Chapter 1
A little boy ran down a narrow street, ignoring the mud that splashed over his nice black pants. He didn't even know why he was running, just that his twin sister had looked panicked when she told him to run. This was nothing new though, as the twins got into trouble practically every other day. He skidded to a stop using his heels as brakes when he heard the familiar shriek of his sister in trouble. He spun on his heels in one fluid motion to see Wanda, struggling to twist her arm out of the grip of their school teacher.
“Come back Pietro.” The teacher said sternly.
“Let go of my sister, you're hurting her!” He shouted, arms crossed. The teacher loosened her grip but didn't let go. Wanda kept squirming.
“What did she do?” He asked, taking a careful step forward. This was one of their nicer teachers, so getting her mad must mean something was up.
“She punched another student.” The teacher said reasonably.
Pietro moved closer and shifted his gaze to Wanda. “Why?”
“He-he said you were stupid.” She sniffed. “He said we didn't deserve to be there.”
The teacher looked down at Wanda sympathetically. “I'm sorry dear, we will punish the boy, but you still shouldn't punch others. Now please come back, you have to be responsible.”
Pietro nodded, stepping up and grabbing his sister by the hand. “Okay, we know.” The twins returned to school, and walked home muttering together about what had happened.
Dinner was quiet. Their parents had scolded them but understood their reasoning and told the twins they truly did love them, and they wanted them to succeed but also to be happy and that they could change schools if they wanted. That had Wanda and Pietro lost in quiet thoughts, that was, until the first bomb went off.
They heard the explosion and the screaming from below them, and immediately shoved up and out of their chairs, just before the floor began to crack. Their father shoved the twins toward their mother, who locked her hands around theirs, and they watched their father get swallowed into the rising cloud of dust. He didn't scream, just smiled sadly at his children and breathed a sharp gasp as he fell. Wanda and Pietro cried, but their mother froze, mouth open but no screams escaping from it.
The twins tugged her hands toward the door, but she sat there, the shock overtaking her. When the floor cracked underneath their mother, her silence broke with it. She screamed as she fell, though she did think to let go of the twins’ hands.
Tears streamed down the twins’ faces, but numb over the ringing in his ears, survival instincts took over Pietro. He ran, tugging Wanda with him. The way to the door was blocked, so he turned off to get into their bedroom, where he curled up, shaking, under the bed. And that's when he saw it, the final bomb. Pietro’s breath hitched, but he knew he couldn't scream. He knew Wanda had seen it, as she shook in her place curled up against him. But he knew he needed to protect her, so he laid there, protecting her, quietly humming a lullaby, and watched the bomb, and the bold white Stark emblazoned on its side. As the darkness set in, Pietro hoped against hope that someone could save them from this horror.
…
Nine years later, and Pietro Maximoff still had nightmares about that day, the day he lost everything. But this, he thought, looking at the crumpled poster he had found on the street, this could keep it from ever happening again. To anyone. Not just him. He read it over again.
Do you want to help your country? This is how. Sign up for the DEEP - Detached Experimental Enhancement Program. Registration forms can be found at any local bookstore or at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility near you. Sign up today!
Folding up the paper and shoving it into his back pocket, Pietro continued on his way home.
Pietro took the stairs two at a time as soon as he got back to their apartment and flung open the door cheerfully.
“Wanda! You must see this!” he shouted without realizing his sister was only two feet away from him, now plugging her ears in annoyance.
“I can hear you.” She said with a laugh, and Pietro laughed with her in surprise. “What must I see?” She continued.
“I found this flyer today, it says we can become enhanced, we'd be able to help people Wanda!” He explained with a smile.
She took the flyer from him and glanced over it quickly. “Sounds suspicious.” Wanda mused.
“It's from S.H.I.E.L.D, how suspicious can they be?” He answered jokingly.
“Very.” She replied bluntly, clearly not in the mood for humor.
Pietro raised a worried eyebrow. “Are you alright sister?”
“Just...thinking. About what mother and father would've thought of this.” She sighed.
He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “They would stand by our decision, but hope we would take the chance for the betterment of Sokovia.” he said, pulling from now distant memories of his parents for an explanation.
Wanda nodded. “I will pick up the forms. We will do the experiments.” she decided, and Pietro smiled, proud she stood by him.
A few weeks later, the twins heard a knock on their door. They both stood up immediately, as it was very rare they got visitors, as even salesmen didn't often come into this part of town. They carefully answered the door with intimidating stares, anxious at the sight of a S.H.I.E.L.D agent on their doorstep.
“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff?” He asked, as though he was unsure if he was in the right place. Wanda nodded carefully. The agent barrelled on. “You two have been selected for the Detached Experimental Enhancement Program. You will now be coming with me to begin the experiments. Please sign here.” The agent stuck a clipboard under their noses.
