It's amazing how it only took one day for my life to completely change without any chance of ever being normal again. Good times come and pass so quickly in the blink of an eye. It was only an hour ago when Wanda, Pietro, and I had been playing outside together until Mother told us to come inside for dinner. We had been sitting at the table, eating when disaster struck Sokovia.

We were only ten when the bombs fell from the sky. Our parents went to check it out, and I ran after them. Almost immediately, I felt hands tugging me back. I looked behind me to see Wanda and Pietro grasping my arm tightly.

"Don't go!" Wanda cried desperately. "It's too dangerous!"

"It'll be alright!" I replied. "Just hide under the table! I'll be back, I promise!"

Reluctantly, Pietro pulled away, and dragged Wanda beneath the table, watching me with wide, worried eyes. I gently kissed Wanda on the forehead for reassurance, and turned to Pietro.

"Look after her," I ordered. With that I ran off, leaving them alone. The rubble fell around me as I searched for Mother and Father. I couldn't find them anywhere, and my mind went to the worst possibility as I listened to the screams and cries all around me. All the pain and fear I could hear in those cries, causing tears to come to my eyes.

Giving up on my search, I was about to go back to Pietro and Wanda when a large piece of debris fell from the ceiling. As it approached, I braced myself for the impact, silently praying that if I die, at least my brother and sister would be safe. It all went dark after that.

I slowly opened my eyes to see piles of debris around me, clouds of dust slightly obscuring my vision. It took a moment to realize the huge chunk of ceiling on top of me and the burning pain in my left leg. It seemed like the explosions had stopped by now. I pushed the piece of rubble off me with any strength I had left, and fumbled for my glasses, which had fallen off in all the chaos. Instead my hand touched something else. No, not something, someone. When I saw who it was, it became suddenly hard to breathe.

Father laid there, unmoving, his eyes staring blankly ahead. A few feet away I saw Mother looking the same: dead.

"You are stronger than you know," she said to me once when I was younger. "Remember that."

But was I really? That was the only thought running through my head as I sobbed onto their dead bodies. I would try to be strong, but was I really?
After what felt like hours of just laying there, I remembered Wanda and Pietro, waiting for me to come back. I had to go back, for them, I promised them I would come back. They needed me now more than ever.

Reluctantly, I stepped away from the bodies of my parents, and attempted to stand up. The sharp pain in my left leg increased, and I fell back down, hissing in pain. I looked up, where the door leading to the living room was only a few feet away. Ignoring the pain, I pushed myself up and dragged myself over to the door.

I peeked inside once I was close enough to see more debris. A missile was rammed into the floor next to the table, right in front of where I told Wanda and Pietro to hide. I don't know how long I stayed in that spot, thinking of the possibility that they were dead or still alive, and what to do. Either way, I couldn't save them. If they were alive, and I tried helping them out, one wrong move could doom all of us, but if they were dead...I didn't want to even think about it.

I stood there until I heard the heavily arm soldiers break through the front door. I looked up at them in fear and alarm, but I knew I couldn't outrun them if I tried. The most I could see of them clearly without my glasses was the strange symbol on their arms. It was a black octopus in a red background. With their masks covered their face, I couldn't tell man from woman, and they all wore black, heavy machinery.

"Found another one!" shouted the closest the moment he noticed me. Soon the rest of the soldiers came, and roughly grabbed me. My leg made me cry out in pain, but they made me stand anyway. I continuously tried to fight them off until one slapped me, sending my head jerking to the side. That didn't stop me though, even when they shackled me. I gave a last look to where I expected Wanda and Pietro to be, and prayed they wouldn't find them. Then I noticed an electric blue eye trying to peer past the missile in front of them. Pietro.

I almost cried in relief, but stopped myself just in time. "Wanda! Pietro!" I screamed, hoping they would at least hear me. "Help me!" The soldiers didn't know whether or not they were alive, so that was safe enough. I didn't really care, as long as they knew I was alive, that I kept my promise.

Suddenly, Pietro looked straight into my eyes, and looked away, his eye disappearing behind the missile. My heart felt like it shattered in two, the way he just turned away when he saw me in trouble. Whenever I needed his help, he would drop whatever he was doing and try to help me, no matter what the cost, and it wasn't like I expected him to do anything, but what I didn't expect was for him to turn his back to me when I needed his help the most.

"Help!" I screamed again. As they dragged me out the door, literally kicking and screaming to anyone who could hear me, I stole one last glance at Mother and Father's lifeless bodies. They had been good parents, but nothing could prepare me for what I would go through for the next year of my life. My screams fell on deaf ears. Everyone else I knew was either dead, or like me. All I saw was destruction, blood, and toys that would never be played with again.
Sunlight blinded me once I finally set foot outside, and I blinked a few times, wanting to glimpse the remains of my home. Before I could get a good view, the soldiers shoved me into the back of a truck.

Though I couldn't see them, I could feel the presence of others children, children all now orphaned like me, their sobs filling the silence.

"If any of you so much as makes a peep, you'll be knocked unconscious!" one soldier threatened. Everyone else obeyed, quieting their sobbing, but that was against the way I was raised. Yeah, it was stupid to go against their wishes, whoever these people were, but I'm a fighter, always have been.

"Somebody, anybody!" I cried, trying one last final attempt. "HELP!"

The soldier quickly placed a cloth my mouth, holding it securely as I struggled to get it off. As I breathed in, I could feel myself getting dizzy, the world going in and out of focus, and drowsiness consumed me. My eyelids closed, and it all went black once more.

A sudden cold blast of water jerked me awake. I looked up to see a man in a white lab coat, grinning like a child on Christmas. He had a clipboard in his hand, and a group of similarly dressed people stood behind him, all wielding some sort of medical equipment. My eyes had to adjust to the bright laboratory lights. When I finally blinked the spots from them, I noticed I was lying in a cold, steel table, my hands and feet bound.

I began hyperventilating as I struggled to get out to no avail. The harsh restraints bit into my skin. My eyes shot around the room, looking for a helpful soul, but finding none.

"So glad you could join us, Mr. Maximoff," the man smiled.

"Where am I?!" I cried, panic and fear taking over. "Who are you people?!"

The man chuckled, a sound that hurt my ears. "My name is Dr. Hummel. Congratulations," he grinned. "Your little stunt in the truck earned you a special spot in my project. You should feel honored."

But all I felt was scared. Scared as the grinning man came closer to me with a syringe in hand. I cried out in fear, and continued my attempts to free myself from the restraints.

"Get away from me!" I shouted, trying my best not to let my fear show. "Stop!"

"This may hurt," the man said sympathetically before plunging the syringe into my skin. It stung my skin as the glowing blue liquid inside entered my system.

I screamed.

Fire ran through my veins, racing, surging, and dominating. My nerves convulsed and twitched with every bursting flame. I could feel it everywhere, little streams of fire in my veins, and scorching heat in my nerves. I just wanted the pain to stop, anything at all to stop it.

To take my mind of it, I let it linger on my family. My loving parents who I will never see again, my brother and sister, who'd always been there for me as I had for them, and the memories. All the memories that came back to me at that moment. I might never experience that again.

Finally, I passed out from exhaustion and pain, hearing the scientist murmur among each other. The man standing above me merely grinned. I heard him say, right before everything faded away, "Welcome to your new life."

(So, this is the first book where I'll have first person point of view about one person throughout the story. I'll try the best I can at least. And I know, this was an idea I couldn't get out of my head, so here we are. And whoever clicks on this to read, I feel so honored you took your time to read this! Enjoy! It's not the best, but it'll get better, I promise!)