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"First and foremost, our main objective is to get any intel on Captain Rambeau, but originally, this case was a missing person, so we’re going to start there." Agent Woo addresses me, Darcy and the other agents working on the case. It was a lot. I kept what FRIDAY told me to myself. I want to figure this out first before I tell anyone. And I don’t know anyone here. Better to be safe than sorry.
"We’ve successfully identified two individuals inside the Westview anomaly. Let’s keep going."
And that's exactly what we did.
We split up into teams. Darcy Woo and I were in charge of identifying the people while FRIDAY was pretty much in charge of getting all the information she could find on them.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hart." I told Woo as I placed their photos from the TV and their real life drivers license I collected on the board. It wasn't really hard to find out the identities of the people that popped in every episode. "Played by Todd and Sharon Davis."
I still haven't found that neighbor of theirs. Agnes. Strange. The nosy neighbor. Which was weird because FRIDAY can find anyone and everyone.
"Harold Copter is Jones." Darcy said as she slapped another ID on the board.
"We got Isabel Matsueida cast as Beverly." Woo said. I walked up to the board and placed another paper. "John Collins as Herb." This has got to be the easiest case I've ever worked on. We got all the information we could about our victims. While also trying to figure out or more really, guess what it is that happens to them when they aren’t off screen.
I quickly developed a software that I could use to identify how many people were in the hex. I had it linked to one of the many STARK Industries satellites. It wasn’t hard to find out which two people in the hex were Wanda and Vision. Hayward seemed curiously interested in Vision. Can’t imagine why. It’s not like he stole him or anything.
He still hadn’t even told us how Wanda got her hands on Vision in the first place.
Darcy and I returned to the TV set to continue identifying people when we saw Monica Rambeau sitting on screen. She looked exactly like the characters on the screen, all dressed up. But she seemed to actually be playing a role and not even calling herself by her actual name. When we saw her we called Jimmy over, he was the one who had met her earlier. And maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us.
“That is her.” Jimmy confirmed. I figured as much. "Does she seem okay to you?"
"Well, she doesn’t appear to be harmed in any way, but that is definitely not the boss lady I met yesterday." Woo noted. I sat back in my chair, biting my pen in thought as I focused on the screen. Why? I had a feeling it was because of Wanda's mind manipulation abilities. But she had to be using a lot of power if she was controlling an entire town.
"So what, deep cover?" Darcy questioned. "Monica has to play along?"
"With whom? Or else, what? All right." Woo enthusiastically claps his hands. "Brass tacks, Dr. Lewis and Ms. Strucker. What are we lookin’ at here? Is it an alternate reality? Time travel? Some cockamamie social experiment?"
Darcy and I shake our heads. We thought it was obvious. It's literally a sitcom. I mean granted something else is happening but that's what the majority of it is. I knew why, but I wasn't telling them that.
"It’s a sitcom.” I stated the obvious. “A 1950s sitcom."
"But why?"
I knew why. Kind of. Still don't. “If I had to guess, someone was mind controlling them. Why? I don’t know.”
I stood from my chair and picked up my research papers. "I have an errand to run but I'll be back later." I informed them and Darcy nodded. "Please make a pitstop for some coffee," She paused to whisper and point to the table of food assortment for those who were working on the case. "Their coffee sucks."
She was right. It sucked. "I promise."
I head back to my car, clocking out of the tent. Pepper was okay with what I was doing. She didn't know the true reason why I was staying.
FRIDAY ended up finding where my good old friend uncle list was staying at. When Dad was arrested, he and List were thrown in the same prison. But when Dad got killed the prison wasn't deemed nearly as safe as it was planned to be.
So a few inmates got moved. Him included and ever since the blip he was moved again.
Too a new maximum German prison. And guess who's got clearance. I will admit it took awhile to make it back to Germany. Berlin. Being back home brought back memories. Some good and some unwanted.
"Wie geht es List?" TRANSLATION: "So how is List doing?" I asked the guard as he walked me through the prison. The guard shrugged. "Er bleibt für sich. Du wärst sein erster Besucher."
TRANSLATION: He keeps to himself. You'd be his first visitor.
Well that's a surprise. Note the sarcasm.
When we reached his cell, the guard swiped his keycard and opened the door. I stepped inside, List had a secluded cell from everyone else given who he was and what he did. What he can do. He still looked the same even after all these years.
I faked a smile as I stared at him through the glass wall that separated us. "Hey uncle List." No we are not at all related, but he was Dad’s closest friend and confidant. He might as well be my uncle. And of course he fits the criminal criteria.
List laughs delighted, that old cackle of his as he stands to face the glass. He wore the standard prison uniform, and his hair was a little unkept. His cell had posters of the period table and books like Shakespeare and Hemingway. "Little Veronica. It's been a few years."
"Yeah well I was gone for 5 years." I muttered, stepping closer to the glass. "While you've been here, paying your debt to society. How's that been going?"
List scowls. "Why are you here Veronica? You didn't come when your father was murdered so why now?"
