Help
They had found the man's family. They were in their home, afraid to leave. His wife was dazed, seeming confused, but alive, and his teenage son seemed alright aside from being afraid. Steve and Natasha helped get them out of the city. Other people were talking about the same thing. The girl from the city who came down from the castle just before nightfall and chaos seemed to follow in her wake. The team was trying to get all the people out of the city while trying to figure out where this girl everyone spoke of had gone. None of them had laid eyes on her yet, despite Tony, Rhodey, and even Sam coming along and taking to the air to get a better view, plus Clint wandering through every nook, cranny, and perch while Steve, Natasha, Maria, and several of the Tower's trusted security crew combed the streets. Banner had been left at the Tower, since he felt uneasy about the possibility of an uncontrollable Hulk-out given his feelings at Halloween, even though they weren't sure this was actually the same thing. But it worked out since they needed someone at the Tower to respond to any issues Bucky might have. Plus, Bruce seemed to be on the line daily now with Erik and Jane discussing what they were finding.
Steve and Natasha had spread out a bit, everyone had radio contact as they searched. He could hear shifts in the sounds around him and that shift was itself moving. Steve followed it until he spotted a girl giving off a red glow as people she encountered fled from her if they could or were hit with a sort of red smoke trail after which they appeared dazed and confused stumbling off or even simply dropping to sit on the ground. Steve paused to check one of the people on the ground, like the man’s wife, dazed though this one seemed oblivious to Steve’s presence maybe because they had just been hit.
“Steve, I have eyes on her she’s coming towards me.” Natasha’s voice came through the coms channel.
“I see her too, I’m behind her, at the southwest corner of the city plaza.” Steve scanned the area for Natasha’s position.
They spotted each other and moved in. Natasha was spotted right away and hit with a red glow that knocked her back and she was slow to move. Steve got closer when the girl turned and he caught eye contact as he was about to strike. He was knocked across the plaza but didn’t feel dazed. Standing back up he saw the girl continuing away down one of the streets and a young man with white hair staring at him.
“Why are you here, Captain America?” The young man's face read uncertainty.
“Thanks for knocking me out of the way of whatever that energy is. We're here to try to help. We heard something strange was happening here.” Steve's gaze moved around, scanning the plaza, keeping tabs on Natasha as she moved slowly and somewhat haphazardly. He'd have gone over to her by now, but something told him, a gut instinct perhaps, that this young man was someone he wanted to talk to further. That it might help their cause.
“A few days ago I would have taken you for the enemy, but I’m not sure of anything now.” He, too, scanned the plaza, seeming to take stock of the state of the people around them. He shook his head a little and Steve could tell there was a part of him that still felt hesitant.
So, Steve hoped to show this kid that they really did want to help. “Do you know what happened here? Or who the girl is?”
"She's not herself." He shook his head looking off beyond Steve with an expression that, to Steve, appeared to be holding back tears.
“A local man said she came from the castle, but that she was from the city before she joined with a group based in the castle.” Steve saw Maria enter the plaza and nodded towards Natasha’s position.
"We thought they were helping us. We thought they wanted to help Sokovia. So we signed up to help, to have them test some formula to enhance us. I think we were the only ones to survive the tests. And when my sister started acting strangely a couple of weeks ago, I began to see they were never on our side. They were only using us for their own purposes and they have been manipulating Sokovia and its people for longer than I've been alive. And maybe the things they have been feeding the people about the outside world is not the truth. Just like when Sokovia was under the Communist regime for all those years. People only know as much as was allowed in. I don't know if they did something else to my sister recently. I didn't notice them doing any tests on her. But she is not herself. It is like something has possessed her. I can always feel her, but I don't so much now. Only a little, it is very faint." His fists clenched and released several times as he spoke and shifted his weight. His voice was low and laced with a multitude of emotions.
“She’s your sister? Is it Hydra in the castle?” Steve looked toward the castle on the hill, hoping for some kind of breakthrough in this mess they were in.
“I don’t know who they really are. She is my sister. Her name is Wanda. I’m Pietro. Can you really help us? Help her?” Pietro grabbed Steve’s arm a moment, without seeming to think about the action, then pulled it away even quicker.
“I’m Steve. We want to help, there are strange things happening all over.” Steve tried for a reassuring smile, though he wasn’t sure he quite hit the mark. He hoped to find out if this was connected to what happened at Halloween, but it was possibly not, maybe just Hydra seeing an opening to create their own disaster. “What can you tell me about your sister that might help us stop and help her? You have speed, what abilities are what she gained from the experiments and what is unusual from the past couple of weeks?”
“I’m not sure what I can tell you that is useful. The powers are hers from the experiments but she’s never used them like this before. They are more advanced than before. She can move things with her mind, read feelings and sometimes thoughts, mine anyway. She said a month ago that she was finding how to mess with the mind of others. They had her practicing that. But she had trouble reading those in charge of us. They had some kind of mental block protection. They said it was for everyone’s safety while she learned her abilities, I have my doubts now.” Pietro appeared troubled as he spoke. Steve wondered if the young man was blaming himself for what was happening to his sister.
“She sounds very powerful. Do you have any ideas on how to approach her?”
“She hasn’t messed with my mind when I’ve tried to get to her, but she does knock me away. I keep hoping that means she has some kind of control still or something. I’m not sure how to stop her, but I have to help her. I need to save her.” Pietro looked toward the street Wanda had disappeared down.
"Let us regroup a little and we'll do whatever we can to help you and your sister." Steve spoke with Captain America level confidence as best as he could at the moment and got a cautious nod from Pietro.