"So, do you like animals?"
"Yes, I suppose. Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering. You seemed to really like those dogs at the veterinary clinic."
"Oh," said Wanda, "They were very happy to see me."
"They barked at you first, didn't they? How did you get them to stop?"
"I conveyed to them that I meant them no harm and then they were quite happy to be petted."
"How'd you do that?"
"My powers can be used for more things than controlling people's minds."
Violet gasped dramatically, "So you can talk to animals?"
"I can feel their emotions and send them emotions of my own. It is different than talking. It's in pictures and not words."
"Cool."
The GPS on Violet's car beeped. Both women glanced over at it as it continued to beep incessantly. Sighing, Violet pushed a button on her dash and the GPS folded down, revealing a slick screen embedded into the dash of the car, making Wanda jump in the process. A slightly blurry photo of Dash with a phone symbol beside it appeared on the screen as it continued to beep.
"I was not expecting that." Wanda admitted, looking at the screen that now took the place where the GPS had been.
Violet glanced at her with a touch of pride at her cool gadgets, before pushing a few more buttons, allowing Dash's voice to come over the speakers. "Hey Violet." he said. Violet could tell he was a bit out of breath.
"Fighting a particularly difficult villain, are you?" Violet teased.
"Violet!" Dash exclaimed. "Stop teasing me, I need your help!"
"Why should I help you? Has the Miraculous Speedo finally met his match?"
Dash didn't reply, but the two girls in the car could hear his panting breath between what sounded like… a zapping noise?
"Alright, Alright, I'll come save you." Violet said, realizing that her brother might actually be in trouble.
"Hurry!" was all Dash said before he ended the call and Violet and Wanda were left in silence, driving down a mostly deserted highway.
"Hey, car computer thing? Transform please." said Violet to the screen. Wanda looked around in surprise and astonishment as the car transformed into a slightly sleeker, more aerodynamic vehicle. "Locate Dash and follow the fastest route to him Do the autopilot thing." said Violet from the backseat, where she was upside down trying to get her supersuit on. Of course Wanda couldn't see that, as thankfully Violet had turned herself invisible, conscious of the other person in the car. Although she liked Wanda, she wasn't entirely comfortable changing in front of her. After all, she had only known her for a few days.
Wanda occupied herself by watching their progress on the map on the screen, wincing every time a crash sounded from the backseat as they went around a corner at full speed. Violet had unwittingly activated the rockets and Wanda wasn't sure how to turn them off. She didn't want to risk touching anything important, so she just sat there and braced herself for every turn. If she closed her eyes maybe it would be like a rollercoaster. She was too scared to try out that theory, though.
"Are you okay?" Wanda asked when Violet climbed back over the seats to sit in the driver's seat.
"Just a few bruises. I've had worse." Violet said. She noticed Wanda's worried glance and quickly turned away, slipping on her mask. "Hey, can you put my hair in a ponytail?" Violet asked, handing a purple scrunchie to Wanda.
Wanda accepted the scrunchie and pulled back Violet's hair while Violet fiddled with her suit, making sure it fit right. They spent the last few minutes before they reached their destination in silence.
Wanda stared up at the skyscraper at the fight happening at the top. A suit of armor that supposedly had a person inside it (Wanda couldn't quite tell, they were rather far away from where she stood on the pavement) was shooting lightning out of their arms at a red blur that was moving around the tower at seemingly dangerous speeds. The armor had a nice color theme, Wanda had to admit. It was mostly dark blue, but with some white highlights. It moved faster than Wanda expected for the size of the armor. It was almost like Tony's armor, but bulkier. And shooting lightning.
Violet got out of the car and quickly assessed the situation. The armor this person was fighting with looked a lot like the armor The Underminer had used to fight them a few days ago. They might have been made by the same person. Violet approached where Wanda was standing on the pavement, watching the fight. "Hey, I almost forgot," said Violet, "I was going to ask if you wanted to help me and my brother with this guy. He looks pretty formidable."
Wanda glanced at Violet and then back up at the top of the sky scraper. "Of course I would want to help you. I'm a superhero." A touch of amusement laced her voice. "It's what I do."
"Alright, sweet!" Violet did a little dance and held out a matching black mask for Wanda. "Here, take this."
Wanda paused. She had never really felt the need to wear a mask. Everybody in the world already knew her face, to wear a mask would be pretentious and unnecessary. But this was a different universe, one where nobody would know who she was if she went maskless.
Violet noticed Wanda's hesitation. "Oh come on," she said, nudging her with the mask still in her outstretched arm. "All the good supers wear masks to protect their identity. Besides," The tone of Violet's voice changed, giving Wanda the impression she was quoting someone, "Your identity is the most important thing you have. You need to protect it."
Wanda thought it over for a few more seconds, but a muted cry of pain coming from the top of the skyscraper made up her mind for her. "Okay." she agreed, grabbing the mask from Violet's outstretched hand and attempting to put it on.
Violet giggled. "No, you're trying to put it on backwards. Here, let me help you." Violet took the mask out of Wanda's hands and put it on her face the right way. Her hand lingered on Wanda's cheek for a moment.
Wanda pulled away from her and they both looked back up at the top of the skyscraper. "We need to find a way to get up there." Violet remarked.
