Chapter 2
Wanda’s life wherever she was fell into a dark and hopeless routine. Everyday she would move through the day mindlessly as if she was nothing more than a robot programmed to do a repetitive task. In what she could only assume to be early in the morning, a soldier like the one that had ripped her from her home would wake her by banging on the glass that kept her locked in the dark empty cell and mock the captive while slipping a bowl of gruel through a little slot in the door. At first, she had fought and tried to escape but a shock that had knocked her out in excruciating pain had stopped her. Even now, the collar would crackle a bit as if to remind her that she was trapped.
The horror came by the afternoon or so she thought. The metal around her neck would grow warm (not enough to be painful but certainly enough to be uncomfortable) to announce her time with Dr. Zola. Two men would enter her room with one of them grabbing her so tight that their fingers left bruises while the other held a gun to her temple. They would escort her through the bleak metal tunnels until they got to the lab. The lab was not much different than her cell with it being looming and grim. The only difference was an examination table that sat underneath the only source of light as well as the table of various tools that would be used in that session.
“Hello, Vanda, it is nice to zee vu akain” the doctor would say with a smile that made Wanda’s skin crawl.
She would curl into herself as she was dragged to the table and pried apart by the soldiers to be strapped to the table. The cold metal would cause her muscles on her back to contract which would soon cramp the longer she stayed in the lab.
“What do you want?” she asked quietly, her tears falling from the corner of her eyes and dropping onto the steel.
After years, she and Pietro had picked up on English which was spoken surprisingly frequently.
“Zee vorld, Vanda, ve vant zee vorld und vu are koing to giffe it to us” Dr. Zola hummed carelessly.
Wanda heard the clanking of instruments as the man muddled through his assortment arranged on the table. Once he found what he was looking for, the clanking stopped and the room fell into deafening silence. Wanda braced herself as the sound of footsteps echoed through the musty room. The doctor’s shadow slowly crept towards the now teenager’s body before stopping when the darkness completely covered her body. A hand hovered over her body close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off him.
“Zuch ein fine sbecimen” he purred as he slowly removed the rags that the girl was wearing. “Zuch bover in ein Hunvorthy disguisding creature.”
Wanda shivered as she felt the man put an all too familiar band on her head. It squeezed her temple causing a throbbing in her skull. She tried her best to suppress her reactions but her body trembled with anxiety and anticipation. Some pads were stuck to her skin which flinched when it came in contact with the cold adhesives. Once Dr. Zola was satisfied, he left and moved to his computer.
A shock jolted through Wanda’s body forcing her to take a sharp breath. Another one came, this time more powerful than the previous one. Her muscles tensed from the simulation and her back arched till it ached but that did not stop the shocks from coming. As they got more intense Wanda’s breaths turned to tears. Just as she was about to blackout and fall into a blissful unconscious state, a roar storm within her began to form. It was a familiar yet unexplainable sensation. The feel of energy gathering in her core and demanding to get out like an overfill water balloon caused even more distress to her. The maelstrom within her got bigger and more turbulent before she felt it erupt out of her.
Pietro was sitting in his empty cell when he felt the foundation of the prison shake. He sped to the glass and pressed his ear against it in hopes to hear if his sister was alright. It had to be her, there was no explanation of what else it could be. He had rarely seen her since they were taken from their home but he knew that she was strong enough to do that.
However after a while he felt an odd feeling in his gut. The rumbling didn’t stop after a few seconds like it usually did but rather it seemed to have been getting bigger. Dust fell from the ceilings as Pietro slowly backed away from the glass covering his face with his arms. A gut wrenching shriek echoed from the distance before it abruptly stopped as did the tremors.
“Wanda!” Pietro screamed, running back to the glass and pounding on it till his fist bled. “Wanda!”
He kept banging on the glass trying to get to his sister but deep down he knew it was futile. Not even with his superspeed could he even make a crack. He was about to give up when the door slid open and the sound of a body being dropped.
“Wanda,” he whispered, speeding to her side.
Only when the experiment went wrong did their captures let them be together. Pietro gently cradled his sister in his arms and looked over her frail body. Even before, Wanda had been skinny from a mix of their poverty and her refusal to eat sometimes but in the facility she was emaciated with each of her bones clearly visible. There were no bruises or cuts on her body like there was on his except for an injection site on her neck that they no doubt used to stop her powers from bringing the whole place down. A mixture of pride and fury filled Pietro as he continued to do his best to make sure that Wanda was comfortable. He took off his practically shredded shirt and slipped it into his sister’s body. Even with his increased metabolism without proper sustenance to sustain him, Wanda practically swam in the clothing.
“Stand back, pig” a gruff voice demanded from the other side of Pietro’s cell door.
The silver haired twin obliged and moved as far away from the threshold as possible. The door opened and several men marched in creating a barricade in case he made a break for escape.
“I love you” Pietro whispered in Wanda’s ear before gently setting her down.
