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ax_mainIt's a House of M pseudo-reunion. Nothing really gets resolved, but it goes mostly okay.
Wanda fanned herself with her hand as she headed over to the idiotic pool fountain Pietro'd created to hold drinks. Despite the thinness of her top (which she'd chosen for that reason, and how was Eileen not dying wearing a sweatshirt?) she was definitely warm after dancing, and a drink sounded like a damn good idea.
And then, she told herself, she was going to track down one of the clone kids and find out what the hell was going on with that.
Much to her surprise, a blur that wasn't her brother arrived at the fountain just as she was getting close. "Hey!" she called out, hastening her pace. "Hang on a second. I wanted to talk to you."
Ironically enough, Tommy'd been hoping for a little more time before he'd have to think of something smart to say to Wanda. It wasn't that he believed in the whole reincarnation... thing. It was just that he didn't have a better answer. Or any answers. Or really much of a game plan. Live in the moment, right?
He turned and looked into a girl version of Billy's eyes. A flash of something that might have been recognition rippled through him, a hey, I know you that vanished almost too fast for even him to notice. Trippy. "Hey." he replied, grabbing his drink and keeping it as casual as possible. Where was Billy? "Wanda, right? The other magic half."
Wanda felt a strange wave of something not quite like deja vu as she met Tommy's eyes. Part of it, she figured, was probably his resemblance to Pietro, but part...wasn't. It was gone before she could really give it much thought, though, and she smiled a little as she nodded.
"Yeah, that's one way to look at it, I guess. Do you have a couple of minutes? I've been wanting to talk to you."
It was what he was there for so Tommy nodded, popping the top on his soda can. "Same, but I figure you knew that already," he added, calm and matter-of-fact rather than the sarcasm that wanted to pop out. In all likelihood they were all just victims of random chance gone haywire, nothing to stress himself out about. There was no 'what if' that mattered. "Here? Or did you have somewhere else in mind?"
Wanda's forehead furrowed. but she shook her head. "Here's good - well, no, let's go find a place to sit down, huh?" She grabbed herself a beer from the fountain, and quirked her finger, indicating that Tommy should come with her as she started towards a couple of folding chairs by one of the walls. "You were looking to talk to me?" she asked curiously. "What about?"
"Mm-m," Tommy shook his head with a guarded smile. "You came to me, you first," he added cheerfully. He couldn't spot Billy immediately, so he pushed, and time stopped. He zipped ahead to grab one of the chairs she'd indicated before anyone else could snag them, and was sprawled easily in it when time started to flow around him again.
"You are So much like Pietro," Wanda said once she'd joined him, rolling her eyes as she plopped down into the other chair. "Which is what I wanted to talk to you about, I guess." She gave him an apologetic look and shrugged. "I know you were at that last shithole, and I figure you don't want to talk about it, but...we know the Right’s been known to fuck with DNA. And you look a lot like my brother."
"Yeah, that's been on my mind as well." Unless she was fucking with him, it didn't sound like she'd had that conversation with Alex and Pam after all. Keep their names out of it for now, or not? Out was better until he knew for sure.
"Only I've had my powers going on four years now, hair and eyes included, and the Right only got their hands on me in March. And I heard through the grapevine that neither of you have ever been in anything similar. Assuming that's true, the timeline doesn't work out in either direction."
"Fuck. Well, there goes that theory." Wanda sighed and rolled her eyes. "My father denies having anything to do with it, too, which yeah. Normally, I don't believe half of what he says, but I'm pretty sure he's as confused about this as we are." She grimaced. "I hear you've got a twin, too - who isn't related?" She was still confused about that part, especially if genetic engineering wasn't part of the picture. "So if it's some kind of fucked up cloning, we're going back...sixteen years?" she guessed.
"Just about, yeah. Our birthday's in June." Tommy nodded. "And I'll believe cloning before I'd believe affairs, because even my mom screwing around couldn't account for Billy. I was ready to chalk a lot of this up to coincidence before he showed up -- I know three other speedsters besides me already." Tommy took a second to evaluate Wanda. She seemed calm enough so far, whatever Pam had said. "But the rumor mill got it right. He's got different parents, we were born miles apart from each other, and as far as we can figure, there's no family connection anywhere. But we've got the exact same birthday, the same face- same DNA. Except, I guess, for however our X-gene works.
"Because as much as Quicksilver and I may be alike, Billy's you."
Wanda's eyebrows rose. "Yeah? Personality and everything? Poor kid." She hook her head. "But seriously, the same birthday? This shit gets weirder and weirder. You guys got any theories?" Because what the hell, it didn't hurt to ask, right?
****************
Billy frowned down at his cup of juice and vodka, the drink being his third as he was starting to feel it, but unlike he had hoped it did nothing to soothe his nerves. He glanced up, trying to find his brother's mop of white hair in the crowd, eyes widening a little when he found Tommy talking to a dark haired girl in a red top.
Was that her? Oh god was he nervous. What were they saying? He tried to squint and see if he could read their lips, but it was impossible from this far away. "Ugggh."
"Now is that any attitude to have at a fabulous party like this?" Pietro said, suddenly at Billy's side where no one had been previously. "Ugh? Really? I worked hard on this decor, I'll have you know."
Billy about dropped his cup at the sudden presence beside him, only thing saving him being that Tommy had almost trained him not to freak every time he randomly appeared. He clutched his cup tightly in his hands before turning to look at a guy who looked almost exactly like Tommy, save a few features.
"Pietro." Billy mumbled before he could stop himself and then shook his head. "Ah! No, I'm sorry. It's a nice party. Very cool. I'm just-" Very nervous and anxiety ridden. "Tired."
***************
"A few." Tommy drank, sorted out his thoughts. Someone smarter than he was needed to be doing this. Kitty, maybe. She'd know what to say to explain. No sense in dropping the bomb yet, though. Even though Billy was a guy, he could still be some kind of experimental clone of Wanda, couldn't he? Tommy'd met Laura, he knew weird shit kind of went hand in hand with cloning experiments. "But it depends on what your side of all this was like. You guys are, what -- three years older than we are? Anything exciting happen around the two-year mark?"
Wanda actually gave that some thought before shaking her head. "Two. And just the usual two year old crap, from what Marya and Django told us - our adopted parents," she added, just to clarify. "My father didn't get his hands on us until we were eight. So no, not really, and we'd have been off the radar of anyone who might've been interested in us, based on who our father was." She made a face. "No clue if anything happened before our mom handed us off, though. I can't rule out someone getting their hands on our DNA. But why would they bother?"
Tommy shrugged. "Why does anyone do anything? Power. Money. Maybe they got off on playing God. But it only works if someone knew who you were, or that you were mutants, or both."