Pietro glared, and snatched it from him. He read over the page quickly and signed, as there was nothing on there not already covered by the information on the registration form. Wanda did the same, and they handed the clipboard back. “Let us grab our bags.” Wanda added. The agent gave a curt nod, and the twins rushed into the other room, where their pre-packed bags lay waiting, just in case they had been chosen.
“Are you ready brother? Everything may begin to change.” Wanda asked apprehensively.
“We will always have each other.” Pietro replied jokingly, and was happy that his sister smiled back. They followed the agent, leaving their life behind.
The car ride to the facility was practically silent, as the agent was serious and silent as he drove and the twins weren't sure what to say. They mostly just shared confused and awkward glances back and forth at each other, hoping to make sense of their situation, or at least give it some familiarity.
When they got to the facility, the agent told them the directions to the volunteers’ meeting room, and then practically disappeared. Pietro shot Wanda a confused look due to how awkward that had been, but she simply shrugged in return, and then turned toward the facility.
The twins took in everything as they walked through the dark and narrow halls. The light echo of their shoes tapping against concrete, the layers of dust from a facility overdue for a remodeling, and the air of caution surrounding the place were among the things the twins took in before reaching the meeting room. Wanda glanced at her brother and Pietro nodded, he was ready. She turned the handle and sucked in a breath as it opened with a light click.
What they found inside was a meeting room lit with bright fluorescent lighting, practically blinding in the first few seconds, and once their eyes adjusted, they found themselves faced with three confused and concerned faces.
“Who are you?” One boy, seemingly older than the other two, spoke up.
“My name is Pietro, this is Wanda, we are volunteers, like you, no?” Pietro explained carefully. He was relieved they weren’t the only ones, though it was odd.
Everyone in the room visibly relaxed at this. “Yeah, sorry, this place just gives us the creeps. My name is Hugo.” The same boy from earlier introduced.
Pietro smiled and nodded, and then Wanda spoke up. “Perhaps we should all introduce ourselves, feel more at home?” She offered. Everyone around the room nodded their approval.
Pietro and Wanda sat down at the round table, and Pietro began the introductions. “My name is Pietro Maximoff, I am nineteen years old, and I am here because I want to protect people.” He smiled slightly.
Wanda went next. “I am Wanda Maximoff, nineteen years old. Me and Pietro are twins, and I am here because I want to change the way people see me and others.”
“I am Hugo Harker, twenty two years old, and I am here because I want to find my sister again.” His dark blue eyes and strong demeanor looked close to a breaking point. Everyone gave him quiet words of encouragement at this.
“I’m Jean Nodsle, I’m seventeen years old, I came here because….” She trailed off, likely lost in her own mind. “I don’t really know why I came, just that it felt important.” She decided with a shrug, which bounced her bob of short black hair.
“Gabriel Dvorak, fourteen, my family needs the money.” The last muttered quietly, blond curls hiding his eyes. He bit his lip, as even he looked like he would prefer to be anywhere else in the world right now.
They heard the click of the door and all snapped back to attention, that quiet moment of connection dissipating in an instant. A man, tall, bald and with a stare that made them all anxious stepped into the room.
“I am Strucker, the man in charge of this facility. You will call me as such, as you must distance yourselves to have any chance of making it through these experiments. You were chosen because of your uncanny connections to the specific experiments we are hoping to accomplish. For the youngest of you, we aim to flow fire through your veins. For Jean we aim to alter your density and help you fly. For the twins, the male will earn speed beyond compare, and the female, the ability to use your mind as a shortcut. And for the oldest of you, we aim to alter your form to one of unimaginable power.”
Everyone glanced at each other, and Pietro quietly tried not to smile, as the excessive amount of crisp intensity that Strucker used as he spoke was too much for him to take seriously.
Several scientists followed Strucker into the room and walked over to the volunteers in question. Pietro narrowed his eyes at the scientists who came by his side.
“You will have a typical check-up today, so we can prepare everything for the experiments which will begin tomorrow, then we will let you go to your rooms.” Strucker explained before turning on his heel and heading out.
The check-up passed by in a blur, as the scientist was practically a robot, not speaking, and rather harsh and Pietro was just looking forward to talking with the other volunteers again.
When he reached the room the volunteers would be staying in, he found his bag already tossed onto a top bunk, with Wanda’s bag on the bunk below him. “Thank you sister.” He muttered cheerfully, as she knew his preference. Looking over, he found the four other volunteers in the other room, huddled together at a table. He headed in, raising a confused eyebrow.
Wanda turned her head up and looked at him. “Come quickly.” She said, waving him over.
Pietro rushed to join them, taking the last chair and biting the inside of his lip with worry. “What happened?”
“I have to get out of here.” Gabriel said, eyes red, face streaked with dry tears. Pietro looked to Wanda in confusion.
