Alice paused at that. She was certain she'd heard that name before, she just wasn't sure where.

"Alright," she agreed cautiously, nodding.

"Thank you," Charles said with a smile. "I believe I've taken enough of your time today. If I see you again, may I come chat again?"

"Sure, I guess," Alice replied, shrugging a bit. "We're here pretty often."

"I look forward to talking to you again," Charles said with a smile, nodding to them both before he stood and left. Initial contact had been made and was pretty good. Not as good as he'd hoped, but good enough for now.

"Well, that was interesting," Carrie murmured.

"At least I don't feel so paranoid now," Alice replied. "He did have an ulterior motive in talking to us. But who'd have ever thought that Charles Xavier would want to talk to us?"

Carrie shrugged. "Well, it's interesting, at least," she agreed. "I wouldn't have figured he'd come talk to us and be all polite and all that."

"I wouldn't have thought we even rank high enough on the scale to be noticed," Alice admitted. "I mean, he is kind of important, after all."

"Yeah, he is," Carrie agreed. "I don't know. Maybe one of the people we sent his way talked about us?"

"Maybe," Alice replied. "It's possible. I'm surprised he was able to find us." She paused. "Okay, no, I'm not, not if the rumors of his abilities are true."

Carrie nodded. "We'll see what he wants over time, if he is as sincere as he says he is," she said, unconcerned for now. She knew that if it came down to it, she could definitely deter him from seeing them again.

Alice nodded.

"Then I guess for now we just need to prep for that rally next weekend," she said.

"That one should be okay, but it never hurts to be prepared," Carrie agreed. "Want to head back or not yet?"

"I'm ready when you are," Alice said, nodding and finishing her coffee.

Carrie nodded and headed back to their apartment to relax for a bit. At least life was still normal, and no one had screwed up any of the rallies they went to.

Yet.

The upcoming rally was already looking like a rough one, though. Somehow, it had caught more media attention than usual, and the news outlets were up in arms over what might or might not happen. Alice was a little hesitant to go, but she didn't back out.

Carrie stuck close to Alice, keeping her lighter in her hand the whole time. No sense tempting fate by not bringing it, after all.

Of course, what she hadn't counted on for the rally was someone taking it as a great place to push the "mutants are better than humans" angle, rather than just mutants' rights.

The 'mutants are better' agenda was getting pushed hard, too, harder than Erik would have liked. He stood on the sidelines, just watching and waiting for an opportune moment to speak up. And he knew one would come. One always did. Thankfully, there was no sign of Charles yet.

"Do we want to stick around?" Carrie asked quietly, watching the rally carefully. It wasn't getting violent, yet, but it definitely had the potential, and that was something she tried to avoid when possible.

Alice scanned the area too.

"In a few minutes," she replied just as quietly. "Maybe everyone will cool it a bit soon. If it gets ugly, we can get out of here."

Carrie nodded and watched as a few mutants started arguing. Yeah, this wasn't going to end well, especially if no one stepped in to keep them from fighting.

Not that she was volunteering for that job, hell no.

Alice watched as well, a bit tense and ready to use a shield at a moment's notice.

Erik watched the squabbling for a moment before sighing.

"I hope this isn't how you all intend to get the government to listen," he said, stepping in.

The first few stopped to look at him, some frowning, others curious. Carrie noticed and raised an eyebrow.

"There's one to watch out for," she murmured.

Alice nodded. She'd noticed him, too, and something about him set her on edge.

"He seems like he's about to take charge," she said. "Something about him, I dunno."

"Exactly. He's a leader type. A leader for what, though, I'm not sure." Carrie kept her attention on Erik, even as more and more of the mutants started to listen to him.

"Maybe we should stick around and see what happens?" Alice asked, watching how everyone seemed to calm down a bit once someone had stepped up.