see you at the finish line!

Tommy had returned from a supply run. Nothing too big, thankfully. Someone had scored him an old, and much larger cage, for his sloth to hang about in. He didn’t ask how, but getting various chocolates and wine from Italy was easy so he didn’t complain. He heard his name being spoken, and so he placed his glasses back on and looked towards the origin of the voice. His lips betrayed his confusion as they grew into a wide smile. A too-tight hoodie, short shorts and running trainors wasn’t exactly the best greeting gear for the one and only Kate Bishop but he didn’t care.

He sped over, and in an instant raised her up by her waist as he laughed. “Haha! Kate Bishop! Damn, am I happy to see your face!” He let out, voice full of ecstasy and cheer. He pulled her close into a hug, and then the questions came out like an explosion. “Oh, fuck. Are you okay? How have you been? Where have you been? You’re healthy, right? Do you have a room?”

Kate manage to only wince a little as Tommy spun her around. She was so happy to see him, it was worth the momentary pain. “I can’t believe you’re here,” she said through a huge smile as she returned the hug as tight as she could. “I’m fine,” she reassured him. “Just a few minor injuries.”

She rested her forehead on his shoulder for a second. She was just relieved to know she was safe with a familiar face.

“I was in LA when the outbreak hit. I was living in a compound out there for awhile.” She chose to omit that part where the compound was overrun and she was the only survivor she knew of.

Seasons were changing, and with it, the weather too. Tommy was known as the best runner in Haven. His mutant ability being super-speed, as well as other things. However, Tommy didn’t exactly have the best immune system. Travelling into various countries and unknown habitats, as well as using all his stamina in the process, didn’t help with staying healthy. Especially on a diet that consisted of energy bars and bread.

Tommy hadn’t been running for the past week, and barely left his room. His notice board of requests for filling up fast, and yet he could barely leave his bed, nevermind run to Europe and Asia. Puking and migraines. Achey bones and bruises out of nowhere. Sudden weight loss and sneezing. Tommy didn’t like it. He was making it worse for himself by avoiding visiting someone to get himself checked out, but he didn’t want to go near anyone either. That, and doctors. Screw doctors.

Seasons were changing, and with it, the weather too. Tommy was known as the best runner in Haven. His mutant ability being super-speed, as well as other things. However, Tommy didn’t exactly have the best immune system. Travelling into various countries and unknown habitats, as well as using all his stamina in the process, didn’t help with staying healthy. Especially on a diet that consisted of energy bars and bread.

Tommy hadn’t been running for the past week, and barely left his room. His notice board of requests for filling up fast, and yet he could barely leave his bed, nevermind run to Europe and Asia. Puking and migraines. Achey bones and bruises out of nowhere. Sudden weight loss and sneezing. Tommy didn’t like it. He was making it worse for himself by avoiding visiting someone to get himself checked out, but he didn’t want to go near anyone either. That, and doctors. Screw doctors.

Kate was exhausted when she reached Haven—too exhausted to even sass anyone about being shoved into quarantine. Quarantine would almost definitely have a bed to pass out on. That was the point of finding another compound, right–to be able to let your guard down long enough to sleep. To find a new anchor. She was dismayed to find out that they were poking and prodding her too much for her to sleep. She mumbled off a comment about stabbing her to draw blood was pointless considering how many wounds she was openly bleeding from, but they droned on about protocol.

Finally, they let her shower and loose to find her new quarters. They also said something about acquiring things like bedding but her plan was to sleep first then worry about a blanket. However, as she stood in the crowd around her, she realized she had not retained any info on how to navigate this place. Shit. All she wanted was to sleep and now she was lost. She scanned her surroundings looking for information that would lead her in the right direction, but instead, her eyes landed on someone familiar.

Tommy glanced in the direction Erik was speaking of, a smile tugging at his lips in agreement. “That’s a nice one, over by the end,” he said, pointing at the end of one street. Of course, like the majority of the buildings it’d need work but it was surely large enough. Two stories!

“Think you can set us down? We can get a better look,” Tommy continued. The house looked great, to Tommy at least. He’d grown up in a trailer park, and after that the most he had of homes were government facilities and friends couches.

“As you wish.”  Erik smoothly moved them over towards the house Tommy indicated.   Not a bad choice.  Certainly something they could work with.   In some fashion they couldn’t afford to be too choosy.   As long as it remained structurally sound they should be able to make just about anything work.

“It’s okay - you don’t have to apologise,” Tommy smiled, nodding at her. He remained quiet for a bit until Laura asked her question. A lot of the inmates at the facility stayed away from each other, and most of the time the only interaction he had was when they’d toy with their powers and see how they’d reflect on others.

“Sometimes. I think everyone there was a Mutant. Maybe they had InHumans or something, but I don’t know,” he admitted, sitting up. “It was Hell. Truly, and I’ve been to actual Hell,” Tommy continued. The joke was in sour taste, but it was true.

