Wavering Future

Chapter 10

"Why are we here?" Jay asked as they all, including Charles Xavier and excluding Angeni, stood outside a quiet house.

"There's a mutant here who can help us." Hank replied before knocking and stepped back from the door.

A tired woman opened the door and looked them over. "What has he done this time?"

"Nothing, we just need to speak to your son." Charles replied.

A young girl looked up at them from the TV as they walked past but Jay continued after the others until the mother opened the door to the basement and motioned for them to go down. "Pietro's down there."

They found a silver-haired and dressed boy running back and forth from one side of a ping-pong table to the other while the ball bounced back and forth. He stopped and ran off to play a video game for a few seconds before running a circle around them, opening a bottle of pop, and reclining on a couch.

"So who are you?" He asked as he studied the mismatched group. "Whatever you're here for... I didn't do it."

"Wow..." Ashling murmured as she took in the heat patterns from where he'd ran. "You're fast."

"So you like to steal things..." Logan commented.

"Borrow." Pietro corrected, as he looked around at all the stuff, expensive and non-expensive, collection he'd gotten over the years. "You aren't the cops though."

"No." Charles replied.

"Then who are you?" He ran over to his video game again and started playing it again.

"Mutants like you." Jay said as he watched the boy.

"We need your help breaking into somewhere." Charles informed him.

"Where?" He didn't turn around. "I've can get into anywhere without getting caught... it's actually a bit boring, there isn't any challenge in it."

"How would like to take a shot at the Pentagon?" Hank asked.

Pietro froze and turned to face them while setting the controller down. "You want to break into the Pentagon?"

"To get a friend out."

He walked over to them with a grin on his face. "Okay... sounds like fun. Like the ultimate infiltration."

"Well that was easier to do than I thought." Jay whispered to Ashling. "I would've expected the boy to refuse."

"Really?" She glanced around despite being blind to all the stuff. "He didn't sound like the type not to accept."

"I guess not." Jay sighed as they trudged back up at the stairs.

Pietro's mom gave them a worried look but Pietro gave her a friendly smile. "I'll be back soon, just going to help out my friends here."

"Wait, where are you going?" Her voice was startled as he walked out. "Don't do anything illegal!"

"We'll keep him out of trouble." Hank assured her, Jay saw Logan roll his eyes at his comment.

"Bye sis!" Pietro ruffled his sister's dark hair before running to the door. "Be sure not to give Mom too many gray hairs... that's my job!"

His mother rubbed her forehead and sighed as they followed her energetic son out of the house. Jay almost felt sorry for her, she did seem to have a lot of gray hair considering how young she looked otherwise.

"Wait up, you don't know where we're going kid!" Logan shouted as the silver blur ran past them cheerfully.

Ashling followed the path, seeing the heat trail fade away with amazement, Jay could tell being able to see something the others couldn't made her happier about her mutation, but she was clearly still grieving Pharzuph's death. Charles cleared his throat and Pietro stopped and walked over.

"What?"

Charles nodded towards a car where Angeni was leaning against the side. "She's going to take us to the jet."

Pietro's eyes widened as he took in the mutant. "Whoa... you were serious about being mutants like me?"

"Of course."

Jay took Angeni and Hank's hand while the others took the teleporter's other hand before they disappeared in a cloud of dust and a crack of thunder. Jay released her hand as they appeared outside a jet and let out a moan, teleporting always made him feel sick. They got into the jet and Hank went to the pilot's seat while the others sat down and prepared to take off. Jay watched Ashling and Angeni talking to Pietro from across the plane along with Logan, who was seated a few feet away from everyone else, before seeing Charles appear from the back of the jet with a chess game.

"Care to play? It'll pass the time." He set up the board. "I used to play this all the time with Erik."

"You won't read my mind and cheat will you?" Jay narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

He shook his head. "My power is still a bit fuzzy, but I'm having trouble walking... I'd say it should come back by the time we touch down."

"Would you if you could?"

"That would ruin the fun of the game." Charles moved a pawn forward. "Your turn."

Jay moved his knight before leaning back. "In the future your school is filled with students you know."

"Were you one of them?" Charles moved his own knight.

"All of us were for a time... before the Sentinels showed up. After that everyone fled in groups or alone for survival. Not that it helped, almost all the mutants are dead now."

"Well let's hope we fix that." Logan muttered from where he sat. "You three will be safe but if they reach the others then I'm a dead man in the future."

"Thank you for your optimism." Jay responded sarcastically before making another move.