CHAPTER 10: THE AVENGERS ARRIVE - PART 2
The Hydra facility shuddered under the relentless assault, its reinforced structure groaning like a wounded animal as the Avengers methodically dismantled every defensive system. Pietro moved through the chaos with Wanda at his side, his enhanced senses tracking the battle's progression with mathematical precision. Three levels above them, Baron Strucker was making his last stand in the command center, surrounded by his most fanatical loyalists and the accumulated data of decades spent perfecting human weapons.
But Pietro's attention was focused on something far more important—the server room that contained encrypted files about Hydra's enhanced individual program, intelligence that would be invaluable to SHIELD and the Avengers in their ongoing war against Hydra's global network.
"I need those files, but I can't be seen taking them directly. The Avengers have to discover them naturally, or questions will be asked about how a supposedly hostile enhanced individual knew exactly where to find classified intelligence."
The solution presented itself as another explosion rocked the building, this one close enough to shatter windows and send cascades of concrete dust through the air. In the chaos that followed, Pietro shadow-stepped through the facility's walls, using void energy to bypass electronic locks and security barriers that would have stopped any conventional infiltration.
The server room was a cathedral of technology, its walls lined with storage systems that contained the accumulated horror of Hydra's experiments. Thousands of files detailing enhancement procedures, psychological conditioning protocols, and the systematic brutalization of volunteers who had trusted Strucker's promises of power and purpose.
Pietro felt his enhanced reflexes accelerate time to a crawl as he worked, copying critical files to portable storage devices while leaving subtle traces that would guide SHIELD investigators to the most important intelligence. Financial records that revealed Hydra's funding sources, personnel files that identified other enhanced individuals in similar facilities, technological specifications for weapons that couldn't be allowed to proliferate.
"Insurance policies. When SHIELD analyzes these files, they'll understand that Wanda and I are victims rather than willing participants. They'll see us as assets to be recruited rather than threats to be eliminated."
But the void energy required for his dimensional transitions was exacting its price. Each shadow-step left him feeling slightly less human, slightly more connected to the hungry darkness that existed between collapsed realities. The whispers in his mind were growing louder, carrying fragments of knowledge from civilizations that had been reduced to nothing more than echoes in dimensional space.
Pietro pushed the alien voices aside as he completed his work and returned to Wanda's position. She was crouched behind an overturned laboratory table, her chaos magic crackling around her hands as she tracked the Avengers' movements through the facility's damaged structure.
"They're not trying to kill us," she said, confusion evident in her voice. "Their attacks are precise, controlled. They're fighting to disable rather than destroy."
"Maybe they're not the monsters Strucker told us they were," Pietro suggested carefully, planting seeds that would eventually grow into their alliance with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Through the building's structural vibrations, Pietro felt the distinctive impact signature of Steve Rogers' shield cutting through Hydra's remaining defenses. The super soldier was three levels up, systematically working his way toward Strucker's command center with the methodical precision of someone who understood that every second of delay meant more opportunities for intelligence to be destroyed or weapons to be relocated.
"Steve's closing in on Strucker. The Baron's surrender is maybe ten minutes away, which means Wanda and I need to be in position for our strategic retreat."
Pietro grabbed his sister's hand, pulling her toward the facility's emergency exits with urgency that had nothing to do with immediate danger and everything to do with timeline management. "We need to leave. Now, before they can coordinate a response to trap us."
"Leave?" Wanda's eyes flashed with indignation. "This is our home, Pietro. These people destroyed everything we've built here."
"Home? You call this prison a home?" The words almost escaped Pietro's lips before he remembered that Wanda's perspective on their situation was fundamentally different from his own. She still believed Strucker's lies about protection and purpose, still thought of Hydra as family rather than captors.
"Look around you, sestra," Pietro said instead, gesturing at the devastation surrounding them. "This place is falling apart. If we stay, we'll either be buried under rubble or captured by people who see us as weapons rather than people. Our only chance is to escape and figure out what comes next."
Wanda hesitated, her chaos magic responding to her emotional turmoil with spirals of red energy that danced around her fingers. But before she could respond, the facility's communication system crackled to life with a voice that made Pietro's enhanced hearing spike with recognition.
