AN: Hey guys. So I wrote this to be a short multi chapter story. I'm planning on three chapters. This chapter might have a couple Age of Ultron spoilers, but not many. The future chapters will have spoilers. I have to add that because the movie has been out for less than a week.
This is a Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver story because I absolutely loved him (although Iron Man remained my favorite)! Read and review, please.
One
Pietro Maximoff was seven and twelve minutes (and his twin sister Wanda was seven) when HYDRA officers marched through the doors of their home and took away their father. They spoke harshly, telling their mother to be glad that her husband was chosen to contribute to his country. The twins hadn't really understood why the angry men would take their father away during their birthday party.
At that time in their native country, Sokovia, HYDRA was an impending force. The base was under construction, only halfway finished on Pietro's seventh birthday, but he couldn't remember a time when it wasn't there.
Daily, the watchmen would circle the streets, knocking on doors and asking for volunteers to take part in Wolfgang von Strucker's experiments. Each day, the young boy would shy away, remembering when his father was taken away. The man had returned the next day, assuring his family that it was only like a new job. He would still be with them.
"You are not serving your country, you are serving nothing more than a highly equipped gang, some kind of mafia," the wife had spat. He only shook his head, turning away and sitting in the corner with his hands pressed to his forehead. He sat that way for hours, but the twins had no idea why he was so sad. Had the angry men hurt him?
Pietro was ten when he realized how different his father was from all those years back. He lost his loving looks, his tender words, and his hopeful gazes. It was all gone. He was as a machine, only coming home or meals and sleep, silent all the time. Pietro didn't know why. When he asked, his mother's eyes grew wide, and Wanda's became curious.
"Shut up, boy," was the response from his father. "Once you have seen what I have seen, you will not ask such questions." So Pietro was forced to draw his own conclusions. He decided that the bad people that his father was fighting had made him this way. But Wanda only stared at her father, as if she was searching for something deep inside and not finding it. She always was quiet, and her mother called her intuitive.
When Pietro was thirteen he decided to try running at school. He went out to the track, and asked the coach what he needed to do to run on the team. The man was thin and muscular, with hard eyes, but behind the hardness was humor. He laughed and told him that for such tiny, wiry little boys, you must prove yourself more.
"You are scrawny, little one, you look to be only ten," the coach scoffed, "So to make the team, you must beat Nicholai in a footrace. You think you can beat him?"
Nicholai was a short, built boy of sixteen, with eyes that danced and energy that radiated from him. He glowed with health and vibrancy. His parents were rich enough to feed him enough and could afford trainers and such. Pietro immediately disliked him.
The two boys lined up on the dirt track, eyeing each other. Nicholai was confident, Pietro was determined. The whistle blew, and the two sprinted off, the finish line within sight. It was no challenge – Nicholai was at the line in thirty seconds, his muscles rippling like a workhorse. Pietro didn't even keep running, just stood there and stared. The coach chuckled, and told the young boy to return when he was a little bit bigger. Pietro left spiteful of all the things he couldn't have.
When Pietro relayed the story to his sister, she asked if Nicholai was kind. The look in her eyes was dreamy, and he immediately set out to destroy her feelings for the boy. He was too old for her, and too rich. But Wanda kept on in her star-struck way, pining for the wealthy older boy while Pietro watched hopelessly.
When Pietro was fourteen, his mother sent him off to find work. He settled for a factory job, spending hours every day filling boxes with dynamite and arms, and loading it into trucks to be shipped off to HYDRA bases. During this time, Wanda continued to go to school, and ended up catching the eye of Nicholai. When she brought him home for dinner, Pietro only glared at him the entire evening, while their mother rejoiced at his wealthy parents and potential. Wanda continued to see Nicholai, and Pietro continued to hate him.
When Pietro was fifteen, he noticed muscles that hadn't been there. His thighs bulged when he walked, and his arms had defined lines and his chest was sculpted. All that factory work had brought him physical strength, and he realized how much he enjoyed the newfound power of his body. He then began to run laps around the city during his breaks, and put more effort into his job. Soon, he was running faster than he ever saw Nicholai run. It brought him satisfaction.
