'Everything…feels weird,' It felt as if my breathing was a lot more even and calm than before, not the heavy breathing that a man of my size was used to.
It was not just static as it felt like there was a constant rush of adrenaline flooding through my body and yet, I felt as calm as ever. There were a few aches in places I did not expect and aches missing in places that I was waiting for.
Even my muscles were twitching sporadically and rapidly and my entire body felt like it was shaking like a junkie that has not had a high in a couple of days, but there was no pain from the twitching whatsoever.
"How goes the projects?"
'Who's speaking?', I thought as I opened my eyes, wincing at the stabbing headache I felt while looking at the room around me.
"Surprisingly, two out of the 34 subjects survived the process. We are dubbing them Project Scarlet and Project Quicksilver."
'Where's my room?', My eyes flickered to and fro at the at the grey dull walls with one of them having a large metal door. A bed was off to the side, roughly made up with the pillow lying lopsided. Long lights buzzed overhead just a bit too loudly for my liking while a glass window ran along the upper part of the room.
The people behind the window were not visible as I could see nothing but darkness, but if I focused on the glass itself, I narrowed my eyes as I could feel the vibrations coming from the other side.
'Wait, vibra-Argh!', I gritted my teeth as another flash of pain went through my head, feeling as if the pain was right behind my eyes and at the back of my skull at the same time.
"Project Quicksilver is showing extreme neural reactivity and function. His reflex response is higher than that of even the best of our agents and the muscle tissue damage he had from the experiment is already reknitting at an accelerated pace."
'Again, that Project Quicksilver shit. What is going…on…?', I trailed off as I caught sight of my face in the mirror on one of the walls, the face reflected from it looking as surprised to see me as I was to see it.
White hair, gaunt cheeks, tired eyes that were still sharp and had that look of shock in their eyes.
'Who is tha-?', I went to rush over to get a closer look, but my eyes widened as pain flared in my chest, falling to the floor wheezing for air as my stomach churned.
"…Vitals spiked. Subject has shown a burst of speed from 0 to…163 mph in a second. Beginning sedative proto-"
"No," I rasped out, hearing soft gasps over the intercom before struggling to my hands and knees. As I did so, I gritted my teeth as I felt another stab of pain before I gasped as memories flashed through my mind.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Pietro, are you sure we should do this?"
"Yes, sister. If we do this, we'll finally have the strength to fight against the Americans and Stark."
"…Okay, but we'll have to be careful."
"Come now, Wanda. Have you known me to not be careful?"
"Yes. That's what I'm saying."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
'I'm…I'm Pietro Maximoff and the MCU version from the look of it,' I thought as I stood up, struggling a bit and stumbling with the muscle memory of my old body.
Using the wall as support seemed to help, but it was not long before I winced again, watching as the past 25 years of my life flashed through my mind like a movie.
There were some that were faded and some that I could barely recall, but for all intents and purposes, I was now in the body of a man that was supposed to die during the Age of Ultron movie.
'And it's 2015, which…is next year? Holy fuck, I'm going to di-No! No, that was old Pietro…or old me…or another version of-Fuck! Okay, keep calm,' Taking deep breaths to calm myself and fight through the pain of the headaches, I felt an ache in my shoulder followed by a sudden static shock through my spine.
Yet, as I looked up, I watched as everything slowed down, from the sound of the lights flickering above my head to the vibrations behind the window to even the fly in front of me.
'Wait, am I…?', I slowly began to walk forward, one foot dragging through the air like dead weight while the other felt like it wanted to launch me through the wall and out the other side.
It was a bit hard as my brain wanted to move left, but my body was already on the right side, flickering like the signal had come too late for me to register…or too early.
Each step afterwards felt like I was walking around normally and I narrowed my eyes as the lights above dropped an octave. The fly still in the room went from slowing down to hovering mid-air, its wings visible to my eyes as they moved once every second.
The vibrations behind the window were now throbbing slowly like a heart slowing down and I moved back over to the mirror, looking at my body in it as it twitched and flickered before I blinked.
