Widows Farm, Saint Petersburg:
"Thank you," I spoke with a soft smile as I took the cup of tea from the Widow who handed it to me, the tanned woman giving a smile and a nod back.
I know she was probably faking it since she was trained as a spy as was almost every single woman around me as I sat waiting in a chair outside the house.
Nat and Yelena had gone inside to talk to Melina, leaving me outside under the supervision of dozens of Widows that were half-busy with their work and half-spying on me.
'Oh, sweet. Nice,' I thought as I took a sip, softly humming before relaxing back in my rather uncomfortable chair.
Then again, the only chairs I can compare it to is to the magical rickety chairs of Kamar-Taj that felt like I was sitting on a cloud and Tony's expensive chairs that probably cost a few grand.
"Um, Mr. Maximoff?"
"Oh, please. Just Pietro. It's not like I'm that old," I replied as I took another sip of my tea, looking to the younger ginger ex-Widow that had spoken with a slight Scottish accent.
"Right. How did you and Natalia begin dating if we may ask?"
"You certainly may," I nodded, putting the cup on its saucer with a hum. "As for how we met, it was kind of a little bet between us. If I lost, I had to take her on a shopping trip with Tony Stark's bank cards. If I won, I got to take her on a date. As you can see, I won the bet."
"And what were the parameters of the bet?" Another ex-Widow asked, this one a bit darker-skinned with cute dreadlocks as I turned to her.
"Oh, I had to run over to the other side of the Andromeda Galaxy, pick up the Asgardians and their spaceship there before running them back here to Earth."
"...Seriously?"
"Seriously. Let me tell you, running through space and crossing across intergalactic borders are not fun," I spoke with a shake of my head, not missing their bewildered looks as they glanced at each other.
Huh, I managed to knock the socks off more than just the one Black Widow. Am I a god or what?
"Well, how did you manage to breathe?" the Scottish ex-Widow asked again, looking as though she was trying to comprehend just what she heard.
"Molecular Vibration mixed with Quantum wave riding," I explained as I took another sip. "I can vibrate my atoms so fast that I pass right through solid matter and I found that if I ride the Quantum wavesI am able to see thanks my time in the Quantum Realm, I can create a localized pocket of atmospheric pressure around my body."
"So, you...can create your own oxygen tank?"
"Yep, and since it's a localized pocket around me, I can simply filter out any bad elements that touches my pocket while pulling in everything that I need to continue breathing. Of course, I can't exactly stay up there indefinitely since I still need to eat, sleep and do everything a regular human does."
"For the record, he is not lying," I smiled as Nat walked out of the house, a grinning Yelena and a frowning Melina following after. "I know it sounds...incredulous to hear, but I've seen it happen. Numerous times, in fact."
"Well, it's not my fault I'm a godly being in human form," I replied as she walked over to stand behind my chair, closing my eyes with a soft sigh when I felt her fingers comfortably sliding into my hair and massaging the top of my scalp.
"Ugh, can't you two keep it in your pants?"
"No, I can't. Also, for the record, he can vibrate everything."
'Huh, Nat is...a braggart and a cocky person when it comes to her boyfriend? Good to know,' I thought as I opened my eyes, amused at the gag Yelena let out as well as the intrigued looks of the Widows.
With a smirk, I opened my mouth and vibrated my tongue at high speeds, pulling it back in with a chuckle as Nat swatted my shoulder. She still had the smirk on her face, though.
"Don't tease them."
"Just showing that you're telling the truth," I replied before looking to an amused Melina. "So, we're just missing one family member, right?"
"Right, and the last thing his location was pinged was on the side of Klyuchevskaya Sopka."
"Let me guess. To climb an active volcano before Captain America could?" Nat muttered with a knowing tone and I snorted as Melina nodded.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"When last was his location pinged?"
"Ten seconds a-Just now," she corrected herself and I looked up at Nat as she nodded.
"Go get him, but first, talk to him before you bring him back."
"Gotcha," With a hesitant sigh, I pulled away from her fingertips and finished the rest of my tea, handing the cup to Yelena before turning to Melina. "Which direction?"
"Straight East from here. If you hit the Bering Sea, you've gone too far."
"Right. Be back in...a few minutes, depending on how angry Alexei gets that I'm dating one of his little girls."
"Right. You're going to be there for a long time, then," Nat replied and I sighed, Melina looking intrigued as sparks of gold and blue danced around my body.
With a step, space distorted as I crossed hundreds of miles with the first step, the second one pushing me further with another hundred before I sped up.
Sliding to a stop as the tenth step brought me close to water, I blinked as I looked at the landmass across the water or, the gigantic active volcano on said landmass.