"Baron Strucker, this is Captain America. You're surrounded. Surrender now and we can discuss terms that don't involve anyone else getting hurt."
Steve Rogers' voice carried the authority of someone who had spent decades learning how to end conflicts through strength rather than violence. But underneath that commanding tone, Pietro detected something that the original timeline's movies had never fully captured—genuine regret at the necessity of force, combined with hope that even enemies could choose redemption.
"He means it. Steve really believes that people can change, that even Hydra operatives deserve the chance to surrender rather than die. That's why he becomes the moral center of the Avengers—not because he's perfect, but because he never stops believing that others can choose to be better."
Through the facility's damaged structure, Pietro heard Strucker's response—arrogant defiance mixed with genuine fear as the Baron realized his grand ambitions were crumbling around him. Within minutes, possibly less, Strucker would be in custody and the facility would be under Avengers control.
Which meant Pietro and Wanda needed to be somewhere else, preferably in a location that would position them perfectly for their next encounter with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
"Come on," Pietro said, pulling Wanda toward an emergency exit that would take them into the Sokovian countryside. "We have maybe five minutes before this place is completely overrun."
They moved through corridors filled with smoke and emergency lighting, passing Hydra soldiers who were either unconscious, restrained, or fleeing toward their own escape routes. Pietro's enhanced senses tracked every movement, every potential threat, every opportunity to guide their exodus toward the exact coordinates he needed to reach.
As they approached the facility's main exit, Pietro caught sight of movement that made his heart skip a beat. Captain America himself was visible through the smoke, his shield raised defensively as he coordinated the final assault on Hydra's positions. For one impossible moment, Pietro found himself making eye contact with the legendary super soldier.
"This is it. The moment that determines whether we're seen as redeemable or irredeemable. One gesture that plants the seed for everything that comes after."
Pietro made his choice. Instead of fleeing immediately or striking out in defiance, he simply nodded once—a gesture of acknowledgment between warriors who recognized each other's humanity even across the lines of conflict.
Steve Rogers' expression shifted almost imperceptibly, surprise and calculation warring in his blue eyes as he processed the unexpected courtesy from someone who should have been a mindless enemy.
Then Pietro grabbed Wanda and vanished into the Sokovian wilderness, leaving the super soldier with questions that would influence their next encounter in ways neither man could fully predict.
Natasha Romanoff watched the twins' escape from her position overlooking the facility's main exit, her sniper scope tracking their movements as they disappeared into the forest beyond Hydra's perimeter. She'd been prepared to intercept them if they'd attempted to retreat with stolen technology or classified intelligence, but their flight seemed motivated by survival rather than strategic objectives.
"Interesting. They had multiple opportunities to kill Avengers during the assault, but every engagement was non-lethal. Either they're exceptionally disciplined for Hydra assets, or they're not quite what they appear to be."
She activated her comm unit, her voice cutting through the tactical chatter that filled the frequency. "Control, this is Black Widow. Enhanced targets have exited the facility and are moving southwest toward the forest line. Should I pursue?"
"Negative," Steve's voice came back immediately. "Let them go. We have what we came for."
Natasha lowered her scope, but kept her eyes on the tree line where the twins had vanished. Something about their escape felt... managed. Like they weren't fleeing in panic but following a predetermined plan that accounted for variables they shouldn't have been able to predict.
"The boy—Pietro—there was something about his movements during combat. He fought like someone who knew exactly where we would be, exactly how we would respond. Either he's a tactical genius, or he had access to intelligence about our capabilities that Hydra shouldn't possess."
She made a note to review the mission recordings later, to analyze the twins' combat patterns for signs of enhanced intuition or precognitive abilities. If they encountered these two again—and her instincts suggested they would—understanding their full capabilities could mean the difference between successful recruitment and devastating opposition.
Through her comm, Natasha heard Tony's voice reporting the successful capture of Loki's scepter and the surrender of Baron Strucker. The mission was complete, but she couldn't shake the feeling that they'd just played out the opening moves of a much larger game.
"Those two aren't done with us. And I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing."
