kairos : peter maximoff/quicksilver

6: no metal beyond this point

"Built in sixteen months and completed in 1943, the Pentagon is the world's largest low-rise office building, housing more than twenty-five thousand military employees." The tour guide lady explains as the large group slowly trails behind her down a wide hallway with Charles, Hank, Logan, and Roxanne bringing up the rear.

Roxy is doing her best to keep her pace at a casual walk, when all she really wants to do is skip down the hall, shouting and laughing. This was it! A chance to prove herself, to prove to Charles that she had more than just some semblance of control over her abilities! A chance to do exciting things with other mutants - one of whom was funny and distractingly hot (but she wasn't complaining)!

She hopes none of the tourists are paying much attention to her because she's willing to bet that she's glitching like a buggy video game right now.

Next to her, Hank nervously tugs again at his blue bucket hat which makes her grin. He was the one who suggested the group have some sort of touristy garb, which was the only reason that Roxy was currently sporting a bright red fanny pack with 'I ❤️ DC' across the front.

She was also wearing her own extra-tinted sunglasses - for obvious reasons. Though she didn't feel particularly negative or positive about her unique eyes, they tended to attract attention from the types of people that she'd quite like to avoid: the God-loving, mutant-hating, "we need to purify the human race to protect our future" types. It was just easier that way.

"Wanna swap?" Roxy whispers to him, gesturing at his hat and then her fanny pack. "You keep fidgeting with it."

Hank glances down at her with furrowed brows and then quickly looks away, as if he thinks they will look suspicious talking. "Not because of the hat. I'm just a bit nervous."

"Why?"

Hank sputters. "Um, because this is the Pentagon, Roxanne," he whispers. "What - you aren't at all nervous?"

Before she has a chance to answer, Charles murmurs, "Now."

Logan, Charles, and Roxy silently turn left into an empty hallway, leaving Hank to continue along with the tour group as planned.

"Alright, see you there," Roxy grins reaching for the pocket watch hanging from the chain around her neck, but Charles stops her with a quick hand.

"Be careful. The guards have guns, remember? And wait for Peter in the elevator. You-"

"I know," the girl quips. "You be careful too, Carlo," she adds because she can tell he's genuinely concerned. The argument from earlier is still sour in her mouth, and it's beginning to taste like guilt. Roxy glances at the other man (ignoring Charles' semi-fond eyeroll), but Logan stays silent, apparently studying one of the tiles on the floor. Roxy's stomach twists as she recalls that moment hours earlier in the Maximoff's basement. Fine. She could deal with someone not liking her, even someone not trusting her. But someone being afraid of her? That wasn't good. That meant her worst fear has been realized; they must know what even Charles and Hank and Aunt Min ji didn't really know. What happened to her parents all those years ago... And whose fault it really was.

Roxanne's thoughts are beginning to spiral, so she does what she always does when that happens:

Before anyone can try to stop her, she grabs the pocket watch and clicks the knob on top.

Time freezes, and she's plunged into her own lonely world. Sometimes Roxy thinks she'll never get used to the sensation.

She hurries down the hallway, silently repeating the directions Hank gave her earlier.
Second hallway on the right, through the surveillance room, take the north stairwell all the way down, then first door on the left.

Roxy goes as fast as she can without leaving holes in the floor, hoping that Peter hasn't gotten to the elevator yet. There was no way in hell that she was going to obey instructions and sit this one out. What Charles didn't know couldn't hurt him. Probably. Most likely.

When she gets to the final door, she's relieved to find the Freeze happened while a guard was walking through it - it's so much easier to not have to worry about whether she's gonna rip the door off it's hinges in real time due to the whole 'magnified strength' deal.
Ugh, physics.

Roxy slips through the doorway past the frozen guard and can't help but smile at the scene in front of her.

A menacing sign reads: NO METAL BEYOND THIS POINT

A clueless guard holding a food tray is mid-step inside the open elevator, whose doors have already started to shut, and a blurry Peter is just a few steps behind him. But - huh?

Roxy rushes up closer to the boy, amazed at what she's seeing: Peter isn't frozen. It's like he's moving in super slow motion, like he's running through molasses.

She has never seen anyone - or anything for that matter - able to move during a Freeze. Nothing could ever move fast enough. Until now.
It shouldn't have surprised her; he has super speed, duh. But seeing him in front of her like this, left her a bit shocked. Roxy had always thought her power was a bit lonely. Every time she clicked her special pocket watch, it was like she was suddenly on another planet. Somewhere intensely silent and absolutely still where she was the only thing alive.

But here was Peter Maximoff, defying everything she'd come to accept as possible. Something about that makes Roxy want to either scream or hug the boy.

His shiny, silver hair is blown back from his face which holds an adorable expression of determination and just a hint of a cocky grin. Roxy forces herself to move past into the elevator without doing something stupid like reaching out and touching him, which would almost certainly leave him with broken bones.
And as she watches at him slowly running towards her, Peter's eyes slowly move to her face catching her in the act.

Safely tucked inside the elevator, in the back corner where the guard won't immediately see her, Roxy takes a deep breath, smiles to herself, and clicks the pocket watch. Peter immediately appears beside her accompanied by a whoosh of wind, knocking the oblivious guard's hat off. After he stands back from from grabbing it, he notices the reflected image of a figure in a silver jacket who then grins at him.

The man whirls around, too surprised to even call out at the sight of two kids with him in the highest security elevator in the nation, possibly the world. It's too late for that anyways; the doors already closed with a pleasant ding, and they are descending rapidly into the earth.

Roxy glances down at the guard's plastic nametag. "Hey, Spencer - Spence. Do you mind if I call you Spence?" The man opens his mouth, eyes becoming increasingly bewildered, but the teenager continues.

"Anyways, sorry about this, Spence," she says gesturing at the lanky boy beside her who is now suddenly holding a thick roll of silver duck tape. "You seem like a pretty nice guy, I mean considering you work for the government, but my boy, uh.." She gestures at Peter, who looks at her expectantly. "My boy, Sundance-" Peter quirks a brow. "He's gonna tape you up real quick okay? And I mean, real quick. Don't even worry about it. Alright, go for it, Sundance."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Hey guys :) Hope you're all doing well! I wrote this one in a bit of a hurry

Also have any of u watched the movie Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid? because I'm gonna reference it again & if no one knows what I'm talking about, I'll feel silly lol

Anyways, got any predictions? Thoughts, feelings, concerns, outbursts? Haha thanks for reading & leaving comments, guys. They make me smile every time, & I try to reply to all of them!

- charlie 👑

PS: I know that technically, the general public doesn't really know about mutants until after the events of Days of Future Past, but I briefly forgot about that lol. So just pretend that it isn't super common knowledge, but some people know & there are still a few mutant hate groups out there