Black Widow and the Scarlet Witch

After the briefing, Nat pulled Wanda aside "Wanda, could I have a word?"

"Of course." She answers, with her heavy Sokovian accent

"I've been thinking about your training. Of all of us you've the broadest set of abilities and a lot of raw power so it's going to be hard to train you on a normal range. I've asked Steve to let me set up something special for you."

Wanda looks interested "Oh yes?"

"I've found a disused quarry and mine workings only a few minutes flight from here, somewhere you can let loose and practise throw things around without risking hurting anyone.

I'll get my jacket

Nat frowns a little then shrugs "Smart wearing armour"

"This is armoured?

"You didn't know? The boys didn't give you armour? They keep forgetting they're basically bulletproof

"I just like it as it looks good. You're not mad I borrowed it?"

"No, it's Ok. You can keep it. Us girls have got to stick together, and we puny flesh and blood types need protection. She pauses, looking at the way the others left "Reminds me, are you and vision?" She raises an eyebrow "you know?"

Wanda almost blushes "We're close, but not that close. He's physically adult and mentally very smart but socially and emotionally i don't know what he is. He's grown up but not, you know?"

"Well as far as i understand it he's a composite of Jarvis , Ultron and Thor made via space magic. So you have a 30 year old AI and who knows what else mixed up in there. From the scans his brain is adult in structure so he should be rational and emotionally stable. He must have seen a lot of social interactions and emotions as JARVIS, just never experienced them himself, so it's anyone's guess what he feels. Just be careful with him emotionally and, well, use protection if you get intimate."

"But why, He's a robot?"

"He's a brand new form of artificial life made from Vibranium and synthetic tissue powered by space magic from a guy whose mother is an extra-terrestrial fertility goddess. Use Protection"

"When you say it like that, it sounds crazy."

"When you step back and look at it, everything we do sounds crazy"

"Reminds me of what Hawkeye said in Sokovia – The city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots and I have a bow and arrow, none of this makes sense"

Natasha smiles, remembering how he'd recruited her "Clint always had a way with words"

"Ok, we'll use protection. So do we have Avengers brand condoms?" Wanda asks

"Not yet. Though we could put Caps shield on them."

"Or Thor's hammer!"

Nat raises a fist "For it is Righteous and Mighty! And Only Those Worthy May Grasp It!"

They exchange a glance then collapse in giggles.

"And for you? Femidoms or Widows bite dental dams?"

"Hey i don't bite that much!"

Wanda suddenly realises something and looks shocked "Oh! Vision can phase through walls! What good are barriers?! What if he just goes…?" and she makes a 'splattering everywhere' gesture from her groin

"Sploooosh! And he can fly! They could go everywhere"

"Urgh! Ok, if you two ever try it you need ALL the protection. Armour plates, Nanotech shields and spell wards. Actually, Is there witch magic for that?."

"I not really a magic spells kind of witch, I'm more a wiggly fingers space powers kind of witch. Throwing things around. Just Mind powers not spell magic."

"Just Mind powers? You make it sound like guessing someone's card. In Sakovia you calmed and mind controlled a whole city of civilians for the evacuation."

Wanda shrugs "It's easy to do if they've no active resistance, I can just reach out and push the thought in. But if they don't want to or it goes against their nature it takes a lot more force."

That makes Natasha stop and think, pondering risks "Well, I want to see what you can do with it in combat, if that's ok with you?"

Wanda quietly says "Von Strucker had me attack captives minds, practise causing pain and fear, get in and tear them apart."

Nat sighs "I don't think Steve would be OK with that"

"Steve? You're worried what Steve would think, not the World Security Council?"

"I'm more pragmatic, I hate the puppy dog eyes he does whenever I suggest something he thinks is unethical. I could try and get convicted murderers for you to practise on but I doubt we would get government approval."

Wanda wrinkles her nose is distaste and Natasha nods

"Ok, we'll find something else" She then makes a point of glancing round the room before continuing. "Also there's one thing I'd like to offer you, totally off the books." That catches Wanda's interest.

