Author's Notes: Well, I got one review, and three alerts, so evidently at least three people liked the story enough to read it again. Thus, I decided to continue with the story. Thank you evileyekat for your review and your encouragement. Please be sure to review and keep reviewing! And now... for chapter two. Institution.
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Chapter 2: Institution
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It was still that same gloriously horrible day outdoors. Rogue had been downstairs with the professor and Jean before they left, but now they had left her here and Scott had driven them off to Saint Jude's. Rogue was left there, sitting there, in the institute, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
It was Saturday, and a boring one at that. It had been raining all morning, taking a brief break for lunch, and then resumed again. Rogue sat reading by the window as the rain beat against it. It was her room, it was her sanctuary.
Normally there would have been yelling and shouting and general noise going on down below her. Basketball, soccer, training, all of it was ceased for the day. It was too wet, even for those mutants with amphibious powers.
Some students just stayed in their rooms, reading, writing, playing board games. Others were in the living room watching television. Some were in the rec room, playing pool and other games while listening to some background music. Bobby Drake was one of those. The iceman. He and John were shooting billiards, playing pool, as it's called. John was winning.
Ororo was in her garden, above the institute, watering her indoor plants in her own special way. With a blink of her she could have rolled the heavy clouds back and made it bright and sunny, but evidently, she didn't always mess with nature. That and she obviously was in a somewhat stormy mood, her face looked sad.
Three girls came down the stairs from the dorms in the main hall. Kitty, Jubilee, and Rayne as they were called. They had finished studying, and were evidently bored by the looks on their faces. It was just that kind of day. Even those people who were doing something were bored out of their minds. The girls went and joined those students who were watching a movie in the living room. "Patch Adams' seemed to be a favorite recently. Not wanting to sit through the movie, again, they decided to go to the kitchen.
Rogue headed downstairs to get something to eat, she was tired of reading, her gloved hands couldn't turn the pages that well, so she was sliding the gloves back on as she came down the stairs. The gloves, the constant reminder of what she was. It was almost tragic really, but even they paled in comparison to the white streak in her hair. That was the real reminder.
"Has anyone seen my History book?" A random student called out as he passed her by in the hall. Most of the students didn't even know the story, so they didn't give her a second look. The Professor thought that it was best if they kept what happened under wraps. No one wanted all the students getting themselves worked up over it, especially Rogue, now that it was over.
"Hey Rogue." Kitty said as Rogue came into the kitchen.
"Hey ya'll." Rogue said nodding to the three of them as she went over to the fridge. She wasn't completely anti-social... but she had been through a lot recently, and she was constantly afraid of getting near anyone at all.
The girls continued eating whatever salads they had made for themselves and talked amongst themselves of whatever they had been talking about. This time the topic was sports, or that is, the boys playing them. The institute had it's own little intermural baseball teams, it was a way to pass extra curricular time.
Rogue delved into the fridge, trying to find whatever it was she wanted to eat. What did she want? Was she even all that hungry? Or was she just eating because there was nothing else to do. Not entirely sure she closed the fridge and went into the cabinet, grabbing a soda.
She left the kitchen without really saying much, her long sleeves and gloved hands could barely judge how warm the soda was as she walked down the hall.
"Hey." A young voice said to her as she walked, looking up and stopping for a moment she realized it was Bobby. The only person here who had been at least friendly to her after all the things with Logan and everything else.
"Hi." She said in her southern accented way, as she shifted a bit from walking to standing.
"Here, let me get that for you." He said as he reached out towards her soda bottle.
Instinctively Rogue pulled away a bit, but then realizing he meant the bottle of soda she handed it to him. It was weird to watch the frost go from his hand to the bottle, cooling it down, almost like a reverse microwave.
"Thanks." Rogue said as she took it back from him with a slight half-smirk.
"No problem." Bobby said with a nod. "Hey, a few of us were thinking about going to the movies later, or renting and watching a movie here, you interested?"
"Well... Ah... Don't see why not." Rogue answered after a brief pause. She really wasn't sure yet what to think of this guy. One minute he was being polite, the next it was like he was flirting. At least she knew that she didn't have to worry about him trying anything. He had seen what happened to Logan when Rogue touched him.
"Cool. It'll be after dinner so... I guess I'll see you around then." He said as he started walking back to his dorm.
"See ya." Rogue said a bit weakly as he walked away, and she continued walking in the direction she had been. Where was she even heading? She didn't know, she just wanted to walk a bit, and stretch her legs from their old sitting position that she'd just kept for the rest of the morning.
