Not her boyfriend
She took one more deep breath before opening the door.
As she stepped out of that lovely family home, her thoughts went back to Peter, the stranger she met the night before. She wished she had the time to have breakfast with Peter and his mom. She wished she had the time to properly say goodbye to him and lie about having some urgent matter to tend to. She wished she had stolen his wallet when she had the chance, cause now she desperately needed money to get out of that town and all she got was this lousy t-shirt.
There’s not much she could do about that now. It was too late to go back inside.
Upon stepping out of the door, she was greeted almost immediately.
“Your boyfriend has a nice house” Said cocky Tracker, sunglasses resting on his ugly face as he leaned against one of the vans.
It was actually a really nice house. Simple, but it had that homey feeling to it. It felt cosy. From the inside, it felt like a warm hug. It radiated such a good energy, like you could tell someone grew up there. It had history. She wished she could have a nice house like that someday. And a family to fill it with. But she was many stolen wallets away from that dream. And she had to deal with Tracker first.
“Not my boyfriend” She said sternly as she walked down the pathway that led from the front door to the sidewalk.
“Oh, so I still have a chance” Now was not the best time to puke, so she just scoffed
“In your dreams, Tracker”
“Oh believe me, we have plenty of fun in my dreams” Something about Tracker always made her feel like throwing up every time he opened his disgusting mouth. Perhaps it was the fact that he was just generally gross.
“Hey babe, what’s going on?” Peter asked as he closed the front door behind him. Dammit, Wanda.
“Hey bro, hate to brake it to you, but she just said you’re not her boyfriend” cocky Tracker on it again.
“Peter, get back inside, please” Her eyes looked like a plead.
She could deal with those guys, she had done it before, but Peter? He did not need to be there and the last thing she wanted was seeing him get hurt. This was not his fight, it was hers. One she’s fought alone for the longest time.
But neither that creepy guy’s commentaries nor hers were convincing enough to make him step away. You didn’t have to be a genius to tell that something was off. If it wasn’t obvious by the way Summer was staring at that big mouthed weirdo, the little army in white jumpsuits made it quite clear a fight was about to break out. He walked until he was beside Summer and placed one of his arms across her shoulders.
“What do you want?” He asked Tracker
“To take your girl home”
“I’m not going with you!” She practically shouted, letting Peter’s arm fall behind her as the anger in her voice made she jerk forward.
She then took one step ahead, making sure she was covering Peter with her own body, or in the very least trying to. Peter thought it was cute of her to worry about him like that. She really did not know what he was capable of.
“Maybe not willingly.” Tracker added “People never come willingly” With that, every man dressed in white pointed those massive guns towards Summer.
Directly to Summer. Not even one of them was pointing to Peter. He wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t the target. That was a first for him. Peter was about to reach for her arm, to yank her out of there. He had no idea what she was thinking, provoking armed man like that. Whatever it was that those guys wanted, the odds weren’t on her favour. And frankly? He thought it was absurd that she was trying to protect him on top of it all.
He was the one that had saved the world once before. He was the one with ‘secret magic powers’.
But apparently, Summer had her secrets too.
She stomped her feet on the ground and a wave of ‘air’ came out of it. Once it hit Tracker’s crew they all went flying into the air, vans and all. Not flying aggressively as if an explosion had just hit them. Flying slowly, as if they were floating mid-air.
“nice.” Peter let out, barely louder than a whisper. So she was like him, and her powers seemed kinda cool. He was impressed. And slightly turned on. And maybe in love.
“That trick is getting old, Gravity” Tracker called out, involuntarily doing a flip in the air. She usually didn’t mind the nickname, but it felt like an insult coming from him.
In a fraction of a second, Peter sped up to catch a bullet right before it hit Summer in the neck. Somehow one of those bastards was still in a position to aim and shoot, even though he was floating in the air. Peter still had the time to analyse the projectile, it was more of a tranquilizing dart than a proper bullet. The message was clear: those guys wanted her alive.
“Careful, babe” He said, holding the dart right in front of her. It took her a moment to process what just happened. When she realised, she looked at him and smiled like he just got automatically ten times hotter. He liked that look.
