AN: This is an AU story to Midwich Cuckoo's 27th chapter of her story, "They Never Discovered Their Powers," done with her permission. Why do I want to write this, you ask? I'm currently writing a story about a character with wings. You figure it out.
For those who are reading my main story, I'm really sorry for not updating in like forever. I'm real busy, and the chapter is getting really long. 17 real pages and 1 page of other stuff!
Jin and Joon Kim were a very happy, but very poor couple living in South Korea. They had just gotten married and were ready to have a child.
When the time came for Jin to give birth, they barely made it to the village's tiny excuse for a hospital in time.
It was a hard birth, as the baby got mysteriously stuck right when its shoulders were supposed to come out.
After several unsuccessful heaves, the baby finally flew out, right into the hands of the midwife.
The mystery of the stuck baby was solved right then and there.
Two birdlike, but featherless wings were jutting out of the baby's back. Clearly, the wings had gotten the baby stuck on the way out.
The midwife cut the cord, proclaimed the baby as a girl, and proceeded to watch the mother finish up.
Well, he would have, if the mother hadn't been bleeding profusely.
It was a poor hospital with little equipment, so the mother died. They later found out that the baby girl's wings had ripped holes inside the mother on the way out, making her bleed to death.
When the father heard the news and saw his baby, he fell down to his knees and cried loudly.
On the way out, a neighbour of his who was in for a sprained ankle saw him holding the baby and crying. The baby's wings couldn't be covered properly and showed a bit.
The neighbour, Jinlee, was a secret mutant sympathizer in the otherwise mutant-hating village. He quickly ran into the birth room and bribed the staff to stay quiet about the mutant baby.
Jinlee helped spread the news that a difficult birth killed Jin and that Joon was too distraught to be seen by anyone.
So the secret of the mutant baby was kept.
Joon hated mutants and was angry at his daughter for killing his wife.
But the baby looked too much like his wife, so he couldn't bring himself to kill her.
He still despised the wings, though. Those were what really had killed his wife, he reasoned.
He decided to wait until the baby, who he named Byung-Soon, was strong enough to remove the wings.
Until then, he would hide the baby and tell everyone that she was sick and couldn't see anyone.
He did not know that Jinlee was keeping a close eye on him.
A few weeks later, Byung-Soon had developed pure white feathers on her wings.
They were beautiful, but they now hit the last nerve of her father, Joon.
He couldn't take it anymore. He had to remove those 'abominations.'
He took her outside, put her on his woodcutter's stump, took out his axe, and raised it above the child, aiming for her wings.
Byung-Soon sensed that something was wrong and started to cry.
Jinlee heard this and came running out.
Upon seeing Joon about to swing his axe down on the poor girl's wings, he began to shout and ran at him.
Joon turned and saw him, curled his lip, and swung down his axe.
A split second before the axe could make contact with a wing, Jinlee crashed straight into Joon, making the axe swing to the left and right out of his hand, embedding itself in Jinlee's house.
After a short fight between the two men, Jinlee knocked Joon out with a punch, grabbed Byung-Soon, and ran as fast as he could to the nearest town.
There, he posed as Byung-Soon's father and put her up for adoption, bribing the adoption center's staff to make sure that the child stayed safe.
Then he took off to avoid being found and killed by his mutant-hating village. Joon would wake up eventually and talk.
Several months later, Byung-Soon had still not been adopted. Her wings had been carefully hidden by the cloths covering her, and the people screening for potential parents always asked about those people's feelings towards mutants (as subtly as possible).
Everyone so far who came for Byung-Soon didn't like mutants.
Finally, Alana and Albert Garratt came along. They already had a daughter, but couldn't get anymore kids. They and their daughter Anita were ok with mutants, so long as they weren't being attacked by them.
The social workers saw this as a very good thing and showed the parents a picture of the child, wings in plain sight.
