Stark first saw Heatblast vanish from the spot, leaving behind a burst of flames, leaving only Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, standing alone at the scene.
Immediately after, a short distance away, XLR8 and Quicksilver appeared out of thin air at the exact same moment.
XLR8 maintained a thrown punch posture, while Quicksilver gasped in sheer panic, his mouth wide open as he tumbled helplessly toward the ground.
It was easy to tell that XLR8 had struck Quicksilver with a direct hit, forcibly interrupting his super speed.
Stark’s heart leaped into his throat, his pupils trembling inside his wide-open eyes.
He rapidly toggled his view between Heatblast’s original location and XLR8, before locking his gaze firmly onto XLR8’s dinosaur-like appearance.
It wasn’t just Stark.
The Avengers looked at one another, shock visible in every pair of eyes.
The exact same thought echoed in all their minds: *Where the hell did this guy come from?!* Equally dumbfounded was Wanda on the battlefield.
Earlier, Heatblast and his frost-flame transformation had used only a fraction of their abilities, yet it had imposed an immense pressure on her.
He was an existence capable of crushing both her brother and Ultron single-handedly.
The only thing that could somewhat match him was Pietro’s high-speed movement.
And even that was under the condition that Heatblast was holding back massively.
But now, another dinosaur-like creature with super speed had popped out of nowhere?
And he was even faster than Pietro?!
Staring blankly at XLR8, scenes of mutants being tortured in laboratories subconsciously surfaced in Wanda’s mind.
Her breath hitched, her heart pounding frantically as if sensing extreme danger, firing off distress signals with every heavy thud.
The hairs on Wanda’s arms stood straight up in terror!
“This guy…
no!
This monster!
Where on earth did he come from?!” Then, remembering Owen’s claim that he was Ultron’s subordinate, every hair on her body stood on end.
His strength alone was enough to bring about the extinction of humanity!
Frightened to the point of tears, Wanda subconsciously took a step back.
But then she remembered that Owen hadn’t actually harmed either of them, which caused the terrifying thought to fade, allowing her surging emotions to gradually calm down.
Quicksilver, who had fallen to the ground, flipped over and looked up at XLR8 in front of him, his eyes shaking violently and his scalp going numb!
Others couldn’t perceive XLR8’s speed, but he could.
Quicksilver had a terrifying premonition that the sight of XLR8’s face suddenly appearing right in front of him would leave a psychological shadow on his mind for the rest of his life!
Where the hell did this ability come from?!
How could he run faster than him?!
Quicksilver swallowed hard in utter panic.
In his current state, he had zero power to fight back.
Whatever the opponent wanted to do to him next, he was completely at his mercy!
XLR8 looked down indifferently at Quicksilver, an aura of quiet deadliness filling the air around them.
The tense atmosphere seemed to solidify into something physical.
Quicksilver found it hard to breathe, his heart beating so hard it felt ready to burst from his chest!
For the first time since his parents died, the concept of death loomed large in Quicksilver’s mind again.
*Is he going to kill me?* With a crisp *crack*, XLR8 cracked one of his sharp claws.
Quicksilver’s heart skipped a beat.
*Is it coming?!* XLR8 spoke!
His voice was just as cold as expected!
“What’s 1000 minus 7?” “…Huh?” Seizing the opportunity, Wanda rushed over to intervene, attempting to defuse the situation.
*** On the other end of the feed: The Avengers quickly recovered from their shock, smiles gradually gracing their faces.
They realized that although this mysterious mutant was incredibly powerful, he was fighting on their side!
Don’t forget, he was currently beating up the mutant siblings allied with Ultron!
Even if they needed to fear or guard against him, that was a matter to be discussed *after* they completely eliminated Ultron and saved all of humanity.
Captain America stood with his hands on his hips, staring at XLR8 on the screen with admiration, letting out a long sigh of relief.
“Without a doubt, his help is immense.
He’s an ally in this operation.” Owen had easily dealt with Quicksilver, the most head-ache-inducing threat, without any of the expected sacrifices.
Cap felt he deserved every bit of praise.
Stark, looking at the data analyzed inside his helmet, felt the muscles around his eyes twitch.