"Yeah, not likely. That's my point. I mean, fuck, we didn't even know back then. Neither did our parents, and I'm pretty sure my father wasn't even sure we existed." Wanda shrugged and took a sip from her beer. "So, that theory falls apart. But I'm not buying the idea this is random chance, especially not with your brother doing 'magic'."
***************
Oh good, they weren't going to waste time pretending they needed introductions. Pietro cocked an eyebrow and planted his hands on his hips, but didn't quite go full Peter Pan. "Should've taken a nap before the party," he suggested ever so helpfully. "Unless you mean you're emotionally tired from wondering what kind of genetic fuckery made you the boy lite version of my sister. A nap won't help with that."
"Wow. So much for small talk." Billy replied, but made sure his tone wasn't biting just in case Pietro took it the wrong way. "But, you are right about that. Meeting you guys have pretty much kept me up wondering."
He held out a hand. "I'm Billy, the Wanda twin."
Pietro took the hand and shook, then looked him up and down. Not as cute as Wanda--or him. But cute enough, he guessed. "And does the Pietro twin have the patience for small talk, usually?"
"Ha! That's funny." Billy replied before he could really think about it, flushing a little and hoping Pietro didn't think he was being rude. Last thing he needed was this plan going ass up cause he couldn't keep control of his mouth. "Sorry. No, Tommy is rarely a small talk guy, more a get to the point guy."
"Boom." Pietro made ironic but maybe not finger guns. "So let's skip to the good part, shall we?"
"Mmm." Billy hummed a little skeptically. "And what exactly do you consider the good part in this situation?"
"The part where I found out who's exploiting our fantastic genes and get to punch him in the nose superspeed," Pietro replied, pretending to be admiring his own nails. Then he looked Billy in the eye. "So what do you know?"
Billy raised an eyebrow and then shook his head. "Nope. I would rather we all talked together. Let's find your sister and my brother and air out all this dirty laundry, cause dear god it needs it."
"Well, you're bossy and stubborn like Wanda..." Pietro mumbled. "Fine. Come on. You obviously know more than me and it's annoying, so let's put an end to that."
Billy couldn't help but grin at that and nodded. He glanced back to where Tommy had last been, quickly finding his brother again and pointed them out to Pietro. "Tally ho then."
"What's up, mini me?" Pietro feigned nonchalance as he (slowly, achingly slowly) led Billy toward Wanda and Tommy. "You guys come up with any smart ideas? Any big confessions? No?"
"Your whole thing is probability, isn't it?" Tommy was in the middle of pointing out to Wanda when Pietro's voice cut in. It wasn't quite his, at least not the way Tommy's voice sounded in his own head, but then his face wasn't exactly right either. Even with the similarities there would be no mistaking which one of the three Tommy belonged to, and which were slightly off-model. Still, there was something not quite like looking into the mirror that made him feel slightly off-balance.
"Yeah," Tommy flashed a sharp grin back and shot off his mouth without thinking. (No shock there. He'd been doing really well so far, but that was going to have to give eventually.) "Your sister was just telling me how lucky Billy is to have gotten the cooler, faster, upgraded model."
Wanda's eyebrows rose and she rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Somehow I don't remember any of those words coming out of my mouth." She looked over at the new kid - identical to Tommy, other than the hair and eyes - and felt another pang of whatever she'd felt when she'd met his twin, except stronger. She got to her feet and held out her hand. "I'm Wanda. You're...Billy, right?"
It was weird, being in front of a person you thought about a lot, but had no idea what they looked like until that moment. Billy gulped quietly, nodding as he reached a hand out to shake with hers and prayed to god he didn't accidentally electrocute her because of nerves. When no sparks happened Billy let out a small breath and gave her his best smile, though it looked a little shaky. "Yeah, hi. You guys throw a nice party."
"Thanks," Pietro replied. What--it had been Wanda (okay, Eileen)'s idea, but Pietro had totally made it awesome. Then he returned his attention to Tommy, eying him up and down. If not for Wanda's remark, this (admittedly handsome) little shit totally might've gotten under his skin. But with Wanda around, that was way harder to do. He smiled--genuinely. "Full marks for sass. Don't quite have the style, but that'll come with a few more years of practice. If you work hard."
Tommy felt one corner of his mouth tug up in a return smile, something tight and awful inside his chest unknotting, just the tiniest bit. Though he wasn't at all ready to relax. Not here, not yet. "That just means so much," he drawled, still slouching in the chair, but the smile lingering. "I'm all a-quiver."
His gaze flickered back to Billy and Wanda, two slim dark shapes still standing next to him. Part of him had half-expected to meet the other twins and realize it was all bullshit, but something about that sight was still eerie.
"So far we've probably ruled out cloning," Tommy told Billy, veering back to the original subject and main reason they'd come. "Unless it was from back even before the alpha versions here were born. No opportunity."
"No good opportunity, anyway," Wanda amended. "I mean, getting skin or blood samples from a toddler? No problem. But why bother?" She returned the new kid's smile, but shrugged. "Not buying coincidence, though. Especially if the two of you aren't even technically related. So there's something we're missing, unless it goes back to Dad somehow, and fuck if I know how that'd work."
Billy glanced at Tommy, giving him a look that was asking for permission and at Tommy's eyeroll and half-hearted shrug, Billy went for it. "So, we might have an idea...but it's kind of out there....like I mean really out there. So, be warned."
"Better than anything we've got," Pietro said with a slight pout. He was looking back and forth from Wanda to Billy and it just... was so weird. So freaking weird. He'd believe almost anything, at this point. "Go for it."
"Strap in, then, 'cause this is a wild fucking ride," Tommy drawled. He leaned forward, shifting restlessly in his seat. Sitting still for a few minutes was alright, but longer than that and he started to get itchy under his skin.
"A couple of guys back at our place have powers relating to genetics. Reading DNA, shit like that. Billy went to one of 'em after he and I met, to try and get some information. If we were fourth cousins, or separated at birth, or ... whatever. And the guy Billy went to -- his powers bugged out. Like, visions from beyond, knocked flat on his ass for a day, total system overload." Tommy gestured wide to make his point.
"When he came to, he told Billy about you two. He somehow knew you by name, and that your dad was a powerful mutant. And-" Tommy glanced at Billy - careful here "his freaked-out explanation involved some major-league 'magic.' He also says that we're directly related to you guys. Through Wanda, specifically. Her kids."