They gasped and exclaimed, "They're beautiful! She's beautiful!" and decided that they just had to adopt her.
After all the long and complicated paperwork, Byung-Soon was theirs. She arrived the next week.
Her new parents called Anita back from Mensa for the weekend and surprised her with her new winged sister. Anita was overjoyed and especially awed at the beautiful wings.
They all agreed to each other to keep the secret of the wings between them.
Considering that her wings were white and that she was their little angel, they decided to change her name to Angela.
As time went on, Angela started experimenting with her wings, flapping them and trying to fly.
When she turned a year old, she had begun to walk, with the habit of flapping her wings the whole time.
3 months later, the Garretts had a flying baby in the house.
Albeit, a clumsily flying baby who hurt herself more than once, but a flying baby nonetheless.
A properly landing baby was to come much, much later. Until then, her parents chased her around the house and tried to catch her in midair before she crashed into yet another wall or window.
Actually, by the time she learned to land properly, she was three and a half years old, and that was after her parents spend lots of time convincing her to stay on the floor for two straight minutes and watch how the birds outside flew and landed.
Because of Angela's overwhelming desire to fly all the time, she never got around to actually playing with other kids. Her parents told everyone that she just liked the woods too much.
The woods near her house was where her parents allowed her to fly. Well, once they got her to understand that she had to stay inside the woods and not to let anyone else see her, that is.
When Stark Industries released their image inducer, the Garratts immediately got one for Angela.
Getting her to go to school was tricky. She couldn't understand why she had to have her wings tied down all day and hidden from everyone. She wanted to show everyone.
Her parents assured her that if she kept the wings a secret, she could have as much free flying time in the woods as she liked.
This worked, for until she started getting more homework, that is.
Then her parents inevitably wanted her to sit down and do her work before flying.
As was inevitable, she told her best friend, who naturally told the whole school.
The next day, Angela came to school to find everyone yelling at her and calling her a freak.
A big bully called Billy even attacked her at the entrance.
She barely got away, but when she did, she started to cry.
She ripped off her harness, spread her now free beautiful, white wings, and took to the air.
Anybody who gasped with awe was smacked by someone else.
Angela flew and flew and finally made it home.
When her parents found out what happened, they didn't have the heart to say 'I told you so,' so they just held her and comforted her.
Already, anti-mutant protesters were standing outside of their house with signs and yelling.
The Garratts decided to move to the other side of state (Washington state).
They grabbed a flight to a city around there and got an apartment.
The next day, there was a knock on the door.
Angela's mother answered the door.
Sitting there in a wheelchair was a very familiar bald-headed man.
Professor Xavier.
He said that he heard about the now 10-year old Angela's predicament and wanted to shelter her at his Institute, where many mutants have seeked shelter from anti-mutant activities. With him was Jean Grey and the recently self-outed Warren Worthington III, wings out.
Angela immediately poked her head out of her room when her name was mentioned.
Upon seeing Warren, her eyes lit up, and she ran right over to him.
While the winged pair played in the main room, the Professor explained that the Institute was the home of the X-Men and any other mutant who seeked shelter and that he himself was a telepathic mutant.
After some discussion, the Garratts decided to send their daughter to the Institute at least until they got a house and settled into it.
Angela was eager to go with them, probably because of Warren and the promise that there were other winged people at the mansion.
She had a lot of fun at the Institute, making friends and finishing her 5th grade.
When her parents finally settled into a house, Angela still wanted to stay.
They let her so that she would be happy.
It was only after a month or so of the summer that the mansion started getting attacked a lot.
Angela was never into fighting (she was only 10) and got scared.
After the third attack, she demanded to be sent back to her parents.
When she got to her new house, she literally flew into her mother's arms.
Only time will tell how the rest of her life will turn out.
AN: I hate the quality of this story, personally. I really suck at third-person. Midwich Cuckoo has given me permission to cameo Angela in my stories, so some of this story might change slightly around the end.