The Witch Hunt Begins Anew

Written in collaboration with Cross C

Natasha Romanoff sighed, leaning against the desk with the burned laptop.

“Uhm, are we fucked?” Mark asked, a growing freak out in his chest as he feared the repeat of his original universe, “Are-are they gonna come get us?! Is this the end already?! FUCK!”

Just like a similar panic attack that was overwhelming the super spy, “NO! I-I’m still useful, Mark! I can get around their locks, I can find new back routes for information, I-!”

“EY! EYY! CHILL!”

Both of the stressed individuals looked to their American themed compatriot, who was looking between them with concern and hands raised. “Good, now, Nat? Mark is stressed about losing everything, you really think he’s gonna throw you out? Eh, Puta?”

Taking calming breaths, the redhead shook her head, “N-no, sorry, I…”

“And Mark, you really think Nat would let anyone take her master away? Or me?” America continued, reaching to cup his face gently and supportively.

“I guess you’re right…” Mark mumbled, relaxing under America's touch.

“Both of you need to not get so worked up,” She smiled, “We’re taking on the whole world to make sure Mark can save them. These SHIELD cabrones will try to stop us, but we can take them on, right?!”

Slowly both of them nodded, breathing back to a regular beat and a rising energy to take on those that had wronged them beginning to form. “Yeah, if they’re full of sexy ladies like Nat then they’ll be worth the trouble.”

She smiled so warmly at the compliment, “And it will feel so good to have my former employers bow to your great cock, Mark.”

America also smiled, leaning up to kiss her king on the cheek, whispering in his ear, "You can fuck all the SHIELD bitches you want, Mi Rey. Your kingdom is our number one priority."

Mark wrapped an arm around her waist, giving her plush butt a squeeze and making her hum as his words were a little more steady now, "Thanks guys, just needed to snap out of that before I started freaking out and brainwashing people on a rampage."

America hugged him, “Magnífica! What will you do when I leave for the multiverse, eh?” America chuckled at her own ability to handle the situation, gloating with a victorious grin.

After a beat, Mark spoke up first, asking the obvious, “Soooo, who was that guy then, and seriously, are we in trouble now?"

His widow shook her head, standing up with her nightie still opened slightly at the top, "Not trouble, but we should prepare just in case." Natasha explained, "Continuing the trend, the Phil Coulson in our universe is a bit... broader and square-jawed, but the man is the quintessential SHIELD agent. Reputation for unparalleled excellence, tactical brilliance, and unyielding integrity, Coulson was one of the agency's most trusted and reliable agents. He was a man who lived and breathed SHIELD."

Mark scratched his chin, "So he's pretty dangerous?"

"Well, in this universe he'll no doubt be a pale shadow of the Phil Coulson I knew, but that'll put him heads and shoulders above most people." Natasha warned, "Coulson's ability to plan, think on his feet, and lead will make him a formidable enemy if he discovers us."

America rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, and he's going to do some heroic shit and rally all of SHIELD and SWORD into a big counter-**** against us. Got it."

Natasha shook her head, "Worse."

Mark raised an eyebrow, "Worse?"

Natasha tapped the screen of her dead laptop, "I mentioned this Phil Coulson had a reputation for integrity and reliability. But the reason he earned that reputation was because he had an incredible ability to inspire others to follow him, and follow his lead to the letter."

The room was silent after SHIELD cut off the call and Nat zapped her laptop, no one not really knowing what to think after such an interaction.

“So, the target they’re protecting… that who I think it is?” Asked America.

Taking the moment to get up from the bed, Natasha began moving around her desk to access her computer files that weren’t compromised by SHIELD. After a bit of typing she spun her screen around to show Mark and America,

“Scarlet Witch, or at least that’s how we know her,” said Natasha, her screen showing a fairly nice looking woman with light auburn hair, “This universe only knows her as Wanda Maximoff, perhaps one of the most powerful Avengers outside of Captain Marvel and Dr Strange. Not sure why she isn’t known as Scarlet Witch here, some message boards have named her various things from ‘Power Gem’ to ‘Escaped Olsen Twin’ with no clear consensus on what her ‘Avengers name’ is.”

Mark's brow furrowed, now knowing why she'd seemed familiar, "I remember her from our world. Scarlet Witch was a mutant. One of Magneto's daughters, right?” It was then that the holy bells rung in his mind, “She was one of Big Mark's bitches in his universe! She was the one that used magic to return my powers, holy shit! I need her on my team!"

America hummed apprehensively, her thick Spanish accent prominent, "Aye papi. I can see why you’d want her, but don’t you think she’s dangerous? The roja puta can make reality her bitch… curse magic, telekinesis, illusion magic, her own flavor of mind control, energy blasts-”

"I want her," Mark growled, thinking the warning was more of a sales pitch, eyes fixated on Scarlet Witch's photo, "She will be my Scarlet Queen!"