"Through me." Wanda's eyebrows rose. "You're sure this guy wasn't just on crack or something, right? Because I promise, I haven't had any kids. Much less ones who are nearly as old as I am." Still, she wasn't entirely prepared to dismiss the whole thing, either. Not with the weird flashes she'd felt when she met them both, and the mention of magic. She glanced over at Pietro, wondering if he'd picked up on that, then back to Tommy. "Did he have any theories on just how this had happened?"
Billy let out the dumbest laugh and quickly waved his arms in front of him. "I'm sorry! That just came out ‘cause the theory he had was just...ridiculous, but his theory was that..." He glanced and Tommy and the decided to go for it. "That we are your kids from the future, reincarnated."
He could feel that dumb nervous laugh coming up again, but he made sure to shove it down deep.
Pietro looked from wonder twin to wonder twin for a half a second--but for him it stretched out for a lifetime. First of all, who the fuck had knocked Wanda up--future or not? Second, "What the actual fuck? That's--that's not a thing. Even with magic--even with the hexes. That can't be a thing!" He looked at Wanda almost pleadingly.
Tommy just shrugged expansively. "That's what I keep saying. Find me a better answer and I'm down. I'll take experimental clones over being cosmically linked to this guy for perpetuity." He poked Billy's leg with his toe, grinning.
Wanda winced and gave Pietro an apologetic look. "It...could be a thing? I mean, I'm liking the clone idea better myself, but..." She sighed. "I hate this shit. I could give Agatha a call, but honestly, I can tell you what she'd say. Souls exist. Reincarnation exists. Reincarnation into a previous time?" She waggled her hand. "Never heard of it, but with hexes thrown in, and..." She turned to Billy. "Pyro said you do magic, right? So...yeah. Not impossible."
Which meant, at some point, she was going to have kids, apparently. Two of them. At least, she reflected dazedly, it meant that at some point she was going to get fucked. It was something to look forward to.
"Who's Agatha?" Billy asked, even though right now that wasn't an important thing they needed to talk about. He was honestly surprised at how well Wanda seemed to be taking the news they had just dropped on her, her brother seemed far more stressed about it. "So....you're agreeing....that it could be true?"
"Agatha is basically the modern version of the bog witch that you meet in every RPG ever who answers all your magical questions and gives you some kind of cryptic advice before sending you out on your quest," Pietro said with a sigh. He was grateful for everything she'd done for Wanda, but... still bitter, okay.
As for the rest, he'd leave that to Wanda. She'd know better than him, and he'd follow her lead, but... this was bonkers. (So why did he have a nagging something in the pit of his stomach telling him it might not be?)
They were taking The Big Stupid way more calmly than Tommy had predicted, and something about that easy acceptance of magic and reincarnation and hexes (whatever the hell those were) made the hair stand up on the back of Tommy's neck. Either they were batshit crazy, or the world was a lot more disturbing than he'd fully realized. Or both.
And if it was, then ... what? Billy already had a family and Tommy didn't need one.
The silence felt like it was going on for a million years (though it probably hadn't) before Tommy mouthed off again, arm draped over the back of his chair like he didn't care about a damn thing. "Well, this is going to be fun to explain to your father. How long d'you think it would take him to flatten me if I called him 'grandpa'?"
Wanda'd been shooting Pietro looks over his description of Agatha, purely on principle because yeah, there was a definite similarity there, but she let out a snort of genuine amusement at Tommy's question. "More time than it'd take me to flatten you for calling me Mom, so don't get any brainstorms," she instructed, grinning at him fondly. Damn. So fucking much like Pietro. If nothing else had convinced her already, that would have, right there.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. "They're definitely family," she said with certainty, directing the next comment to Pietro. That much, at least, she was certain of. "One fucked up way or another. The details don't really matter. Bigger question is, what do we do now?"
“Hell if I know. Jesus, I thought our family already had issues...” Pietro pursed his lips and looked from Billy to Tommy. He didn’t mind thinking of them as relatives, exactly. He smiled a little. “But I’m not your damn uncle. Not until we get some, like, back up info. Some dude with powers in the fritz isn’t enough.
“Also who the hell is the baby daddy? Just asking so I can keep an eye on him.”
Okay, there was the level of resistance that Billy had been expecting, but it wasn't nearly as much as he and Tommy and guessed it would be. Oh well. Billy gave a shrug, throwing his hands into the motion as well towards Pietro. "That was never really explained. So, he could be anyone really."
He watched at how protective the older speedster seemed over his sister and had to smile a little. "Also, you sure? Uncle P has a great ring to it."
"It really does," Wanda teased, smiling a little. "But I think losing the titles is fair." She let the smile fade and gave Pietro a look. "And I'm good with the father being a mystery, thanks. Just don't scare off whoever it is and we're all good."
And now they were all talking like it was settled and true. Tommy itched, still for way too long, and he drummed his fingers against the back of Wanda's chair with increasing speed. "This is getting cozy. Watch out," he proclaimed, nodding at Billy. "He's going to start hugging people any second now."
Pietro cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not ready for hugs. I'm ready to scare off your maybe-father." Then he held up his hands. "Just kidding!" Except not.
Billy glared at Tommy, promising silently to get him back for making Billy seem like a hugging hippie in front of these two, before he turned to Pietro. "Don't worry, consent is important when hugs are concerned...unless you're a certain jack-ass brother."
"Well, they're definitely twins," Wanda pointed out to Pietro with barely concealed amusement. "However they got there." And yes, she was ignoring the comment about scaring off their alleged father. She'd deal with that later. She looked over at Billy and offered a bit of a grin. "Jack-ass brothers should never be asked for hug consent. They want them - they just want to kick up a fuss so they don't have to admit it."
"And she's also a telepath." Tommy rolled his eyes, emboldened and a lot less nervous now than he'd been at the beginning of the whole conversation. "Any other powers you want to disclose while we're at it?" he arched an eyebrow at Pietro. "The explosions are a me-thing only, aren't they?"
Pietro's face fell. "What? You got explosions?"
Tommy's smile grew as Pietro's expression changed. He might have started the evening feeling totally at sea, but now he was holding his own. "Vibrate anything fast enough, it'll blow," he replied casually, mischief in his eyes. He glanced around the room, at the glow sticks, the bright neon, the games and toys. "Name a target." ... and here was hoping the practicing he'd been doing was enough to keep his control.
Pietro disappeared, then reappeared with an empty beer bottle and held it out to Tommy.
Tommy looked at it with scorn. "Sure, if you want shards of glass everywhere. It'd definitely make the party memorable, just maybe not in the spirit of the whole 'let's keep the peace' idea." One of the ice buckets was that weird neon-coloured semi-transparent plastic, and Tommy zipped to dump it and bring it back empty. He put the bottle on the chair, the bucket upside down on top of it to contain the shrapnel. There was reckless, and then there was the risk of getting cut up by his own powers, which, embarrassing.