"You're a very attractive young woman, which can be a hindrance in some circles but very powerful if you learn to use it properly."

"What are you saying?"

"Look, The Avengers, they'll teach you to fight and to kill if needs be but they won't teach you to manipulate, seduce or kill with your body, your sexuality. Too many moral hang ups. Steve is a good man to the core but sometimes it limits him. I'd rather we had all the weapons possible at our disposal ready to use just in case."

"So you're offering to show me how to seduce and manipulate men? Even if Steve wouldn't approve?"

"Yes. Well, most men and some women. It could save your life one day"

Wanda shrugs, unconvinced "Really?"

Nat pauses then slowly locks eyes with her. "Really" She reaches up and touches her own face, running her finger tips over her parted lips, sighing softly as she strokes down her neck to her suits zipper and slowly slides it down almost to her navel. As she takes a deep breath. Wanda can't help but stare at the swell of her fantastic breasts.

"Impressive but how can that save my life?"

Nat smiles and lifts her hands. Both now have a pistol in them. Wanda starts; she'd not seen her move let alone draw a weapon. "How did you?"

"Your eyes and thoughts were elsewhere."

"But I'm a woman"

"Breasts have surprisingly universal appeal"

Wanda looks at Natashas cleavage as she zips her suit up, then down at her own.

"So you'll teach me? Even if Steve wouldn't approve? I'd hate to get you in trouble with him, I can feel the way you think about him"

"I'm proud to follow him. He's.." Nat searches for a word " inspiring. But yes, I'd teach you"

"He likes you, you know? It's like he lights up when you walk in the room, I can see that even without my powers"

"I know. He's a good friend"

The Quinjet sets down in the middle of an old disused quarry. Dust and loose rocks go flying from the down force, swirling through the scrubby undergrowth and the young trees that had sprouted here in the years since it was working.

Natasha lowers the back ramp and gestures to Wanda "here you go, your own personal wrecking yard"

Wanda looks round. Parts of the quarry are laid out like a firing range with distance markers but there are lines of wrecked cars, chucks of machinery and concrete, even a maze of tall wooden boards laid out to mimic the inside of a house.

"Officially this is the high threat test ground, when it's live there are no people in two miles of here. I set the perimeter sensors myself; the controls are in that cabin there. When you want to practise you switch them on and if the board goes green you can safely throw things around without risking hurting anyone."

Natasha looks her over with a critical eye.

"Except yourself. While the absolute territory look is sexy, there's a big vein on the inside of the thigh that you really don't want catching shrapnel.

"Absolute territory?"

"it's a Japanese thing. Zettai ryōiki. The area of pale skin between short skirt and knee socks. Drives a lot of guys wild, but not good for range practise"

"I've not got a change of clothes with me"

"It's ok, I've left a few sets of Kevlar overalls in the cabin, they should be good for minor stuff. Put one on over your clothes and let's see what you can do and how you can use it"

Nat ducked behind one of the concrete crash barriers as the remains of the car crashed down, twisted metal flying everywhere.

"Pretty good! You can lift a car and pull it into two. Now can you hit one car with another?"

She points to the cliff edge, where there are a line of wrecked cars.

"I'll use the ram to throw a car across the yard, you pull one off the cliff and try and hit it in mid-air, ok?"

Nat typed a few commands on her tablet and an automatic junk yard crane picked up a wrecked car and loaded it onto a concrete ramp in front of a giant repulsor beam generator Tony had made them.

With a flash of blue light the car was hurled across the range.

Wanda reached out with her hands, complex gestures and a glow of red energy making a car chassis jerk forward and fall into the quarry, missing the flying wreck and both slam into the rocky floor.

