An Adventure Paved In Silver
I don't know where I'm going
But, I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises
In songs of yesterday
An' I've made up my mind,
I ain't wasting no more time
But, here I go again
Here I go again
Tho' I keep searching for an answer,
I never seem to find what I'm looking for
Oh Lord, I pray
You give me strength to carry on,
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a hobo I was born to walk alone
An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
I'm just another heart in need of rescue,
Waiting on love's sweet charity
An' I'm gonna hold on
For the rest of my days,
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a hobo I was born to walk alone
An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
But, here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go...
An' I've made up my mind,
I ain't wasting no more time
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a hobo I was born to walk alone
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
An' here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a hobo I was born to walk alone
An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time...
But, here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go,
Here I go again...
Pietro sat with his eyes closed, arms folded, tapping his foot in tune with the music as he, Lucy, Mr Harper and Legano were sat in the ship as it was flying to their destination of which Pietro was still oblivious to. Lucy tapped Pietro on the shoulder to get his attention as he took off his headphones and looked at her.
"We're here." said Lucy as Mr Harper walked past towards a window as Pietro and Lucy stood to follow suit.
"Where are we?" asked Pietro looking out the window.
"Knowhere, a mining colony that also acts as a makeshift port of call. It is said that Knowhere is the severed head of an ancient Celestial being and is being mined for bone, brain tissue, and spinal fluid which is highly valuable. It has no rules or regulations making it a safe haven for delinquents and the undesirables of the Galaxy." said Mr Harper as the three stared as they approached Knowhere.
"Think of it as Mos Eisley from Tatooine." said Lucy as Mr Harper stepped away from the window.
"Unfortunatley we have not been able to make you a proper outfit in time for this assignment Mr Maximoff so I'm afraid you will have to make do as you are." said Mr Harper to Pietro who was wearing a long sleeved blue rashguard, white handwraps, black tracksuit bottoms and white sneakers as they flew through Knowhere with Pietro staring out taking it all in.
Pietro was wandering around the streets of Knowhere by himself before eventually tapping on the earpiece he was given.
"Can you hear me?" asked Mr Harper.
"Yes I can hear you." replied Pietro.
"Good, be careful you're in a very dangerous place, be on your guard until the mission is complete. We cannot be certain that someone else won't be listening in so from here on out for the duration of this mission we will be using codenames to refer to eachother, your name will be Quicksilver, I will be referring to you as that from now on."
"Quicksilver?" repeated Pietro, then Lucy perked up over the earpiece.
"Yeah do you like it, I came up with it myself, what do you think?"
"It's alright, sounds kind of cool I guess, Is that the best you could come up with?"
"Yes it is, you should have heard the other suggestions that were being thrown around Rapid Blaze, Swift Speed, Dash Force, Jetstream..."
"Jetstream sounds pretty cool."
"There was also Swiftness, Sprinter, Typhoon..."
"That's a good one as well."
"Point is Quicksilver is the best we could come up with..."
"Are you two done?" Mr Harper interupted and Pietro and Lucy both spoke up at the same time.
"Sorry."
"We will be here in the ship running tech and analytical support." said Mr Harper.
"Then what do I call you?"
"Call me George, I'll be George." said Mr Harper.
"Is that your first name?" asked Pietro.
"No it is not nevermind that" said Mr Harper before Lucy spoke.
"My name will be..."
"Duck." Pietro interupted.
"Duck? Why Duck?"
"Cause you never shut up." said Pietro mouth curled with a smile.
"What! that's an awful thing to say. Tell him Mr... I mean George."
"Capital idea Quicksilver, now can we please get on with the mission."
"Yes Sir." said Pietro.
"Right, your objective is to acquire on object. It is not far from your current location." said Mr Harper.
"Okay, what am I 'aquiring' and from who?" asked Pietro starting walking in the direction of his objective.
"You are to acquire a small black and red box and you shall be acquiring it from Taneleer Tivan- the Collector. He likes to collect all manner of things from around the Galaxy, fauna, relics and different species that kind of thing. Getting the box from him shouldn't be too hard as there was an explosion at his museum a few months ago with much of his collection destroyed, he is currently rebuilding his museum and restarting his collection but he is still in possesion of the artifact we seek." said Mr Harper as Pietro came up to the entrance.