“Uh, I should mention…
that little dinosaur just completed sixteen sharp turns within a single second…” Upon hearing that, the smiles on the heroes’ faces froze instantly.
Sixteen turns…
while moving at ultra-high speed…
in under one second?
A second later, Vision’s calm voice echoed out, pulling the heroes’ attention back: “I must remind you all, the Scarlet Witch is the most dangerous one.” The heroes snapped back to reality, slowly pulling back their smiles.
Inside his helmet, Stark’s expression had remained grave all along—that was the very reason he hadn’t laughed.
He had never forgotten that the Scarlet Witch possessed the power to manipulate human minds!
The stronger this mysterious mutant was, the more dangerous it would be if a powerful entity like him ended up being controlled by Ultron’s camp!
*** After XLR8 asked his question, Quicksilver made the exact choice Wanda least wanted him to make: he flew into a rage and went wild.
“AAAAHHH!
You’re mocking me!” Roaring at the sky, the enraged Quicksilver vanished from the spot.
His speed surged significantly beyond his previous limit, noticeably faster than before!
As the target of his attack, XLR8 snapped his visor down and vanished from the spot as well, before…
chasing Quicksilver down to beat him up!
“I have to teach you a lesson—you just don’t know when to quit!” “It’s just a light beating, why get so mad?
You’re really just a kid, aren’t you?” The two moving at high speed were completely invisible to the naked eye.
Owen’s teasing voice seemed to drift out from the void itself.
Wanda was rendered speechless once again.
She realized that not only was her brother childish, but this mysterious guy was equally childish.
Shouldn’t that last sentence be spoken by her or Pietro?!
Of course, as the target of her internal complaints, Wanda still placed the primary blame on her brother.
*If he wanted to kill you, he would have done it long ago.
He’s clearly been playing with you the whole time, so why are you actually getting angry?* *Teenage boys are truly impossible to understand!* However, what made Wanda secretly happy was that, perhaps due to the immense pressure Owen brought, Quicksilver had clearly grown stronger!
*** According to FRIDAY’s real-time analysis, Quicksilver had also reached the level of completing sixteen turns per second now.
Seeing Quicksilver occasionally being knocked out of the “void” and tumbling across the ground, Cap asked hurriedly, “What about the little dinosaur?” The little dinosaur was faster than the empowered Quicksilver, so Cap wanted his data.
FRIDAY answered cleanly and concisely: “Apologies, sir.
That exceeds the limits of my analytical processing.” Cap was stunned.
Clearly, FRIDAY could barely analyze the powered-up Quicksilver, but was completely unable to process the data on the little dinosaur.
Even Cap could see it now: from the very beginning, the little dinosaur hadn’t been using his full strength!
Unsurprisingly, Quicksilver was beaten black and blue, collapsing heavily onto the ground.
Frankly speaking, XLR8’s main weakness—or rather, flaw—was a lack of raw strike power.
Quicksilver being battered to this extent was purely because his physical durability wasn’t high enough.
And his loss of combat capability was simply due to his stamina being completely exhausted.
The previous scene repeated itself.
XLR8 looked down at Quicksilver lying on the ground.
As their eyes met, XLR8 noticed that Quicksilver’s eyes were completely clear now—he had been thoroughly chastened.
Taking advantage of this moment, Wanda stood behind him and channeled her magic.
Red light swirled inside her pupils as she called out to XLR8.
“Hey!” The instant he saw this through the feed!
Stark’s heart shot straight into his throat, his eyes bulging so wide they looked ready to pop out of his sockets.
This was it!
The Scarlet Witch had used this exact trick to bewitch Hulk’s mind and cause him to lose control!
Right now!
Right now, this mysterious little dinosaur was about to be bewitched by her as well!
And that was precisely what Wanda intended to do.
Of course, she didn’t want Owen to go wild; she merely wanted him to deactivate his mutant transformation and calm down, thereby saving her foolish brother.
Wanda knew she was no match for Owen in direct combat, so mind control was naturally the best option.
She had witnessed Owen’s abilities: fire, ice, and now super speed.
But even if all those powers were combined, they couldn’t block mind manipulation!
Once he was controlled, she could also ask him what secrets he was hiding.
Just as Wanda was thinking this, Owen—hearing her call—slowly turned his head to look at her.