Wanda spits expletives in Sokovian

Natasha stands up and dusts herself down "That's enough for today I think. Let's let the techs clean this place up and reset things and we can try again fresh tomorrow. Few of the guys from technical want to build a trebuchet down here to throw things about for you and I've got some people coming in to install a load of doors for practise"

Natasha gestured to three big chunks of machinery

"These are old ATMs we grabbed from a scrapyard, nice solid chunks of metal to throw around. But I also wanted to let you practise some more subtle skills, so I got the techs to get them working again and loaded with blank paper."

She stands behind Wanda, one hand on her shoulder. Softly she whispers into the girls ear

"Just form the force into a spike with your fingers"

Wanda lifts her right hand, the red glow forming into a foot long blade

"Good. Now, Feel where the camera is. Push the force into it"

She reaches out with her left hand, fingers spread. The Red glow flows over the machine, sliding into and through it. The glass lens of the camera cracks as the force surrounds it, then Wanda pushes the blade into it, wrecking the delicate mechanism

"That's it. Now, Reach in. find the currency box. Make the rollers move" Wanda concentrates, her fingers making pulling, tugging gestures. The machine grinds then the front panel pops over and starts spitting slips of paper onto the ground.

"Very good! So now if you're ever one the run and need cash, you're set. Just always be sure to kill the camera first, both in the bank and the ATM itself, they usually have several with fields of view that overlap"

Wanda shrugs "but I can always just read the PIN from someone's mind and take their card."

Natasha shakes her head "True, but that'll raise all sorts of problems later on and leaves a trail. Having it break down leaves less of a trace."

She gives Wanda a reassuring hug "You've getting really good with machinery. I've got some more things for you to try set up over here. House Door locks, car door locks, safes and an actual vault door. Also Ship doors. Industrial pressure doors and Heavy steel manhole covers. Now, to add to the fun I've locked some, double locked others and may have booby trapped a few. Remember to feel out the bolts, the hinges, the bars. Feel for explosives and traps, wires and electricity."

"You have a very twisted definition of fun" Wanda says, but she's smiling, she likes a challenge.

"You have no idea. After this, we're going mouse-holing."

"With real Mice?"

"It's the military term for blowing a hole in a wall big enough for a person to get through without collapsing the whole building. Needs the very precise application of devastating amounts of smashing power"

"Now, that does sound like fun"

Part of the wrecking yard is filled with a layer of cardboard boxes, sponge pads and crash mats

"More throwing people around practise?"

"Sort of, I was wondering, Can you push down enough to lift yourself safely?"

Wanda considers a moment and looks at her hands "Like jump or actually fly?"

"Let's try with going up first , less chance of injury. That's why the crash pads. Then we can try controlled dropping and safe landings, you can shield from attacks but we need to test how your powers work when it's you that's moving."

Wanda tries, but while she can lift herself off the ground she loses stability and crashes back to earth again and again. Fighting her way out of the ruined pile of empty boxes she slumps "I give up. Lets go back to smashing things again"

"We knew It was going to be different. Try with your hands out, like Tony does with his feet for power and hands for stability. That may be more stable"

"Now this is going to be a bit different. I was thinking we could do live animal tests but a training dummy is more ethical." Natasha wheels out a fake body on a steel gurney, a clear ballistic gel torso cast over a plastic skeleton. Inside Wanda can see its full of fake organs, lumps made of rubber tubes and bladders of coloured liquid.

"I was thinking about the ATMs, how you can reach inside things and move things round, so I thought let's see what you can do for treating injuries."

"healing? I've never really tried. I don't know if I can…."

"That's why we're practising on Ballistic Bobby here. First off, touch it, feel it with your powers."

Wanda lays a hand on the dummy, a red glow spreading through it, feeling out the shapes inside. It feels weird, soft and parts move and slide when she feels them.

"Ready" Wanda nods.

Widow shoots it.

Wanda jerks back in surprise, the sudden explosion, the thunderous noise, the way she could feel the bullet tear through gel and rubber, feel the fake organs rupturing.

Nat pushes her back to the gurney "Wanda! Come on! Focus! Get back there! Need to knit it back together. Stop the bleeding. Save bobby!"

