THE MANSION AND THE FIRE
CHAPTER 3: THE MANSION AND THE FIRE
Steve, Sam, Vision, Natasha and Wanda were on the ship that rescued them and didn't know anything about the people in it. It had been barely five minutes since they had left the scene. The avengers and the young ones called Yukio, Luke and Ralf were all in the largest part of the ship. The two young boys had gone to play videos games a few feet away from the rest of them. Wanda was sat, a little pale, with Natasha's hand putting pressure on her wound. That's when the fire girl who had saved their lives appeared. She got on her knees in front of Wanda and looked at Natasha.
“I need you to remove your hand from the wound so I can have a look at how deep it is.” She said, firmly yet not threatening.
“You didn't seem to care about how deep it was five minutes ago.” Natasha couldn't stop herself even if she wanted to. That girl didn't seem to care about anything but Yukio's safety when she arrived at the scene. She would have let Wanda bleed to death if it wasn't for Yukio and the fight threatening to start again. So of course she was mad.
Ellie looked right at her and said emotionless.
“I still don't. But you're on my ship now and even if I don't like it, Colossus wouldn't be happy if I let one of you die on my watch and on my ship so looks like we're stuck with one another.”
Natasha wasn't too pleased with that but for Wanda's sake she removed her hand and the younger girl took a closer look at the wound.
“You have lost a lot of blood, you'll need a few stitches and rest but it doesn't seem like something vital was hit. Keep pressure on it we'll be there soon.”
That's when Sam spoke up.
“So not to be rude or anything, but where is there exactly and who are you people?”
“ I'm Yukio.” Answered the girl with pink hair. “Those two are Luke and Ralf and this one over here...” She said looking at the girl that clearly didn't want to be here.
“I'm Negasonic teenage warhead.” She said as if that was enough of an explanation.
Yukio rolled her eyes at that and said “And we're taking you to the X-Mansion, a place for mutant kids and Colossus, our leader, will know what to do with the whole situation.”
“You mean what to do with us.” Wanda said weakly.
“I mean how to help you.” She said with an honest smile on her face
“We're here.” And that's the last thing the girl in her yellow uniform said before the ship landed.
And then, they all looked at their windows and that's when they saw it. A huge mansion with trees all around and sports fields. It was impressive and beautiful. A mix of colours and times as if it had always been there yet looked brand new. They could all see the sign School for gifted youngsters.
Luke and Ralf jumped out of the ship and went back to whatever they were obviously doing before going to the wagon. The Avengers were left with the two younger girls that led them inside of the mansion. After a few hallways and stairs, they ended up in what appeared to be a large living room with a long table. Yukio sat and motioned for them to do the same. The other girl left for a minute and they were all left in silence. She came back with a tall metallic man. At that, all of the Avengers but Wanda and Natasha that had her hand still pressuring Wanda's shoulder, got on their feet.
“Hello.” said the man in a calm and almost soothing voice. “You can sit down if you want. My name is Colossus and I have been told what happened. I want to start by thanking you for coming to the kids' rescue. Of course, your friend will be taken care of. Ellie, could you go and take care of her in the lab?”
At that, the girl with short black hair looked at him annoyed. “Seriously ?!” He looked at her pointedly and she sighed.
“Fine.” She went closer to the girl, put her hand instead of Natasha's on her shoulder to maintain pressure and exited the room with Wanda. The rest of the Avengers were left with Colossus and Yukio clearly not happy with Wanda being left alone without one of them. Yet, there was nothing they could do at the moment and they felt confident enough that if something were to happen, they could handle it.
Colossus seemed to sense their doubt.
“Don't worry. Ellie is a little complicated but she will take care of your friend.” He said with kind eyes and a kind smile. They still weren't that used to the whole full metal guy thing yet but he seemed honest.“Of course, having compromised your cover to help my students, the least I can do is welcome you here. A room is being prepared for each of you as we speak. You are guests here, not prisoners, you are free to leave when you please. Breakfast will be ready and served here tomorrow morning at eight. You'll find everything you need in your rooms and if you need anything come to me or Yukio.”
At that the girl got up with a wild smile “C'mon I'll show you to your rooms. I can't believe the Avengers are staying with us!” She said clapping her hands and excitement evident in her voice. So they followed her, deciding that they didn't really have a choice right now. It was a strange thing but, they felt kind of safe within these walls.
Wanda and Ellie arrived at the lab.
“Lay down.”
So Wanda did. Ellie went to get a few items she would need to fix the girl up and returned less than a minute after.
“Take off your jacket and top please.” At that Wanda looked quite uncomfortable. Of course Ellie saw it.
“What, are you hurt somewhere else?”
“No, no, I'm fine.”
“Don't take it the wrong way but you don't look fine.”
“I thought you didn't care about anything.” Wanda said a little harder than she intended. Ellie's jaw tightened.
