Time flew by, and Lynn had already spent half a month secretly observing Tony as planned.
Every morning, after breakfast at the Sanctum, he opened a portal straight to the mountaintop in Afghanistan, hid behind a rock, and watched the cave through a gap; at lunchtime, he returned to the Sanctum on schedule, helped himself to a hot meal, took a short nap, then went back; when dusk fell, he returned directly to the Sanctum to rest, carefully monitoring Tony's progress on the armor.
Although everything was proceeding step by step, it was also mind-numbingly dull.
That afternoon, Lynn crouched on the familiar mountaintop again, toying with a faint wisp of pale magical light between his fingertips as his bored gaze rested on the cave entrance. Two armed men were still on guard, pacing back and forth, alert but making no unusual moves.
Inside the cave, Tony and Yinsen moved around each other. The armor was still a collection of scattered parts, and progress was slow.
"Ugh, this is so boring." Lynn yawned and leaned against the rock, unable to resist muttering, "Tony's taking forever to build that armor. Crouching here staring at sand every day is driving me crazy. A few more days of this, and I feel like I'll be able to talk to ants."
He raised a hand and summoned a farsight rune, scanning the cave's interior. After confirming that Tony was still focused on polishing parts while Yinsen helped with the welding beside him, with nothing out of the ordinary, he dismissed the rune.
In the midst of his boredom, two figures suddenly flashed through his mind. Scarlet Chaos Magic, crimson ribbons dancing at high speed, and the boy beside her.
"Wanda and her brother!" Lynn's eyes lit up. Suddenly energized, he sat upright and quickly sorted through the timeline in his head. "I remember Avengers: Age of Ultron taking place in 2014. It's 2008 now, and Tony's only just been kidnapped. There are still several years before Hydra finds Wanda and her brother and experiments on them!"
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, and even the magical glow at his fingertips grew livelier. "Going by the timeline, Wanda should only be in her teens now, with Pietro a little younger. The two of them should still be struggling in Sokovia's slums, right?"
At this point, Wanda had not yet been selected by Hydra or endured those painful experiments, so naturally, she had not awakened her Chaos Magic either. But she already possessed the potential for Chaos Magic. If he could bring her to Kamar-Taj ahead of time to study magic under the Ancient One, she might well be able to master that power early and, more importantly, escape Hydra's clutches without having to endure that inhuman torture.
"Learning Kamar-Taj's magic has to beat getting captured by Hydra and turned into a test subject." Lynn grinned, having already made up his mind. "Tony won't need me anytime soon anyway. I might as well take this chance to go to Sokovia and snatch Wanda and her brother up first."
As for Hydra? Lynn curled his lip, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes. At this stage, it was nothing but a little snake that did not even dare show its head. Besides, he now had Kamar-Taj's magic at his disposal. As long as he did not go out of his way to provoke a large Hydra base, simply snatching Wanda and her brother up first would be no problem at all.
"Hydra, sorry about this. I'm taking Wanda and her brother first," Lynn murmured, a hint of teasing in his voice.
Without further hesitation, he stood and brushed the sand and dust off his clothes. After making sure none of the armed men nearby had noticed him, he raised a hand and traced the portal rune in the air. Orange sparks whirled rapidly and burst outward. A circular portal gradually took shape, and through it, he could faintly see low, dilapidated houses, muddy streets, and a range of mountains in the distance-the scenery of Sokovia.
Lynn took one last look toward the cave and silently thought, Tony, hang in there for a few more days. Once I've settled Wanda and her brother in, I'll come back and keep you company while we wait for your breakout.
With that, he lingered no longer and stepped through the portal. The orange sparks slowly faded in the desert, leaving only the empty mountaintop and the still-quiet cave in the distance.
On the other side of the portal, Sokovia's air carried a faint scent of damp earth, completely different from Afghanistan's dry, scorching heat. Low slum dwellings dotted the hillside in a staggered arrangement. Occasionally, a few children in ragged clothes ran past, innocent curiosity on their faces, while faint gunshots and arguments drifted from afar, carrying an air of unrest.
