LITTLE WARRIORS ( pietro maximoff )

Sixteen

{edited}

❝AVENGERS! TRADITIONAL LAWS OF PHYSICS DO NOT APPLY HERE. BUT WE CAN STILL FIGHT. INNOVATION IS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.❞
–VISION, AVENGERS A.I. VOLUME 1 #9, EARTH 616

THE BLONDE AVENGER had taken the Maximoffs and Cara to the Avenger Tower in New York. Surprisingly, the flight there barely took a few hours from Seoul. Cara could see the anger fuming off Pietro and Wanda as they glared at the used-to-be Stark Tower. All that money, that could have been used for starving children and help save lives, was instead used on this monstrocity. She took their hands, intertwining her fingers into theirs. The twins looked at her in appreciation and they squeezed her hand in return.

The Quinjet landed and the four hurried out, seeing Tony Stark and Bruce Banner standing above the Cradle, the vibranium body still lying inside. "I'm only gonna say this once," the captain said.

"How 'bout 'nonce'?" Stark wisecracked.

"Shut it down!"

"Nope! Not gonna happen!"

"You don't know what you're doing –"

"And you do?" Banner said surly. He pointed to Cara and Wanda. "They're not in your head?"

"I know you're angry," Wanda reasoned for the two of them.

"No, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade," he said in an unusually calm voice.

"You'll have to go through me first." Cara's tone was filled with anger.

Captain America continued. "Banner, after everything's that's happened –"

"It's nothing compared to what's coming!"

"You don't know what will happen!"

"You have to stop this!"

As the arguing and insults continued, Pietro had run around the lab, yanking out wires, plugs, and cables that connected the Cradle to the computers. Pietro stopped before the Cradle, tossing a cable. "No, no. Go on, you were saying?"

Everything looked to be in slow motion. A gunshot was heard and Pietro looked as a bullet soared in front of him, aimed towards the sky. Instead of moving, the Sokovian stared at it, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Cara gasped and ran straight into Pietro as the glass beneath him broke. Pietro skid to the floor of the lab as Cara's head hit the floor beneath her. "Cara!" the twins screeched.

"She's completely unstable, doctor," a voice said, barely audible to Emma's ears. Her arms were tightened against her, a straightjacket containing her arms. She sat in the middle of the gray room, her blonde hair choppy and in tangles. Her blue playful eyes looked hollow. "We can't release her on any missions yet, I'm sorry. Subject 26 will have to wait."

"Well, try harder!" a second voice yelled. Emma shut her eyes and focused on the conversation.

"Doctor, please try to understand. Every time we try to go inside, she lashes out. It has been years since her brother and sister's death yet she still holds a grudge over us. We can't run any tests on her and she's starting to refuse to eat or drink anything. It's like she's trying to get herself killed."

"Then wipe her and start again!" the second voice yelled. Emma had then come to the conclusion that the first man was some scientist, most likely Dr. Baumann – the one doctor that had always entered her room to run tests and give her meals – and the second man had to the man in charge. She had never heard his name but all she knew that he was a doctor of some sort.