So he was just like her. She really did not saw that one coming. And his powers - whatever they were - enabled him to catch bullets. Yep, she was impressed. And slightly turned on, but now was not the best time for that.
“Want me to take care of them for you?” He offered with a seducing smile. She wasn’t sure what he was capable of, but she really wanted to find out.
“Go for it!” Her hands were already stretched, palms facing down. As she lowered her hands, the guys, and the vans, slowly got down from the sky.
As soon as they hit ground, Peter had no time to waste. Actually, he had all the time in the world, he just didn’t felt like wasting any. He knocked everyone out, one by one. Some with punches, some with their own darts; Opportunities such as that one weren’t very common for him, so he liked to get creative when he had the chance. He finished off by placing one of the guns in Summer’s hands and placing Tracker kneeling down right in her line of shot. That was the cherry on the cake.
“Saved this one for you” He whispered from behind her. Tracker looked at the gun in her hand, then at all his friends on the floor. The look of pure fear on his face was priceless. Summer wished she had a camera on her.
“Goodnight, Tracker” She said with a smile, before taking him down with a tranquilizing dart that was initially meant for her, the irony of that alone made her smirk.
She dropped the gun to the floor and kicked it to the side uncaringly, she was disgusted by it. Then, she took a moment to appreciate Peter’s work of art. Nine men, passed out in the floor in less than a minute. What a beautiful scene. And what a man.
“We need to talk.” Peter said.
“We need to clean the street” She countered, without even looking at him.
Peter took care of filling one of the vans while Summer filled the other. She made the unconscious men’s bodies float mid-air, pushed them in the direction of the van’s doors and watched as they slowly made their way there. Peter, on the other hand, simply carried one body at a time and placed it inside the van. He could have done it faster, but then he would have to wait for her, so he was just doing things in normal/boring human pace.
As the bodies floated slowly, but surely on its path, Summer took a moment to appreciate how surprisingly strong Peter was. There he was, lifting grown men’s bodies like it was nothing. Someone just got eleven times hotter.
After they were both done filling out the vans, Peter pushed them both to the neighbouring town. He also hid the vans separated from one another in different sides of the town. That would buy then some time. It took him less than a minute to do all that and come back.
When he got back, he found Summer sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for him. She thought about leaving, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to go far. Peter was fast, he would have caught up to her eventually. Fuck, he must have so many questions on his head now. And this time, she felt like he actually deserved some answers. He saw the man in white jumpsuits and he even met Tracker, her secrets didn’t get much worse than this.
“My mom made eggs and bacon.” The sound of his voice made her look up, only then realising he was back. There was an inviting tone to his voice, enough to make her get up and follow him inside.
Her shower thoughts proved to be right: Magda did make a lovely breakfast. There were eggs and bacon, as Peter promised, but there was also a short selection of fruits, cereal and hot coffee waiting for them. Magda and Wanda, however, were nowhere to be seen, and for that she was glad. She did not know if they saw what happened. She was scared to know what they would think of her if they did. Overall, she was just straight up embarrassed that those bastards came to that lovely family’s home looking for her. She may not have had the most honourable intentions going in there, but she never meant for anyone to get hurt.
Though Magda and Wanda weren’t present, Peter and Summer were not alone in the room. There was also and giant elephant, weighting the atmosphere and desperate to be addressed. Peter’s mind race with a thousand thoughts per second while Summer tried her best to enjoy that fake peace and quietness that had surrounded them. She knew it couldn’t last long.
“Who were those guys?” Peter decided to break that not so comfortable silence. “And cut the ‘pass’ crap”. She took a sip of coffee and a deep breath before responding:
“The one in the sunglasses was Tracker. The other ones I don’t personally know; they never take their helmets off anyway.”
“What they wanted?” He sensed she was trying to steer off the questions, he was not having it.
“What he said.” She said taking another sip of her coffee “Take me with them”.
“To where?”
“I don’t actually know.” She sighted “Some sort of high security facility I guess” another sip “They kept me stuck there since I was eight and now they’re pissed off because I ran away”
“You ran away?”
“Yep, about a month ago” She smiled at the memory. “It was, Tracker’s fault actually.” She felt much joy in the fact that she was running free because Tracker made a mistake.