Fraternizing With the Enemy

Posted on Sat Nov 18th, 2023 @ 5:53pm by Ethan Hale & Pietro Maximoff

1,960 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: Montauk Point, NY
Timeline: August 18th, 1990

This was the day. While the Professor prepared for his upcoming debate with the anti-mutant bigot, he paused to notify Ethan that Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, was in the area. It even appeared that he was resting for the night at Montauk Point near the old Air Force Station. Approaching him would have to be difficult, as he had been clocked upwards of 2,000mph. One spook from Ethan and he would gone. With the leaked classified data in hand that would serve as proof that Wanda Maximoff was not being held in any territories of the United States, Ethan had precious time to prepare before his hasty mission to parley with an erstwhile adversary of the X-Men and, perhaps, a potential ally.

Ethan had mixed feelings about trying to reach the Romani man, who was not that much older than him. It would be a challenge, one he wasn't sure if he was up to. But, he had made the commitment and wanted to follow through. Ethan was wearing his new uniform but had discovered that there was a mode that didn't change how he looked.

With the encrypted information on a floppy disk, tucked securely in a pocket in his uniform, he flew to where Pietro was supposed to be staying. Making no attempt to hide himself, he descended to the ground He landed about five meters away from Quicksilver. "Hey," he called out, "remember me?"

There was a blur. One instant Quicksilver was at ease staring at the dusky horizon with his face set to a scowl. The next instant he was in Ethan's personal space, one hand with a fistful of collar while the other was cocked back and ready for a haymaker. "You following me?" Recognition did flash in his eyes. He let go of Ethan's collar and took a step back. "You were in Baltimore." Though not at ease, Quicksilver seemed less poised for violence. "What does Magneto want now?"

~To destroy your life, to destroy all of our lives~ Ethan thought as he pulled his uniform shirt back down into place. But he didn't say it. Instead, he let out a long breath. "I was in Baltimore, you're right. You saved my ass that day and I wanted to thank you for that. I also wanted to say I thought yo... think you are cute. Though I'm sure you don't care about that, or you do and it doesn't help my cause. I shouldn't have said that."

Quicksilver narrowed his eyes in suspicion while Ethan continued the word vomit.

"Sorry, I'm rambling now. I have no idea what he's up to or what he wants because I'm not on his team."

In response, Quicksilver gave Ethan a swift leg sweep. "Don't move!" he barked with a finger pointed down at Ethan on the ground. In the space of a few seconds, Quicksilver ran a crisscrossed star pattern around the vicinity in search of anyone else. Satisfied that Ethan didn't have any backup within easy reach, Quicksilver turned his attention back to the nosy stranger. "So you aren't Brotherhood and you came alone. Do you expect me to believe you found me all by yourself? Who do you work for?"

Ethan slowly, carefully got to his feet holding up his hands to indicate he wasn't going to try anything foolish and wasn't going to attack the speedster.

"I work for myself, and the things I believe in. I'm a student though of Professor Xavier. He helped me find you. but it was my idea. We're on opposite sides, but we shouldn't be. I knew there was something different about you when you helped me the other day."

Shaking his head, Quicksilver couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Can we just talk without you attacking me? I took a big chance in coming to you today. I'm good, but you're better. You've been lied to. Will you at least hear me out?"

"Ugh... în pula mea," Quicksilver cursed in Romani. "I should've known you were one of Xavier's. Whatever that old fool is selling, I'm not buying. Now I'll give you to the count of five to get the hell out of here before I make you."

"We can trade punches if you want, I'm not afraid of you. But this isn't about either of us. It's about your sister. I have proof of her whereabouts, or at least who is holding her. It might not be who you think."

Quicksilver's hands turned back to fists at his side.

Ethan took a half step closer to Quicksilver unfurling his wings. "It's your move, Kemosabe."

"Don't you fucking talk about her!" A silver streak was Ethan's only warning before a supersonic fist came for him.

Ethan's reflexes were good, one of his best assets. In the split-second of the attack, before his mind could react, his instincts kicked in. He dodged. Had the blow come from anyone else, it would have missed entirely. But he wasn't quite fast enough. He managed to turn just enough so he took the blow on his shoulder, instead of his chin.

It stung like hell, it moved him back half a foot. but he didn't flinch. "I was wrong about you. You're not cute you're just a dick." Ethan snapped his anger flaring.

Not expecting his punch to go off target, Quicksilver stumbled past Ethan and took several steps to catch his balance.

"Look," Ethan continued, "I didn't mean the part about you being a dick. I'm not trying to say bad things about your sister, I'm trying to help you both."

A vortex of wind kicked up dirt and debris as Quicksilver caught his balance, turned around, and rushed back at Ethan all in the span of half a second. He stopped right at striking distance, his punch hanging in the air. "What do you got?"

