As The World Caves In

ch. 7

A few days later...

Raven and Wanda buried themselves with decrypting more of the blackbox, not wasting any more time.

"How long until the next percentage?" Raven asks, not taking her eyes off her computer screen.

"Fifteen minutes."

Wanda notices how the younger woman is trying to occupy herself these past couple of days to try to forget about her breakdown. She doesn't say anything but watches from a distance.

Tony and Bruce storm the room, putting a couple of documents in the middle of the table.

"We got intel on Kru, one of Tao's science lab." Tony starts. "SHIELD threw us a treat and gave the actual location of Kru's lab."

"Intel says that they are doing trials on STX 2.0." Bruce adds.

"It was a struggle trying to find its origin location but SHIELD cracked it down." Tony says. "They are located in Sacramento, California and they start trials first thing tomorrow."

"We stop the trials, we close them down, this is a great first step on taking Tao down." Bruce says. "We have to let him know that we are a threat."

"Taking down Lynx made a dent but it's not enough." Tony uttered. "They are still creating more of the pills and its new strand."

"So, you want me and Wanda to go to Sacramento tomorrow?"

"You're not going." Tony says sternly. "Bruce and Maximoff will be the one doing the mission."

"Why not?"

"I need you here to help me deactivate the pods scattered around the facility." Tony says.

"Pods?" Wanda asks.

"They're like booby traps but a lot more complicated and deadly."

Tony pulls up the blueprint of the facility, showing them the many pods scattered around the building.

"Each and one of them are different." Tony informs them. "Some are harmless and some are very lethal like for example; this pod."

Tony zooms in one of the pods, showing its power.

"If you trigger this one, it'll blow smoke that might seem like it's nothing but it's acid. It will burn your skin off and will kill you if not treated correctly."

"Mr. Stark not to be disrespectful but you have a highly intelligent computer and yourself to disable all those pods." Raven interjects. "I need to go with them."

"You are still healing." Tony insists. "You could get yourself killed."

"But—"

"Not buts, end of discussion." Tony raised his voice. "Bruce, you and Maximoff will leave at five-thirty in the morning tomorrow."

Tony leaves the room with Bruce, leaving Raven still furious at the fact that she will not be going.

"I shouldn't be stuck here doing admin work." Raven mumbled under breath. "I should be going out there with you guys."

Raven curls her hand into a fist, enraged.

"Maybe Stark is right." Wanda blurted out.

"What?"

"You need to stay behind so you don't get any of us killed." Wanda says coldly.

Raven raises her eyebrows at the woman, surprised that she's siding with Tony.

"You can't be serious." Raven scoffs. "I mean, look at me? I'm completely fine."

Wanda ignores the younger woman as if she wasn't there.