A/N
No need to check your calendars, it is still June. LOL. I just had a weird story in my head and needed to get it out before it made me lose any more sleep than I have already lost because of this fandom. *blinks and continues to breathe* Anyways, this is a one shot right out of left park, but I'm sure all of you will forgive me. *smiles*
I apologize for any mistakes, for I did this on my little bitty iPod screen while I had down time at work.
Marvel characters don't belong to me, but Vision's nickname, Big Red, does. LOL...
I hope you enjoy this story and if you don't, then... know that I will silently judge you. *raises brow*
Halloween, All Saints' Day, All Hallow' Eve... A holiday that seemed to have de-evolved from its original purpose. It went from becoming a harvest festival called Samhain, to the pumpkin-carving, house-visiting, costume-wearing, horror-celebrating event that it is known for. Delving into the holiday so deeply and knowing it was the day of it completely excited Vision. It wasn't so much the history of it that enticed him; it was the opportunity it perceived. He could walk amongst the people with his velvet skin without being stared at, mercilessly. The thought of getting to observe humanity up-close was causing him to jitter. From the large window he hovered beside, he phased through two floors until he landed softly behind the couch where Captain Rogers and Staff Sergeant Wilson were watching a movie. He mentally slapped his wrist when he remembered that they wished to be called Steve and Sam, respectfully.
It was an action-horror movie where the protagonist was trying to retrieve the damsel from the monsters that plagued the city. Vision tilted his head and pushed himself through the couch on the left side of Sam causing both men on the sofa to jump and yelp out. As Vision rearranged his mass to sit on the cushion, he ignored their wide-eyed stares as he watched the hero saving the city and clutching the woman to steal a longing kiss. Vision turned to look at the two men who were both still staring at him in terror. He noticed that they were in costumes. Sam's bottom half was in shiny, black Medieval armor with the helmet on the table in front of him. Steve was dressed like an old gangster with a toy uzi beside the helmet. It made him smile as he turned his upper torso towards them, "I apologize for my abrupt entrance. I did not mean to frighten you."
Sam smiled as he gave a quick look back at Steve, "No biggie. What brings you down to our level, Big Red?"
Steve leaned over to be able to see past the bulging armor as Vision looked at both, "I, first, came down to converse about the plans everyone had for this evening, but then the actions of the movie you just watched brought up more questions that have no connection to the prior."
The two men each had glassy eyes, much like most of his teammates did when he spoke, but it was Sam who spoke again, "Ok. First, we..." he gestured everywhere around the room which gave the impression of 'everyone in the building', "... are going downtown for the Fright Fest. Mingle, hit a few bars, and a lot of team bonding. You're coming, right?"
Vision's mechanical brow rose high in a build up of zealous energy, "I would rather enjoy that."
Sam gave a stunning smile and looked back at Steve, "You get to answer the movie question."
Steve gave a comedic frown as he rearranged his stripped fedora, "Go ahead, Vision."
Vision's geared eyes ticked as the focused on the face of their leader, "The past three movie nights has had the protagonist fight through terribly strong enemies for the sake of the world that he hates. Why is it that these men do all of these tasks if they despise the whole world to begin with?"
Steve nodded as he listened and could almost be placed in that category except... "They may not like the way the world is, but they would never allow innocent people to die for the sake of some monster's mad idea of 'utopia' where they all had to die. Those men all knew that it was not only their duty as the hero, but their job as a descent human being to never allow the bad guys to win. Even if it costed them their lives."
Sam, nodding along with the man's words, smiled and added in, "And... The hero always gets the girl in the end."
Steve gave a chuckle and slapped Sam's armored shoulder, "And the hero always gets the girl."
Vision blinked and gave a nod before there was a commotion behind them. The three men turned as they heard Ms. Roma... 'Natasha' walking backwards and dressed as a very sexy Geisha, with a short, short purple and gold kimono with Japanese style art of tigers and phoenixes fighting that showed off her legs very seductively along with a small parasol in her free hand as she pulled on someone around the corner with the free hand as she smirked and spoke, "We need a male's opinion."
Natasha grinned their way as she gave the person another good yank and out popped Wanda Maximoff as a very sensuous female Pirate. All three stared at the beauties before them as Vision noticed Ms. Maximoff's nervousness even under the extravagant, black cavalier hat with a beautiful white feather flowing backwards. Her costume, under the hat, contained a fluffy armed white shirt that had a very low cut that expose her cleavage in a tempting way. With the shirt, she wore a blood red, elongated vest that hung down to the back of her knees and had intricate black and gold designs tracing the edges of the vest and its buttons (that were also gold). She wore a very short skirt that was black, red, and white and frilled like flower pedals with long, black, high-heeled boots that rested slightly above her calves. She continued to tug down on the skirt that was threatening to expose her gender to everyone staring at her. Sam and Steve both gave a cat-call whistle before telling the women that they were 'very hot'. Vision disagreed, with no more clothing that they had on, they looked rather chilled, but he didn't say anything.
