26. Ambush

The Stark Expo, situated in Queens, New York City, serves as a global gathering of brilliant minds working collaboratively to innovate and create groundbreaking inventions aimed at enhancing the overall well-being of humanity and the world. 

Created by Howard Stark, the Expo ran from 1943 to 1974, until it was revived by Tony Stark in 2010. 

"The same year it was destroyed by some rando known as Ivan Vanko," Jerry explained to the twins. "You guys must know him."

Pietro chuckled, "Yes, of course, saw him make a fool out of Stark in Monaco."

Wanda smiled eerily as well as if she was reminiscing something very nice.

Jerry: "..."

Sighing at the antics of the vengeful siblings, Jerry continued his explanation, "Anyway, Stark rebuilt this again, after all, how could he let his father's legacy get laid flat just like that?"

"We already know that he has loads of money to waste as he likes", Pietro mumbled.

"And we are going to steal something from that place. The thing is that, if it was possible then I would've very much liked it if we could just enter and leave this place silently.", Jerry sighed again and got up from his cockpit.

He walked to a drawer, handed the twins a couple of wrist terminals, and continued with his explanation.

"However, Tony has a really powerful AI and it WILL catch us snooping around at some point in time. I plan to steal the item anyway, and your job is to distract our enemies and buy me all the time I need for that."

"Anyway, today Tony Stark is out on a business trip in Paris, so, there shouldn't be anything that could trouble us."

Jerry walked the twins to the exit gate of the Stealth ship, "Let's go."

The team exited from the stealth ship a small distance away from their target building. As they casually strolled around the Expo they were met with an awful lot of odd gazes, mostly due to Jerry's bizarre outfit and mask.

As they reached the building that Jerry suspected to have those radioactive spiders, he simply entered it.

The twins waited outside. 

It was a sunny afternoon, the tracks were bustling with nerds who admired even the shrubberies, normies who'd just come here to impress the ladies, groups of university undergrads, and a whole lot of people.

Wanda looked around as people went about their own business, a small smile came to her face without her knowing as she watched a family of three with a daughter no older than five years old.

At a spontaneous thought, she used her powers on that family. The parents as well as the daughter lost all of their expressions at that moment and walked to the exit with a robotic rhythm...

Well, even though at present Wanda's mind manipulation capability isn't high enough, brainwashing a mere three people for a short amount of time was no big deal for her.

"Ice cream?" Pietro asked as he blipped and two cones appeared in his hands.

Wanda chuckled, taking one.

However, in no more than 10 minutes since Jerry went in, the whole system went off. The security guards started running around in a frenzy. Sensing something off about the building, people started to move away from the entrance. 

"Let's move, Sis, he gave us the location," Pietro smirked, seeing the details on his wrist terminal. 

Wanda nodded and then she was carried to the given location in an instant by her brother.

It was a large hall and multiple paths were intersected at the hall where they stood.

A few armed guards were rushing inside a certain hallway, Pietro knocked them out in an instant and piled them all in the corner of the hall. All of this was done by him in just a few seconds.

"Phew," Pietro wiped his sweat, smiling at his great human pile, he nodded, "Wasn't it supposed to be more... challenging?"

*Thump*

A suit of armor landed in front of them, and then it stood up and aimed toward them, showing them all its weapons ready to be fired. 

[ Stand Down ]

Its mechanical voice commanded them to surrender, giving them a last chance.

Wanda's relaxed and chill expression instantly turned rageful, Pietro also gritted his teeth. 

So much... they had sacrificed so much because of this man in front of them. 

Jerry, who also heard that voice from the earpiece tried to calm the siblings down, "Relax guys, it's just an empty shell. The real one is in Paris, remember. Stay cool."

"No, Jerry, you're wrong..." Pietro replied.

On the other side of the mic, Jerry's face lost all blood... 'It was a trap!'

When the suit told them to surrender, its mask was up and there was an annoying face inside.

"It's the real one!" Wanda charged without saying more, the crimson chaos encircled her palm.

Tony also fired a few bullets, but as his targets were just teenagers, he held back and didn't shoot with real bullets instead he used the rubber ammo.

But what transpired next, greatly surprised him. 

As the black-haired girl brought her hands in front of her, a crimson fog manifested and it caught all the bullets, none of them reaching their mark. And just then, she gritted her teeth, firing a ball of crimson energy towards him.

Tony's helmet closed automatically, and his repulsors propelled him above to avoid the attack. 

He wasn't a man to just take it so he flew towards the girl to incapacitate her in one hit, however just as he was about to grab her she disappeared from her place.

"Hm, an energy manipulator and a speedster, huh? This might be fun." Tony smirked, "J.A.R.V.I.S, track and predict the boy's movements, I'll deal with the girl?"

[Apologies, sir. The boy possesses super speed that reaches beyond the capacity to detect with our sensors.]

[ Although, the boy is predicted to be slower than the bullets, his estimated max speed is still near 1200 miles/hour. It is not possible to incapacitate him without any chronic wound. ]

Tony deadpanned... He wasn't gonna shoot these teenagers...

"I'm warning again, kids, stand down. I know you're not the masterminds of this heist."

*Boom*

The roof exploded, dust and debris filled the hall... and as it settled, a new figure emerged, clothed in black from head to toe. His thin arm spread in theatrics...

"Stark, you're indeed right. They are not the mastermind, I am."

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