Spark

11

Tommy Shepard was bored. Billy's room, the one he shared with other kids, left little room for self expression or personal belongings. It was bare past the necessities, and Tommy was growing increasingly bored by the lack of things to interact with. Tommy didn't have items to his name either, so he didn't have anything to bring along or go retrieve.

Tommy wanted to go out into the world, but Billy had brought up several times that Tommy would be actively hunted by the police for the next several weeks. Tommy knew he was right, and had to hide out for the upcoming days, but that didn't diminish his boredom any more.

Tommy was left to experiment with his newfound powers. While Billy was panicking over his, Tommy was having a blast exploring the limits of what he could do. Tommy had boiled his powers down to super speed, the ability to make one or more of his body parts move at incredible speeds for a duration of time with little to no effects on the holder. Tommy did his research on the internet about what someone with super speed should be able to do.

So far, Tommy had tried to draw something with his speed, and that only made the paper rip in half while smoking. Tommy attempted to spin real fast in a circle, but he kept falling over and crashing into the ground. Tommy tried just running, but there wasn't enough room to have a real experience with his powers. It was the equivalent of Tommy being given a toy but not any space to play with it.

When Billy was at school, Tommy found himself reading the textbooks of all the kids that lived there. Tommy understand only half of what he read, but he was learning some new things by his speed reading, going through the textbooks in seconds. While satisfying his needs for a few seconds, the aching of boredom began to rise in his system again.

Tommy was saved by the head mistress of the place entering the room. She knew that Tommy was temporarily staying there, and Billy was able to convince her that Tommy was meant to be there and wouldn't cause trouble. The head mistress fell victim and soon was feeding one extra mouth. "A man and woman wish to speak with you."

Tommy tilted his head, wondering who would want to see him. He vaguely wondered if it was the police, or other government officials, but he recognized the woman as the lady he met at the Stark Industries party at Avengers Tower. Instead of wearing a red dress, she was dressed in a black off the shoulder shirt with long gray leggings that went smoothly into knee high brown boots and a gray beanie over her hair. The man was wearing a science pun T-shirt with jeans and tennis shoes. They both looked around with anticipation.

"I'll leave you three. Thomas, be nice," the head mistress said, walking out of the living room while closing the door. That left Tommy alone with two people that he didn't know, and he wondered if he could get a kitchen knife with his speed before they noticed. Were they friend or foe? Did they want to hurt him?

"Thomas, hello, my name is Wanda Maximoff, and this is my friend, Peter Parker. We're here to speak to you and your friend, William. Is he here?" The woman asked with a smile, raising her hand for Tommy to shake, with his decision being to ignore the hand.

"Billy isn't here. He's still at school, but I, Tommy, am still here. Is there something you needed?" Tommy asked, his breath hitching in his throat. Why wasn't Billy here to deal with this? Tommy knew that he was going to say something stupid, and mess up everything by having the Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man get revenge on him.

"There is," Peter said, taking the lead before Wanda blurted out what could have been the truth to this young boy. If Wanda was wrong, than this child didn't need the burden of thinking he was a part of Wanda's fantasy family. First, Peter needed one thing to be proven to him, one thing that would be the last definite piece of information that he needed to have faith in what Wanda was proclaiming. Billy and Tommy had the genetics of Wanda and Visions, and they had the looks of the Maximoff twins, but did they share powers like their ancestors?

Peter held a pencil inbetween his fingers, lifting the orange tinted writing tool forwards before launching it at Tommy with his spider enhanced speed. For a normal human, the pencil would hit them in the face, hard enough to leave a bruise because of the speed. Only a telekinetic or speedster could halt the incoming doom.

Tommy felt the world slow down, just like it did when the bullets were approaching him just a week or so ago. Tommy looked at the dart that was flying towards him, wondering why a pencil was flying at him. He stepped to the side, watching the thin projectile land in the wall behind him. Tommy knew time had started to speed up, everything returning to normal.

"I told you!" Wanda said, pulling Tommy in for a hug. The speedster couldn't react properly, so he hugged the woman back, a little touch starved from the childhood and time spent in isolation. Peter smirked at them both, the gears in his mind working out how Wanda had a son that was only a few years younger than her.

"Tommy, this may sound insane, but I'm your spiritual mother. You have my genetics in you, not Frank or Mary's. You look like my deceased twin brother, and you have the same powers as him," Wanda explained. "Billy is like your spiritual brother, with a genetics code different than yours but close enough to mark you two as twins."

"That can't be true," Tommy said, looking for the hints that this was a trick. Finding none, Tommy went reeling back. While his parents were never there for him, did that mean that they weren't his parents? Could they have found him, even though neither wanted a child? Tommy didn't know how, but he knew that this woman was right. "But I believe you."