An Adventure Paved In Silver
New Avengers Facility
Wanda bent over in exhaustion, Hand's on knees whilst panting as Sam Wilson jogs from behind and overtakes her.
"Come on Maximoff keep up, Remember last one to the finish line makes breakfast." Sam calls back with a cheeky grin and gains speed to catch up with Rhodey who was ahead as Wanda scowls at him in response. It's early Wednesday morning at the New Avengers Base with Captain America and The Black Widow Natasha Romanoff putting the new members through their paces and finishing up with a lap around the entire complex.
Taking a deep breath with renewed motivation Wanda starts jogging again slowly at first before gaining a reasonable and consistent pace as she can see the finish line with Cap, Vision and Natasha already finished with Rhodey and Wilson nearing the line.
'Come on just a bit further, Get this over with and you're done for the day.' thought Wanda to herself as she could feel a stitch coming on but determined to not be last for once especially since there's a wager on this time. Wanda finally crossed the line as Natasha and Steve clapped whilst Wanda stopped to hold her side as the stitch hit her and wiped her brow with the back of her hand.
"Well done Maximoff, Really well done your fitness has greatly improved over last few months." said Cap as he walked past Wanda putting his hand on her shoulder giving her a gentle but encouraging squeeze as Wanda nodded appreciatively.
"Come on Lang just a bit further." shouted Steve as everyone turned to see the new Avenger Scott Lang A.K.A Ant-Man whose face was nearing a shade of purple that Wanda was pretty sure she had never seen before as he looked like he was going to tumble over in exhaustion at any moment but was determined to finish. It was no secret that Scott was starstruck by Captain America when he first met him after being offered a spot on the New Avengers team by Sam who vouched for him but did not say how he met him in the first place and dodged the question whenever prompted. It was also no suprise that Scott would develop a man crush on Steve and would try to impress him every chance he got much to the amusement of the other Avengers. Scott finally crossed the line and raised his arms in exhausted triumph.
"Woo oh yeah." *Clap* "So what next guys." panted Scott.
"For us a shower, For you the kitchen, You remember the bet." said Sam as an exasperated Scott looked to Cap who just shrugged in amusement.
"Whatever you're making I'll have mine with eggs thank you." said Rhodey as he walked past clapping Scott's shoulder walking past him who collapsed backwards in a dramatic heap much to the others amusement.
"When I said I'll have mine with eggs I did not mean ONLY eggs." said Rhodey looking at several big plate's of fried, Scrambled and boiled eggs as the other Avengers looked on with the same horrified look.
"You said you wanted eggs and you severley underestimated my breakfast making abilities when you forced this ridiculous bet on me so take your egg and eat it." said Scott offering Rhodey a plate of eggs who took it with a blank look on his face not taking his eyes off the eggs whilst Scott took a few fried eggs off another plate and made toast.
"I think I'll stick to Cereal thanks." said Natasha turning to the cupboards to grab a bowl.
"If everyone would like I could make bacon, Hash browns and sausages to go with everyone's eggs." said Vision.
"Thats kind of you to offer Vision but a bet's a bet and so I have made breakfast for all." said Scott raising his arms overlooking the table full of eggs and toast as the men groaned collectively and followed Natasha to finding bowls for cereal as Wanda whilst trying to stop a giggle grabbed a chair at the table, Sat down and grabbing plate for eggs on toast. Eventually everyone got their breakfast and settled into content conversation.
Since the events in Sokovia 6 months previously the New Avengers have only had to deal with small skirmishes with pockets of HYDRA and A.I.M forces. Nothing major for the more seasoned members in Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon and War Machine but provided valuable experience for the newcomers in Wanda and Ant-Man who turned their hard training into good practice.
After breakfast and fulfilling her duties for the day Wanda went to her room to get ready to meet Zrinka for coffee as she looked around the room which had a bed, A small sitting area with a TV and a seperate bathroom all of which is much bigger than anywhere she and Pietro had ever stayed in even before the bombings that took their parents and it was all for her. Wanda sighed at the thought, She has grown more confident in using her abilities as well as in herself and she felt it too with access to proper regular meals and her figure had gone from skinny to curvy, with some added muscle in all the right places now that she was training regularly with the team. She had even picked up a slight tan, giving her a healthy glow and the media have certaintly picked up upon too this whilst dubbing her 'The Scarlet Witch' which she guessed was better then anything she could come up with so just went with it, It was certaintly better then them knowing her real name after all the records were lost in the destruction of Novi Grad there was no ways of identifying her. She was happy here, Happy Helping people, Saving people, To be making a difference, It's what she and Pietro had always wanted back home when they would join in the protests against the government which quickly turned into full scale riots. Wanda gave a small sniff trying to fight away the tears that threatened to spill over as she thought about Pietro.
'He should be here too,' she thought bitterly 'he should be here to enjoy this, He would have loved it here,' she doesn't blame Barton for what happened to Pietro, He saw Costel, A child stuck and in danger as Utron was firing in his direction in the Quinjet what else was he supposed to do? leave him there thats not what Avengers do, Barton showed her that but it was Pietro who ended up giving his life to save both of them and she couldn't be more proud of him.
