A SPARK CAN EASILY TURN INTO A FIRE
CHAPTER 2: A SPARK CAN EASILY TURN INTO A FIRE
How the avengers ended up in a secret mansion which used to be a refuge for mutant kids is still a mystery to them at the moment.
Everything had started as usual today though. Wanda had trained, both with Nat and Steve in the morning, and they all had Natasha explaining to them how to adapt to their environment again in the afternoon. They were going for a movie night tonight like many nights lately, but the girls had decided to go for their walk a little sooner today so that they could enjoy the movie after clearing their heads. It was around seven, the city was alive yet too busy to pay attention to them. But even if people were paying attention, they probably wouldn't have recognized them anyway. It was fascinating how people just saw what they wanted to see.
The girls went to the wagon directly today. With as many people outside at this hour, even as preoccupied as they were, better keep a low profile and go where they were sure they wouldn't be noticed. Yet the air seemed different today, electric somehow and it seemed like everyone felt quite excited because of it. The girls sat not too close to draw attention but close enough so they would be able to figure out what was going on. A boy, around 18, with curly brown hair and eyes the same colour seemed ready to attack a young woman, in her early twenties Natasha guessed. They couldn't figure out why but the girl clearly had all eyes on her. She was pretty that's for sure. A young Japanese woman with long pink hair, a leather jacket and a short skirt as British schoolgirls would wear. But today it appeared that her beauty and style weren't the reason of her being suddenly the center of attention but the electricity around her body coming out of her fingers. The boy seemed hesitant, like he was considering his options.
Wanda felt different when watching the girl. She was using her powers, in public and no-one but the boy appeared particularly afraid. Even the boy looked more in thoughts than scared really. And then the girl smirked and sent just a little jolt of electricity at the boy's feet. The boy backed off and they started talking.
“ C'mon Yukio you can't just go all thunder mode on me...” The boy complained.
“ Why not, my job is to stop you from getting my team's flag after all. If you want it, come and take it.” And she still had her smirk on yet her tone was not threatening but playful.
And only now did the girls saw the blue flag behind the girl.
“ Okay so victory challenge it is then.” the boy said with amusement in his voice and mischief in his eyes. They really were playing Wanda and Natasha thought, but what with the powers?
“ A victory challenge has been asked.” One of the voice in the crowd stated, “ Yukio, will you accept the challenge?”
“ C'mon Ralf, is that even a question? It's on, show me what you've got Luke.” They both stared at each other, the biggest smiles forming on their respective lips, the crowd was cheering so loud. And then everything went south.
Sirens were screaming from the other side of the street and before they had time to register what was happening, two massive police officers, a man and a woman, were standing in front of the kids. The man spoke up first.
“ What are you kids doing? we heard complaints.”
Yukio spoke up at that moment. “ What complaints, there's no-one living around here, why are you guys really here?”
It was the woman's turn to speak up. “ You are mutants aren't you, you shouldn't be here, no-one wants you here, go back to where you came from.”
Yukio seemed to be used to this kind of situation. Both Natasha and Wanda noticed that. The pink-haired girl answered firmly yet trying to remain polite. “You may not like who we are but we have done nothing against the law here, perhaps you should be the ones leaving unless you really want to charge us with something.”
The woman seemed to tense at that and lost her cool “ Young lady, I don't NEED the law, no-one is here to rescue you, perhaps it's time you finally understand that your kind isn't welcome here.”
After that, three more police cars arrived and about fifteen cops got out, none looking like they wanted to talk this through. A fight based on hatred was about to start and the girls really needed to get out of there. At least that was Natasha's plan but when she grabbed Wanda's arm and told her they should be leaving now if they didn't want to be recognized, Natasha looked at her and her eyes were bright red. Of course she wouldn't just let the kids get brutalized by representatives of authority. Of course she wanted to help them. How could she not? She knew exactly how it felt to have such hatred directed towards you just because you're different. Just because you don't fit.
So, despite Natasha's warnings, as soon as the cops started punching the teenagers and locking them in a truck that had stayed put a little behind the police cars, Wanda flew herself in the middle of them all with her magic and stopped every officer that stood there. Natasha couldn't see how this would end well. One of the cops looked right at her.
“ Wait… I know you, you're that freak that blew up an entire floor of innocent people.” He said anger clearly showing in his voice.
Wanda hissed at that and that made him smile “nothing surprising for a monster like you, you should be locked up with the rest of your kind.” He added hoping it would hurt.
That was it, Wanda had been recognized. Natasha understood Wanda's urge to help the kids, she really did. But that only meant one thing: The Avengers had to leave New York, they couldn't stay here anymore and they wouldn't leave any of them behind. Having being compromised already, the Black Widow didn't see an interest in keeping a low profile anymore so she stood up, secretly gave a distress call thanks to the basic remotes each of them had in case situations like this happened, and went by Wanda's side. All the kids had their mouth agape. And so did the cops. Natasha decided to start talking in order to buy time for the others to arrive.
“Look asshole, you can be a trashy little piece of shit all you want in your life but not on my time and certainly not towards my friend here. I won't tolerate you acting in such a way towards those kids anymore either so either you back off, either you face the consequences.”
Everyone could see she meant it.
