Chapter Text
The five of them walk in at the allotted time, eleven forty-two and half-way through the minute, made their way to the booth next to his and ordered their two fry-ups, a breakfast salad, pancakes and a Belgium waffle.
“Really, the waffle? What are you, like, twelve?” I heard one man ask.
“Hey, they’re delicious.” Another protested passionately.
I cleared my throat loudly, gaining there attention. "Uh do you need something?" I heard one say. Come on Max, play the mysterious fortune teller I know you can.
"Um, hi. Wait, sorry, let me start that one again." I cleared my throat. "Fear thee, fear thee. As thy future I can see." .....nailed it...
"Um, what?" The same man said again. "Did you just refer to yourself in third person."
"Of course I did, I'm trying to be mysterious here and your not helping with the ambiance." I moaned. For goodness sake could they not appreciate the theatricality. I felt the awkwardness in the air as if it were tangible as they looked around the diner, I knew they weren't appreciating my efforts. "You people are hard to please, anyway, come here I'm gonna tell your futures."
"I'm sorry but we don't take scams kid. We get enough attention as it is leave us be."
"No no, it's not like that I promise. Wait, did you say you get loads of attention, are you famous?" I asked incredulously. "That is so awesome, though it wouldn't be if you were actors, 'cause I don't watch movies. Are you all actors? Do actors all hang out together in little actor groups like this?"
"Kid, we're the Avengers." He says in a hushed voice to shut me up. "Oh my god that's so cool! I had no idea I would be telling your futures that is so awesome!" My mind is practically melting at this point. "And I'm no kid, I'm twenty two."
"Uh, can't you tell? I mean, 'cause we're seen on TV an awful lot, especially me." He says, while another voice in the background mutters: "isn't that the point of knowing the future?"
"Semantics, and of course I can't tell, I'm blind goddamnit. Can't you see?" I say as I hear a thump in the background, like someone hitting another lightly in retribution.
"Fine, tell us our future then." The first says (he must be Ironman!) in a defeated voice, I could tell he's only doing this in pity.
"Don't sound too excited about it." I get up and walk over to the voices, sitting myself down in a chair opposite them. The same voice mutters again. "How did he see that chair if he's blind?"
"Because I'm not stupid, that's how. Now give me your hand." I felt a rough calloused hand appear in my own. "You must be the Hawk Guy then." I say, smiling like the little shit I am at the mis-pronounced name. I run my fingertips across his palm, feeling the potential energies thrum through them. "God damn it that's boring." I say with a sigh.
"Oi, my life can't be that shit." Hawkeye complained.
"Nah, I just can't tell, a lot of what you're going to do is undecided yet. I can tell you that you'll stupidly have three cups worth of coffee this evening despite my warning and stay up until four in the morning working it off. Moving on." I move my hands over to where Ironman was sitting. "Hey, hand them over."
"I don't really do all this with the hands so if you could back off a bit." He said, confident but with a slight waver beneath his voice.
"Fine, that's cool, that's cool. Hand over your plate, I'll get a reading from that just fine." I said making grabby hands towards the table.
"Your going to tell my future from my bacon?" He asked incredulously. "Because if you're not a scam I will be thoroughly impressed." He says, making my cheeks blush, having an avenger be impressed would really make my day. They pass over the plate and I see the shapes in my minds eye.
"It's is similar to what the Romans did when they read animal guts, except, more tasty and less gross." I explained to no one in particular. I began to see feelings and shapes through whatever was out there. "Am I right in saying you have some sort of infatuation?" I ask.
"Of course you are. I'm Tony Stark, I get laid almost every week." He said with a disbelieving scoff.
"Not recently though, apparently you, mister, have been pining for someone close to you." The table went silent as they tried to read what Ironman's reaction was, which apparently confirmed the statement. It was Hawkeye that spoke first.
"Oh Tony, who is it!" He questioned, I could practically see the shit faced grin.
"Your paying for your waffles Barton." The billionaire said suddenly as he turned to me.
Trying to make up for that I tell him the rest of the reading. "Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think, I'm pretty sure you'll find your happiness in that department pretty soon. I give you three months tops." But then I couldn't help to add "Have fun and try not to corrupt his morals too much." Feeding the teasing that is already present. I could practically see (hehe) the blush on his face.
