Chapter 111: The Girl in Red

23rd February 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda was ready. Her teacher had given her a mission to prove herself, to get a measure of her capacity. She had trained for months in the mansion. And while she had just made a breakthrough a few hours ago, this was the perfect opportunity to experiment with her newfound control over her powers.

Wanda was already feeling powerful, in control, like nothing could stop her. Her mission was simple, she was to defeat the Juggernaut and use the weird artifact Jasmine gave her to remove his connection to the elder god Cyttorak. Apparently, her teacher had been collecting all the artifacts left by the elder gods to gain a foothold on Earth after being banished and those were some of the few that she hadn’t retrieved yet.

It was a very important mission and Wanda was proud that her teacher had trusted her with it. She was also a bit nervous; she hadn’t tried anything beyond her telekinesis and she wasn’t sure that it would be enough for her to succeed her mission. Her teacher had assured her that she trusted Wanda to complete the mission but will remain hidden and will intervene if she’s in serious danger. The teenager was somewhat reassured by this, but she was still nervous nonetheless.

But mission aside, Wanda was glad that she was outside for the first time. The teenage witch was in the Vault for years and even when Jasmine had gotten her out, she was still confined to the mansion until she learnt to control her powers. The mansion was amazing; there was magic everywhere, she could still get outside in the giant garden, she had everything she could ever want inside. Don’t get her wrong; she was appreciative of it, she really was.

But there was something in the freedom of going wherever you want. And since her new mother figure had deigned her control to be enough to go outside, Wanda was going to go visit everything she had missed in the last few years. She was going to a restaurant, eat fast food, go to the park, hang out with people her age. Wanda doesn’t remember the last time that she was that exciting. And Jasmine was being supportive as well. She was really starting to genuinely love that woman; her image and that of her birth mother kept overlapping and she almost called her ‘mom’ earlier today.

Now back to the mission, Jasmine had made her a portal in front of mansion. The gate was smashed in. Probably the Juggernaut’s fault. From what she remembers from the Vault, the guy had to be sedated all the time and in a prison that stopped any type of movement. Apparently, once he starts moving, there was nothing that could stop him. Something that her mentor told her was somewhat true except that he could be stopped using very advanced magic or in her case, very strong telekinesis.

Wanda slowly walked towards the mansion. It was a testament of luxury, and it reminded her of Sayre manor, except without the magic or the protections. Wanda was sure that the Juggernaut couldn’t even step one foot into Sayre Manor, unlike this joke of an academy. Wanda looked around to find destroyed drones and weapons littering the ground. Pathetic; even she would have been able to get past this and she was a teenaged girl with a few months of training who spent years being locked up in a mental asylum slash prison.

Wanda followed the trail of destroyed equipment and traps towards the mansion where she could see the conflict between the so called X-men and the Juggernaut. The teenaged witch was surprised to find Mystique and her group, the brotherhood which also includes her brother.

She hadn’t expected speaking with him during this mission. She didn’t think that she was ready. After all, while he did abandon her and she could forgive him for that, he was also a kid like her so she couldn’t be too harsh about it. Not to mention, there was nothing he could do about it. Defying Magneto, even Pietro was his son, was met with harsh punishment. Adding on the fact that she probably terrified the living hell out of him during her little reality manipulation stunt where she imprisoned him in his own mind to fit that absurd little fantasy of hers which led him to get him memories erased by a telepath working for Magneto.

The situation was extremely complicated, and that was saying it mildly. For now, she’ll just avoid speaking with him until she dealt with her feelings first. Wanda watched as the idiot in glasses revealed their location by literally sending a beam of energy towards the Juggernaut. Which did nothing, by the way. This asserted her original opinion; the X-men were idiots.

Wanda watched as her brother and a weird blue devil boy get them out of there before, they end up as little smears in the ground. The redhead though impressed her, being able to use her telekinesis to slow down the so called unstoppable Juggernaut.

Jasmine had told her about this girl. Jean Grey, another potential candidate as her student. But only as a student, Wanda was her true apprentice. Not this redhead idiot who refused Jasmine’s generous offer of tutelage. Jasmine revealed to Wanda that while Jean was more powerful, Wanda had the potential to match her by perfecting her control. Wanda was a full on mage, not a mutant after all. But both of them were similar in the fact that they had mental issues stopping them from properly controlling their powers.

She listened to their plan which wasn’t that bad; they had to immobilize the intruder and then remove his helmet and knock him out using telepathy. And they almost succeeded for a moment before they were thrown in the ground. Wanda watched as the giant champion of Cyttorak slowly made his way towards the redhead who could do nothing but try and fail to use her telekinesis to stop him.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Wanda decided to intervene now. Jasmine told her that she was going to reveal herself sooner or later so if she wants to, she could just show herself to the X-men and while the teenaged witch doesn’t like people knowing about her escape from the Vault, she didn’t want another person to die just so that she could stay anonymous.

Wanda then used her telekinesis and a familiar red glow appeared in her hands, she raised the Juggernaut in the air and threw him away. The mage almost laughed at the looks of confusion in their faces until their realization that someone outside their little group had saved them. They looked at her and Wanda was uncomfortable with the attention. But she focused on one person in particular, Pietro was looking her with fear in his eyes. He paled just at the sight of her.