"They apparently teach them that being safe is a priority," Wanda explained to Pietro, remembering her conversation with Shen.
"Hey, safety first and all the jazz." Billy was actually impressed that Tommy had thought of that, surprised that his brother could be considerate when he wanted to be. "Just don't have it be super umm crazy? Let's have the cops called ‘cause the noise is too loud, not for any other reason."
Pietro looked like Tommy had just sprouted another head. "Your kids are kind of square, Wanda." But then he shrugged and smiled again. "Go for it, hotshot."
"I've had enough of things slicing into me, thank you very much." Tommy fired back. They knew Pam, they'd probably seen the files pulled from the Right's lab, they knew his history without him having to say anything. Hell, he hadn't read the files and he'd been drugged or unconscious half the time, so they probably knew more about what had happened than he did. Still, show-off time.
He focused, reached out, felt the molecules and atoms spinning inside the glass of the bottle. He pushed and they spun faster, the energy levels building. Another push and the fault lines fractured, the bottle bursting with a muffled bang into a thousand needle-like glass shards. The bucket jumped from the force, falling off the chair. Fragments of glass spilled out onto the floor -- the ones that hadn't been driven into the plastic, anyway. The inside of the bucket looked like an inside-out glass porcupine, and shimmering particles rose into the air like smoke.
"Boom." Tommy folded his arms.
"Nice," Wanda grinned approval and waved her hand, casting a hex - and the sparkling smoke spiraled around, mini-tornado like, before making a 180 degree turn and heading back into the overturned bucket. She looked over at Pietro and smirked. "Guess you've been shown." There was an implied "up" in there, somewhere. But he'd know that.
Okay so the show off of powers had Billy awe-struck and slightly jealous. Wanda and Tommy had such amazing control and if he had more respect for his brother then that was between him and himself. He turned to Wanda and shook his head with a pleading expression. "Please don't say that, he'll be bragging about it until I finally go crazy and gag him."
Pietro was 90% sure he couldn’t do that. At all. And Wanda was not helping. He rolled his eyes but admitted, “Okay, okay, it’s kinda cool.”
Tommy pressed his hand against his heart and pretended to swoon at the compliment. The rush of accomplishment was buzzing through him, though heaven help him if he tried to do anything that tight and controlled again tonight. "Beta version," he cracked. "Upgraded, new and improved."
"I see what you mean," Wanda told Billy, and added a grin and a roll of her eyes. "You've got magic, though. If you really want to get even, just hex him in place." She paused. "And then gag him. I should try that sometime." She smirked over at Pietro, just because.
"Hex?" Billy questioned, wondering if that was what she called her magic. "I'm not too good with my magic yet, but I've been practicing. Certainly no where near party tricks level yet though."
He shot a look at Tommy.
Pietro was still rolling his eyes from Tommy's comment. It was okay, though. It must suck to be the ugly version of the hot guy. Okay, well, less hot version. Still. "Oh, you'll know the hex when you see it. It's well beyond a party trick. And definitely negates the whole speedster thing. Enjoy."
"He's not a fan," Wanda provided unnecessarily, but she grinned as she said it, first at Pietro, then Billy. "It's not really a party trick, no. And I'm not totally convinced it's magic, either, though it goes with the code name so I just kept it. Mostly I think of it as probability manipulation. It's entirely improbable that a running speedster will randomly get stuck in one spot, unable to move. But hey. Sometimes shit happens."
Billy couldn't help but grin widely. "You've been able to stop a speedster?"
He eyed Tommy with a little too much interest then. "I want to try."
"Fuck you too," Tommy replied, less easy now. "And full offense, the last person who tried something like that is still high on my shit list."
"Oooh, hit a nerve," Pietro said in his best commentator voice.
"Hey, Eileen said she was sorry," Wanda pointed out. Well, she'd said it to Pietro, anyway. And slightly under duress. But she'd meant it, regardless. "Anyway, it's not the same thing. It's like..." she turned back to Billy and paused to figure out how to describe it, "kind of like the freeze ray in Dr. Horrible, but without actually stopping time." Okay, yes, she was admitting she'd actually watched that stupid web musical thing, but whatever. It hadn't totally sucked.
She was talking about Dr. Horrible's sing-a-long blog and now he knew for sure that he was related to this girl (cause all the other facts weren't telling). He grinned at her and nodded in understanding, glancing at Tommy in question. "You were freeze rayed in the middle of running? Did it hurt?"
Tommy just gave him a look, because duh, but also because that wasn't the point at all. "Amazingly, I'm not a big fan of being held down," he fired back with all the sarcasm he could muster. Not like any of them would understand. Maybe Wanda, if she actually hung out with Pam, but he hadn't gotten the sense that they were all that close.
"Yes, we know you've had a shitty history with it," Pietro said, dismissive more because the tension was annoying than because he really felt the need to put Tommy at ease. Like, did the guy have to make everyone all ugh about it? "And you can probably guess--family or not--that literally anyone standing here would dick punch the next person who really tried to hold you down, so don't take it as a threat, for real."
Pietro turned to Billy before anyone could try and protest, because that was seriously all he needed from that conversation. Jesus, this was a neon party, not a pity party. "But it doesn't work like that," he explained. "I mean it can if Wanda wants it to, but mostly she just makes me skid to a stop. Sometimes on my face. It hurts way less than what Phantazia does, though. Thank fuck.
"And my face is still awesome, so yeah."
"Because obviously, that's key," Wanda observed to no one in particular, rolling her eyes. She turned back to look at Tommy, though. "And he's right. Well, maybe not about the dick punching, because Eileen would come up with something a fuckload more painful, but...you're family. There's no one here - not from our team, anyway - who'd let anyone else fuck with you, let alone do it themselves. Not seriously, anyway."
Billy's face went a little dark when Pietro was dismissive about Tommy's fears and he couldn't help that his hands sparked a little at the thought of zapping the older speedster for it. Luckily Wanda moved in to talk before Billy could do anything regrettable and he shoved his sparking hands into his jacket pockets. "That's...reassuring, in a totally scary kind of way."
Tommy'd seen the blue sparkles, but that didn't make sense. Why would Billy spark up when the other twins were giving Tommy grief? He was better off staying out of it. "While I'm always up for seeing you skidding on your face," he aimed that one at Pietro, "it would probably harsh this whole peace-love-and-neon vibe you've got going here." Wanda got a smile instead, one that wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be.
Pietro just rolled his eyes. "Speaking of, are we done here? Because I need to dance, if we're done."
"For now?" Wanda agreed, though she looked from one of the second set of twins to the other, returning Tommy's smile with a warm one of her own. "We can always talk more, later."
