Driven out of home by her abusive step-father, fourteen-year old Angel Salvadore slept in the woods, where her mutant nature manifested itself in the form of a protective cocoon. Emerging, Angel was shocked to discover she had grown fly-like wings. She was found by the U-Men, a group of humans who harvested mutant body parts to graft onto themselves. Before they could make Angel their next unwilling donor, she was rescued by Wolverine and taken to the Xavier Institute. Angel reluctantly enrolled as a student, and was soon forced to help the Stepford Cuckoos and Beak oppose an assault by the alien Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Angel was subsequently placed in the Special Class taught by the mutant healer Xorn.
Later, during a flight class, Angel accepted a dare to kiss Beak, unintentionally causing him to fall in love with her. To her own surprise, Angel began to fall for him as well, and on a school camping trip they snuck away to have an intimate encounter before they were attacked by U-Men. With Xorn's help, the U-Men were defeated, and the Class returned to the Institute in time to help quell a riot fomented by Quentin Quire. Angel subsequently told Beak she was pregnant, and laid eggs on the ceiling of a shack on the school's grounds. She was implicated in an attempt on the life of teacher Emma Frost just before her eggs hatched, but it was ultimately revealed that she had been mentally controlled by rogue Stepford Cuckoo Esme.
Soon after, Xorn was coerced by an unknown party into believing he was the X-Men's nemesis Magneto, and the Special Class were convinced by Esme, one of the Stepford Cuckoos, to serve as his Brotherhood until his defeat by the X-Men. Later, Beak became unhinged from time and joined the reality-hopping Exiles team, leaving Angel and the children to believe he had abandoned them. During the Scarlet Witch's House of M|reality warp, Angel lived a life as a successful and childless plus-sized model with no memory of Beak. She was briefly possessed by the reality-altering mutant Proteus before he was forced out of her body during an encounter with the Exiles. Near death, Angel was healed by a regenerative serum the Exiles had obtained. After reality was restored, both Angel and Beak discovered they and all of their children, excepting Tito, had lost their mutant powers.
