Scarlet Wars Episde 2 (Part 5.5: Outside the Hex)

Mostly written by Cross C

Darcy sat in front of the vintage TV, her eyes wide and her fingers nervously drumming on the console in front of her. The air inside the SWORD base—what they affectionately called their "field-hardened modular installations"—was thick with tension, the kind that only seems to grow when no one can look directly at the elephant in the room. Beside her, Jimmy Woo crossed his arms, shifting uncomfortably as he watched the broadcast.

The events in the Hex had taken a sharp and disturbing turn. The Magic Show, which had initially seemed like a quirky, light-hearted affair, had turned starkly sexual and explicit shockingly fast. Wanda, dressed in a magician's assistant outfit that left very little to the imagination, had performed alongside a mysterious man who called himself Mesmero. What had started as an innocuous performance had quickly devolved into something far more adult, with Mesmero exerting a strange control over both Wanda and the audience. The entire town seemed to be under his spell, willingly going along with his increasingly inappropriate and suggestive commands.

Darcy frowned, her mind reeling as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Who was this Mesmero? Where had he come from, and what was his purpose in the Hex? Was he the true villain at the center of the phenomenon that had captured Wanda Maximoff, the most troubled of Avengers? It was clear that Wanda was not acting of her own accord, her expression often briefly confused, and then obedient, her actions guided by Mesmero's every word. And then there was Natasha Romanoff—or at least, someone who looked like her. But Natasha was supposed to be dead. The presence of this Black Widow lookalike, inexplicably altered with exaggerated, porn-star-like T&A, only deepened the mystery.

"Uh, Jimmy? Are we all seeing the same thing? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't sign up to watch 'Avengers: The Porn Parody.' Please tell me this isn't some kind of fever dream gone horribly wrong,” Darcy asked, her voice edged with disbelief.

Jimmy shook his head, his eyes glued to the screen. "Yeah, Darcy. We’re all seeing it, unfortunately." Jimmy shifted awkwardly, his eyes darting away for a second. Wish I could unsee it, though." he said, his voice heavy with confusion. Behind them, SWORD agents bustled around, their movements stilted and awkward as they tried—and failed—to ignore the increasingly explicit content playing out on the broadcast. “These are civilians that Wanda is messing with. How can an Avenger think this is appropriate? Forcing them into such perverted scenarios…”

“Maybe they’re all secretly like this? A very drunk Thor once asked me and Jane to ride his mewmur. If you catch my drift~” She smirked at a very confused looking associate, “You’re friends with one of them too, right? Do you know if the little guy ever sneaks into women’s rooms at night?”

“Scott isn’t like that.” He frowned, “Besides, there’s a difference between being a pervert and… forcing others to live out all your erotic fantasies…”

Darcy—a girl who had already been a little more aroused than she thought she was to have brought up her sexual fantasy of a Thorsome—noticed that the man she was sitting with had been folding his legs for quite a while now. Staring angrily at the screen, sure, but also getting a little flushed around the edges. A rational mind would point out how hypocritical he was being, but the scientist’s mind was dripping in hormones too, and she just wondered if Jimmy could make her go Woo…

With a shake of her head, she quickly spun around in her chair. “H-how’s our new arrival doing?”

“Miss Stars and Stripes?” Jimmy coughed while joining her spinning away from the screen, “She caused some major damage when she arrived, but calmed down when it became clear we can’t get into the Hex either. Now she’s just floating a mile above the tent, demanding we bring her ‘Mark’.”

“What does Hayward think?”

“He wants to blow her out of the sky,” Jimmy’s voice rolled its proverbial eyes, “Thankfully SHIELD’s keeping him busy with their demands of ‘information sharing’, he hasn’t had the chance to focus on her. Whatever has them spooked about this is enough to get me worried, though.”

Blowing a long breath through flapping lips, Darcy shook her head. To think this was where her life ended up when she signed up for that internship, having to save superheroes from their own erotic television nightmares… it just felt like she was missing a piece of the puzzle. Some evidence that would make everything make sense… “Hey, wait a minute, wasn’t this ‘Mesmero’ guy called Mark?” She asked while pointing at the grey screen.

“...get me a megaphone, I think I have an idea.”