Wanda reaches out, panicking, red planes of force pulling and tearing the tubes as coloured liquids splatter all over her hands and clothes.

"Come on, you can do this!"

Fighting down the panic she finds the tears, fuses things back together , stops the inky blue and bright red paint blood flowing.

Then she turns on the Widow, eyes flashing red "What the FUCK was that!? You SHOT it right in front of me!"

"I needed to know how you react under pressure."

"Pressure!?"

Nat looks at her, stone faced "I just showed you that you can save the life of a gunshot victim in seven seconds flat with no practise or equipment"

Wanda glares at her then slams both hands downward, throwing herself into the sky in a long leap over to the car lot where she starts smashing wrecked cars.

After, Natasha walks over "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, just see how you react under pressure. And you did really well"

Wanda is sitting dejected on a wrecked car. "It's alright. It's just." She starts to sob. "It's just if I'd been there, when Pietro was shot."

Natasha sits next to her and puts her arm around her "You'd have been shot too and died with him. You are stronger and more skilled now that you ever were back then but even now I doubt you can stand a Quinjets gatling gun."

"There's an old Sokovian saying – if wishes were horses, even beggars would ride. I'm going to keep practising and get strong enough. Then stronger."

"That sounds like something Steve and I were talking about – we can't go back and change the way the world has been, but we can fight to make the world a better place"

Wanda looks at her curiously, then rests her hand on Natasha's chest. "I felt that, it was like a surge of pure emotion, pure joy. So, You and Steve?"

Natasha's face goes blank and emotionless while she scrambles for an answer. Hugging a telepath?! STUPID! Then she sighs. This whole thing with The Avengers is all about opening up, making allies, making friends.

She smiles a shy little smile "If you can keep a secret? We're kind of going out. It's just difficult with our lives, our reputations, our fame. We're going slow and keeping it low profile."

Wanda grins and gives her a big hug. "It's about time! You two have given so much I'm glad you've got together."

Natasha stuck her head and shoulders out of the top hatch of the HMMV and checked the battery and ammo feed on the GAU/17A gatling gun. The multi barrelled machine gun used an electric motor to drive it and fed ammunition up through a flexible belt from a massive ammo canister in the jeeps belly.

She dialled it down to the slowest rate of fire, ten shots per second, and looked over at Wanda.

"Ready?"

Down range, Wanda waddled out between the target dummies and gave a thumb up. She was wearing a massive heavy vest with ceramic panels and a helmet with steel ballistic mask, all rated capable of stopping a 7.62 rifle round from the gatling gun.

Nat put on her goggles and ear protectors then thumbed her radio "OK, I'm going to aim at the dummy to your LEFT, ok? Your LEFT." Wanda nods and raises her hands inside bulky armoured gloves, a red shield appearing in front of herself and the dummy.

Nat flips the guard off the trigger switch and fires a short burst, the spinning barrels spitting a tongue of flame and a hundred rounds fly down range.

Wanda cries out and falls over backwards, as the bullets hit her glowing shield and fly everywhere.

"I'm OK! I'm OK!" She gets unsteadily to her feet. "Not hit, just shaken up" She looks at the shredded dummy and shakes her head. "Let's go again, I can do this"

Wanda floated just off the ground in an aura of red light, one hand outstretched and the other pointing down. She'd ditched the heavy armour after the first few times she'd managed to deflect all the bullets.

Over the radio Natasha talked as she reloaded the gatling gun "Ok, If you keep the shield soft you can absorb the force and catch the bullets. If you harden and angle it you can deflect them, so you can use it to attack other enemies. When you're fighting around civilians or with supporting troops you can't risk deflecting as friendlies can run into your line of fire, people do stupid things in a fire fight. Sometimes to defend the best thing you can do is put a big red glowing target on yourself so the enemy shoot at you"

"Ok, I'm going to try and get all the red mannequins on my right and not let anyone behind me get hit, ok?"