Wanda fanned herself with her hand as she headed over to the idiotic pool fountain Pietro'd created to hold drinks. Despite the thinness of her top (which she'd chosen for that reason, and how was Eileen not dying wearing a sweatshirt?) she was definitely warm after dancing, and a drink sounded like a damn good idea.
And then, she told herself, she was going to track down one of the clone kids and find out what the hell was going on with that.
Much to her surprise, a blur that wasn't her brother arrived at the fountain just as she was getting close. "Hey!" she called out, hastening her pace. "Hang on a second. I wanted to talk to you."
Ironically enough, Tommy'd been hoping for a little more time before he'd have to think of something smart to say to Wanda. It wasn't that he believed in the whole reincarnation... thing. It was just that he didn't have a better answer. Or any answers. Or really much of a game plan. Live in the moment, right?
He turned and looked into a girl version of Billy's eyes. A flash of something that might have been recognition rippled through him, a hey, I know you that vanished almost too fast for even him to notice. Trippy. "Hey." he replied, grabbing his drink and keeping it as casual as possible. Where was Billy? "Wanda, right? The other magic half."
Wanda felt a strange wave of something not quite like deja vu as she met Tommy's eyes. Part of it, she figured, was probably his resemblance to Pietro, but part...wasn't. It was gone before she could really give it much thought, though, and she smiled a little as she nodded.
"Yeah, that's one way to look at it, I guess. Do you have a couple of minutes? I've been wanting to talk to you."
It was what he was there for so Tommy nodded, popping the top on his soda can. "Same, but I figure you knew that already," he added, calm and matter-of-fact rather than the sarcasm that wanted to pop out. In all likelihood they were all just victims of random chance gone haywire, nothing to stress himself out about. There was no 'what if' that mattered. "Here? Or did you have somewhere else in mind?"
Wanda's forehead furrowed. but she shook her head. "Here's good - well, no, let's go find a place to sit down, huh?" She grabbed herself a beer from the fountain, and quirked her finger, indicating that Tommy should come with her as she started towards a couple of folding chairs by one of the walls. "You were looking to talk to me?" she asked curiously. "What about?"
"Mm-m," Tommy shook his head with a guarded smile. "You came to me, you first," he added cheerfully. He couldn't spot Billy immediately, so he pushed, and time stopped. He zipped ahead to grab one of the chairs she'd indicated before anyone else could snag them, and was sprawled easily in it when time started to flow around him again.
"You are So much like Pietro," Wanda said once she'd joined him, rolling her eyes as she plopped down into the other chair. "Which is what I wanted to talk to you about, I guess." She gave him an apologetic look and shrugged. "I know you were at that last shithole, and I figure you don't want to talk about it, but...we know the Right’s been known to fuck with DNA. And you look a lot like my brother."
"Yeah, that's been on my mind as well." Unless she was fucking with him, it didn't sound like she'd had that conversation with Alex and Pam after all. Keep their names out of it for now, or not? Out was better until he knew for sure.
"Only I've had my powers going on four years now, hair and eyes included, and the Right only got their hands on me in March. And I heard through the grapevine that neither of you have ever been in anything similar. Assuming that's true, the timeline doesn't work out in either direction."
"Fuck. Well, there goes that theory." Wanda sighed and rolled her eyes. "My father denies having anything to do with it, too, which yeah. Normally, I don't believe half of what he says, but I'm pretty sure he's as confused about this as we are." She grimaced. "I hear you've got a twin, too - who isn't related?" She was still confused about that part, especially if genetic engineering wasn't part of the picture. "So if it's some kind of fucked up cloning, we're going back...sixteen years?" she guessed.
"Just about, yeah. Our birthday's in June." Tommy nodded. "And I'll believe cloning before I'd believe affairs, because even my mom screwing around couldn't account for Billy. I was ready to chalk a lot of this up to coincidence before he showed up -- I know three other speedsters besides me already." Tommy took a second to evaluate Wanda. She seemed calm enough so far, whatever Pam had said. "But the rumor mill got it right. He's got different parents, we were born miles apart from each other, and as far as we can figure, there's no family connection anywhere. But we've got the exact same birthday, the same face- same DNA. Except, I guess, for however our X-gene works.
"Because as much as Quicksilver and I may be alike, Billy's you."
Wanda's eyebrows rose. "Yeah? Personality and everything? Poor kid." She hook her head. "But seriously, the same birthday? This shit gets weirder and weirder. You guys got any theories?" Because what the hell, it didn't hurt to ask, right?
****************
Billy frowned down at his cup of juice and vodka, the drink being his third as he was starting to feel it, but unlike he had hoped it did nothing to soothe his nerves. He glanced up, trying to find his brother's mop of white hair in the crowd, eyes widening a little when he found Tommy talking to a dark haired girl in a red top.
Was that her? Oh god was he nervous. What were they saying? He tried to squint and see if he could read their lips, but it was impossible from this far away. "Ugggh."
"Now is that any attitude to have at a fabulous party like this?" Pietro said, suddenly at Billy's side where no one had been previously. "Ugh? Really? I worked hard on this decor, I'll have you know."
Billy about dropped his cup at the sudden presence beside him, only thing saving him being that Tommy had almost trained him not to freak every time he randomly appeared. He clutched his cup tightly in his hands before turning to look at a guy who looked almost exactly like Tommy, save a few features.
"Pietro." Billy mumbled before he could stop himself and then shook his head. "Ah! No, I'm sorry. It's a nice party. Very cool. I'm just-" Very nervous and anxiety ridden. "Tired."
***************
"A few." Tommy drank, sorted out his thoughts. Someone smarter than he was needed to be doing this. Kitty, maybe. She'd know what to say to explain. No sense in dropping the bomb yet, though. Even though Billy was a guy, he could still be some kind of experimental clone of Wanda, couldn't he? Tommy'd met Laura, he knew weird shit kind of went hand in hand with cloning experiments. "But it depends on what your side of all this was like. You guys are, what -- three years older than we are? Anything exciting happen around the two-year mark?"
Wanda actually gave that some thought before shaking her head. "Two. And just the usual two year old crap, from what Marya and Django told us - our adopted parents," she added, just to clarify. "My father didn't get his hands on us until we were eight. So no, not really, and we'd have been off the radar of anyone who might've been interested in us, based on who our father was." She made a face. "No clue if anything happened before our mom handed us off, though. I can't rule out someone getting their hands on our DNA. But why would they bother?"
Tommy shrugged. "Why does anyone do anything? Power. Money. Maybe they got off on playing God. But it only works if someone knew who you were, or that you were mutants, or both."
