Sunday night arrived and as promised, Ethan was in the same tree as the day before, wearing dark clothes and a jacket, waiting for Quicksilver to appear.
That certainly wasn't the best idea Ethan ever had. But he was terrible with ideas, so nothing out of the ordinary for him.
Was he going to get into trouble? For sure.
Should he be there? No.
Would he regret it later? Probably.
Did he had to leave? No.
Before he could decide whether to keep waiting or just leave, Ethan felt something grabbing him by the arm, then he felt his body being pulled and everything around him turned into a blur of distorted colors and shapes.
When the environment returned to normal, Ethan noticed that he was no longer in the institute's garden, but in the middle of the forest that was around the institute. And not far from him, 4 figures were looking at him.
The first, a blond boy with brown eyes with a lighter and a box of matches in his hands. He looked at Ethan from top to bottom, and a smug smile formed on his face, as if he were mentally mocking Ethan.
The second was a boy with brown hair and black eyes who, in Ethan's opinion, dressed a lot like a metalhead or punk rocker. A tough guy, so to speak.
And in the center were the only figures Ethan knew, Wanda and Pietro. Pietro with his arms crossed and a smile and Wanda barely looking at Ethan. It even seemed like she didn't even want to be there.
Well, not even Ethan really wanted to be there, but somehow he went there. You understand, right?
Pietro was the first to approach, extending his arm and wrapping it around Ethan's neck as if they were old friends. "I'm surprised, I thought you wouldn't show up. No offense, but you give the impression of a guy too straight to break rules "
"Not everything is what it seems" Ethan said trying to let go of Pietro's grip, but proved in vain because the speedster was stronger "Why did you call me here? "
"Why the rush, man? First let me introduce you to the guys " Pietro said with a smile while pointing to his gang.
"See that the blondie over there? " Pietro asked pointing to the blonde of the group " That's John, but we call him Pyro. He can manipulate fire, and has a little fetish in setting things on fire, so be careful with him "
In response, the blond, John, lit the lighter in his hand and let the light of the flame illuminate the dark environment. In the next moment, the intensity of the flame increased enormously, turning into a stunning fire flower before simply being extinguished as if it never had been there.
John looked at Ethan defiantly, as if he was imposing dominance with his previous demonstration of power and skill. But Ethan just looked back with the same intensity.
Pietro observed the silent interaction with a treacherous smile.
"And that guy over there" He said pointing to the metalhead "That Lance, but you can call him Avalanche. He manipulates seismic waves, those things that make earthquakes happen, so be careful so he doesn't collapse a building on top of you "
Lance looked at Ethan, not in a defiant way like John, but more as if he was judging the quality of a product he was going to buy.
And judging by his face, he was deeply disappointed with the quality and about to complain to the manager.
"That one over there is my sister, I think you already know each other, so I dismiss the presentations" Pietro said pointing to Wanda "She can move objects with her mind, manipulate thoughts and emotions, give bad luck to others. In short, try not to annoy her, okay? "
Ethan and Wanda looked at each other, and Ethan felt the same he felt the other time. That strange and unnatural attraction, as if they were connected in some way.
From the way Wanda looked at him, she probably felt it too. Even so, she looked away and pretended that nothing happened.
Ethan would have to investigate what kind of connection they had.
"And to finish, me" Pietro said taking his arm off Ethan's shoulder " Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver, the fastest creature alive and also the leader of this group "
"Now you're going to answer me why you called me to meet you in the middle of the night? I doubt it was just to introduce me to your little group of friends " Ethan decided to be direct.
In response, Pietro let out a loud laugh while the others were silent, as if they already were used to his attitudes.
His laughter didn't take long to die " I liked you, man. You have an attitude " Pietro said with a smile " But answering your question, have you heard of the church of humanity? "
"No? " Ethan doubted that someone was stupid enough to give that name to a church.
"Well, they are a group of fanatics who hate mutants and use all possible methods to ostracize, humiliate and assault mutants," Pietro replied.
"So they are naz**? "
Pietro was without an answer for a few seconds while thinking "Maybe. They're similar, but we can think about it later "
"The point is, we found out that some guys who are part of that same group are going to meet near a bar. Our plan is to wait for them, give them a well-deserved lesson and run away before we get caught," Pietro concluded.
"And do you want me to be part of this? " Ethan asked even though the answer was pretty obvious.
"Yes. So, you are joining us or not? " Pietro asked with a friendly smile that hid not very friendly intentions.
Ethan looked once again at the group that surrounded him. A pyromaniac, a guy who can cause earthquakes, a goth who manipulated emotions and a speedster who was clearly unreliable.
I think his answer was already kind of obvious.
"I'm in"
.........
When Pietro said that the extremists would meet in a bar, Ethan hoped that the bar would have at least some quality. But what could you expect from a place where extremists gathered to drink?
The place was dirty, noisy, full of drunken bikers and with a less than pleasant smell. Ethan wasn't even inside that bar (this bar that didn't even have a name) but he only needed to look once to understand what kind of place it was.
The guys from the church who hate mutants hadn't even appeared yet, so Ethan was just waiting along with Pietro's group.
After what must have been a few minutes of waiting, Ethan finally saw their car approaching. And it wasn't even very difficult, it was an old car that had written "DEATH TO THE MUTANTS" in very visible red letters.
Pietro and the others also noticed and waited while the extremists parked the car.
"Come on, get them " Pietro said pushing Ethan in the direction of the extremists.
" Me? "
"Don't tell me you're scared? " John sneered with a smile.
In normal situations, Ethan was someone who avoided conflicts. He wasn't pacifist or a coward, but he preferred to avoid getting hurt for nothing. But this time, he had no option, so he simply approached the extremists while Pietro and his group watched.
Ethan also covered his face with the hood of his coat, just in case.
There were 4 extremists. All a little taller than Ethan, already clearly drunk and none of them was properly athletic, not to say out of shape. Still, Ethan couldn't think of a way to bring them down.
But when in doubt, always use violence. And that's what Ethan did, he ran as fast as he could in the direction of one of the extremists and hit an elbow on his neck, which for Ethan's luck, ended up knocking him.
The other 3 immediately noticed when their companion fell, but before they could react, the 3 were knocked out by a silver blur that ran between them.
When Ethan realized, the 3 were on the floor with Pietro in his center.
"Good Hit " Pietro gave Ethan a thumbs up.
Ethan just looked at him with an expression that said 'are you serious ? '
"So... is that all? " Ethan asked.
"No, we'll do worse"