Legends Pop Up From These Papers ((Angel))

For normal human beings and mortals, exciting things happened during daytime. Under the sun, they would enjoy playing sports, having picnics or just plain hanging out. Some would take long walks in the woods, while others would find new friends to meet. The pale ones would take the opportunity to soak up under the sun and maybe get a tan. However, for one mutant by the name of Lex Darcy, exciting things happened at night. He wasn’t one of the people you’d spy lounging around under the sun. In fact, most of the time he preferred to sleep during daytime. If he were to be found out and about under the sun, it would only be because he felt like training. Now that the sun was setting, he stirred in his bed as he woke up from his deep five-hour slumber. He sat up on his bed to yawn and stretch as he narrowed his eyes to look at the skies from out the window. The horizon had taken on the colour of pink with a hint of orange and purple, and the evening star could now be seen. The shadows in his dark room danced around as view from the window gradually changed.

Lazily, Lex got up from the bed to get dressed. His brows furrowed as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was dishevelled—definitely not the look of a cold-hearted and mysterious young man who made the people around him feel uncomfortable. After a few minutes, he got himself dressed with his hair finally looking decent. This was his normal time for supper, but tonight he felt like grabbing food after he was done with his self-appointed mission. Days ago he had promised to himself that he would research about the Institute and its former students. Now that he has paper and pen with him to help him gather important information, he felt ready to invade the library for the night. Normally people would prefer going to the library during daytime, but Lex wanted the privacy lurking around at night time would give him. Besides, he always felt stronger and more alert at night. His thoughts were more organised during the night, the heat of the sun wouldn’t be there to bother him. Once he gathered all the materials he felt he would need, he opened a shadow portal on the wall to step into. He stepped inside and was teleported to the library.

He popped up from the shadow of a bookcase, narrowly avoiding popping up underneath a table. Slowly, he walked around the library to look for the section where he might find what he was looking for. The library was filled with possibly every book ever printed out, and despite Lex’s composed appearance he could not help but gaze at his surroundings admiringly. There were books that looked fairly new, and there were books that could possibly be centuries old. How they had gotten there, Lex didn’t know, but he was glad about their existence. At least he’d always have a book to curl up with when he wanted to be alone. As he strolled down the place, he saw one section with the name “Yearbooks/Annuals”. Lex’s brows furrowed upon seeing that. These books could show him former students, and from there he would be able to trace what had happened to them by searching through the library’s records of their lives, or careers if they had any. Quite reluctantly he plucked one out from the bookcase, and he wiped the dust off with his fingers. With a slightly curious look on his face, he turned the pages of the book as he took in all the words and pictures. He had been scanning through it for a while when he heard footsteps not far from him. Without shutting the book he turned to see who had arrived.

Night was falling, and Angel couldn't sleep. Ever since the day of Capture The Flag, he'd been freaked out about the dream he had had, and he'd been finding it hard to sleep. It had seemed like more than a dream. It had seemd so realistic, like he was actually there, like he could actually feel everything. He'd drop off and get a few hours of sleep, but his reflection always popped up and woke him up. The way he looked in the dram haunted him. He looked pale, hungry, scruffy... scared. He knew he was been stupid getting so worked up over a dream, but it was a freaky thing to dream of. Though maybe he could udnerstand it. Dreams were a part of your subconscious, showing your fears and hopes and, of course, dreams. It had seemed that that night showed his fear - of been in a laboratory, like a lab rat. But then, why had a telepath been in his head? That wasn't something he was scared of, just something he ddin't really like.

Knowing that he probably wouldn't be dropping off for a long time, Angel got up and dressed. If he wasn't sleeping, he might as well find something else to do. He would have flown so he could think about it and sort his thoughts out, but he didn't want to think about it. He wanted the thoughts gone. No, what he needed was to lose himself in something. As it was night time, he wouldn't be able to go to the gym or go swimming, and he wouldn't be training at this time either if peope were trying to sleep. So he decided to visit somewhere he'd been meaning to visit since he had arrived - the library.

Stepping out of his room, Angel made his way to the library, ready to lose himself ina good book. He'd missed reading - living on the streets hadn't exactly given him the oppurtunity to expand on his literary taste. In fact, in those three years, the only things he'd read were signs and thrown away out of date newspapers. A real book was something he'd been lookingforwards to reading for those three years, and he wasn't going to pass the oppurtunity up tonight.

Angel opened the door to the library and let himself in, taking in a deep breath. The place was massive, and the smell of the pages screamed out that there were thousans of stories here, all waiting to be read by him. Angel loved books, new and old. The feel of the pages turning through his fingers, the way his eyes soaked up the words and the scenes played out in his head... Oh yes, he was going to love this. And with a library of this size, he was bound to find something to his taste.

As he walked among the aisles, he heard someone else flicking through pages. He knew you were meant to be quiet in a library, but Angel was a nosy person and decided to go see who else was here. As he made his way towards the sound, he saw a familiar dark figure, giving off the cold air he always did. There, sitting down and looking through what looked like a yearbook, was Lex Darcy, his French friend. Or so Angel hoped to call him. Lex struck him as the type who didn't have 'friends', but Angel was sure he'd be able to break the ice and get through to the lad.

