Chapter 62: Good Intentions

"Oh no, we're out of material."

Haley said as she stood and turned around to see Alex stop working on a pair of black pants. Alex arched an eyebrow and peered at the box beside her containing all their fabric, leather, and other materials. Alex placed the pants and thread needle down and walked over next to her.

"Looks like we'll have to run to the store and pick some more up." Alex said with a frown. "We don't have much time to finish if we want to give Harvey the suit by Christmas."

Haley nodded, walked over to the full-body mannequin in the center of her bedroom, and inspected the unfinished, intricate black jacket with a large white V in the center of the chest. "You're right. We still need to do a lot of work; I'll grab my keys, and we'll head to the store."

"Alright, I'll let Luke know we're going out then." Alex pulled out her phone and texted their little brother. "Last thing we need is Harvey walking down here and finding his present before it's ready."

Haley nodded and looked over to her makeup table. On the mirror were several pictures taped on the reflective glass. The images ranged from her selfies, her family, and her friends. Focusing on a singular picture of herself and Harvey with the Statue of Liberty behind them. Then, her eyes drifted to the picture of her family and Harvey on the ferry boat.

'I wonder what he'll say.' Haley smiled slightly. 'Will he like it?'

It's been two weeks since she and Alex started working together to design and create a new suit for Harvey to wear when he goes out and performs his superhero activities. While the current outfit he uses now works, it makes him appear more intimidating and unapproachable, so she asked Alex for her thoughts on creating a new, more personalized suit that will show off a more heroic look.

At first, Alex wasn't too keen on the idea; she stated that he wore that outfit to scare and intimidate criminals better. But when she showed her sister the sketches she designed for the suit, Alex agreed that the design still inspired fear but also made Harvey look more approachable from a bystander point of view. 

"Okay, all set. You ready?" Alex asked her.

"Yeah, let's go. Hopefully, they still have some more black Kevlar." Haley spoke as she and Alex walked upstairs and entered the kitchen. "I'm pretty sure we almost took everything they had last time we went."

"I'm sure they've restocked since we were there last." Alex said as they both entered her car. Haley turned on the engine and started backing out of the driveway. "Anyways, we'll know once we get there."

Haley nodded and started driving to their destination, the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center.

•••

"Your table is right over there."

Pietro and Wanda looked in the direction the pretty hostess gestured to. Following the hostess's direction, Pietro saw a man in an expensive-looking suit sitting on a table drinking champagne. It was Tony Stark.

"Thank you." Wanda said to the hostess, who smiled and nodded before returning to her post.

"...okay, maybe I'm not as ready as I thought." Pietro whispered and looked down at his sister. "Let's get out of here, and I'll call Harvey to teleport us home."

"Pietro." Wanda said as she grabbed his hand. "We're doing this. We can't just call Stark to meet us here and not show up ourselves."

"Okay, okay. Let's do this."

Pietro took a deep breath and walked forward with his sister. Once the two were close enough, Stark noticed their arrival, stood up with a charming smile, and walked around the table. "Pietro, Wanda. Have a seat."

"Thank you." 

Wanda said slowly, and the three of them sat down at the table. Pietro looked around at the expensive-looking, high-end restaurant Stark recommended they all meet to talk. Looking down at his attire, Pietro started to feel underdressed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several people looking over to their table and looking at Stark with wonder.

"Order anything you want. It's one me. the food here is amazing." Stark said as Pietro looked down at the menu before them all.

"Anything?" Pietro smiled devilishly.

"Pietro." Wanda said quickly.

"Anything you want." Stark smiled and nodded. 

"Well, if you insist." Pietro smiled and read through the menu while noticing none of the menu items had prices next to them. That could only mean one thing.

"Anyway, um... so as to why we called you." Wanda said slowly and ignored the menu. "We wanted to talk about... what happened all those years ago. With the bomb."

Pietro stopped reading through the menu and placed it down on the table. Looking up at Stark's expression, he saw it morph away from his charming smile to a small frown. The air over the table turned severe and heavy. Stark nodded and waited for Wanda to continue talking.

"Throughout the years, all we did was foster all this... hate for you. It consumed us. So when we heard about the Stark Expo, we believed it was our chance to exact our revenge... to make things right."

"That was when we met Harvey." Pietro took over and looked Stark in the eyes. "Well, you know what happened there. It was hard to believe you weren't found guilty for what happened. For weeks, I refused to believe it and continued to brew in my anger, but then Harvey found out there was someone else behind the attack on our home."

"That was when you all left for Sokovia that day." Stark nodded and took a sip of his drink. "Romanov gave me some details on what went down that day, but she refused to elaborate on everything that happened."

