When The War Dies Down

Chapter 14

"You never bothered to tell us that the Scarlet Witch could use her powers from a distance?" One of the councilmen asked exasperated.

"We were not aware of this power she had." Vision pointed out, choosing to be the one who spoke because even though none of the men trusted him (due to his questionable status as a human), he was the most knowledgeable about Wanda's ability.

"The power levels she was producing indicate that she had to have a power source close by." Dr. Strange pointed out. This whole situation had Loki and him pulling every bit of knowledge they had to even figure out what was going on. Wong was no help as he was in a pocket dimension, and the Asgardians had no idea what was going on and promptly, yet kindly, asked them to stop inquiring about it.

"Was one of the men her power source?"

"No, none of them are skilled or raised any flags when we tested them." Vision confirmed, looking more distressed as the conversation continued.

"You said that her magic originated from the Mind Stone?"

"Yes, Hydra did human experimentation on her. She has never said anything about anyone else but her late brother being with her during these tests though." Rhodey affirmed, but glanced nervously as he thought about the effects of another person having her powers-and possibly still being under Hydra.

Tony's dozing off during the meeting was interrupted when he heard a soft "Sir." in his ear. It was Jarvis' voice, but it didn't sound like Jarvis. His AI sounded distressed, and Tony had only ever heard that a few times. "Sir, it's Vision, I need to talk to you and our captains as soon as possible."

Tony gave the android a terse yet unnoticeable nod across the table, and gave Rhodey one of those looks. Most of the time, he could get Rhodey to stop quite literally everything and run to him in complete worry.

"I'm sorry councilmen, but my teammates have just informed me that a new development has occurred. We will be in contact at our earliest convenience, thank you for your time." Rhodey announced, leaving the members gaping as the hologram dissolved into drops of light.

Without needing a sign, Hope ushered everyone out of the room, sensing that something was wrong. Not that this entire situation wasn't messed up, but this was wrong, this was personal, which meant that, like always, everything was going to fall to pieces.

—

Meanwhile, on the other end of the Compound, the other avengers found the Guardians sitting on top of the furniture eating the pies that Bucky had made the night before for dessert. To say he was upset was an understatement, and Sam quickly hurried him out of the room before Bucky could watch Rocket stab his beautiful pie crust again.

Recently, the Guardians had been around more often, and stayed longer than usual. Part of that was because they were officially part of the Avengers, the fraction who dealt with intergalactic threats on a semi-normal basis. But usually, they either needed more resources, like Rocket had "needed" a flamethrower, or they just wanted to see Nebula and the rest of the gang. Mainly Peter though. Everyone else was "eh" according to Quill.

"So Nebula, got any plans for the big day?" Rocket teased, and if possible, Nebula blushed.

"We haven't talked about it seriously yet."

"You guys haven't even set a date?" Strange asked, coming back from the meeting.

"No we haven't, but his mom is coming soon, so we might do some planning with her."

"Have you looked at dresses yet?" Cassie asked.

"Dresses?" Gamora raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Usually, the bride wears a white dress when she gets married. It's kinda a tradition."