"Yeah, not likely. That's my point. I mean, fuck, we didn't even know back then. Neither did our parents, and I'm pretty sure my father wasn't even sure we existed." Wanda shrugged and took a sip from her beer. "So, that theory falls apart. But I'm not buying the idea this is random chance, especially not with your brother doing 'magic'."
***************
Oh good, they weren't going to waste time pretending they needed introductions. Pietro cocked an eyebrow and planted his hands on his hips, but didn't quite go full Peter Pan. "Should've taken a nap before the party," he suggested ever so helpfully. "Unless you mean you're emotionally tired from wondering what kind of genetic fuckery made you the boy lite version of my sister. A nap won't help with that."
"Wow. So much for small talk." Billy replied, but made sure his tone wasn't biting just in case Pietro took it the wrong way. "But, you are right about that. Meeting you guys have pretty much kept me up wondering."
He held out a hand. "I'm Billy, the Wanda twin."
Pietro took the hand and shook, then looked him up and down. Not as cute as Wanda--or him. But cute enough, he guessed. "And does the Pietro twin have the patience for small talk, usually?"
"Ha! That's funny." Billy replied before he could really think about it, flushing a little and hoping Pietro didn't think he was being rude. Last thing he needed was this plan going ass up cause he couldn't keep control of his mouth. "Sorry. No, Tommy is rarely a small talk guy, more a get to the point guy."
"Boom." Pietro made ironic but maybe not finger guns. "So let's skip to the good part, shall we?"
"Mmm." Billy hummed a little skeptically. "And what exactly do you consider the good part in this situation?"
"The part where I found out who's exploiting our fantastic genes and get to punch him in the nose superspeed," Pietro replied, pretending to be admiring his own nails. Then he looked Billy in the eye. "So what do you know?"
Billy raised an eyebrow and then shook his head. "Nope. I would rather we all talked together. Let's find your sister and my brother and air out all this dirty laundry, cause dear god it needs it."
"Well, you're bossy and stubborn like Wanda..." Pietro mumbled. "Fine. Come on. You obviously know more than me and it's annoying, so let's put an end to that."
Billy couldn't help but grin at that and nodded. He glanced back to where Tommy had last been, quickly finding his brother again and pointed them out to Pietro. "Tally ho then."
"What's up, mini me?" Pietro feigned nonchalance as he (slowly, achingly slowly) led Billy toward Wanda and Tommy. "You guys come up with any smart ideas? Any big confessions? No?"
"Your whole thing is probability, isn't it?" Tommy was in the middle of pointing out to Wanda when Pietro's voice cut in. It wasn't quite his, at least not the way Tommy's voice sounded in his own head, but then his face wasn't exactly right either. Even with the similarities there would be no mistaking which one of the three Tommy belonged to, and which were slightly off-model. Still, there was something not quite like looking into the mirror that made him feel slightly off-balance.
"Yeah," Tommy flashed a sharp grin back and shot off his mouth without thinking. (No shock there. He'd been doing really well so far, but that was going to have to give eventually.) "Your sister was just telling me how lucky Billy is to have gotten the cooler, faster, upgraded model."
Wanda's eyebrows rose and she rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Somehow I don't remember any of those words coming out of my mouth." She looked over at the new kid - identical to Tommy, other than the hair and eyes - and felt another pang of whatever she'd felt when she'd met his twin, except stronger. She got to her feet and held out her hand. "I'm Wanda. You're...Billy, right?"
It was weird, being in front of a person you thought about a lot, but had no idea what they looked like until that moment. Billy gulped quietly, nodding as he reached a hand out to shake with hers and prayed to god he didn't accidentally electrocute her because of nerves. When no sparks happened Billy let out a small breath and gave her his best smile, though it looked a little shaky. "Yeah, hi. You guys throw a nice party."
"Thanks," Pietro replied. What--it had been Wanda (okay, Eileen)'s idea, but Pietro had totally made it awesome. Then he returned his attention to Tommy, eying him up and down. If not for Wanda's remark, this (admittedly handsome) little shit totally might've gotten under his skin. But with Wanda around, that was way harder to do. He smiled--genuinely. "Full marks for sass. Don't quite have the style, but that'll come with a few more years of practice. If you work hard."
Tommy felt one corner of his mouth tug up in a return smile, something tight and awful inside his chest unknotting, just the tiniest bit. Though he wasn't at all ready to relax. Not here, not yet. "That just means so much," he drawled, still slouching in the chair, but the smile lingering. "I'm all a-quiver."
His gaze flickered back to Billy and Wanda, two slim dark shapes still standing next to him. Part of him had half-expected to meet the other twins and realize it was all bullshit, but something about that sight was still eerie.
"So far we've probably ruled out cloning," Tommy told Billy, veering back to the original subject and main reason they'd come. "Unless it was from back even before the alpha versions here were born. No opportunity."
"No good opportunity, anyway," Wanda amended. "I mean, getting skin or blood samples from a toddler? No problem. But why bother?" She returned the new kid's smile, but shrugged. "Not buying coincidence, though. Especially if the two of you aren't even technically related. So there's something we're missing, unless it goes back to Dad somehow, and fuck if I know how that'd work."
Billy glanced at Tommy, giving him a look that was asking for permission and at Tommy's eyeroll and half-hearted shrug, Billy went for it. "So, we might have an idea...but it's kind of out there....like I mean really out there. So, be warned."
"Better than anything we've got," Pietro said with a slight pout. He was looking back and forth from Wanda to Billy and it just... was so weird. So freaking weird. He'd believe almost anything, at this point. "Go for it."
"Strap in, then, 'cause this is a wild fucking ride," Tommy drawled. He leaned forward, shifting restlessly in his seat. Sitting still for a few minutes was alright, but longer than that and he started to get itchy under his skin.
"A couple of guys back at our place have powers relating to genetics. Reading DNA, shit like that. Billy went to one of 'em after he and I met, to try and get some information. If we were fourth cousins, or separated at birth, or ... whatever. And the guy Billy went to -- his powers bugged out. Like, visions from beyond, knocked flat on his ass for a day, total system overload." Tommy gestured wide to make his point.
"When he came to, he told Billy about you two. He somehow knew you by name, and that your dad was a powerful mutant. And-" Tommy glanced at Billy - careful here "his freaked-out explanation involved some major-league 'magic.' He also says that we're directly related to you guys. Through Wanda, specifically. Her kids."
"Through me." Wanda's eyebrows rose. "You're sure this guy wasn't just on crack or something, right? Because I promise, I haven't had any kids. Much less ones who are nearly as old as I am." Still, she wasn't entirely prepared to dismiss the whole thing, either. Not with the weird flashes she'd felt when she met them both, and the mention of magic. She glanced over at Pietro, wondering if he'd picked up on that, then back to Tommy. "Did he have any theories on just how this had happened?"
