Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. I own Addison Carter.
RATED M
ENJOY!
I stirred as I woke up, stretching out. My arm bumped into something and there was a groan in my back. I opened my eyes and turned around, blinking at James rubbing his nose.
Oh right, we slept together.
"You could say 'hello' like a normal person Addie…" he muttered under his breath, opening his eyes.
"Sorry, I forgot you were there." He looked at me with a deadpan.
"I'm surprised you forgot after the amount of times you said my name last night." I blushed hard, squeezing my legs together.
I was still sore. He noticed and grinned cockily. As the adult I was, I took my pillow and hit him with it. He just snorted and removed it.
"You know, you can hit me with your pillow it just gives me a great view." I was sitting, the covers on my knees. He had a great view of my naked chest. I tried to hide it with my arms, but he just grabbed them to pull me on top of him. "You're going to hurt my feelings Addie."
"Cyborgs have feelings?"
"Haha, hilarious. Can you give me a proper 'hello' now?" I blinked and lifted my face above his. He was relaxed, his eyes soft.
I placed a soft kiss on his lips, to which he responded.
"Better?"
"Way better," he replied against my lips, his hands sliding along my back. "Technically the night's not over as long as I'm still in your room you know."
"Have something in mind maybe?" He grinned and was about to swap our positions when someone knocked on my door.
"Ignore it," he whispered, his lips in my neck.
The knock was persistent. James sighed when I pushed him away, putting some clothes on. He did the same and went to the bathroom as I opened the door. Pietro was panting and clearly panicking.
"We have a problem."
"I can see that." He gave me a note. It was Wanda's writing saying she needed to be alone for some time. "You're worried about what she might do?"
"I mean...what if she...she…" I grabbed his shoulders.
"We'll find her before she can hurt herself." I scanned the Compound. "I'm sure she's not there."
"I know that already, I've ran around the Compound a thousand times!"
"Pietro, getting angry won't solve the issue. In any case, I say we avoid telling the others for the moment. The last thing she needs is us ganging up on her." He nodded. "Give me twenty minutes and I'll get ready." I closed the door and sighed deeply. "Well fuck me."
"Gladly." I rolled my eyes at James, coming out of the bathroom. "What did he want?"
"My help for something personal." He frowned. "Anyway, I told him I'd be ready in twenty minutes so I better be quick." James pulled me against his chest before I could walk past him to kiss me deeply.
My mind was only half into it though. Wanda was grieving, who knew what she would, could do, to herself or others in her state.
"I don't know what his problem is but it's bad," he muttered against my lips.
"Pretty much." He pursed his lips.
"You probably should get ready then." I nodded.
"Yeah." I kissed him on the cheek. "If people see you leaving my room they'll talk."
"I was an assassin Carter," he replied, opening the door.
Did he use that argument with other people?
Anyway, once I was ready I found Pietro in his room. I pulled out one of hischair without asking and used a localization spell. I frowned though when it just...wasn't precise at all.
"Addie?"
"It's just giving me Florida," I told him. "It should be way more precise than a state. There's something clouding her."
"My sister is escaping your spell?" I shrugged.
"It appears so, and I'm not asking Stephen for help. He'll just tell me to handle it on my own or he would have wasted his time training me."
"You know, you're making him sound like a real asshole."
"Well yeah, but it's because he knows it just makes me want to get better to have the last word. He's...actually nice you know." He didn't seem convinced. "Come on!"
"You grew up around Stark," he said as justification.
"I...have to give you that one." My hands fell limp on my sides. "Florida is big. How are we supposed to find her there? Does she have anything to look for in Florida?"
"Not that I know of." I took a deep breath.
"Time to do some digging up. Somewhere private." He frowned and I grinned. "Fancy a ride to Bedford?"
"I was so sure you sold that place," he replied with a knowing grin.
"I'm not moving that basement, it's too useful when I have side gigs. We're driving though, maybe something will come to us on the way." He nodded.
Tony was working from home, and when I said that I actually meant the Stark Manor in NYC. Pepper would stay there since the Tower was sold. Who knew what the others had planned, probably more pardon shit they had to go through. Although, Nat had an easier time thanks to Neverland.
"Where did you go last night by the way?" I blinked at the question my eyes on the road. "You just vanished."
"I was tired, went to bed." I made sure to hide the hickeys I had.
James took advantage of each second he had.
"Went to bed?"
"Yeah, went to bed." It wasn't a lie.