Okay apart from the total kick to the gut right there, I wanted to start talking about Wanda and the experiments but his words made me sidetrack.
"Did you ever think maybe I didn't come because I didn't want to see my father's murdered body?" I said with crossed arms. Because I did not want to see him. I made the avengers get his body from the morgue after everything that happened so I could bury him.
Which I did. Next to my mother in the family plot. There is no more space in the plot. If I end up dying, which given my job and my life I’ll probably die young, I would have to be buried separately. If there is a body left to bury.
List scoffs. "Please. You hated your father. I am sure you were pleased when Ultron killed him."
"Don't you dare talk about my father." I snapped. "My relationship with him was and is none of your business!" I don’t even know why I was so upset. Dad has been dead for nearly 9 years. And it’s not like we had the best relationship. But he was still my father. I hate him. But at the same time I love him. Ugh, family is complicated.
List rolled his eyes. "You know the little girl I knew back when wouldn't have betrayed her family or her family business."
"I am not the same girl you knew!" I yelled at him. "That naive little girl grew up.”
At school we learned about Captain America. Steve. His battle against HYDRA, so imagine my surprise when the hero I looked up to hunted criminals like my family. My entire family, dating back a hundred years when HYDRA was first formed, is all they ever did.
My fathers family had been building stuff for HYDRAs growth for years. The Struckers are a very powerful German Barron family that has influenced HYDRA for years. The funny thing is that we have a family vault that half of HYDRA thinks is a myth.
My mom's family is another thing. My great grandfather was the one who supplied HYDRA with the first prototype of the super soldier serum from Erisken. The same serum that would create Red Skull. He got a huge promotion there. The Malick family has been leading HYDRA ever since then. My grandfather actually served on the world security council.
But the one thing both my family’s have in common is not me. It’s the fact that every member is dead. I used to love my family, even when I knew they weren’t perfect. Even when I knew Mom was cold towards me, she focused more on her work than her own daughter and the same thing with Dad. They both prioritized their work over their own daughter. I had a nanny till I was 8. She basically raised me.
The only good memory I have with Mom is her reading me the classic princess stories from the Brothers Grimms. Because the classic movies like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were German first. And not exactly appropriate for a 6 year old.
"Believe me I would have told someone sooner if I could, had it not been for Pierce who threatened them all." I might have hated them but I wasn't a monster. He threatened everyone I ever knew and loved. My friends, my brother. As for my father, deep down I still loved him. Very deep down.
I exhaled and put the thoughts and memories behind me. That's not what I came here for.
"I'm here because I unfortunately need your help." I admitted, shoving my hands into my coat pockets because I really did not want to come to him for help but I had no choice. "It's about Wanda."
List perked up with interest at her name. "Yes, I heard the twin died."
"It's not about Pietro. Her powers have grown." I informed him. I wasn't obviously going to tell him everything that's happening. Just the necessities. "She's doing stuff I didn't know she could do."
"Like what?"
"Classified. But let's just say her powers have grown beyond my control, and from the looks of it her control. You worked with Dad during the experiments, how exactly did it all work?"
List shrugged and sat down at his tiny little desk. "It was simple. We exposed the subjects to the raw power of the Chitauri Scepter. Or I guess the mind stone. And you know everyone except the twins and yourself never survived."
I've always wondered why. I mean Dad used the scepter on me without knowing it would work. Granted it worked on the twins; but the chance of it working on me. I was surprised he took the risk but I was dying. Still, I would have rathered if it didn't work. I hate Ward for even letting him do it to me.
"How come we survived?" I questioned and List shakes his head, clueless. "Your father thought it was probably a mutation but blood labs never said otherwise, until you."
"Me?"
"You remember the incident." Sure. Incident is a delicate way of putting it. How about my near death experience? Stupid genetics.
"Your father thought it would work but we had no way of knowing. Even with the success of the twins. But it did. While you recovered we took a sample of your blood and tested it, and it showed you had a mutation. The scepter might have activated it.” He paused and raised a curious eyebrow at me. “Have you never wondered why your disease went away?”
Of course I have. Eventually it would have killed me, but suddenly from one day to the other it was gone. I just assumed that it was because of my powers. I never realized it could have come from some mutation. Or both.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?" I would have liked to know about a mutation. Especially considering I almost died that night. What if the mutation is deadly? There are a lot of ifs that I know wanted answered.
"We wanted to be certain it was the cause. And well now we can't know for sure."
I cursed. Right. The Chitauri scepter is gone. Well, the mind stone is anyway. But … I have Visions energy scans saved on my computer. I can totally see if anything matches. Or if anything comes close anyway.
"Thank you for the help List," I said out of respect. It wasn't exactly what I had come for, but it gave me some answers. I don‘t remember much of what happened when I got my powers. I was unconscious for most of it. "Veronica," List approached the glass wall that separated us. "Say hello to your fathers grave for me."
It caught me off guard. But I nodded. "Sure List."