Caffeine Rush (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 4: You Didn't See That Coming?

I raced through the streets, on my way back to my apartment when I noticed something a tad peculiar. Looks like the Avengers had come out to play, most of them I had only noticed after doing a double take and making a sharp u-turn. Auntie Wanda was sitting at an outdoor café with a baseball cap and sunglasses on, Steve was walking down the street with the White Wolf, looking at street vendor's merchandise, Clint and Natasha appeared to be window shopping, and Tony . . . was signing autographs in the middle of the street, needless to say he had been the one to catch my attention. Why did that not surprise me? Like, at all.

They didn't come into the city very often after moving their main base upstate, but the tower—to my knowledge—was still active, so I guess it was possible that they were just here for leisure. Or they might've caught word that I was running about at super speed saving people. I mean there was that spiderboy in Queens that worked with them occasionally, so they could be here to see the kid, but I didn't think it took more than one Avenger to do that.

In my world, the Wolf Spider was a teenage mercenary for hire who worked under the White Wolf to keep organized crime in line on the east coast, but they didn't involve themselves in word-saving—or ending—endeavors. The White Wolf of this world appeared similar in that way and was clearly still dangerous, but was far more reclusive, I had even heard he had woken up from a two year long coma a couple months ago after being severely injured during his African posting but hadn't really been seen or heard from since. As for this world's Wolf Spider, I hadn't seen or heard much of him aside from the fact that he appeared to be a few years younger than me, was not a mercenary, and sometimes appeared on the local headlines for walking grannies across the street or stuff like that. But jumping universes messes with your sense of time and my aging had never been quite normal to begin with so it was hard to determine my own age, let alone compare it to others, I figured I was about twenty two in this universe.

Now it was decision time. Do I reveal myself again? Should I approach while wearing my suit? Should I let them see my suit? Ah shit, this was harder than expected. I shrugged to myself, why not? My impulsiveness was feeding on my curiosity about how they would react to seeing me in my suit, encouraging me to show off . . . and I could feel myself giving in more by the second. When in doubt, follow the impulse. That way at least something gets done, even if it wasn't well thought, instead of remaining stagnant. I couldn't stand things that didn't move, or didn't move fast, and I certainly refused to be one.

I hopped in the group by Tony asking for autographs and when he finally got to me, he paused but then took it in stride. "Cosplayer, right? Trying to one-up my suit, are you? Trying to be a cooler version of me?" He chuckled as he signed an Avengers poster and handed it to me.

I laughed along with him, vibrating my vocal cords so that my voice couldn't be recognized, "there is only one version of you that is cooler, and that's only 'cause he's evil." I could see a note of wariness creep into his eyes. "What's the matter, Tony? Don't want to hear about Superior Ironman? You shouldn't worry too much, he doesn't have the ability to travel between universes."

He cleared his throat, a false lightness in his voice as he asked, "what was your name again?"

"Didn't I tell you already that you can call me Rush? Thanks for the autograph!" I winked and ran off, hearing him curse behind me and shouting for the others. Ooh, did we have a chase on our hands? I did love a chase, but there was no way they could keep up without a speedster. I made a loop around the block and casually joined their huddle, which they didn't seem to even notice until I spoke up, "sooo, too fast for you? Should I slow down?"

Before they could react with anything other than surprise, I moved with lightning speed, literally running circles around them. If I slowed down, I was sure that Widowmaker—no, Black Widow, wrong universe—would (try to) put a bullet in me, and I wasn't gonna give her that opportunity. Of the Avengers present, she and Auntie Wanda were the only ones whose weapons were remotely fast enough to be effective, and I was counting on Wanda being too shaken up by my speed to do anything about it. "Oh come on, slowpokes, if you wanna catch me, you gotta do better than that! I'll even limit my speed to 300, whaddaya say?"

Steve looked to Tony and asked, "do you even have a car that can go that fast?" Tony shook his head.

I paused in my running, arms crossed and pouting. "I miss Velocity, she might have been evil and trying to destroy the world and all, but at least she could keep up."

"Who the hell is Velocity? Did I miss something?" White Wolf asked Steve.

"Oh right, wrong universe, I've been in this one long enough that you'd think I'd be able to keep it straight, but differences in doppelgängers are a real pain in the ass to keep track of." I leaned back so that I could make eye contact with Wanda, well, the best I could through my mask, and wiggled my fingers at her in the Maximoff fashion, "Hey Auntie!" Turning back to the group, I smirked, "you didn't see that coming?"