'That would probably be it,' Slowing down a bit, I ran across the water and to the base of the volcano, running around its entire form only to come up empty handed
With a frown, I began my search of every cave, every tree and every little spot around the vicinity of the volcano that looked like it could be a hiding place for a Russian Super Soldier.
It took me nearly half an hour before I finally spotted him, but the sheer ridiculousness of the situation had me blinking like a buffoon.
The massive bearded man dressed in a tight fitting Red Guardian suit was in a handstand out in an open clearing, a raft balanced on his feet with several large boulders nearly thrice his size balanced on top of it.
All around him laid the corpses of almost two dozen bears and wolves, their lopsided heads and the bones pushing against the side of their necks telling me that they had their necks cleanly snapped in two.
"Damn, this guy is cool," I muttered as I stopped a few feet from the clearing, announcing my arrival with a slight pop.
What I didn't expect was for the man to flip over to his feet and catch the raft, immediately running to the other side as he hurled the boulders and raft at me with a roar.
"Come out, beast!! Let Alexei feel warmth of blood!"
"Buddy, you're next to a volcano. That's as warm as you can get," I replied as I stepped into the clearing. The man spun with an excited grin, which faded into disappointment as he finally noticed me.
"What is this? You are child. Where is great beast that disturbed me? Where is epic battle?"
"Sorry, you just got me, man. I'm an Avenger if that helps with the disappointment," It apparently did as the man's head snapped up, a challenging grin spreading across his face.
"You are Avenger? Ha!! Has the great Captain America finally sent someone to test the legendary Red Guardian?!"
"No, Nat sent me."
"Natalia did?" he asked, looking a bit confused as I nodded.
"Yeah. Oh, I'm Pietro Maximoff, by the way. I'm Natalia's boyfriend."
"Oh, I...see," he replied, looking a bit gobsmacked before the man lunged forward. Instead of a tackle or a heavy punch, what I didn't expect was for the man to hug me with enough force to crack the average person's spine.
"Hahahaha!! Good! Natalia has chosen man that is strong just like her father! Melina said she would grow up to be cold, emotionless machine, but no! She has taste! Tell me, Avenger! Can you crush tank with your bare hands?!"
"Depends. I can vibrate it until its atoms disassociate from each other and it disintegrates?"
"Ha! Even better!" Okay, I'm starting to like Alexei. I grinned as I vibrated my atoms as a demonstration and slipped out of his grasp, chuckling at his wide eyes.
"Very useful trick!" The man's voice boomed, slapping his thigh with a laugh. "We must wrestle later, silver boy and see if your vibrations can stop the Ultimate Soviet Chokehold!"
"I'll hold you to that," I replied with a chuckle, grabbing the man's hand in a firm shake. "However, the girls are waiting back at the farm in Saint Petersburg."
"Why?"
"Because your ledgers are clean, the Accords are dead to you guys and the family wants to get together. You want to keep snapping necks of bears or do you want to actually try to be a family?" I asked, to which the man looked at our joined hands before looking back up.
"Do they want me there?"
"They do. Natalia even asked me specially to come and get you," Well, she asked to come fetch him, so that counts. "Besides, I'm sure she and Yelena want to reconcile their relationship with you and Melina."
"...Then, what are we waiting for, my silver-haired sun? Let us go and join this family!"
'Son?' Filing that away for later with a grin, Alexei gave an impressed grunt as my Super Mode sparked to life around my body.
"Innn-!" With a jump, I lifted the man and shot across the land, easily crossing the thousands of miles between the volcano and Saint Petersburg in the blink of an eye.
Coming to a stop inside of the estate, I placed Alexei down before deactivating my Super Mode, immediately raising my hands when the ex-Widows all spun with their weapons raised.
"Hey, ladies. Got Russian Santa here," I spoke with a grin, smirking as they all lowered their weapons while Melina raised an eyebrow at me.
"You took quicker than I expected," Nat spoke with a raised eyebrow, sitting where I sat as I shrugged.
"It took a bit longer than I thought because I had to convince him here to come with me. Turns out just saying that I'm dating his daughter was enough to make the guy want to come with me."
"Natalia!! Why did you not tell me you had boyfriend?!" Alexei bellowed with a wide grin, to which Nat glared at me as I just winked and watched the Russian super soldier lift her from the chair with a hearty hug.
"Get...off...me!"
"Hahahaha! This is wonderful!! Now, just Yelena need boyfriend and I will have two sons that will protect my daughters!"
"You see now why I didn't want him here?" Yelena spoke with a knowing sigh as Nat broke free, her face scrunched in displeasure as Alexei turned to me with a grin.
"Now, silver boy, let us have that challenge!"
"You sure you don't need to wash up first?"
"Ha! The Red Guardian Alexei Andreovitch Shostakov works at his best when baked in his sweat! Now come! Show me how teammate of Captain America wrestles!"
"Take it easy on him."