“There was one girl. I forget her name, but she had a power to slow things around her. They put us both in a room with these machines that forced your powers to work regardless of if you were using them. I suppose mine where stronger,” Tommy spoke, tears cracking slightly again. “It was sort of just a blur, an explosion of light. When they opened the room, I was supposedly unconcious but she fell into a coma after losing an arm. I never saw her again. I wish I could go back and just blow that facility up.”

She considered the sentiment.  “I don’t know if murdering everyone in my facility made me feel any better, I thought it did when I thought no one else would be hurt by them, but apparently they had other real estate.  They had my sister embryos offsite and all.  So I guess at least I’m fairly confident the zombies stopped what I couldn’t.”

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Tommy smiled listening to her, because he could agree. He could also hear the sentinment in Felicia’s voice. Finishing up, he began to follow alongside the woman out the room. “That’s always nice, at least while you’re here you can make new ones,” Tommy replied, offering her a playful pat to the back indicating he would be a friend to her. “I’ve met plently since being here!”

She nodded, glad to have another friend in her life. It was certainly easier to make them now than it’d been before- which was sad in a way. “I certainly hope so. At least my skills will be helpful in getting supplies. Who knew being a thief would help save lives?”

“You and me both!” He laughed in response, never really thinking before the apocalypse that his speed would come in such use. They exited the gym, walking towards the cafeteria. “Though I really do appreciate being back at Haven whenever I can. Sometimes I have to stay out of the country for a while if what I’m picking up is sensitive.””

“Trust me, if I had plain speed you’d be in a lot of random pain compared to my speed, so I’d prefer the sickness,” he joked, mouth full of apple chunks. Tommy totally didn’t know what was proper and what wasn’t. He turned back to the table, stuffing as many energy bars as he could into his jacket pocket whilst trying to remain the least amount of suspicuous as possible. It probably didn’t work, but Tommy was determined.

“Sounds like a plan, boss,” Tommy replied with a goofy grin and a mini salute before speeding to stand next to her. “Is there where we part ways or is there more on the agenda for me?”

Bobbi put a sandwich together for herself.  “That’s a good point.  No amount of astronaut training is going to prepare anyone for that kind of speed.”  Some part of Bobbi that was once married to Clint Barton wanted to tell Tommy to swallow, then speak, but she curbed it.  She wasn’t his mother.

She wondered how Wanda would have taught etiquette had she raised this boy.

Tommy followed her inside, and usually found himself where the bowl of energy bars and fruit laid. Her question made him smile a bit.

“I’ve travelled at high speeds with humans and animals before, and they always end up okay despite a little dizziness! The way my speed works is not that I’m just fast - the way my brother puts it I’m warping the time and space around me to accelerate myself forwards which is why I can get around the Earth from this cafeteria and back in about a couple seconds,” he explained.

Biting into an apple, he continued, “so it works on anything I’m holding, as I’m warping the time and space around them too! Pretty badass, right?”

There were things set out for people to assemble their own sandwiches.  For all that this was the apocalypse, the bread was fantastic.  “I can’t figure out if that would make me feel more or less sick than plain speed.  But it is very cool.”  She was glad to see some shredded chicken among her choices.  Cured meats like the thick sausage that was on hand turned her stomach at the moment, and they weren’t really advised during pregnancy anyway. 

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Tommy smiled listening to her, because he could agree. He could also hear the sentinment in Felicia’s voice. Finishing up, he began to follow alongside the woman out the room. “That’s always nice, at least while you’re here you can make new ones,” Tommy replied, offering her a playful pat to the back indicating he would be a friend to her. “I’ve met plently since being here!”

She nodded, glad to have another friend in her life. It was certainly easier to make them now than it’d been before- which was sad in a way. “I certainly hope so. At least my skills will be helpful in getting supplies. Who knew being a thief would help save lives?”

“You and me both!” He laughed in response, never really thinking before the apocalypse that his speed would come in such use. They exited the gym, walking towards the cafeteria. “Though I really do appreciate being back at Haven whenever I can. Sometimes I have to stay out of the country for a while if what I’m picking up is sensitive.””

“Of course,” Tommy followed along, walking besides her. He could eat himself after a run around the grounds this morning. He listened in closely as Bobbi explained. This was the first time someone explained their request as objectionable.

When Bobbi brought up the next part of her immunising project being monkeys, Tommy blinked. He opened his mouth to say something, but wasn’t actually sure what to say. Tommy knew a lot about animals - he had to if he was homing a sloth in his room.

“It’s not that I don’t need to think, uh,” Tommy said before falling back into thinking as he tried his best to keep up with her. I’ll just need some things and like some questions answered is all. There’s a lot of countries with a lot of different breed of monkeys - do you need a specific breed or country type? South American? African? If you can answer that, as well as supply me with a tranq gun and a cage so they’re easier to obtain, then I’ll definitely get them for you!”

