MARVEL/DC: DOCTOR IN THE MULTIVERSE

The remaining loyalists numbered fewer than two hundred.

Once, HYDRA had hidden inside governments, intelligence agencies, military programs, and multinational corporations across the globe.

Now those remnants were crammed into an underground fortress buried beneath the mountains of Sokovia like frightened rats hiding from a forest fire.

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker understood one thing clearly.

Time was running out.

Every week another safe house disappeared.

Every month another funding channel vanished.

The Avengers were closing in.

If HYDRA was to survive, he needed results.

Not tomorrow.

Now.

And those results rested entirely on two people.

Pietro Maximoff.

Wanda Maximoff.

The only successful survivors of the Mind Stone experiments.

Or at least the only survivors Strucker considered useful.

"Increase the dosage."

Strucker stood behind the armored observation glass overlooking the primary experimentation chamber.

"Triple Protocol Seven."

Beside him stood Dr. List.

One of the last remaining scientists willing—or forced—to continue working for HYDRA.

His face immediately paled.

"Baron..."

"Three times the current dosage exceeds all projected safety limits."

Strucker didn't look away from the glass.

"Safety limits are irrelevant."

"Even the twins are showing instability."

"Pietro's cardiovascular system is deteriorating."

"Wanda's neurological scans no longer resemble human baseline patterns."

Strucker finally turned.

Cold blue eyes settled on the scientist.

"They survived direct exposure to an Infinity Stone."

"They stopped being ordinary humans a long time ago."

Dr. List lowered his head.

He knew the conversation was over.

...

Level Five.

Experimental Containment Wing.

Pietro Maximoff lay restrained inside a reinforced medical chamber.

Metal cuffs secured his wrists and ankles.

Twenty-one years old.

Lean.

Athletic.

Silver hair.

Blue eyes.

And a stubbornness that no amount of torture had managed to remove.

At the moment, however, he looked exhausted.

Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes.

His breathing was uneven.

Pain radiated through both legs.

For three days he had barely slept.

Beneath the skin of his calves and thighs, dark-purple vascular patterns spread like cracks through glass.

Every pulse of his heart sent another wave of agony through them.

The doctors called it vascular destabilization.

Pietro called it torture.

His powers came from acceleration.

From impossible speed.

From forcing the human body to function beyond its natural limits.

The Mind Stone had altered his nervous system.

Enhanced his muscles.

Accelerated his perception.

But even after years of experimentation, his body still paid a price whenever he pushed toward his highest velocities.

Normally, accelerated healing compensated for the damage.

Now it wasn't enough.

Strucker's increased dosages were causing progressive tissue degradation.

The injuries no longer healed completely.

They accumulated.

Growing worse after every experiment.

Pietro looked down at his legs.

The dark veins seemed to pulse beneath the skin.

Like something alive.

"Wanda..."

His voice barely rose above a whisper.

...

The adjacent containment chamber was worse.

Much worse.

Wanda Maximoff sat curled in a corner.

Her knees hugged tightly against her chest.

Long brown hair covered part of her face.

At first glance she looked fragile.

Scared.

Almost harmless.

Only the crimson energy occasionally flickering between her fingers betrayed reality.

The Mind Stone had awakened something inside her.

Something Strucker still didn't understand.

Something older than the Stone itself.

Older than HYDRA.

Older than modern magic.

Chaos Magic.

Though neither Wanda nor Strucker knew its true name.

They only saw the consequences.

Reality changed around her emotions.

Fear.

Anger.

Pain.

Grief.

Any of them could trigger an event.

Last week a guard had struck her during a transfer procedure.

A careless kick.

Nothing extraordinary.

Wanda screamed.

The guard died.

Not because Wanda attacked him intentionally.

Not because she fired a blast.

Reality itself simply obeyed her distress.

The molecular structure of the guard's body collapsed.

Part of him transformed into brittle glass.

The remainder into elastic synthetic material resembling rubber.

The two substances could not sustain human biological functions.

He died within seconds.

The security footage was horrifying.

Strucker watched it three times.

Then smiled.

"Excellent."

That had been his response.

"Increase her exposure levels."

But Dr. List had noticed something Strucker ignored.

Wanda cried for four straight hours afterward.

Not because she feared punishment.

Because she understood she had killed someone.

And she had absolutely no idea how she had done it.

...

Three days later, matters deteriorated further.

Pietro refused the next treatment.

"No."

His voice was weak but firm.

"My legs are falling apart."

"If I keep going, I won't be able to walk."

The technicians looked uncomfortable.

Nobody wanted to make the decision.

Strucker made it for them.

"Restrain him."

