Chapter 3

A shrill, bloodcurdling scream suddenly tore throughout the entire mansion.

"Gah! Tell Siryn to give it a rest!" yelled Artie as he strode up the hallway and covered his ears.

The redheaded suspect appeared in the doorway of one of the study rooms and whacked him upside the head as he passed by. "It's not me," she informed crossly.

A second scream confirmed that fact, as it sounded like it came from the third floor… and getting nearer.

Several yards away in the next hallway were Rogue, John, and Bobby, all briefly disregarding their current issue as they eyed each other in silent query as to the source of the loud and frightened vocal work. Doors began to fly open around them as bewildered students poked their heads out of their respective classrooms, wondering what was happening, who was being murdered, and could they please see it.

"What on earth!" exclaimed Ororo as she crossed the foyer, unknowingly leaving a trail of pills behind her as the cap of one of her bottles came loose and fell off.

The thundering of footsteps echoed in the distance above them, accompanying the third scream. This time the sound was close enough so that Rogue could identify it as female, and the pounding footsteps were definitely two sets, one in pursuit of the other. Swift pursuit, that is, judging by the way they raced across the mansion and covered ground at an astonishing speed.

As the mayhem descended to the second floor, Rogue was able to distinguish another voice, a male, shouting something she couldn't make out.

"What is that?" was the most brilliant question Bobby could come up with.

Well, we've already established that he isn't Einstein…

The disgusted look Rogue sent him indicated that she had come to the same conclusion. "It's two gorillas initiating a mating ritual, Bobby," she said sarcastically. "You might want to run before they fornicate right above your head."

She was somewhat relieved when he stared at her sharply, signifying that he wasn't Forrest-Gump-retarded, at least. John, however, was scowling. Again. As usual.

"Someone go up there and shut them up," he growled, glaring up at the ceiling as it shook from the vibrations of the chase.

"You go up there if it bothers you so much," Bobby countered, unappreciative of the other boy's constant complaining (even though this was actually the first occurrence of a complaint on John's part in the story).

John swung his angry glare at his longtime rival. "You wanna go, Iceman?"

"Take this outside, and yeah, I'll go—"

"I'm about to go and get something to bash both of you over the head with," Rogue cut in venomously. She fixed both boys with a stern look. "John, stop trying to pick fights, especially since you don't even have your lighter. And Bobby, just shut up."

John visibly deflated at the word "lighter." His face took on the same withdrawn look that it had when his Zippo had been confiscated earlier, and he immediately quieted down and behaved. Bobby, on the other hand, seemed unable to do as told. He began rambling on about how it was all John's fault, how everything was John's fault, from the death of the Professor to global warming.

Rogue was seriously considering breaking his jaw, but the chaos had finally reached the first floor. She watched as a girl she didn't recognize flew down the main staircase in complete terror, followed closely by a crazed-looking Wolverine. The scene definitely seemed like a chase between a prey and a predator, and it looked like the prey was two inches away from extinction.

"Logan! What do you think you're doing!" yelled Ororo as they zoomed past her.

Usually a scene like this would drag on for several more paragraphs, with the mass population of the institute attempting to subdue and capture the duo. Fortunately, however, Ororo's spilled pills prevented further superfluous details, thus saving the readers unnecessary repetition of the classic chase episode.

Currently in a state of mild intoxication, Logan's normally quick and graceful reflexes were apparently on strike and quite absent as he slipped on the pills and crashed unceremoniously to the floor. The mystery girl had already beaten him to the hardwood, cringing as she tentatively rubbed the spot on her bum that had cushioned her fall. Rogue winced at the sight as people rushed past her to get a better look. Ignoring Bobby's ongoing babbling that had moved on to elaborating how John was to blame for the starving children of Ethiopia, she followed the crowd and stood on her toes to see past the shoulders of the taller mutants in front of her.

"It's… it's… J… Je…" Logan sputtered, pointing a finger straight at the mystery girl. His eyes held an insane quality about them.

Ororo glared at him as she helped the girl to her feet. "Logan, please produce a coherent sentence."

"Je… Je… JEAN!" screamed Logan, still pointing.

Rogue allowed herself a moment to entertain the idea that her old hero appeared to have regressed into Tarzan during the past month, pointing and grunting and communicating in one word sentences. He even looked the part. It was both sad and amusing.