"The elevator will be too slow. I can use my telekinesis."
"Great." Violet moved closer to Wanda, then paused. "Okay, how do you want to do this?"
"Get on my back." Wanda said with an authority in her voice that Violet noticed.
Violet jumped onto Wanda's back, wrapping her arms around her neck. She spent a few seconds adjusting her arms and legs to a comfortable position and then voiced her readiness. A red mist appeared around Wanda's hands and she, with Violet on her back, rose slowly into the air.
Wanda felt Violet tighten her grip as they rose at a slightly quicker pace. "Please don't choke me." Wanda gasped as they continued to accelerate. Violet loosened her grip but kept her arms securely around Wanda's neck.
As they neared the top, there was more chance of them getting hurt from the lightning bolts that seemed to be everywhere. Scarlett Witch dodged a few stray bolts of lightning, causing Violet to once again squeeze Wanda in a death grip.
After lots of maneuvering and a few loops, Scarlett Witch and Invisigirl finally arrived at the top of the skyscraper where the fight was taking place. Violet didn't let go until Wanda was securely on the roof. She was so glad to be back on (semi) stable ground that she almost kissed the roof of the skyscraper.
Luckily Dash appeared beside her almost as soon as she arrived. "What took you so long?" he asked accusingly. "I called you like ten minutes ago!"
"Well I'm sorry I can't just-" Violet jumped out of the way of a lightning bolt and created a force field around Dash, Wanda and she to buy them some time while they talked, "teleport over when you need me. Traveling takes time, even in my fancy superhero car."
"You mean the one that Dad bought you?" Dash teased.
Violet was not amused. "It was a graduation gift." she said flatly.
Dash was about to reply when he suddenly seemed to notice Wanda standing there looking mildly uncomfortable and unsure of what she was supposed to be doing. "Who's that?" he whispered at Violet.
Violet started to introduce Wanda, but winced as a particularly powerful lightning bolt hit her force field. The field flickered for a second but still held. Violet tried to play it off like nothing was wrong but both Dash and Wanda noticed.
"Okay." said Speedo, "We need a game plan. A way to defeat them. Any ideas?"
"Their armor is similar to the Underminer's in its make, although it looks slightly updated." Invisigirl volunteered.
"Great. Why don't we try to defeat him like we did Sewer King?"
Violet looked at him, confused by the sudden nickname. Before Wanda could ask who the Underminer was, Violet filled her in quickly on what had happened a few days prior. Wanda remembered the scorch marks in a certain park, and decided to save this information for later.
Another lightning bolt hit Violet's shield and once again it flickered. Violet tried hard to keep a straight face. "Alright Violet, why don't you try knocking them out." suggested Dash.
"Got it." said Violet, and she let down the force field. Dash immediately started running in circles around the unnamed supervillain, trying to distract them. Wanda helped by throwing blasts of energy at them and also running around their feet, albeit at a slower pace than Speedo. Invisigirl snuck up behind holding a piece of scorched concrete she had found, climbed onto the armor, and pulled at the cockpit door.
"Guys it's not coming off!" she shouted, becoming increasingly frantic as the person figured out someone was on their back and started trying to shake her off.
Dash cursed under his breath and jogged in place, trying to think of a new plan for the defeat of this supervillian. His train of thought was interrupted as Violet flew across the roof, having been thrown by the armored person. She groaned, attempting to stand, but before she could, the armored person was across the roof and towering over her. She tried to move, to avoid them, but they held her down with his arm.
He raised his other arm up and pointed it at a frantically thrashing Invisigirl. Speedo and Scarlet Witch realized what was happening too late (they had been pretty occupied avoiding lightning blasts). Both of them sprinted towards the suit of armor that was about to shoot Violet.
Time seemed to slow down.
Then suddenly…
Ring, ring.
The entire rooftop paused as if someone had stopped time and left them standing there in the most ridiculous positions imaginable.
Ring, ring.
There it was again. Everybody looked around at each other as if they were in a classroom and someone's phone had rang in the middle of a lesson.
Ring, ring.
Wanda suddenly realized the ringing was coming from her jacket. "Do… Do you mind if I get that?" she asked, gesturing to her pocket.
The person in the armor shook their cockpit/head sideways, but remained pinning Violet to the ground. Invisigirl was starting to get rather annoyed by the entrapment.
Wanda pulled the phone out of her jacket, pushed a button, and put it to her ear, not bothering to check who it was that was calling. "Hello?" she said.
"Ah, Wanda I am very glad you answered. I have been trying to contact you for a few days now. Where are you and Pietro?"
Wanda paused for a moment, not believing the familiar voice that had answered the phone was actually there. "Vision? Is that you?"
Woah there's a bit of a cliff hanger there.
Well hello I'm sorry I haven't updated in literally two entire weeks, but I've been rather busy. School has been kicking my butt recently, and to top that I ran out of pre-written chapters and had a giant case of writer's block, so forgive me plz.
But now I am back and hopefully will be able to update regularly again. After I make up the four chapters I missed when I went on my little writing break. So, I will try to update a chapter a day for the next 4-5 days and then i'll continue my regular updating pattern: Tuesdays and Thursdays
Great. :)