Where was the professor anyway? He had left a few hours ago, and as far as she knew there had been no word from him, Jean, or Scott since then. No word from Logan either, he had left just after the whole Ellis Island thing, and she hadn't heard from him since. Why was she always left behind? That's what it seemed like anyway.
It was then she found herself in a classroom, she had turned in and walked there. Having nothing else to do she sat down on the sill of the window, with her soda bottle, drinking it and looking out the window as the rain fell from the sky and pattered against the glass.
Was the professor in an accident? Was all the rain causing trouble on the roads? They could handle themselves she was sure, but that did not mean that she wasn't concerned anyway. She turned away a bit, and took another drink of her soda bottle. This wasn't like her. She didn't even like soda. What the heck was she doing?
She looked out the window again, as if expecting to see something different then what was there a second ago. Surely enough, there was something different. The car that they had left in was coming in as the gate opened, Scott was driving, but there was something behind them. She couldn't really tell all that well because of the rain, but quite suddenly the rain stopped, she understood why as she saw Storm come down to the ground by the front door.
She went to the door to meet up with them and to see what was happening, she was curious, and she didn't like only knowing half the story. Stepping out Ororo gave her a smile and then looked to the car as it pulled up the drive, and a rather large white van pulling up behind it. Bars across it's back windows, and the word's "Saint Jude's: Hospital for the Mentally ill" written on the sides of it.
"What's goin' on?" Rogue asked looking to Ororo.
"You would know better then I." Ororo said glancing back to the car as they got out of it.
The professor wheeled up with a smile on his face. "Ah good. Storm, Rogue, I'd like you to meet the newest addition to the Institute." He said as two of the men got out of the front of the truck, one of them coming over to the Professor.
"Nice to meet you." Ororo said to the rather muscular, handsome man that had just come up to the professor.
The Professor laughed. "Not him." He said looking to the male nurse. "Yes?"
"Do you want us to just let him off here, or did you have a cell prepared?" The man asked as though it were the most normal question in all the world.
The professor shook his head. "No cell will be necessary, just let him out here." Xavier said with a slight smile as the man nodded and headed to the back of the truck with the other man.
"Who did you..." Ororo started but the professor raised a hand as if to silence her.
The two male-nurses opened the doors to the back of the truck, using the rods they had in the front with them to lead a rather young-looking man out the back of the truck. His skin was even darker then Ororo's, and his eyes were bluer then the sky, his hair was dark black, and shoulder length, tied in dread locks. All of that contrasting with the stark white straight jacket he wore with a white pair of pants.
"And for Goodness sake let him out of that jacket." The professor added as they unhooked the rods from the rings in his straight jacket.
"Professor..." Rogue started but was motioned to be quiet the same way Ororo had been.
The one man closed the doors to the back of the truck as the other started undoing the straps that kept the young man's arms around him. Undoing the last one, and jumping back just in case. The young man's arms swung forward quite suddenly, audibly cracking as they did so, obviously not having been released for a while.
The young man rolled his shoulders, groaned, and rolled his head around a bit, loosening his neck as he walked forward on his own power. So good to be free.
"Thank you." He said coming up towards the professor. "Thank you so much!" He said with a grin and a deepish tone suddenly coming to his voice that almost scared Rogue.
"Rogue, Ororo, I would like you to meet the newest addition to the institute. Schizoid." The professor said with a good humored smile.
Ororo smiled as best as she could muster and offered her hand for a shake. "Nice to meet you." She said.
"Schizoid... Schizoid. Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic." He mumbled quickly to himself. "Perhaps. Perhaps. Not really though. Not really." He shook his head a bit and then shook the hand Ororo had offered him. "The pleasure's all ours."
She smiled and withdrew her hand after shaking his. This guy was... insane.
"And this is Rogue." The professor said gesturing to the young woman who stood next to Ororo.
"Hey." Rogue said waving so slightly, she wasn't sure what to think of this... guy.
"Rogue? What kind of a name is Rogue?" He asked looking her in the eyes. His were so blue that they were almost hypnotizing when she first looked in them, he smiled, but his smile only made her more afraid of him, there was a look, a gleam, in his eye that scared her.
"What kinda'f a name is Schizoid?" She asked in rebuttal.
"Schizoid is our name. Our new name. Easier to go by one then by three." He answered as if in riddle, as though he were playing a game. It was then that he noticed her hair of two different colors. "Your bangs... Does your hair change too?" He asked as he reached for it.
She drew back and slapped his hand away, her glove hitting the sleeve of his straight jacket as she did so. "No." She said obviously annoyed by this point.