"You did look weird when you came back from your talk with Strange." I gulped. "Is there some mystical threats already?"
"No, well...yeah no. He just… you know, MI:13…"
"Wants you to lead a team once the new deal is signed?" I nodded.
"While I'm not sure whether or not I should lead the team, I'm pretty sure I'm going to join. England is like a huge inter-dimensional zone. And in London...you've got a Sanctum, like in NYC."
"Strange wants you there?" I nodded.
"Stephen wants me there, to keep the barrier protecting Earth up and running. They're handling it right now but as there's no master...it takes time."
"...you're promoted." I nodded. "And moving to Europe."
"Yeah. I told Tony and Pepper last night. It's not...I've been thinking about it for a while anyway, and now Thanos is gone it's…"
"Hey, you don't need to justify your decision to me, it's not as if it came out of nowhere. They tried to recruit you and Brian in front of me." I chuckled. "It...will be a big change." My hands clenched the wheel tighter.
"It will but...I don't think there's anything left for me in this country anymore. I mean, if there's an emergency I'll be called back, I'm still a reserve member of the Avengers but...other than that, I'll go back to my roots."
"The British accent will be popping."
"It already is sometimes. But for now, your sister." He nodded.
We directly went to the basement when we arrived. It was not welcoming like it used to, and it didn't even feel like home anymore. From the moment James left, it just...felt empty. Even if the place was still filled with hidden weapons from his early days away from HYDRA.
Still, the basement was still good to use. Tony even upgraded my computer from when they'd use it when I was in Neverland.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y?"
"Yes Miss Carter?" she replied.
"Search for everything Wanda might have an interest in located in Florida."
"Understood." Windows appeared and disappeared from my screen and I turned to Pietro.
"Still no idea?" He shook his head.
"She's not a big fan of humid and hot climate."
"And you know...Florida. Crazy people there apparently." As it was the underground mutant fights were when I was a teen...crazy people indeed. Oh Jacksonville.
We waited for a dozen of minutes.
"From what I have found, the S.W.O.R.D HQ is located near Fort Myers."
"Why would she…" Pietro was pale.
"It's where Vision is." I blinked and pinched the bridge of my nose.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y, give me precise coordinate. We're going. You can keep the coordinates once we're on a quinjet, right?"
"Of course," she replied, as offended as an AI could be.
Really, Tony and his AIs were scary.
Well...Ultron.
I drove back to the Compound, Pietro and I rushing to the hangar. Natasha and Doc were there.
"What's the rush?" Nat asked us.
"Emergency in Florida, we're borrowing a quinjet."
"You can't." I blinked at Doc. "They're all being revised at the moment, you can't...take any."
"It's a joke, right?" Pietro asked him. He shook his head.
I took my phone to have an approximation of how long driving to Florida would take.
"You're ready for a twenty-hour road trip to Florida?" I asked my Sokovian friend, who growled.
"No portal?"
"Not to places I've never been to."
"Guys, what's going on? What's the emergency?" Natasha asked us, walking toward us with Doc.
"It's...her birthday present," Pietro said. I nodded eagerly.
"It's a couple of months early but you know...there are things you can't control!" Pietro grabbed me and we went back to my car.
June 22nd, 2018, Fort Myers, Florida
"F.R.I.D.A.Y, I'd take anything at this point." I whined, on the hood of my car. Pietro was off running around the area and I tried to localize Wanda.
She was a fucking ghost at this point.
I picked up my phone when it rang.
"Hey Peter, what's up?"
"I need advice."
"Sure, if it's in my abilities."
"I just want to know what's good in London. I have a school trip in Europe to 'forget an alien tried to wipe out half the population'. And Mister Stark gave me glasses too, it's...weird."
"Any basic touristic places are good, at least do them once, then…"
I didn't have much recommendation in London, but I had some. I gave them to him and hung up, crossing my legs on the hood of the car, sitting up. I cracked my neck and tried the localization spell once more.
Still nothing. When Pietro came back, I was standing on the roof of the car, my hands on my hips.
"What are you doing?"
"Hoping my genius will strike me suddenly." I jumped down. "But nothing. You?"
"Same."
"We...tried to call her, right?"
"Her phone's in her room."
"Anything Vision might have done when I was gone?" He stared at the ground for a few seconds.
"I just know he wanted to...be serious."
A pang of sadness hit me. I mean, at first, it was weird to see these two if I had to be honest. But somehow...it just seemed to work and be...normal? Logic?