"Ok, I'm loaded and ready, here we go!"

"Now when you're flying, you want to try and keep a shield up in front of you shaped like this"

She sketched out a teardrop shape in the dirt, rounded at the front end and tapered behind

"That way you won't get things in your eyes and you'll be aerodynamic enough to overcome wind resistance.

Modern radar can pick up birds in flight so if you need to fly stay low when being stealthy, so hide in the ground scatter, don't go higher that surrounding trees or buildings. Beware the overhead power lines.

Now Falcon uses goggles with a heads up display to warn him but for you it's better to do this with just your powers and practice. Oh, and try and stay under Mach 1."

"How do I even tell that?"

"When you feel the air getting hard in front of you, that's the sound barrier. You're pushing the air faster than it can get out of the way, so a shock wave forms. If you keep going the shockwave collapses and you get a sonic boom."

"I can't go that fast"

"Yet, Wanda. You can't go that fast yet."

Wanda laughs and leaps into the air.

Natasha points towards the plywood houses that technical have built for them.

"Ok, we've done the heavy duty stuff, now we can work on finesse. I've asked a few volunteers from the Combat Teams to join us, all very calm people with no history of mental illness and cleared to high levels so they can know about what we're doing here. They all are OK working with someone with mental powers, have signed disclaimers and are getting regular counselling and brain scans just in case"

"Thanks. You've given this a lot of thought."

Nat shrugs, "I've worked with telepaths before, it pays to be very careful"

"Really? Who? Where?"

Nat freezes for a moment, her left arm twitching and her hand clenching into a fist

"Sorry. Damn. I've a block. That info was classified so I had them make me forget it. All I can remember is I did it and I thought it best to forget, I let myself remember that so I wouldn't pry"

"That's messed up"

"You have no idea how messed up things can get in my head" She shrugs "Let's go test your mind powers"

"Ok, we have five doors. Concentrate. You can feel their thoughts?"

Wanda concentrates and them nods

"So which doors have people behind?"

"One, Three and Four"

"And who is a threat?"

"Three and four have guns. One is thinking of cheesecake. They are all military. And all are scared."

She waves her hand and all the doors open, revealing three men in combat fatigues. Two are indeed holding guns, the other a cheesecake.

"This is going to be hard to practise. In a real battle people's minds will be very different.

"Trained killers will feel very different to panicking thugs. Some will get calmer when they're most deadly

"Like you?

"What?" Nat looks at her calmly.

"Like that. When you relax i see flashes of colour, flickers of your emotions. But when you're focused or angry its like shutters come down. Where did you learn to do that?

"That's classified." Nat snaps, then relaxes and explains "Sorry, It's the Red room training. You learn to focus, ignore your emotions, to ignore the pain and other distractions."

"It still hurts?"

Nat nods "It still hurts. Every day"

"Tonight, we're going out for our training"

"Out?"

"Out-out." Natasha grins "Out of the country, out of uniform. Get your go bag; we're going to move things up a level, so wheels up in 20"

On the Quinjet, Nat brings up their flight-plan "Ok, we are heading down to Mexico. Clint and I have a little secret side line we use for live fire combat testing of things. You probably don't know much about the Mexican drug wars, but they have a lot of powerful criminal gangs called cartels. Some have armies of well-armed soldiers, but we usually target the elite career criminals, the enforcers, the ones we know have blood on their hands.

"You fly down to Mexico to shoot drug dealers?"

"Of course not, that'd be crazy. But you need live fire practise with targets that you won't mind hurting."

"well, yes, but…" Wanda sits down heavily "why does my life keep getting stranger?"

"Trust me, it will get stranger. Have you ever heard of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte?"

"The who?"

"Our Lady of the Holy Death, Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte. The Saint of Death. She'll be our cover for this operation."

"You want to dress up as the saint of death?"

