Flickers (Charles Xavier)

Chapter 13

Logan, Hank and Charles had been planning their plot to free Erik for a couple of hours, and were now on their way out of the mansion. The red car sitting in the driveway was starting to pull away, but when Iris turned to look at the three men she stopped driving. She pulled the car door open and walked over to them, staring at Charles with a bitter expression.

"I just want to say to you that your comments about the research that I've been dedicating my life to for the last ten years made me feel absolutely humiliated. I've been sitting here for almost three hours wanting to go back in there and prove to you that my research isn't pointless. I've been studying mutants and mutations so closely, and I need to know if they're real and what kinds of examples I can look at. I want to know that I'm not just doing pointless research that will lead to nothing, because-"

She was cut off as Logan held up his fists and three long, boned claws slowly revealed themselves from beneath his skin. Iris gasped, her whole face lighting up.

"It's real. Oh my god. My research is real. It's been worth it."

She suddenly threw her arms around Logan in a moment of pure joy. He didn't move and waited for her to pull away. Her cheeks flushed red and she apologised.

Logan glanced at Charles for a moment and then smiled, "I'm Logan, by the way. Nice to meet someone who's so interested in mutations."

She held her hand out, "Iris Miracle."

Logan hesitated slightly as he took her hand, "I can tell you're very interested in mutations, Iris. We're about to... run some errands, and it would be great if you could help us out."

"Logan-" Charles hissed, but he ignored him.

"It might be good for your research to spend some time with mutants and see what we really get up to."

"I would love to," Iris smiled, shooting a dark look at Charles, "So where are we going?"

*

Iris was confused.

She was sitting in the back of the car beside a young man who had introduced himself as Hank, along with the mutant with claws- Logan- and the one who had told her to leave- Charles.

She had no idea why she was there. Charles hadn't even apologised to her- in fact, all he'd been doing was staring at her when he'd clearly thought she wasn't looking. It was unnerving to say the least.

She also didn't understand what the four of them were going to be doing. She had just been so ecstatic at the knowledge that there really were mutants out there that she would have jumped in the car to go anywhere. What kind of 'errands' were they planning on doing where they would need her?

Iris leant to the side and tapped Hank on the shoulder, "What exactly are we doing?"

He turned to face her, "We're just looking for someone. We need a young boy called Peter Maximoff to help us with something."

Iris nodded, "Is a he a mutant too? You know, I thought they were so rare. I didn't think that I'd ever get to meet one."

Hank's expression turned to something unreadable for a moment before he smiled, "Well, I guess you're getting the full experience now."

They pulled up outside a house, and everyone began to pile out of the car. Logan and Hank were bickering about something already, so Iris stood behind them next to Charles.

"Sorry," Charles suddenly spoke quietly, "I didn't mean to mock your research. I used to research mutations myself about ten years ago- it's a very promising subject to look at."