"Okay I'm at the entrance, there doesn't look like there's any security here." said Pietro.
"Very well then, go in and retrieve it."
"Acknowledged." said Pietro. He walked in through entrance and walked quietly through the ruined and charred hallway until he came to a doorway to a large room, suddenly he could hear voices. He presses his back against the wall next to the doorway to avoid being seen and to listen in on the conversation.
"Tivan we appreciate you calling us..." said a female voice.
"Yeah better late then never." butted in a male voice.
"But we wish you had called us sooner, we could have dealt with this a lot quicker." said the female voice trying to carry on ignoring the interuption then a different male voice speaks.
"Yeah this place blew up months ago..."
"Which I have you to thank for." replied a voice which must belong to the Collector.
"I Am Groot."
"Yeah Groot's right, it ain't our fault your slave had enough of you and tried to blow us up and take us with you."
"So why tell us about the Aether now." said the woman.
"These Infinity Stones are more trouble then they are worth. I want it gone."
"I don't think so, you're holding out on us, if that was the case you would have gotten rid of it months ago but you decide to do it now and you called us to do it, so what gives Tivan?"
There was a long pause so Pietro peeked out from the edge of the doorway to see who was there and how many of them of them were there to see a man, a woman with green skin, a large man with grey skin, a talking racoon and a giant tree... Alive and moving, gathered around in the centre of the room around a table with a black and red box.
'That must be what I'm here for.' thought Pietro waiting for the right moment to speed in, grab the box and speed back out.
"There are rumors that Thanos wishes to recover all the Infinity Stones and I do not wish to be in possession of one when he finds out about the Aether so take it to the Nova Corps or to the edges of the Galaxy I don't care as long as it's not here" said the Collector who turned around and walked away as the other five turned around to face his direction and walked away from the box by a few paces, Pietro saw his chance to grab the box but before he could act a Woman hanging from a wire attached to her lower back sped down to the box grabbed it and started to go back up again.
"Oh no you don't." called Pietro who ran and grabbed the woman as the wire carried them both up towards the ceiling.
"What the hell?" Pietro heard below as he focused on holding on to the Woman to avoid letting go and the increasing drop as they stopped at a platform connected to the upper floors.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" shouted the Woman who Pietro could now get a good look at. She was human with shoulder length red hair with a head band whilst wearing a leather jacket and leather trousers.
"I need that." pointing to the box.
"Sorry hun finders keepers, losers weepers." said the Woman trying to punch Pietro who dodged it easily, the woman then threw a knee aiming at Pietro's midsection but Pietro blocked it with his forearms, she then threw another punch but Pietro ducked under and pushed her front first against the wall then tripped her so she fell backwards and landed hard on the floor.
"Sorry about this" Pietro said, picking up the box and started running, he ran back down to the ground floor and nearly made it out of the door but it was suddenly blocked off with tree branches completly covering it, he quickly turned around only to see the racoon pointing a gun him with the others stood behind him.
"Alright idiot, hand it over nice and easy." said the racoon aiming at Pietro's head.
"Let me rip one of his arms from its socket, teach him a lesson about what happens to thieves." said the big man in grey staring intensely at Pietro.
"Seriously dude, thats a bit overboard don't you think?" said the human.
"Not at all."
"Will you idiots shut up, okay dickwad last warning." said the racoon. Before Pietro could respond, in the corner of his eye he could see the woman from the platfom throw a grenade.
"Oh shit!" shouted the human as it detonated. Pietro instinctivly covered his ears with his hands dropping the box, it was so loud it was overwhelming as he collapsed in agony as did the others. The Woman made it down and jogged over to the box picking it up and running out the now clear door. Eventually when the pain finally started to subside Pietro made it to his feet with his ears still ringing.
"Quicksilver? Quicksilver are you there?" asked Lucy over the earpiece.
"Not so loud" said Pietro barely hearing his own voice due to his ears still ringing.