"No, I want YOU to dress up as the Saint of Death"

"Ok, it's just got stranger"

"How better to cover for your super natural powers? We've a base down in Jalisco, we leave the jet there and take a car into one of the towns where there's fighting and we take out the leadership."

Nat set the Quinjet down in a dusty hollow in the hills miles from anywhere. The nearby house had lights on, but apart from flashing a few lights to acknowledge their arrival no one came out.

Nat starts unpacking boxes full of glossy black cloth and armour. "OK, get undressed" and starts stripping off her own Widow outfit.

She watches Wanda undress with a measured gaze that makes the young woman self-conscious. When she's barefoot and down to her greying underwear Wanda wraps her arms round her chest and stares back at her.

"Quit staring!"

Natasha bends over, slowly peeling her stealth suit down her legs, from the toned curves of her ass split by the thin dark line of her thong to the long lean muscles in her thighs.

Without looking back, she says "To be powerful you must always act like everyone in the room is looking at you. That they want you and you know it and want them too. That's the way I was taught, to always look glamorous, to charm the eye"

"I can't do that."

"Oh, you can, if you try. You have all the right curves in all the right places, you just need to wrap them up and show them off properly to get the most effect. When we get chance I am taking you lingerie shopping!"

"Easy for you to say, with your double D's"

"True, they have opened doors for me. Also bank vaults, missile silos and once a submarine hatch. But trust me, they're not mine. They were given to me as part of the job"

"They're implants?"

"No, enhanced by hormone treatments and tissue implants. Another weapon for the arsenal. They're effective but if you ever get punched or shot in the nipple you'll know it really hurts. When I'm fighting I have to strap them up or they swing round and screw my balance."

Wanda stares at Natashas ample cleavage in her combat rated sports bra, then down at her own.

"Don't worry, you're a scrawny girl on the Sokovian revolutionary diet of rage and angst growing into a woman who's actually getting three descent meals a day and a free gym membership. You're a good few inches taller than me and as you fill out those little Bs are going to be lovely Cs or more; you're going to look stunning."

"Wait. I'm taller than you?"

"You are; you just don't feel it. It's the confidence, and the heels. You slump, I project. You stand up tall and stick your chest out, people will notice."

"And what if I start floating?"

Natasha laughs "Oh, then everyone will be looking at you" barefoot she pads over to Wanda and presses herself against her, so that their breasts squish together. With a smile she compares their heights with her hand. "Yup, you're two inches taller" She rests the other hand on the young womans hip, holding them together skin to skin. Wanda gets a little electric tingle from the contact, it's been so long since she's felt such warmth and human intimacy. She wraps her arms around Natashas waist, marvelling at how soft her skin feels but how firm the muscles under it are. She leans closer and asks softly

"Are you teaching or flirting?"

Natasha just smiles and breaks away, turning to the opened boxes.

She pulls out a black garment like a wetsuit.

"Ok, its combat underwear time. This is your base layer. Covers you from neck to knees and elbows, its rip proof, breathable, feels like thick rubber but soft to touch and sets hard as steel under impact. After a few bumps and bangs you'll learn to love it. It'll even stop knives and pistol bullets but it's more useful against flying debris from explosions. Because in our job, there are ALWAYS explosions. Similarly, It is also electrically insulated, acid resistant and fire proof. This and your basic close combat skills already give you a big advantage in a low level street brawl. Against punches you just need to guard your head, neck, hands and feet."

She mines a boxers high guard, arms up to protect her head.

Then she pulls out more armour

"Over the top of this we normally have proper armour, shaped panels of hard armour and sections of reinforced ballistic cloth. This chest piece covers your vital organs.

Then we have black leggings and Shirt, kneepads, combat boots that lace to just below the knee

Then over that we have these nuns habits made of fireproof ballistic cloth, with silver rosary belts."

They dress in silence; everything has been custom made and fits like a glove.

Wanda looks at Natasha in awe, then at herself. "We look like some sort of military fetish nuns"

"Wait until you see the final piece. I had a funeral artist work with an armourer to get these just right."

