Chapter 140: Asteroid M

5th June 2006, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

Wanda had to admit that she was curious about the machine Pietro was talking about. Don’t get her wrong, she doesn’t want to use it herself, but she was curious how someone could actually improve mutant powers, which are basically limited magical powers. Plus, if things start getting too dangerous, it would be easy for her to tell Jasmine. Her mother figure had given her a small magical rune that would be able to signal her, no matter where she is.

Resigned, Wanda nodded, “Fine. Let’s just get this over with.”

Suddenly a giant sphere of metal appeared above them and enveloped the two siblings. They stayed together for a few minutes until the sphere opened once more. They were somewhere different, something felt off about this place. The teenaged witch looked at Pietro questioningly and the man just smirked at her, “Welcome, Wanda, to Asteroid M.”

Wanda looked around and she was sure that there was something off. The so called Asteroid M was some sort of high tech cavern, at least by the looks of it. Wanda searched for the nearest exit, to find nothing. How had they gotten in, then? She immediately recognized the metal spheres as Magneto’s work, so the walls could be made of metal and he manipulated it to allow entry and then closed it, trapping anyone inside this place. No one would be going out without the master of magnetism’s permission.

After a second look, Wanda noticed a small window. Why did a cave have a window? It didn’t make any sense. Slowly, the young witch walked towards it and what she saw made her gasp in shock. It was the Earth, from space. Wanda had seen something similar online, photos taken by the international space station. But being in space was different.

No wonder everything felt different. With that little tidbit revealed, Wanda started to notice how artificial the gravity was, how she didn’t feel the world’s warmth from up here. No, she could still feel it, but it was faint, like an echo.

Oh, shit, Wanda just realized that she was in space. How the hell would Jasmine come if she called for her. Nah, Jasmine was powerful enough to be able to come. Wanda had faith in her mother. For now, she’ll just try to figure out Magneto’s angle and she would either call Jasmine when she found out enough or she would take care of it herself if she could.

Jasmine has been a bit distant for the last few months. Ever since SHIELD came to confront her. She was distracted, trying to make plans upon plans. Wanda had no idea what she’s been planning for, but considering her mother figure’s dedication, it had to be very serious. Wanda had avoided distracting her with her problems; Jasmine had already helped her so much, and the young witch didn’t want to trouble her with her petty high school issues.

Still, Wanda missed her mother. They still spent time together, but it was mostly for her lessons. They still hung out, but the time for that was starting to get smaller and smaller and the young witch was scared that Jasmine would end up forgetting about her altogether.

There were still the small glances she gave her when she thought Wanda wasn’t looking. A mixture of worry and disappointment shined in her eyes. It was heartbreaking to see that this was what Jasmine thought of her. Wanda had tried to dedicate more time to her studies, but that didn’t seem to change anything and the teenage witch was starting to get desperate. Maybe her involvement in this situation would end up being enough for her to impress her mother, and get back the affection that was starting to fade away.

Pietro’s voice broke her from her musing, “Cool, isn’t it? It’s funny how small everything looks from up here.”

“What is this place?”

“It’s an asteroid, it’s in the name, after all. Magneto hollowed out the insides to make a base of operations. He equipped it with enough cloaking technology that no one would figure out that someone was up here. Apparently, this is supposed to be his new base of operations for his revolution or something.”

Wanda snorted, “I can see that. It fits him perfectly; from here, the world looks small, attainable. He could easily see it as his. And he would be above the world, as a king, lording over humanity, judging the wicked, killing the unworthy and all that crap. He’ll probably add a crown on that bucket he calls a helmet.”

Pietro actually burst into laughter at this. He spent a good minute laughing before calming down. “God, that’s one of the funniest things I heard in a while. It seems that you developed a sense of humor, sis.”

Wanda just punched him in the shoulder. Pietro just laughed and walked towards a corridor, motioning her to follow him. They entered a room, where two men argued. One was a tall man, wearing sleek red armor with purple highlights and a purple cape that flowed down over his shoulders behind him and a strange, bullet shaped red helmet with no face guard. The other was a bald man in a wheelchair. Shit, Magneto and Xavier in the same room. Wanda could barely stomach speaking with one of them. It was going to take a lot of patience to not attack both of them on sight.

Wanda just realized that this was the first time she’s seen Magneto ever since he had left her in the Vault. Both of them seemed to argue their usual opinions, which can be summarized to ‘humans are evil, they’re going to kill us, so let’s kill them first’ and ‘humans are kind, let’s trust them with our future and hope they’re nice enough to spare our lives’. Both of them are so similar, it’s not even funny. They are both extremists that are so stubborn that they pretty much ignore any argument that don’t conform to their ideals.

Next to the arguing idiots were two teenagers. One of them was Scott and the other somewhat looked like him. They weren’t twins or anything, they just had the same nose and the same facial structures. Was he a relative of some kind? Wanda thought that Scott had lost all of his family when he was young.

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Next to them were the rest of the Brotherhood besides Toad, they were talking between themselves, probably about Magneto’s promise of powerups. However, what took Wanda’s attention were the three occupied stasis tubes that held Storm, Rogue but more importantly, Jean. The witch suppressed her fury. Jean looked unharmed and Xavier didn’t look overly worried about her and the other held up students. But why was Scott outside a stasis tube? Wanda assumed that he came by himself, probably with some convincing from his presumed family member. Not that Wanda could judge him; she had come at Pietro’s behest. But unlike him, she wasn’t willing to let anyone mess with her powers.

Magneto stopped talking to Xavier and looked at her, pleased, “Daughter.”

Wanda just ignored him and just walked towards Jean’s stasis tube, “What are your plans for them,” she asked, pointing at the tubes.

