A/N: I couldn't get a clear answer of Angel's age, so I just figured he's 20 and Melissa is 17 soon to be 18. Thank you.
Chapter 3
"Are you sure you don't want your own room, we have plenty of room," Beast asked her again politely.
"Thank you, but I think I'll be fine for now," Melissa replied, grateful for his generosity towards her.
"Well, welcome aboard Melissa-," Beast began before she raised her hand.
"Please, call me Spark," Melissa corrected nicely, letting her hand down.
They exchanged "goodnights" and Melissa closed the door and turned to see Jean looking up from a book. She could see that the room was pretty decent size for both of them, and that her bed was close to the window.
"Hi, I'm Jean Grey," Jean said, her voice causing Melissa to look back at her new roommate.
"Spark," Melissa replied simply, going over to her duffel bag on the bed. "So, Jean, what can you do?"
"I can move almost anything with my mind, what about you?" Jean wondered as she closed her book, though she knew the girl's nickname was enough information.
Melissa turned around, pointed her index finger at the lamp by Jean's bed and began to concentrate. The light suddenly flickered several times before the room was consumed by darkness, Melissa's hand surrounded by traveling bolts of electricity. She clenched her hand tightly and the lamp came back on instantly. She saw Jeans' face was impressed by her ability, but Melissa ended her little introduction and turned her attention back to her duffel bag as she pulled out her small keyboard and set it on the windowsill. She ignored Jean's quick stare as she pulled out her red pajamas and walked out of the room to the bathroom.
'Something tells me I'll want my room sooner than I thought,' Melissa thought to herself as she grabbed the doorknob, but when the door suddenly opened, she fell back in surprise and looked up to see Kurt with a concerned look.
"Oh, sorry about that," Kurt apologized with shock, holding out his hand. "I didn't mean to surprise you like that."
"It's cool, accidents happen," Melissa replied, accepting his three fingered hand. "Nice tail by the way."
"Thanks, I'm Kurt, a.k.a. Nightcrawler," Kurt said proudly, lightly blushing her comment on his tail.
"Nice to meet you, Nightcrawler," she said with a simple smile, closing the door to change and find some privacy.
But the privacy she'd desired was quickly interrupted when she heard Kurt arguing with another male mutant who was rapping on the door, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the other mutant's whiney voice. She quickly finished her business, transferred her hair all to one side and opened the door to see a dark skinned boy still arguing with Kurt over the bathroom, but they immediately went silent as they stared at her with childish awe and curiosity. She didn't understand why they thought her loose, silk red pajamas made her look hot, so she just walked down the hall to her room. She took one last look at the two boys as the dark skinned one ran into the bathroom and Kurt just shrugged and gave another smile before going to his room.
'Teenage boys,' Melissa sighed and closed the door.
"What's going on out there?" Jean asked simply over her book.
"I don't know, ask the dark skinned kid rapping on the door for no reason," Melissa answered as she padded the pillow and got into the covers.
"Oh, you mean Evan, he's usually like that," Jean told her with a laugh.
"R-ight, well goodnight," Melissa replied quickly, pointed at the lamp to burn it out and turned away from Jean to sleep, feeling the fresh energy rejuvenate her body.
"Goodnight," Jean said in slight shock of her attitude, but settled in the covers and gathered up her courage for one last thing. "Melissa?"
"What is it?" came the mumbled response.
"Why were you at the Bayville Asylum?" Jean wondered quietly.
Melissa didn't answer right away as she got up, grabbed a few little items from her duffel bag and sat back on her bed. She lit the candle carefully, quickly extinguishing the flame from the match and set in a little saucer in the window above the keyboard before getting back in the covers.
"Please don't ask me that, Jean. Goodnight," she replied wearily, taking one last look at the candle before closing her eyes.
Feeling bad she might've angered Melissa, Jean just shrugged off her useless apology, also took another look at the candle before turning over and letting herself fall into a dream.
Thunder seemed to slightly shake the mansion's walls as everyone slammed on their alarm clocks, somewhat angry that they got two alarms this morning. But as some of them dragged themselves into the kitchen for breakfast, they caught a glimpse of someone out the rain by the pool.
"What is she doing out there?" Rogue asked sleepily, wondering why Melissa was outside in this weather doing yoga and martial arts training.
"Yeah no kidding, she'll like catch a cold or something," Kitty agreed, gulping down orange juice.
"Yeah," Kurt and Evan replied mechanically.
The two girls rolled their eyes as they raided the fridge, not surprised that the two were entranced by Melissa's appearance outside. Jean then entered with a stretch, repeated the same gesture at the boys and started talking to Rogue and Kitty while the two boys ignored their stomachs and let their eyes wake up first. But it was only a few minutes before Scott rain into the kitchen, a look of fear on his face.
"What's wrong, Scott?" Jean asked nervously.
"Turn on the T.V.," was all he could say as Kitty grabbed the remote and the morning news flashed onto the screen.
