ASCENDANCY / P. MAXIMOFF

emergence

Ana ended up the only one awake, when the twins nodded off during the third season of OITNB, not being very entertained by it because they couldn't understand more than half of the content in the show. Ana didn't blame them. She didn't either sometimes.

However, this gave Ana the perfect opportunity to escape their watch. She slithered out of bed, and put her feet on the cool tile floor one foot at a time. On the balls of her feet, Anastazya tip toed from her room, into the living room, sitting at the computer in the corner of the room.

She tapped her bare foot on the floor impatiently as the desktop booted up. Ana typed in the password, reminding herself that she would need to change it again for Wanda and Pietro later, adding their names to the lineup.

User: AvengersDesktop15

Password:ThorCapNatAnaStarkBannerBarton

Ana grabbed ahold of the mouse, dragging it along the mousepad and clicking a special software Natasha, Tony and Banner created for her, called 'Stark Watch'.

When Ana was fourteen and couldn't quite go on missions with the Avengers yet, she would worry and stress about the team when they were gone. So, to prevent that, Tony implanted a little camera in his frontal mask that displayed what was going on each time they went on a mission.

She could always see how things were going, and it relieved a lot of stress. Ana hadn't used it in years, and she wasn't sure if Tony had deactivated it because she had actively been apart of the team for the past year and a half, but she was praying he forgot.

Ana clicked the software and gnawed on her lip as it loaded, not paying the slightest bit of attention to Wanda and Pietro sneaking up behind her.

"ANASTAZYA! TONY STARK IS TO LIGHT US ON FIRE AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Pietro yelled in Ana's ear, causing her to scream out and whip her head around.

Ana scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion. "What are you talking about?" Ana demanded.

Wanda rolled her eyes. "He is referring to the term that Tony used when explaining our job description. Pietro paid less attention in school than I did."

Pietro stuck his tongue out at Wanda, before turning to Ana again. "What are you doing out of bed cel míc?"

Ana rolled her eyes at his question. "Maximoff, I do understand Romanian and I do not appreciate you calling me little one. I am not little," Ana sighed.

Pietro smirked. "You are little to me-" He cut himself off when the transmission from Tony came onto the screen.

Wanda and Pietro got closer to the screen smushing in next to Ana to look at the screen.

The video came from what looked like to be the ground. There was a lot of grunting, groaning and smashing metal against metal. From what was visible, Ana saw Captain was surrounded by defense bots, and it wasn't looking good for him. The rest of them weren't in sight, and no one seemed to be communicating by com radio.

"Is that live transmission?" Wanda asked. Anastazya's eyes never left the screen, as she watched Captain get beat down by Ultron and about twenty defense bots, with tears in her eyes.

She watched with bated breath as Ultron picked up the mask, looking right into the camera. He chuckled cynically before the entire transmission went black. All she could hear was his voice.

"You're next."

And the silence following was suffocating.

"Oh my god," Ana whispered. Wanda placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, in an attempt to be comforting. "He has them, he has all of them."

"Anastazya..." Wanda mumbled. "Are you okay?"

"No, I am not okay," She choked out, running her hands down her face and slamming them onto the table. Wanda jumped when an abandoned, half empty water bottle on the coffee table exploded, and the ground gave a small tremor.

"Hey, let us calm down, yeah? We will get them back Princessa," Pietro told her. Ana slowly stood to her feet, and turned to look at him.

"They are Earth's Mightiest Heroes, if they couldn't do it now, no one else can."

A strong gust of air knocked down several picture frames off of the walls, causing them to shatter on the floor, and Anastazya didn't even flinch.

"We will call people! You have friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. who will help you, I am sure of it. We will get them back, and we kick Ultron into next millennium. All is well. All will be well," He told her, approaching her the way most people approached a scared animal or a deranged lunatic, slowly with their hands up.

"We have to get out of here first yes? Is there anyone you can call right now to get us out of here?" Wanda asked.

Ana nodded.

"That is good. Let us get out of here and call them, . We must get changed, and prepared and get out of here. Ultron is probably on his way, as we speak. We must flee the building," Wanda told her, and before Ana knew it, she was in Pietro's arms once more, being zoomed to her bedroom.

"We must leave in ten minutes. Wanda, get Anastazya dressed and prepared. I will get our own things," Pietro ordered, glancing at Ana once more before speeding off to their shared quarters down the hallway.

Wanda was quick and gentle to redress Ana's wounds and get her into a clean outfit she could travel in. They couldn't use their suits now, it would put an even worse target on their backs.

Pietro appeared in Ana's room five minutes after he left, newly dressed with a small backpack on his back. Ana pulled her hair back into a a high ponytail and shoved a wad of emergency cash in her pocket, that Tony had given her.

Ana called the first emergency contact in her phone, and he answered after one ring.

"What is it? I'm busy," Nick Fury's voice grumbled into the phone.

"The lion sleeps tonight," Ana told him gravely, a code that Fury taught her to use if anything were to happen to the team or herself. She could not speak out of code, on the off chance that Ultron was listening into their conversation.

The line was silent for a moment before he answered back.

"Will he wake by morning?"

"He will not, he's had a tough day with the zookeepers," Ana sighed.

"Can you meet me at the Tiger Exhibit?"

"I can. What time should we meet there?"

"Say, maybe in about thirty minutes?"

"Sounds peachy. See you then." Ana told him, before hanging up her phone. She then dropped it on the floor and kicked it underneath her bed. The twins looked at her suspiciously.

"You two trust me right?" Ana asked, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets.

They nodded.

"Then you will follow me, with no questions asked. This just got a lot more dangerous. We have to go ghost protocol," Ana informed them. "Any cellphones or devices you have must be abandoned here."

Pietro sighed and pulled his phone out of his back pocket and dropped it on the floor. Ana nodded in approval before walking out of her room.

"Friday?" She called out.

"Yes Miss Dmitriev?"

"Disable all the computers. If anyone enters the tower after the three of us leave, self destruct. Leave no remains. Are my orders clear?"

"Yes, Miss Dmitriev."

"Good." Ana said, turning to look at the twins again.

"Let's move out."