He stood up straight in front of the men allowing them to lock chains around his ankles and wrists before slowly shuffling out with them.
Dr. Zola was not nearly as fascinated with this mutant as he was with the other. The white haired one’s powers were pretty straightforward and did not hide an elusive secret like its contemporary. From the dozens of tests that he had performed, the doctor was confident enough to say that the subject possessed superspeed, an enhanced brain that processes information thousands of times faster than a normal human’s, atomic control over its body, and an increase metabolism which enabled them to control it in a way that they couldn’t with the other.
The guards locked Pietro in a room as they usually did. It was slightly larger than the cell and light with the industrial fluorescent lights. There was nothing on the dull concrete walls except for the one way mirror that showed himself glaring back at him with electric blue eyes.
Pietro walked up to the glass and examined his reflection. His eyes traced the maze of scars that coated his body before turning his attention to the monster that had kidnapped him and his sister who was undoubtedly behind the pane observing him. His white hair had gotten longer and his cheeks were more sunken in thought not to the extent that Wanda’s were. His “caretakers” had been instructed to feed him enough that his accelerated metabolism doesn’t kill him. Unlike his sister, not eating when given food was not an option.
“What do you want?” he growled.
There was no response but he wasn’t expecting one. Instead he continues to hold eye contact with his reflection.
Behind that glass, Dr. Zola pondered the mutant’s question. What did Baron Strucker want? What did he want? It had been decades since his last attempt at replicating the supersoldier serum and the death of Johann Schmidt at the hands of Captain America. His former collegue’s lab rat was back, plucked out of the ice and thawed out. The doctor had wanted to see if one of their agents could get a sample of the experiment’s blood but soon it became obsolete. The billionaire playboy son of the couple they had sent one of their assassins had built a suit that was one of the most advanced instruments of war. A god fell out of the sky able to summon storms and had the strength to move planets. One of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top scientists had the strength to move continents. The idea of an enhanced man seemed like child’s play. No, the doctor, Strucker, they wanted more. They needed more. They need more if they are going to even think of restoring their great nation and cure the world of the unworthy.
Bang! The mutant slammed its hand against the glass, the chains around its wrists scraping against the smooth service. The doctor backed away in shock as several guards rushed in to restrain the subject.
“Don’t hurt him” the doctor ordered, scurrying to intercom before any damage was done. “I need it undamaged.”
The guards slightly relaxed but kept a firm grip on the mutant. A snarl escaped from it as it tried to escape the grasp of the guards but was too weak to break free.
“Take him to the observatory” the doctor said, “The team should have finished preparing for today’s examination.”
As usual, Pietro was unceremoniously thrown into a metal table and the chains that restrained him were rearranged to attach to the table. Electrodes were placed across his bare chest and legs and he could feel as they tried to leech his energy. The doctor had been relentless in trying to harness the power that enabled Pietro’s hypersonic speed to no avail.
“You know” he muttered, watching as the doctor entered the room. “The definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different outcome.”
The doctor paid him no attention and began to fiddle with the machines.
“How many times do we have to go through this before you realize that you’ll never get my power?”
“It is zee Harrokance of your kind to zink zat vu haffe any bover” the doctor responded much to Pietro’s surprise. “Put neffer zee less I vill schow vu chust how vorthless vu or”
“Ha” Pietro snorted, “If I’m not mistaken, it’s you that doesn’t have any power. That’s why you need me and my sister, isn’t it? That’s why you take orders like a dog.”
Smack! Dr. Zola slapped Pietro across the face leaving an angry red handprint on his cheek. The coppery taste of blood filled the white-haired boy’s mouth but he just laughed through his red stained teeth. The doctor’s face was illuminated with fury and he hit him again.
“Zilence vu big”
“What are you going to do? Kill me? No, if that was an option you would have done that years ago. For all your talk, you certainly are nothing without me and Wanda. What’s your endgame? Mind control us or weaponize our abilities? Either way you're not getting that. No, it’s been what? Three, four years and what do you have to show for it, nothing. You weren’t even able to figure out the supersoldier serum, doc, what’s the chance you’ll figure out the secret to mutants?”
There was a pause which gave Pietro time to peer up at the doctor with a gloating look but to his amazement, Dr. Zola had a sinister half smile stretched across his face.
“Berhaps I don't need vu” he whispered, leaning down to Pietro’s ear. His hot breath nearly caused the captive to gag. “I haffe ein blan to get vat I vant und vu aren't necezary for me to Hachieffe zat.”
Pietro felt his heart drop.
“Vu zee, as vu know, your mutazions are genedic und zat's all I need to get vat I vant.”
“So that’s it? Your master plan is to clone us?”
“Not Hexacdually, I vas hobing to not haffe to rezort to zuch Hunsdaple science put zeeing zat mein rezearch is yet to yield any bromizing rezults it zeems to pe zee last logical zoluzion.”