I knew that Wanda was in pain and thought she was all alone now but...it wasn't the case. If only we could make her see that.
"Can't we hack into S.W.O.R.D?"
"We could, but then consequences. What rights do we have to hack into a governmental agency's servers?" He groaned, throwing his head back. "Yeah I know, being on the good side of the law sucks." I frowned. "Pietro, didn't you tell me you and Wanda had genetic oddities?"
"Yeah. Apparently it was the dormant mutant gene or something."
"Yeah, Sinister mentioned you two." Pietro went livid. "I may have a shot."
"Where?"
"We need to go back to the city."
This time I made a portal and I drove us from Florida to the Compound in the blink of an eye. We left it and I told Pietro to gear up, but lightly.
"The guy I'm thinking of is the one who found Remy before I went to Mutant Town. He can find any mutant, it's his mutant power. He usually uses it to sell us out."
"Your time with Aksel?" I nodded.
"I know where he was hiding in 2016. We're checking there first, then others places if we need."
I made another portal to where Wade and I went a few years ago. He no longer was there. I still went in the underground bar he used to have and scanned NYC. I could now.
I gulped when I realized he was in the sewer.
"I found him, you won't like it." Pietro frowned, crossing his arms. "The Morlocks' sewers."
"Son of a bitch."
If anything, the Mutant Massacre was an even worst memory for him than it was for me.
I sent us in front of the entrance of the sewer. I rubbed Pietro's arm in comfort as he released a shaky breath.
"You're gonna be okay?"
"Sure. Lead the way." I did.
I pushed back any memory I had of that damned night. Finding Caliban was pretty easy though, he had made like a small stand in a dead-end. He raised his head at us and immediately looked for a way out at my sight.
"What do you want this time?"
"Same thing, different person, same payment." He shot his hand a brief look, then me and my smile.
"Who?" he asked me, resigned.
"Wanda Maximoff." He did his thing without a word and I exchanged a look with Pietro. Caliban blinked in confusion.
"I can't find her."
"How so?" Pietro asked him quite rudely.
"Something's clouding her precise location." I gulped. "She's on the East Coast, it's all I can tell you."
"Thanks anyway." I read his mind.
He was confused as fuck, it was enough to be sure he wasn't lying.
We went back to the Compound, but I sent us in the training room. The punching-bag was destroyed quickly.
I had nothing to say really.
A few days went by with nothing. Thor came by and told Doc and I we were honorary Asgardians now. I was flattered, and well it wasn't as if I really was human anymore.
I...didn't really feel like one sometimes, and it scared me.
"Miss Carter, Doctor Selvig would like to talk to you in the research lab." I raised a brow.
I knew he worked there but I never really interacted with him. Apart from Tony, Doc and Hank, I never really interacted with the scientists around here.
Bad memories.
I went nonetheless.
"Doctor Selvig," I greeted him at the door. He was startled and jumped out of his seat before calming down when he saw me.
"Thanks for coming Miss Carter." I nodded. "It's...delicate. When we met in London with Jane, do you remember her intern Darcy?"
"Not really no."
"Well it's...nothing. It's just she called me asking for you and Pietro Maximoff." I frowned.
"Did she say why?"
"Not really, except it was in New Jersey and it was better if no one knew you were coming."
"Thanks." I left and went to find Pietro.
I had a bad feeling about this. Why would someone I probably just barely saw five years ago wanted me and Pietro in New Jersey of all places?
"Pietro!" I yelled from the top of my lungs.
"Damn, you've got lungs!" Sam exclaimed with wide eyes. They were chilling in the living area.
Pietro saw my face and stood up, leaving whatever he was watching on the TV. Steve exchanged a look with Nat, who shrugged.
We were off.
"New Jersey?" he repeated, confused.
"I don't know either Pietro, just that someone who got too close to a god and I never saw wants me and you there and that no one knows."
"F.R.I.D.A.Y, anything weird in New Jersey?" he asked the A.I.
"There is no news report regarding anything out of the ordinary in New Jersey, however the satellite view of a certain place might interest you."
"Show us." The screen of my GPS changed to show a picture. "Well, it looks the government is invested in that town.
"Those are S.W.O.R.D installations." Pietro groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Give us the coordinate please," he asked.
"Well, it can't be a coincidence, right?"
"I don't like where this is going Addison."
"Neither do I."