“W…Wanda?” she heard her brother utter, scared out of him mind and it broke her heart a little to see him being so openly fearful of her.

She suppressed the emotions; she had a mission after all.

“Pietro, it’s been a while.” She replied.

“How… When… How did you get out?” Pietro asked.

The witch in red answered, “This is not the time for this, Pietro. We’ll talk later.”

She was proven right with the tremors that kept getting closer. The Juggernaut was running towards them. “YOU’RE DEAD GIRLY” the champion of Cyttorak yelled.

Wanda used her telekinesis to throw the other teenagers away before jumping into the air with a burst of her telekinesis, narrowly dodging the giant man running at her. While she was in the air, she created a red ball of energy using her telekinesis before throwing it at the back of Juggernaut. Adding to him own momentum, he fell down and was sent barreling into the earth, creating a line in the dirt that was almost two meters deep.

She yelled at Pietro, “Remove his helmet, quickly,” she then looked at Jean Grey, “Knock him out once the helmet is off.”

The artifact that removes the gem from Juggernaut was a somewhat slow one. It should take less than a minute but it’s a long time in a fight. Which meant that the champion of Cyttorak had to immobilized so that she successfully removes the gem.

Pietro moved towards the downed opponent and was able to remove one of the two latches but was quickly thrown back when the Juggernaut figured out what was happening. Wanda caught him with his telekinesis and angry that someone almost hurt her brother, she propelled herself towards her opponent who was slowly getting up. She used her telekinesis to levitate him into the air, binding him.

She was angry beyond belief. He dared to hurt her brother, her twin. She used her powers, slowly affecting the red armor, breaking small pieces of it. She was going to destroy this insignificant bug in front of her. The giant floating man was groaning in pain at the attack.

Suddenly, her attack was getting harder and harder to maintain. The teenaged witch noticed that the armor started glowing slightly and repairing itself. As for the Juggernaut, his previous grimace of pain turned into a malicious bloodthirsty grin. He looked at her, “Huh, not bad girly, thanks for the power up.”

Before she could even comprehend what had happened, Juggernaut sent a punch her way. Wanda was able to create a shield to protect her, but she was still sent flying back.

She didn’t have time to even think before her opponent was in front of her, arm raised. Was he faster now? He was definitely stronger; her shield would have stopped his last punch.

His oncoming punch contained all of his momentum and Wanda instinctively knew that she couldn’t match is easily. She chose to propel herself sideways to dodge instead. She man got past her but righted himself in an impressive show of agility. So, he was even more controlled now. Previously, he had just continued forward.

Wanda tried to send in another blast at him but it splashed through his armor. The man grinned, “Doesn’t work anymore, girly. Nice try though. This is a lot more fun than just killing Charles. I guess I can kill him after we’re done!”

Juggernaut sent a haymaker at her, who blocked it using her telekinesis. Without a run up, his strength was somewhat manageable. Wanda countered with a blast to his face, aiming for his eyes. His head was knocked back and the Wanda propelled herself into the air and sent in a powerful telekinetic blast back. He was only sent a few feet back. What the hell is that guy. Wanda looked around her to find the rest of the X-men and the Brotherhood just gaping at her. What the hell, were they just watching or something. She was getting destroyed here.

She looked at the most powerful member, “Red, I need some help here…”

Grey broke from her stupor and moved to assist her. Wanda hated to admit that they worked well together. Each oncoming punch was being blocked or redirected by one of them and countered with a blast to his face.

The champion of Cyttorak must have been getting very angry because he yelled out, “ENOUGH!”

He clapped his hand, creating a shockwave, sending them both flying back. The Juggernaut jumped in the air, preparing for a finishing strike. How she wishes that she had learnt proper reality manipulation before today. She was sure she could have beat him if she did. Wanda was sure that she was going to die. She closed her eyes, preparing for the worst.

But then nothing happened. She opened her eyes to find the Juggernaut frozen in the air, as if time itself stopped.

“Looks like you needed help, kiddo.”

Wanda almost cried out in joy at the voice. It was Jasmine. She had come to help like she promised she would. Wanda ran towards her and gave her a hug. The fight was a lot harder than she thought it would be. She was so scared.

Her mother figure ran her hand through her hair, “Shhhh, you did well, Wanda. I’m proud of you. Now let me take care of this, yeah?”

Wanda nodded slowly and Jasmine just walked towards the frozen Juggernaut and tapped his chest a few times. Slowly, the armor and helmet started to peal of the man, and focused into his chest, creating a glowing gem that radiated power. Wanda noticed that the Juggernaut started to shrink as well. His muscles started to get smaller. In the end, the man was still very muscular but he looked less like a steroid monster, he looked more human.

When she was done, Jasmine chucked the gem through a portal, probably sending it somewhere safe where it wouldn’t be used again.

“Who are you, girly?” the savage looking man with metal claws growled.

Wanda heard her teacher mutter, “troublesome…” and the teenaged witch had to agree, the situation indeed looked troublesome.