“You're right, I don't. But I still need you to take your jacket and top off. ”
So Wanda did, not without feeling pain though. Then, Ellie started cleaning the wound to stitch her up and they were left in silence. Wanda spoke up first after 10 minutes.
“I'm sorry.”
Ellie looked up at her.
“That's alright. I guessed I deserved that.”
“You kind of did.” Wanda said with a small smile and playful tone. That accent of hers was quite interesting Ellie thought.
“Whatever.” Ellie answered laughing a bit. “Okay, you're all done for today but I'll have to keep an eye on the stitches for a few days. I'll walk you to your room.”
So Ellie did as she said and left Wanda in front of her door.
“Okay, gotta go, Colossus probably found something else to piss me off.” Then Ellie went to leave and Wanda called after her.
“Hey, Ellie right?” Ellie turned and nodded. “Thank you.” Ellie gave her a quick smile and left. With that, Wanda went inside her room and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.
The next morning, at seven thirty sharp a bell started ringing in the whole mansion. The Avengers woke up and were on their feet in barely ten seconds, they left their respective rooms and when they heard people talking around the mansion they remembered,“School for gifted youngsters”, of course this place had an old bell ringing, it was a school after all. The Avengers looked at one another and Steve smiled.
“Guess we're all a bit on edge.” and he chuckled a bit, the others doing the same.
Then he noticed Wanda standing against the wall next to her room.
“Wanda, how is your shoulder?” and everyone turned to face the girl.
“Better now but I need to have it checked everyday for the next few days.”
Then Sam spoke up.
“Yeah makes sense, we used to have a lot of injuries like this when I was still in the military but it'll be fine, you're already looking a lot better.” He said, a genuine smile on his face.
“Thanks.” she said smiling too.
Then, suddenly, Yukio appeared from around the corner leading to their corridor.
“Morning!” she said beaming.
“Breakfast is served at eight in the living room if you're hungry which you must be after rescuing us and all.” she said smiling like this was the best day of her life. “I mean, rescued by the Avengers, who gets to say that.”
Natasha spoke up at that moment.
“Hopefully no-one if we expect to keep a low profile for as long as we're here.”
“Right, of course no worries, you'll be fine here, no-one knows about the location of this place, your friend won't find you here.” She said still with that smile. This girl was definitely happy, none of them had the heart to tell her how much friend was a misuse of the word right now so they all smiled at her.
“We'll be there.” Steve said “And definitely hungry.” This man's smile was really contagious.
Yukio left and went back to the living room.
“Okay guys, looks like we have twenty minutes to get ready, see you then.” Sam said, cheerful at the idea of breakfast being soon.
And they all went back to their rooms to get ready. Once they were, meaning fifteen minutes later, they went to the living room and saw that indeed, breakfast was being served. The table was so long that many different types of food were easily put all over it with plates in front of every chair. Honestly after the months they just had, the smell alone was enough to make them happy.
They all sat down at the table a couple of kids they recognized from the night before arrived, Luke and Ralf if they remembered right and of course Yukio was already waiting for them at the table. No sign of the black haired woman from last night Wanda thought. They were starting eating when they heard a sound that was way too familiar to them: An explosion. The Avengers were getting ready to fight when Colossus arrived and told them it was okay and there was nothing to worry about.
Wanda couldn't believe it, what did he mean nothing to worry about, it was a fucking explosion!
“Nothing to worry about?” she said in disbelief “This was an explosion!” She said, trying to keep her cool but clearly she wasn't the biggest fan of explosions with everything she had to witness growing up.
A man with what looked like a burned face walked in with no arms and Colossus looked at him and sighed when the man spoke.
“Hey guys, guess what, No chocolate for me this morning...Get it? No arms, no chocolate.” And he started laughing “French movie anyone? Arggg, how can I live with people like you?” He said with his smile vanishing. Then his arms started growing again, slowly. It wasn't the most obvious thing in the world but they saw it. The Avengers saw it.
“What the hell is happening?” This time it was Natasha loosing her cool.
Ellie walked in.
“He was talking too much, too bad I only got the arms. I swear to you Wade next time I'll blow your face off” She said both looking and sounding irritated.
“Is that a promise?” He asked with a playful smile on his lips.
Ellie's eyes turned orange and she looked at him with a threatening look. That's when Colossus decided to intervene.
“Stop this right now. Wade, leave her alone and Ellie it is time for breakfast and if you have broken something in that explosion you will pay for it yourself” He told her, leaving no room for debate.
She looked ready to argue but decided against it probably realizing blowing up something wasn't leaving her much room to do that. She sat at the table and Wade left to do only Wade knows what.
Everyone sat back around the table but Wanda, she couldn't keep her eyes off Ellie's orange ones and didn't realize that hers had switched to bright red the instant she saw Ellie's eyes turn.