Hunting for a Speedster

Life Takes a Turn

Morning's should be banned. When the sun filtered through the window Pietro gently shook me awake and looked at me sadly.

"I have to go Солнце," he whispered as I buried my head in his chest "Please let me." I sat up nodding and gave him one last hug before he crawled back through the window and started getting his stuff together. I hopped out of bed and threw on some gym clothes for the class I was teaching today. Quietly opening the door, I saw that Natasha and Clint were waiting outside Pietro's door with their bags at their feet. Clint saw me and pulled me into a one armed hug and ruffled my hair. I giggled as he picked me up and held me upside down. Over the past couple weeks he's been acting like the father I never had. Some of it's been good, like when I'm venting about how much school stinks. Other parts are just annoying like when I was practicing on the tightrope in the gym and when I came down he literally ranted for ten minutes on my "lack of a safety harness". Overall he was nice guy so I let stuff like that go.

"Tell anyone that you beat us and I will send Captain America down here and personally make sure you get your ass kicked." he said with a completely straight face. I stuck my tongue out and smacked his arm playfully.

"Same goes for me," Natasha said teasingly as she pulled me into a hug "Only I'll send the Hulk instead of Rogers."

"I'm going to miss y'all's humor around here." I said "This place hasn't been this exciting in a long time." Natasha and Clint looked at me sadly and pulled me in for one last group hug until Pietro's door opened and he walked out carrying his bag. The two master assassins gave each other knowing glances and quickly muttered something about pulling the car around, leaving me and Pietro standing awkwardly in the hall. "If you ever need to fake your death again," I said with a small smile "you know where to go." Pietro chuckled softly and slowly picked me up so that my legs were wrapped around his waist and his arms around mine.

"If you ever need anything," he said seriously "call me and I'll find you. I promise." I nodded silently as tears started to slowly fall down my face. "Shh, everything's going to be fine Солнце. I will see you again." He gently pressed a kiss on my lips and just held me in his arms. We stayed like that for who knows how long until we heard a car horn honk outside.

"I guess that's your cue." I whispered as I slowly stood on my feet and backed up. Pietro gave me one last small smile before racing away, his memory the only trace of him.

All through the day I was silent. If anyone asked me a question I just shrugged or did the skill they were asking about. Victory complained that I was like a depressing Cirque Du Soleil performer. Once she saw how upset I was however, she immediately dropped it. After 8 hours of exhausting practice and silence, I decided to do some more late night practice to get my mind off things. I hung upside down on the trapeze, thinking about the past weeks and how ridiculous I had been to think that it would last. Everything was semi normal until a bomb blew the building up.

Fire was everywhere. When the explosion had happened I saw fire shoot out the vent and knew immediately that there had been a bomb. I flipped off the trapeze and darted around the flames, screaming Victory's name in desperation. I ran to her room and screamed when a horrifying sight met my eyes. Victory was lying on the floor with a single bullet wound in her head and a note pinned to her shirt. I didn't have time to read it, I just grabbed her arms and dragged her outside as fire trucks and ambulances raced into the parking lot. Quickly, I scanned the note and gasped when I saw the seal of HYDRA followed by "You'll never escape your past." My past? What in the name of God's green Earth did that mean?! I hurriedly stuffed the note in my pocket as EMT's sprinted over and got Victory on a stretcher and me into a separate ambulance and drove us both to the hospital.