Mercury // S. Rogers (Book Six) ✔

You Didn't Think to Watch the Commercials?!

The Avengers all stand around in shock as they stare at the picture of Vision. Freya's face scrunches up in clear emotional distress at the confusing situation.

"What is this? How did you get this picture?" she asks Jimmy and Darcy shakily.

"Well, we took it as a still frame," Jimmy frowns. He gestures for them to follow and leads them to Darcy's workspace around the corner.

Freya gasps when she sees an old box television set playing a black and white show starring Wanda and Vision. She glances at Darcy, who nods and pulls a chair out for her. Freya slowly sits down and attempts to process what's going on. The three men that accompany her are all frozen in shock while they watch the T.V. The bustle of people around the workspace finally makes Freya look up. She sees handfuls of people running around with paperwork in their hands. Some have pictures and copies of drivers licenses. Others have data they've gathered from the anomaly so far.

"Can anyone please attempt to explain what's going on?" Freya requests quietly. Jimmy nervously nudges Darcy, who shrugs and steps forward.

"Well, S.W.O.R.D. called me out here and requested an assessment of the anomaly. My equipment picked up an insane amount of CMBR."

"We did as well," Freya nods.

"There was a broadcast frequency entangled in it too, but we weren't able to make sense of it," Sam adds.

"That was my next step. I found an old physio-scope and picked up the sitcom with Wanda and Vision. So I had Hayward's goons grab me an old television set and voilà," Darcy gestures to the T.V.

"We've been studying the episodes that have aired so far to see if we can figure out what's going on," Jimmy nods.

"Well, part of it is definitely Wanda, I can tell you that. The energy feels like hers. But, what I don't understand is that there seems to be another presence here," Freya furrows her eyebrows and looks in the direction of the anomaly. "Aside from the other signature, which I now know to be Vision, there's something else here. But I can't get a read on it for some reason."

"Does that mean there's another party in play?" Steve asks.

"I'm not sure," Freya shakes her head. She sighs and looks around at the T.V. sets scattered around the tables. "We should start scanning over the episodes too to see if we can help." Her team nods in response and everyone grabs a seat around a television set.

While they watch the first episode, Freya can't help but smile at how happy Wanda and Vision look. She definitely didn't miss the reference to Vision's indestructible head. Which made her squirm uncomfortably in her seat. Steve had patted her leg, sharing in her unease. The neighbor, Agnes, seems a bit off though. Of course she has to be the typical pushy, nosy neighbor, but there's something that stirs in Freya's stomach when she looks at her. When the commercial rolls around, Darcy moves to fast forward through it.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Freya asks.

"It's a commercial, I'm gonna fast forward," Darcy replies in a "duh" tone.

"You're watching a fake sitcom starring two Avengers, one of which is supposed to be dead, while it's being broadcasted from an anomaly that has swallowed an entire town and you didn't think to watch the commercials?!" Freya snaps.

"That's a really good point," Darcy replies, letting Freya's annoyed tone roll off her back. Knowing she doesn't mean it.

Freya sighs and waits for Darcy to start the commercial over. When she does, Freya tilts her head in confusion. It's a commercial about a toaster.

"Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?"

"Seriously?" Sam asks.

"What the hell?" Bucky mumbles.