The house looked normal enough, not the home of a major kleptomaniac. Steve approached the house, taking the lead as Tony, Natasha, Clint and Thor fanned out behind him. All of them were in their casual wear, Thor looking awkward in jeans with his hair tied back, but all of them had weapons concealed in every found of clothing and every pocket. Steve paused on the door step, the wood of the porch was worn, the paint worn down to the brown beneath. But the paint looked new, how could it be worn down so quickly? Steve recalled the burn in Shield's vault, it was starting to link up. Taking a deep breath, raised a hand, and knocked firmly on the black door. There was a pause before the door opened barely an inch,
"Who is it?" came a frightened female voice.
"Is this Wanda? I'm an old friend of your Mother's, could you let me in?" Steve asked, they had decided on a cover story in the van on the way here.
"What? She died ten years ago, why are you here now?" she said, suspious,
"We took a while tracking her down, we used to go to collage together."
"Bit young aren't you?"
Steve shifted, "Child genius. Could you let us in, we're very tired."
There was a moment of hesitation before Wanda opened the door wide, letting the group in to the living room. The room looked old, the furniture was well out of date, the carpet was worn down to almost nothing. It was cosey, it had a well lived in feel to it and a smell that reminded Steve of the before the war. The living room connected to the kitchen by just a narrow wall, a set of stairs lead down to a basement.
Wanda followed them, perching on the sofa, nervously. She might once have been pretty in her youth, she had long glossy brown hair that flowed down to her waist, her eyes were the colour of melting chocolate but age had melted her skin in to wrinkles, ruining her figure. "Well, what do you want?" she said a bit to firmly.
Natasha come forward, picking up a picture of three people at the beach. Steve recognised Wanda, a woman who must be her mother and a boy that looked a lot like Wanda only with shorter, silver hair. "Is this your brother?"
Wanda tensed, "Yes, that was the same year he disappeared." She frowned, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your names."
Tony came forward, hands out in a peaceful gesture, "We're friends, my name is Tony, this is-"
At his voice Wanda stood, suddenly terrified, "Y-You! What are you doing here? Why... How did you find me?" she stood quickly backing a to the basement stairs.
Steve closed his eyes, why, oh why, did Tony open his big mouth when he knows it would just get them in trouble?
Tony tried to patch his mistake up, "I admit I was a bit sharp with you, I was concerned with your brothers safety," he out right lied. Wanda was still backing up until her back hit the wall.
"He's not here, he's missing. He has been for 40 years!" She was shaking, almost glowing with anger and fear. "I don't know where he is!"
Natasha cleared her throat, "We aren't going to hurt him, we just want to talk." she said, calmly.
"He didn't break in to the Pentagon! It wasn't him!" She screamed, throwing her arms in the air.
The Avengers glanced at each other, the room filled with a deafening silence, before Clint broke it, saying: "Who told you about that? We didn't mention it."
Wanda broke all pretense, she turned and ran from the living room and down the stairs, yelling at the top of her lungs, "PIETRO! You need to go! Run quick! They're here!"
A small voice answered her, speaking fast and urgently, "What? Who is it? Who's here? Wanda?"
Steve ran to the stairs, by the time he got there Wanda was down to the bottom, still shouting, "Pietro, the window! Go through the window!"
Thor thrust out a hand, his hammer smashing through the front window, "Come on! Out side!"
The Avengers rushed to the door in time to see a boy pulling himself through a small window on floor level. Clint's bow seemed to appear in his hand, his quiver on his back; Nat's guns came from her pockets, Tony and Steve stayed as they were.
"Peter?!" Steve called out to the boy, "Peter?!"
He turned, the whole team froze, amazed at the miracle in front of them. Peter Maximoff was young and skinny, his youthful face alight with a mixture of fear and excitement. His hair was the colour of dripping mercury, he was buzzing on the spot, hyperactive to a point of the impossible. He couldn't be more then 18, the same age he had been in 1973. That was 40 years ago. Tension filled air, so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"What do you want with me? I didn't steal anything! It wasn't me!" he spoke in a rushed, skipping over his fast words with practiced ease.
Tony raised his hands in the same way he had to Wanda, "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk."
A breeze filled the front yard, Peter seemed to flicker, "If you're not going to hurt me, why are there 20 men with guns aimed at me surrounding the front yard?"
Steve frowned, "How did you know that?"
"I just saw them."
"No you didn't."
"Yes I did, then I had time to kill so I moved Wanda somewhere you can't find her." he said, sticking his hands in his pockets. It was then Steve saw what he was wearing, he looked like he had just walked in to a museum and stole some clothes from the 1960's. He wore a shiny, silver jacket over an original Pink Floyd t-shirt, his silver sneakers were new but worn almost through the sole. An old Walkman on his belt completed the image of a bot of out time.
Clint notched an arrow, "What are you talking about? You haven't moved."
Peter laughed, a quick, arrogant bark, "To you, maybe. But you are all so slow, man, slow." his speech was getting slightly faster with each sentence, it was getting to the point Steve could barely make out one word from another. "I would be on the train to New York but I want to know what you want."
"Why did you break in to the pentagon?" Steve asked,
"I didn't, I broke out." Peter rolled his eyes, slouching where he stood, seeming unconcerned about the twenty-odd guns pointed at his head.
"What do you mean? Broke out?" Clint clarified, not lowing his bow. Steve looked over at his college, Barton had become a lot more trigger happy since his possession from Loki, Steve was worried some of the god's murderous traits had rubbed off on him, he didn't want his friend changing in to something like that.
"Brrroookkkeee oooouuuuttttt!" Peter dragged the word out slowly, "I broke out, man. I was in then I was out." he rushed. "This place is dead. And I'm bored so lets cut to the point where you see that you can't stop me doing anything."
He moved faster then Steve thought was possible, turning to a flash of silver. The front yard was filled with a sudden breeze, a dull twang made Steve turn as Clint let his arrow fly, sending it to where the teenager had been last. Steve grabbed his friends shoulder, pulling him round,
"What the hell are you doing? He's just a boy!" he yelled,
Clint pushed him off, "I didn't mean to! Something ran in to me!"
"Me too." came the deep voice of Thor, Steve turned to see him stomped to help Tony to his feet, even as the billionaire strained to examine the burn marks that had appeared on the grass, weaving in and out of the five heroes.
Natasha cleared her throat, "Um, guys."
Everyone turned back to her, she gestured back to the lawn. Peter was standing there, causally eating a hot dog that wasn't in his hand a second ago, in his other hand he was twirling Clints arrow, "So, what do you think about that?"
His hot-dog vanished from his hand, "Don't bother following me, dude, you can't." he said once he had finished chowing, he send one more hyper grin to the avengers before jogging down the path slowly picking up speed before he disappeared in a flash of silver.
Clint whistled, "Wow, that was unexpected. He's fascinating."
With a flash of silver and a bark of cheeky laughter, all Clint's arrows had stuck themselves in a in a "P" on the grass in front of him.
Clint scowled, "A fascinating pain in the arse."
This was one long chapter! I hope you like it, it took me a long time! chapters might come on a bit late, I've got a lot going on! but I will get at least one on a week!
Please review!
Enjoy!