She opens the last two cases to reveal two beautifully decorated skulls. The bone was bleached pale and painted with patterns of bright coloured dots, the eyes empty black glass and about the forehead was a crown of red flowers, small bones and golden spikes.

"They're beautiful… macabre but beautiful."

Natasha picks one up, revealing it's actually the face plate of a matt black full head helmet

"They're ballistic masks, armoured enough to stop bullets. They have an air filter, radio and the eye lenses have a heads up display and night vision."

She puts the helmet on and pulls the skull face down into place, then strikes a pose, head to one side, hands pressed together in prayer. Suddenly Wanda felt like she was in the presence of something altogether other worldly. She shudders

"It works, oh it works"

In the nearby barn was the rusting chassis of an old muscle car, the engine stripped out and the glass and upholstery gone.

"We're driving the ghost of this car."

"A ghost? Sounds fitting"

With a rumble of machinery the wreck rose into the air, revealing the whole floor of the barn was the roof of a car sized vehicle lift platform. Strip lights flicker on and reveal a night black demon of a sports car. The license plate reads MUERTE

"It's a shield special with the bodywork and paperwork of that a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1.

It runs on a turbine with a Stark power cell so it's clean and almost totally silent."

"It looks like it should rumble and roar"

"Yes, and that's part of the image we're going for so we fitted a sound system for motor noise. It plays a mix of engine sounds, snarling animal noises and infrasound to cause a fear response. Don't worry, the masks will block it."

"The back is mostly electronic warfare. When it's running we are an electrical dead zone, no phone signals, no cameras, no computers. We can switch off street lights, trip house breakers, kill modern car ignition controls. Nothing moves but us. We want fear and superstition not proof."

"What about actual film cameras?"

"Good point. We'll just have to move fast, operate in darkness, fire and smoke so no one will get a good look."

"It's bulletproof up to a light cannon, if they have antitank weapons or we need a quick getaway we drop smoke and hit the flight system, vanish straight up."

"It can fly?"

"Yes, she can fly."

Lights out and silent they skim over the desert in the pitch black, flying nape of the earth by the false colours on the night vision goggles

Up ahead Nat can see the highway so she sets the car down and cancels stealth mode. The Engine starts to rumble and the headlights switch on. The dash goes from virtual numbers in the goggles to actual light up dials.

Wanda leans back and asks "So, what's the plan? We drive up to some criminals and I zap them with my powers?"

"That's up to you, We should try to disable or arrest them, but they're all pretty bad people so if you screw up and explode a few by accident while you practise you don't have to feel bad."

"Sounds pretty ruthless"

"I can be. But today I want you to take the lead, practise using your powers and your judgement. I'll back you up"

They roar along the highway, heading towards a town. They burn past a pick-up truck and Wanda suddenly winces "That truck!"

Nat slams on the break, spinning the wheel in a bootlegger turn and floors the accelerator once they're pointing the other way "What about it?"

"It feels bad. Get closer"

She raises her hands, the red glow surrounding her head and hands. Her voice is distant and echoes strangely

"Two men in the cab. Both armed. Steel drums in the back. There are dead bodies in them. Four people. They tortured them to death, a whole family. Cut them up. They're off to dump the bodies"

"Your call."

Wanda gestures at the back of the truck and the red glow envelopes all of the steel drums. She closes her fingers then punches her fist forward. On the truck the drums lurch forward, smashing forward into the cab of the truck in a wave of twisted metal, bloody viscera and caustic powdered lye. Both men are nearly torn apart by the force, dead before they have time to scream. The truck lurches and veers off the road, crashing into a ditch.

Nat rolls the car to a stop next to the wreck.

"Why kill them like that?"

Wanda sounds astonished and hurt "Are you being Judgemental?"

"No. just curious. I honestly don't care. I can't care." She takes her hand and presses it to her chest "Feel that? I've killed so many people it means nothing any more. But I'm trying to care. Honestly, I am."