"What the hell was that? she threw a grenade and suddenly it became so loud-."
"She must have used a sonic grenade, she couldn't have gotten far, find her and get it back." said Mr Harper as Pietro ran out the same door the woman left only to see the big tree on the floor whimpering in pain he looked around to see her running away passed the now developing crowd she quickly turned her head to see Pietro and started running faster. He chased after her delicatley moving around the crowd and easily catching up with her, twisting her arm causing her to drop the box for Pietro to quickly catch it and shoving her against a nearby wall holding her there.
"How did you catch up to me so fast? What the hell are you?" the Woman winced.
"Again sorry about this." Pietro said too focused on inspecting the box whilst holding her against the wall and didn't see her taking out an electric baton with her other hand and hitting it against his thigh electrocuting him, forcing him to let go and fall backwards briefly passing out or a few moments he groaned as he struggled back to his feet to see the woman shaking out her arm and reaching for the box with the other.
"What! you should be unconcious no human can take a shock like that."
"Really? How about an enhanced one?." said Pietro struggling to stand up straight wincing as he does so only to be knocked flying by a shoulder tackle by the big grey man who gave a big hearty laugh and land on the ground riddled with puddles of mud. The big man reached for the box but the Woman thrusted the baton up under the mans chin electroctuting him and sending him collapsing backwards into the mud before picking up the box and jogging away past where Pietro landed.
Pietro struggled up again ready to chase after her again only for the racoon to jump on the back of his neck and upper back and scratching away at the back of his head as he cried in pain twisting around in circles and reaching around to grab him by the tail.
"Ahh! not the tail, not the tail." cried the racoon who then bit down on Pietro's hand to have him let go of his tail. Pietro screamed in agony letting go of the tail but the racoon's teeth were sunk into his hand as he shook his hand with super speed to shake the racoon off but he still held on so Pietro slamming the racoon against the wall twice before he finally let go and sunk to the ground. Pietro looked around whilst shaking his hand and tensing it to relieve the pain before jogging in the direction that the Woman ran off in eventually to find the Woman in leather fighting the other Woman in green, he saw the box on the floor near where they were fighting but before he could make a grab for it he was knocked over from behind by the human man back onto the puddles of mud, groaning as he stood up again.
"Listen dude I'd rather no-." before he could finish Pietro sped up, picked him up, carried him then threw him through a pile of stacked containers.
"About time I threw someone around for a change." said Pietro out loud and turned around to see the green woman take down the woman in leather. They looked at eachother then the box, they both made a grab for the box but Pietro was a lot quicker as he grabbed the box, tripped the green woman to land on her back. Before he could speed off the racoon jumps on his back again and Pietro runs around in circles to shake him off but the racoon had his claws deep in his shoulders. This distraction gave the human enough time to throw a container in Pietro's path who was too focused on shaking the racoon off to see it tripped over the container and with the speed he was running at landed on the ground hard.
"Rocket you okay buddy?" asked the human picking up the box.
"Yeah fine I ju-." the racoon couldn't finish his sentence before throwing up.
"Yeah, good to know buddy" said the human giving a thumbs up then turning around to check on the green woman only for the woman in leather to stab him on the forehead with her electric baton whilst he screamed in agony before passing out and collapsed backwards, the woman then picked up the box before turning to Pietro who was struggling to stand back up.
"Thanks for the help handsome couldn't have done it without you but I need you to take the fall for this" she said about to stab Pietro in the chest with the baton.
"I AM GROOT!" shouted the tree as he burst through and using one of his arms to extend and knock the woman over with it sending her flying into a nearby wall knocking her out. The tree then turned to Pietro and grabbed him, wrapping his whole upper body with one enlarged hand and lifting him into the air and holding him in front of the trees face.
"I am Groot" said the tree he then winded his arm back to throw Pietro but several lasers hit him in the arm causing him to let go of Pietro who fell back down on the ground. He looked up to see Legano holding a laser rifle and shooting at the tree until both his arms were shot off and then shot him in the chest sending the tree to land on his backside.