“Nothing nefarious, my dear, I am just going to do a demonstration and then I’ll let them decide whether to join me or not.”

Wanda was under no delusion that he was speaking the truth. Whether he admits it or not, Wanda knew her father like the back of her hand. When he looked at her, he saw nothing more than an asset to be used, and none of the affection he held for her, small as it had been, when she was younger could be seen. Also, Wanda knew his mentality, people were either with him, or more appropriately under his rule, or they were against him. There was no middle ground and Wanda was sure that refusing his offer wouldn’t be an option.

Wanda kept ignoring him, something that grated his nerves, no matter how he tried to look impassive. Jasmine had taught her how to get under someone’s skin.

Xavier didn’t look happy at seeing her, probably thinking that he was siding with her father, “Are you mad, Eric? I knew you were desperate for more powerful mutants, but recruiting the girl, especially in Space is a recipe for disaster.”

“Perhaps you are right, but she is my child. She has inherited my resilience and from what I heard. She has learnt how to control her powers properly and that the results were very impressive. She’s my daughter after all.”

Wanda knew that every word Magneto spoke was calculated, trying to get her to join him. However, the young witch didn’t like the way he was so familiar with her.

“Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not here for you, Magneto, nor do I acknowledge our relations. I am here because Pietro prompted me to accept. Impress me, and I’ll think about it. Disappoint me, and well, let’s just say that you’ll be unlikely to see me again without me trying to kill you for what you’ve done. Let’s just say that I’m a very bad enemy to have.”

Wanda had learnt this tactic from Jasmine. When you want to learn what someone is planning, get them to try to impress you. They’ll reveal pretty much everything just for the sake of it. Put yourself above them, and threaten them with what will happen if they disappoint you.

Magneto’s face flashed in shock for a fraction of a second, but Wanda saw it. She was sure Xavier had seen it as well. It seems the master of magnetism didn’t account on her being able to use words as weapons as well. Magneto was extremely charismatic and that was one of his most dangerous characteristics. He must have expected a power hungry, attention starved, angsty teenager he could sway easily. He sure was disappointed.

The master of magnetism continued, “Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. What I can offer you is perfection, your mutant powers evolved as far as they can go,” he looked around addressing everyone in the room, “You are here because you have proven yourselves worthy of this gift, worthy of being the leaders of mutant kind. We will work together to seize the future for Homo superior, to protect our fellow mutants from the hate and fear of Homo Sapiens.”

Well, he’s charismatic, Wanda would give him that. Everyone was nodding in agreement. The man really was good with his words.

Of course, Xavier interjected, “Are you all prepared to go to war over this. War is not a game, it’s despair, pain and death, it’s a poison that will kill everyone. There are no victors in death, only people who have lost less than the other side. Are you truly disregarding any chance of peace, just so that you could feel better about yourselves? War is not inevitable unless we make it so. His words are poison, do not listen to them.”

Scott frowned at him. "But aren't we supposed to listen to other's opinions before forming our own sir? Surely listening won't hurt anything?"

Oh, damn, he had Xavier there. The boy didn’t know how easily he was being manipulated by the two men. But he has shown that Magneto had won that round.

At Scott’s response, Xavier asked once more, pointing at the stasis tubes, “What about them, Scott. Does this show the actions of someone that just wants people to listen to him? I wonder how they're supposed to listen to anything given the state they are in thanks to our host.”

Magneto chuckled, “This is just a defensive measure. They did not come willingly. I had to take that into consideration.” He waved at the tubes and they started to open, “They should wake up now.”

And he spoke the truth, and Wanda walked towards Jean who looked confused, “Wanda? What happened?”

“Nice to see you too, Jean. Apparently, Magneto did some weird gladiator match thing where he kidnaps the winners for some reason. He said something about upgrading our powers or something.”

Jean nodded, “Did he kidnap you too?”

Wanda snorted, “Of course not. I was curious.”

The witch then sent a telepathic message to her friend, ‘I’m waiting to find out what they’re planning then I’m contacting Jasmine if I don’t like it or if it gets too hard. Don’t worry about Kitty. From what I understand, she’s fine. She just lost the fight.”

The redhead nodded at her, and Magneto started to continue his speech, “We, mutants, are different. We have power beyond the comprehension of humans. They have always hated what they don’t understand, and once our existence is revealed, we will be hunted one by one, until the only remnants of mutants will be in a small chapter in the history books.”

He had everyone’s attention with this, “Which is why, we need to unite, under one banner. We need to fight back against our oppressors. We need to protect ourselves as a race, as a people, with a similar burden, a similar suffering. Every single one of us has been discriminated against, called a freak, abnormal. Governments all over the world have started to abduct mutants, either to hunt them down or to experiment on them. Together, we have a chance. With all of our powers, all of our skills, we can survive. And to do so, we must be at our peak. Most of you have barely scratched the surface of your potential and what I’m offering is to unleash it, to skip a lifetime’s worth of training, to truly master your powers to their full potential in minutes.”

He had everyone enraptured now, and he knew it. Magneto moved over to a device that was connected to another doorway leading into a small circular area, the walls sloping inward to a point. There was a somewhat familiar gem that was stuck at that point. It was glowing ominously. Wanda didn’t like it.

The master of Magnetism looked proudly at it, “this is the Genetic Enhancer. Through shooting gamma rays through the gem, I can enhance the powers of a mutant in the room to their full potential.”

Wanda looked more closely at the gem. It felt familiar. A memory jolted in her mind, of her fight with Juggernaut. This felt like the gem that gave Juggernaut his powers. This was a gem of Cyttorak. Jasmine had explained it to her before. This was very bad and way out of her league. She needed Jasmine.

Wanda touched her Ankh and sent the distress message to Jasmine with her location. She only hoped that she would come before it’s too late.