Husk

After her older brother Sam's mutant powers manifested and he joined the New Mutants, Paige tried many things to discover whether she was also a mutant, but became frustrated after many failures. Venting her anger, Paige finally found that her power was to shed her skin. She kept her nature secret until the day Sam and his X-Force teammate Boom Boom visited the farm. They were abducted by the Fenris twins as part of the "Younghunt," a contest involving the capture of young mutants. The X-Force teamed up with the New Warriors, whose member Firestar had also been captured. Together they opposed the organizer of the contest, the Gamesmaster. Paige secretly followed them and confronted the Gamesmaster, defeating him in a game of wits.

Soon after, Paige was kidnapped by the techno-organic alien Phalanx, who sought to learn how to assimilate mutants into their collective. Paige and her fellow abductees were rescued by an ad-hoc X-Men team, and subsequently became founding members of Generation X, a team of mutants enrolled at the new Massachusetts branch of Xavier's School. During her time there, Paige studied to become a better X-Man than Sam. She also romanced her teammate Chamber, although their relationship was strained and terminated more than once because of his self-sabotaging.

After the school was closed, Paige was recruited by her former headmaster Banshee into his paramilitary X-Corps. After that group was dismantled, Paige went to study at the re-established Xavier Institute. Her interest in environmental issues led to her discovering corruption within Worthington Enterprises, the company owned by the X-Man Archangel. Investigating, she and Archangel encountered the Dominant Species, and she was almost killed. Archangel saved her with his healing ability, after which they became romantically involved.

Having finally graduated to the ranks of the X-Men, Paige later aided Archangel in establishing the global mutant outreach program Mutantes Sans Frontières. Setting up office in Zanzibar, they became involved in an attempt by the Hellfire Club to destabilize the country by employing the mercenary Weaponeers. Alongside the country's President, who was secretly the superhero Askari, as well as reinforcements from Genosha, the heroes managed to repel the invaders.

After Paige's old teammate Jubilee was turned into a vampire, Paige made it her mission to find her. Not telling the other X-Men about what she was doing, Paige targeted a group of vampires. Pretending to be a helpless girl, she let a vampire take her to an abandoned warehouse where he tried to bite her. However, under her skin, she assumed a metal form. Throwing him off her, she demanded to know where Jubilee was. The lights turned on, revealing a group of vampires in the room. After they refused to give her information, Paige assumed a wooden, spiked form. She attacked the vampires, staking them with her arms and legs. One of the vampires tried to light her on fire, but it did not affect Paige and she used the fire to her advantage to help defeat the vampires. The remaining vampire, the one who tried biting her, swung an ax at Paige, landing a blow to her side where the ax remained. Paige fought through the pain and managed to stake the last vampire. She was left fearful of what had become of her friend. It is unknown whether she told anyone about what happened.

Paige was living on the sovereign Mutant nation state of Krakoa, created by Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X. She later joined Cyclops' team on a mission to destroy Mother Mold before the creation of Nimrod. Husk and Angel were both confused at some of Cyclops' methods. The team was spotted as they neared their destination, and subsequently blown up in retaliation. The explosion killed both Archangel and Husk, but the survivors continued on to destroy Mothermold.

The team was later resurrected by a group of mutants known as “the Five” (Eva Bell, Proteus, Hope Summers, Elixir, and Goldballs). Merging their powers, the Five were able transfer the deceased X-Men’s minds into cloned bodies. They were later proclaimed as the heroes of Krakoa.

Paige also told her sister, Melody, of the Crucible and gaining her full powers in light of M-Day.