Once they had finished the catcalls and the like I moved on to the Captain, he handed my his palm just like Hawkeye did. I took a hold of it but was instantly thrown backwards in my chair. Flashes of guns and troops spin through my mind, glimpses of metal arms and red stars and "Зима приближается!" I shout, unable to keep the truth concealed. The feeling of pain, muscles jerking as if electrocuted and a cold, cold feeling in my bones and skull and head and oh god.
My eyes snap open and for a good second my eyes work and I get a glimpse of them before they vanish again. The red haired woman was deathly still and the other four males were all staring at him all worried. The entire diner had gone silent. "We need to leave, now. They're coming and we need to leave right now." I'm practically shouting while I stand and pick up my bag and my cane.
"Woah woah, ok, it was cool and all with Stark, but we're not running out of here with you. I was a carnie once and I know all of those tricks." The archer replied.
"No no no, it's not like that." I was frustrated as usual when people didn't listen because even though I was telling the truth everyone else liked to think they knew better. "The skull, the skull with six tentacles is here, coming." I said directed at the captain.
"Hydra." He said and suddenly bullets flew into the diner. "Get down!" He shouted authoritatively. I fell down into a crouch beneath the table as shots ricocheted off the walls.
"Everywhere, they've surrounded the entire building, roof included." I say. I push my hands into my pocket but find nothing. "Ok, uh, could you grab me any one of your glasses, if they haven't all been broken, as long as it has liquid in it. Also, the table salt, that to. I'm gonna find us a way out of here."
The glass gets placed into my hand and then the salt into another; thank goodness they're at least trusting me in the slightest. I multitask as I work, shaking some of the salt on to the floor while also concentrating on the orange juice in my hand. "They're dressed in SWAT uniforms, and there on the north and south sides. There's the parking lot on the east and the forest to the west, that's our best bet but we need some distraction, they have twenty men but also someone working alone."
"Distraction, easy." I hear Tony Stark say, and the sounds of mechanics whirring.
"No, you can't. They have some way of shutting you down. If you do that we all get captured I know that."
"Well how are we getting out then?" I hear a new voice ask.
"I think they're here for me, I know they don't know you're here yet." I said. "I'll go turn myself in, then you guys can sneak out later and hopefully, if you think I did a good enough job fortune telling, you can save me. There, job done." I said smiling despite my fear of the men in SWAT. "I will be your personal fortune teller for eternity."
"No, you're just a kid, we'll find away out." The Captain protested.
"No you won't, you need this distraction, sorry, I can see it now."
"Alright, fine." Ironman said breaking the couple seconds of tense silence "I don't know kid but you're definitely something if HYDRA or whoever they really are are trying to get you. And if they are HYDRA, we definitely can't let them get their hands on you." He pressed something into my hands. "It's a tracker, press the button on it when you're in the van, not before or they might detect it."
"Sure." I said, voice wavering. I pocketed the small round object.
The bullets had stopped and a megaphoned voice sounded out. "Max, we know you're in there, come out and we won't harm you." It said.
I put on a brave face (as brave as I thought it was it probably looked somewhat constipated). It's just like working a scam Max, put on a smile and show 'em who's boss. I stood up in clear sight and shouted "We both know that's not true; did you not just shoot at me?" I stepped through the broken glass windows, taking the time to look at the reflections of light in the shards of glass:
The first man was fifty feet away and would grab both my arms, the second man would then come behind me with a needle. If I struggled and avoided the first two, then two more would come from the sides and knock me out. I needed a way to get in the van without losing consciousness if I wanted to escape, and that meant taking both needles. I didn't see any third syringe in these series of events. Dumbasses.
By this time I had arrived in front of the first. I suddenly dropped. I managed to avoid the arms, feeling them swish over my head. I then span and grabbed exactly where the fisted syringe was coming in and felt a crunch of glass. Nice one.
Wait three seconds, feint left, dodge right, duck. spin, block, reach, grab. There. Crunch.
Mission accomplished I felt a metal something around my neck and a strike to my head. Cold and electric and I knew this feeling. I was dragged across the lot and thrown into the back of the van. I heard doors slam and footsteps moving around the car and into the front. The twist of keys and the engine revving. I felt the van begin moving and reached into my pocket to press the button just as I passed out.
For a second I heard the men speaking. "I thought he was blind." Dumbasses.
XxXxXxXxXxX
I came to in a cold place; dank and dark. The sounds of scraping metal echoed throughout the whole area so it had to be spacious. I reached forward blindly, unable to see the future at all in this strangely empty void of energy, and felt bars. Shuffling around hand over hand I found that the bars went the entire way round the cell, because that's what it had to be, a cell...
