Fractured {Wanda Maximoff}

01 - "Guess the Gig is Up."

Helena Rowe was amazed.

Not so much by the beauty of a woman standing before her, smiling creepily, but at the fact that she was still alive. Usually, when her power blasted out of her on this kind of scale, everyone within a block's radius got infected. Those closest in the splash zone were instantly killed. Others started out ill and then eventually succumbed to the same grisly fate.

But not this brunette standing before her. A brunette, she realized, whose irises were glowing red.

"You're alive?" Helena gasped.

The brunette tilted her head. "Should I not be?" The red glow to her irises disappeared, revealing green eyes.

Helena swallowed. How was she going to talk her way out of this? For all she knew, the brunette could be an undercover cop who finally caught on to the body trail she'd been (unintentionally) leaving behind! Or worse...she worked for a government agency and they were to detain her and experiment on her, locking her away in some CIA black site—

"Who was trying to rob who?" the brunette asked, cutting Helena off from her thoughts. She now realized the brunette had an accent. It wasn't one that could be easily identified.

Helena scoffed. "I was trying to rob him, obviously." She winced, remembering her struggle for survival. The intruder would have abducted her, had she not panicked herself into an episode. "If you already called the cops, that's my cue to scram."

The brunette shook her head. "I called no one. I happened upon the complex. There's...quite the mess outside of here."

Helena buried her face in her hands. It was what she had feared most, after she realized she let her emotions activate her power. Some of those people she knew to be neighbors.

"Tell me, did you do this?"

Helena picked her head up. "Do what?"

The brunette moved around the couch, back towards the dead body. "The cadaver, or I should say cadavers."

Helena used the couch as support to hoist herself up off the floor. She couldn't spill the truth to this stranger. She would never believe a word. "Some freak with powers must've swooped in."

The brunette smirked. "I never said what kind of mess it was. Thank you for confirming what I suspected."

Damn it! "Guess the gig is up. Yeah, those people are dead because of me, but not because I wanted them dead!" Her lower lip quivered. "This douchebag," she nudged the intruder with her toe, "thought I was a prime target. I panicked, got upset, then..." She made an explosion gesture, equipped with her own sound effect.

"So...you detonate, like a bomb?"

"Not exactly." Helena cleared her throat. "I, um...my ability, it's tied to my emotion. Stressed, pissed, those really activate it." She shook her head. "You must think I'm insane. I mean, people aside from the Avengers who have powers? Impossible!"

The brunette frowned deeply. "It's not impossible." Her eyes glowed red once again, and Helena now noticed one of her hands held red wisps.

"So...your power is the color red?"

The brunette snorted through her nostrils impatiently. "No...the most accurate term you can associate me with is a witch, though don't ever call me that. I can hear others' thoughts, pry into their heads, make them see what I want them to see. That's just scratching the surface." Her fist closed, and the red wisps disappeared. "I know how you feel. Your power, it's a lot. Sometimes you feel you can't control it. I can help you."

"Uh-uh. Nobody can help me tame this beast. Once it infects someone, they're marked for death. I'm the walking plague, really. And this walking plague needs to keep on walking in search for her next squatting place."

"Maybe I can help with that."

Helena raised a dark brow. "Why would you want to help me?"

"We have something in common. We're looking to live our lives. However, with what we possess, we must learn to adapt and adjust. I can help you with both." The brunette smiled timidly, nowhere near the creepy first smirk she had worn previously. She extended her hand out to Helena. "What do you say?"

She's taunting me. If what she says is true, then she'll know I can't touch people without infecting them. She thought of the various people that died, all with one simple touch from her. Her parents. Rhett, her previous boyfriend. Countless strangers. The intruder. Her apartment neighbors were collateral from her explosion of power, which had grown a lot since she first discovered how deadly it could be.

Due to the nature of her ability, Helena opted to be solo. It was out of fear, mostly. Her parents perished at her hands, and so had Rhett. She'd decided living by herself was the best option. She could do social interaction, as long as it didn't require forming any bond that required any physical contact.

What this brunette was offering was the very thing Helena didn't want to be pulled back in to. But if I say no, there's no guarantee she won't attempt to murder me. By first impressions alone, Helena was slightly intimidated by the brunette.

With a sigh of defeat, Helena said, "Give me some time to erase my presence, and then we'll go."