Two HYDRA soldiers entered the chamber.

Pietro fought.

Briefly.

He was weakened.

Outnumbered.

And ultimately pinned down.

The injection entered his bloodstream.

A concentrated cocktail derived from Mind Stone energy exposure.

Pietro lost consciousness almost immediately.

He remained unconscious for six hours.

When he finally awoke, the situation had become catastrophic.

Both legs below the knees had darkened dramatically.

Large sections of tissue showed signs of necrosis.

Capillary rupture.

Internal bleeding.

Muscle degradation.

If left untreated, amputation would become unavoidable.

For anyone else, losing their legs was devastating.

For Pietro Maximoff—

It meant losing his identity.

His freedom.

His future.

Everything.

He stared at the ceiling.

Motionless.

Silent.

...

Wanda learned what happened less than an hour later.

Something inside her broke.

Not completely.

Just enough.

The red glow appeared immediately.

At first around her fingers.

Then her eyes.

Then her entire body.

The facility's instruments began malfunctioning.

Warning alarms activated throughout Level Five.

Reality distortion levels rose sharply.

Metal softened.

Concrete flowed.

Laboratory equipment warped into impossible shapes.

Entire sections of the corridor twisted like melting wax.

Three HYDRA guards patrolling nearby never even understood what happened.

The floor beneath them liquefied.

Their bodies sank halfway into it.

Then the material solidified again.

Concrete became steel.

Steel became concrete.

The guards remained trapped alive inside the wall.

Their terrified eyes were still moving.

Strucker watched the security feed.

His expression never changed.

He pressed a red button.

"Initiate Protocol Eleven."

Dr. List froze.

His face lost all color.

"Baron..."

"Protocol Eleven is final containment."

"I know."

"It means termination."

"I know."

Strucker continued watching Wanda.

The red energy around her was growing stronger.

Less stable.

Less predictable.

"She is becoming uncontrollable."

"That makes her dangerous."

"But she's our greatest success."

"Success?"

Strucker laughed softly.

"If I cannot aim the weapon, it is not a weapon."

His finger pressed the confirmation switch.

"Eliminate both subjects."

...

Throughout Level Five, hidden nozzles opened.

A highly concentrated neurotoxin flooded the ventilation system.

Wanda smelled it immediately.

The scent was sweet.

Artificial.

Wrong.

Chaos Magic reacted before conscious thought could.

Danger.

Escape.

Protect Pietro.

The crimson aura exploded outward.

The reinforced containment chamber ceased behaving like metal.

Its atomic structure destabilized.

The walls fragmented.

Disintegrating under waves of scarlet energy.

Wanda stumbled through the opening.

She reached Pietro's chamber moments later.

Her brother lay motionless.

His legs were almost black.

"Pietro!"

She grabbed his shoulders.

Shaking him.

Pietro slowly opened his eyes.

Pain flashed across his face.

"They're trying to kill us."

Wanda's voice trembled.

Pietro looked toward the spreading gas.

Then toward his ruined legs.

Then back at his sister.

"Run."

"No."

"You run."

"We both run."

"My legs—"

"I don't care."

The scarlet energy surrounding Wanda intensified.

Pietro managed a weak smile.

Even now.

Still stubborn.

Still Wanda.

"Then drag me."

...

Chaos Magic responded to intent.

Not logic.

Not training.

Not precision.

Intent.

Wanda wanted a path.

Reality created one.

The first wall became brittle plaster.

She kicked through it.

The second transformed into foam insulation.

The third into crumbling chalk.

Each obstacle dissolved before her.

One after another.

She dragged Pietro through six barriers.

Across multiple corridors.

Past collapsing containment sectors.

Toward the surface.

Behind them alarms screamed throughout the facility.

HYDRA soldiers converged.

Automatic weapons opened fire.

Bullets filled the corridor.

Wanda turned.

Fear.

Anger.

Desperation.

The crimson glow erupted.

The bullets never reached them.

Reality changed.

Lead transformed into thousands of crimson flower petals.

Roses.

The petals scattered harmlessly across the floor.

Several soldiers froze.

Some dropped their weapons.

Others simply stared.

No one had prepared for this.

No one could.

Wanda grabbed Pietro tighter.

Together they burst through the emergency exit.

The freezing Sokovian night greeted them.

Snow drifted across the mountains.

Cold wind howled through the darkness.

Behind them, alarms echoed from the fortress.

Ahead of them lay uncertainty.

But uncertainty was still better than captivity.

The Maximoff twins disappeared into the night.

And deep beneath the mountains of Sokovia—

Baron Strucker watched them go.

Without realizing that he had just lost the most valuable assets HYDRA would ever create.

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