"Evening, Lex." He said quietly, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to him.

As Lex turned to see who had arrived, he saw Angel, the winged English mutant. He gave Angel a polite nod. “Good evening, Angel.” He watched Angel for a moment before he returned to scanning through the pages. Angel didn’t seem to have picked up a book from the library, so Lex wondered for a moment what he should do. Should he show Angel his research? Lex wasn’t usually the sharing type, and he didn’t even know Angel well enough, so for a second Lex did nothing but stare at the open page in front of him with his signature poker face. Pictures of different mutants stared back at him, and he half-expected them to move and ask him what he was doing. Lex shook his head at this burst of insanity. The world was indeed starting to drive him mad, and it won’t probably be long before he doesn’t even know his own name. Maybe he really should try to talk to this Angel lad. After all, Lex sort of felt bad for him. Amongst all the mutants he seemed to be the most “different” one, and though he has never heard of bullying amongst the Institute’s students he couldn’t just ignore the possibility of it happening. Oddly enough, whilst Lex the dark brooding guy seemed like he would be the resident bully, Lex actually felt like he was “responsible” for the lad.

Deciding to be at least amicable to Angel, Lex pushed the book to position it between them. “So, I decided to do the research I had been speaking of,” said Lex quietly, “And here it is. This seems to be a good start for the research. I could just write down their names, especially the notable ones. I am certain I’ll find records about their lives if I just remain patient.” Lex flipped through the pages as if to make his point. Oddly enough, some of the faces seemed familiar to him; though he was quite sure he has never met any other mutant before he arrived at the Institute. Lex wondered if it was the same for Angel as well. Did Angel find any of the faces or names familiar? And maybe, just maybe… Angel could help him with this research. Lex was used to researching on his own as he would often get infuriated at the incompetence of his partners, but Lex thought Angel had potential. Then again, all mutants had potential, so maybe it was just the fact that Angel was the only mutant Lex was close to being comfortable with.

“Now here are some of the materials I thought I might need.” Lex fished for some of the materials he had kept in his drawstring black bag. Without care or organisation, Lex placed them all on the table. This highly contrasted how he kept himself appearing so neat and pleasing to the eye. The extra pens were scattered on the desk, and some of the papers had been slightly crumpled or even torn. For a moment, Lex didn’t seem to realise what he had done to the materials until a pen rolled off the desk. His brows furrowed as he picked the pen up. “Yes, well, most of them are still quite good so there’s no use wasting these.” Hastily he picked up the scattered papers from the desk to arrange them neatly. “Right. So.” Lex clapped then rubbed his palms together. “As you can see, I have been doing us all a favour by doing this research. And while I have not exactly gathered much information yet, I believe this research would be very valuable in the end.” With his mysterious and yet shrewd-looking smile, Lex turned to Angel. “You could even contribute if you would like to. With the size of this library, the research about the former mutants might not be done in days, weeks, or possibly even months.” Lex’s smile grew into a slightly mischievous grin. “How would you like to poke into the lives of the Institute’s graduates?”

((Hey Angel, I know this seems uncharacteristic for Lex, but you said he needs to lighten up. And sorry about the Sherlock reference. The one with the messy and neat thing. I've become too obsessed to control it. >.>))

Angel looked down at the book as Lex pushed it to be in between the both of them, looking at the names as he listened to Lex speak. A few of them jumped out at him. He was sure he'd heard them around the school before... The place was full of gossip about some of the older mutants, the so called 'X-Men'. There was a lot of talk about the battle that had happened against the mutant called Magneto, who Angel had heard was ablle to control metal with his mind. If it was magnetic, anyways. He could kill someone by pulling all the iron out of their blood, or strangle them with a piece of metal wire without even having to go near the person. He'd also heard this Magneto person had managed to lift a submarine, and even more impressively, a bridge in San Francisco.

"Well, patience is a virtue, Lex. Let's hope you don't get bored before you dig up something interesting. I'd like to know what this place has in mind for us." Angel replied, still looking over the book. How did these names seem so familiar, and yet so alien? It's not like Angel had been able to hear about the goings-on with mutants in the world from the news, seeing as he'd been on the streets the past three years, and usually in his room before at the orphanage to escape from the kids watching TV.

Angel raised an eyebrow at the mess on the table as Lex dumped everything down. He just didn't seem like the type who'd be a messy person. All you had to do was look at him and you could see he kept himself very well dressed and always had a clean look to him. Angel wondered what it was with people of a darker nature and looking impeccable.

"What do I say?" Angel said as Lex asked if he'd like to help poke his nose into the lives of the graduates. "I say certainly! I'd like to see what they got up to while they were here and afterwards. But you know what they say... curiosity killed the cat. Which is why I'm glad I'm not one." Angel chuckled at that, though he quickly stopped, grabbing a pen and some paper, the pen going straight into his mouth as he looked at the book and thought. Which names seemed the clearest to him? And how bad would his writing be now, after not having written for three years?

