Runaways Part II

3 years after leaving Tansia, Pietro and Wanda travel all over Europe living off the land. Pietro loves the free life, Wanda becomes restless. Then, disaster happens...

Chapter 2

Runaways Part II

The next three years moved as quickly as Pietro seem to be able to run.  The seventeen year old boy and his sister Wanda moved all about central Europe, doing as they saw fit.  It seemed like a lifetime ago that the twins had lived in Transia and the siblings rarely thought back to their days in the Rom camp.  Pietro and Wanda stayed near the Mountain for a week after running away from the angry mob, and after hearing no word about or from Django or Marya, assumed their parents to be dead.

Wanda occasionally voiced her concern that they could have done more to save Django and Marya, while Pietro often brushed it off and avoided the subject all together.  Ever since the teenage boy had manifested his extraordinary speed, faster than sound itself, Wanda’s brother had fully given in to his “hasty” nature.  He was still impatient, but now rarely did Pietro have to wait on anything.  Wanda tried to be more understanding as to why her brother was always in a rush.  From Pietro’s perspective, everything moved slower than he did.  About a year ago, the boy with white hair explained it to Wanda like this.

 “Have you ever waited in line for something and the guy in front of you seemed to take forever?  Well, it’s like every day for me, and everything I do, is like waiting in that line behind that really slow person.”

The past three years had been simple and carefree for Pietro and Wanda.  With Pietro’s super speed, the two never had to stay in one city in Europe any longer then they wanted to.  There was never a shortage of food for the two to share in the markets.   Pietro could sneak behind the counter, steal whatever he wanted, and half a mile away, before anything was ever noticed.  Wanda had perfected the art of flirting her way out of any situation, allowing her to become a very skilled con-artist as well.  She never resented her twin brother for having a special ability that she didn’t have.  At the same time, the brunette refused to simply live off of Pietro’s gifts.  She constantly worked to hold her own weight in everything they did.  Pietro and Wanda went wherever they wanted, did whatever they wanted, and stayed for however long they wanted.  They lived off the land, and for Pietro this was never a problem.  After three years, Wanda grew weary of this lifestyle, which led to a very unfortunate event.

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The twins found themselves in a small Transylvanian town.  Ever since having to leave Transia, Wanda didn’t much care for this area of Europe, but Pietro insisted that they returned as he had a craving for Transylvanian Sausage.  Finally his sister gave in to his relocation plan, as the only thing faster than Pietro’s feet was how quickly Wanda got annoyed at his super-fast insistence when he wanted something. 

While her brother was off helping himself to the best sausage joint in town, Wanda wandered the streets restlessly, growing bored of the endless plains and old-world style cottages that were so common to this area.  She sighed with boredom as she thought ahead of the coming days.  It was time for a change.

Wanda’s reflective moments were interrupted by a white flash of light that brushed past her creating a small gale force and light winds that she was all to used to.

“Good you’re back.” Wanda spoke as she continued to walk down the seemingly vacant street.  “I’m ready to leave this dump and go to a more luxurious area.  I was thinking London, maybe Venice you know it’s been a while since we've  eaten in Naples.”

“All those fancy places are too uptight.” Pietro replied, as he whirled around Wanda and shoved a large bratwurst towards her face.  “Besides, you won’t be thinking that once you eat one of these bad boys.”

“Get that thing away from me!” Wanda pushed the sausage away, getting more and more agitated with her brother.  “I had a salad earlier, and those things make me want to barf it all up.  I’m serious Pietro, we always go where you want to go!  Don’t you get tired of all this moving around?”

Pietro took this moment to try to interject a joke with the hopes of lightening the mood.  With light speed, he whirled around Wanda a couple of times and appeared in front of her as he spoke.  “Uh, no!  Moving around is kind of my thing remember?”

“Ugh!” Wanda felt herself get more agitated than usual, as she stomped the ground and pushed her brother out of the way as she continued to move down the road.

Unknown to the twins, they weren’t having this argument as privately as they hoped.  Behind a stone cottage one of the sides of the road, a couple townsfolk had gathered as one man had noticed Pietro’s amazing movements and called his friends to watch.  They stood mesmerized by the visitors, still not entirely sure what they were looking at.

“What’s your problem?” Pietro shouted at his sister, his temper now rising.

“My problem is that sometimes you act…” Wanda stammered as she tried to find the right words, not wanting to be too hard on her brother.  “Sometimes you act like nothing more than an immature and spoiled child!

As she ended her statement, Wanda swept her arm sideways and her palm pointed to a large old mansion made of logs.  Unknown to Wanda, as she was getting angrier in the previous statement, her hand began to glow and a red aura surrounded it.  Suddenly, upon calling her brother a child, the abandoned manor ignited in flames.  The twins turned and looked at the incredible sight with confusion, horror, and disbelief. 

“She’s a witch!” One of the townspeople murmured to her group from behind the stone cottage.  Upon believing her statement more after it came out of her mouth, the woman cried out in a terrified scream.  “SHE’S A WITCH! THEY’RE BOTH WITCHES!”

“What are you talking about?” Pietro protested as the twins noticed the ever growing crowd now surrounding them.  “Wanda didn’t do that! Are you crazy?”

“I saw it with my own eyes.”  A man spoke to the crowd, now including police officers who were readying their stun batons. “That boy moves like the wind, and the girl starts fires.  They’re a danger to us all!  They’re witches!”

“No wait!” Wanda spoke as she put out her hand to try to convince the people that they were mistaken.  As her hand went out, it was once again surrounded by a red aura that released a stream of crimson light that zoomed past the people and hit the stone cottage.  The rocks began to crumble and the building quickly tumbled down to nothing but a pile of rubble.

“My house!” a concerned citizen cried out.  “That witch destroyed my house, get her!”

The mob began rushing towards Pietro and Wanda.  The young girl grabbed her brother’s armed and whispered to him, her voice trembling with fear.  “Pietro, get us out of here!”

As she held on to Pietro, a red aura now surrounded him.  He tried to speed away with his sister, but the adolescent found himself motionless.  He whispered back to Wanda.  “I…I can’t move…Wanda, stop doing whatever it is that you’re doing!”

“I don’t have any idea what’s going on!” Wanda screeched as the mob now was within arms distance of them.  She raised her arm that wasn’t grabbing Pietro to protect her face and as she gave the motion, the front line of the angry mob surrounding her flew into the air and landed her on their bottoms.

Pietro closed his eyes as he prepared for the worst, and as his eyes were clenched shut he heard the a low resounding sound and suddenly the village people were floating in the air.  All the folks were moving their heads around trying to figure out what was going on.

“Wanda put them down!”  Pietro spoke.  “Or throw them out of the way so we can get out of here….or do something!”

“I…I don’t think that’s me.” Wanda replied, “Or maybe it is…I really don’t know anymore.”

“These ignorant buffoons are being held by me, young lady.” A deep and solemn voice spoke from behind the twins.  “As it turns out, each one of them is holding or wearing something that is metallic and thus, they all are held accountable to my mercy.  Unfortunately for them, I have no mercy for ants that try to hold power over the gods.  Be gone you worthless and petty homo-sapiens!”

With one motion of his hand, the entire mob flew sideways into another stone building, or into each other.  The dangerous crowd fell to the ground unconscious.  Pietro and Wanda turned now as their eyes fell to their rescuer who floated in the sky surrounded by a purple translucent bubble.