Ororo's brow furrowed. "What?"

"JEAN!" repeated the king of the jungle.

All eyes turned to the girl accused of being the deceased doctor. She was clutching onto Ororo's forearms, gazing fearfully at the obviously delusional man before her. She did possess the same flaming red hair as Jean Grey, but other than that, she bore no resemblance to her at all.

In fact, she looked to be of Asian descent. Her slanted eyes were a striking emerald-jade-forest green with a hint of gold-yellow. She was of average height and was blessed with curves that any shallow girl would die for. Her complexion was unblemished, her skin creamy, and it was possible that she even rivaled Bobby in physical perfection.

That and she had a large set of hooters.

"You are mistaken, Logan. This is Mari Sukiko. She is a new student here at the institution," Ororo explained calmly.

Wolverine gaped at her wordlessly in disbelief.

Ororo turned to address the crowd. "It has stopped raining so there will be an outdoor assembly at 3 pm where we will formally introduce her. Make sure all of you are there."

-x X x-

"Hi! I'm Mari Sukiko! I'm so glad to be here!" exclaimed the spirited new girl, who seemed to have gotten over her earlier trauma.

And thus, the introduction of the obligatory OC. As a rule of thumb, most OCs must have a horrific past where they were neglected, abused, bullied, molested, raped, or treated like crap by people upon the manifestation of their powers. Consequently, it just so happened that this particular OC had suffered all of the aforementioned mistreatment. Her eyes watering up, she conveyed this dramatically to the audience, going into an excruciatingly long run-on paragraph and adding a short discussion about how she was able to get through it all. Because all OCs must be perfect, beautiful, intelligent, and superior, she maintained a positive outlook on life throughout her ordeal.

Rogue was unimpressed with the story and believed it to be too much information for an initial introduction. Many of the other girls did not share her lack of sympathy, as they burst into tears at the heart-wrenching tale and decided to befriend Mari at once. On either side of Rogue sat John and Bobby, the former half asleep and the latter sitting there looking all perfect (of course).

Once the assembly finally came to a close and students began filing back into the mansion, Rogue found herself face to face with the OC.

"Hi! You must be Rogue! I've heard all about you from Ms. Munroe! Let's be friends!" Mari said cheerfully, even though ten minutes ago big crocodile tears had been rolling down her cheeks.

"Er…why don't you be friends with them?" Rogue asked, pointing to the group of girls who had joined in the waterworks.

"But you're the one I want to hang out with! I tried to find your room by myself, but I ended up walking into Wolverine's room by mistake, and he thought I was someone else so that's why I was running from him, and now I'm thinking it was a bad idea to dye my hair red right before I came here." She said all this in one breath, her large multi-toned eyes shining the entire time.

Bobby chose that moment to join them, offering a warm smile and his outstretched hand. "Hey, I'm Bobby. It's nice to meet you," he said. Perfectly.

Mari took his hand and pumped it vigorously in an enthusiastic handshake. Also perfectly. "Nice to meet you, too. Are you Rogue's boyfriend?"

"No," Rogue answered sharply before Bobby could open his mouth. "Not anymore."

"He dumped her for some mousy girl," John added, coming up behind her. Leave it to him to contribute the uncalled for information.

Mari abruptly let go of Bobby's hand and fixed the ice mutant with an angry glare. "Oh, I see. So you're one of those guys, are you? Going from girl to girl, leaving a trail of broken hearts. Who do you think you are? I know how it feels to be heartbroken. There was this one time—"

"Excuse me?" Bobby cut in, aghast. "That's not how it is—"

"How dare you interrupt me!" Mari cried resentfully. "Have you no manners?"

It was an absolute sin to cut off an OC's dramatic account of one of their life stories because moments like this were the ones that emphasized the OC's importance and provided for their justification of being included in the plot. Bobby was rapidly losing brownie points with her.

He did not appear to care, however, as he puffed up indignantly at her patronizing attitude. Who was she to scold him like that when she herself had done the same thing? She didn't even know him, and already she was making all these assumptions about his character (INCORRECT assumptions, might he add). And most of all, she had the nerve to question his manners. His PERFECT manners!