"A tragedy occurred today at the Bayville Asylum around 4 a.m. this morning. Police found the body of a 23 year-old girl in the basement after a mysterious phone call from the asylum gave the information, but identification is unknown at this time and the given information cannot be released. The body has been claimed by police reports that the body had a fatal gash in the head and several injection marks on the arms and neck, but they don't think that was the cause of death," the news lady said, the asylum standing gloomily in the background, yellow police tape around the entrance. Her voice began to fade out as they focused on two police rolling the body pass the reporter, a scaled hand poking out of the bag but the police shoved it back inside. "More information on this sad death tonight at 10:00."
Kitty turned off the T.V. in shock and she noticed that everyone shared her feelings of the sad story. They couldn't understand why a mutant died at that horrible place, but the sudden ping of the doorbell released the tension in the room, but they didn't notice a certain mutant running up the stairs and the sound of a slamming door.
"I got it," Rogue volunteered.
She noticed the man paying the cab guy, but as she looked closer, she recognized who he was. She was surprised to see him here, but wondered why he was here as she opened the door to face him.
"Hey," Rogue with a smile.
"Hey," Angel answered back with a smile, ignoring the pain.
"Come in, you're soaking wet," she said, stepping aside.
"Than you," he said gratefully, setting his luggage by the door.
'Welcome, Warren,' Charles echoed in Angel's mind, and he saw Charles wheel towards him with a welcoming smile and open hand. "My name is Charles Xavier; I'm in charge here at the institute."
"Yes, I met her and Scott some time ago," Angel began, desiring a private room to discuss his unexpected arrival.
"Well then, let's talk in my office, Warren. You can join us if you wish, Rogue," Charles offered and the two followed the man into his office, the fire welcoming Angel from the fierce rainstorm.
"First off, thank you for seeing me on such short notice," Angel told Charles, removing his tan trench coat to release his soaking wet wings.
"Of course Warren, why don't tell me why you're here," Charles said calmly, seeing distress in the young man's face. Angel took a deep breath, walked closer to the sanctuary of the fire and felt his courage kicking in.
"I assumed you heard the news about the mutant in the asylum," Warren said, seeing he immediately had their attention and continued. "Apparently, someone snuck into the asylum and did something to cause the mutant to go crazy, and the attendants had to silence her for her dangerous behavior towards the others. But yesterday, the same person snuck into Worthington Tower where I live and did the same thing to two other mutants. The person had also tried to do the same thing to me, but I got out in time before the tower was set on fire, and I had nowhere else to go. But then I remembered what Scott had told me about this place, and I realized that this is the only place where I can be safe and accepted."
"But why didn't the news get a hold of the murder story?" Rogue wondered, the story not making sense to her.
"I don't know," Angel replied quietly.
"Tell me Warren, how did you find this information?" Charles asked curiously, feeling an old flashback come back to him.
"I overheard the two in the lobby talking about the girl who was in the asylum three days ago, but they hardly mentioned the person, as if they were afraid to," Angel explained, feeling guilty that he couldn't do anything to help them.
"Did you know who they were?" Rogue asked, but he just shook his head.
"I had seen them around a few times around the tower since they were new, but I never talked to them personally. But they did seem to know the girl in the asylum from their conversation," Angel stated grimly, the people's faces clear in his mind.
"Don't blame yourself Warren, you had no idea that this was going to happen," Charles assured him, but Warren pretended to have a faithful smile and that everything would be alright. After a few more minutes of respectful silence for their deceased brethren, Rogue led Angel to a guest room while Charles remained in his office, knowing that time was beginning to repeat itself.
"I hope you don't mind, the upstairs rooms are full at the moment," Rogue asked Angel, setting his luggage by the bed.
"Not at all," Angel assured her, taking in the room.
"Well…umm…help yourself to the kitchen anytime. I better go, I've got a Danger Room session," Rogue said after an awkward silence.
"Danger Room?" Angel asked curiously.
"You can come watch if you want," Rogue told him simply.
"Maybe later," he said, turning to his luggage as she closed the door.
He took his time unpacking, the conversation with Charles and occasionally Rogue replaying in his mind. He somewhat felt guilty that he didn't give the rest of the information he knew, but he promised himself that it would be for their own good for the time being. He also still felt guilty that he couldn't find a way to save the three mutants, but he still couldn't ignore the chill down his spine about the person responsible for the murders.
Once he unpacked completely and helped himself to a small snack in the kitchen while letting his wings stretch from the confinement of his trench coat, he eventually found the Danger Room and couldn't help but be entertained and fascinated how the place trained and even frightened the young mutants through the glass windows.
"Are they always like this?" he asked a weather witch named Storm, confused at how most of them seemed afraid of the easy obstacles in their way.
"You haven't seen anything yet," she assured him as they sat back in the control room and watch Logan train the young mutants to their brink of their willpower.