All of the five escalated their involvement in city politics after that week when two of their own were casualties. Wanda had confirmation that instilling fear didn't work against them. It made them stronger. Because, after all, they couldn't control the government's fear that the city would overpower it; they could only control and eliminate their own fear that the opposite would happen, and they could reverse it.

"What happened to Alana?" Pietro asked her during one of the quiet moments. Wanda had refused to tell everyone, saying it was too terrible.

Wanda first shook her head, but sighed in submission, knowing she would have to open up eventually.

"Tell me," Pietro demanded softly.

"She died in a lab."

"A what?"

"Natalia told me that her father was working with a man called Stryker, who was taking- 'hiring', she said- people from the rougher areas of the city, people no one would miss, and he was experimenting on them."

"Experimenting? How? Like a mad scientist?" Pietro asked incredulously.

"Exactly like that."

Wanda had nothing more to tell, only more to feel. Frustration at being deemed an unmissed section of the world. Disgust that the government was funding this mad scientist's experiments on innocent people, largely children (something about their cells being more moldable and receptive to alteration).

The next day, they were part of the first major protest, one that didn't simply involve a few unhappy neighbors, but which spanned the entire city, cropping up like an array of explosive stars (though not as literally explosive as had been the strategy way back when). Wanda, Pietro, and Maria shouted and marched, defying the immoral standards that the city had reached, while Milla, Zrinka, and Costel huddled at home pretending to ignore the ruckus outside the open window.

Wanda was careful not to say anything too specific about the lab rats. Natalia had sworn her to secrecy, insisting the damage would be too great if everyone knew. Wanda decided she was correct, because a spill like that would be as toxic as oil in the ocean, bleeding through the population causing riots far greater than what was happening then.

So she shouted, "You can't control us!" instead.

~

Costel was asleep and everyone else was strewn around the kitchen table drinking red wine and recreating. Wanda leaned on her pretzeled arms, observing a humorous argument that'd broken out between Pietro, reclined with his feet propped on the table, and Milla, who held her glass in front of her face to hide her amusement.

"Neon. Is not. A color," she said very seriously.

"Yes!" Pietro shouted. "The yellow!"

"That's neon yellow," Milla corrected. "Not neon."

"It's neon."

Zrinka chipped in, "So would you call neon pink just neon?"

"Obviously not," Pietro lilted. "Because pink isn't neon. Neon is neon."

"Neon is neon. Now that's an argument," Milla observed, finally dropping her rouse and laughing.

"Yes, it is," Pietro said defensively, with a charismatic smile.

"I hate to break it to you, brother, but I don't think it is," Wanda determined.

"Look what you've done," Pietro accused Milla. "You've turned even my egg buddy against me."

"Egg buddy?" Maria snorted, looking up from the communal computer they'd purchased a few months ago.

"That's biology," Pietro commented.

"Alright," Maria allowed. "Well how about a little chemistry for you?"

She flipped around the computer and slid it across the table to Pietro.

"Ah, yes," he said, and read, "'Neon is an element that is a bright yellow in color and its abbreviation is Ne. Its atomic weight is Pietro Is Right.'"

"That is not what it says!" Maria laughed, pulling the computer back over. "'Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air-'"

"Ha!" Milla exclaimed.

"Fine," Pietro admitted in defeat, then circled back to the original comment. "But I'd rather buy my neon shirt than yours."

"Eh, maybe not," Zrinka flirted, and the others ood and ahd at her surprising proposal. Pietro winked and blew a kiss.

"Who buys a neon shirt anyway?" Maria snidely remarked.

"I- So you admit it's a color!"

"No! I was... describing."

"Ah, I win," Pietro breathed, earning annoyed sighs from the girls.

Wanda laughed with the group of deeply embedded friendships, letting herself breathe easily and happily. Because even if the city was in shambles, at least they weren't.

A/N: Thought I could use some comedic relief lol. Thoughts on the story so far? Things you want to see?