Well, that was simpler than she was bracing for.  She pushed the door open to the dining hall, where there were still things laid out for lunch.

“I’ve travelled at high speeds with humans and animals before, and they always end up okay despite a little dizziness! The way my speed works is not that I’m just fast - the way my brother puts it I’m warping the time and space around me to accelerate myself forwards which is why I can get around the Earth from this cafeteria and back in about a couple seconds,” he explained.

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Felicia nodded, curious but not pushing. No one needed to have the sensitive parts of their history. Especially now. “It’s good that you were able to meet him before everything went down. Having a familiar face has definitely made things easier.”

“You’re right there. I didn’t have a lotta friendly faces the majority of my life, so it’s nice to see the few I had here,” Tommy agreed, unbandaging his hands before taking a swig of water and cracking his joints. “How about you? Any friendly faces around here? I’ve made newer friends, but it’s always good to have old ones too, huh?”

“One, It was one more than I’d walked in with.” Felicia leaned against the wall, patently waiting for him. “It was amazing to see people again, especially Peter. We were close before the world went insane- practically my best friend. I think that was the best part about getting to camp.”

Tommy smiled listening to her, because he could agree. He could also hear the sentinment in Felicia’s voice. Finishing up, he began to follow alongside the woman out the room. “That’s always nice, at least while you’re here you can make new ones,” Tommy replied, offering her a playful pat to the back indicating he would be a friend to her. “I’ve met plently since being here!”

Tommy always took random days off from supply runs to train, eat up and catch up with friends and family. Training always came first, so after eating an apple, Tommy began descending to the gym to train which remained quite empty asides from the one woman she didn’t recognise.

Tommy wasn’t the tallest, nor the fittest of people. And asides being blind, the simple blur from across the room of the woman was enough to see they shared similar builds though he grinned to himself as he watched, knowing he had a one up on her.

Once she’d called out her challenge, Tommy chuckled a bit and walked down the stairs to meet her properly. “I’m sure I could, actually,” he admitted. As multiple people had admitted and recognised, speed had a fundamental effect on impact. He remembered one time Felicia had to hold the punching bag so he didn’t knock it off its hinges.

“I’m Tommy, now. Would you like to see?”

  “Finally, someone with a pulse running through their veins and a fire under their arse,” Rahne exhaled refreshingly as she wiped the sweat from her brow, a wicked smiled spreading from ear to ear across her face. Her excitement was tangible, new energy capturing the gym with the buzz of a good fight, the anticipation like gathering electricity before the storm.

    “I swear, I’ve been pullin’ fer a decent spar since I got here. Figured bunker full o’ freaks? Bound to be a hell o’ an arena, eh? But, everyone seems so keen on keepin’ the peace that even training’s lost its edge,” Rahne complained. Her respect for this Tommy fella already at a high. All he had to do was put his money where his pretty mouth was. She scanned the guy curiously, his stature obviously nothing to be worried about. But, she’d learned the hard way (many, many times) not to judge a mutant by their looks. This guy seemed a crucial example of that lesson.

  Her playful grin returned as she stalked towards him, flashing her signature fangs like a beacon under the dim lighting. 

Majority of his life, Tommy was used to being told he looked like others. Billy and Pietro, more often than not. He supposed he attributed his personality traits to good old mom and grandad. Now there was two ways his speed could go. Movement, and explosions. Though he wasn’t in the market for the latter, the boy jogged on the spot before beginning to pummel into the bag. Speed was everything when it came to force.

It didn’t matter to Tommy how hard he punched. He was one of the only two people on the Earth to be able to punch something over a hundred times in under a second, and soon enough the sheer force from the two seconds had knocked the punching bag from the chain in the roof to hitting the wall on the other side of the room and Tommy calmed down with another laugh.

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Felicia nodded, finding herself smiling. “Ok, but only if you do the same. Fair is fair.” She considered for a moment. No good would come if she hid the biggest part. “Well, I guess the first thing to start with is that before everything went down, I was a thief.”

“Fair is fair,” Tommy repeated as confirmation, smiling as she went on. It certainly surprised him as he rubbed his knuckles, and his jaw dropped a little. “A thief, huh? Woah! That’s badass,” he chuckled, lightly punching at the nearby. Tommy decided to hide the part of being tortured and experimented on as a child away. “I, however, was on the Young Avengers team! Pretty much my entire life.”

“Badass, sure. Not as much as being a superhero.” Felicia laughed with him. She didn’t bring up any of her path to becoming a thief. That was too much for an introduction. “You always wanted to be a hero or did it just come with the powers?”

“Eh, I didn’t really see or want to be a hero to tell you the truth, Felicia,” he responded, shrugging his shoulders as he stood next to her. “They broke me outta some facility back in New Jersey, and I just sorta joined their team because my sorta twin not-twin brother was on the team. That’s a whole other story for a whole other time,” he giggled.