Picture is Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver in Avengers: Age Of Ultron by Marvel Studios.
Music is "Waking Up" by M83 from the Oblivion OST.
All rights go to their rightful owners.
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"I have no place in the world." ~Natasha Romanoff
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Pietro and I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what could have caused the blue portal that formed, and why the lightning struck. It's kind of hard to research when you don't even know what it is, what caused it, or why it showed up. Not very scientific.
I groan, leaning my head back on my pillows. I rub my temples, closing my eyes. We've been in my bedroom since it's the most comfortable.
"Are you alright, Glory?" Pietro asks, looking at me from the other side of the bed. This is the longest he's sat still, other than sleep. He must have a lot on his mind, for his cross-legged position hasn't changed for at least an hour. He keeps glancing at the photograph that dropped from the sky.
"No, not really," I say. "We've been doing reading for three hours and what do we have? Zilch, zipo, nada, nothing." I close my laptop that's opened to many different websites, looking at everything from wormholes to ancient mythology on the fricken Bifrost. None of it explains, describes, or even comes close to what we witnessed.
Pietro puts our research down and comes closer to me. He leans his back on the headrest and holds his arm out towards me. I gladly scoot over to him and curl up in his warm arms. "We will find the answer, Возлюбленная," he whispers.
I run my fingers along the back of his hand and feel the slight static of the touch. "You really want to go home, don't you?"
I feel him nod. "I miss my sister." He sighs. "But I will miss you, too. I do not know what to do..."
I make a grumbling noise and hide my head in his neck. I never knew how much a superhero would mean to me. How much I'd care about him.
"Would you like it if I went with you?"
"Would you like it if I stayed?" he replies, implying that there is no happy medium here for this... friendship.
"No," I sigh. "Let's figure out a way to get you home, then we'll figure out what to do. Okay?"
Pietro nods, and tilts my face up towards his. "Do not worry, Возлюбленная. It will all be alright."
We smile at each other, and I hop up. "Have you gotten a shower?" I walk towards my dresser and scuffle through the top drawer.
"Yes. I got one while you were out with your friend."
"Well," I glance him over, finding him in the same clothes he arrived in. "You need new clothes. Here," I toss him a black T-shirt and jeans from the drawer, "these are all I have. Sometimes my friends from school stay over. These are Vlad's, but he won't mind."
Pieteo catches the clothes mid-air with super speed and smirks. "What, why would I want to wear your old boyfriend's clothes, hm?"
I bellow a huge laugh. "Vlad neither was, is, or ever will be my boyfriend. He's more of a bodyguard."
Pietro nods, almost looking relieved. "Well, in that case, they cannot be that bad."
I turn around to organize the drawer I'd just messed up, then five seconds later, I turn back around to find Pietro almost completely changed. He's pulling down the new shirt over his very fit, very attractive body.
I turn around before he looks up, blushing madly and walking towards the door. "Where should I out these clothes?" Pietro asks.
"Um... hamper. There's a hamper by the uh... by the closet." I point in the closet direction without looking back.
I hear Pietro mumble, "Ну, то, что имеет свой язык?" and my English mind wonders what it means.
I go back for my laptop, and I print off one of the professors that we found that might have some knowledge of this phenomenon.
Professor Matthias J. Mortimer, M.D. Expert on quantum physics, quantum mechanics, and renowned astrophysicist from Maryland University. It's only a short drive from my city, and he is free for questions on Sunday and Monday at the University campus.
Whether or not he will believe us, that is the question.
Pietro comes out, fully dressed this time (sadly), and I show him the name and address. "We need to see this guy."
He reads the address, and without saying another word, picks me up and runs at full speed towards the University.
We get a couple blocks out when Pietro starts to slow down. "What is it?" I ask, thinking maybe he needs to ask something or get something.
"That is not me," he says, almost frantic. He comes to a stop, and puts me down. He tries running at full speed again, only to slow to a hundred miles an hour or so. It might still seem fast, but for someone who can run at the speed of sound, that is very slow.
"Pietro," I say, worrying. "What's wrong?"
"I do not know!" he exclaims, frustrated. "I cannot go any faster, no matter how hard I try!"
I place a hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. His eyes are starting to turn the bright blue again. "Calm down, Pietro. Let's go back and get my car. I'll drive us to the University. Something tells me we need to figure this out soon."
Pietro's eyes fade back to pale blue as he nods.
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"Mr. and Miss Northern?" the Professor's secretary calls us from the waiting room and gestures us towards the door. "Professor Mortimer will see you now."
After we're out of earshot, Pietro gives me a funny look with one eyebrow raised. "What?" I ask. "Quit freaking me out. Lots of people have seen the movie lately. I didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention. More than you're already getting," I grumble.
"What unnecessary attention?"
I roll my eyes. "Seriously? That secretary looks like she was gonna eat you alive. Didn't you notice?"
"Sorry, I was focused on you."
I paused, taken back. "Well, that's what happens when you out an attractive guy in front of air head girls."
"So you think I am attractive?" he asks, teasing me.
Extremly.
We continue through the door to the Professor's office. "Ah, yes!" An elderly man, probably sixty or so, ushers us in. He has hair the color of Pietro's, and his whacky clothing catches me off guard. He wears a purple dress shirt with a orange coat and tan pants. A purple and green polka dot bow tie brings the whole outfit to a ten on the what-realm-are-you-from? scale. "Come in, come in."
"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice," I tell him. "We have lots of questions."