"Come on, grab the box and lets go, they're waiting on the ship for you go now!" shouted Legano as Pietro looks to the box but sees the big grey guy now recovered from the electric shock earlier. Pietro runs up to the big guy and punches his him on the chin as hard as he could turning the mans head around but he looked back at Pietro unaffected and spat out a tooth, grabbing Pietro who hesistated for too long and shocked that the punch didn't affect him by the neck and lifted him into the air choking him before dropping him back onto the ground hard as Pietro coughed after having the wind knocked out of him.
"Quicksilver he's too strong matching him power for power, strength for strength would not work in your favour." said Mr Harper over the comm.
"Then what do I do?" coughed Pietro shrimping away from the big man who was walking towards him.
"Remember your Boxing training, one power punch will not do it so use your speed and accumulate your attacks to wear him down." said Mr Harper as the big man stood towering over Pietro.
"Finger to the throat means death" said the big man making a throat cutting gesture before bending over to grab him by the neck again but Pietro recovered and used his speed to dodge the mans hands by diving through his legs and used his speed to run back at the big man and kick him in the back of the knee forcing him to take a knee, Pietro then used his speed to punch the big man from several angles to the head and the body and the occasional kick and knee to the body. After thirty seconds Pietro stopped, took a deep breath then took a step back, the big man stood up and took a tired swing at Pietro who dodged under it easily and ran behind him and kept running to give him space only to run back and jump hitting the big man with the hardest superman punch he could throw staggering the man again who turned around and took a knee, Pietro sped past him kept running then turned around and ran back at him the jumped, hitting the man with the hardest flying knee he could do finally knocking the big man out as Pietro stood over him, bent over with his hands on his thighs taking deep breaths.
"If you're finally done playing around can we go now?" said Legano gruffly as Pietro grabs the box and speeds off back towards the ship. He gets on it and hands the box too Mr Harper as Legano finally caught up and they take off and leave Knowhere.
"Well congratulations are in order Mr Maximoff, not only did you retrieve your objective but you took on the Guardians Of The Galaxy and won, with some timely assistance of course." said Mr Harper looking to Legano who was setting his rifle down.
"The Guardians Of The Galaxy?" asked Pietro sitting down and Lucy sitting next to him with a first aid kit to tend to Pietro's hand.
"Yes a group of misfits that came together to stop a Kree fanatic a while ago it appears they were there for the same reason we were."
"What about the other woman?"
"She was an unknown factor in this mission but you handled it very well, her name is Mira she's a thief and a bounty hunter, a very good one."
"Never heard of her sir." said Legano.
"She's one of the best not the most famous." said Mr Harper then a thought clicked in Pietro's mind.
"Hang on you said she was an unknown factor but you didn't say that about the Guardians, you were expecting them?"
"We had reports that the Collector had contacted them to take the Aether from him so we expected there to be a confrontation. It wouldn't have been much of a challenge if all you had to do was run in, take the box and run out again, we needed a challenge for you to put your training to the test and even with the unforseen event of Mira's arrival you did very well, now not only have you shown you can work efficiently in the field but we have gained a valuable asset in the process so very well done Mr Maximoff." said Mr Harper.
"Yeah and the way you and that Mira were going back and forth, it was very James Bond." said Lucy with a smile whilst tending to Pietro's hand before looking up at Pietro's blank face.
"...And suddenly I know what our next film marathon will be." said Lucy looking back down to Pietro's hand.
After they arrived back at LADON HQ, after Mr Harper sent Pietro away to get some rest and ordered Legano to securely store the Aether he walked alone into his main office and made a holographic call to which an alien purple woman answered.
"You may tell your master that his investment has retrieved the Aether." said Mr Harper evenly standing straight with his hands behind his back.
"Yes my master has heard. Our sources report that he took on the Guardians Of The Galaxy and won, my master requires his presence immediately, he wishes to see what his investment has wrought. He also demands you bring the Aether as well."
"Of course my dear Nebula it shall be done." said Mr Harper ending the call, walking to his desk, pouring a glass of bourbon then standing by the window staring into space.
Hope you enjoyed the action in this chaper there will be more to come. Please drop a review if you like what you're reading so far.