Wanda drummed her fingertips impatiently on the tabletop as the briefing seemed to drag for something that had been announced with strobing red lights as a 'Priority One Emergency.' The team was mostly suited up for deployment, with the exception of Rhodey, who could step into his War Machine suit in a moment. Steve was fiddling with chinstrap of his helmet and Sam with his goggles; for her part, Wanda stopped tapping after a glare from Fury and tugged at the sleeves of the red leather jacket she had been wearing for the past few missions. Natasha had personally handed it to her when she had become an Avenger, saying it was 'right' for her. She had yet to find a reason to disagree, though she was still torn between the familiarity of the jacket Pietro had first tossed at her at Avengers' Tower and the knowledge that she was still the kid wearing other people's castoffs. Of course, Natasha hadn't meant it that way; Wanda wished they could go back to that type of interaction, but Natasha had been subtly stand-offish for the two weeks since confronting Wanda about her spying.
She was sitting across the table, catsuit-clad in her customary spot beside Steve. Their chairs were closer together as they whispered throughout the briefing, consulting a shared tablet as they developed a tactical plan while Fury repeatedly explained that they were likely walking into a trap. Wanda hadn't bothered to ask why they were going if everyone was so sure it was a trap. Her mind wandered as she watched Steve and Natasha.
He had actually cornered her early on to apologize for disturbing her sleep for so long. It had been all Wanda could do to accept and say it was best to forget the whole thing had ever happened. He had agreed readily, noting that he was sorry if he had embarrassed her more by bringing it up, but he wouldn't feel right without apologizing. This made Wanda feel even worse, but she conformed to Natasha's instructions and reiterated that they could just put it behind them. It had taken some time to figure out why she'd been let off the hook so easily, but she'd come to the conclusion that it hadn't been about her in the least. In spite of the implications of her moniker, Natasha was actually to opposite of a black widow, going above and beyond to protect her mate, exchanging a minor form of embarrassment for the hurt that would have come to the team and Steve personally if the whole truth had come out. This made Wanda feel even worse for suggesting that Natasha didn't love Steve. It was so obvious from the way she leaned toward him, hand resting lightly on his arm, causing a light flow of electric excitement through his body that…
"Understood, people?"
Everyone seated around the conference table jumped up in response to Director Fury's question. Wanda was so caught up in the mess in her head that she hadn't realized the meeting was breaking up. She'd been feeling them again, unintentionally, but still…
Vision touched her shoulder gently. "Shall we go?"
"Yes, of course."
He strode calmly beside her as they made their way to the garage. "I am curious to see what kind of bomb only the Avengers will be able to diffuse. Is it possible that the attackers have obtained DNA or fingerprints and used them to encode the detonator?"
"Or is it a simple trap?" Steve asked, turning back toward them.
Natasha tipped her head to his ear. "Or worse, a media trick to get us on camera? You know, Hill had to hire someone just to handle appearance requests for the Avengers. It's bad enough when we have to pose for pictures with politicos so they can have something to hang in their offices, but why would anyone think we'd show up for their nightclub opening?"
"Says the woman in the black leather catsuit," Sam replied.
"For the last time, it's practical," Natasha huffed, allowing Steve to redirect her into the garage with a hand on the small of her back that lingered just long enough to shoot little lightning bolts up and down her spine. Not that Wanda was…damn it. She tried to refocus on the mission as she got into the armored jeep and buckled her seatbelt.
Although the bomb threat against the 29th Annual International Conference on Ethical Journalism would not normally require the Avengers, they had been specifically called out by the organization which had sent the threat. No one in the worldwide intelligence network seemed to have any information on the 'Sacrificial Lambs of February,' but no one seemed willing to admit a group capable of threatening such a visible gathering was a hoax, either. There was too much to lose if the threat turned out to be credible.
The trip to the convention center was quick, Wanda riding in the back with Vision, Steve in the front while Natasha drove with War Machine and Falcon flying ahead as scouts. The conference was happening just outside New York City, almost right in their backyard. Iron Man would also be joining them at the scene, which Fury had icily suggested was the real reason for their presence. Stark Industries had recently diversified, taking over a major television network, a publishing company and two independent film studios. The Avengers rescuing the international press corps was guaranteed publicity and corresponding stock increases. No one on the team was willing to either make a direct accusation or put such a cynical move past Tony Stark, though Wanda suspected that the media presence would have drawn him like a moth to the flame, regardless of the circumstances.
The evacuation of attendees was still occurring as they parked, prompting a blinding flash from the assembled photographers as Wanda stepped down onto the pavement. She tried to keep her expression neutral, though she knew she probably looked like she was freaking out beside the rest of the team. They met outside the main entrance as the last stragglers were ushered out by police. Steve assigned sectors to each team member and they were off.
Ten minutes later, Wanda glanced around the vast empty space of the main hall of the convention center that had been filled with milling news personalities, photojournalists and various other members of the press only an hour before. Now that horde was outside at what the police had judged a safe distance, reporting live via satellite and internet about the bomb threat that had interrupted the second day of the conference, she was even less sure why the Avengers had been summoned.
Iron Man was currently circling above the large glass dome, ostensibly conducting perimeter surveillance while remaining highly visible to the cameras. War Machine or Falcon could easily have taken that assignment, but they were busy combing the interior, just as she was. There were no indications of a bomb thus far in the sectors she had covered. She couldn't help but feel her skills were being wasted in the moments before the glass began to fall in lethal shards around her. She produced an energy field that protected her as the tremor from the explosion continued to rain shimmering death in the form of splintering glass.
