Sublevel Three – Training Room
The entire chamber looked like an airtight black metal box. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all cast from a special alloy designed to absorb energy.
This was a restricted area in the Avengers' new base—reserved exclusively for Wanda. After all, no one wanted to be drinking coffee when an out-of-control burst of red energy suddenly blew them across the room.
Levi and Wanda sat cross-legged facing each other, five meters apart. The silence was so deep they could hear each other's breathing.
"Again," Levi said.
His voice was calm, almost emotionless. Yet that calmness placed immense pressure on Wanda.
Wanda had her eyes closed. Her long lashes trembled like frightened butterfly wings. Sweat had already soaked the red strands of hair on her forehead, sticking them to her pale skin. A bead of sweat slid down her cheek and dropped onto the floor, leaving a dark spot.
She was desperately trying to feel the power inside her body—instead of futilely trying to control it like before.
That was what Levi had taught her.
He told her the power inside her was like a wild horse. The tighter you pulled the reins, the more violently it would try to throw you off. First, you had to befriend it. Learn its temperament.
In her perception, the power looked like a tangled ball of crimson yarn—violent, chaotic, filled with a desire for destruction.
She couldn't even find the end of the thread. All she could do was watch it rampage through her body, constantly trying to burst out and tear everything it saw apart—including herself.
"I can't…" Wanda's voice trembled, the edge of a sob breaking through. Her body began to shake slightly. "It's too chaotic… It just wants to get out. Tear everything apart. Tear me apart…"
"Then let it tear."
Levi's reply was completely unexpected.
Wanda's eyes snapped open. Shock and confusion filled those beautiful eyes.
Let it go?
If she did that, this base would be tomorrow's headline.
Levi paused, then added,
"If you can't control it, start by guiding it. You have to give it somewhere to vent. Otherwise, it'll go crazy in your own house."
The metaphor was crude—but Wanda understood instantly.
Half doubtful, she still trusted Levi deeply. She took a slow breath and closed her eyes again.
The memory returned.
Pietro lying in a pool of blood.
The hole in his chest like a black pit mocking her helplessness.
An uncontrollable hatred erupted from the deepest part of her heart like a volcanic eruption.
Almost simultaneously, the fist-sized crimson glow floating in front of her suddenly swelled, expanding from the size of a fist to that of a basketball. The violent energy made the alloy walls of the training room hum faintly.
"Good. Now guide it. Don't let it hurt you."
Levi's voice was like a stabilizing pillar, anchoring her mind just as rage threatened to swallow it whole.
Levi moved a finger.
He said nothing, but an invisible force quietly enveloped Wanda.
This force came from Vision's Law of Mind, which Levi wielded like an experienced fitness coach. He didn't step in to help directly—he simply created the perfect safety net.
Wanda could try.
She could fail.
But the violent energy would never crush her or injure her.
With that invisible protection, Wanda felt something she had never experienced before.
Connection.
Her fear vanished.
In its place rose a sense of control she had never known.
"Go!" she roared in her mind.
The crimson energy obeyed instantly, transforming into a blinding scarlet arrow. It tore through the air toward the imaginary head of Ultron—and exploded.
In reality, the energy burst midair like a brilliant yet deadly firework. After leaving several shallow scorch marks on the wall, it dissipated into nothingness.
She had done it.
Wanda collapsed backward, completely exhausted, leaning against the cold alloy wall. She gasped for breath, drenched in sweat like she had just been pulled from water.
But she was smiling.
A genuine smile.
She lifted her head and looked at Levi. In her eyes burned an emotion so intense that even she didn't fully understand—something hot enough to melt her from the inside.
Levi stood, walked over, and handed her a bottle of mineral water he had prepared beforehand.
"That's enough for today."
Then he turned and left.
No comforting words. No warmth.
Just that.
Wanda watched his decisive retreating figure. She hugged the unopened bottle of water tightly to her chest as if it were a priceless treasure.
She understood.
He wasn't cold.
He was simply telling her—in his own way—that this path had to be walked by herself.
---
On the other side of the base, the open-air training ground was loud and dusty.
"Rhodey! Control your fire zone! You're War Machine, not a walking artillery platform! Do you want to flatten the whole mountain?!" Steve's voice boomed across the field.
In the air, the steel war machine armor bearing military insignia immediately adjusted the angle of its shoulder-mounted minigun. A burst of precise fire shredded a rapidly moving ground target.
"Copy that, Cap! I'll try aiming next time!" Rhodey's voice came through the armor with a hint of helplessness.
"Sam! You're his eyes! Stop trying to sneak in attacks yourself! Those wings aren't for showing off—they're for tactical vision! Coordinate!"
Falcon rolled elegantly through the air, dodging a simulated attack beam from the ground. His wings flared as he skimmed low.
The tactical visor on his helmet locked onto a hidden mock enemy and transmitted the coordinates to Rhodey in real time.
"Coordinates sent! Rhodey—thirty degrees left, under that crooked tree!"
"Got it!"
War Machine turned. A micro-missile screamed through the air and struck the target with perfect accuracy.
Nearby, Vision floated quietly in midair, observing everything.
He didn't need this kind of purely physical training. Instead, he was learning something far more complex—
Humanity.
The Mind Stone on his forehead glowed softly as he analyzed these immeasurable concepts: teamwork, camaraderie… and Steve's occasional terrible jokes.
Levi stood in the shadow of the command tower for a moment.
He never interfered with Steve's training.
But his mere presence was both the heaviest safeguard for this new team—and its most thorough surveillance.
---
Late at night.
Levi's private workshop.
Massive circular screens filled the room, lines of code and data streams flowing silently like green waterfalls.
Ultron—whose self-awareness Levi had erased—was now his most efficient intelligence manager.
An encrypted document automatically appeared on the screen. It was a global list of all known superhumans and potential superhumans compiled by Ultron's core system.
Levi scanned through it like an emperor reviewing memorials.
The list was long.
Street-level heroes, potential mutants, unlucky people slightly irradiated by gamma rays… Ultron had practically turned the entire planet upside down to find every abnormal individual.
They were all future collectibles.
Just not yet ready to harvest.
Suddenly his gaze paused on a record highlighted in red.
"High-Priority Event: Hank Pym. Former senior physicist of S.H.I.E.L.D., inventor of Pym Particles. Warning: Subject once erased all S.H.I.E.L.D. research data related to Pym Particles at the physical level using unknown technology. Core analysis indicates generational technological superiority. Impossible to decrypt. Impossible to trace."
"Interesting."
Levi raised an eyebrow.
If even Ultron called it impossible to crack, the technology must be extraordinary.
He continued reading.
"Associated Individual: Hope van Dyne, executive at Pym Technologies. Recently in frequent contact with recently released electronics master's graduate and repeat offender—Scott Lang."
Levi's lips curved slightly.
Pym Particles.
Subatomic particles capable of changing the size of matter at will—even allowing entry into the quantum realm.
Several wild ideas instantly formed in his mind.
If he combined them with his space abilities, could he fold space like paper on a microscopic scale—achieving true instantaneous teleportation without calculating spatial coordinates like his current jumps?
If he enlarged himself to planetary scale and activated his binary star form, then punched Thanos's flagship…
That would be quite a sight.
He could even shrink the Dimensional Whip down to the subatomic level and sever matter's fundamental connections at the source.
Too many possibilities.
The strategic value of this technology might rival an Infinity Stone.
Levi's fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard.
A command appeared—simple and direct.
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