"No need for worry, Natalia. You shall have your boyfriend afterwards."
"I was talking to him," she replied, looking at me and nodding as I gave a thumbs-up.
"Don't worry. I'll hold back."
"Confident, eh? Good! Here I come!" With a deafening roar, the man charged forward. To his credit, he crossed the distance between us faster than most, his boots kicking up clods of dirt and snow.
Yet, as he pulled a fist back, I just smiled as I stepped forward, easily catching the shifting of his weight when he threw the punch. Sliding his arm over my right shoulder before kicking out his left leg, sparks danced along my hand as I grabbed onto his arm and heaved.
In one swift motion, the Red Guardian was flipped cleanly over my shoulder with a hip-toss, hitting the snow with a heavy thud that shook the ground beneath us.
"One step and the great Red Guardian is down for the count," Yelena spoke in a deadpan voice, raising her coffee mug to her lips as I watched Alexei just stare up at the clouds for a full two seconds.
Then, a thunderous roar of pure, unadulterated delight ripped from his core, slamming his massive fists against the ground and leaping to his feet with a perfect kip-up.
"Hahahahaha!! Magnificent! Did you see that, Melina? Captain America could never throw me with such disrespect!"
"You never fought Captain America to make that comparison, Alexei," Melina muttered, ignoring the man's insistent shout of 'I did' as her eyes analysed, "but I must admit that it takes a skilled man to take down a trained soldier of Alexei's calibre."
"I was trained by the greatest martial artist in human history. At least, that's what he used to call himself."
"And what is his name?"
"The Mandarin, leader of the Ten Rings," I replied, smirking as her eyes widened just a slight smudge before going back to their usual narrowed state.
"You never told me you used to train under the Mandarin?" Nat chimed in, a frown on her face as I shrugged.
"You didn't tell me your name was Natalia. Also, I trained under a lot of people, some-" I paused as the sound of a phone ringing cut through my voice.
I blinked before reaching into my jacket, pulling out my phone only to let out a sigh at Tony's number on the screen.
"Tony?"
"Yep. Yo, Stark," I greeted as I accepted the call, but paused as I heard muffle shouting in the background. "Did, uh, something happen?"
"Something did happen, yeah. Apparently, Strange had come to warn us about a guy called Doom? You know anyone like that?"
"Likes the colour scheme green and speaks in the third person?"
"Hold on, let me ask," My heart had skipped a beat when I heard the name, my stomach sitting in my ass as I was waiting for Tony to say no. "Yeah, that sounds like the guy."
"Yeah, fucking thought so," I muttered with a groan, ignoring Nat's concerned look as I sighed. "Look, we'll be there in the blink of an eye."
"Uh, how worried should we be?"
"Depends on what he is doing now. Just tell Strange that we'll be there and that I might know something, okay?"
"Gotcha! See ya in a few," With that said, he ended the call and I put the phone away with a sigh.
"So, how worried do I have to be?" Nat asked as she walked forward, grabbing my hand as I held it out to her.
"If it's the same guy I know, very."
"Then, why haven't you told us about him?"
"Because I was hoping he either didn't exist in this universe or that he was already dead," I replied, Super Mode wrapping around the two of us as I looked to Alexei and Melina. "We'll be back shortly. Just a few things to take care of."
"Right! We shall wait for your victorious return!" Alexei nodded and I chuckled, the world pausing as I turned to the west and took off.
Nat looked surprised as I ran much faster than I normally would, but I'll have to apologize for that later. This was a matter on par with Speedster Kang. Hell, it was Doom so this might be even worse.
'Please, whatever god is listening, just don't let it be the one that ripped Thanos' spine out. I do not have a countermeasure for that,' I thought as I came to a stop outside the front door of the Avengers Compound, deactivating Super Mode.
However, I was surprised as Nat pulled me into the building, glancing at her to see the frown on her face. "You have been nothing but laidback and carefree since we met. If something's got you this terrified, then it's worse than half the universe getting erased."
"...Man, do I love the fact that you see right through me," I spoke with a smile, chuckling at her scoff right as we entered the conference room.
"Like I said, Strange, just calm down. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explana-Hey, he's here!" Tony exclaimed as he looked at me, but I raised an eyebrow as Strange turned to me and frowned despite Steve's attempts to calm him down.
"What did you do?"
"Had a nice second date with my new girlfriend, met the family of my new girlfriend and then came here. That is everything I've done since the last time we spoke, which was when you helped seal the stones away," I replied and the Sorcerer Supreme scoffed.
"If that's the case, then why did almost 99% of the dimensions throughout the Multiverse vanish from the sight of the Time Stone just after we finished sealing the stones?"
"Uh, impossible considering that the Multiverse is literally consists of an unfathomable number of universe throughout reality itself?"