Wanda stumbles for words "They were" she gestures at the wreck "they were bad people. Deserved a death that was violent. Painful."

"You could have just broken their necks"

Wanda reaches out, finding the trucks gas tank. She crushes it, spraying gasoline throughout the wreck which instantly ignites into a fireball.

"I saw their thoughts. They deserved worse." She thinks for a moment "This was a test, wasn't it?"

Natasha's skull mask nods "I knew they were gang members, I've a tactical map of the whole town ahead and there are a lot of killers in there. I wanted to see what you can feel and what you would do."

"Well, now you know."

"It's important. Power and anonymity can reveal who you are. When you can do things without any repercussions or rewards, no one else can judge you. The only person who judges your actions is you. What will you do? Will you do what is right and just because it's the right thing to do?"

"That's fucked up of you"

"The worlds fucked up. Let's go make it a little better"

She puts the car in gear

The Jet black car roars through town, leaving a dust cloud and a blackout in its wake. All the power goes out, cars stop dead, phones are just dark slabs of glass and metal. The Cartel have a compound on the edge of town, fortified and well-defended. Nat drives like a demon, gunning the engine to a howling roar as they go round and round the walls. Inside, people are shouting, panicking. All their alarms and communications are dead. Every room is dark. Eventually someone starts ringing a church bell in warning. One of the gates opens and several men with assault rifles come out, throwing road flares and dragging barrels of scrap wood they set on fire. They push a car out as a barricade and take cover behind it.

"Looks like we have their attention"

Nat guns the engine, letting the infrasound rumble do its work.

"How do you want to do this?" She asks Wanda.

"I'll deal with them" she replies and gets out of the car, a glowing halo of blood red enveloping her.

The cartel soldiers' panic and open fire, the sharp crack and whine of high velocity rifle rounds splitting the night. They never reach her; they're just caught in the scarlet aura and stopped, raining to the ground as she walks slowly forward.

She gives them just enough time to realise the bullets aren't hurting her before she raises her hands and flings a red bolt into the car, smashing it back into the cartel soldiers then ripping it in two, part slamming back into the compound gates, the other hovering, raining gasoline from the ruptured gas tank.

Those who can still walk drop their weapons and run as the gasoline catches light from the flaming oil drums.

Bracing her feet Wanda lifts and pushes the flaming wreckage through one wall and deep into the compound building.

There's a loud crack and Wanda's head snaps sideways, ears ringing. Nat jumps out of the car, gun at the ready. She spots the shooter and shouts a warning.

"Sniper in the East Tower!"

Wanda looks up at the tower and gestures – with a scream a man is pulled through the steel plate on the side of the tower and falls, limbs flailing, into the compound below.

Nat opens a compartment in the back of the car – inside is a rack of weapons, loaded and ready.

She ignores the Crowd control icer, ponders her M249 then pulls out the rotary grenade launcher. Built like a giant black polymer revolver it has a cylinder of six grenades sandwiched between a pistol grip rear and a stubby barrel with a fore grip in front.

"Laying down fire and smoke!" She says over the radio as she gauges the range and with a dull thump fires the first grenade into the compound in a low arc. "Incendiaries away!"

Wanda marches towards the burning hole, flinging red bolts at each downed fighter. Each hits with precision, grabbing their right hand, crushing it then with a whip-crack motion snapping the arm and banging their head down into the ground, knocking all fight from them and crippling there future ability to fight.

Wreathed in fire and smoke she stalks into the wreckage like an avenging angel

Natasha smiled behind her mask and started reloading

On the flight back Wanda is quiet, deep in thought

Natasha has the Mexican news on in the cockpit and is watching with interest. She calls back to Wanda "

Did you know you need to commit two miracles after your death to become a Saint? "

"Really?" Wanda looks at the screen, where townsfolk are describing the black out and terrible fire.

"The Vatican is sending a Promoter of the Faith to look into Santa Muerte"