Age Of Miracles | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Thirty-Seven: An Angel and A Devil

Music is "Divided We Fall (Extended Theme)" by Henry Jackman from the Captain America: Civil War score

Picture is the Outrider.

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"Everyone's got an angel and a devil on their shoulder. What matters is which one you listen to."

- Eddie Brock, Venom

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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

They came.

It only took a few hours for Wanda and Ally to work out a system that used Wanda's telepathic powers and Ally's connection with every other Killbane mutate to send the message. The message that read something like, "Hi, this is the Avengers. We're in deep, deep shit and if we don't get some extra help, we're all dead. Wanna help?" Wanda showed them what we're up against, Thanos and his children, as well as confessing who would train them and why we needed them. She gave them the address of the Avengers HQ, and we waited for a few more hours afterwards for someone, anyone, to show up and volunteer. I didn't expect anyone to care.

But, surprisingly, after waiting almost half a day, people of all ages, backgrounds, and colors started trickling in. Grandparents, parents, children, and everyone in between showed up to help. I can't explain the gigantic smile that spread across my face when we ran out of room in the Avengers common area and had to move to the gymnasium just to get people's names and powers organized into groups.

There's an amazing spectrum of powers of powers displayed in this stadium. There are telepaths, telekinetics, elementals, super-humans, energy-manipulators, extreme-intellects, time-travellers, portal-creators, weapons specialists, speedsters, magicians, shapeshifters, fliers, reality-manipulators, teleporters, power-mimics, healers, invisibles, vision-based powers, and even those who can adapt to survive under any circumstance. After going through a few hundred of these, it occurs to me that we're going to need a lot more than Killbane to teach these people how to use their powers; we're going to need someone from each power category, or at least someone who's powers are close.

I I take a break from signing people in, tell Bucky I'll be back with help, and leave the Avengers building with my cell raised to my ear. "What went wrong?" my husband's voice asks.

I roll my eyes. "So much faith in me, Pietro. I swear."

"Sorry. You said you would call if you needed help. So..."

I smile and answer, "I do, actually. Can you meet me at Xavier's school in a few minutes?"

"I can. Why?"

"Turns out we got all the mutate help we needed, but now we need people to help them. I thought Killbane could handle it on his own, but there are so many of them and they have powers across categories you would not believe. I think we need some help from the greatest teacher of all time, as well as some of my old friends. You in?"

"Sounds like a great plan, возлюбленная. I'll be there in a flash." I hear his laughter on the other side, along with the voice of my sister, Bex, saying that that was the lamest joke she's ever heard.

I shake my head and laugh along with him. "You're a dork."

"Yes, but I am your dork, so that makes it okay, da?"

"Yes, it does. See you in a minute. Love you."

"I love you, too."

Seconds after we hang up, I open a portal with my right hand. I hear footsteps behind me and turn to see my youngest running after me. Elaine comes to a stop beside me. "There's nothing I can do back there," she pleads. "Let me help."