The women's heels snapped against the tiled floor as they made their way to the couch when Natasha stopped and glared at Vision. He must admit, it always sent demonic vibrations all over his circuitry when her eyes narrowed. Though he could ghost right through her, she just entailed a predatory aura that could strike fear in the mightiest of heroes. Her stern voice cut through his observation, "Where's YOUR costume?"
Vision looked down at himself and attempted to make a joke, "Am I not always in costume?"
The two boys snorted as Natasha gave a sigh, but Wanda smiled and stepped forward and her accent trickled out softly, "I have an idea."
Wanda had went to her room to get a sharpie and scissors and told him to wait in his room. When she got there, she yanked off his thick, white bed sheet with her hands burning red and engulfing the sheet like a flaming flag. As she flung it over his head, the redness crackled and grew to a white fiber as the sheet got exponentially longer. It, now, swayed just above his feet where it wouldn't gave gone past his knees. He heard her laughing and could feel her happiness as her hand pressed against his face to find his eyes. As she used the sharpie to make circles, she spoke softly, "Pietro used to do this for me when we played dress up. Mother would get so mad that we put holes in her sheets that she started hiding them from us until bed time."
He felt her emotions soar high above the clouds then plummet drastically. She let out a sigh as she circled the other eye. Vision could see a slight shadow of the pirate in front of him through the sheet and said, "Why did you want to be a ghost?"
He watched her shadow hand pause and heard her swallow as she spoke softly again, "I thought it was fun to be feared."
For a brief moment, they were silent. She pulled off the sheet and fluttered it into the air and started to cut out the eyes expertly leaving no black smear from the sharpie and lifted it up with a victorious smile, "Perfect!"
Vision felt, odd. Ridiculous came to mind, but as he looked around through his perfect eye holes at the hordes of people, walking towards the downtown area, without anyone whispering or pointing at him as if he were inside out, he began to enjoy this simple costume. Vision noticed vendors all down the blocked off roads. People were dressed in elaborate costumes. Some were simple and some were movie ready. His synthetic heart was aflutter.
He looked to his teammates before him and saw Natasha walking between the two men explaining why Rhodes and Stark weren't there along with Clint who had her phone out showing them what he and his family dressed as. Everyone laughed at Clint dressed as a Kangaroo with little Nathaniel dressed as a baby kangaroo in a harness on his chest. They kept moving down the road, stopping every so often at a booth and Vision noticed Wanda trailing behind very slowly. She looked nervous, but no longer tugging at her skirt. This was the nervousness of being around people. The fear that her powers would betray her and give them all away. He pondered the best method for easing her anxiety and just spoke behind the sheet, "The eye holes you did are symmetrically balanced. I see no stray strings nor oblong traces of the scissor's cut."
She looked up at him with a raised brow and a curve of a smile, "Th-Thank you..." He gave a strong nod underneath the sheet and turned his head to watch where he was going and that made him miss her shaking her head in amused bewilderment as she softly laughed. His method succeeded.
The night moved on slowly and Vision people watched contently. There were children laughing and trading candy. Teenagers sitting on staircases talking and laughing loudly. Costumed people never breaking out of character as they continued to keep walking. People kissing, people fighting, people laughing and screaming and... Living. He reveled in it.
The gem must have been glowing brightly as he was absorbing all the emotional energy because a small little girl dressed like a small skeleton cooed below him. He looked down and the little girl smiled. He bent all the way down to get to her level and she giggled, "I like your ghost costume."
"Thank you. Your skeleton costume is very... Cool." He smiled and his eyes pixelated and radiated golden light for a brief second causing the girl to gasp in astonishment and grinned ear to ear before her mother pulled her away. As he stood back up, the little girl turned and waved hysterically with a sloppy smile on her face. He smiled, warmly, and gave a sheeted wave. The little girl wasn't afraid... It made the energy within him fluctuate in thrill.
Wanda smiled, standing behind him, and spoke, "Looks like you made a new friend."
He grinned a hidden appraisal and turned to her and noticed them alone, "Where are the others?"
She sighed and he could sense her anxiety, "Over there in that bar. They wanted to get a few drinks before the costume parade."
They move through packs of people towards the thumping sound coming from a bar whose sign was burning brightly in the nighttime festivities. Vision watched Wanda try to snake through bodies with minimal amount of physical contact until they finally reached the huge, thick, glass doors and pulled it open, letting the music spill out unto the pavement. The two slipped in and immediately found their teammates in the middle of a crowd, having an arm-wrestling contest with Steve in the seat with his fedora off and sleeves rolled up, Sam refereeing with his helmet off, and Natasha cheer-leading with her parasol tucked in her belt and a beer bottle in her hand... Wanda and Vision both let out a groan. Wanda let out a sigh and told Vision she was going to the bathroom, he could tell she wasn't feeling too good about this and he nodded to her.
Vision stood awkwardly behind the shenanigans his teammates conjured up. Male after male tested their strength against Steve and failed. It was a conundrum to Vision why humans felt the need to compete with an obstacle that had defeated so many before them. The tenacity was admirable, but futile... yet he enjoyed watching them try. He smiled a bit under his sheet.
