Angel

"Worthington III, interesting!" Upon noticing the winged mutant, Alex immediately gave up on continuing his search for Tony and turned his attention to this mutant instead. The X-Men were short on combat power these days, and this mutant seemed like a promising recruit.

With that little thought in mind, Alex used Teleportation to appear beside the young man named Worthington III.

Alex’s sudden appearance gave Worthington III, who had been flying through the sky, quite a fright. He even forgot to flap his enormous wings, and his whole body plummeted rapidly. Fortunately, Worthington III reacted in time, quickly steadying himself and pulling far away from Alex as he watched him warily.

"Who are you?" Instinct told Worthington III that the man before him was extremely powerful and not someone he could defeat. So instead of attacking at once, he adopted a conciliatory attitude. "What do you want?"

Alex looked at the somewhat immature Worthington III and introduced himself with a faint smile. "Hello, I’m Alex. I mean you no harm."

"You’re a mutant too?" Worthington III’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Alex floating in midair, and he grew somewhat nervous.

"As you can see." Alex spread his hands and said casually, "I’m sure you’ve heard of the Hellfire Club, or the Brotherhood of Mutants…"

Before Alex could finish, Worthington III cut him off righteously and angrily refused, "I will never join you people. Never!"

"Buddy, could you let me finish?" Alex looked gloomily at the furious Worthington III, pursed his lips, and said helplessly, "Relax, I’m not with either of those organizations. I only mentioned them because I’m from X-Mansion."

"X-Mansion? What’s that?" Worthington III froze, looking at Alex with utter confusion.

Alex’s expression darkened further. X-Mansion’s reputation had really fallen this low? It made him feel both ashamed and miserable. "All right, the X-Men…"

"I know! X-Film Company!" Worthington III interrupted Alex yet again. Completely ignoring Alex’s increasingly ugly expression, the young man shouted excitedly, "Their movies are so cool! The X-Men are absolutely awesome!"

Alex was completely speechless. At that moment, he did not know whether he should be happy or depressed.

"Tell me, what exactly do you want?" After being excited for a while, Worthington III finally came back to his senses. He turned to Alex and took the initiative to ask, though his youthful face remained full of wariness.

"All right, I’m from X-Mansion, the place where the X-Men are based." Alex sighed. Whether Worthington III was listening or could hear clearly, he spoke rapidly. "I came looking for you because I hope you can join the X-Men!"

"You mean that?!" Worthington III had good hearing and had caught every word Alex said clearly, but he was still filled with doubt.

Alex wore away the last of his patience and replied irritably, "It’s true. It couldn’t be more true!" As he spoke, without waiting for Worthington III to react, he activated Teleportation and took him directly to Alex City, the X-Men’s base.

"Alex, why are you here?" The moment Alex appeared with Worthington III, Charles noticed them and reached out through telepathy. "And who is the young man beside you?"

"A new subordinate I found for you." As Alex spoke with Charles, he glanced at Worthington III beside him, whose eyes were already shining, and said, "Kid, I’ll take you to meet someone."

After saying that, Alex headed deeper into the base without a care for Worthington III behind him.

By now, Worthington III completely believed Alex’s words and was full of anticipation at the prospect of joining the X-Men. While looking around in dazzlement, he hurried after Alex and stuck close to him.

Before long, Alex brought Worthington III to Charles’s office.

The moment he saw Charles, Worthington III cried out. His freckled face was filled with excitement. "Professor X?!"

When X-Film Company made movies about the X-Men, the X-Men themselves generally appeared on screen. As the leader of the X-Men, Professor X had made several cameo appearances in the films as well.

Charles was startled by Worthington III’s excitement and instinctively looked at Alex.

Alex wore a bitter smile and was just about to speak when Worthington III had already assumed the manner of a noble young master and introduced himself solemnly and seriously. "Warren Worthington III. You can call me Warren, or Angel." After a brief pause, Worthington III added, "Oh, right. Angel is the codename I gave myself!"

"I’m a loyal X-Men fan!" Worthington III—no, Angel—suddenly changed expression and turned into a rabid fan, shouting excitedly, "I’ve watched the X-Men series at least five times, and Professor X, you’re my favorite!"

For a moment, Charles did not react. It took him a while to realize that the young man calling himself Angel was talking about the X-Men movie series. Once he understood, Charles’s expression became as unpleasant as Alex’s, though he felt even more amused and helpless.

"I’ve always hoped to join the X-Men. It’s my lifelong wish!" Angel rattled off a whole lot more before finally ending with those words, then looked at Charles with a face full of hope.

Charles had never encountered someone like this before. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Angel, do you know what the X-Men do?" The people Charles wanted to gather were real warriors, not an obvious "child" who had yet to grow up.

"I know, of course I know!" Angel replied casually, then changed expression again. With a solemn look, he slowly said each word, "The X-Men will forever devote themselves to harmonious coexistence between mutants and humans, protecting humanity and mutants, and safeguarding world peace!"

Alex could not help rubbing his forehead. He truly did not want to stay any longer and listen to this movie enthusiast’s voice, so he tossed out a sentence and fled. "Charles, he’s yours!"

Charles rolled his eyes, inwardly despising Alex, but he said with great seriousness, "It seems you truly know the X-Men very well!" Then Charles abruptly changed his tone, and a powerful aura burst from him. "However, the X-Men only need real warriors. Are you sure you can do it?"

"I can!" Angel shouted back with some emotion. The wings he had kept folded behind his back immediately spread open, their snowy white feathers looking exceptionally beautiful.

Charles looked at Angel’s enormous spread wings, paused, then immediately nodded. "All right, you’re Angel now!"

Everyone’s being awfully quiet. You’ve probably all guessed it already, so why not be a little more enthusiastic?