously. If she couldn't solve the puzzle that was this young guy then the least she could do was get a few more pieces.
"A hospital down in Atlanta." Schizoid answered. "We all had different reasons for being there, but we were roommates. We spent a lot of time together, talking and such. Then when Markus and Jack were released we kept in touch. We decided to get together and have some fun one last time. That was when the accident happened."
"Okay." Kitty said holding up a few hands. "Hold up. Why were you all at the hospital? Why wasn't Lucas released? What did you mean 'one last time'?"
Schizoid laughed. "Answer to the first: None of your business. No offense. The second: Because the doctor's didn't want him to be. The third: We mean one last time because Markus was going back home to Scotland."
Kitty smirked a bit, it was his business whether or not he wanted to answer all of her questions, but she wished that he would, now she was really curious. "Okay, so what accident?"
"The three of us were riding in a jeep that Markus was driving." Schizoid explained. "Jack was in the passenger seat, and Lucas was in the back. We were headed to the beach and the board walk, going to just have a good time hanging out and soaking up sun. Truth be told we were going a little fast. Anyway, a truck pulled out. Boom. Lucas gets to see Markus get impaled to the seat by glass, and JT didn't have his seatbelt on, got tossed about, and Lucas got trapped in the back. Everything goes black. He wakes up to being rescued and then blacks out again. Next thing we know Lucas is lying in a hospital bed again and JT and I can both see and hear everything that he can, and he can hear our thoughts." Schizoid took a breath and a drink of his soda. "Then later we found out we can do this." He said as his hair shifted from the red to the black color it usually was, and his hauntingly beautiful green eyes to a dazzling blue color. This was Schizoid as Kitty had originally met him.
"So you can change who has control?" Kitty asked, seeming to get it pretty quickly.
"We think so. Other's think we're just crazy." Schizoid said. "Scott thinks we're crazy. We know he doesn't like us, we're not stupid. The professor thinks we're not, he's been in our mind."
"So he brought you here? Where were you before here? An asylum? You were wearing a straight jacket before." Kitty asked, she was more curious then ever now and could really care less about her food.
Schizoid had been eating his food when he could, and she'd caught him with a fork-full of 'spuds' in his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and then answered. "Yeah." He said before taking a drink of his soda. "Lucas' parents thought their son had become another dangerous, powerful, and insane mutant. Locked him up."
"That's horrible." Kitty said shaking her head.
"Can't really blame them. After all. We're still not even sure that they were wrong." Schizoid said with a shrug. "Haven't seen any of our parents in... months. Years for Markus."
"That's sad." Kitty said with a shake of her head. "My family still talks to me, and I go home on the holidays. It's a little different, but it's still nice."
"That's nice." Schizoid said as he finished the potatoes on his plate. "Thanks again for the food." Schizoid said with a nod as he started on the meatloaf.
"No trouble." She said with a smile.
Upstairs
"So he's three people, in one body?" A young man asked looking at the professor.
The scene had changed much from the hall of the Xavier Mansion, they were in the dormitories now, inside one of the double rooms. It had one bed on one side of the room, and another on the other. One bathroom for the two, a pair of chairs and desks, and two closets. It was quite obviously the young man's room and it had things scattered hither, yither, and yon. A stereo, a keyboard, a fiddle, a tin-whistle, a few books, notebooks, sketch books. Beautiful paintings hung on the wall, most of landscapes, one a family of mother, father, daughter, and son, the son being the young man the professor was speaking to.
Another painting hung just above a desk, obviously the desk the young man had been using. It was a portrait of a young woman, very beautiful in face, with long black hair and a rather cute smile on her face that seemed to be mock-annoyed. It was almost like a picture, but there it hung, the painting in its frame.
"Yes." The professor answered. "Will that be a problem?"
"That's a lot of people. I don't like people all that much." The young man answered sitting down.
"I realize that, but there are no other rooms available at the moment, and I do believe that having him room with someone will help him adapt to life here at the institute." The professor said with a small nod.
"Welcome to Mutant High." The young man answered. "As it were."
"Yes. I want you to make him feel welcome. I want you to help him." The professor smiled.
"We'll see." The young man said, looking to Scott who was looking at one of the paintings.
"Where'd you get these?" Scott asked with a tone of curiosity in his voice.
