Robin's Cousin

chapter eight

Pietro's POV

"What are we doing here again?" I asked from my rolling chair in the surveillance room at the Watchtower, twirling around until Artemis grunted and stuck her foot out, making me stumble and fall out of my chair. "Ouch. Rude."

"You were being annoying." She stuck her tongue out, taking her position under Wally's arm once more. "You were saying, Batman?"

I perked up, looking over at the caped crusader as he typed away at the computer pulling up the video feed of my sister's medical room. I held up my hand in a pausing motion, glaring at my cousin's father. "Hold up, why are we spying on my sleeping twin? That's a bit creepy and over steps so many boundaries."

Batman ignored me, rewinding the video feed to before Wanda woke up, pausing the tape to look at me. "Pietro, did you know your sister has a tattoo on the back of her neck?"

"Pfft, what?"

"Its true, Zatanna and Wanda herself have both tried, and failed, to remove the tattoo. We have been running tests on it because of its...unusual properties." Batman cleared his throat, pulling up another window to show the gathered heroes the results. "It appears to be made from alien technology, from the scepter that the Norse demi-god Loki used on Hawkeye when he attacked New York."

"Are you saying my sister has a tattoo that is controlling her mind?" I snorted. "Yeah, alright."

"I'm saying, whoever has the scepter now can potentially control Wanda...and her increasingly strong abilities."

"But The Vision has the stone that was in the scepter and he would never do something like that." I explained slowly, a feeling of dread blossoming in my stomach. "Unless...did something happen to Vision?"

"Afraid so, otherwise he is making Wanda attack us." Dick piped up from the back of the room, nodding at the surveillance tape. "Show him."

Batman played the tape. Wanda blinked her eyes open, noticing me and Dick asleep next to her in the room. She glared at us, her eyes a haunting blue before they glowed scarlet. She summoned a hex bolt, aiming it at our heads before pausing, tilting her head as if she was listening to someone. The hex bolts wilted in her hands and instead she snapped her fingers, making Dick and I wake up in an instant.

I stared at the video, not fully comprehending what I saw. A blast from one of my sister's hex bolts that close would've killed us, Wanda knows that. So why...? I looked to Batman for answers but he was answering a call, his face becoming even more serious if that was possible. Hanging up, he turned and looked me dead in the eye. "The Avengers just found Vision's body...without the stone."

"No. Wanda!" I yelled, speeding from the surveillance room and into my sisters medical room, startling her awake. Wanda's eyes were the same haunting blue as they were before in the video and I shivered looking into them. My sister's face twisted into a sneer, her hand shooting out towards me, throwing me back into the wall. My body glowed with her scarlet energy as she focused her magic on me, pulling my limbs away from my torso and making me cry out in agony. "Sister, please! Stop this."

Wanda cackled as she flew towards me, putting her face inches from me as she hissed in my ear. "Don't you see? I am this."

"No." I whispered hoarsely, feeling as if my limbs would be ripped from my body any second. The door burst open and Wanda was tossed away from me by a blur of red and yellow. I fell to the ground, my limbs numb and feeling as if they were on fire all at once. Looking up I saw Wanda in headlock, Wally struggling to keep his grip on her as she thrashed around. "Don't hurt her, she is still Wanda!"

We need to contain her.

Gasping, I looked up to see the source of the voice in my head was only M'gann and her glowing eyes. Wanda clutched her head briefly before her eyes turned fully scarlet and she let out a guttural shriek, blasting Wally off her back and M'gann into the wall head first with a wave of red energy. Breathing heavily, Wanda's glowing eyes narrowed at the door and I followed her gaze to see the rest of my new team standing there. "You want a piece of me? Come and get it."