All the students sat around the Rec Room, talking amongst themselves. Mostly about what the big meeting was about. Clarice Ferguson walked into the room, and organized some papers in her folder, before looking up at the collective group. She raised her hand in the air and snapped, stopping all conversation. “Okay,” she said with a smile, “I’ll get right to the point. We have a new student joining today, and I expect you all to be polite, and welcome her with open arms.” She pulled her long purple hair into a ponytail. She was the youngest headperson there, and being a previous student at the academy herself, knew as well as anyone how cruel children could be when introduced to an outsider.
“Fresh meat,” Miguel Espinosa, the 14 year old son of Angelo and Torres Espinosa, muttered with an evil smirk on his face. A few of the other kids laughed. Miguel was affectionately referred to as Metamorph, because as his shapeshifting powers.
“Male or female?” asked 17 year old Cam LeBeau slyly, son of the absent mutant Gambit. Cam was a telepath, he could have found out with less energy than it took for him to ask, but, fortunately, he respected other people’s privacy.
Lawson Munroe leaned forward. “Sexist much,” she protested. Blink smiled inwardly, Lawson, also known as Azure because of her ability to harness a light purplish-blue energy, was a natural born leader, as well as the conscience and the serious one of the group, being Ororo Munroe’s daughter. Her father was one of the newer X-Men named Shifter, an African mutant with the ability to change the genetic make-up of any animate object. But there were times when she could cut loose, and become pretty wild, like her dad.
“Female,” the violet-skinned teacher said impatiently, “And I mean what I said, this young lady wasn’t exactly thrilled about coming here, but she decided to, okay?”
Chad Guthrie, called Lycanthrop because he could become a wolf-like creature, the child of Samuel Guthrie and Rahne Sinclair grinned at his friend Ethan Summers, AKA Verdure. Ethan was called that because he could submit any sort of plant life to his will, much like the now dead evil mutant, Avalanche and his control over the earth.
Clarice opened the door and mumbled something like, “Ok, bring her in,” out into the hall. She really hoped the children would take to her and not be rude. Terra was just bored. Cam hoped she was wasn’t ugly. Pandora was depressed because the blue toenail polish she’d put on the other day was already chipping, now she’d have to put on a new coat. And Shannon, being the most laid back of the group just really didn’t care.
The door opened and Mr. Thomas and Ms. Cassidy walked in with a young girl wearing her battle-dress, which was much like the red and gold one that Synch and Blink had worn when they’d been students, only this time they were blue and gray. The girl was very, very pretty with curly brown, that had a faint purplish tint to it, and piercing emerald eyes. Her thin lips were coated in a thin covering of bright red lipstick. She had a great body, but she was only 5’3 at 16, and she just wished her breasts were a little bit larger. There was a very tough air around her that seemed to smother her waifish appearance. Her fingernails were a deep red with white tips that looked almost dangerous, like they were razor sharp.
Cam smiled predatorily. “I would like you all to meet Angel Worthington,” Clarice said with an expectant smirk.
Most everybody was shocked, except for Pandora who was still looking at her toenails, and Shannon, because the name didn’t mean anything to him. Terra leaned over to Pandora, and whispered into her ear, “Angel Worthington?”
The blonde girl looked up at her friend ,confused, “Yeah, it’s a pretty name. What about it?”
“Angel Worthington is dead!”
“Excuse me?”
“Angel Worthington was the daughter of Betsy Braddock and Warren Worthington! But she was delivered stillborn,” Terra whispered excitedly.
“Well, that was what you were supposed to believe,” Angel said, obviously overhearing what the other girl had said. She turned to Theresa, “Would you like to explain or should I.”
“Go ahead, lass.”
“All right,” she started in a tone that grabbed everyone’s attention, “As they said, I am Angel Worthington. And I’m not dead. When I was born, I was stolen by the ruler of the Crimson Dawn dimension, Tankorum-Orn-Sumpta. He took me as payment for my mother’s use of the Crimson Dawn, since Kuragari couldn’t finish the task,” She looked down at her feet, as if recalling these memories pained her.
“He decided to make me his predecessor, for when he was gone, instead of turning me into a simple undercloak. My parents, and Gomurr tried to rescue me, but there was no way they could do it. Even with the combined efforts of the X-Men, Excalibur, X-Force and X-Factor, there was no way they could come close to saving me. So instead, they told the others that I was stillborn.
“I grew, and became strong. Tankorum-Orn-Sumpta raised me like I was his child, he became almost a father-like figure to me. But I learned of my true life, and who I really was. So I killed him. He trusted me, and in the end, that was his undoing. I killed him, and destroyed the Crimson Dawn dimension. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Miguel said, “So what are you’re powers?”
“Near as they can tell, I’m perfect.”
“They who?”
“They being geneticists, people like that. Professor Xavier.”
“So you’re... perfect?”
“Uh, yeah. That’s what I said,” she muttered impatiently.
“Another Monet,” Everett whispered into Blink’s ear from across the room.
Angel turned and looked at him. “Not another Monet. I don’t have a new power every week, I can’t merge with other people to become one single sentient entity. I don’t have telepathy, I’m not invulnerable, and I can’t fly. When I say perfect, I mean I can see better than you, I can smell the most minuscule thing, and as you can see, I can hear someone whispering from across the room. I am highly immune to disease, I heal faster than normal. I am stronger than the average human, have more stamina, agility and endurance. I can strategize faster and more accurately than any of you, and I learn quicker. I can tell the littlest thing about you, just by the way you move. As useless as it seems, my hair and fingernails grow faster that usual. And just the hair on my head, I assure you. But I think you get the idea.”
“Well, I’m impressed,” Shannon said almost sarcastically. It didn’t seem alot of them were going to get along with her.
“I’m not here to impress you,” she snapped. “And now, if someone would kindly show me to my room.”