It was a late Sunday evening when Pietro returned home from the factory and heard something that made him want to murder.
Nicholai was shoving his sister onto the bed, calling her a bitch and forcefully groping her. The slurring in his voice made it clear that the man was drunk. In an instant, Pietro had slammed the door to Wanda's room against the opposite wall, storming in with rage consuming him.
The man looked unashamed and confused when Pietro intervened, his bloodshot eyes looking up innocently. Wanda was cowering in the corner, holding her legs up to her chest and breathing heavily.
Pietro had called Nicholai every profane insult in his vocabulary, shoving him down and screaming in his face. Never had he released his emotions like this.
Nicholai continued to feign cluelessness, but fought back against Pietro's attacks. Wanda watched the ordeal with concern for her brother, trying to calm him by placing a soft hand on his back. He only shrugged it off, standing over Nicholai as he stood up from his fallen position against the wall.
As soon as he was up, Pietro punched him back down, until Nicholai no longer tried to get up. The raging boy grabbed him again, and dragged him through the small hallway to the front door. In a moment, Nicholai was lying on the porch, collecting himself.
Pietro threatened him then, warning the man to stay away from his sister, his eyes portraying that his fierce resolution wasn't a bluff. In that moment, all three people realized that Pietro was no longer the little thirteen-year-old who couldn't win the race.
When Pietro was seventeen, a neighboring country decided to attack Sokovia for its land and abundance of natural resources. The bombings lasted for a week. The entire city was shaken and crumbling, and certain sections were completely wiped out. As long as Sokovia's military continued to fight, the bombings rained down on the city.
The twins were sitting at the dinner table with their tired and greying parents when the house was hit. The bombs dropped straight through the ceiling, sending concrete and plaster everywhere. The first bomb hit Pietro's mother and father, who hadn't been quick enough to find cover. Wanda grabbed Pietro's sleeve, pulling him under the bed with her. The two breathed heavily, neither of them registering the events of the last few minutes.
Then a bomb rolled straight in front of them, only a couple feet away from their eyes. It sat there, and the twins couldn't move. They waited for hours, then for days, but the bomb never exploded. They did remember the name in bold letters on the side of the bomb – Stark. He would always remember that name.
It was then, with no place to go and no family, that Pietro and Wanda went to HYDRA's facility at the edge of the city. They offered themselves as test subjects for Wolfgang von Strucker's experiments, the ones they had been hearing about for years. They asked how it worked.
The man explained that it was similar to the old super soldier serum, but no one had ever replicated that formula. He said it was a specific drug. They find your best qualities, and give the drug in a certain way that enhances the abilities you already have. Pietro told them that he was a fast runner, and he had impressive reflexes. Wanda didn't know what to tell the man.
"Her mother has called her intuitive, and she has great strength of mind," Pietro offered, pulling his sister close to him. She melted into his side. The man said that he could work with that. And he did.
Pietro couldn't remember the process. He only remembered throwing open a door and outrunning time itself. He remembered seeing the world in slow motion. He remembered watching a drop of rain fall from the sky, wondering if the serum had warped his sense of time or just enhanced his entire body's speed. He remembered trying to stop, trying to turn off the strange powers.
After a few days of nonstop training from an expert in field of genetic mutation and enhancement, Pietro learned to mentally switch from his normal abilities to his super ones. He learned that it was a mental switch, more so than physical.
He also familiarized himself with Wanda's powers. They were different, confusing, but he learned them inside and out, as she did for him.
They held onto each other, every part of each other, as their only hope. Their lifelines were each other. And they refused to let go.
When Pietro was eighteen, he begged to be sent on a mission, to send the destructive Americans and their allies to hell. He had grown up hating the rich, supposedly righteous countries that held him in bondage. He had always been told that they were the enemy, that they were satan's ambassadors. The country of Sokovia and all its inhabitants believed what HYDRA told them.
Despite his efforts, devotion, and passion, Pietro was held inside the base, along with his sister. They were not ready, the officers said. Their time would come. But they couldn't wait forever.
When Pietro was twenty two, after being kept in HYDRA's base for nearly six years, he decided that he was done waiting. His opportunity came through the Avengers.