Billy let out the dumbest laugh and quickly waved his arms in front of him. "I'm sorry! That just came out ‘cause the theory he had was just...ridiculous, but his theory was that..." He glanced and Tommy and the decided to go for it. "That we are your kids from the future, reincarnated."
He could feel that dumb nervous laugh coming up again, but he made sure to shove it down deep.
Pietro looked from wonder twin to wonder twin for a half a second--but for him it stretched out for a lifetime. First of all, who the fuck had knocked Wanda up--future or not? Second, "What the actual fuck? That's--that's not a thing. Even with magic--even with the hexes. That can't be a thing!" He looked at Wanda almost pleadingly.
Tommy just shrugged expansively. "That's what I keep saying. Find me a better answer and I'm down. I'll take experimental clones over being cosmically linked to this guy for perpetuity." He poked Billy's leg with his toe, grinning.
Wanda winced and gave Pietro an apologetic look. "It...could be a thing? I mean, I'm liking the clone idea better myself, but..." She sighed. "I hate this shit. I could give Agatha a call, but honestly, I can tell you what she'd say. Souls exist. Reincarnation exists. Reincarnation into a previous time?" She waggled her hand. "Never heard of it, but with hexes thrown in, and..." She turned to Billy. "Pyro said you do magic, right? So...yeah. Not impossible."
Which meant, at some point, she was going to have kids, apparently. Two of them. At least, she reflected dazedly, it meant that at some point she was going to get fucked. It was something to look forward to.
"Who's Agatha?" Billy asked, even though right now that wasn't an important thing they needed to talk about. He was honestly surprised at how well Wanda seemed to be taking the news they had just dropped on her, her brother seemed far more stressed about it. "So....you're agreeing....that it could be true?"
"Agatha is basically the modern version of the bog witch that you meet in every RPG ever who answers all your magical questions and gives you some kind of cryptic advice before sending you out on your quest," Pietro said with a sigh. He was grateful for everything she'd done for Wanda, but... still bitter, okay.
As for the rest, he'd leave that to Wanda. She'd know better than him, and he'd follow her lead, but... this was bonkers. (So why did he have a nagging something in the pit of his stomach telling him it might not be?)
They were taking The Big Stupid way more calmly than Tommy had predicted, and something about that easy acceptance of magic and reincarnation and hexes (whatever the hell those were) made the hair stand up on the back of Tommy's neck. Either they were batshit crazy, or the world was a lot more disturbing than he'd fully realized. Or both.
And if it was, then ... what? Billy already had a family and Tommy didn't need one.
The silence felt like it was going on for a million years (though it probably hadn't) before Tommy mouthed off again, arm draped over the back of his chair like he didn't care about a damn thing. "Well, this is going to be fun to explain to your father. How long d'you think it would take him to flatten me if I called him 'grandpa'?"
Wanda'd been shooting Pietro looks over his description of Agatha, purely on principle because yeah, there was a definite similarity there, but she let out a snort of genuine amusement at Tommy's question. "More time than it'd take me to flatten you for calling me Mom, so don't get any brainstorms," she instructed, grinning at him fondly. Damn. So fucking much like Pietro. If nothing else had convinced her already, that would have, right there.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. "They're definitely family," she said with certainty, directing the next comment to Pietro. That much, at least, she was certain of. "One fucked up way or another. The details don't really matter. Bigger question is, what do we do now?"
“Hell if I know. Jesus, I thought our family already had issues...” Pietro pursed his lips and looked from Billy to Tommy. He didn’t mind thinking of them as relatives, exactly. He smiled a little. “But I’m not your damn uncle. Not until we get some, like, back up info. Some dude with powers in the fritz isn’t enough.
“Also who the hell is the baby daddy? Just asking so I can keep an eye on him.”
Okay, there was the level of resistance that Billy had been expecting, but it wasn't nearly as much as he and Tommy and guessed it would be. Oh well. Billy gave a shrug, throwing his hands into the motion as well towards Pietro. "That was never really explained. So, he could be anyone really."
He watched at how protective the older speedster seemed over his sister and had to smile a little. "Also, you sure? Uncle P has a great ring to it."
"It really does," Wanda teased, smiling a little. "But I think losing the titles is fair." She let the smile fade and gave Pietro a look. "And I'm good with the father being a mystery, thanks. Just don't scare off whoever it is and we're all good."
And now they were all talking like it was settled and true. Tommy itched, still for way too long, and he drummed his fingers against the back of Wanda's chair with increasing speed. "This is getting cozy. Watch out," he proclaimed, nodding at Billy. "He's going to start hugging people any second now."
Pietro cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not ready for hugs. I'm ready to scare off your maybe-father." Then he held up his hands. "Just kidding!" Except not.
Billy glared at Tommy, promising silently to get him back for making Billy seem like a hugging hippie in front of these two, before he turned to Pietro. "Don't worry, consent is important when hugs are concerned...unless you're a certain jack-ass brother."
"Well, they're definitely twins," Wanda pointed out to Pietro with barely concealed amusement. "However they got there." And yes, she was ignoring the comment about scaring off their alleged father. She'd deal with that later. She looked over at Billy and offered a bit of a grin. "Jack-ass brothers should never be asked for hug consent. They want them - they just want to kick up a fuss so they don't have to admit it."
"And she's also a telepath." Tommy rolled his eyes, emboldened and a lot less nervous now than he'd been at the beginning of the whole conversation. "Any other powers you want to disclose while we're at it?" he arched an eyebrow at Pietro. "The explosions are a me-thing only, aren't they?"
Pietro's face fell. "What? You got explosions?"
Tommy's smile grew as Pietro's expression changed. He might have started the evening feeling totally at sea, but now he was holding his own. "Vibrate anything fast enough, it'll blow," he replied casually, mischief in his eyes. He glanced around the room, at the glow sticks, the bright neon, the games and toys. "Name a target." ... and here was hoping the practicing he'd been doing was enough to keep his control.
Pietro disappeared, then reappeared with an empty beer bottle and held it out to Tommy.
Tommy looked at it with scorn. "Sure, if you want shards of glass everywhere. It'd definitely make the party memorable, just maybe not in the spirit of the whole 'let's keep the peace' idea." One of the ice buckets was that weird neon-coloured semi-transparent plastic, and Tommy zipped to dump it and bring it back empty. He put the bottle on the chair, the bucket upside down on top of it to contain the shrapnel. There was reckless, and then there was the risk of getting cut up by his own powers, which, embarrassing.
