The Fury of the Witch
Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch claws and scratches as she is
crushed by a mob of crazed and mind-controlled Balkan villagers. The
only thing that is keeping her alive is the lack of focus the crowd
seems to have; possibly a result of the mind control. A fist punches
into her midriff and she crumples. This is insane. Many times in her
life has she been called one of the most powerful mutants on the
planet, yet with her arms cramped and pinned, she cannot weave a hex
and save herself.
'Burn the witch. Kill the mutant.'
' Yes. kill the mutant before her tainted blood brings the curse of
the Legacy virus to your quiet village!!' Umbra, the Acolyte that has
caused this insane hatred amongst the villagers urges them on. Come
on, Avenger - use your much vaunted power to save yourself. I do not
want you dead, just shaken.
At one end of the square, a group of villagers were beginning to build
a makeshift stake, clumping kindling and firewood at the base. The
smell of burning pitch fills the air as torches are produced and
finally, a tethered and tied Scarlet Witch.
' Umbra! What will this achieve? what can you possibly gain from me
being burned to death?' Wanda screams at the mutant as she is carried
past her.
' You are observant, aren't you?'
' Well what is it? What do you want?'
' Your brother! I want to have power over your brother Pietro Lensher.
When you are dead, your fool of a brother will try his hardest to take
revenge. Either I will get my hands on him or the pressure of your
death will snap his mind and he will return to the side of his father
and his father's chosen warriors.'
' Don't be a fool woman!', the terror in Wanda's voice begins to show
through as the villagers tie her to the roughly hewn stake,' Pietro is
not the imbalanced hothead he used to be. If you do this to me the
Avengers will pursue you to the ends of the earth.'
' As if the Avengers will be able to stand against the followers of
the Lord of Magnetism.' Umbra turns to the people of the village ,'
this woman, this .... beast, is a mutant. She came to your village
when she was young. You remember don't you? The gypsies? Do you
remember what happened afterwards? The stillbirths? The flood? The
crop failures? This was the girl, the demon, that caused them. You
drove her from the village once but she has returned. Now you can have
your revenge. You can burn her to ashes!'
' Yes, just like I did with her gypsy mother!' A burly member of the
crowd with a white streaked beard looks around the crowd with
blackened eyes. He begins to move towards the pyre with a torch in his
hand. Burning pitch drips onto the soil beneath his feet.
Wanda stares at the man and memories of her dead step-mother flood
back to her. The woman who nurtured her almost from birth. The woman
who taught her to read and write, to cook and sew. She remembers the
first time Pietro's power manifested and he stumbled and cut his knee.
Their mother bathed the wound and made it better for him. She
remembers the terror of the night when the villagers turned against
her family of gypsies and ran them out of town. Many were attacked and
injured by the villagers who even set fire to their caravans. Her
step-mother had been in one of the caravans, resting after recovering
from the flu. She didn't stand a chance as the wooden building burned
and Djando could do nothing to save her. And it was that man, that
jeering, fat man who had killed her!
Wanda begins to mumble slowly, feeling the fear flow from her body.
Remember what Agatha taught you. Focus your fear and your anger. Do
not let it cloud your thoughts. Focus on the elements and use them.
The flame of the torch flares up in the hands of the villager and
engulfs his arm. He drops the torch and runs screaming into the rabid
crowd.
Behind Wanda a small black shape clambers up the stake and with the
flick of a claw slices the ropes that bind her. With that Ebony slips
back into the shadows.
Wanda drops to the floor and looks at the people surging towards her,
screaming insults and accusations. Behind then all, Umbra conducts the
mob, her dark power channelling their fear and hatred.
' OK Acolyte! You want to see what a daughter of Magneto can do?! You
want to see what I will do to the people that killed my mother?!'
Wanda was a ball of pure rage. Her mind was awash with the most
violent emotions. She is an Avenger and it is time that she took
revenge.
Reaching out with the hand, she clasps the air and twists her wrist.
The ground in the village twists and buckles as the land around
Wundagore suffers a totally freak earthquake. The villagers scream and
flee from the enraged mutant as she causes the gas and water mains
that service the village to explode and hurl their loads high into the
Balkan air. Fire gouts from the ground as houses begin to buckle and
twist. Cars are thrown through the air. Wanda stalks through the
village, casting her hexes indiscriminately around at the people,
warping them, twisting their very existence until it is
unrecognisable.