"Feeling a bit agitated, Iceman?" John quipped, taking the opportunity to draw him into a fight. "And whaddya know, we're outside. You up to it or are you gonna run away like a little bitch again?" Obviously he had gotten over the absence of his Zippo and was back to his usual delinquent self.

Deciding that hitting a girl would be unacceptable because it would make him imperfect, Bobby chose to direct his anger at a more appropriate target. He finally answered John's challenge by producing a ball of ice in his palm.

John snickered almost gleefully. "About time."

This would be the first of many necessary scuffles between the two throughout the story. One, it revealed the true barbaric nature of men, which would force the female protagonist to see them in all their masculine splendor and sex appeal. Two, the one to receive the most damage would indubitably be taken under said protagonist's care, and they would without a doubt bond over the non-fatal injuries. That was how it was supposed to go.

Too bad this protagonist considered them both to be hopeless imbeciles who were seriously bordering on scum unworthy of her sight.

"I'll be inside if anyone needs me," said Rogue as she turned away from the unfolding battle of utter stupidity.

"The winner gets Rogue!" she heard John proclaim.

"Oh, it's on!" came Bobby's heated reply.

This was getting ridiculous. With all the events and unpleasant surprises that had happened today, she felt as if she were trapped in some twisted plotline. Or parody.

If only she knew.

-x X x-

It was only a matter of minutes before Mari found her attempting to hide in the far side of the reference section in the library. Rogue inwardly cursed, certain that her plan to spend the rest of the day reading quietly was officially foiled.

"There you are!" Mari chirped, plopping down on the floor next to her. "So is reading a favorite hobby of yours? I like reading, too. What books do you like? I like mystery novels best, they're so intriguing. What are you reading there?"

Rogue was quite sure that the girl was proficient in holding conversations with herself.

"What happened with John and Bobby?" she asked the younger mutant.

Not that she really cared per se… she just wanted to know whether or not she would be attending a funeral in the near future.

Mari's perfectly shaped eyebrows drew together. "Well, they duked it out for several minutes, and without powers. It looked like your boyfriend—"

"Ex-boyfriend, if you please."

"—Your ex -boyfriend had the upper hand at first, but then the other guy pointed behind him and screamed, 'Is that Kitty?' and I guess that meant something to your ex-boyfriend because he turned around right away to look. It all went downhill from there. They were both taken to the infirmary, but your ex-boyfriend was definitely worse off." She shook her head. "Wow, they must both really like you. Which one of them do you like more?"

"Ugh, neither," Rogue said, grimacing. What on earth would possess her to even remotely find either of those idiots appealing?

"Aww, come on. Just tell me which one, and I'll hook you up with him." Mari's smile was far too bright and jovial to be innocent.

Rogue stared at her with a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Please, don't. And I thought you didn't like Bobby."

"I personally don't, but it looked like he wanted to be with you, so…" Mari shrugged. Then her face brightened again as an idea struck her. "I know! I'll be your matchmaker! Since I am now officially your best friend forever, it's my duty to help you settle into a loving relationship!"

Another thing… unfortunately for Rogue, OCs tend to force their friendship on the author's favorite character.

She found the announcement absolutely appalling. Once again she considered marching back up to her room, repacking her things, and hightailing it out of there. Really, there was only so much she could take. Bobby and Kitty together, John's return, and now this lunatic sitting here grinning at her, practically vowing to be her all-time companion. She wouldn't be able to handle it.

Aware that it would be too impolite to simply tell Mari to get lost, she scanned her mind for milder synonymous phrases that would get the point across just as effectively.

"Oh yeah, I heard you took the cure," Mari said, looking at her intently.

Just how much about me do you know? Rogue thought irately.

"And in case you regret it even for a little bit, I can help you out…"

Before Rogue could react, she reached out and tapped her on the forearm.

Seconds passed.

Nothing happened. Rogue didn't feel any different.

"Um… what did you just do?" she asked.

Mari only smiled impishly and hopped to her feet. "Well, I'll see you later, Rogue!" With that, she scurried toward the exit.

"Hey!" Rogue called out, jumping up and going after her.

In her determination to catch the eccentric Asian girl, she didn't see the petite brunette perched on top of one bookshelf until she heard her leap from it.

"PREPARE TO DIE, ROGUE!" screamed the ever-ooc Kitty.