Two miles from the burning Hydra facility, Pietro and Wanda took shelter in the ruins of an old Sokovian church, its broken walls providing concealment while Pietro's enhanced senses monitored their surroundings for pursuit. The Avengers had let them escape, exactly as he'd predicted, but their next moves would determine whether they ended up as allies or enemies in the conflicts to come.
Wanda sat on a piece of broken masonry, her chaos magic subdued but not quite dormant, red energy occasionally sparking between her fingers as she processed the day's events. Her expression mixed exhaustion with growing anger, emotions that Pietro recognized as precursors to the rage that would make her receptive to Ultron's manipulation.
"This is the moment. If I can't guide her emotional state properly, she'll be primed for Ultron's promises of revenge when he eventually appears. But if I push too hard, she'll become suspicious of my knowledge."
"Pietro," Wanda said quietly, "what you did back there—the energy shield that protected me from the Iron Man's attack. That wasn't your speed enhancement."
Pietro's enhanced heart rate spiked, but he kept his voice calm. "The Mind Stone's enhancement created more than just speed, sestra. I've been experiencing... abilities I don't fully understand. Dimensional effects that seem connected to the void between realities."
It was as much truth as he dared share, carefully framed to explain his void powers without revealing their true origin or his transmigrator knowledge.
Wanda studied his face with an intensity that made him uncomfortable. "The void between realities. That's very specific terminology for something you don't understand."
"Careful, Pietro. She's too intelligent to accept vague explanations indefinitely."
Before Pietro could respond, Wanda suddenly gasped, her chaos magic surging as her eyes rolled back in her head. Red energy exploded from her body in a chaotic spiral that lit up the ruined church like a beacon, and Pietro realized with growing alarm that she was experiencing some kind of prophetic vision.
When the energy settled and Wanda's eyes focused again, her face was pale with terror.
"Pietro," she whispered, "I saw something. A vision of the future—red energy, machines with no souls, Tony Stark standing over the bodies of dead Avengers while a robotic horror laughs at their sacrifice."
Pietro forced surprise and concern into his expression while his mind raced with implications. "The vision that leads to Ultron. She's seeing fragments of the future where Stark's AI goes rogue and threatens humanity. This is the seed that Ultron will use to turn her against the Avengers."
"What does it mean?" Wanda continued, her hands trembling as she remembered the images. "Why did I see Stark as the architect of such destruction?"
Pietro reached for her hands, steadying her with his presence while carefully shaping her interpretation of the vision. "Maybe it's a warning about what could happen if we don't act. Maybe we're meant to prevent that future rather than simply escape from it."
"Prevent it?" Wanda's eyes flashed with something darker than mere concern. "Or ensure it comes to pass? Stark's weapons killed our parents, Pietro. Maybe this vision is showing us that he deserves whatever fate awaits him."
"And there it is—the seed of rage that Ultron will exploit. But I can't discourage it too aggressively without seeming suspicious. I need to guide it, not suppress it."
"Maybe," Pietro agreed carefully. "But visions of the future aren't always literal truth, sestra. They might be warnings about possibilities rather than certainties. What matters is that we're in a position to influence whatever comes next."
He pulled her to her feet, his enhanced senses already detecting movement in the forest around them—Avengers search teams, probably, making sure they hadn't left any dangerous technology behind in their escape.
"We need to move," Pietro said. "Find somewhere safe to rest and figure out our next step."
As they left the ruined church and disappeared deeper into the Sokovian wilderness, Pietro allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. The timeline was proceeding exactly as his transmigrator knowledge predicted, but with subtle modifications that would position him and Wanda perfectly for the challenges ahead.
Wanda had the vision that would make her receptive to Ultron's eventual approach. The Avengers saw them as potentially redeemable rather than irredeemably hostile. And Pietro had established himself as someone with abilities that went beyond simple enhancement.
"Phase one complete. Now I just need to survive until Ultron appears, keep Wanda angry enough to join him but stable enough to eventually see reason, and position myself to save everyone when the Sokovia battle unfolds."
The void energy pulsed in his soul, carrying whispers from collapsed realities that reminded him of the cosmic stakes involved in his success or failure. But for the first time since his transmigration began, Pietro felt like he had some measure of control over his fate.
The real test was still to come.
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