“His scientist explained the process he would go through and what would happen to him. It is outside his contract, highly dangerous and they won’t even pay him the money.” Hugo explained.
“We are getting you out.” Pietro said solemnly. “I said I was here to help others, so now I will help you.”
The five of them stayed up late into the night, talking in hushed Sokovian tones, sharing things they’d observed about the buildup of the facility, and all they ways they could get Gabe out of it. Despite the short amount of time that had spent with him, he had practically already become their brother, and this night, in which they never slept, just furthered that point, and by morning, though tired, they all had a plan. Observe everything they needed to know that day, and get Gabriel out at night.
Pietro had been the one instructed to watch the patrol patterns of the security guards. He tried to be as smooth about it as possible, acting as though he was just curious as he looked around and asked his scientist for the day various questions. This scientist, luckily, was friendly, and tried to answer all of his questions to the best of her ability, her ponytail bouncing cheerfully as she went through what the science was behind his experiment.
“We are going to speed up your body functions, which will in turn speed up your reactions and let you move super fast.” She explained carefully. When Pietro nodded, she got more specific. “We will focus on increasing your metabolism and thermal homeostasis.” She added. “That way your body can handle and will want to move at fast speeds.”
“So what will we do today?” He asked.
“Oh today is more prep, a few shots to get started, they will help increase your metabolism, but a lot of that you will have to do yourself. I’ll send you off with a couple of tea packets and then you have to exercise. We have to get you to reach your natural metabolism limit before we can do the rest.”
“That is in my control.” He said with a smile.
The scientist laughed. “You better get it done, or it’ll be on my hands.” She shook her head, and began to get to work. Pietro zoned out as she gave him shots, thinking about the plan. The security guards came in pairs, always ten minutes apart, but likely five during the night. They would need to be fast, and silent as everyone in this facility always seemed on edge, even the happy scientist working on him today had a hint of nervousness behind her smile.
Pietro flicked back into focus when he realized she had said something. “Sorry?”
“I said, we’re done, you can head to the gym now.” She restated. “It’s okay, I always distract myself when I got shots too.”
“Thank you.” He said with a nod, grabbing the tea packets she handed to him and sliding them into his pocket before heading for the gym.
Calling it a gym was a bit of a stretch as the place was extremely bare. Pietro shrugged, that was fine with him anyway as he much preferred simply running laps to any other exercise. He ran at a solid pace for about ten minutes before sprinting for five and doing the same over again on repeat. When Pietro ran, it was like the rest of the world disappeared, the only things he could sense were the sound of his feet hitting the ground, the taste of the cold air on his tongue, and the feeling of the wind flowing past him and through his hair. Pietro continued like this for at least an hour.
He only stopped when he heard someone calling his name. As he slowed to a stop, reality rushed back in around him. Pietro suddenly realized how exhausted he was, but he turned towards the voice to find Hugo waving at him. “Dinner!” He called, and Pietro nodded, panting as he jogged over to the other boy.
“Sorry.” He apologized with a weak smile. “You wait long?” His English was broken, but Pietro felt like it was safer to use it in the facility.
“No. Water?” Hugo replied in his own broken English, holding out a water bottle for Pietro to take.
“Thanks.” He smiled gratefully, taking a giant gulp of water gratefully.
“Slow down.” Hugo laughed, and Pietro laughed with him, as well as taking his advice. He got the hiccups anyway, and purposefully over exaggerated them, bouncing with each hiccup.
When they got to the dining hall, Strucker was waiting for them. “I need to have a word with the volunteers.”
“I can say what you need.” Hugo said with a frown.
“Fine. No more Sokovian. I understand it is a sense of familiarity but you need to learn English, just as many of us have.” He replied, glaring at the pair of them.
“Understood.” Hugo said, and grabbed Pietro by the hand, pulling him along as they got the food they needed and returned to the volunteers room in silence.
When they got there, Gabe was waiting, and he smiled cheerfully as they came in. “Welcome back! Jean and Wanda started to get everything ready to cook.”
“We need to talk. Pietro has heard, he can cook.” Hugo said with a frown.
“Why are you speaking English, it is just us.” Gabe replied with confusion. Hugo shook his head, and went into the other room.
Pietro made his way to the kitchen with their bags of food, and told Wanda and Jean that Hugo needed to talk to them. As he cooked, he heard Wanda shout angrily, and heard her fist hit the table with a clatter and crash as the silverware shook with the vibrations. He heard Jean begin to cry, as she didn’t even understand English. He decided to take his time in the kitchen, and console his sister when calmed down from her rage.
Thanks to Wanda and Jean, water was already boiling, and he simply cooked the noodles and mixed up some sauce. As plain as it was, at least they had food. He served them their food and took his own seat quietly, as Wanda was still streaming curses in violent Sokovian.
