The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

1

Pitch black. Raining. The only light came from the half-concealed moon through the thick, relentless sheets of water pouring onto the European roads and turning sodden fields into swamps. So much different to the winter wonderland of San Francisco, which seemed like an age ago, although it was only two days. Or three? It had to be the early hours of the morning now.

They'd been bundled into the back of this truck, Stephen at one window, Scott at the other, Loki in the middle, with a dark screen separating them from the driver, for at least five hours, without a stop. As far as they knew, they were in the middle of nowhere. Stephen had had his face pressed against the chilled window so long he couldn't even feel the cold anymore, staring out into the darkness, watching the swampy countryside pass them, thinking about anything and nothing. The silence between the three of them was uninterrupted – they'd had too much time to talk, and there was nothing left to distract them from what had happened, and what was to happen when they made it.

Not kidnapped, of course. The combined powers of the three of them could never allow chance for that to happen. But that didn't stop Stephen from feeling like it.

Lifting his eyes to the glowing, partly concealed moon, Stephen allowed his mind to replay the events on the cliff again in his mind...

"Wanda Maximoff's come back onto the radar. And she wants to speak to you," Hope said, watching their reactions unfold hesitantly.

He'd heard Scott swear, but Stephen simply stared at her, face empty of expression aside from a small frown, as the words sank in. Wanda. Wanda Maximoff was one of their friends, a friend who'd disappeared without a trace, apparently vanished off the face of the planet. Until now, it seemed. And she'd made a squadron of soldiers disappear, and it was unclear what had happened with them. But she was willing to speak to them. Not some government. Not some Avengers representatives. Them.

And he had no clue why.

Why now? Why vanish for five months and ignore all his texts and then suddenly re-emerge in such a dramatic way?

Scott was the only one of the three that seemed to be able to find his words, for he managed to stutter out a few curse words that didn't really mean anything. But eventually he asked, "Wanda Maximoff... wait, in Sokovia? And there's energy spikes and stuff? World-destroying power? What, is she trying to make the world explode or something?"

Stephen managed to meet Loki's eye, who was looking just as shocked as he felt, a surprise in itself, because he was normally so good at concealing his emotions, and extremely pale. He was unusually pale anyway, but if possible, he looked even paler, unless it was just the light from the firework illusions, which he waved his hand to stop, and they were in darkness, aside from the moonlight, again. It was Loki's behaviour, or lack thereof, more than anything else, that assured him that whatever was happening with Wanda was something to worry about. Loki was kind of like his threat level judge – if Loki thought a situation was worth worrying about, or even remotely challenging, then Stephen automatically internally freaked out about it. And now he was looking shocked.

As the fireworks subsided, Scott noticed the way the two of them were looking – Stephen assumed he must be pulling a similar face to Loki – and said, in the most joking voice he could muster, "I feel like I've under-reacted."

"Or overreacted," Stephen offered, failing to pull off a carefree voice. He sounded weirdly strained, even to himself. Ignoring the looks Scott and even Loki gave him, he turned to Hank and Hope to request more details, but they couldn't give them much else.

"There is nothing else we know," Hank said, frowning, or maybe that was just his normal face. Stephen definitely hadn't seen him do much else other than frown. "Only that she is a magical individual of immense power, and these energy levels have the significance to be regarded as highly dangerous. Plus, the very fact that the people sent in haven't returned could suggest possible hostile intentions."