"I didn't. I made them." The young man answered as he walked over to Scott. "You like this one?" He asked pointing to the painting of a small pond scene with a couple on a picnic, the male sitting with the female resting against him, a book in his hand, reading aloud to her.
"I didn't know you could paint." Scott answered.
"No reason why you should have." The young man responded. "This place doesn't have much of an art class. We forget the more refined things in life in order to teach the bare bones of what is necessary."
The professor smiled. "So will you do it? Will you be willing to room with him?" He asked hopefully.
"You didn't make it sound like I had much of a choice." The young man answered, pointing out the obvious. "I suppose giving it a try couldn't hurt. Though if he gets in the way he won't be seeing much of me."
"Thank you." The professor said with a nod.
"Can you paint a portrait of anybody?" Scott asked.
"Basically. If you give me a picture, or if I've seen them before I can usually get a good painting of them done. Why? You got a request?" The young man asked.
"You think you could paint a picture of Jean and I?" Scott asked.
"Sure." The young man answered.
"Do you need..." Scott wasn't sure if he needed him and Jean to come in and model or something, or pose, or whatever, but the young man cut him off.
"Don't worry about it." He said with a nod.
"Thanks." Scott said with a nod.
The professor laughed and the two, Scott and the Professor, left. "See Scott? I think you misjudged the boy."
"Edward maybe, but I still don't know about Schizoid." Cyclops answered. "I'm not sure he's safe professor."
"What will it take to assure you Scott?" The professor asked.
"For him to stop acting crazy." Scott answered.
"That's hardly fair." The professor argued. "That would be like Schizoid saying he would only like you if you didn't wear red glasses." The professor said with a gleam in his eye. It was a rather good comparison, but it was a rather careful thing to bring up.
"It's not the same Professor." Scott argued as they went down the hall.
"I believe it is." The professor said, as though he were ending the debate.
The Kitchen
The scene had only changed a little. The meal was now over, and Schizoid was at the sink rinsing off the plates and such and putting them in the dishwasher to be washed. Kitty sat at the table waiting, because Schizoid wouldn't let her help any.
"So what are your powers?" Kitty asked.
"Our powers.." Schizoid said as though he were thinking about it. "Lucas is human. Markus has invulnerable skin, and JT is a battery."
"Wait." Kitty said shaking her head. "If Markus is invulnerable how did he die? And what do you mean JT is a battery?" She asked.
"It used to be optional. He had to concentrate. Now it's just automatic, whenever our hair is red and Markus is in control." He nodded. "And JT absorbs electricity. He uses it for food almost. That's why he doesn't eat." Schizoid explained with a nod as he shut the dishwasher.
As he shut it someone else came into the kitchen, but then started to leave before being joined by someone else. Schizoid turned around to see Rogue, with Bobby close behind her.
"Hey." Bobby said giving a nod and a wave. "We were gonna watch a movie, either of you care to join us?"
Kitty looked to Schizoid. "You want to watch a movie?"
Schizoid looked to Rogue, who seemed to get a little nervous before saying something along the lines of being sure that Schizoid had something better to do.
"What movie?" Schizoid asked.
"Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring." Bobby said with a smile.
"They made a movie of that?" Schizoid asked curiously.
"Yeah. Where have you been man?" Bobby asked with a friendly laugh. "Come on." He said to Schizoid, waving him over. "Kitty?"
"Sure why not." Kitty said with a smile as she got up from the table. "You coming Schizoid?" She asked with a sweet smile. She hoped beyond hope that if this guy was crazy, he wasn't obsessive or perverted. She didn't want to suffer for having been nice to him.
"Sure." Schizoid said with a nod.
The four left the kitchen and headed to the living room, where they were met by those two friends of Kitty's that Schizoid had met before, and another guy that Schizoid had never met before.
"Everyone. This is Schizoid. He's new." Bobby said, giving him an introduction. "Schizoid, this is everyone." He said with a gesture.
Bobby sat down on the far end of the couch, with Rogue sitting next to him, Schizoid sitting next to her, and Kitty sitting next to Schizoid. The couch was large so they weren't squished together, but they were still sitting close. Too close for Rogue's comfort. She scooted closer to Bobby, who didn't seem to have an objection, but she was careful not to touch either him or Schizoid at all. It was clear she was uncomfortable so Schizoid scooted closer to Kitty, who didn't seem to have any objections.
