Pietro Maximoff woke to the bright, warm sunlight that filtered through the binds and shone on to his face. He was thankful that he was able to fall back asleep after that horrible dream he’d experienced. He was still a little shaken by it but, it was just a dream, none the less.

He let out a deep sigh, in a few moments he knew that he would have to get up and make his way down to the Avengers monitor room, where he’d have the pleasure of watching monitors for the next four hours. It was going to drive him crazy, he hated when he had to do something for a long period of time. He let out another sigh.

He sat up and stretched. Crystal was still asleep, he didn’t want to wake her, so he carefully got out of bed, crept over to the closet, grabbed his uniform and headed for the door.

“Good morning.” her song bird like voice said.

Pietro smiled at his wife, “Good morning, Crystal. I’m sorry I woke you.”

Crystal shook her head, her reddish-blond hair swirled around her face. “No, I’ve been up for a while. Where are you going?”

“I have monitor duty this morning, but I wanted to get a quick shower first.”

Crystal stretched her long slender arms above her head. “That’s the one thing I don’t miss about being an active member of the Avengers - monitor duty -,” she laughed. “I could use a shower too.”

“Care to join me?” her husband winked.

Crystal smiled back at her husband. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The water felt so good against Pietro’s body. If there was anything Pietro liked to spend time on, it was a long hot shower. Having Crystal in with him was a plus.

Crystal put shampoo in to her hands and began to rub it into a rich foamy later on Pietro’s scalp, wiping away the suds from his eyes.

“Just think about this while on duty.” she whispered into her husbands ear and kissed his neck.

Pietro kissed her forehead and wrapped his strong arms around her small waist. It was nice having his wife back again. He had thought that their marriage was over after that incident with Dane Whitman, a few months back. Since then he and Crystal had come to terms with each other. Even he and the Black Knight have become some what of friends,... some what.

He stepped under the shower head to rinse the suds from his silvery hair. The hot water felt so relaxing, he closed his eyes just for a moment to indulge in its warmth.

As the moments passed the water began to grow colder and colder.

*Have I really been in the shower so long that its running out of hot water? It seems like I just got in here no more than ten minutes ago.*

The waters texture even began to change, it felt...thicker.

Pietro snapped open his eye, to see that the now ice cold water had turned a deep shade of crimson running down his body.

“Blood” Pietro gasped as he grabbed Crystal, who was in the middle of lathering up her own hair, and jumped out of the shower with her.

“Pietro, for Agon’s sake!, what are you doing!” Crystal said, still covered in suds and her hands on her hips.

Pietro glanced back at the shower which now running clear again.

“Well?...”, Crystal question again, this time in a sterner tone, “and did I hear you say ’blood’?”

“I....I...” Pietro stammered as he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.

“What did you say about blood?” Crystal asked once more.

Pietro hesitated he wasn’t sure if he should just lie or tell her what he saw.

“Crystal,” Pietro began quietly, “I thought I saw...saw the water turn to blood.”

Crystal hardened face softened with concern. “Oh, Pietro” she started “I’m so worried about you.”

“I’m okay, my darling”

Crystal shook her head. “No...no your not. Those dreams that you’ve been having, now your seeing things. Maybe you should talk to Hank Pym.”

“He’s a doctor Crystal, not a psychiatrist.”

Crystal wrapped a large fluffy towel around her body and stepped closer to her husband. “Okay, so you do admit that you need to see some kind of doctor.”

“I didn’t...” Pietro began to speak but, Crystal put her hand up to ‘shush’ him.

“Maybe Professor Xavier.”

Pietro huffed at the thought of asking Professor X anything. “I do not care for that man much nor do I want him probing around my head.”

“But Pietro!...” Crystal started but it was Pietro who ‘shushed’ her this time.

“I said I’m fine!!” he snapped as he slipped into his uniform.

A look of hurt came over Crystals face. She didn’t know what else to say.

He didn’t mean to snap but talking to Xavier was out of the question.

“I’ll see you in a few hours” he said to Crystal with out even looking at her, and then left the room.