This was obviously going to take a lot of getting used to. Hopefully it would get easier as time went on, and not more and more difficult. Professor Charles Xavier could only hope.
"Our hair changes too, when we change, but we have to change first." The young man said as he backed away from her a bit. He didn't really want to frighten her, in fact he seemed to be more intimidated by her then he was by anyone else he had met so far.
"That's... interesting." Ororo said looking to the Professor. It was evident by the look on her face that she could not believe what was going on. The men from the Asylum had already driven away, this boy was the newest student here. God help them all.
"Rogue I was wondering if you would be willing to show Schizoid around, maybe introduce him to some of the other students?" The professor asked.
Her eyes got wide and shot over to the professor who gave her a pleading look that told her she didn't really have much of a choice. She closed her eyes and breathed a bit before agreeing. "Yeah... sure." Rogue said hesitantly.
"Thank you. Ororo, I'd like to meet with you in my office, and you two as well." He said looking to Scott and Jean.
"Sure professor." Storm said with a nod as they all headed inside. As soon as Storm was inside it began raining again.
The professor, Jean, Scott, and Ororo started heading off down the hallway, leaving Rogue and Schizoid by themselves in the foyer. "So... What's your power?" Rogue asked as she started walking down the hall in the opposite direction, expecting the guy to follow.
"Lucas is human. Lucas has no power, but the other two. They have powers. Markus and Jack, they are mutants." He answered.
It seemed to Rogue like everything this guy said was a riddle, like it was all just a game to him. "Whatever." She said with a slight shrug. "This is the living room." She said as they stopped outside a door in the hall. On the inside it was easy enough to see the living area, and the television with a group of teenagers sitting around watching a movie. Schizoid peered in through the door.
"Jack's seen that movie." He said with a slight smile. "The girl dies."
"Uh huh..." She said as they started walking again. "This here's the kitchen." She said as they went inside, it was then she realized that Kitty, Rayne, and Jubilee were still in here.
"Hey there." Kitty said as Rogue and the new guy came in.
"Hey ya'll." Rogue said again.
"Aren't you gonna introduce us?" Jubilee asked with a smirk.
"Jubilee, Kitty, and Rayne, this is Schizoid. Schizoid, Jubilee, Kitty, and Rayne." She said as she gestured to each one as she said their name.
"Schizoid huh? What's your power?" Rayne asked.
"Uh... We... that is... um..." He stammered. Rogue didn't understand what was with this guy, he was fine one minute, and now... he was fumbling like he didn't know what he was even talking about, like he was scared of something. Suddenly his hair changed color, his black dread locks became red in color, and his blue eyes turned green. He shifted positions a bit and nodded. "That's one of 'em." He said suddenly now confident.
"Cool." Kitty said with a slight smirk. "What else can you do?"
"It's... complicated. We can do some different things." He said with a nod.
"We?" Jubilee asked with a raised brow.
"We." Schizoid answered as he pointed to himself.
"I guess that explains the codename." Rogue mumbled to herself. "Come on Schizoid. I'll show you the rest." She said as she headed out.
"Nice to meet you ladies." He said with a nod to them, a half bow really, and followed Rogue out the door.
"I guess that explains the straight jacket." Kitty said with a slight giggle after Rogue and Schizoid had left.
"What's with you?" Rogue asked after they had left the kitchen.
"With which?" He asked.
"Who are you?" Rogue asked getting a little frustrated.
"We are Lucas, Markus, and Jack, that's who WE are. Easier to just call us Schizoid though. We think we're getting the hang of this..." He said looking around a bit. "It's a little weird. SHUT UP!" He yelled suddenly as he turned around behind him. "Sorry." He said looking back to Rogue. "It takes a little getting used to."
"Okay..." Rogue said as she shook her head a bit. "Down there's the classrooms, you'll see them more come Monday. And upstairs are the dorms, guys to the left of the stairs, girls to the right of the stairs, and here's the rec room." She said gesturing to another door in the hall.
"Rec room huh?" He asked looking in. His hair turned again, blonde this time, and his eyes turned from green to brown. "Our kinda place." He said with a smile. "Can we play?" He asked looking to her.
"Maybe later." Rogue said turning away to continue the tour.
"Oh come on. Play us in one game of pool. Checkers? Monopoly? Chess? Thumb-wrestling? Staring contest? Anything?" He asked rather quickly in a string of words as though he were trying to get it all in one breath.
"Why am ah doin' this?" She asked as though she was talking to herself.
"We don't know." Schizoid answered.
"Would you stop talking about yourself in the plural? You're starting to make me think you're crazy." Rogue asked, evidently annoyed.