"Sure, sure. Do you take any of my classes," he asks. "Hmmm, no. You," he points to me, "don't look old enough. You," he gestures to Pietro, "might be."
"I am not from around here," Pietro says, honest in more ways than just one.
"Ahhh, Russian?"
"Sort of."
"That's actually what we can here to talk to you about, Professor."
And then we explain everything. Pietro's true identity, where he's from, what we know about how he got here. We showed him the picture that fell through last night, I showed my research so far, and Pietro showed Professor Mortimer his super speed, which has been fading still.
Surprisingly, Mortimer believed fairly easy. His wide-eyed curiosity opened his heart to hear our ridiculous tales. After the sort of speedy demonstration, he was completely sold.
"This explains everything," he says, walking up to his giant chalkboard that stretches around over half the room. Most of it is filled with equations.
"What does?" I ask.
Mortimer goes up to his board and starts writing furiously. He draws one circle high up and one down below. "As you've seen in most movies, an Einstein-Rosen bridge is the technical name for a wormhole. They connect one part of space to another. Instead of going the long way through space and time, the Einstein-Rosen bridge folds time and space so that they're close enough to jump through. Understand so far?"
We both nod our heads.
"So," he points to the top circle, "this is Pietro's world, "he points to the lower circle, "and this is our world. Two things are needed to make this," he connects the two circles with a small tube. "You need wormhole conditions and a burst of energy.
"With wormhole conditions, a simple burst of energy could open the wormhole. It wouldn't he hard at all, but the wormhole conditions are so rare, and cannot be man-made. Not in the world, at least. On yours?" He turns to Pietro.
Pietro shrugs. "I do not know of any such thing, but Tony Stark is very ahead of his time, and with the help of such people as Dr. Richards, Thor with his Bifrost, Vision with the Infinity stone, Steven Strange and my sister's magic, along with his power source, the Arc reactor, who knows what they may have done."
Mortimer nods. "Magic. Lovely. Well, if they were to create wormhole conditions and add a burst of energy from perhaps Mr. Stark's Arc reactor or the Infinity stone, they may have created an artificial wormhole. I've never heard of a wormhole connecting dementions, realities, but I suppowe it's possible."
My eyes widen. Could they have done it?
"Then why have they not tried to bring me back, or why did they send me in the first place?" Pietro asks.
Mortimer folds his glasses and places them on his desk. "Maybe they were trying to resuscitate you, and there happened to be wormhole conditions. If they tried to bring you back with an form of high energy with that nearby, you would have dropped here.
"Another possibility is that they thought maybe by sending you somewhere else, you would enter a new body here. That may be true, actually."
"He dropped in my front lawn," I say. "No new body was created. I saw it with my own eyes."
"You wouldn't notice it. Have you been slowing down? Finding it hard to maintain the same speed you had in your world?" he asks Pietro.
Pietro node back at him. "Yes. Just today I could not reach above one hundred. You think my body is changing to fit this reality?"
The Professor frowns and nods, sadly. "I'm afraid I may be correct then. It may be weeks, may be hours. No one knows. No one has even heard of this."
"Will he be able to go back if he stays any longer?" I ask, worried.
He nods. "Yes. He may not run fast at first, but slowly his body will adjust to the other world, just like he did here." Mortimer sighs. "There may be one last possibility of how you got here."
"What?"
"Tony Stark may not have been the one to bring you here. Maybe another force, something more sinister, did."
"Thanos," I whisper.
"Who?"
"Thanos. Very bad guy. Maybe he brought you here for some reason." I look up to Pietro, who has the same, stressful eyes that I do.
"He cannot be that horrible," Pietro says to me, attempting to comfort me.
"You didn't read the comics like I did," I whisper.
"Now now, let's not jump to conclusions," Mortimer says. "It's not good for my health," he jokes.
"How can we open the wormhole from this end?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Well, if the right conditions happen here, I will know. Did any form of power hit the portal when you saw it?"
I nod. "Yes. Lightning."
"Perfect! A storm could hold it open enough for two maybe more people to jump through. Perhaps if they try to reach you again, while the portal is at it's peak, jump through. I can't tell you it'll work 100%, but it's a good shot. I'm around 88% sure."
We pause, taking in the information. He said he's 88% certain that it will work and Pietro can get home. He's also 12% sure that something could go wrong. He might get lost, he might cease to exist, he might end up on some other reality where aliens have invaded and mutants and humans are slaved and marked-
Oh, wait. That's Days of Future Past.
"Here's my phone number," he writes down the number and hands it to me. "I always answer, and if my machinery picks up any disturbances, I'll call right away and guide you through what to do if you wish to get home. My secretary has your number."
I nod. "Thank you, Professor Mortimer." I look to Pietro. "Look, you can't tell anyone about this... or him."
Mortimer smiles. "Are you kidding? I won't tell a soul. This proves I've been right about the Einstein-Rosen bridge and alternate realities all along! I know something only three people in this world know." He grasps one of my hands in his, shaking it gently. "Thank you for showing me the truth."
END CHAPTER SEVEN
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Russian words:
"Возлюбленная."
English translation:
"Sweetheart."
Russian words:
"Hу, то, что имеет свой язык?"
English translation:
"Well, what has her tongue?"
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Hey guys!
Sorry for the information, but it was needed to understand what will happen next. Don't worry, this story won't end anytime soon. In fact, for a little spoiler, Pietro may or may not be the only person going back home... >:)
Just going to leave that out there.
Love and Light,
~Save_Pietro_Maximoff