Arc Five. Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven. Attack The Block

Peter and Wanda were sitting silently, driving down the main highway to the capital city of Sokovia, Novi Grad.

The main HQ of the Allied Shield and Defence Force of Sokovia was almost in the main plaza of the city and it was constantly surrounded by busy protestors, even at night.

A civil war had been raging in Sokovia for over 15 years, and once Shield turned up the situation took a downward turn. Rather than helping, their efforts only seemed to enflame the population, and not just protests but riots and violent terrorism sprang up in response.

It was a widely talked about situation, even in America where talk of invasion was on everyone's lips. This time, as Sokovia had no oil or strategic importance, the higher-ups were willing to let Shield and the World Security Council deal with it.

Now of course Peter knew exactly why. Someone was using Sokovia as a staging area, testing or hiding new weapons tech. The energy rifles had the same power source as the Goblin hammer and Carol had identified them as Tesseract and nazi tech.

So nazi's ran Sokovia, great thought Peter, probably get some limp-dicked fucking weirdo with a stupid moustache and a limp.

What was worse was that Peter knew it was Oscorp tech, and that Osborn was a bigger shitbag than anyone knew. He made a vow to investigate Tony once they got back, if Osborn was hiding here to test out experimental weapons then why was Stark's name all over the news. Was he also involved or was it the smokescreen to cover the illegal tests?

Wanda laughed, you need to learn to control your thought more Peter, limp-dicked nazi huh? and Peter blushed a bit, he had never spent time around someone with the same power set as him before and it was turning out to be harder than he thought to control his thoughts.

"It's easy, just think of something simple, like a door and then push that to the front of your powers, once the thought is there, you don't think about it, just use it to send out your powers."

Peter imagined opening a door, a stupid door, a door. Nah, doors were dumb, how did telepathy work, impulses, so the mind reading and telepathy were like his normal senses, rather than temperature or air pressure it was electrical disturbances, so he was touching the flow of power through the person.

Peter closed his eyes, wait, if he could see the electromagnetic spectrum, oh what a fucking idiot, he thought and Wands smirked, yup, an idiot all right.

Oh yeah, Peter sent her the last image from the vision they had shared and then slammed down a curtain of white noise, making the radio squeal and the lights in the ATV flicker

"Damn uh, sorry, sorry," he said, "I uh, projected rather than shut off." Unamused by the image of her straddling him, Wanda tutted.

"Don't project, if you short the wiring out we'd be walking to Novi Grad, and I'm not carrying you," she huffed. If he got a grip on his powers then good, but fooling around and making things worse was, wait, she thought. "How long have you had your powers?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Uh, telepathy? Maybe a few weeks. The rest, about a year." and Wanda sighed,

no wonder, he's a stupid man-baby. "Well, then stop playing around with them and focus, training is only good when you can learn, and killing us both before we start isn't training. So stop doing what you're doing, oh and for the love of god stop thinking about Felicia and Liv and oh, I swear, I will hurt you if that's a riding crop she's holding," and Peter shrank in his chair. He couldn't help it that strong domineering women were his type. Focusing he felt the flow of energy around him and like his enhanced senses he cut it off. No longer feeling the buzz around him he looked at Wanda, eyebrows raised,

"There, better?" and she nodded.

"Practice once we get somewhere safe, I'll, don't make me regret this but I'll help, just, if you think about sex once more then I'll make you a eunuch, I swear it." Wanda looked at an approaching sign and Peter stared as well,

"How far?" he asked and she translated,

"Another 30 mins or so, we should be seeing the city soon enough." The rocky terrain hid the large city from them, but as the road wound and twisted around the tall mountains Peter soon realised that while Sokovia was small, the capital was not.

"We should ditch the van and make our way on foot, well, me on foot. We can't be caught driving a stolen police car into the capital." and Peter slid into the back of the ATV and began to web the equipment he wanted to take back to the US down. "Leave the keys in it and hide it somewhere, I want to see if we can take the whole thing back with us, plus uh, we'll need it to get back to the farm."

Wanda nodded and pulled off the main road, parking behind a distance sign. "Are you well known?" Peter asked and she frowned. "If we walk into town will someone recognise you?" and she shook her head.

"I don't have ID though"

but Peter snorted. "We're telepathic, who needs ID, plus, uh you can fly. Just go up," and he was going to take a trick from that asshole Charles's book. If he could make someone forget he was there, why not do the same? "Once we get into town I want you to fly straight to the headquarters and I'll meet you there."

Peter had seen enough and once they were in the city there were plenty of high rises he could use to swing around with no problems. He doubted Novi Grad had the same high tech security street cameras New York did and he could really let loose.