He walked slowly down the hall. *What is with me lately?, first the dream with Luna and now I see blood coming from the shower. Am I going crazy?*

He shook his head and sighed, maybe...maybe talking to Hank wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all, or maybe he’d try to make sense of it al himself. God knew he’s have enough time while he was on monitor duty.

He entered his Avengers I.D into the security panel on the wall next to the monitor room, and the heavy metallic door slid open.

Pietro walked into to find a very worn down and tired Hank Pym.

Hank looked up. “Pietro thank God you’re here,” he said sleepily, “I don’t know how more of this I can take.”

“Yes, I heard you were pulling a double shift.” Pietro said taking a seat at one of the consols.

Hank yawned. “Yeah, poor Natasha , hasn’t been feeling well. I got her on some heavy duty drugs but, its the kind that make you feel worse before you start getting better. Hank looked at Pietro’s face, he could tell that something was bothering him. “Say, you don’t look to good either. Anything bothering you?”

Pietro hesitated before lying to Hank. “No everything is fine, I’m tired, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Hank smiled and elbowed Pietro in the side. “Must be nice having your wife back, ay?”

*What? what is he talking about? oh, he thinks that I was up because me and Crystal were...* Pietro nodded, “Yes it is.”

Hank smiled again as he got up out of his seat, “Well you to crazy kids keep it down a little, okay?”

Hank got up and yawned again and headed for the door. “See ya Pete, I’m gonna catch a few winks.”

Pietro watched Hank leave the room and the door shut behind him. Now he was alone in this isolated room for the next four hours.

He had only been in the room a half an hour and already it was beginning to drive him crazy. He flipped through a few ’Scientific Frontiers’ magazines, that Hank left, nothing worth reading or at least he could understand. He even tried to listen to a CD that someone left in the CD player but, the band Korn was not exactly his type of music. He tried to draw but, he couldn’t doing anything better than his ’happy face sun’ or his ’little house with the curl of smoke coming from the chimney’ that he usually drew for his daughter. Pietro banged his head against the back of the padded chair and settled for starring mindlessly at the monitors in front of him.

“A half an hour left.” he said out loud as he read the numbers on the digital clock. The last three and a half hours were hell for him, hopefully the last half hour wouldn’t be so bad.

Pietro leaned his head back on the chair, looking up at the ceiling. He began to spin himself around in the chair as a small child would for fun, instead he was doing out of boredom.

He stopped himself to check the monitors again just to make sure that they were clear from any suspicious action. Pietro watched the kitchen monitor. The Avengers butler Jarvis began to prepare lunch for everyone.

He continued to watch Jarvis, since there was absolutely nothing better to do, but it was beginning to get very boring watching him prepare grilled cheese and tomato soup for all the Avengers. Just as he was about to give up on Jarvis, Pietro noticed something that caught his eye.

There was a shadow coming up behind Jarvis, it could have been any one of his fellow teammates but, the more Pietro noticed the shape of the shadow, he couldn’t recognize it.

Pietro blinked his eyes quickly, he imagined that if he was seeing things again the shadow would disappear when he opened his eyes.

He could tell it was a man by the way the figure was built. The shadow moved into full view, and Pietro knew that this had to be an intruder, somehow the security system didn’t pick him up. He’d have to talk to Natasha about that, of course at a later time. The man wore a long black cloak with a hood pulled over his head so that you could not see his face.

Pietro moved closer to the monitors as if he could get a better look at him. The man began to creep up behind the unsuspecting Jarvis. Pietro just watched, he knew that he should be warning the Avengers, but he couldn’t , it was like he was in some kind of trance.

Suddenly the man stopped and turned around facing towards the camera, looking straight at Pietro, like he knew exactly were the camera was hidden. How did he know were the camera was? Jarvis didn’t even know where the camera was at.

Pietro knew that the cloaked man knew he was watching him. He continued to stare into the monitor and the man continued to look into the camera lens, until finally, pushing back the hood that he wore revealing his face for the first time.

He gasped.

The cloaked man was....

 To be continued in Part Three ~Hell Shock~