The movie started, Schizoid gave a smile to Rogue but she didn't move her face away from looking at the screen as Galadriel's voice came on. The movie was interesting for sure.
Three Hours Later
"Is he okay?" Bobby asked looking over Rogue to Schizoid, who's eyes were closed as his head rested against the back of the couch, but he was shaking a little.
Rogue stood up and took a step back.
"I think he fell asleep." Kitty said giving his arm a nudge.
Schizoid suddenly sprang upwards in his seat, his shoulder length dread locks coming up and slapping him in the face as he did so. "What did we miss?" He asked quickly.
Laughter spread throughout everyone but Rogue who was startled when he suddenly awoke.
"Sorry." He said rubbing the back of his head a bit.
"That's okay." Bobby said standing up. "It is a long movie."
Schizoid and Kitty stood up, as everyone else was now. Schizoid shook his head a bit as though he were trying to shake off the sleepiness of the nap he had just taken.
"Well. I'm off." Bobby said with a smile. "It was nice to meet you." He said looking to Schizoid.
"You too." Schizoid said with a nod. Bobby and that other guy left, Rogue left after them, and Kitty and her two friends began to leave as well. Though Kitty lingered behind just a little bit in order to say goodbye.
"See you tomorrow." Kitty said with a slight smile to Schizoid as she left.
"See ya." Schizoid said with a nod as she and her friends left, leaving only Schizoid there in the living room now. "Where do we sleep?" Schizoid asked as if he was talking to himself. "Do we need to sleep? Jack doesn't." His hair shifted to blonde and his blue eyes changed to brown as a smile crept onto his face. Electric bolts jumped from the television to his hand as he held it out, lasting only a few seconds and then stopping as he sat down on the couch and began to flip through the channels.
"Ah. There you are." The professor's voice said several minutes later as he and Scott came into the living room where Schizoid was sitting and watching TV. "I wanted to show you to your room."
"We have a room?" Schizoid asked as he turned off the television.
"Yes. You'll be rooming with a young man named Eddy. Edward Griffith." The professor answered. "He's a young man about Lucas' age." The professor added. "And he's been here a while so he can show you the ropes."
"Will he be okay?" Schizoid asked.
"What do you mean?" The professor asked raising a brow.
"Well... We mean... We're kind of... different. Will he be okay with that?" Schizoid asked. He didn't want to disrupt anyone, and more than that, he didn't want to make any enemies his first night here. Already he had made at least one person uncomfortable.
"Don't worry." The professor said with a slight smile. "He's different as well."
"What do you mean?" Schizoid asked curiously.
"Like yourself he doesn't conform to the social standards that most people consider... normal." The professor explained. "You'll have to judge for yourself."
"So where do we go?" Schizoid asked.
"You'll follow Scott. He'll show you to your room. Do you have any clothes or belongings? I didn't see any when they dropped you off." The professor asked nicely.
"No." Schizoid answered. "Just the jacket down stairs. And these pants. Heck, even this sweatshirt is your's."
The professor laughed a little. "I'll see what we can do about getting you some clothes." The professor said with a nod. "Perhaps one of us can take you to get some new clothes." He said with a nod.
"Sounds good." Schizoid said as he stood up and brushed himself off a bit.
"Good." The professor said with a smile. "Scott can show you to your room now."
"Aye." Schizoid said as he began to follow Scott who had already begun to turn towards the door.
"This way." Scott said gesturing towards the stairs.
They took the stairs and hung a right at the top of them, walking down the hallway a bit. It was rather symmetric to be honest. There was a pair of doors, one on either side, every ten or so feet down the hallway. Except for one. There was no door on the right, but there was a door on the left. Scott walked up to the space in the wall where the door would normally be and knocked, as if there was a door there.
"Can you see something we can't?" Schizoid asked.
"No, but I know something you don't." Scott answered as a door appeared where he had just knocked, as though it had always been there, even though it wasn't just a few seconds ago.
"Come in." A voice said from the other side of the door. Apparently there really was a room here.
Scott opened the door and waved Schizoid in. The room was lit by a light on the ceiling, and the walls were a tan color. There were two closets as they came in to their left, and to their right there was a door that led into a small bathroom. The room itself was rectangular in shape, longer than it was wide. In the back there was a large window that led out to a balcony. There were two desks that were up against the left wall and two beds with a night-stand in between on the right wall. A chest of drawers at the foot of each bed. Paintings hung on the wall of the most beautiful kind, evidently his roommate was either a collector or an artist. There was a bookcase against the back wall that was on the left side of the beds, only half of it was filled.