“Sister.” He muttered sternly. She turned to look at him, rage burning in her eyes, silent now. “He is young.” He reminded, nodding at Gabe. She sighed in annoyance. “Please just listen for now. When it is over, we will scream Sokovian.” He promised.
Wanda shook her head, but finally calmed. “Strucker treats us like fools.” She mumbled, before going fully silent over her meal.
Pietro glanced over at Jean, who was wiping the tears from her eyes. Hugo was comforting her, telling her they would teach her English every day. She wiped her eyes determinedly and smiled.
Gabe spoke up suddenly. “Fire in my soul.” He muttered. The plan was in motion.
Pietro turned to the clock. “Seven.” He said decidedly.
Wanda got up next, and cleared the table. Jean went into the front room and began making everyone’s beds, and Hugo took Gabe aside to talk to him. Pietro stayed where he was, pulling out a pad and pencil and beginning to draw.
Throughout the next two hours they went about the most mundane things, while sneaking each other the pieces they needed for their escape. Pietro did a quick doodle of the guards loop and the most unguarded spot, and handed it to his sister as she passed him. She dropped it for Jean to find and slip under Hugo’s pillow. He would hide it between the pages of his book and look it over as he read. Wanda used subtle hand signals to tell Pietro what he would need to do to get them out of the room in the first place and soon everyone was prepared.
The clock struck nine. Pietro stood up and began to stumble. Wanda wandered in, but rushed over when she saw him. “Brother?” She asked worriedly. “Are you alright?”
Internally, Pietro was beaming, his sister had a talent for acting. Externally though, he shook his head weakly, and she put her arm around him as support.
She opened the door and was faced by a confused security guard. “I’m sorry, volunteers aren’t supposed to be out at this hour.” He said it sternly, but there was a kind edge to his words.
“Do you see my brother? He is not well.” Wanda snapped.
The security guard nodded. “Right, so sorry. I will take him to facility nurse.”
“I am coming. He is my brother.” Wanda insisted, and the guard sighed, but nodded. The three of them headed off, and Pietro smiled as he saw Hugo and Gabe sneak out and around the corner before a replacement guard could arrive.
Later, Pietro would hear about everything that he missed. Jean told them that the next security guard had stuck his head in the door and asked her something. She hadn’t understood but assumed he meant how everything was. She told them she angrily shushed him, and he closed the door with some confusion.
Hugo would later tell them the thrill and rush of adrenaline he felt racing through the halls with Gabe until they reached the open window. He would recount the heartfelt goodbye they shared, and the way he fooled a guard into thinking he was one of them, just closing the window from the draft.
They would never see Gabe again, but they all knew he had made it out safe, and likely returned to his family from the enraged speech Strucker gave to them the next day.
Pietro didn’t remember much, as it was all just useless noise to him, he wasn’t paying attention anyway. All he remembers is that Strucker said he knew they had helped Gabe escape, even if he didn’t know how, and he would punish them each individually. The experiments on Hugo would be stopped, and they would confine him to a room where he had to watch the other three go through the more painful experiments alone. Jean would be surrounded by scientists who didn’t speak Sokovian, and would be punished for uttering a word of it. The twins would be split from each other and put in isolated chambers while they continued their experiments.
He knew how awful Strucker was, but he had never been to a S.H.I.E.L.D facility before, so Pietro just assumed they must all be like this. He fought against them as they tore him away from his sister, but she looked him in the eyes, and her expression made Pietro stop struggling. She was right, they couldn’t struggle if they wanted to be reunited again. He went limp in the arms of the guards holding him, he wouldn’t struggle, but he wasn’t about to help them lock him up either.
The cell was small, soundproof and breaking at the seams. It’s old walls were cracked beyond compare, and the bed in the room took up at least a quarter of the space, despite it being sized for someone at least a foot shorter than Pietro. He narrowed his eyes when it clicked. They would’ve held Gabe here, if his fire burnt out of control. That made Pietro feel better, as at least he could take the younger boy’s place in this cell, which smelled of rot and was freezing cold. As he heard the click of the lock behind him, Pietro slumped down against the wall, lost in thought.
Pietro’s sense of time blurred. Every once in a while, a scientist would come in and poke and prod, and Pietro would zone out, trying not to worry about what they must be doing to Wanda. The pain got increasingly worse, and every day he would wake up with a burning in his chest that made him want to rip himself apart with a scream, or a headache that had him curled up on the floor lashing out in pain when the scientists came. Pietro tried to stay strong, for he knew Hugo was stuck watching them, and he didn’t want the other boy to worry for him. He also didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him broken. Pietro never wanted to show anyone his weaknesses, it made him vulnerable. So he held in the pain, bit back tears when he had to, and became a shell of his former self. He was no longer the cheerful boy who loved to run and draw. He was sarcastic, silent and proud. It went on like this for what must have been weeks until one day he went to sleep, and the morning when he woke up everything had changed.