I told F.R.I.D.A.Y to lead us to somewhere safe nearby. Once out of the car, we walked through the bushes to see the view from the distance.
"It's quite a lot," I commented.
"Almost as if they were trying to contain something."
"Agree."
"Magic to get us inside?"
"No." He looked at me. "With the amount of people there must be scientists with equipment inside. Magic's good, but noticeable with the good things." I put my hand on his shoulder. "We're going full Black Widow." He groaned, annoyed.
Subtlety was not his forte.
"They can notice magic, but not mutant powers, right?" Pietro asked me quietly.
"Right my friend."
I localized Darcy easily, but she was surrounded by people.
"She's surrounded, let's check the area away from their eyes." Pietro nodded and grabbed me.
We were on the other side of the town in a few seconds. Pietro put me down and we looked at each other with a frown on our faces.
There was...something. We walked closer to the town. It was like...a veil around it. I conjured some energy in the palm of my hand and ran it above the veil. It briefly turned red and I was thrown away.
"Addie!" A second later, Pietro was on the ground like me. "The fuck?"
"It's your sister." I sat up with a frown and looked around. "I understand why Darcy wanted us."
"What do you mean it's Wanda?"
"Her powers are surrounding the whole town." Pietro's face fell. "And it's magic, like actual magic."
"Like you?"
"No, it's not the same as me, or Stephen, it has another source but…" I got up. "I should have felt it. Hell, something this size should have been dealt with by Stephen already!"
"Then why is it still here?" I pursed my lips.
"My only guess is that...someone did feel it, then hid it." I took a deep breath. "We need to talk to Darcy. And quick."
Pietro looked one last time at the town, his lips pursed and worry written all over his face.
We waited until the night fell and I indicated Pietro the way, we stole two S.W.O.R.D coats and he led us to Darcy. She jumped when she saw us, spilling her coffee.
"When I finally got one!" she complained, staring at her spilled drink before looking at us with a glare. "You owe me a coffee."
"Deal." We removed our hoods.
"Yeah, I already figured it was you guys with the super speed." She looked around and gestured us to follow her. "Thanks for coming."
"Yeah, we would have came sooner but too many people," Pietro replied, looking around.
"What is Wanda doing to this town?" Darcy sat down and looked at us.
"So you know Wanda's there already, that's good."
"Earlier we checked the place out and were thrown back by the...magic veil around the town."
"It doesn't let a lot of people in," a male voice said in our back. I looked back, seeing an Asian cop with an African-American woman.
"Told you I had solid back-up," Darcy told them.
"Two Avengers, it's more risky than anything else," the woman replied, her arms crossed.
"It's also the best shot we have. I'm Jimmy Woo, nice to meet you." I nodded.
"Monica Rambeau."
"Nice to meet you, I'm…"
"We know who you are," Jimmy interrupted me with a sheepish smile. "I used to be in S.H.I.E.L.D before it fell, it is an honor to meet you."
"My mother worked with your father in the nineties," Monica added. I nodded.
"I hope I'll live up to the expectations then."
"What's going on?" Pietro asked, annoyed.
"You have information we want to know, and we may have some you'll want to know." Monica shut the...curtains.
"But first, let me ask you a question." We looked at Darcy. "How do you like your sitcoms?"
They explained everything to us, then showed us the episodes. It was disturbing to say the least. Wanda was...herself but also so out of the real world and...I mean, Vision?
It didn't make sense. Then there were the twins. Pietro was silent behind me, sitting on a metal box, shocked and just heartbroken. The thing was, Wanda was brought back to our world when Monica mentioned Pietro was in the Avengers.
"She mind controls everybody in this town," I whispered to myself.
"It's not just that. The twins are hers, not some kids from the neighborhood," Jimmy said. "And the clothes Monica was wearing have been...rewritten."
"It's like she's rewriting reality as soon as we enter the Hex."
"It is a good name!" Darcy exclaimed. "It's going to spread like wildfire, no need to thanks me. I have a question though, how come you didn't notice anything?"
"Well...I think someone did before we could and decided to hide it."
"Why would anyone hide something like that?"
"Wanda is using an insane amount of power," Monica pointed out with a frown. "The only reason someone would come and hide it would be because they'd...want this power."
"Yeah."
"...well it's even worst than just controlling everyone to create a sitcom," Darcy commented.
"So we have two problems then. One, stopping Wanda to keep the town under her control and two, keep whoever it is to steal her powers," Jimmy summed up.