Standing in a muddy alley, Lynn raised a hand to close the portal and scanned his surroundings, his gaze turning serious.
Wanda and her brother were somewhere in this chaotic slum.
He took a deep breath. A faint white light rose from his fingertips as he quietly cast a scouting spell and began searching the slum for those two figures destined to be extraordinary.
The scouting spell's runes slipped silently through the alleys. Following their guidance, Lynn crossed one muddy street after another and skirted several groups of wandering displaced people, finally finding the people he sought at a crumbling corner.
Two figures huddled close together beneath the wall. The girl wore a dress washed pale and covered in patches. Her hair was dry and yellowed, and faint bruises marked her face, but they could not hide the stubbornness in her eyes. It was Wanda. The boy beside her was thin, wearing an ill-fitting, worn-out coat, with several fresh scratches on his arms. He was scanning the surroundings warily; he was probably Wanda's younger brother, Pietro.
Watching from a distance, Lynn could clearly see the sorry state of the siblings. A tear ran through Wanda's skirt, and blood that had yet to dry still stained the corner of Pietro's mouth.
At the mouth of an alley nearby, several delinquent-looking boys stood with cigarettes between their lips, occasionally glancing toward the siblings with mocking eyes. They spoke in an obscure Sokovian dialect, their tones vicious and arrogant.
Noticing their gazes, Wanda instinctively moved to shield Pietro behind her. Her fingertips curled slightly, and a trace of fear flashed in her eyes, but she did not back down at all. Over the years, she and her brother had had no one to rely on and had suffered endless bullying in the slums. With neither food nor shelter, they could barely survive by scavenging scraps others had thrown away, and being bullied was an everyday occurrence.
Lynn frowned and waved a hand. An invisible magical barrier silently enveloped the boys at the alley entrance, instantly immobilizing them. They could only struggle in place, unable to make a sound-he did not want trouble, but he could not stand watching the siblings being bullied like this either.
Only after doing all that did he slow his steps and walk toward Wanda and her brother. His footsteps alerted the two in the corner. Wanda and Pietro looked up at the same time and watched him warily, their bodies instantly tensing like two frightened little animals ready to flee at any moment.
Lynn stopped and softened his tone, trying to make his expression look gentler so he would not frighten them. "Don't be afraid. I mean you no harm."
As he spoke, he took several snacks from his pocket and held them out to the siblings with a gentle smile. "You look like you haven't eaten in a long time. These are for you."
The enticing aroma drifted to Wanda's and Pietro's noses, and their stomachs growled in unison. A flicker of longing crossed their eyes, but they still did not lower their guard.
Wanda stared at the food Lynn offered, then looked at his unfamiliar face. Her brows knitted tightly as she asked in halting English, her tone wary and puzzled, "Who are you? Why are you giving us food? What do you want?"
Pietro also clutched the hem of Wanda's clothes, glaring fiercely at Lynn. Though thin, he still did his best to look as if he were protecting his older sister, muttering under his breath in Sokovian, his tone full of wariness.
Lynn was not surprised by their guarded reactions.
In such a chaotic slum, the siblings, with no one to rely on, had long since learned how to protect themselves and would not readily trust any stranger. He did not rush to explain. Instead, he gently set the food on the ground, then stepped back a few paces to put some distance between them and show that he meant no harm.
"My name is Lynn," he began slowly, his tone still gentle. "I don't mean you any harm. I just happened to be passing by and saw you being bullied. You also looked hungry, so I wanted to give you something to eat."
Wanda looked at the food on the ground, then at Lynn's sincere eyes. The wariness in her eyes did not diminish in the slightest. She still did not touch the food, only stared fixedly at Lynn, waiting for what he would say next.
She knew all too well that in this slum, kindness never came free. Behind any stranger's friendly gesture, there might be some hidden purpose.