Stand As Heroes » Quicksilver

chapter two

02 x still a fighter

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"Training session, come," Pietro coaxed, trying to nudge me off the couch.

I no longer did well sleeping in my room, or at night, for that matter. Instead I frequently ended up falling asleep on top of Pietro, while we were watching movies (usually Star Wars). No one mentioned it, though I knew they worried. It was obvious. Their expressions didn't change back to normal fast enough, after I managed to wake up.

No one was here this time, except Pietro, though his presence alone was beginning to become painfully obvious. "Are you gonna push me off the couch if I don't get up?" I mumbled, blinking up at him blearily.

His electric blue eyes shone down on me, a crooked smile tugging up his lips. "I know you have been pretending to sleep for at least ten minutes. So . . . yes." He gave me another shove to further illustrate the point, but before I could fall, I twisted just enough to land on my feet.

"Terrible boyfriend," I reprimanded, attempting to flatten my hair as I stared down at him. "Absolutely awful."

Before anything else could be said, he too was on his feet, swooping mine out from under me and speeding away. By now I was so used to seeing the world as a blur that I was surprised to find things moving normally when he wasn't around -- it didn't bother me.

(Which was good, because there were too many other things in the world that did.)

Soon enough I was in my room, presumably left to change. I changed quickly, though he was already knocking on the door as I was trying to squirm my arm into the sleeve of my Goldstreak costume. "Stop showing off!" I shouted, straightening myself before tying the sash around my waist. I flung the door open with a little too much of a flourish, and soon enough found my smile widening to match his.

"You are too slow," he told me for what likely was the thousandth time, before we were off again.

Soon enough we were stopped and in the training room. I refrained from making a sound of surprise when I saw Bucky and Natasha within, instead plastering a smile onto my face and waving slightly once I was on my feet. "So training, huh?" I asked, albeit pathetically.

"Figured it was a good way to get you on your feet," Natasha said, looking over me knowingly. "Besides, you've been out of practice for a few weeks now. It can't hurt."

"It should help," Bucky added, before anything else could be said.

I nodded before I could hesitate. Second-guessing myself wasn't going to get me anywhere in this life, so why not just go for it? (I mean, I could think of a few reasons why not . . . but I wouldn't allow those to surface.) "Let's do this," I smiled as much as I could. "What training exercise did you set up?"

"Target attack and elimination," Bucky answered. "Less obstacle course, more blowing stuff up."

Pietro was already grinning in excitement, though once he caught sight of my detached look, his expression wavered. "Come, you will do great," he assured me in a quiet voice, reaching down for my hand and squeezing it once.

I nodded once, and as Natasha moved to start the simulation, I couldn't help but wonder about this training exercise. Would I really be fighting the simulation . . . or would I be fighting myself?

I didn't have time to consider all the things that could go wrong before the simulation was running. Several of Stark's stunt-bots emerged from the wall panels, and began attacking from various angles. Most of them were armed, but a handful went in for a more physical attack, two automatically going for Natasha while three of them rained down fire on Pietro and I.