"This isn't the place to go over everything that happened back then, but in short. We found the people responsible for it all." Wanda said as she held a glass of whatever a server brought them while he spoke earlier. "We found the truth... and also so much more."

Pietro grew concerned when he saw his sister's expression blank over, and her eyes grew misty. Wanda rubbed her face and shook her head. Pietro frowned himself at the memory of the room with all the children's corpses. Nightmares of that day still plagued him some nights. Grabbing his sister's shoulder to let her know everything was alright, Pietro whispered that she was okay.

"We can stop, take a break." Stark said lowly. "You don't have to talk about that."

"No... no, it's alright. I have to. I can't let what happened there affect me like that forever." Wanda nodded and took a deep breath. "After we came back, All my anger towards you disappeared. It wasn't right away, but I came to see that it could have been anyone's weapon that could've been used. It was just your name that we saw that day."

"So we called you to talk because we wanted to finally move on and get away from that part of our lives, and I think we've done that." Pietro said. "...and to apologize for sending the embodiment of vengeance to your house."

Stark nodded and chuckled slightly. "That's okay. That Bone Head and I came to an understanding a while back. I don't hold what happened back then over you two. If I'm being honest, I will always hold myself responsible for all the terrible things my weapons were used for against what I initially built them for. I thought I was helping the people of this country by giving them the edge on the battlefield. It's funny for someone as intelligent as me. I didn't consider my weapons falling into the wrong hands. I was a fool, and innocent people got hurt and killed over my short-sightedness."

The table grew silent after Stark finished talking. Pietro didn't know what to say after that. A part of him wanted to agree with the older man but saw that Stark was already beating himself up over it all. Guilt and shame leaked through his expression. Looking over to Wanda, he saw her look pensive. It seemed she didn't know what to say either.

"Excuse me... is everyone ready to order?" A nervous-looking server stood near the table, a nervous expression on her face. Pietro saw that his sister and Stark were caught by surprise, so he decided to speak up.

"Yes, we are. I will be having the fresh tagliolini with butter and white truffles followed by the seared scallops and..." Pietro said, listing off several dishes to the server and looking at him incredulously. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Stark look at him wide-eyed at the number of dishes he ordered. Wanda sighed and looked over to Stark.

"You're gonna regret telling that bottomless pit to order anything he wanted."

"I already am."

•••

"Sorry about that!"

Simon called out to the irate man he just bumped into. The man shook his head and muttered something along the lines of 'rude kids'. Sighing, Simon continued jogging forward while trying to maneuver around the busy shopping center of the West Hollywood Gateway. 

"This should be the place Eric marked on the map."

Simon looked up and saw a stylized logo of the letters WHG in the middle of the tall and wide column. Beside it was the logo for Target; turning around, Simon looked around the sizeable curving entrance of the shopping center. Tilting his head down to the lower level of the main area, Simon saw several people walk around with shopping bags from various stores and others just standing around and talking to each other.

"Okay, five o'clock." Simon looked at his phone and checked the time. "Just how the plans said."

Reaching into his backpack, Simon pulled out the glowing red vail. Taking a deep breath, Simon popped off the vial's cap and drank the red liquid.

"ACK! God! That's disgusting!"

Simon gagged slightly at the horrible-tasting contents of the vail. It tasted like old milk mixed with the worst juice imaginable. Standing around, Simon looked down at himself and waited for something to happen.

"Hm, I guess it was fake after al-"

Simon's back arched as an extreme wave of pain exploded throughout his body. In the blink of an eye, his skin shined a bright red, and his eyes glowed white. The blue hoodie Simon was wearing burned away into ashes as his entire torso was left naked. 

"AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

A blast of red energy exploded out of Simon's body, pushing away everyone within five meters of him. The floor beneath Simon cracked and sunk beneath him as his body mass tripled. 

"What was that!" 

"Holy crap, that kid is glowing red!"

"Run!"

The shoppers who were flung from the energy wave all screamed and panicked as they turned to see Simon scream in agony as his body pulsed red with power. Simon reached up to his eyes and covered them with his hands. Leaning over, Simon's body released another wave of energy. 

But this more substantial wave expanded seven meters from Simon's body. Unfortunately, the people still within that distance were sent flying at fast speeds when the pulse reached them. Those that were close to a wall slammed so hard into the surface that their bodies exploded into a splash of gore. At the same time, those lucky enough not to be impeded were sent flailing through the air and crashing into the concrete floors, breaking bones and bleeding profusely.

"ERIC! HELP ME! I-It hurts!"