The sight of the huge white plumage of Wanda's cavalier hat sharking through the people caught his eye and he moved to the side to get her attention. As she made her way around the curve of people circling Steve, he saw three men surround her.
She looked around at the three men with wide eyes and stopped at the taller man in the middle, "Excuse me. I need to get by."
She made as if to move, but his hand rested on the flat of her stomach as he whispered, "What's the rush?" She swallowed as the other two men chuckled. Vision saw the slight flare pulse from her eyes and he started his way towards them. He was nearly the entire way when he saw the man yank Wanda's arm up and pull her body towards his chest and he saw the pain on her face and Vision felt a rush of anger.
Wanda shoved the man away and Vision slid in between the two causing the three men to double take at the sheeted ghost and busted out laughing. Vision ignored them and turned around to face her, "Are you alright?"
The three men took offense to him turning his back on them and before she could answer, they spun him back around. The tall leader, who was dressed like a hockey player with a fake black eye, growled, "Hey, asshole, we were talking to her."
Vision blinked and calmly spoke, "From my point of view, you were physically assaulting her. Therefore, I intervened before you and your colleagues got hurt. You are welcome."
The two other men took to the other sides of Vision as the leader took a few steps forward, "You're fucking dead, pal."
He heard Wanda hiss out, "Vizsh!" Before he could react, one of the leader's men swung his fist to strike Vision's jaw and the bones in his hand cracked upon contact then the man yowled in pain. Vision stepped forward with a concerned voice, "You seemed to have fractured your two middle metacarpal bones as well as your Capitate and Hamate bones. I would put it on ice immediately before heading to your local Hospital for medical attention." As the sentence left his mouth, a stool shattered against his back without a single reaction from the sheeted android. The scene finally made so much noise that it finally made the whole bar turn their attention to them.
Vision, slightly irritated, turned to face them and raised his hands under the sheet trying to push his calming energy to the two men, "Please, there is no need for violence." Ignored completely, the leader's next friend charged in for a take down roaring the entire way like a rhinoceros and was met with a swift dodge causing him to run head first into the bar, knocking the man out instantly. That left the muscular leader, who was fuming. Without much of a hesitation, he crow-hopped and landed a kick against Vision's chest. There was absolutely no give and the man hopped around to regain his balance then snarled as he lunged a punch at him with the same result as the first man, but no broken bones. After a few more failed kicks and punches, the man got too winded and bent over to rest against his knees. With everyone laughing and whispering about the failed bully, he looked past the ghost to stare hatefully at Wanda. He stood back up straight then shook his head, gave a laugh, and aimed his next attack at the cute pirate, "All this for a simple whore? You must have a really big dick for that slut to stay with your skinny ass. Whatever, bitch, you enjoy Casper's dick because no one wants to touch a skank who's been sucking everyone's dic..."
Before the last, childishly pathetic word could escape the man's lips, Vision reached out with speed that Pietro would've been proud of and gripped the man's throat through the sheet. The man choked and gasped for air as the sheeted android pulled the limp body a few inches off the ground with rage pulsing. He brought the man closer to his face as his eyes turned to glowing shards of gold and whispered with his British accent growling dangerously, "I have tolerated your ignorance for far enough. Before I render you unconscious by closing off your air supply, you will apologize to Ms. Maximoff. If you fail to do so, I shall enter your domicile and stand at the edge of your bed while you sleep. I will disembowel your friends and pour their innards on top of you before ripping your phallus off and shoving it down your throat. Do we have an understanding?" Not giving him a direct answer caused Vision's hand to constrict tighter and making the man turn a bluish color until he finally nodded his head enthusiastically. Vision whispered a very murderous, 'Good', and released him. By this time, Sam, Steve, and Natasha had joined the crowd who now applauded the sheeted hero as the man, hoarse and embarrassed, apologized to the pirate woman.
Steve and Sam escorted the two other men outside as Natasha talked with the bar manager and paying for the damage with Wanda still trying to explain her side of the story leaving Vision standing in a darkened corner. He knew he was in trouble, but he didn't regret it. He saw a friend in need and acted in accordance with his protocols... until the end. Those words he spoke were incorrect and slandered Wanda's name and it had burned within him. He saw Wanda coming towards him and he straightened up and spoke swiftly, "Wanda, I am so sor..."
She held up a hand but her face seemed flushed and relieved. She gave him a huge smile, "You are such an idiot. You could've been hurt or worse, exposed."
Vision shook his head, "I was not concerned with either of those predicaments; I was more apprehensive about your well being."
Wanda's expression softened and she smiled. She took off her hat and placed it on a table a few feet away before bending down and dipping into the sheet. The jewel gave a warm glow against the two of them. She wrapped her arms around his neck, licked her lips, and kissed him passionately. It was a short and sweet kiss, but it seemed to have short-circuited his mainframe.
"You're my hero, Vizsh."
She gave another small peck on his lips before sliding out from underneath the sheet, grabbing her hat, and jogging outside with Natasha. He heard two cheers to his side and saw Sam and Steve both smirking at him. They both moved to either side of him while patting his shoulders as they headed for the exit with Sam chuckling out, "I told you... The hero always gets the girl."