"They apparently teach them that being safe is a priority," Wanda explained to Pietro, remembering her conversation with Shen.
"Hey, safety first and all the jazz." Billy was actually impressed that Tommy had thought of that, surprised that his brother could be considerate when he wanted to be. "Just don't have it be super umm crazy? Let's have the cops called ‘cause the noise is too loud, not for any other reason."
Pietro looked like Tommy had just sprouted another head. "Your kids are kind of square, Wanda." But then he shrugged and smiled again. "Go for it, hotshot."
"I've had enough of things slicing into me, thank you very much." Tommy fired back. They knew Pam, they'd probably seen the files pulled from the Right's lab, they knew his history without him having to say anything. Hell, he hadn't read the files and he'd been drugged or unconscious half the time, so they probably knew more about what had happened than he did. Still, show-off time.
He focused, reached out, felt the molecules and atoms spinning inside the glass of the bottle. He pushed and they spun faster, the energy levels building. Another push and the fault lines fractured, the bottle bursting with a muffled bang into a thousand needle-like glass shards. The bucket jumped from the force, falling off the chair. Fragments of glass spilled out onto the floor -- the ones that hadn't been driven into the plastic, anyway. The inside of the bucket looked like an inside-out glass porcupine, and shimmering particles rose into the air like smoke.
"Boom." Tommy folded his arms.
"Nice," Wanda grinned approval and waved her hand, casting a hex - and the sparkling smoke spiraled around, mini-tornado like, before making a 180 degree turn and heading back into the overturned bucket. She looked over at Pietro and smirked. "Guess you've been shown." There was an implied "up" in there, somewhere. But he'd know that.
Okay so the show off of powers had Billy awe-struck and slightly jealous. Wanda and Tommy had such amazing control and if he had more respect for his brother then that was between him and himself. He turned to Wanda and shook his head with a pleading expression. "Please don't say that, he'll be bragging about it until I finally go crazy and gag him."
Pietro was 90% sure he couldn’t do that. At all. And Wanda was not helping. He rolled his eyes but admitted, “Okay, okay, it’s kinda cool.”
Tommy pressed his hand against his heart and pretended to swoon at the compliment. The rush of accomplishment was buzzing through him, though heaven help him if he tried to do anything that tight and controlled again tonight. "Beta version," he cracked. "Upgraded, new and improved."
"I see what you mean," Wanda told Billy, and added a grin and a roll of her eyes. "You've got magic, though. If you really want to get even, just hex him in place." She paused. "And then gag him. I should try that sometime." She smirked over at Pietro, just because.
"Hex?" Billy questioned, wondering if that was what she called her magic. "I'm not too good with my magic yet, but I've been practicing. Certainly no where near party tricks level yet though."
He shot a look at Tommy.
Pietro was still rolling his eyes from Tommy's comment. It was okay, though. It must suck to be the ugly version of the hot guy. Okay, well, less hot version. Still. "Oh, you'll know the hex when you see it. It's well beyond a party trick. And definitely negates the whole speedster thing. Enjoy."
"He's not a fan," Wanda provided unnecessarily, but she grinned as she said it, first at Pietro, then Billy. "It's not really a party trick, no. And I'm not totally convinced it's magic, either, though it goes with the code name so I just kept it. Mostly I think of it as probability manipulation. It's entirely improbable that a running speedster will randomly get stuck in one spot, unable to move. But hey. Sometimes shit happens."
Billy couldn't help but grin widely. "You've been able to stop a speedster?"
He eyed Tommy with a little too much interest then. "I want to try."
"Fuck you too," Tommy replied, less easy now. "And full offense, the last person who tried something like that is still high on my shit list."
"Oooh, hit a nerve," Pietro said in his best commentator voice.
"Hey, Eileen said she was sorry," Wanda pointed out. Well, she'd said it to Pietro, anyway. And slightly under duress. But she'd meant it, regardless. "Anyway, it's not the same thing. It's like..." she turned back to Billy and paused to figure out how to describe it, "kind of like the freeze ray in Dr. Horrible, but without actually stopping time." Okay, yes, she was admitting she'd actually watched that stupid web musical thing, but whatever. It hadn't totally sucked.
She was talking about Dr. Horrible's sing-a-long blog and now he knew for sure that he was related to this girl (cause all the other facts weren't telling). He grinned at her and nodded in understanding, glancing at Tommy in question. "You were freeze rayed in the middle of running? Did it hurt?"
Tommy just gave him a look, because duh, but also because that wasn't the point at all. "Amazingly, I'm not a big fan of being held down," he fired back with all the sarcasm he could muster. Not like any of them would understand. Maybe Wanda, if she actually hung out with Pam, but he hadn't gotten the sense that they were all that close.
"Yes, we know you've had a shitty history with it," Pietro said, dismissive more because the tension was annoying than because he really felt the need to put Tommy at ease. Like, did the guy have to make everyone all ugh about it? "And you can probably guess--family or not--that literally anyone standing here would dick punch the next person who really tried to hold you down, so don't take it as a threat, for real."
Pietro turned to Billy before anyone could try and protest, because that was seriously all he needed from that conversation. Jesus, this was a neon party, not a pity party. "But it doesn't work like that," he explained. "I mean it can if Wanda wants it to, but mostly she just makes me skid to a stop. Sometimes on my face. It hurts way less than what Phantazia does, though. Thank fuck.
"And my face is still awesome, so yeah."
"Because obviously, that's key," Wanda observed to no one in particular, rolling her eyes. She turned back to look at Tommy, though. "And he's right. Well, maybe not about the dick punching, because Eileen would come up with something a fuckload more painful, but...you're family. There's no one here - not from our team, anyway - who'd let anyone else fuck with you, let alone do it themselves. Not seriously, anyway."
Billy's face went a little dark when Pietro was dismissive about Tommy's fears and he couldn't help that his hands sparked a little at the thought of zapping the older speedster for it. Luckily Wanda moved in to talk before Billy could do anything regrettable and he shoved his sparking hands into his jacket pockets. "That's...reassuring, in a totally scary kind of way."
Tommy'd seen the blue sparkles, but that didn't make sense. Why would Billy spark up when the other twins were giving Tommy grief? He was better off staying out of it. "While I'm always up for seeing you skidding on your face," he aimed that one at Pietro, "it would probably harsh this whole peace-love-and-neon vibe you've got going here." Wanda got a smile instead, one that wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be.
Pietro just rolled his eyes. "Speaking of, are we done here? Because I need to dance, if we're done."
"For now?" Wanda agreed, though she looked from one of the second set of twins to the other, returning Tommy's smile with a warm one of her own. "We can always talk more, later."