"Damn right she will, she needs your cock." Natasha agreed with a nod, stroking her king's ego while imagining the fun the Scarlet Queen's power could bring, "Maybe we'll make her the leader of one of our houses?"

“That wasn’t my point, joder!” America hissed, slamming her foot on the ground, “Mark! You said magic took your powers away! Do you really want to deal with this puta-madre?! Did you not see her tossing men around like their insides were made of confetti?!”

Mark rubbed his chin, it was definitely the woman that had attacked that government facility, but she also looked a little different without the glowy magic surrounding her. “Kinda?” His brown skinned babe lowered her eyes at him, “Hey, don’t blame me. Mark see hot girl, Mark want hot girl. Hmm, says here she’s a ‘priority one’?”

The redhead who didn’t want to get on the latina’s bad side accepted the change of topic back to Wanda, “Yes, that’s why I called you in here so quickly, I was finally able to track her down. As America pointed out her powerset makes her perhaps one of the most important targets for our conquest of the universe,” the Black Widow frowned, “Reality warping… in our corner will be our greatest strength, and perhaps our greatest enemy if we cannot secure her.”

“She’s also perra loca…” America added under her breath, still frustrated, “I really don’t know about her, Mark. I’ll follow your lead on what you decide, but she deleted all the mutants or something in some universes, right? And if she’s here then Magneto and Quicksilver must be-”

“Dead.”

The screen changed to show Pietro Maximoff, and a pretty graphic image of his dead body in a stretcher riddled with bullets. Even if she never really liked the speedster, America was taken aback a little bit.

“Her parents also died in Sokovia, which seemed to be the reason she and Pietro initially went against the Avengers.” Natasha continued, “As for her ‘deleting the mutants’ I can’t deny she’s a bit deranged at the worst of times. But at the best of times she’ll be able to see us coming from miles away, so right now as she’s in crazy mode I think truly is the best time to strike.”

“Even with SHIELD on our tail?”

“Yes, we may never get another shot at her.”

Though America was clearly upset, it was also clear that Mark was considering it. Nat had played to his weakness by offering him both more power and a hot woman on the screen, but he also knew to trust her when it came to these matters. Maybe it was the ego of such a great day but Mark was feeling powerful. The apartment idea had been all hers and it had worked out great in the long run. Not to mention the sexy scrumpet of Kate Bishop.

“Alright, how many will we need?”

Smiling at his acceptance, Natasha began typing away on her computer again, “That’s the thing, this situation will be best if we can get in and out without anyone seeing us.” Once more she flipped the screen around to show… a simple looking town? “Westview has been closed off by SWORD, and a massive amount of resources and advanced tech is being poured into the area just outside the town. Easy money is that Wanda is hiding herself inside the town trying to live a quiet life. She knows me so if we just go the two of us then we should be able to lull her into enough security that we can surprise her with your handshake.”

“You make it sound easy breezy…” grumbled the latina, knowing that it being a breeze was something Mark was rather happy with. She also noticed that the super spy was already getting dressed and packing some of her gadgets into her clothes, “Seriously? We just drop everything to go now?”

The redhead paused, realising the other two weren’t following her lead to get ready.

“My plan had been to wait and see what happens, but now I think we’ll need everything we can grab to fight SHIELD…”

“Makes sense! You can teleport us there, right America?” Mark asked with eager eyes, the same eyes she’d never say no to in a million years. Which made her stomach grow even deeper with worry.

“Yeah, I can…”

Eight feet stepped out onto dew dripping grass. A calm wintery chill in the air, a lazy sun hanging low beneath a blanket of grey cloud, and a star-shaped portal floating in the air behind them.

They were in a field with a large forest to their left and a road a ways off and more fields and trees to their right. A thoroughly ordinary looking small town was about a mile off before them. It wasn’t a bustling city by any stretch, but it was a town that clearly had enough buildings to house a couple of thousand people at least.

America's portal whipped close behind them.

No doubt the energy it had emitted had already alerted those that were monitoring the town to their presence. As long as they got Wanda before the blip on their radar was investigated they’d be fine, especially with America there to teleport them away again if needs be.

“Everyone know the plan?” Mark asked, checking their surroundings, perhaps getting too into the spy atmosphere, “We head into the town, grab the Scarlet whatever, and get out. Yeah?”

“Of course, you only made the plan five minutes ago,” Felicia chuckled. They’d picked up the Black Cat on their way out, who had insisted on coming along if only to escape the apartment for five minutes.

“Empires have fallen quicker with less thought out plans…” said Natasha with a smirk, keeping her eyes glued to her scanner as she surveyed the area, “I think I’m picking up some readings, but why didn’t you teleport us into the main town? We’re a bit exposed out here.”

The portal had shunted them out in what was essentially an open grassy field. The view of the town was pleasant enough, and no way they were spotted out there even with their strange outfits, but it was an odd place to put them. Especially as America deeply frowned, “...I aimed for the main town… something pushed me out…”

Natasha went white, turning quickly to look at an advancing master. “MARK! Change of plans!”

