𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐃𝐄 • 𝐏. 𝐌𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐅𝐅

III

As the four mutants pulled up to the house in their small rental car, Valerie looked around her surroundings. Sure, the place looked harmless, but so did the majority of the mutants currently living.

She squeezed herself out of the crammed car and stretched her legs and arms, complaining about how Hank got his foot germs all over her for the whole car ride. They followed Charles to the front door, where the welcome mat had been what looked to be worn out. As Valerie was walking over, she felt a slight breeze on the left side of her neck and a few pieces of her hair slightly flying up. Logan, decked out with his sunglasses on, knocked on the door. After waiting two seconds, knocked again. Valerie stood behind them all, suddenly getting shy and taking notice in her frayed shoes.

A middle aged, brunette woman opened the door. The four mutants smiled kindly at her, Hank's and Valerie's being more filled with emotion than the other two's.

She sighs, "What's he done now? I'll just write you a check for whatever he took."

"We just need to talk to him." Logan told her.

She nodded, and turned around to the television blaring in what Valerie would assume be the living room. "Peter, the cops are here...again."

As the mutants walked downstairs into the basement, they could her the fast sounds of a ping pong ball hitting the paddle. As Valerie moved closer to the bottom of the stairs, she took notice that it was not two players playing against each other, but one, silver haired boy moving quickly to each side, leaving a blur of silver around the table.

"What do you guys want? I didn't do anything." The boy said as he switched between ping pong sides. "I've been in here all day."

"Relax, Peter. We're not cops." Logan told the boy.

Now the boy, Peter, was sat lazily on a couch a few feet away from Valerie. She took notice to him, and he took notice to her. "Of course you're not cops. Cops don't drive rental cars and carry around teenagers to their investigations."

"How do you know we have a rental ca-" Charles started.

"I checked your registration when you walked into the door." That explained the sudden wind the girl felt on her neck. "I also had some time to kill so I went through your rental agreement, and saw you're from out of town? Are you FBI?" He asked with a lazy tone to his voice. Before the group could answer, Peter ran towards Charles with his impossible speed, taking his wallet.
"Nope, not cops? Hey, what's with this Gifted Youngsters place?"

Charles angrily snatched the wallet and card out of the boy's hand, mumbling a "That's an.. old card." The interaction created a laugh to come out of the girl's mouth, which made Peter look over at her and smile towards her.

"Why, he's fascinating." Hank turned to speak to Charles.

Charles responded with an angry "He's a pain in the ass."

While the three men talked amongst themselves over the boy like he wasn't there, he continued to play ping pong, watch the television that was placed downstairs, or listen to his music. The basement was either a nightmare or a heaven for a kid with ADHD.

"So... do you stay down here? Like, is this your room?" Valerie didn't want to stand around and do nothing, and she had gotten the hint from her professor that she was only here because he didn't want her unsupervised at the mansion.

Peter stopped what he was doing, letting the small plastic ball fall to the ground with a small thump. It seemed to have taken him a while to answer, and he was staring directly at the girl. "Yeah, this is my room. My mom didn't want me down here, but I think it's pretty cool. I get the most privacy out of anyone in the house." She responded with a few cools, and sat down on the couch closest to herself. She thought that he would go back to his super-speed multitasking, but he dropped his paddle and sat down next to her. "What's your name? Not to sound creepy. I would say mine then ask yours, but you already know mine."

The girl laughed and shook her head. "Not creepy at all, Speedy. I'm Valerie. I've been staying with Charles for a few years now."

"Speedy? Well, that's a new nickname. It does fit, though." Peter remarked at the use of the name. Valerie quickly got embarrassed at the accidental use of it, because they had only known each other for mere minutes. Well, it felt like years to her, but maybe that was just her powers catching up with her.

"When I knew him, he wasn't so... young." Peter returned to his normal, sarcastic self and sprinted past them, grabbing a popsicle on the way and sitting down on another couch. With him gone, Valerie stood up and took notice of everything else in the room, from a giant arcade game to stacks upon stacks of boxes of Twinkie's that the girl assumed was stolen.

"Young? You're just old." He said as he sucked on the popsicle.

"So you're not afraid to show your powers?" Hank asked eagerly.

Peter feigned a confused look and rambled on, "Powers? What powers? What are you talking about? Do you see something strange here? Nothing anybody would believe if you told them." Realizing the men were defeated, he darted away towards the video game and started pressing the buttons rapidly. "So who are you, and what do you want?"

Valerie, who was closest to the boy, explained, "We need your help, Peter."

He glanced over at her, but only for a second just to look back at his game. "For what?"

She smirked and leaned down next to him, placing her hand on his shoulder to try to coerce him into helping, "To break into a highly secured facility and to get someone out."

The boy looked up at her with curiosity, but still wouldn't budge. "Prison break? That's illegal, ya know."

Logan took notice of all the things in Peter's basement, the multiple TV's, the boxes off Hostess snacks, the game Peter was currently playing. "Well, only if you get caught."

"So what's in it for me?" Peter asked, eyes still trained on the game in front of him.

Charles, obviously annoyed and exhausted by the mere minutes of conversation he held with the boy, took off his glasses to rub his eyes and say, "You, you kleptomaniac, get to break into the Pentagon."

With a new mix of curiosity and excitement, Peter turned around and looked at the three men. "How do I know I can trust you?"

Valerie, who wasn't paying attention at that point, realized the new topic of the conversation and her boredom turned into excitement. "Show him your blue, Hank. Show him!"

Hank looked at the girl quizzically and turned his head no rapidly. He did not need to show this stranger as Valerie called it, "his blue."

"'Cause we're just like you."

Logan looked at the boy and retracted what was once his metallic claws, but had turned to a painful, looking bone shape. Valerie grimaced and turned her head away from the sight. "Nasty, dude! Give me a warning next time. God!"

Peter looked to have agreed with the girl. "Cool, but it's disgusting."

As the boy got up from his chair, the female mutant began to smile and nod her head, all while saying, "Fuck yeah! Mutants are back, baby!"

| GUESS WHOS BACK😘😘😘|

| nobody gaf abt these An's cuz no one's reading this story but i wanna say im SORRY for not updating in like two years i lost a ton of inspo. i'll try to update in less than two years now but PLEASE COMMENT IF U READ!!! I LOVE READING COMMEBTS |

| n e way hope u enjoy new chapter!!