"Okay, the plan is to get to the main building, you know your way around so we need the main lab where you think the stone is being held. Once we have it, we leave, I know you want revenge but we can't stay too long. We're powered but there are only two of us and a lot more of them." Wanda scowled but nodded

"I know, but sometimes hit and run works better than hit." Plus Peter wasn't about to mention the possible army of killer robots that could be waiting for them. "Do you know if the stone affects your powers? I mean, A friend of mine was powered up by another stone and she said that they reacted to each other, so uh, just remember if your powers suddenly go kaput to see if some asshole has the stone nearby."

Wanda shook her head, "I'm a mutant, I didn't need the stone, it just made me better at using my power," and it was Peter's turn to frown.

"Wait, the red energy isn't from the stone?" and Wanda shook her head,

"I'm the Scarlet Witch, it's my magic."

"Aw come on, magic's real too? That's just bullshit." Peter complained, great, another power to keep track of. And staring at Wanda, he made sure she heard him.

Wanda just grinned at him. "Magic is more than real Peter, it's the only real power in the world," and as the red energy covered her, she grinned and flew off towards the city, leaving Peter stood watching as she sped off,

"Could have at least given me a ride." he lamented,

You did enough of that earlier, she joked back and he rolled his eyes, huffing. Looking at the number on the road sign he shook his head,

Seeing that it was still at least 20 kilometres to the city he let his symbskin cover him and took off after her. As he ran he began to examine his own senses and the energy in his body, the energy around him and how they were interacting.

He could hear the noise coming from the city. An indistinct chatter as if he was tuning into a hundred thousand different radios all at once. If his powers allowed him to see and manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, to see ultraviolet and infrared then his telepathy was an extension of that, a way for him to tap into the subconscious flow of electrons that made up a mind, and whatever strange energy made up consciousness.

Now he knew the 'how' he could shape the method. Rewiring his symbskin was as simple as recreating a circuit or connecting to the device, as long as it wasn't a dense or radioactive mineral he could copy it and if he could copy it he could recreate its effects. Seeing into the electromagnetic spectrum was as simple as making armour.

Watching Wanda manipulate the red energy had clicked with his own power, but rather than a form of energy he had a form of matter, it was simply a different method of manipulation.

Once the higher buildings began to populate the capital, Venom shot out a web line, climbed to the top of the tallest building and his symbskin shimmered and he vanished, "Wanda, I'm coming up on your position now," and he saw her floating above on the high rises nearby. It was broadcasting way too much information for a simple tenement block and he figured that this was the real headquarters, the other a fake office to distract the rioters.

Even now, as he stared at the crowd gathered he could see several of them all carrying high tech communications equipment, its signals bouncing back and forth between what appeared to be at least 20 people in the crowd and the building across from them. They were moles, sent in to rile and control the crowd, and Peter knew even more that he needed to either report or put a stop to this.

"Finally got a handle on it?" Wanda asked and Venom nodded, "You still need to hide your mind better," was all she said and as she did the small candle of his mind flickered and vanished.

"I understand now, not just the theory but the practice," and now that his powers had evolved once more he felt stronger, maybe if Carol or Thor paid a visit to Earth he would see if they could spar. Venom also looked forward to getting his hands on the Mind stone again, the brief exposure to its energy through Wanda deepening his understanding of his own powers.

"Good, they have guards, all with those rifles, I can feel at least 50," and Venom nodded. To him each one was a glowing light in the building, he could sense their minds and they were on alert, they knew that Wanda and Venom were coming and were prepared. Where Venom was concerned though was he could see that on at least half of the guards was a bright spot of yellow energy around their neck. Wanda wasn't the only one in a collar and it seemed whoever was in charge had a supply of them.

"Are you ready for this?" Venom asked her and she nodded, but still looked unsure and he shook his head.

"Are you sure? cause they'll be trying to kill us."

Wanda looked down, "my people die here every day. I watched them kill my mother, and what my father did after. I was ready to cross that line years ago, only my father stopped me" and with that the red energy covered her and she floated up "all you need to do is stop me if I go too far," and she shot off towards the building, crackling red with her strange power.

Damn, she is fucking hot, Venom thought to himself and he felt a sliver of annoyance coming from Wanda. If she didn't like his thoughts, she should stop reading them, but it was also good practice for his own control. With a smile and a nod of approval, as he focused on Wanda's behind, he shot out a web line and followed her down towards the building.

Unseen by him though, she had a small smile on her face and as she grinned stupidly, she floated towards the building, ready to take back her life.