The Séance • Marvel

Age of Ultron: Chapter 01

A young woman sat up quickly as the recurring nightmare once again plagued her dreams. She took a second to take in her surroundings, suddenly remembering where she was. The police precinct. "Great," she told herself. "I don't want to hear it," she told the boy sitting across from her. "I didn't say anything" he answered. "I saw your mouth move." "Yeah, it's called breathing. What, am I not allowed to do that anymore?" The young woman rolled her eyes and leaned her head back against the cold concrete.

An old man wearing a police uniform approached the cell, where the young woman was. "You're getting picked up, let's go," he said. "By who?" "By someone higher up. Now let's go." "No thank you, I'm fine where I'm at," she said. "I wasn't asking," he said, grabbing her by the arm and half dragging her out. "Alright, alright. I can walk on my own. Can I get my things back?" The man ignored her question and continued leading her towards the front desk.

At the front were two people whom the young woman had never met before. The man she recognized, anyone would be an idiot not to. Tony Stark. The woman she's never met or seen before, but she assumed she worked for him. "I'm sorry have we met before?" The young woman asked. "No, but you are coming with us. Now let's go" said the man. "No thank you. I was warned to never leave with strangers, so if you could just send me back to my cell that would be great." "You are going into a cell. Just not this one. Now get in we have a flight to get to." "I beg your pardon?" She asked, not sure if she'd heard that correctly. Neither of them bothered to answer her. "Why does everybody just ignore my questions?"

A group of people were sitting around a table, impatiently waiting. "Anybody knows why we were called in today?" Asked a woman with striking red hair. "Don't know. Tony called said he was bringing someone with him" answered a man. "A recruit?" Asked the woman again. "I'm not sure, actually." After a few minutes, the man that had picked up the young woman walked in followed by a stern-looking woman holding the young woman.

The young woman appeared to be around 18. She had dark brown hair, dark blue eyes, and a brown skin tone. The was all that was visible to the people sitting around the table because the rest of her was covered by a mask.

"Tony, what is going on? Who is this?" Tony ignored the blonde man's question and went to pour himself a drink. He then pointed to the girl and said, "Vanessa Rodriguez, 18, birthplace unknown, last known address unknown. All we have of her is her birth certificate. We don't have any other files on her. We know little to nothing about her." "We only know of her because of SHIELD's files. Classified as a level eight threat. Most of the files were redacted. Even with all the files that leaked when SHIELD fell, there is not much" said the stern-looking woman.

Everyone turned to look at the girl, who was looking towards an empty wall. "What makes her so dangerous?" Asked the redhead. She turned to look at the girl again who was still staring at the wall. "We don't know. She was caught by LAPD for stealing and drug possession" said the woman. "Ok so she's a thief, that doesn't exactly seem like an Avengers problem," said the blonde man. When he looked at the girl, she was nodding her head, but still looking at the wall.

"What's wrong with her?" Asked a man sitting in the far corner. He had taken notice of her dissociation from reality. "What's wrong with her? Well, the girls out of it. She's crazier than I am" said Tony, "We put the mouth guard on because she wouldn't stop talking. And not to us, to herself. We think she might be insane or high. Or maybe both." The girl only shrugged her shoulder as if saying they weren't wrong. "And why did you bring her here?" Asked the blonde man.

He thought that if the girl really was mentally ill then she should be placed in a mental facility not locked up. "Well we can't exactly leave her at a precinct if she really is as dangerous," said the woman holding the girl. "She doesn't look dangerous to me, she'd have resisted arrest if she was. Or get out of those handcuffs by now." "Well you don't appear dangerous either, Natasha but looks can be deceiving. I want to put it to a vote keep her for a few days, monitor her if she's dangerous, well decide what to do then. If she's not then back to the LAPD she goes." "Thor's not here, maybe we should wait for his vote," said the man in the corner. "He won't care, he's too busy looking for Loki's scepter. Alright those in favor of us monitoring her" said Tony. Once again the girl looked at the wall and shook her head. "That's the majority. Alright, crazy-pants to confinement you go."

Tony and the woman took the young woman to a large room with walls that change from clear to black. Inside there was a bed and a second door that lead to the bathroom. Before they closed the door they took off her handcuffs but left the mouthguard on. When they closed the door, the girl pointed to her face as if asking them if they were planning to take it off. "Right," said Tony. He took out his phone and pressed a couple of buttons. A small 'click' was heard and then the mask fell off. The girl behind the mask smiled "thank you." She had sunken cheeks and high cheekbones, rosy lips. From her shirt, a few tattoos were poking out from her collarbone, and both arms had a few scattered ones. "You do anything, and you are going to be dealing with Hill and I. Understood?" "Yes, Sir," she said mockingly. Both Tony and Hill left leaving her and her demons alone.