All of a sudden, I winced as soft booms echoed against the walls of the room, the sound returning making me jump before I spun as I saw a spiderweb crack appear on the mirror.
A second later, pain flared through my body, but it felt dull, like my pain receptors had been cracked down and heightened at the same time.
"Subject is entering unstable phase. Prepare for sedative protocol," I heard the intercom say before spinning on my heel as a sharp hiss echoed behind me.
The world was slow once again as I saw the needle descending through a tiny hatch in the ceiling watching it already aimed at me before I moved.
The next thing I knew, I found myself smacking harshly against the wall, but this time, I just fell to a knee with my entire body trembling, watching as the needle stabbed into the spot where I previously was.
"Initiate full lockdown! Lock the chambers and cells! Release the sedatives now!", In an instant, the lights went from a dull white to a blinding red as alarms rang through the air.
Watching as more and more hatches opened on the ceiling, my eyes were wide as they all aimed at me, a voice echoing in the air as I was beginning to panic.
"Pietro Maximoff. Code Name: Project Quicksilver. You are to stay still and do not move. If you do, we will take action."
'Okay, Nov-No. I'm Quicksilver now. Okay, Quicksilver. You stay here and get experimented on or you run out and fi-Wanda. Right, find Wanda,' I thought as I sat still, which they most likely took as a sign of me surrendering.
The doors to my room opened with a hiss before it was pushed open, a group of men in heavy-duty riot gear entering with their guns before the one at the front spoke.
"Okayyy~", The world went to a crawl as I lunged forward, making sure to slide past the group as I watched their eyes slowly widen right as I grabbed the door and slammed it shut behind me.
The hallway was filled to the brim with scientists in a panic and agents aiming their weapons at the door as I continued running, pushing past everyone I could while running to where I could feel a presence.
I don't know how to explain it, but the vibrations made by this presence felt chaotic yet soothing, like it was calling out to me to come find it.
Zooming through the hallways, I felt addicted to the feeling of true freedom as I slowed down when I approached the room, grabbing onto the door to stop myself before blinking as it opened.
The sound was blaring in my ears as I slipped into the room, immediately raising my hands as the figure in it pointed a glowing scarlet hand at me before she looked surprised and dropped her hand.
'Wait, why do I look like my MCU counterpart, but she looks hott-No, she's your sister now, Pietro, though, I am all for that 'Keeping the bloodline pure' st-Nope! No, no lusting after your sister.'
"Pietro?", She whispered, her voice soft yet still audible over the ringing alarms. Even with her gown wrinkled and her hair a mess, she still stood strong as her eyes glowed an eerie scarlet, her feet bare on the cold metal while her hands shook even with the energy covering it.
"Wanda," I spoke, her name sounding foreign to me yet so familiar as I nodded.
"You're…you're okay? They..they told me you weren't waking up," It took me a second before my mind translated her words and I smiled before nodding.
"Woke up just a few seconds ago. Head's still a bit scrambled, but…I'm okay," I answered and for a second, the two of us just stood there. Then, like a switch, her cold look dropped and she rushed forward.
A soft grunt escaped my lips as her arms wrapped around me, staggering and catching myself against the door before I held her tightly. My entire body was trembling and it was not from fear. No, it was from the sheer shock of feeling her warmth flooding through my form and the warmth of brotherly love making me shed a tear as I tightened my hug.
She was now clinging to the only person she had left in this world…and she didn't even know that she lost him to a foreign soul.
'I'm not Pietro…and yet I am him at the same time. I may not be the brother you once had, Wanda Maximoff, but I swear…I swear I'll be the brother you deserve.'
"Are you really okay? You're shaking", I heard her whisper against my shoulder and a breathless chuckle escaped my lips as I nodded.
"Kind of hard not to when it feels like I got Kofola pumping through my veins instead of blood," I answered, hearing her giggle softly as she pulled back and looked me over, her head tilting.
"You…feel different. Like…younger? Or maybe it's just your hair? No, it's your eyes. They look…"
"Like lightning dancing in my eyes?", I asked, watching as she gave a smile and nodded before I finally remembered the situation we're in.