Hours had passed by the time anything happened. A clank of metal, and something placed on the floor. A glimpse of reflection through a belt buckle or something but not enough, a tease of a tendril of time.
The object on the floor turned out to be a tray which had a chunk of break, some water and a cold liquidy soup thing that tasted of dirt. There were no solid chunks of meat, the water and soup were in an enclosed beaker and the water probably purified anyway, and the tray was plastic, nice and inert. I had to compliment them on their research. There weren't many who believed, let alone held knowledge of, the methods of divination. I reckoned they must have had someone informing on the inside; from all the witches I knew, it was certain to say that none would disclose any information on their arts without a hefty some of reward. Even through torture, there was nothing a group like HYDRA would be able to do to loosen their tongues.
I scarfed down the meal and found the cot in the middle of the cell. Lying down I listened to the steady drip drip of water from the ceiling. There wasn't much the dripping water would give me. They would tell stories of the distances they had travelled and the heights they had fallen. They weren't much interested in talking about the building they had just fell through, that was nothing to them. They had travelled millions of miles again and again, the last couple of feet were inconsequential and besides, they had hardly remembered it anyway.....
He woke suddenly to the sounds of footsteps in the room. "Kid, you were right about the coffee, and if I get to bed tonight before four o'clock, you're a genius." My heart soared as I heard his voice.
"Uh, I'm blind now, I really need something shiny or organic, anything, a belt buckle or a coin or something." There was no answer. "Please it's so dark here."
"Sorry, uh, take this, it's sharp though." I felt a long thin object appear in my hands: an arrow. The tip was thin but flat enough to hold a clear image.
Perfect.
And then he alarm went off.
XxXxXxXxXxX
Clint hadn't been sure about the kid. Sure he had done something with that fry up back in the diner. And had somehow known where every enemy was outside. Clint had first been concerned he was some super secret agent or something, but no one could fake the look of pure panic and terror on their face, not even Natasha could. When they had arrived at the nondescript building in seemingly the middle of nowhere he wasn't goings to lie, he had suspected a trap, but then seeing him in the cell and the other rooms they had passed he had then rethought the situation.
Currently the kid stared at the arrowhead like it was his lifeline. And it probably was right now. Somehow he saw things through reflections and patterns. Hopefully the things he saw would help them get out of here. They were running through the corridors, they had risen a couple of floors already but now the needed to find the main stairs to the roof where the jet was.
The kid was muttering to himself, like a mantra, "duck, lunge, punch, evade, block, punch, cut." Over and over. They reached the corner. "Five guards coming at us, lightly armed, unavoidable. Stay here and we'll get the surprise." He said and Clint stopped. For some crazy reason he trusted this kid, instantly.
As they waited he couldn't help but remember the old crooked woman who accompanied the circus back when he was a kid. He could recall a thick, dark tent with incense burning in all four corners. Mirrors and hanging reflective objects in every free space and a crystal ball on a table dead centre. She had always told him with a smile on her face that he would be a secretive man when he grew up, but strong and wise. He wasn't too sure about wise so far but he couldn't help but wonder if she was the same as the kid in front of him.
The footsteps came into hearing range and he readied himself. They both sprang into action. Clint took out one with his bow and began hand to hand with the second. The kid somehow flew in and despite his disability seemed to move around Clint like they had been working together for years. Only he and Nat had this fluidity. He then realised what he had been saying before as the kid sliced the arrow across the final guards throat. Duck, lunge, punch, evade, block, punch, cut. He must have seen exactly how this would pan out and chosen his actions accordingly. Clever kid.
They reached the top with several other incidents like this, all ending with the kid wiping the arrowhead clean on his trouser leg and continuing on. As they stepped onto the roof he felt a feather-light presence behind him. Trusting his instincts he ducked, pushed the kid forwards to the waiting arms of Steve and span. His strike was blocked before he had even started to move his arm. Then a quick punch to his gut as hard and as fast as a bullet, forcing the air out of his lungs "It's him." The kid shouted. "He's the one who fell. He is cold and in so, so much pain." He sounded as if he was in another trance but damnit couldn't he just shut up because it wasn't he time. But his assailant had frozen, staring at the kid like he had just told him the sky was red and the grass was blue. Clint used the chance and dodged back, quickly making it to the jet before the man could react. Something told him that if he attacked, none of them would make it away alive today.
They rose and quickly went into stealth mode, leaving the man stood alone on the rooftop.