Sokovia, a secret Hydra base.
The locks on the Underground Laboratory door disengaged one after another.
Baron Strucker stood outside the observation room, holding a silver cane.
Inside the glass chamber, two young people opened their eyes at the same time.
The older brother sat up first.
An IV line was still attached to his wrist, and tiny bubbles formed in the fluid as he pulled it along. A second later, he was already standing at the other end of the glass chamber, his palm pressed against the transparent panel.
The technician hadn't seen how he moved.
His younger sister opened her eyes but didn't get up.
A red glow flared in her pupils.
Three technicians backed away at once, one of them knocking over an equipment cart. He clutched his chest and dropped to his knees, his breathing growing rapid.
"Stop," Strucker said.
Wanda turned to look at him.
The technician finally caught his breath and lay on the floor, coughing.
Pietro stood beside the glass chamber, staring at his hands.
"Where are we?"
"Somewhere safe." Strucker pushed the door open and entered the testing area. "You're no longer ordinary people."
Pietro turned.
"We want to go home."
Strucker stopped in front of him.
"You have no home."
Pietro's fingers tightened.
Wanda sat inside the chamber, her gaze settling on Strucker.
"What about our parents?"
"Dead."
The answer came quickly.
No one in the laboratory spoke.
Strucker handed a tablet to the researcher behind him. The screen on the wall lit up, its image frozen on a stretch of rubble.
Sokovia, ten years earlier.
An apartment building had been torn open by shellfire, concrete slabs falling into the street. The camera moved into the ruins, where a boy and a girl were trapped in a narrow gap.
Pietro stared