"You're the one talking to yourself." He mumbled as he turned to follow.
"What was that?" She asked still obviously annoyed.
"Nothing." He said as his hair changed back to the black color it had been and his eyes turned from brown to their hypnotizing blue again. "Lead on."
"Could you stop doing that? I mean I know you must like to use your power but-." Rogue asked.
"That's not really our power." Schizoid answered. "Lucas has no power. Markus and Jack are mutants."
"You really are crazy." Rogue shook her head. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Bobby." She said as she entered the Rec room. "Bobby, John, this is... Schizoid. He's new." She said as she and the new guy came into the room where Bobby and John were playing pool.
"Hey there." Bobby said coming up. "Bobby Drake. Ice-man." He offered his hand, which Schizoid shook.
John just nodded from where he was. "Pyro." He said gesturing to himself.
"Nice to... nice to meet you." Schizoid said with a nod of his head. His eyes scanned the room, looking around, this was a nice place, he would like it here.
"Uh... not to pry or anything, but... that's an interesting fashion statement." Bobby said motioning to the straight jacket he was wearing.
Schizoid looked down at himself and smiled a bit. "Oh. That's not a statement, no, not a statement at all. We were forced to wear it, it was forced on us." He said looking around a bit.
"Forced?" Bobby asked.
"He just got out of Saint Jude's." Rogue answered.
"The asylum." Schizoid added. "They made us wear it. They weren't very nice. They were scared of mutants, but WE aren't mutant, Lucas is human, Jack and Markus are mutants."
John raised a brow at the guy and looked to Rogue who shrugged. This guy, as far as she was concerned, should have never left the Asylum.
"Well it's nice to have you here." Bobby said with a smile to him. "Rogue showing you around?"
"Yes. That she is." He said with a nod of his head.
"Okay. Well... Good luck." John said as he took a shot on the pool table, missing the ball he had hoped to pocket.
"Where are we going to next?" Schizoid asked Rogue as the two left the Rec Room.
"Well do you think you can sit quietly for a while?" Rogue asked skeptically.
"It's never quiet. No one hears them, but Lucas hears them, always, Markus and Jack, Lucas hears them." He responded as his eyes shifted a bit.
"Well uh... Professor!" She almost yelled as the Professor and Jean came out of his office.
"Thank you Rogue, you may go now. Jean and I will show Schizoid the lower levels." He said with an understanding nod.
Rogue didn't even say goodbye, she just nodded and left, Schizoid watching her walk away, and then quicken her pace when she saw he was watching, and then run up the stairs. His gaze returned to the professor. "Lower levels?" He asked curiously. "What are the lower levels?"
"Follow me." The professor said as he and Jean began moving past Schizoid and down the hall. Schizoid turned and followed rather quickly walking behind with his head down as the three moved down the hall, stopping at a spot in the wall that opened to reveal a cylinder-like elevator. The professor wheeled inside, Jean following, and Schizoid paused for a moment before finally moving in.
"Where are we going?" Schizoid asked.
"To the lower levels. Don't worry Schizoid. I think you're going to like this." The professor said as the elevator door slid shut.
The door opened again to a rather large metallic hallway, with round doors and X's through them. Blue and grey, and white, and yellow, these colors simply repeated themselves throughout the area. The turned left out of the elevator, a door was at the end of the hall, and there were several doors on their way to that one.
Schizoid's blue eyes scanned the hallway in front of them as if it were something that he had been longing to see, when in reality he was just in amazement.
"This is the basement of the mansion, the true headquarters for my X-Men." The professor said proudly.
"Your what?" Schizoid asked looking to Jean. "Some of my students show exceptional talent, Jean, Scott, Ororo, and I have been training them to be a team, a peace-keeping task force of mutants to better the world and try to help keep the peace between humans and mutants."
"Best of friends." Schizoid said still looking around, almost as though he were hardly listening to what the professor was saying.
"Yes. Best of friends." The professor said as if humoring him. "That has been my dream for the entire world, for mutants and humans to peacefully co-exist, as friends, rather than enemies."
"So... where does this lead?" He asked pointing to one of the doors.
"That is the medical bay, Jean here is a doctor, a physician." The professor said with a smile.
"And this?" he asked pointing to another door. "That is the war room. Where we keep uniforms and things of that nature."
"And this one?" He asked pointing the door at the end of the hall.
"That is Cerebro, a machine that allows me to amplify my abilities in order to connect with any mind on this planet. It's how I found you." The professor said with another smile. "Now come, I want to show you something else." He said as he started moving towards the opposite end of the hall.
