SUPERSONIC ▷ QUICKSILVER !

GERONIMO. ₅

a/n: hello, yes. i am author, and i am alive, and to anyone still reading; please, do not kill me. 

'well we rushed to it/moving away too fast/that we crushed it/but that's in the past/we can make this leap' — geronimo, sheppard

"Hey, welcome. You're not the first weirdo so I'm not that shocked. Make yourself at home. I've got some Twinkies and a few Diet Cokes over by the counter, if you want any. Don't touch my Pacman machine though. Not like you can beat my high score or anything."

Pietro was getting a headache from this kid. It was possibly because he was so used to the rest of the world being slow that he found it weird to find someone at par with his speed. Sitting up, he stared at this silver blur going back and forth on the tennis table; Pietro then began to process the other boy's words.

"Wait, did you say I'm not the first?" Pietro asked. "Oh, yeah, you're not the first." the silver blur said, still not stopping. "There was a girl that dropped out of nowhere, too. Red-ish hair, grey eyes. Total babe. Few days ago, maybe. Told me to watch out for any other people popping out of black holes. Ya know her?" Pietro could barely catch a word of what the other boy was saying. Annoyed, he stood and dashed in front of the stranger, the two of them colliding and falling on to the floor with a simultaneous 'ow!'.

It was the first time that Pietro got a decent look at the latter. He had light grey hair (somewhat similar to his), a silver jacket and a black shirt advertising Pink Floyd. Pietro figured it was a band of some likes. The look on the opposite's face was of pure awe as he stood, grabbing Pietro's arm and pulling him up with him.

"You're fast, too!" the boy said excitedly. "How'd you get fast? Wanna race? Did you know that you can—"

"La dracu," Pietro cursed, putting a hand up to his forehead. "Can you calm down for one minute and tell me your name?"

"Peter Maximoff, at your service."

Pietro blinked once, then twice. "You're kidding." he said, his voice coming out a bit hoarse. Peter shrugged. "This must be some cruel joke. I do not like this game Florea is playing." Pietro groaned, rubbing his temple in distress.

"You know her? You know the hot chick?" Peter said excitedly. "The 'hot chick' is my girlfriend," Pietro snapped, to which the other boy mumbled something under his breath. Pietro found his breath catching at the label 'girlfriend'. It wasn't exactly that yet. God damn it, Flor. You didn't even give me a chance. 

"Well, she told me about you. Not exactly. I mean, she told me you'd be coming. And that you'd have to take me along." Peter chirped eventually, rushing to grab a backpack. "I've already told my mom about it and I guess she's fine with it, like, instead of just staying here in her basement all the time I was supposed to go to this school for mutants but I guess I can work with you. Are you a mutant? Is that how you got super fast? Mine was from my dad~"

Pietro tuned out the boys insistent babbling, drinking in his surroundings. This was far from anything that seemed to be normal. 

"Do you know Tony Stark?" Pietro asked, cutting through the opposite's rambling. "Tony who?" Peter asked. "No. But I know Tony Hawk, and Tony Bennett, and Tony Gilroy, and Tony--" 

"Okay. That's enough." Pietro snapped. "You're awfully mean," Peter offered, plopping himself on to his couch with a slight expression of disappointment. "The girl, Flow? Florea?, she was nice. She said you'd be nice, too." 

Something was tugging at Pietro's chest, this concern outweighing the pesky boy who asked too many questions and assumed too many assumptions. "How was she?" he found himself asking despite himself. 

"She came here all battered, and tired. Few weeks back." Peter said solemnly, as though talking about Florea was something he knew he should slow down about. "She stayed a while. About two or three days. Then she left after telling me to look out for you, I guess. Said you'd help me if I helped you. Never did say where she's going."

Pietro let out a hiss,  collapsing on to the floor. He chose not to listen to Peter's chorus of "hey are you okay are you alright are you fine do you need medicine", trying to gather his thoughts. A matter of days. That was all that stood between him, and Florea, and this strange place that, possibly, didn't exist in the dimension where they ought to have been. 

The band on Pietro's wrist began blinking. It was Tony's way of contacting him, a reminder that he was going to be pulled back to reality. "I have to go." Pietro said gruffly, standing abruptly. 

"Are you taking me with you?" Peter bubbled, standing as well. "No." Pietro responded, turning his back to the boy.

"Wait!" 

Peter zoomed around the room, coming to a stop in front of Pietro. "For you." the previous said proudly. He held out his hand to show what he held in his palm, and Pietro froze. 

It was Florea's silver necklace. 

Pietro made a mad grab for it, to which Peter held it away from his reach. Peter tsk-ed, wagging a finger at the other boy. "She said not to give it unless you take me. She said to not say a lot of other things, unless you let me come along with you." he sing-songed, and Pietro found a string of Sokovian curses burst from his mouth. 

"O-o-o-o-kay, I have no idea what you just said, but I can figure that they weren't at all nice," Peter smirked. The beeping on Pietro's band was growing more adamant, which meant that he would be pulled out of that alternate universe anytime now. Peter, from the opposite side of the room, merely continued to smirk. "So, quickie. What's it gonna be?" 

[ . . . ] 

"Holy shit. Who the hell is this?" 

Pietro's brow furrowed as Peter crashed, unconscious, next to him. Tony stood over the two with a look of absolute confusion and vexation. 

"A pet." Pietro spat. "Keep him for a while." 

Before Tony could react, Pietro had stood and made his way out of the lab with Flor's necklace feeling as though it was burning in his pocket.