Trick 121: Wanda, the budding Maniac

Sharon was assigned to find out about a strange occurrence. Apparently someone was turning into an ant!

Imagine!

A few weeks after that

The guy was found out to be Scott Lang.

Ace was clueless and Sharon complained that some guy took her kill, she was pretty pissed. Ace said that she wasn't supposed to kill anyone and he slept on the couch that night.

Another couple of months passed without any events happening

It was almost a year since Ace and Hermione were staying at Sharon's house.

Today

Ace was taking notes with Eitri, who decided to divulge all the Dwarven Secrets! Recently Eitri had been really uneasy. He had heard that someone was coming to Nidavellir and Eitri was thinking of running.

He had told Asgard about it, but nothing came back and he didn't want to bother Ace… Because Ace wasn't actually from Asgard. He was only an esteemed guest. He had heard that Ace saved Frigga and Eitri was deeply grateful, so as a last resort, he gave all his knowledge to Ace.

His new cloak was finished a few months ago, when Ace got it, it flew around him in happiness.

His new staff looked the same but it was much more sturdy!

Ace was armed to the teeth! Well, not really, he was basically the same, except much more durable… However, Ace didn't know how it would hold up to magic. His cloak had dragon scales but they weren't necessarily super high resistant Dragon scales.

He only recently found out that the Dragons he thought were dragons, were Drago-Wyverns. There was a legend of a real dragon in the East, but Ace wasn't going all the way there for a legend.

Plus in his heart they were Dragons!

He wondered how they were doing in the forbidden forest. He was thinking about going sometime.

They were doing great! There were around 12 dragons in the forest now…

Anyway!

Ace collected the entire Dwarven Artifact making inheritance from Eitri, before Eitri basically forced him to leave, telling him that he needed to go. Ace asked "When should I come back?" Eitri smiled and said "I'll send for you, I have a big project for a big shot. I need to focus."

Ace blinked and asked in surprise "Cool! Do you need help?" Eitri smiled gratefully but shook his head, saying "No, my friend. They want only me on this project, thank you, Ace." Ace smiled and nodded, "Alright. See you next time Eitri! Oh! I'll bring that Asgardian Wine you like."

Eitri laughed and nodded, waving Ace off before going back to his workshop, his face extremely grim.

Ace didn't know and went back to Earth, he didn't trust Skurge anymore and made a mini traveling device to and from Earth. What he didn't notice was that the badge device dimmed to nothing when Ace landed on Earth.

He returned to Sharon's house and sat in her living room, humming to himself.

He continued studying for 27 days before something happened…

Ace was sitting on the couch, watching TV when he saw a news report in Lagos.

He frowned and said "Hermione, stay here." as he donned his cloak, jumping through the window, leaving ripples behind as he shot into the sky, turning into smoke as he flew off.

A while later

The Avengers returned to their HQ and walked inside.

However, they stopped in the lounge area as the lights turned on, revealing Ace sitting on the couch, leaning on his knees, his fingers intertwined.

Steve blinked and said "Cloak?" Ace looked at him and turned to Wanda, saying "11 souls arrived in the Realm of the Dead today."

Pietro said quickly "It was a-" Ace waved his hand and Pietro suddenly had no voice. Ace stood up and said "I was under the impression that you understood the power you hold. Steve made it very clear you were making progress."

Vision said "I-" Ace waved him off and Steve said "Cloak. Hold on a second. It was an accident. I froze up on the bomb vest, so it's my fault. There's no need to be so harsh…"

Ace looked at him and said "Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing little Miss Wanda's future. Would you like to know how it went?" Natasha crossed her arms, "Sunshine and rainbows, I hope."

Ace waved his arm to the side, flapping his cloak as he grabbed his staff, saying "Very much not sunshine and rainbows. In fact, the Multiverse was at stake. So give me a good reason why I shouldn't lock you in a hole and throw away the hole."

Steve stretched out his arm in front of Wanda, who was completely silent. Steve said "Cloak. Do you trust me?" Ace nodded slowly, Steve smiled "Then trust me, it was on me. She made a mistake, if I thought it was malicious, you would've made a trip for nothing. You know what I'm trying to say?"

Ace pointed his staff out, holding it under Wanda's chin as he said "This time. It's on Steve. Next time you make a mistake… if you even step on an ant…" she looked down at Wanda as his eyes glowed, "I WILL be there. Do I make myself clear?"

Wanda looked up at him and said "Crystal."

The staff disappeared and Ace put his hands down, saying "Steve, please." before walking away.

Steve turned to Wanda and smiled "Don't listen to him, he's just worried. I heard his girlfriend is pregnant. You're fine, kid, you performed great today." before walking over to Ace in a different room.

Steve sat down and pinched the bridge of his nose saying "Can you not threaten my team? I like to think we're friends." Ace waved his hand and sat at the table, saying "We are friends, Steve. The problem is I saw some really terrible stuff. The only reason I'm giving her another chance is because of you!"

