Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 14 - Don't Bow To Anyone

The man seemed too shocked to be able to give an answer, but after a couple of seconds, he cleared his throat loudly and took a step away from her. "Y- Yes. I apologize, Ms. Nowak. It wasn't my intention to be disrespectful." He said quickly, avoiding her piercing gaze.

Keira kept her face neutral, only tilting her head slightly while observing the man. It really was a good feeling to watch him sweat under her burning gaze. "Well, let's pretend you were about to inform me about the current situation with the cleanup then." She didn't believe his apology for one second, but oh well.

He nodded vigorously as he continued his path over to the warehouse. His mind worked furiously with trying to work out how she had managed to hear him, but the fear of getting fired kept his mouth shut. "A- Absolutely. Since the Incident, we've established that there's about fifteen hundred tons of exotic material scattered around the tri-state area. But we reckon that we are down to around a thousand now." Mr. Thompson informed as they entered the warehouse.

Keira had to force herself to not stop at the sight of the leviathan suspended from the ceiling. Why was that still here? But it wasn't moving, and the workers were working on getting its armor off, which was going badly. "You know you can't saw through the armor, right? You need to use the alien stuff. They're tough bastards." She commented without any thought behind it, but she saw Mr. Thompson give a nod to the workers around them to do as she said.

Oh please, they hadn't tried to saw through the armor for two months without success, right? Surely, they had to be smarter than that? But when the workers grabbed the alien spears, they managed to pry the armor away rather quickly. And judging by the surprised looks on the workers' faces, it seemed like they actually had been stuck with that problem for that long.

This time, Keira couldn't refrain from rolling her eyes. Men.

"Mr. Stark has asked me to give you a place on the team where you can help gather up the rubble but..." Mr. Thompson trailed off and gave her an uncertain glance.

"But...?" She questioned, her head tilted.

"Are you sure you can handle it? I mean, it's heavy stuff and you're only a-"

"If you are about to say that I'm only a woman, I'd advise you to shut your mouth." Keira interrupted him, giving him a sharp look. With her fists clenched by her sides, she stalked towards him, following him as he kept backing away from her.

But eventually, he was forced to stop as he had backed into a wall.

Keira grasped his tie and pulled it, forcing him down to her eye level as he was at least a foot taller than her. "Listen to me very carefully, Mr. Thompson. First of all, get your men to stand down." She hadn't missed that everyone in the hangar had stopped their work and slowly had trailed their way over to them, ready to try and interfere.

Mr. Thompson nodded quickly as he waved his hand while his eyes were glued to Keira's. When the men backed away and got back to work, she continued, "Secondly, never patronize anybody just because they're a different gender than you. This isn't the Stone Age anymore, and even you should be able to understand that, even if your brain seems to match that of an ostrich." She hissed before releasing his tie and patting him lightly on the chest.

Mr. Thompson seemed too shocked to move, still bowing with his eyes wide.

"Now, show me what rubble needs moving, and I'll show you what a mere woman can accomplish." Her voice was laced with venom as she stared at the man, a look of challenge on her face.

Of course, the fact that she was a mutant wasn't public knowledge, and she liked to keep it that way. There was a reason why she chose to wear a mask when she was out on missions, but if she had to show off in order to get this man to shut his mouth, then that's what she would do.