A young man about Lucas' age stood in the room with a gleam in his hazel green-brown eyes. He wore a simple button down collar shirt that was meant to be untucked. A black undershirt was beneath it and a pair of black slacks clad his legs while his feet had a pair of black dress shoes on. He looked dressed up for someone his age. He was broad in the shoulders, but not very muscular.
"Welcome." The young man said with a nod. "To the Sanctuary."
"Thanks..." Schizoid said coming in. "We think..."
"I'll let you two get to know each other." Scott said. "I'll see you both in the morning. Breakfast starts at seven." He said with a nod as he left the two of them to get to know each other, discuss some things, and figure some things out.
"Are you a mutant?" Schizoid asked as he came in.
"No. I'm a human. Perfectly normal. In fact, I don't even know why I'm here. I think I was kidnaped." The young man answered, obviously being sarcastic.
Schizoid shrugged. "Sorry. Just trying to make conversation."
The young man gave a laugh. "Name's Ed." He said with a nod as he sat down on one of the beds. "This bed's mine. That bed's your's." He said pointing to the bed closest to the balcony window.
"Nice to meet you. Our name's Schizoid." Schizoid said as he sat down.
"Never met a black man with blonde hair." Ed said looking up to him. "Dye job?"
"I guess that's part of our power. When we switch our hair and eyes change colors." Schizoid said with a nod. "Jack's hair is Blonde, but Lucas' is black, and Markus' is red."
"Right. The three. Like Xavier said." Ed said as he sat up a bit.
"What's your power?" Schizoid asked with a curious gleam in his brown eyes. He was starting to enjoy this conversation. He didn't know why, but he liked this guy. He obviously wasn't afraid to hurt feelings, he spoke what he thought, an admirable trait really.
"This." Ed said holding up his hand which held a very red long-stemmed rose.
"We don't... We don't get it." Schizoid said coming up a little closer so he could see better.
"Here." Ed said throwing the rose to him.
Schizoid went to catch it but the rose passed right through his hand and landed on the floor without a sound. He tried to pick it up, but his hand passed through it each time, before the rose disappeared. He looked back to Ed, but he was no longer there. He wasn't on the bed. In fact, he wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Suddenly the exit to the room disappeared as well, and Schizoid's own image was in a painting on the wall. He was starting to get a little freaked out. He was looking around himself constantly, muttering to himself, and then decided to make a break for the window.
He was stopped by Ed's hand as Ed suddenly appeared in front of him holding the rose. The door behind him appeared just as it had always been there, and the painting vanished from the wall.
"Illusions." Ed spoke up. "You see this rose, but you can't touch it, or smell it, or taste it, or hear it. Because it doesn't actually exist." Ed said with a slight nod. "My power is to basically tell your mind what it is you're seeing. If I don't want you to see me, you don't see me. If I want you to see me as something else..." Ed said as he slowly began to change. He shrunk from his six foot height to Schizoid's height, while his skin became dark and black and his eyes became brown as his hair became blonde. "Though my voice is still my own." He said as he suddenly appeared as himself again.
"Whoa." Schizoid said with a nod. "Nice."
"Glad you think so." Ed said as he headed back towards his bed.
"You don't?" Schizoid asked.
"They've caused me some trouble, but they come in handy for privacy." Ed said with a nod.
Schizoid nodded but ran out of things to really say at this point, so his eyes began to travel around the room a bit. Finally landing on the paintings. "These are really nice. Did you buy them or make them?"
"I made them." Ed answered. "I spend most of time drawing or painting, or even some sculpting." He added.
"Who's this?" He asked pointing to a portrait that hung above the one desk. It was of a beautiful young girl about their age, with pale white skin and dark brown hair. Her eyes shone as though they were gems, all captured in this beautiful work of art.
"Laura." Ed answered with a nod. "That's my love."
"You have a girlfriend?" Schizoid asked.
"Something like that." Ed answered.
End of Chapter 4
Author's Note: Please be polite and review! You can even flame it if you want to, but please review it! If you read it, I would really appreciate a review of it. I can't express in words how important it is to an author to hear other's opinions on his work.