Steve frowned and leaned in whispering "What happened." Ace let out a breath and said "Well, basically… I took a trip into the Multiverse." Steve stopped him and said "English."

Ace rolled his eyes and replied "Another Universe. I accidentally crossed into another Universe. The hows and whys aren't important, what IS important, however is what I saw there." He pulled out the Darkhold and said "You feel that?"

Steve got goosebumps and Ace put it back, saying "That's the Darkhold. A tome of unfathomable dark magic. It is said to corrupt the souls of the mages that use its spells. Before you ask, no, I haven't used it. I'm only studying it, magic isn't evil, people are. Anyway! I saw an entire group of Avengers unable to beat Wanda…"

He paused and sighed, "Okay, easiest way to say it is like this. There's a spell, right? You ever play Street Fighter? Like the Arcade machine?" Steve nodded, "Yeah, what about it?" Ace explained "There's a spell like that. A Wanda controlled another Wanda from another Universe. She was only at 50% at most…"

He whispered "I was almost overpowered, Steve." Steve raised his brows and frowned, asking "The situation?" Ace snorted gently, explaining "Even a Sorcerer Supreme- The Strongest Mage on Earth- was running from her. He ran away from his own universe! You know what that means?"

Steve leaned back and frowned deeply, asking "What else can you give me. Why?" Ace opened his mouth and sighed "I don't know. All I know is that she was giving me a hard time… I-... I caught her off guard? I don't know. I sealed her in a cage before leaving, they should be able to hold her, but she killed 2 Avengers in front of me!"

Steve furrowed his brows and looked at the door, rubbing his nose, Ace leaned in and said "Listen, I don't want to be the bad guy here, Steve. But if she's dangerous… Maybe-" Steve cut him off, saying "Hold on a second." he held his hand out, continuing "I'm not gonna put a kid in jail for something she hasn't done."

Ace sighed and Steve went on, "But… I'll pay more attention. Get Romanoff on her, anything changes or gets suspicious. You're the first person I'm calling. The Darkhold?" Ace shook his head, saying "I stole this one from a different universe. The one in ours has been lost for centuries, that's what my contact told me."

Steve frowned and asked "You brought another one?!" Ace scratched his cheek, replying "Well, I want to be a magic historian so… All magic needs to be recorded… but! I promise you, the only way this Darkhold is getting out of my hands is if they tear it off my corpse. Very simple."

Steve nodded and asked "These Avengers…" Ace shook his head, saying "I've never even seen these people before. There was only one familiar face, Peggy Carter." Steve froze and said "Peggy?!" Ace nodded and said "In the other Universes anything can happen, so what I assume is that Peggy was the one who took the serum and froze. You swapped roles. She even had a shield like yours."

Steve was stunned and Ace continued "The rest, very strange. 2 of them died instantly, the other one stretched, never caught his name. But I got a few names." Steve snapped back, saying "Shoot." as he tapped on the table.

Ace said "Charles Xavier. America Chavez. Stephen Strange." Steve nodded and wrote the names on the console, sending them to Natasha before saying "What else?" Ace shook his head and spread his hands, saying "I don't know… they had Ultron bots. Not like us, working ones that acted as guards, they called themselves the Illuminati. Their tech was a lot higher than ours…"

He rubbed his forehead, saying "Pfft… They were looking into Multiversal research. Had containment units… That's it. Like I said, I only had a bit. Tony wasn't there, Thor was nowhere to be found, Natasha was mia, Clint nowhere, Vision missing… No one that's here now." Steve frowned and wrote the stuff down, asking "What do you think?"

Ace leaned on the table and replied "Well… It could be that our universes are just too far away. I assume the differences are more, the farther away they are? It's only my guess… There was something about Thanos."

Steve asked "Who?" Ace shrugged and sighed "I don't know either. Apparently the Stephen Strange of that Universe died to Thanos. Like I said, Steve, I only got names. I'm sorry, I was trying to get back."

Steve shook his head and said "That's good enough. Don't worry about it. You went by luck, if we're any lucky we might be able to find some allies from these names… Maybe even some enemies. In the meantime, try and see if you can find out who, or what, Thanos is. If this guy died to him and you heard about it, it must've been known by more than a few people."

Ace nodded and replied "I'll see what I can do, but don't hold your breath. It might come up as nothing." Steve nodded and got up, touching his chin, Ace got up and said "Sorry to spring this on you, Steve. I just need to check… if she snaps… I'd rather she not snap you."

Steve smiled and patted his shoulder, chuckling "Hey, I appreciate it. I'd rather you let me know in private next time though." Ace nodded and smiled "Take care." before twisting and disappearing instantly.

Steve sighed and looked at the door, letting out a breath "Oh boy…"