"Exactly. That was the case yesterday. Then, just three hours after I finished talking to you, I decide to check on future timelines only to find almost all of those universes gone."
"Question for the uneducated here: How does the Multiverse correlate exactly to the timelines?" Steve asked, Nat and Tony looking just as curious. I just shrugged in response while Stephen sighed.
"Time and space are connected as you know through the Space-Time Continuum," As he spoke, Strange created a 3D illustration of what I recognized to be the Sacred Timeline. "Every action, every step carried out by life itself creates a new timeline and once a nexus event happens in said timeline, it becomes a new and alternate universe.
The beings in that new alternate universe follow their own unique core timeline that branches out just like the first. Thus, the process continues over and over again until...you have the Multiverse."
"So, how does this connect to Doom?" I asked, hiding my smirk as Strange narrowed his eyes at me.
"While I was observing the futures, I was bound with an unknown spell, for a lack of better explanation," he replied and my smirk faded away at the grimace on his face. "I had to use dark magic to break it, but he didn't look perturbed nor angered. In fact, he almost looked...amused that I had broken free from his hold."
"Well, that's lovely to hear. Alright, Flash, cough it up. Who is this Doom guy?" Tony asked, their attention turning to me as I frowned.
"Victor Von Doom, or Dr. Doom as he is better known, is-Wait, does Reed Richards or Latveria exist in this timeline?"
"Latveria does, yeah, but who is Reed Richards?" I sighed at the response before nodding.
"Right, different universes," I muttered and shook my head. "Well, his history will most definitely be different then, but I'll write down what I can remember for you and F.R.I.D.A.Y. to search later. Well, in my universe, Dr. Doom is the ruler of Latveria.
He sees himself as the better scientist compared to Reed Richards and is a very prideful man. He does deserve the pride though as he's one of the most powerful practitioners of sorcery and has a vast amount of knowledge on it.
Not only that, but he is also a super genius when it comes to the fields of science, a charismatic leader, skilled in various forms of combat and a very charismatic man that wears a suit of titanium armour that is nuclear powered and magically assembled."
"...And how exactly did you deal with this guy in your universe?"
"Oh, I never did. The planet exploded before I could even meet him. I just heard everything from the Mandarin trained me," I replied with a shrug, smirking as Tony rubbed his brow while Steve frowned.
"That's not comforting to hear."
"I know, but that's all the information I have on him."
"F.R.I.D.A.Y?"
"Yes, Boss?"
"Latveria. Who is its leader?"
"Victor Von Doom, sir. He usurped the throne from the former royal family in his adult years and became the leader by force."
"And we have not heard of this guy, why?"
"Because Victor Von Doom died in a freak accident on the same day that you announced yourself as Iron Man, sir."
'Well, doesn't that just fit in nicely?' I thought, watching as Tony grimaced.
"And now this guy, who probably faked his death or came back from the death, is finally ready to move again? Why, though? Why wait this long?"
"Might be because of me," I added, drawing Tony's frown towards me. "I create a crap ton of energy when I run. You're telling me you would not use me as a treadmill to generate energy for you?"
"He's not wrong," Nat chimed in with a nod. "Pietro does generate enough energy to power any country that wants to use him as a battery while he runs."
"I've already measured it."
"And?"
"The machine broke at 88 trillion terajoules. Oh, my sweet SCADA. I'll miss you," Tony replied with a disappointed sigh as Steve looked uneasy.
"That sounds like a lot?"
"It's enough to power all of human civilization for roughly 146,000 years and he makes it continuously while running."
"So, Doom wants to use Pietro to power something? Is that the thought process we agree on here?"
"Definitely/ Yeah/ That seems to be the case/ Absolutely," Tony, Strange, Steve and I replied respectively, making her frown.
"If that's the case, then why don't we just go and have a chat with the guy?"
"Um, did she miss the part where I said that I had to use dark magic to break free from his spell?"
"She didn't, but she's not wrong. Doom wants to use me, so it would be better for us if we knew beforehand what he wanted to use me for."
"Or we'd just be bringing you to him on a silver platter."
"Well, if he manages to figure out exactly how to counter my speed, I am more useless than a fish out of water," I replied, to which Tony turned to Strange.
The Sorcerer Supreme just shook his head and spoke, "It's a bad plan, but I have not seen you come up with one."
"Because I'm trying to figure out exactly just when we all decided to kick common sense out the door," was the genius' response, making me snort.
"Well, it's the only plan we got right now. Unless, of course, you the genius can come up with another?"
"What's my deadline?"
"By tomorrow," I replied and watched as Tony Stark smirked.
"I'll have a few by then. For now, we wait."
A/N: And the start of the Doomsday is here!! We're planning and I completely forgot about Wanda and Vision's wedding, but that can be for a later date.
Next chapter: DOOM II
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!!