Chapter 26: CHAPTER 26
[General POV]
Natasha, alongside Steve, walked into the garage that Tony had been so generous to fill with whatever he thought suited their taste, no matter how bland it might be for some.
Natasha had to admit that the eccentric billionaire really had an observant eye for these kinds of things.
"We're taking that one," She pointed at a Stark-customized Mercedes AMG as soon as the hangar-wide range of cars came into view before Steve could let out a word.
Steve only chuckled at her assertiveness and gestured with his hands for her to lead the way, which she did with oozing confidence.
Driving out of the out-of-scale so-called garage, Natasha had to hit the brakes as they came in contact with Wanda standing in the path of their car.
"Wanda, is something wrong?" Steve asked in concern as he saw her just standing there with a frown.
Though she didn't mean to, she had been learning to lean more on her abilities for everything she did that it even started to affect her unconsciously which was why she immediately shook her head in denial as she felt what felt like a warm telepathic wave coming from Steve that showed just how his concern was 100% genuine.
She still had a long way to go to stop feeling the intent of people near her, something that was made worse after she learnt how to compel people from Vision.
"No, it's not that." She said quickly. "It's just that I was looking for Vision, he was supposed to help me out with something."
Ever since she learnt how to freely spread her energy to compel someone, she suddenly started to feel people's intent around her and while she was happy with this application of her powers that didn't involve physical contact, it quickly lost its novelty when she found out that it required immense concentration to block those waves of intent out of her head, so she had looked for Vision for help since this was kind of his fault.
"Oh Vision? He's not here at the moment. He said he wanted to run a particular lead on his own so we don't know how long he'll be out." Natasha told Wanda who finally had a look of understanding for his absence.
She wanted to leave the two senior members of the Avengers to go wherever they were going but then her curiosity nagged a corner of her mind.
"If you don't mind me asking, where are you guys off to?" She asked softly.
Natasha looked at Steve, the latter who shrugged in nonchalance, before answering Wanda. "We're looking up a trail for the weapons trade with SHIELD."
They didn't really keep much from the twins because though they were the youngest in the group sans Vision, they were both in their mid-twenties, far past the age where they could be called children no matter how much Steve thought them so.
Hearing that, she was immediately hit with an epiphany. Rather than stay cooped up in the Compound and wait for Vision to come back whenever, it would be more productive of her time if she tagged along with them. And besides, it could also count as a learning experience.
"Can I come with you? It's way better than waiting for Vision and training all day with Pietro." She asked.
This time, instead of Steve, it was Natasha who shrugged at the triviality of her request.
"Sure, hop in."
Without another word further exchanged between them, Wanda got inside the car and they took off with Natasha at the wheel and Steve riding shotgun.
As she drove, Natasha opened up small talks with Wanda even as she expertly swerved through the lanes with uniform speed, much to Steve's chagrin.
"It's been a while since I watched your training as Vision practically took over it." She spoke with little mirth in her voice. "What are you guys working on? I was really surprised seeing you making objects all of a sudden."
While she did drop in once in a while, she reduced the frequency of it when she saw how good he was at teaching. She had no choice but to admit that fact, especially seeing how he perfectly copied her style of fighting after three spars, even going as far as reducing his weight and muscle density to become a perfect replica of herself.
She never said anything but her heart chilled at that moment when he had done that.
"Well, I didn't know I could even do something like that. The most I have ever done was messing with people's heads and firing off energy blasts," She and her brother had ample time to train their abilities when they were with Baron Strucker and she even experimented her psychic abilities with a few captives at the time. Yeah, not so innocent.
"At least that was until Vision literally beat me up telling me to find other ways to make it better and efficient." She totally agreed with Pietro on his statement about the enigmatic synthezoid being hardcore.
This time it was Steve's turn to be surprised by Wanda's words. "He actually did such a thing?"
It wasn't his fault for thinking that way since pretty much everyone on their team thought Vision was quite accommodating and considerate of the duo.
A mildly disgruntled Wanda snorted as she felt the wave of disbelief and amusement coming off from Steve and Natasha respectively, knowing exactly what they were probably thinking.
"I can totally see that actually." The sexy redhead at the wheels snickered when she remembered said android's peculiarities when it came to the subject of 'further evolving' one's self as he puts it.
Having a good laugh at Wanda's small misfortune, Natasha slightly shifted the focus of the conversation in a way that both people with her didn't notice.
"So what's your thought of Vision?" It was a very simple and natural flowing question given their current conversation so Wanda didn't put much thought into it and gave them both her honest thoughts.
"It honestly depends on your initial view of who he is." She started.
"Sometimes it's hard to understand what he's thinking at times and those are the moments you realize that he isn't human, at least not fully human."
The two listeners nodded even as they all waved in body motion as Natasha made a narrow cut that angered some angry and spooked drivers.
"Sometimes he's just a tease with a very mean streak to him, that's the part of him you want to watch out for. He can be quite… vindictive, for the lack of a better word."
Natasha hummed in silent agreement as she was a victim of Vision due to that particular character of his.
She wasn't suspicious of Vision like she had been at the beginning but she wanted to know how others saw him outside her own critical opinion of him.
She stole a look at Wanda from the rearview and saw her resting her head against the glass with a small, almost imperceptible, smile that gave her lips the tiniest uptick.
Wanda, unaware of Natasha's attention, let out a small laugh as she remembered something Pietro had said that made Vision request a spar with him only to proceed to beating him up despite how much the former tried to run.
"It's somehow funny when you remember that he's technically only a little over 2 months old and yet he sounds and acts like a middle-aged man, definitely acts more mature than Sam."
"It seems you like him a good deal." Steve commented not meaning anything ambiguous with his words except how straight they were.
Wanda paused at his words and thought about it for a bit.
Steve had been the first person that advocated for them even when they were fighting to kill Stark and he also proclaimed them Avengers, giving them the best protection he could and giving them a way to atone for their crimes.
Vision on the other hand, despite knowing all what they did, didn't think too much about it and rarely ever bought up anything related to it and even he did, it was probably during a conversation she most likely started.
It was as if all of the things she and her brother, her last family alive, did mattered little to him. All he focused on was how to make them improve themselves, always stressing how unfair and a huge loss of potential it would be if they didn't.
He was also the second person after Steve who had asked them how they were coping with their guilt and regret and offered to help them through it.
"He is a great person. Sometimes I think he gets too focused on a subject and downplays everything else, but despite it all, Pietro and I are truly grateful for meeting him."
Saying those words, she couldn't help but remember how she first thought and feared he'd turn out just like Ultron and cringed internally.
Natasha and Steve who both sat at the front had small content smiles on their faces as they heard that. It just proved that their judgment of his was the same as everybody else on the team.
If a particular half-human android had heard what they were saying, he'd probably be stunned and taken aback about how they formed all these opinions of him and what was the exact criteria they used.
Humans tend to overthink the simplest of actions, mostly when it affects them in specific ways.
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