Chapter 3

Steve shot another bullet in my direction which I quickly stopped to a hault and watched fall to the floor. He shot another, then another, then another which had also been terminated. After another round of bullets, he set the gun down.

"Eat some of your trail mix." he suggested.

I wandered across the room and took a small handful of it, throwing it all into my mouth and chewing the nuts as I walked back to the center of the room. We had been at this for a while now, doing exercises that were intended to make me react faster to real life situations.

"What's next?" I asked.

He shrugged, defining the muslces in his upper body. He was built, definitely a lot more built than I was.

"Well, we've done all of your exercises. You could use some practice on applied force control, though." he suggested.

I nodded as we walked over to where a line of dummies were set up, ranging from the weight of a baby to the weight of the Hulk. They were faceless, only having a target in the center of their body. Steve stood behind the smallest one and gave it a strong push and running quickly to next one.

I quickly constructed an energized force that sent the dummy flying to crash against the wall. He pushed the next one, then the next one, requiring more effort than the last. With each one came a loud thud against the wall and heavier breathing of effort from the both of us.

He finally pushed the Hulk-sized dummy that moved slowly, but went flying against the wall as soon as I focused on it.

"How'd I do?" I asked.

"Better than last time, that's for sure." Steve replied, slightly out of breath.

We sauntered over to grab a handful of trail mix and a long drink of water, signaling the end of our session.

"You know," I laughed, "I bet I could beat you in a fight."

Steve glanced down at me before laughing and ruffling his hand through my hair.

"That's funny, Blondie. But that won't happen." he said.

"Meet you on the mat?"

Within seconds he had me in a choke hold. My legs twisted around one of his own tree trunk legs that I took out from underneath him. He fell flat on top of me, all of his weight causing me to grunt unattractively. I feverishly smacked on the floor and signaled my defeat, not being able to breathe.

"Mercy! Mercy!" I shouted.

Steve let go and helped me up before giving me a hard slap on the back, nearly sending me on my knees. We shut the lights off to the training room before stopping outside the door.

"Can we study later tonight?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. Let me know when you're not busy." he replied.

We nodded and parted our seperate ways.

I went back to my room and fell on my bed, exhausted from the training I'd done today. It was practice, which helped make me stronger, but I could only do so much. Practice would help keep me safe from whatever we were trying to protect ourselves from.

There was a loud knock on the door.

"Yes?" I asked.

"It's Wanda."

"Come in."

She walked in and sat on my bed next to me. Wanda was the first Avenger I really trusted, because she was the first one who could prove to be like me. We have been close since the moment I first met her, despite having just committed mass murder. It was a blessing to have a maternal soul to watch after me, even without the guidance of parents herself.

"I'm scared." I whispered.

Wanda rolled her eyes.

"Brielle, you and Pietro have nothing to be afraid of. You have all of us, and your powers are getting better and more controlled." she said.

"It kills me not knowing what happened, or why. I wish I had a little hint." I replied, my voice clearly choking back a sob. I hated how emotional I got, and how obsessive I became over these types of situations.

"If it makes you feel any better, Pietro is the same way. He... he is bothered. And relentless. Which is dangerous with his patience." She looked down at her hands and sighed.

We sat in silence for a few moments while I contemplated what she said. I knew that if something didn't happen soon, Pietro would make something happen. I probably had work that I could distract myself with, a new physics discovery that I could be working toward, but I wasn't interested in the moment. Although missions like this terrified me, I would rather get it over with than be left waiting.

"Where is Pietro anyway?" I asked.

"I cannot believe we're going back." I repeated, "I cannot believe we are going back."

He rolled his eyes. It must be a Maximoff thing.

"Oh, stop complaining. We made it out alive last time, didn't we?" he replied.

"If I hadn't reacted fast enough, maybe we wouldn't have been so lucky."

"Then stay alert and we won't have any problems?" Pietro suggested with a smirk.

I laughed. We walked, still not recognizable by the general public. The little incident hadn't been reported to any news shows which had helped kept us discreet. Nobody but us was there to witness it anyway, and it could be considered abandoned.

We arrived in the same place, not moving any closer than we had stood last time.

"Listen," I looked up at Pietro, "I'm going to see if there's any more land mines or dangerous weapons. If something explodes, you better run us out of here. Okay?"

Pietro nodded and had one hand on the back of my head, and the other around my stomach, ready in case of emergency.

I took the gravity out from around the scene and raised up the dust off of the ground, and about 25 land mines. If I dropped them, it would be incredibly dangerous and destructive. My mind was racing and I could feel myself perspiring from the pressure.

"Okay," I swallowed nervously, "I'm going to slowly set them all down. When I say, 'now', you're going to grab me and run. Okay?"

He nodded and held onto me tightly. I winced and slowly let the land mines begin to float toward the ground. When they were inches above the ground, I shouted.

"Now!"

I dropped them and there were explosions after explosions, that I assumed. We were several hundred yards away from the house before I could see the mines get set off. They were visible from where we stood, scaring several civilians.

"I feel like those would have been exploded yesterday." Pietro said.

"Someone put them back, knowing that we would come back." I added, watching the smoke climb into the sky.

He furrowed his brows and watched the scene with me, the house eventually catch on fire and the sound of blaring sirens within a few minutes of the accident. I nervously bit at my thumb nail thinking about how the nation would react. It was a wake up call, that was certain, but nobody could be sure for what reason.

We were caught off guard by crowded screams a few hundred feet away. In less than a second, we were in the middle of the crowd that was huddled around a tv store, the news being displayed on every tv that typically played different channels.

On the tv flashed citizens running in terror and being frozen by ice. The camera zoomed in on a thing that appeared to be a human made out of ice, shooting ice out of his body and freezing an entire town in Ukraine.

I heard muffled sobs from around us. Pietro looked at me, certain that whatever was happening in Ukraine was tied with what we had just accomplished.

"The mutant, being known as 'Ice Man', had been allegedly released by a mutant known as Magneto-"

"Isn't he the guy who 'saved' you?!" I exclaimed.

He swallowed hard.

"We don't exactly keep in touch."

I hope you can tell that I have obviously made some changes. I don't exactly consider this a crossover, because this is focused on a broader aspect of the Marvel Universe. Pietro and Wanda grew up to their parents and after some tribulation end up being rescued by Magneto. I appreciate feedback!