Night Visions

Chapter 10

All around them, the night was alive with the sounds of the city. Crowds of evening revelers hurried past on their way to dinner, or perhaps to the theatre. Passing cars blared snatches of music, honking to each other as they wove along the crowded streets. Everywhere there was light and color, sound and motion, the irrepressible energy of a people determined to keep moving forward. After the relative quiet of their secluded facility, it threatened to overwhelm the senses, but the Vision had never seen anything so magnificent. Well, almost never...

He smiled down at Wanda as they made their way through the crowd, enjoying the feeling of her arm linked through his. She had dressed for the occasion in a plunging red dress that left her shoulders bare and swirled around her knees as they walked, bangles tinkling at her wrists. Beside her, his tuxedo was perhaps too traditional. She had laughed when she opened her door to find him waiting, but he had seen the way that her eyes swept over him, the grin that she had been unable to suppress.

Now her head rested against his arm. He leaned closer, whispering into her hair. "Have I told you how lovely you look tonight?"

She laughed. "Like three times, Vizh."

"Well, it is a lovely dress."

Stepping away, she twirled for his benefit. When he pulled her back to him, she smiled and trailed a finger down his cheek. "What can I say? Red is my color."

He laughed with her, but his eyes strayed to the crowd around them. He had seen the way they stared, the way they quickly averted their eyes when their gaze lingered too long. He didn't know which was more unsettling.

Ahead of them, a child walked with his mother, tugging at her hand as he turned and gaped back at them. Vision tried a smile, but at that moment the mother glanced behind her and scowled, dragging the boy hurriedly away.

He sighed. He had expected as much, they both had, but the looks weren't the worst of it.

Wanda was watching him, following his gaze. "Maybe we should have waited."

"Mr. Stark's announcement was inconveniently timed..." Shaking his head, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "But that does not mean we should hide. Not tonight."

Just that afternoon, Congress had announced the passage of the Super-Human Registration Act. Stark had spoken at the press conference. They had all heard the increasingly heated debates between him and Captain Rogers, so there had been no doubt how he would fall on the issue. The rest of the team seemed less certain, though the act's rapidly approaching effective date would soon bring the matter to a head.

A majority of the public were in support of it. Understandable, particularly in a city that had been nearly devastated by a battle between enhanced beings. All around them in the crowd he could feel it – not necessarily hostility, but a sense of a people emboldened, a people who finally saw the potential for change, for control, within their grasp.

Looking down at Wanda, he forced a smile. "I am enjoying being 'normal' while we can. I fear things may soon become... complicated."

She smirked at that, glancing at a pair of teenagers who were grinning in their direction. One of them snapped a photo.

"Why would we want to be normal?"

She had spent her life in fear, had told him of the persecution, the experiments. 'Normal,' for them, would always be out of reach. Yet tonight Wanda looked much like any other woman, at least to a stranger's eyes. When men stared, it wasn't their suspicion that made Vision clench his fists. She was beautiful; they saw it as clearly as he. But when they saw her hand in his, their eyes would darken. It was not so long ago that they had watched machines in the shape of men destroy her homeland, since the news channels had begun their endless analysis of the dangers of artificial intelligence. Here, she could be a woman, but he would always be something else.

They stopped at a street crossing and he pulled her close as the crowd pressed in. Snatches of conversation drifted toward them.

"...That act's the smartest thing those assholes in Washington have done in a long time."

Another man spoke up, answering the first. "It's not enough. You saw what the Hulk did? I say lock 'em all up."

Vision felt Wanda stiffen against him and he turned his eyes away, but the man had seen him watching.

He smirked. "What? You heard me."

His friend elbowed him. "Those are Avengers."

"Don't remember either of them showing up when we were under attack." He squinted. "She's the new one. The weird one. They say she reads minds or something." His eyes raked over Vision before returning to Wanda. "Gotta be something wrong with a chick who'll fuck a robot."

Vision took a step forward, pushing Wanda behind him. The crowd had realized what was happening and backed away to give them space. No one seemed interested in crossing the street anymore.

He could feel her behind him, gripping his hand tightly. "Vizh, let's go."

"So where were you?" The man took a step toward them. "My brother was a first responder. That hole opened in the sky, he was there. Where were you?"

Vision held up a warning hand, keeping his voice steady. "We mean you no harm."

"Yeah? Seems to me if you're around, harm's pretty inevitable." Some in the crowd muttered their agreement, urging him on. "Those... those aliens came for the Avengers. We were just in the way."

"I lost my sister," someone called out. Another had lost a father, someone in the back a child.

"We had nothing to do with that!" Wanda lunged from behind him, glaring at any who dared meet her eyes.

"Uh huh. And how safe are we when there's a girl out there who can just decide to go poking around in our heads?" The man tapped his temple, looking to Vision. "Or whatever that can do..."

The crowd seemed to press forward, the murmuring growing angrier. Wanda grabbed Vision's arm, steadying herself, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I think I can hold them... make them stop..." She stretched out a hand, light dancing between her fingertips.

"What're you doing?" The man's face purpled.

Vision lay a hand on his chest. "Sir, you need to remain calm." But others were shouting now.

"Outta my head, you psychic bitch!"

The man lunged, knocking Wanda to the ground, but Vision had him by the arm. He jerked it upward, bending it behind him until it cracked. The man went limp, screaming.

Everywhere he looked, faces stared at him in mute horror. He had moved without thinking, neutralizing the threat by the most efficient means possible. The man with the broken arm was shouting to anyone who would listen, calling for the authorities. But that would only make matters worse.

At least the crowd had moved back, leaving Wanda on the ground where she had fallen. Vision scooped her into his arms, searching her face to make certain she was unharmed. The he turned back to the man.

"I am sorry." Cradling Wanda to his chest he took to the air, escaping into the darkness of the open sky.