E/d note: No more cookie tax required, please save your power stones for more deserving books! This series is trash and I am a trash editor! But I will continue to be the trash editor that will try to bring this MTL to you.
'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word count: 1,349)
~ With Wanda and Pietro ~
"Who are you?" Pietro asked cautiously to the lady sitting in opposite of her.
Pietro and Wanda were currently onboard a Quinjet after Hill had successfully retrieved them from the orphanage.
~ Flashback to a few moments ago, in the 'orphanage' located in Sokovia ~
Both Pietro and Wanda had been asleep in their rooms, when suddenly, they were woken up by Strucker and were told that they would be leaving the orphanage. They packed their belongings, however little they had, and followed Strucker to meet the person who would be taking them away. Along the way, Strucker did not forget to emphasize that Pietro and Wanda should keep their mouths shut about what they had gone through and what they had seen, lest the people who he worked for would come after them.
When they had met Agent Hill, she had displayed a stoic expression on her face as she visually appraised them. After which, Hill gave a nod towards Strucker, who at that point began the introductions. "Pietro, Wanda, this is Ms Maria Hill. The two of you will be under her care from today onwards." Strucker then went on to hug the both of them, while reminding them softly about what he had told them previously with Hill being none the wiser. Afterwards, Hill had turned around and began walking away as she spoke, "Follow me."
~ End of flashback, with Pietro ~
Facing the wary looks from the two, Hill began, "As Mr Strucker had introduced earlier on, my name is Maria Hill, though you can refer to me as Maria." Hill then showed her badge, "I work for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."
"Never heard of it." / "That's a mouthful to say." Came the responses from Pietro and Wanda respectively. From their response, Hill could make the initial assessment that Pietro was the more cautious between the two and Wanda was the more care-free person.
'This person is not so simple. This jet? Plane? Whatever it is, the way she carries herself, not to mention that Sokovia is in by itself a rather dangerous and lawless land. Hell, even Strucker, who I figured should have been the head of where we were staying in, had been respectful and even a little fearful of the lady before me. I remember him telling us that we were precious "subjects" and that he would never let us go. And yet, in the presence and at the request of this lady, he had.' Pietro could not help but think to himself. This had made him even more wary of the new person who would be 'taking care' of both himself and Wanda.
Wanda however, had been clutching the diary in her hands tighter, though to Pietro and Hill, it just looked as if she was hugging herself.
Seeing the reactions of the two, Hill could only sigh internally. "The two of you won't have to worry. If I had come to seek harm to you, then we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." Hill pointed out. "Rest assured, we will not harm the both of you in any way."
'She has a point. If they truly did want to hurt us, we wouldn't be able to sit here and have this conversation. At least, Strucker would always tell us to not speak, and he never let us do anything but sit around and wait for orders.' Pietro thought. 'But then again, why us? Before entering that god forsaken place, I could see all around that there were kids younger than me who were struggling worse than we had been. If anything, we could be considered lucky with Strucker. At least we had shelter, a bed and 3 meals a day.'
"Then where are you taking us, and why us? There were many other kids back there, but you only took the two of us." Pietro asked.
Facing the questions from Pietro, Hill took a moment to gather her thoughts. She needed to reply in a way that did not make it seem like she had sought them out specifically, because even she herself was unsure as to why Fury had personally asked for her to find and bring them to him safe and sound. "To answer your first question, I will be taking you to New York City. There is someone who would like to meet you personally. As for the second question, only that person can answer it for you."
"Look, I can't say much about knowing what it's like to live in a war-torn country. From the condition of the orphanage, I can tell that the area you were in was not too affected, but the thoughts of 'what if the fighting reached here' would make every day a living hell." Hill said. At this, Pietro could only think to himself, 'You have no idea. If it weren't for the threat made by Strucker, I would have already ratted that place out. But no, not yet. I also don't know the relationship between your organization and his. All I know is someone once told me and Wanda that something called SHIELD, which is suspiciously the acronym to your organization, was a horrible and evil organization. I'll see for myself before I decide on anything.'
"But you're out now. We will be arranging for the two of you a safe and comfortable accommodation. From the files provided by the orphanage, the two of you will be turning 17 this year, so you will be attending High School as seniors. You will no longer have to be in constant fear for your lives and can live freely from now on. We will make sure of it." Hill said.
Hearing the sweet words from Hill, Pietro and Wanda had become even more guarded, as they would not be fooled into another false sense of security like they had been before.
Seeing this, Hill did not say anything more and remained silent. 'Just who are these kids and what does Fury want with them? He didn't even give me much details, that way, if anyone with higher clearance than me asks, I won't be able to give them much.' Hill pondered. 'Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, what happened in that orphanage that you would be so guarded towards strangers. A little caution is fine, but this Pietro, he is exuding even more caution than the average lower levelled SHIELD agents.'
In fact, Hill had observed some peculiarities within the orphanage. For instance, both Wanda and Pietro seemed to have frozen up slightly when Strucker had made a move to hug them both. Moreover, Hill did not see much children around, and the ones she did see had a huge age difference between them and these siblings. 'I will have to report this to Fury, something is going on in that orphanage. And from the reactions of these two, it's likely not anything good.'
- End of Chapter 27 -
Next time in C28 - Luke passed the Test!
"So, Luke may be an ability or multiple ability user? What of his psyche evaluations?" Fury questioned.
*IMPORTANT PLEASE READ FOR STORY UPDATES!*
I have been given my schedule and it does not look good. For South East Asians, especially Malaysians, you should be aware that Malaysia suffered an attack on a police station, killing 2 officers 3 days ago. Then yesterday at Penang, a drunkard had attempted to snatch the gun of a Police officer at the police station as well. With all these happening, the security in Singapore is ramping up, coupled with the fact the Shangri-La summit is happening soon.
So my deployment is a full shift deployment :'< leaving me with not much free time throughout. As such, I am going to have to do staggered uploads during this period.
New upload schedule during my reservist cycle is as follows: Monday 1 chapter, Wednesday 1 chapter, Friday 1 chapter. The rest of the days will have no chapters for the time being as the shift work will eat weekends as well xD for anyone wondering i will be deployed in 14 hour shifts, 1 - 2 - sleep - off starting tomorrow. meaning that realistically i will only have the "off" day to prepare chapters.