who: Ryan, and Wes and NPC!Clint Barton and Charlie cameo when: Today! But after the NPC!Parent party Setting: Library what: They finally find their missing book And sort of find Wanda. Only not really. Oh dear, more angst for Ryan and Wes.
Clint stepped into the library. "Wesley!" He called out.
'Shhing' him would be the funny looking kid behind the desk. Clint waved him away and walked further into the vast area. Frost and Cassidy sure collected a lot of books through the years.
Ryan was already in the library, having already promised Charlie that he would not (cross his heart and hope to die) make a mess. Or make a lot of noise. Or just do any of the things that seemed to make Charlie start muttering about rage blackouts and the like. He heard his dad calling Wes name, and sighed as he peered around a corner. He could feel a sneeze coming on . ..maybe it was the library that made Charlie ---
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he frowned, he was getting that kind of queasy feeling in his stomach that meant one thing. Someone was doing some magic. Oh, excuse him, someone was doing some magic-with-a-k . . . which meant that Wes was the most likely culprit.
"Wesley!" He called out, coming to a stop and looking around. God damn books.
A book flew past Clint's nose. No strings. Clint jumped then cursed himself for it. Freaked out by a book, how degrading.
"Can the theatrics, Wesley." He growled until he came to something that could be struck as odd. OK, so an eight-foot stack of library books could count as WEIRD. Clint stared at it, cocking his head, wondering for a second why that would seem familiar.
"Dad?" Ryan came around the corner and stopped in front of the stack of books, and frowned. He reached out a tentative hand to touch the stack of books, than pulled it back quickly. He was not touching those freaky books.
"Wes!" Screw the rules about noises in the library. "You know Charlie gets pissed when you take the books off the shelf and don't put them back." He glanced over at his Dad, and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "Maybe he's not in here …"
Clint shook his head. "He's here. And I think that book may be too." Being old made him smart. Or, being married to the Scarlet Witch made him smart. "Come on, he's probably doing something stupid."
And Wes was. As Houdini circled around his master, his black tail rubbing his arm as he meowed affectionately, Wes was in front of the book. He found it. It was in the library the whole time. The logic missed was almost embarrassing. But Wes had gotten beyond that, because hovering above it was a very faint cloud that could pass as a ghostly figure. But it wasn't saying anything, much to Wes' frustration.
"Mom... I know it's you. It has to be you!" Wes pleaded out loud. But he was getting no indication so far.
"Wes -- whoa." Coming around a corner -- this library was confusing! -- Ryan found Wes. And their missing cat. And the book. And ... a cloud of something. "Ahh ... Wes ..." Ryan glanced at the cloudy figure thing, and then focused on his twin.... Who needed to shave.... Badly.
"Wesley!" He snapped because really they didn't do crazy magic shit like this by themselves.
Okay, so maybe Wes hadn't had much of a choice ... because Ryan had decided to be all "I'm not using magic anymore" but ... still! They should have come and gotten him before he start summoning up, whatever he had summoned up. "Wes, step away from the book and the cat and the ... thing."
"Jeee-zusss." Clint drop-mouthed as he came upon them. "What the hell..." And being Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, he lifted a bow attached to his arm that happened to be under his sleeve the entire time. "Back OFF!" He hollered in general to the figure, Wes, Ryan, the cat...
Wes looked back, his face not unhappy. "I did it again, Ry. Check it out. And Houdini helped me find it." He looked back at the cloud. "Say something. Like you did to me? They never doubted you like I did."
Clint heard this and then got it.. why Wes was so obsessed to find the truth. Wesley felt guilty for burying Wanda in his mind. He looked over at Ryan and wondered if he understood as well. Probably did, those twins have that about them.
"Okay, whoa." That was directed at well ... everyone. His dad, Wes, the cloud/ghost, the cat ... Ryan didn't like being the voice of reason, but he would be. "Dad, no shooting stuff." Let's not piss off the ghost/thing, or piss off Charlie if people started shooting up his library. "Wes, you did it all right." Back pressed up against one of the shelves, Ryan would swear that the ghost thing was sort of .... looking at him.
It would be really cool if it was their mom ... but that book was bad news. He didn't trust anything to do with it.
"Wes, get over it. She wouldn't be not talking if she's mad at you. She'd let you know. Mom if that's you ... umm ... hi." He lifted a hand in a kind of a wave. Trying to make the gesture non threatening.
Clint looked at Ryan with disbelief that he was actually talking to the smoke and he did not put down the bow. Especially when the ghostly figure moved away from the book and over to Clint's face.