"Wanda!"
She managed to lower her shield just as Rhodey zipped into the room and grabbed her around the waist, carrying her to safety in the parking lot. She leaned against a quinjet that had landed since her arrival, taking in the scene. The main building of the convention center appeared to have suffered mostly cosmetic damage, but the six-story administrative annex beside it had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
She was about to ask about the significance of the explosion when she realized that Steve was as close to losing his composure as she'd ever seen him, fist tensed though he was speaking evenly into the communicator on his wrist as he sprinted past. "Natasha. Natasha, do you copy? Natasha? Natasha?"
Wanda realized with a jolt who had been searching the annex and burst forward to follow Steve. She fought through the heavy cobwebs of distress enveloping him as he repeated his lover's name over and over in the dust still rising from the settling pile of steel and concrete. He flinched at her touch, though she had been careful not to lace it with any psychic suggestions, not even reassurances. He reluctantly lowered his arm. "She…she's not answering."
"She probably lost her transmitter in the blast," Wanda replied, disconcerted by the fear in Steve's eyes. "We will find her."
"What if it's a trap?" Stark suddenly interjected, landing with a clank in the midst of the Avengers. "What if we're supposed to go rushing in just in time for the big bang to take us all out?"
Sam gave a grunt of disgust. "Then you can deliver the eulogies for all of us, Rust Bucket." His wings shot out and he took off to begin looking for viable pockets in the destroyed building, followed immediately by Rhodey and Vision. Iron Man joined them a moment later.
Wanda was about to follow when she felt Steve holding her back. "Wanda, you can…you can…her mind, her thoughts. You can find her. I know you can."
"Steve…" She fought hard not to react to his nearly bone-crushing grip on her shoulders. "You are hurting me."
He let go and took a step back, but his eyes retained their intensity. "Sorry, I just…please. I won't lose her. I can't."
"I will do my best."
"I know you will."
She heard an argument begin over comms between Stark and Steve, but Wanda pushed her body to the limits she had learned in her time at Avengers' HQ as she ran away from him and mounted the nearest pile of rubble, doing the best she could to home in on Natasha's thoughts. There was too much going on. It was too intense in an entirely different way, nothing like the times she had felt Steve and Natasha through the wall between their rooms. Natasha's mind was so controlled anyway, so hard read.
Using her telekinetic powers, Wanda rose above the wreckage, probing as best she could through the cacophony of newscasters projecting their dramatic reports into the ether, police issuing commands and teammates trying to organize the search. She landed abruptly on a steel beam, making sure it could hold her before turning all her powers on finding a single voice in the overwhelming mental noise. She cried out in pain before she could isolate the one mind on which she was so intent. It was too much. What if Natasha was unconscious? Dead? The painful realization was not just her own, but her teammates'. Steve's.
Before she could stop herself, she shrieked, "Dogs! Dogs could do better than I am! Why are there no dogs here?"
"Hey, hey," Sam said, retracting his wings as he set down beside her atop the beam. "You're doing what you can. Cap's freaking out because he's…look, he's worried. We all are, but him and Nat, well, you know." Sam's hand felt heavy, grounding her in spite of their precarious foothold. "Do your best. That's all anyone's asking."
Wanda again tried to focus. The sheer volume of thoughts in the area was making her task impossible; she had to fight her instinct to close her mind. Natasha had to be conscious. What would Natasha be thinking in this situation? Amidst the dissonance of reportage and concern in her mind, a single strain of multilingual cursing was vaguely discernable. She held up her hand to stop Sam's reassuring monologue. Using all her concentration, she tried to pierce through.
"FUCKING ELEVATOR!" The words she had shouted left her feeling like a ventriloquist's dummy, but it was enough. Vision and Iron Man were already clearing the collapsed concrete shaft when she and Sam arrived. In her own voice, Wanda called to Steve, "She is in the elevator car, unhurt but trapped!"
He beamed at her and leaped in. The flash that shot out of the rubble a few moments later was brighter than anything Wanda had ever seen. She thought for a moment there had been another explosion, but no one else was reacting. Her mind reached back to the elderly couple she had once seen in Sokovia. Steve and Natasha suddenly appeared out of the elevator shaft. He reached up to lift her to the ground, not letting go as he pulled her into a passionate embrace. The light around them became too bright for Wanda to look at.
Instead, she turned to Stark, who had raised his faceplate. "What the…when…is this…how…?"
Rhodey gave him a clanging pat on the shoulder. "Told you to swing by HQ more often."
Just before Natasha disappeared into the quinjet to head home for a medical evaluation at Steve's insistence, she made purposeful eye-contact with Wanda. The message was quiet this time, not forcing itself from her mouth.
Thank you.
Wanda nodded with a shy smile. Perhaps she could find a way to 'listen in' that would be helpful rather than invasive. She was still smiling when Vision came up beside her. "Pardon me for interrupting your apparently pleasant musings, but Captain America has indicated that there is still work to do here. And Mr. Stark has repeatedly indicated that we are being watched, live, by millions."
Wanda shot herself into the air with more flair than usual to continue investigating the bombing. If she was going to appear on the news, she wanted to be remembered for more than just her stylish leather jacket.