They reached another door quite shortly, and it opened to reveal a rather large metal room, there were suits, and the biggest and coolest thing of all that was held down here, the X-Jet. Schizoid's eyes widened. "We like it here." He said looking around a bit. The suits didn't look very comfy. Black leather, padded but still not very comfy. His main interest seemed to be on the plane though.
"Markus wants to see it." He said pointing to the plane.
"Well, I'm afraid..." Jean started but was cut off by the professor.
"Why does Markus want to see it?" The professor asked.
"Markus was an engineer, graduated from Oxford. Plus, he knows aircraft. His father was a pilot in the SAS." Schizoid answered. "Lucas doesn't know anything about planes, but Markus does. Jack doesn't really know anything about them either..." He said looking to Jean. "We don't have to do it now, but maybe later?"
"Maybe later." The professor answered. "For right now I want you to take one of those hooded sweatshirts." He said pointing to a shelf that had them stacked up. "I don't want you scaring any more people with that straight jacket you have on."
"We didn't put it on. It was put on us." Schizoid said moving over to the case with the sweatshirts in it.
"Yes well, all the same." The professor said gesturing.
Schizoid lifted off the Straightjacket, he wasn't wearing a shirt under it. His build was quite average, a little bit of muscles but lean muscles, like a dancer's build rather then a body builder's. He reached over and grabbed a sweatshirt, putting it on and stretching a bit. "Comfy." was all he said.
Jean smirked and looked to the professor, was he thinking of training this one to be on the X-Men?
"Now. I want you and Jean to go to the medical bay. She's going to give you a physical and mental evaluation. Is that okay with you?" The professor asked.
"Yeah... sure... we guess... uh... is she going to enter our mind like you did?" Schizoid asked a bit nervously.
"Not yet." The professor answered. "Remember though that you promised to meet with her once a week."
"Yeah. We promised. Lucas promised. Jack will do it." He answered a bit sheepishly.
"Why will Jack do it?" The professor asked as he raised a brow. This boy was probably the most interesting case he had ever seen, but it was beginning to worry him. Was this boy really insane? And if not would it ever be possible for him to adjust to life now and live normally?
"Because Lucas is shy, and Markus flirts too much." Schizoid answered.
"I want her to meet with all three of you, one by one. If that's okay." The professor said, not really sure if he was making any sense.
"Okay..." Schizoid said with a brief pause. "Now what?"
"Now you'll follow Miss Gray to the medical bay." The professor said with a nod. "And I'll meet you upstairs in a little while."
"Okay..." Schizoid said as they started to leave. Schizoid followed Jean to the door he had pointed out before, and they went inside while the professor took the elevator upstairs.
The professor wheeled out of the elevator and down the hall a bit, before he was stopped by a very disturbed Rogue.
"What is up with that guy?" Rogue asked as she stopped him in the hall, she didn't really like him, there was something odd about him.
"He is a very unique person. Is he not?" The professor asked with a slight smile.
"He's nuts." Rogue answered.
"We're not entirely sure on that my dear. Not yet. Jean is downstairs examining him right now, we'll know sure enough." The professor responded.
"Is he... Is he safe?" Rogue asked rubbing her arm a bit nervously.
"I'm sure he's quite safe." The professor responded. "Why? Did he do something to hurt you?"
"No... but... Ah don't like 'im. He's... strange." Rogue said a bit timidly.
"We are all weird my dear. How are we to call ourselves tolerant if we cannot welcome those who are more different then even we are?" The professor asked with a slight smile. Now he knew why he liked this young man so much. He was possibly the physical manifestation of what had been the professor's dream for many long years.
Human and mutants peacefully coexisting. Here was this boy, if such a thing was possible, who might even be the physical manifestation of that dream, mutants and humans, living together, in harmony. Or was it in chaos? Or was it all just in this boys head? The professor didn't know for sure, but hopefully the tests with Jean would bear some more results that would lead them to the truth of the matter.
"Ah... still don't like him." Rogue said shaking her head a bit. "He makes me nervous, he doesn't make any sense." She argued.
"Don't worry Rogue. I'm sure he'll adjust to life here. He just needs time to adjust." The professor said. "Perhaps if you and some of the other students tried including him a little it might help."
"Why was he in the Asylum anyway?" Rogue asked.
"I don't know. From what I gathered his parents put him there after he was in a car accident, they think it caused him to shatter mentally." The professor said in answer.
"Doesn't take a genius to figure that one." She said under her breath.
"What was that?" The professor asked.
"Nothing." Rogue answered. "So.. Where is he staying anyway?" She asked.
End of Chapter 2