“The legendary Black Widow, I've heard so much about you and that pretty mouth you got there.” He said looking at her intently, his eyes showing exactly what he meant by that.
“Funny, I've never heard anything about you.” She said, clearly making the guy angry. Looks like he didn't like being called a nobody by the woman he so obviously thought he owned a minute ago.
“It looks like I'm gonna have to teach you some manners. Don't worry I'm not gonna kill you, it would be a waste of that body you have.” He smirked, clearly confident.
He obviously didn't know Natasha. She smirked too and waited for him to make the next move. He spoke up to his team.
“Kill them all but her, I want her alive.”
That was when the officers started attacking everyone. At first they were using sticks, they approached some of the kids but Wanda clearly wasn't going to let what had happened to her happen to those kids. Her eyes turned red again and she sent them flying across the place in a movement. Three officers went straight for Natasha. It was an easy fight really. The first one tried to grab her arm, she twisted his wrist, kicked his stomach and went to wrap her legs around his neck. He was on the floor unconscious a second later. The second and third one decided to attack as a team, both preparing their sticks. When the one behind tried to knock her unconscious, she moved on her feet, grabbed the stick, kicked him, threw the stick at the one arriving in front ending with him hitting his head on the wall, hard. The one who had just been kicked didn't even had time to process what was happening before she was behind him, an arm around his throat until he himself could only see black.
But now, there were ten men around the kids and the two ones Wanda had sent flying were back on their feet ready to attack again. Of course they could handle them but the priority was the kids. Then, one of the officers that was close to the kids shot in the air. Obviously they were done with sticks. But just as both girls were about to react, Yukio disarmed him and sent an impressive amount of electricity at four of them. Luke, the boy that had been playing with her at the beginning, followed her, started creating water between his hands and threw two of the officers against their cars. As for Ralf, he was up in the air and it was as if the wind was obeying his orders, the rest of the cops were now on the floor, fighting elements in vain.
They all thought it was over when they heard an alarm go off. Natasha and Wanda knew that alarm far too well. They had heard it many times since they were on the run. One of the officers had made a call to Tony and his new team. And of course he was already here, Tony's technology was the best after all. He was right in front of them, flying in his Iron Man suit.
“Natasha, Wanda, I'm going to need you to come with me now. If you don't come willingly, I'll have to use force.”
Of course they wouldn't follow him and he knew it. He barely waited thirty seconds before preparing his blast, Rhody and about five robots doing the same. And as he was about to fire at them, he got hit by a vibranium shield. He crashed. Steve had arrived and went to fight Tony, Sam went for Rhody and Vision, well Vision fought the robots. Wanda and Natasha ordered the kids to run. They all did after freeing the others. All but Yukio, Luke and Ralf. The robots Vision were fighting were now on several pieces on the floor. Rhody and Sam were still fighting. So were Steve and Tony. Natasha was about to go and help them when she heard a gunshot. One of the cops was on his feet and had fired at Wanda who was too focused on the fight to see him. She cried in pain but sent him face first on the front of a car. She fell on her knees and Natasha and the kids ran to her.
“I'm fine, it's just my shoulder Nat, we need to help the boys.”
“It's deep Wanda and it doesn't look good, It may have touched the brachial artery, I need you not to move right now okay?”
Yukio spoke up “Help is on its way. Thank you for helping us.”
Natasha smiled weakly at her but then asked “Wait, what do you mean help is on its way?”
And then a ship appeared right above their heads.
“That's what I meant.”
The ship was still above them and a door opened. A girl in a yellow uniform with an X written on it and a black cropped haircut appeared. She jumped from the ship and landed next to Yukio.
“What's the situation?” She asked only to Yukio.
“We were attacked by these police officers, the Avengers helped us and then Iron Man arrived with his team and attacked them. The Avengers, Ellie!”
“Yeah yeah great, are you okay?”
“Yes but...”
“Okay go inside the ship then.”
“Ellie we can't leave them here, She got shot trying to protect us.” Yukio said a bit loud and showed Wanda to her.
“What do you want me to do, they're not my problem.”
“Please, help them.” Yukio asked pleading.
“Fine, but you owe me one. Everyone just back off.”
So they all did. That's when fire seemed to charge itself at the girl's will. She let go and an explosion hit Tony and Rhody full force, they were sent on the other side of the street just by the impact of it. Steve ans Sam looked at the girl, surprise in their eyes and Vision looked at her as if trying to understand what had just happened.
“Happy? Now let's go.”
“We're taking them with us.”
“No, absolutely not.”
“Ellie, I'm not leaving them behind.” And you could see in Yukio's eyes that she meant it.
Then, some of the officers started waking up and sounds coming from the other side of the street could be heard.
“Whatever, you'll explain that to Colossus.” She turned to face the Avengers at that moment.
“Everyone in the ship now if you want to get out of here, I won't wait for anyone and those guys will be up and fighting in three minutes. Make your call.”
They all looked at Wanda who was loosing a lot of blood. They had no choice. They had to get on that ship if they wanted to help her and they couldn't do that if they kept on fighting. They looked at each other and Steve spoke up.
“We're coming.”
At that, the ship got close to the ground, everyone jumped in and Steve and Nat helped Wanda get inside. Then the doors shut just when they could see Tony arriving and the ship left full speed.