Ryan wasn't trigger happy that was all, he wasn't going to be all 'GET HER', or it, in regards to the cloudy, ghostly thing. What if it was Mom? He'd never live it down, if he shot at mom!
Although he was forced to re-think his stance on being friendly to the free-floating vapor when it moved towards his dad. "Okay, whoa, back off!" He waved his hands towards the vaporous thing, glancing over to see if there was going to be any backup from Wes.
Maybe something triggered in Wes, but he stood up and held his hands in a fashion similar to his mother's hex gestures. "Back here, now!...um, please." He called to the figure and used his power on it. It was not exactly 'inanimate', but he added an extra spell in there that may help. "She's not listening to me."
Meanwhile Clint was not taking any crap. He shot a small arrow at the figure that was nearly upon him and it hit through a random book.
But the figure did feel something as it reshaped a bit quivering and became more defined.
"What?" Clint looked at his kids. "I wasn't going to run from it."
But it was definitely female...
"Please, that was a nice touch. And Dad, stop shooting at it! What if it's Mom!" Or what if it's an angry spirit from the book, and what if now it's really pissed off? Is Ryan the only one that thinks of these things? Apparently so. More smart ass comments then faded as the figure became more solid, and started drifting back towards the book and Wes. It was female, and you could see hair now, brown curly hair ...
Wes still had his battle pose and it loosened as the figure looked at him.. It was Mom. It was Wanda. "Mom..." He said with confidence. "It's Mom... But she's a ghost...." Which meant, she was dead.
Clint put his hand bow down as he, too, realized it was his wife looking back at his son. "It is you...!" He said in awe, taking a few steps toward it.
Now if Clint's zipper went down, that Ghostbusters song would need to come on.
And then Ryan and Wes would need therapy for the rest of their natural lives.
"Or a projection, some sort of astral projection maybe ..." Ryan was not going to subscribe to the Mom's a ghost, so Mom must be dead theory. Nope.
The apparition opened its mouth... "Clint..." It spoke.
"W..Wanda? Are you ok?"
"Heh...Heh....llllp...."
Wes looked at Ryan. "Did she say 'Help'?"
"Meeee..."
Clint's hands raised up to the face. It was definitely his wife looking at him, those brown eyes he fell in love with the first time he met her. "Help you? How?" He whipped his head over to Wes. "Wes! Talk to that book more! Use your power!" He hollered. "Ryan! Get your ass over there and help her!"
Wes looked at Ryan, then at the book. He didn't trust this. It was too easy. "But Dad, I don't know if I.."
"DAMMIT. It's your Mother!"
And suddenly the face that was Wanda's was taken over by a skull face, but the scream of horror was definitely hers until it faded away, looking like a struggle was taking place.
"WANDA!" Clint yelled.
People just keep jumping off the 'It's Wanda -- no it's not!' train. Ryan is getting confused, but not confused enough to not yell 'CRAP' when Wanda disappears. He wants to use some stronger language, but yeah. Not in the library, and not in front of his Dad.
Meanwhile, Charlie had come barreling around the corner, breathing heavily (he's really out of shape), with claws extended. "What the HELL is going on? And why is that -- why is that book on fire!!" Because yeah, Agatha's book, encased in some serious green magic-with-a-k looking flames.
"Hose!" Wes hollered at the emergency hose in the corner and it soared over to his hands.
"No!"
That yell came from Charlie, who appeared to be having visions of all his books soaked in water. He looked like he might be about to launch himself at Wes, or the hose, so Ryan figured it was time to step up, and step in, before things got out of hand. Seriously, all the fire's he's had to put out lately, maybe he should have become a fire fighter . . .
"Water!" Ry has never been fancy in his spell casting, and now was no exception, a small blue light flickered into existence around the flames, while Ryan concentrated, muttering quickly under his breath, holding one hand out toward Charlie, warning the librarian to stay in place. This took concentration, lots of it, and Ry was kind of out of practice with the whole spell thing -- "Little help Wes?!" Because the green flame was dampened for sure, but still existed around the book.
If Wes wasn't already working on his own spell, he would be jumping for joy that Ryan was doing magic. He uttered a simple spell, then used his mutant ability to move the book in a quick spin that, in combination with the spell, doused the flame, but the residual moisture flew off, dousing Charlie and his claws with water.
"Oops." Wes looked at Charlie whose hair was matted over his face.
Clint was standing there, eyes wide in shock for a few seconds and then took control. "Lock that book up. I'm calling Strange."