"Oh, we'll have to leave right now. The alarms are going off and it's only a matter of time before they actually try other means of subduing us."
"Where will we go? You saw the weapons they had. They'll never stop even if we run."
"Then, we don't just run. We're the Terrible Twins of Sokovia. We burn everything down and take what we need. Just like Novi Grad?"
"…Just like Novi Grad," She nodded in agreement as the glow around her hands and in her eyes intensified, a smile growing on my face before I crouched down and turned my back to her.
"What's with this?"
"I want to make sure everything goes smoothly so I want you to climb on and hold on tight for your life."
"A piggyback? Really?"
"Wanda, please," I spoke, looking back at her as she looked at me before sighing and nodding. Climbing onto my back, she wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck, looking over my shoulder while I ignored the feeling of her nipples rubbing through her shirt against my back.
'Gods, I was a horny bastard before and I still am now.'
"Okay. Now, tuck your head down and this will all be over."
"Must you be so cocky?"
"Hey, I'm the oldest of us two. I have to protect you," I answered with a shrug, hearing her sigh before she nodded and hid her face in my neck. Exhaling slowly as I felt the vibrations drawing closer, I ignored the flashes of pain in my body as I took a deep breath and the world slowed down once again.
Crouching down, I let my hands brush against the cold floor as I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly and feeling the vibrations crawl over my skin.
'I can feel. The vibrations in the light's drumming, the twitching energy in my body, the static crawling across my spin, the pounding of my own heart and hers against my back. I…I feel it,' Opening my eyes as the world was now slower than before, I pushed off the ground and lunged forward with everything I had.
To the world around us, we were nothing but a silver-blue blur, arcs of scarlet energy trailing in our wake as I felt Wanda's energy lashing out in instinctive bursts and leaving only destruction behind us.
My feet barely touched the floor as we made the first turn, my eyes already mapping out the corridors ahead thanks to the vibrations I could feel throughout the maze of hallways HYDRA calls home.
I felt the ripples before I saw them, gunfire erupting around the second corner and my body jerked left. I felt free as I zig-zagged in erratic patterns, watching the bullets pass harmlessly.
I don't know how, but Wanda's energy was able to snap up a shield to block a few bullets I couldn't dodge, her energy retaliating with crimson hex bolts that shot forward and tore everything asunder.
'Faster, Pietro! Faster!', I grunted as I ran even closer to the ground, now nothing more than a bullet as I raced through the corridors and made sure to get every little corner of the facility.
It was not long before we turned the last corner, my eyes wide as I caught sight of a door almost about to close fully, quickly picking up the pace before sliding under and through to the outside.
Without stopping, I hopped to my feet and rushed off again, ducking low and weaving through the crowd white-garbed HYDRA soldiers still aiming their weapons at the doors.
It was only after minutes have passed and I saw the snow beginning to fade that I slowed down, coming to a stop next to a tree while gasping for air as Wanda hopped down.
"Pietro!"
"I'm…I'm okay. Just very…very tired," I murmured as I sat down, taking deep breaths to keep myself from passing out. Even the act of breathing made my body scream, feeling my muscles twitching a bit too hard or my joints locking for only split-seconds before they snapped back into place.
"Should we rest?", She asked and I shook my head, looking back where I heard the alarms blaring dozens of miles back in the direction we just left.
"No. No, we need to move. Get back on," I spoke, to which she looked concerned even as she hopped back onto my back. Taking a deep breath, I hopped a few times before shooting forward, a determined look in my eyes as I made my way to the first sign of civilization.
And just like that, we were free.
A/N: And this is the intro to The World Between Heartbeats. Like I said in the Thor story, no Infinity Stones focus on this one.
Well, there will be since that's the entire premise of the universe, but we're not hunting them down. Instead, we're stuck as Pietro and we need to find out (A) how we got here and (B) what the hell we're going to do now.
That second one is more important because even I don't have the timeline figured out all the way.
…Eh, we'll have a timeline by next week.
Anyway, next chapter: HYDRA attacks and Magic Teacher for Sis?
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next chapter,
Welcome to The World Between Heartbeats~