Running Out » Quicksilver

chapter twenty four

Six.

"I know," my voice was hoarse despite myself, and I could feel my hands heating up in anticipation. "I don't- I don't know what's going to happen."

Five.

I felt him sigh because of our proximity more than I actually heard it. His arm tightened around me, and soon he was holding me with both arms, his chin resting on the top of my head.

Four.

"We will be fine," he said quietly, his accent as noticeable as ever, his voice soothing.

Three.

"You'd better hope so, Road Runner," I said then, closing my eyes and doing everything in my power not to hold my breath. "Because you owe me a date at a giant toy store with a giant floor piano."

Two.

He laughed, and in that moment, all my fears fell away, and I felt myself relax. The beeping was louder and faster than ever, and I just knew-

One.

Silence. The beeping had stopped. At first I wondered if maybe I had died and just not realized anything had happened, but then I realized I could still feel Pietro's arms around me, and I could feel my body switching back and forth in flux again. My eyes snapped open and zoned in on the death ray, still intact, and a wild grin claimed my entire face.

I whirled on Pietro, shouting in joy, and for one instant grabbed him and pulled him down in a fast kiss, before jumping up and down, hollering and shouting, "We did it! It's off! We freaking did it!" in utter delight.

Pietro laughed along with me, holding one of my hands as I bounced around him in circles, absolutely enthralled by this first major victory. Before I could go accidentally flying out of the ferris wheel, he pulled me back to him and looked me in the eyes, "Yes, we did it. Really though, you did it, and I am very impressed," he grinned. "Now . . . did you want to go celebrate with the other Avengers, or were you planning on floating to what you call cloud nine?"

I laughed loudly at that, absolutely incapable of stopping myself from smiling. "The other Avengers it is," I assured him before giving him a wink; "I'm already on cloud nine, thank you very much!"

And before he could ask me what exactly that meant, I phased us through the bottom of the carriage and flew us down toward the others. Their surprise and delight was immediately evident, and when we landed I gave another few excited jumps, still grinning proudly. "It's stopped! We did it!" I laughed, overjoyed, as Wanda embraced her brother, then me. Clint ruffled my hair and Bucky squeezed my shoulder; Steve saluted me, Thor high-fived me, and Natasha even stepped up and pulled me into a fast hug. Sam shouted, "Atta girl, shortstop!" while Vision applauded, and Stark stood there in his suit, shaking his head and smiling in what had to be disbelief.

That didn't stop him from saying, "I knew you could do it, short stack."

Everyone ignored him though, in obvious favor of celebrating our victory. I could see Bruce coming down the ramp of the jet across the river, and I waved at him, though I doubted he could see me. My face was starting to hurt from how much I was smiling, and I was loving it.

As Wanda and Pietro jabbered at each other in Sokovian (with Natasha on the sidelines, chuckling and conversing with Vision), Clint and Bucky were telling me how they'd all seriously freaked out, and hadn't even realized Pietro could do something so crazy as climb up a ferris wheel until he'd done it.

Meanwhile, Tony, Thor, and Steve went off to the elevator. I could see them in my periphery; they'd sent Sam off to the jet to move it to this side of the river, wherein I watched them and Bruce transferring the disabled death ray onto the jet (into what looked like a cargo compartment) before also removing Layne Killian from the carriage.