She missed him, She missed him so much even when she felt that sudden pang of emptiness wash over her in the church whilst protecting the core she felt it right away, She couldn't sense him, She couldn't feel him and then the realisation hit, He was gone, Gone and gone forever for her to never see him again and the last thing she ever said to him was to "go", To leave her, All because she wanted to prove that she could protect the core alone, To prove that she was strong enough to stand by herself and fight, Even though the others kept telling her things like "its not your fault" or "there was no way you could have known" none of them had lost a twin, Sure they have all lost someone but none of them had lost the person with which they were only seperated their entire lives by 12 minutes.
12 minutes, Wanda liked to think that when he was born first he was crying out for his sister to come and join him in the world and they were inseperable ever since. Even though they were almost opposites in everything music, Fashion and Personality one would never stray far from the other for too long, Everyone noticed it from their parents before they died, To all the neighbours and to friends from school and then the protests.
She had been meaning to visit the Barton's and meet little Nathaniel for herself, the offer was always there but after Natasha Had showed her a picture of the baby she couldn't help but sob uncontrollably when she saw Nathaniels middle name written on the baby's blanket and couldn't bring herself to look at it again let alone go to see him in person.
She knew full well that Pietro wasn't perfect, He was cocky, arrogant, impatient, tenacious, quick-tempered and could never keep still or stay in any one spot for too long but none of that mattered to her cause there was so much more good in him. She knew he cared more for her then anyone else in the world, He always supported her no matter what it was, He never said "no" to her or "no you can't do that". He always put her first before anything and everything else even often times at his own expense. She knew he could be such an irritating little shit at times but what she wouldn't give in her moments of worry or doubt since joining the Avengers then for him to once again come up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, give them a reassuring squeeze before they slip down to her waist as he rests his chin on her shoulder and gently rock backwards and forwards, side to side and washes all the worry and doubt away.
Wanda stood in her bathroom looking into the mirror gave one final sniff, one cough and checked herself over before taking a deep breath picking up her jacket to meet Zrinka wondering if she would bring Costel with her. She hadn't seen either or heard from of them since Sokovia, she had heard later on that they had settled down in the United States and managed to get in touch with Zrinka a few weeks ago to finally arrange a meet up.
I'm not sure where I was, or what's going on all I was aware of was the darkness of having my eyes closed and hear the same static beeping noise, I tried to focus on that noise and open my eyes to see what was making it but opening them was so hard, moving at all was proving impossible. When I finally suceeded opening my eyes they instinctively shut again to avoid the bright light shining right on me. I opened them slowly again, slowly allowing my eyes to adjust to the overwhelming sense as I could better gauge my surroundings looking around but I don't have the strength to turn my head. All I could see were a bright light shining over my face in the form of a lamp facing me, when I could properly focus I could see past the light and to look at what I assume is the celing, I tried to focus more on it but was snapped out of it when I could hear a mixture of voices and footsteps as I could feel my lungs demand more oxygen and I could hear my heart pounding in my chest.
"Somethings wrong." said a voice, an unfamiliar female voice coupled with rushed footsteps.
"What do you mean?" replied an equally unfamiliar male voice.
"Oh my god I think he's waking up." said the female voice with a panicked tone, I could then see shadows circling around me and the bright light was moved away from my face and was replaced with the source of the female voice, a young woman with blonde hair tied in a bun and glasses looking down at me in the eyes quickly I think inspecting something about me before turning away I tried to move my arms and legs but was unable to, My muscles burned it felt like my arms and legs were on fire I need to move them but just couldn't, I struggled and struggled but just could not move.
"What? I told you that amount of the sedative wasn't enough."
"The amount I gave him would have put down a full grown Elephant from Earth.:
"Give him more, now." said the male voice as a wave of relief and calm wash over me but was too brief as my heart began beating quicker and quicker again, I need to breath heavier and heavier to keep up.
"It's not working his heart rate is too high his metabolism is burning straight through it." said the Woman as a middle aged man with close-cropped silver-grey hair now stood over me, head turning to face the woman.
"Incredible, give him a higher dosage. Mr Maximoff please stay calm we have placed your arms and legs in restraints so you could not harm anyone or yourself, right now we need you to be calm." said the man as he put his arms on my shoulders to stop me moving.
Maximoff? Am I Maximoff he's looking at me but I've no idea what he's talking about or who he's referring to. I tried to remember of anything about a "Maximoff" but came up with nothing literally nothing I couldn't remember anything, why couldn't I remember anything?, where am I? and how did I come to be in this situation as I tried to struggle against the restraints but they would not budge.
"Sir, his heart rate is still increasing." said the Woman.
"A higher dose, now" replied the man tightening his grip on my shoulders.
but it wasn't working until another wave of relief and calm suddenly came over me as I could feel my body slow down to a stand still, I could not move anymore and it became harder and harder to keep my eyes open and all I could hear was that same beeping I heard when I woke up.
"Everything is now stable Sir." said the Woman.
"I told you your estimations were off." replied the Man as I could no longer keep my eyes open so I gave in, closed them and drifted off again.
AN: For those that haven't seen the deleted scenes Costel is the little boy that Hawkeye tried to save and Pietro ended up sacrificing his life for both of them and Zrinka is his older sister we see him with later on, they were both in the films deleted scenes with the twins. Please and let me know what you think, what works and what doesn't, many thanks.