"I'm going to reach inside my uniform and pull out my evidence, Just cool those jets, and don't hit me again. Look at the evidence and decide for yourself. You owe it to her. You owe it to yourself."

Quicksilver took a step back but still kept his hands at the ready. The X-Men weren't above feints and sucker-punches anymore than he was. Mistrust was rife on his face. "This had better be good."

Ethan wasn't afraid of the older man at all, he told himself, though he wasn't quite sure if he believed that. but he did respect him. He kept his right hand down at his side and with his left reached in and pulled out the disk. "You'll need a computer to access it, but I think you'll find it convincing. Can we at least declare a truce until you've done so?"

The computer disk in his hand could be anything. Pietro Maximoff didn't know computers well but he did know that much. "I found some leftover computers inside the abandoned Air Station," he said. "Stay or go, makes no difference to me."

And then he walked—not ran—at a normal brisk rate toward the nearest building. They had, in fact, been sparring inside the fence of the perimeter. Pietro may have put aside his superspeed, but he was still quick. His hand was already reaching for the entry door.

Ethan hurried to catch up to him. "I'm staying," he asserted. "You may think this is cheesy and that I'm daft, but I feel I need to be here for you after you see what's on the disk."

"Good," Pietro said as he stormed down the dusty concrete hallways. "That means I won't have to go far to kill you if I don't like what I see." While there was emotion in his voice, it lacked conviction. Pietro's thoughts were clearly elsewhere. As was his sister, Wanda.

The two of them cleared a couple of intersections before reaching the heart of the building. An abandoned comms room sat in the wide open. Equipment hadn't even been covered by protective sheets or tarps, just left to sit where they lay.

"Make yourself useful," Pietro said. "Hit that breaker switch on the wall."

Though Ethan was not even remotely as fast as Quicksilver, he could move pretty quickly when he needed to and he quickly closed the distance to the lever and flipped it on.

Lights flickered overhead, but not enough to stay on. Pietro cursed his luck. He was off in a rush, found the emergency generator room, gave it a few dozen cranks that nearly broke the handle, at which point it fired up. Back in the comms room, everything flipped on with the dreary reluctance of long-dormant systems resenting being awakened from their slumber.

"Moment of truth," Pietro said as he skidded to a halt in front of a computer station. He slid the disk into the drive and waited for something to happen. The boot screen finally appeared, so Pietro typed in the command and hoped for the best. "Seriously don't know why the hell you couldn't just tell me," he said with an angry glare.

"Really?" Ethan retorted, "You took me to the ground just for showing up here and thought I was stalking you. Then when I just mentioned your sister, you tried to punch my lights out. If I'd just told you, you wouldn't have believed me. What you have there is evidence."

Even though he had a point, Pietro didn't have to like it. "Anyone ever tell you that you talk too damn much?" He scowled at the computer screen. A ton of data finally loaded off the disk – a list of names, dates, and locations, much of it abbreviated in raw data tables. "What the hell is all this now?"


"I get told that a lot," Ethan said with a smirk. Hasn't stopped me yet. "

He moved within the other meta's personal space to get closer to the screen. "What is it you're talking about?"

"There must be thousands of names here," Pietro said. "Dates. Some kind of reference codes I don't recognize." Growing impatient despite his newfound intrigue, he looked at Ethan. "What am I supposed to be getting out of this?"

"Those are all the mutants that have been locked up, in the US, along with when and where they were arrested, You'll see your sister's name is not on that list. Anywhere."

Pietro was speed-reading through line after line until his eyes nearly went cross-eyed.

"That means the Pentagon doesn't know where she is either. And, if I'm not mistaken, she was last seen here. In America. Do you believe me now?"

Looking away from the computer screen, Pietro obviously looked conflicted. "Okay. Let's say this is real and you're telling the truth. What now? What do you want from me, X-Man?"

"I'm not asking you to turn on the Brotherhood or become a snitch or anything like that. I'm just asking you to come back with me and talk to the professor. I know he can help find your sister, or at least he's going to try. That's a lot more than can be said for Magneto."

Whatever Pietro was expecting, that clearly wasn't it. His silver brown arched halfway up his forehead.

"Come with me. Please."

"I won't kill you today," he said, putting on his goggles. "But if you think I'm setting foot in your little Boy Scout academy, you're dumber than you look." He paused for a moment. "Thanks for the disk."

And then he zoomed away.

"FUCK," Ethan shouted, after the departing figure. Then to himself, he said, "Well that went so well. Damn it."

Then he flew back to the mansion to report his failure.

A mile away, vigilant eyes beneath a silver brow watched Ethan take flight.

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