One night a year ago, Wanda's home apartment was struck by two missiles.
One of the missiles hit her parents' bedroom, causing both of them to die on the spot.
The other missile struck the room shared by her and Pietro.
Through her bedroom window at the time, Wanda watched with her own eyes as that missile trailed a fiery tail toward her bedroom, her heart filled with terror.
"No!"
At that moment, she had only a single thought in her mind: to make this missile stop from exploding.
Then, a miracle happened.
The bomb rushed into her bedroom, smashed through the bedroom wall, and came to a halt. Incredibly, it truly did not explode!
Wanda clearly saw that the missile body was stamped with the Stark Industries logo.
At the time, she simply thought she and her brother had incredible luck to stumble upon a defective dud.
However, after a year of constantly asking around and gathering information, Wanda already knew that Stark Industries was the world's top weapons research and manufacturing company.
The quality of the weapons they manufactured was extremely high, and major Sokovia warlords fought fiercely to purchase them. It was nearly impossible for a missile to turn out to be a dud.
Hearing Mark say that she also possessed superpowers, Wanda finally reacted: perhaps at that time, she had unwittingly used her superpower, causing that missile not to explode.
"Why do you want to help us awaken our superpowers?"
Wanda asked Mark, voicing the doubt in her heart.
Although she was not old, her time wandering outside had made her understand that there was no such thing as unreasoned goodwill in this world.
"I hope that after you awaken your superpowers, you can work for me."
Mark stated his objective.
After all, the potential of both of them was very strong, especially Wanda, who ultimately became the upper limit of combat power in Marvel.
Taking advantage of the fact that they had not yet grown up, now was the ideal time to bring them under his command.
"As long as you help us awaken our superpowers and let us avenge our parents, you can have us do whatever you want from now on!"
Wanda agreed without hesitation.
A flash of hatred, one that shouldn't have belonged to someone of her age, crossed her eyes.
Mark sighed inwardly, knowing that the enemy the other party referred to was Tony Stark!
Wanda and Pietro were far too young; they did not know who had fired the missile that killed their parents.
From the perspective of children, their parents had died beneath a missile manufactured by Stark Industries, so Tony Stark was their enemy!
Had Mark not appeared, Wanda and Pietro might have even actively joined Hydra's biological laboratory in the future for the sake of revenge, willingly becoming experimental subjects.
"In that case, I will take you away from here tomorrow and come with me to the Federation."
Mark said to Wanda and Pietro.
He knew that making any explanation to the two of them right now was superfluous.
Once their minds matured and through continuous subtle influence, they would naturally come to understand who their true enemy was.
In the original plot, although Wanda was willing to fight side by side with Tony Stark, she had not forgiven him.
She simply chose to temporarily lay aside her hatred to deal with a common enemy, Thanos, because she was unwilling to stake the lives of all humanity on her personal vengeance.
Mark hoped that under his planning, Wanda could truly reconcile with Tony Stark, which might prevent many tragedies from happening in the future.
Early the next morning, Mark took Wanda and the other two to finish breakfast at the hotel.
As he prepared to go to the front desk to check out, his acute hearing caught the simultaneous roar of dozens of large vehicles starting up, followed by a neat chorus of running footsteps and the clatter of firearms.
The sounds were still over twenty miles away, but Mark could hear that vehicles had already started moving and were driving toward his current location.
Thinking of the soldiers he had eliminated the previous night, Mark realized that the warlord forces behind them were probably coming to retaliate.
At this point, he could choose to directly take Wanda and the others and leave.
Once he flew into the sky with them, these Sokovia warlords naturally wouldn't be able to do anything to him.
However, after a brief moment of thought, Mark abandoned this plan.
"You head up to the rooftop terrace. I'll come find you after I take care of some trouble."
Mark said to Wanda and the three of them.
He intended to step in and teach these warlords a profound lesson, ensuring they would not dare to continue acting so unscrupulously in the future.
Outside the city of Novigrad at this moment, two armored vehicle convoys were steadily approaching the city ahead.
Each convoy consisted of a little over twenty armored vehicles, their numbers roughly equal.
Flying blue and green flags respectively, the armored vehicles of these two convoys maintained a clear distinction between each other.
These were none other than the Valen Army and the Hart Army, the two largest warlord factions entrenched near Novigrad.
Originally, the two sides were in a hostile state, and any encounter inevitably sparked fierce firefights.
This time, however, they had rare circumstances bringing them together in an alliance.
The reason was that they now shared a common enemy--namely, Mark.
Mark had killed dozens of soldiers under both armies the previous night. Upon receiving the news, the supreme commanders of both sides, Kiran Valen and Filch Hart, immediately made the decision to temporarily join forces with their old rival.
They did not know which faction Mark belonged to, but neither Kiran nor Filch would allow any external forces to muscle in during their critical battle for Novigrad.
They had to first eliminate and clear out the third-party force before they could feel at ease continuing their contest for the ownership of Novigrad.
Their intelligence reports stated that Mark was an esper capable of shooting high-temperature beams from his eyes.
Ordinary people were unaware of the existence of superhumans, but as leaders of their own factions, they had channels to understand such things and recognized just how terrifying superhumans could be.
Therefore, even though Mark was only a single person, each of them still dispatched a convoy of over twenty armored vehicles to ensure the opponent was utterly destroyed.
"Whoosh!"
Just as the two convoys were about to enter Novigrad, Mark's figure suddenly appeared directly in front of them, blocking their path.
Since Mark had decided to take action, he naturally chose to do it outside the city to avoid injuring any innocent bystanders.
"The intelligence only said this guy can shoot high-temperature beams from his eyes, it didn't say he could fly!"
Seeing Mark suspended in mid-air, a full hundred meters off the ground, the commanders of both the Valen Army and the Hart Army were taken aback.
Dealing with an enemy who could fly was far more difficult than dealing with one who couldn't!
Fortunately, their armored vehicles were equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns specifically meant to deal with enemy planes.
"Ah, what kind of person is this? How can a person fly in the sky?"
"Could it be that our enemy this time is a flying monster like this?"
Armored vehicle soldiers plunged into a state of panic.
However, under the orders of their respective commanders, the soldiers managed to barely recover their composure.
The anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on the armored vehicles also aimed and opened fire in Mark's direction.
"Rat-tat-tat..."
The deafening sound of gunfire echoed throughout Novigrad.
The city's residents were already accustomed to such sounds, and upon hearing the gunshots, they immediately ducked into their homes, not daring to wander outside freely.