“What did you say?! OW-!”

DWANGGG~

Mark’s wandering had hit into something. A very large something. The town rippled in front of them, like it was inside a pond and Mark had just thrown a stone at it. Shimmering just ahead of them with pure red energy before the ripples stopped and returned to the peaceful view of the town.

“Huh… they’re in a dome?” Felicia spoke her thoughts aloud, following Mark in poking the dome but with far less impact, “A magic dome?” her black claws making tiny ripples in the air in front of them while slight scraping noises could be heard.

“Dios mio, stop touching it, puta cat!” The latina hissed, grabbing the cat by the scruff and pulling her off the magic dome, “Magic is bad news! We should leave and come up with a better plan later!”

“I’m beginning to agree with her, Mark. If America can’t get us out then we shouldn’t be risking anything here. Wanda can wait,” Natasha warned, not having the emotional strength to physically remove her leader from his curious inspection of the dome. His fingers gliding over its surface, playfully watching the ripples dance in front of him and obscure the midwestern style houses in the near distance. “Mark?”

“I can feel her. I can… feel Wanda…”

The three women were shocked, watching their master either in various degrees of awe or alarm as he began to add more fingers to the red chaos in front of him. “What did you say?”

“You can feel her? As in… make ‘the connection’?!”

Perhaps concentrating more than any time in his life, Mark just quietly nodded while putting his whole palms onto the magic dome. Energy began rippling ever so gently from his touch as he began to work. “Yeah… this magic is her, it’s… it’s like she’s made it out of pieces of her soul…”

“...not unfeasible, from what little I know of magic…” mumbled Natasha, beginning to wonder about the possibilities.

“But more importantly can you give her orders?” Asked Felicia.

“...not yet, but I can sort of… wade through the magic…” His concentration deepened as he leaned harder against the dome. It was like he was the controller for a drone searching for prey, “I’m a ghost moving through the town… the magic warmer in this direction… hotter… begging me closer… I can almost taste her…” The ripples around his hands were picking up speed now. Getting almost violent in their energy waves that began spreading wider and farther around the now visible dome.

Needless to say, America was upset by the developments, “Mark?! We should LEAVE!”

“America, be ready to throw us through a portal if anything happens!” Natasha insisted, before placing her hand on Mark’s back, “Is she close, Mark? Can you see her yet?!”

“............yes!” He yelled happily, still with his eyes closed but grinning eagerly at his accomplishment, “She’s, like, at home. With her husband? Weird, I thought it was grey but it really looks like a 40s TV show in here…”

The cat tilted her head in confusion, “A TV show?”

“Who changes reality in a town just to recreate their old crappy television shows?” asked an equally confused America, “Bitch is crazy, we should leave.”

"Hey! Step back! This is a restricted area! Get back! You're in danger!" A loudspeaker enhanced voice boomed.

A military humvee was racing across the field towards them, a turret spinning in place atop it with a soldier in pixilated fatigues inside.

The speaker shouting even louder, "THIS IS AN OFFICIAL RESTRICTED AREA. BACK AWAY FROM THE TOWN NOW!"

Well, that was really quick-

“Now we should REALLY leave, Mark!” America insisted, shooting up into the air to put herself between the vehicle and her man with Felicia doing the same.

Natasha was pulling on his shoulder but he refused to budge. The view of his prize was so close. The magic had finally found Wanda and he could feel that connection growing by the second, “No… I think I can-”

Then Wanda looked at him.

“Oh shit.”

A rumble suddenly echoed from inside the dome. The strange hexagonal energy that had trapped the residents of Westview inside began surging in an almost angry way. Mark tried to move his hands but found that he simply couldn’t, the connection that he’d made… meant that the hex had him as well. Energy wrapping around his arms, dragging him further as the dome itself began to expand outwards as well.

“SHIT SHIT SHIT!”

“MARK!” America yelled, trying to fly towards him but getting caught off guard and pushed back by a wave of power that pushed her, Felicia, and the guards away from it. Only not pushing Nat away as she held tightly to Mark’s trapped body. Trying her hardest to drag him to safety but to no avail.

Mark’s wrists disappeared into the void. Then his forearms, elbows, toes, more and more of him vanished into the magical red dome he definitely regretted messing with.

“Fuck. Not gonna happen. You’re not taking him.” Natasha cursed, trying to protect him but only managing to get her own body partially eaten by the dome as well. Dragging her along while Mark’s face leaned as far away from the hex as possible.

“Gah! FUUCKKK!!!” He grunted, this was bad, he had mere seconds to think of a plan.

But with everything, he’d still managed to keep the scary witch’s focus on him.

Which meant the connection was complete.

As his face disappeared from America’s view completely, there was only one word that echoed from Mark’s lips before he was truly eaten alive by magic.

That word was the thing he’d managed to enact on Wanda before getting wrapped up in the strange world she’d created.

And that word was ‘Pervert’.