Alone Together

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It had been two months since Baron von Strucker had brought the group of fifteen people into the compound. A few days after they arrived, I overheard the scientists talking about them. Apparently they were a group of Sokovian rioters who had volunteered to become test subjects for HYDRA. I had never heard the scientists sound so excited; they had recently acquired a scepter from a realm called Asgard and they now had a group of guinea pigs to test its powers on. I was just glad that I wasn't being used to experiment on.

They were being very cautious when it came to the scepter and its powers. They spent the first month running tests on the volunteers to make sure that they were healthy and in good physical condition. Every day they were brought into the lab to have their vitals measured. The rest of the day they underwent various physical tests and strengthening. All of the volunteers were young; in their early to mid-twenties like I was. I spent most of that month observing them, trying to figure what could possible possess someone to volunteer to be experimented on by a glorified magic wand. It seemed that HYDRA had promised them that the experiments would make them powerful, powerful enough to make a real change in Sokovia.

For the most part, the volunteers ignored me. At first they were shocked seeing me locked in a dog cage or being harshly experimented on, but they eventually began to ignore me. I guess it was easier to do that than watch another human being suffer as I did. The only people who didn't ignore me were the twins. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They always watched me when they were in the lab. Wanda would smile at me and Pietro would crack a joke when he knew I was listening. It was the closest thing to friendly human contact that I had ever experienced in my life.

The two of them were different from the rest of the volunteers; they lacked the sense of uneasiness that the others held, or at least they hid it well. They almost seemed eager for the experiments to begin, like they needed the powers that they were supposed to bring. They trained the hardest and went through every test without complaint.

Eventually their hard work was rewarded. During the second month they began the experiments. Every day the volunteers were exposed to increasing levels of emissions from the scepter. Every day the scientists waited for something to happen. Every day they waited for some kind of change. Finally, after a week of experimenting, something did happen.

It started off slow. Someone complaining of a headache or dizziness. Next came the nosebleeds and fainting. Those progressed into vomiting and fevers. Finally, after weeks of suffering, the person would die.

The scientists compared it to radiation poisoning. The symptoms could take weeks to show and by that time it was already too late. By the end of the second month, all but two people had died. The twins were the only of the volunteers to survive the experiments. That had the scientists baffled, what made these two different from everyone else? Baron von Strucker was thrilled that the twins survived, to him it didn't matter that thirteen other people died as long as he had two successful creations.

I didn't see the twins for a whole month. According to the scientists they weren't stable enough to be around people yet. They were locked away in their rooms as their powers developed, and it didn't sound like a pleasant process. Their rooms were next to the lab so I could hear everything that went on thanks to my enhanced senses. During the day I could hear loud crashes followed by shouts of pain coming from Pietro's room, and at night I could hear Wanda's soft cries.

One day it all stopped. At first I thought they had died like the rest of their group. Over the years I had grown used to seeing failed experiments die, after all I was the only successful hybrid that HYDRA had ever created. I had spent my childhood watching a never-ending stream of horridly disfigured creatures come into and out of the lab, and I spent my nights praying that I wouldn't end up like them.

But it turned out that my assumption of the twins' death was wrong. Against all odds Wanda and Pietro Maximoff had survived, and now they were stronger than ever. It had taken a month, but now their powers were fully developed. Pietro was fast. The scepter had given him enhanced speed as well as a fast metabolism that allowed him to heal at an accelerated rate. Wanda was telepathic. Not only could she see into your mind but she could also make you see your greatest fear. She could also move objects at will and create some kind of red energy. They were successes, and von Strucker wasted no time turning them into weapons.