“Curiosity killed the cat…” Lex muttered as if he were thinking over the statement. During his adventures (or misadvantures) after fleeing Paris, Lex learned the hard way that sometimes, ignorance is indeed bliss. He had seen people get in trouble for discovering and witness what should have been “silent assassinations”, and he himself was the perfect example of someone who had gotten in trouble for exposing nasty business. Maybe Angel did have a point when he said that, but would a bit of research turn out to be something too troublesome for them? It wasn’t even like Lex had cruel intentions for his research. He only truly wanted to see if they were in what people called “good hands”. He had been hearing so many good things about Professor X, the founder of the Institute, around the place, but he still wanted to be sure. There were just too many idiots around the world, and Lex would forever hate himself if he became one of them. And anyway, he was here now, gathering data for what he claimed to be a very valuable research in the making. He might as well continue. However, he would never forgive himself if an innocent person like Angel gets involved if something does happen to him. He didn’t know the guy very well, but he liked Angel well enough and considered him to be one of the few people he could stand to be around.

Reluctantly he turned to Angel. As per usual, his face had a calm and unreadable expression on it, but on the inside he was worried. He could stand being vanished off the face of the Earth for knowing too much, but he would never be able to bear it if an innocent person was harmed because of him. It was true that he still didn’t know Angel very well, but Lex was a highly analytical person—and from his analysis, he could tell that Angel is one of the few who had pure intentions. “Angel,” he spoke in a low and calm voice, “May I ask if you know of all the exits in this place? And whilst I can see clearly that you can fly, do you think it is possible for a force field to be protecting this estate from escapes and whatnot?” Lex started to seriously look at the yearbook’s pages as he spoke. One person had caught his eye, and her name was Jean Grey. Lex did not know why, but there seemed to be something very powerful about her despite not being in costume or anything of the sort in the picture. Lex then thought of how the name seemed oddly familiar to him. Where have I seen her name before? He thought as his forehead creased. Gradually he remembered the Phoenix Memorial Statue in the middle of the courtyard. A memorial dedicated to Jean Grey, Lex finally understood. Little by little he felt himself more interested in finding out about this Jean Grey person. How had her life been like after leaving the Institute? Judging from his data, Lex gathered Jean Grey’s life was quite dramatic, at the very least.

Lex turned to Angel again, noticing how he had put his pen into his mouth. To him, it looked like something only a child would do, but he decided not to say anything. He grew up in a different culture and so he did not know whether it was normal for people like Angel to do that. Realising how fussy he was being with his judgement, he focused again on his work and wrote “Jean Grey” on his paper with a penmanship worthy of an eighteenth-century nobleman.

((Please do correct me if I got some things wrong.))

"I've seen most of the exits. There's not many - the woods cover a lot of ground there, and the Institute has a wall around it. There's a couple of areas in the wall that can be used to get out of the grounds, and then there's also the main gate. I've npt had a close enough look to see if there were any other ways out." Angel said in reply to Lex's question. "As for the force field... there isn't one. I'd have been fried otherwise, with the height I like to fly. Plus, there would be no point. Some of the mutants here would be able to teleport out or might have abilities to make portals or something. But they don't need the force fields... there's telepaths here. I'm sure they'd know if someone had left the grounds."

Angel pondered on the dilemna that they could be in for a second. Did they have telepaths keeping an eye on them to make sure no one ran off? He wasn't too sure... but then again, most people wouldn't want to, especially if they were like him - nowhere to go in the outside world, no way of fitting in. The school had everything anyone of them could want. Why would they want to run away? But then again - who knew what the school was up to? Like Lex had pointed out before, you can't get something for nothing. The price they'd have to pay here would be one he'd have to wait and see about.

"You know... I'm sure we're allowed out of the grounds. I've seen a few people leave to go into New York, during the day and during the night. It's not like we're been forced to stay here - we came by our own choice, and if we were inclined to, I'm certain we could leave as well. If you want to be sure... we could ask some of the students around the school. We're new, after all, so asking if we can leave the grounds is probably a question they'd expect us to ask."

Looking down at the book Lex was reading, Angel saw he'd written the name 'Jean Grey' down. He recognised that name - there was a memorial for her, for Scott Summers, and for Professor Xavier outside. Angel didn't know how they'd died, or under what circumstances, but they must have been pretty big if they had had memorials dedicated to them. Professor Xavier was obvious there because he'd founded the school, and was a visionary, or so he'd heard. But Scott and Jean... he didn't know. And so he wrote down the name 'Scott Summers'. After all, it made sense to look up the other person who had a memorial, right? It had been a while since he'd sone research, but the fact that he had something to focus on, some kind of project, a goal to work towards... it excited Angel .And the amount of books he had to read here, as well as the Internet that he should be able to get on... it would make the research very accurate, or so he hoped. The writing was a little shaky, but to say that he hadn't put pen to paper for three years, he was sure it was fine. At least it was readable.