"Can't you get inside Addie?" Pietro asked me. I pursed my lips.
"Wanda's grief is the source of the Hex, if I force my way in, it might just make things worse. She kinda thinks I'm responsible for Vision, remember? I don't think you're a better shot either, we're too close to her."
"I can get back inside." I frowned at Monica. "She let me in once, maybe I can do it again."
"So that your cells are entirely rewritten?" Darcy inquired with a pointed look. "It's crazy!"
"Your cells?" Monica nodded.
Her magic was…
Oh oh. I paled. If it was…
"Today's episode's starting!"
"People are coming. You won't see us, but we'll be there, don't hold back information." I grabbed Pietro and sent us in the Mirror Dimension.
"They were right there, right?" Darcy wondered out loud. "The energy reading spiked."
"We'll need to sabotage it so that they can act freely." Nice thinking Monica.
"Where are we?" Pietro asked me.
"Mirror Dimension. They can't see us, we can't interact with them." S.W.O.R.D agents walked right through us and the episode started.
"Why didn't you do that right away?"
"I...didn't think of it."
Wanda's neighbor was very annoying and...plain weird. The twins found a dog, then aged up. Ultimately, when they sent a drone, I had to keep Pietro from moving when the guy who apparently was the Boss told them to fire. Monica was sure the drone was unarmed, but it was.
"Come," I told Pietro and ran outside.
I got us out of the Mirror Dimension and used an Invisibility Spell instead. Slowly, Wanda came out of the Hex, the veil turning red around her. She threw the broken drone at the agents, then turned all the guns to the Boss before going back inside, telling them to not enter her home.
"That's not...she's…"
"She looks like when you guys wanted to kill us," I whispered to Pietro. He gulped and looked down. "It doesn't mean she's too far gone. Maybe she's aware of what she does and not what it entirely does to the others."
"You think?"
"I'd like to think she wouldn't actively try to hurt thousands of people, wouldn't you agree?" He nodded slowly.
The Hex turned red and I sent us back inside the Mirror Dimension to watch the end of the broadcast, see how Wanda would reintegrate it.
"Not the dog!" I whined as Agnes had the dog's body in her arms.
"She's weird," Pietro said. "She's always there and just...I don't know."
"I agree."
Vision and Wanda started to fight and credits rolled, but they kept going.
"It's not Vision. I mean, he has the Mind Stone, but Thor left Earth with it to hide it in space."
"What is it then?"
"I...think I have an answer but I'd rather be wro…" I stopped when a guy with silver hair was showed from behind. Pietro narrowed his eyes and moved closer to the screen, like Darcy who came back to get something.
It was revealed to be a man I…
Wait.
"Isn't he the mutant with super-speed from the seventies?" Pietro asked me.
"Yes…"
"She recast Pietro!?" Darcy almost yelled.
"Yeah, same!" Pietro exclaimed, even if Darcy couldn't hear him.
"Unconsciously maybe she…" I pursed my lips at Pietro's glare.
I grabbed his hand and moved everything around us to get to my car quicker. We landed next to it in our dimension. Pietro leaned on it.
"It's trippy."
"The first times, yeah." I conjured The Book of the Vishanti.
I flipped through the pages frantically and gulped when I found what I was looking for. I paled, which Pietro noticed.
"Addie?"
"Wanda...her twins, it's...it's spontaneous creations. Everything requires a huge amount of power, right?" He nodded. "It's Chaos Magic."
"Doesn't sound like the kind of magic that's safe to use." I shook my head.
"It's extremely powerful, and extremely rare. I mean, this book doesn't talk a lot about it, only its origins and what it can do, but there's a book that…"
"Go get it then."
"The Darkhold has been lost a long time ago but…well, Wanda's famous."
"Why?"
"Because the one using Chaos Magic is, from the myth...going to destroy the world." He blinked taken back. "Wanda's the Scarlet Witch, and this whole thing just took a very, very dark turn. Someone in there knows about it and wants it for themselves, but it's Chaos Magic, it won't let any of us in."
"...should we call the team?" I shook my head.
"No, they're useless."
"Strange?" I pursed my lips.
"We could, but I'm not sure what his solution would be."
"We're on our own then."
"And Darcy, Monica and Jimmy, they're the only ones who seem to actually care." I gulped. "Germany was way easier." He nodded.
Okay.
How were we going to deal with the potentially most powerful magical being in the world, or universe maybe?
Thank you all for reading!
Bye!