And all the time, Umbra stands grinning at her.
Wanda stands over the shaking figure of the man who claimed to have
killed her step-mother. He is clutching his arm, a burned and charred
limb. His leg has been broken in the rush to get out the path of the
Scarlet Witch. He looks at the with pleading eyes.
' You killed my mother because she was different to you and now you
want to kill me because I am different to you. Tell me, peasant, you
are different to me, why should I not snuff out your insignificant
little life?'
' P..P..Please, don't. Mercy, mistress!'
' Mercy like you showed my mother? The type of mercy you showed her as
the flesh burned from her bones in her home? No, I'm going to turn you
inside out and leave you for the birds!'
' Wanda Lensher? Coming true to form at last! Go on, kill him and then
join with me and your father's warriors.' Umbra strolls slowly towards
Wanda.
' I'll never ... I'll .... I ....must kill him!'
' Ah, it is done! Look into that window Wanda Lensher and see who now
controls you! Succumb to your fate!' Wanda glances at a nearby broken
window and she freezes. Her eyes are ebony black. She is under the
control of Umbra. Suddenly she becomes aware of all the things she has
done. She looks around at the ruins of the village and the crying
masses of people whose lives she has destroyed. This cannot be
happening. This cannot be happening again. What Kairooq said as true,
her life is just a series of people using and controlling her.
' I am not your slave Umbra and I never will be!'
' But you misunderstand Wanda Lensher - you already are. Now kneel
before me, Daughter of Magneto.' Umbra stands next to Wanda, towering
over he bent and broken body.
Wanda begins to feel herself fall to her knees. She drops down onto
her left knee and then braces herself with her arm. Sweat traces down
her forehead as she fights the power of the Acolyte.
' I ... am ... sick and ... tired .... of .. people... forcing me...
to do ....things I DO NOT WANT TO DO!' Wanda stands upright and proud.
Umbra staggers back, her confidence shattered as her power is broken.
' You will never survive this village Wanda Lensher! The villagers
will tear you limb from limb, even without my prompting.'
' Oh shut up!' Wanda swings her arm and impacts on Umbra's chin with
the back of her hand. The Acolyte spins on the spot and falls to the
ground unconscious. Wanda looks at her hand and then rubs it.
' Kill the Witch!' Wanda spins to see the mob of villagers reforming.
This time they have knives and pitchforks. She doubts that she will be
able to placate them with a story of how she was under the influence
of an evil mutant power. She runs as fast as she can from the village,
pursued by the mob. She plows into the light foliage that has been
churned up by her impromptu earthquake and into the thicker forest.
Still the mob pursues her.
She dives through the rough brambles and weeds, her clothes tearing on
thorns and stray branches. She is more athletic than her pursuers but
the know the forest better that she does and she can hear them on
either side of her now. Are them dogs that she can hear. Her mind
drifts back to those long lost days of her youth when she was chased
from the very same village with Pietro and only her brothers speed had
saved them from the savagery of the mob. She was not to be that lucky
this time. She had to escape though, because she could not use her
power on those innocents again. Not after what she had done to them
earlier. She looked ahead and saw shaped moving in the far distance.
She was surrounded.
Suddenly her shoulders are caught in something and she is swung high
up into one of the thickly leafed trees above her. She lands heavily
on a branch as two men drop down next to her. They are both dressed in
the style she remembers as that of a gypsy clan. One of them, a rugged
yet handsome looking man in his late 30's with a thin moustache puts
his finger to his lips and warns her to be silent. Eventually the
villagers pass beneath them and away into the forest.
' Thank you for your help, but who the hell are you.'
' I am hurt, my youngest sibling. Don't your recognise your own
brother, Gregor Maximoff?'
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Next Issue in The Scarlet Witch
Wanda is reunited with her gypsy family and her mystical roots. The
peace she finds does not last long as a young mother loses her child
and the powers of the Scarlet Witch are called upon to save the day.
Back in New York Simon confronts the Vision.
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