The Séance • Marvel

Age of Ultron: Chapter 04

Turns out a few demons can do a lot of damage. Or well not demons, ghosts. "Vanessa!" "Help me!" Vanessa was dripping with cold sweat and her breathing was labored. "Nes! Hey, Nes wake up!" Jason was yelling at her, but it was of no use. "Nes!" He reached out to shake her and for once his hands didn't go straight through, "Oh shit."

Vanessa awoke with a start when she felt cold hands on her. The last time she felt that cold shiver had been nearly five years ago when she tried to get sober. "Vanessa!" "Help!' Screamed the voice. The girl placed her hands on her ears trying to muffle the voices. "Hey, hey focus. Listen to my voice don't listen to them. Listen to me." "They're so loud," she said. "I know, listen to me. I know it's hard, but you have to ignore them. They'll stop eventually." "I need... I need to... uh... to go to the store and buy" "You don't have any money Nes. The alcohol and the drugs are going to have to wait. We need to find a way back to California. Can you do that?"

Vanessa stared at Jason not entirely understanding what he was trying to tell her. She could barely focus on her surroundings as the voices inside her head kept loudly screaming. "How do we do that? We can't exactly hop on a plane" stammered Vanessa. "For know, we can hitch-hike," Jason said in all seriousness. That plan alone brought Vanessa back into focuses as she stared at Jason incredulous. "You want to hitch-hike a 43-hour drive?" "You have a better option!? I don't know maybe we can steal a car or something. I just want to get out of New York before The Avengers come looking for us."

But as it turns out Vanessa was the least of The Avengers problems. Their main focus was on finding and stopping Ultron. After a bit of research, they discovered that he was most likely to travel to the African coast. When they went to stop him, things didn't quite work out in their favor as most of them were put out of commission by Wanda Maximoff. In the end, they decided it was best if they laid low in a safe house.

For Vanessa and Jason, things were going very differently. In the span of 20-hours, they had traveled a great distance and found themselves passing through Texas. Vanessa would never admit it, but Jason had been right about hitch-hiking. So far they had gotten rides from about three truck drivers, all incredibly friendly.

However, Vanessa still didn't have any money, which also meant that she didn't have any food. "You alright, dear?" Asked the Lady that was diving. She had picked her up in Texas and was driving to Arizona which would take them a good part of the way. "Yes I'm alright ma'am it's just been a really long week. I'm a bit tired, that's all." "Why don't you get some sleep, we're still a long way from our rest stop." The girl nodded, thankful to be getting some sleep.

Next to her Jason sat with his legs up on the dashboard, of course, nobody could see him. "I'll wake you if anything happens," said Jason. Vanessa didn't answer but looked him in the eyes and gave him a small nod. For the last 20 hours, the conversations had been one-sided as she assumed people wouldn't take it well if she started talking to herself. Most of the time the girl wouldn't care if others thought she was crazy, but doing so would take twice as long to get home.

Vanessa closed her eyes and tried to drown out the voices of the dead that she heard. Even looking out the window now she would see a random bloodied person standing on the side of the road or a flickering figure in the distance. It wasn't going to be a night of restful sleep, but until she got home there was nothing she could do.

The Avengers found themselves standing around Clint's kitchen. Nick Fury had shown up earlier and was now briefing everyone on what Ultron was up to. He didn't have much on him, except that his final plan was global destruction. They knew that he was planning something big with the vibranium he took, and once they had more or less an idea they readied themselves for their mission.

Steve stepped aside to speak with Fury. "Fury I need more information on a person that we come into contact with. According to SHIELD's files, you labeled her highly dangerous and I want to know why?" "Well, I'm going to need more information than that Captain. SHIELD labeled a lot of people dangerous. At one point you were on that list" said, Fury. Steve rose an eyebrow in a questioning manner. "You're powerful, we weren't sure if you would be fighting for our side or not." "Her name is Vanessa Rodriguez, age 18. And that is all the information we found on her. Hill said that you had a run-in with her, and gave her the title of highly dangerous."

"Vanessa, Vanessa?" Fury asked himself, "Yes I remember her. Vanessa Rodriguez, born I believe December 1997. Had a run-in with her in 2010 I believe. I had any and all files SHIELD had on her erased. Couldn't have the bad guys getting a hold of her. She's classified as dangerous because she knows things nobody else does. Like when I ran into her, she knew the nickname my mother had for me when I was a child. She knew about The Avengers initiative before it was even approved. Took her in for questioning and she kept asking questions about things that only top-level agents knew about. Yet she never revealed how she knew those things." "Any ideas?" "Well, a few weeks ago I would have said she was a hacker that broke into our system undetected and gathered all that information. But after the Maximoff twins, I'm beginning to think that maybe she might be like them. A mind reader or something? Why do you ask about her?" "Well, Tony caught her a few days ago. We were keeping her locked up in the compound, that is until Ultron happened and he let her out. Now we aren't really sure where she is."

Fury nodded along to what Steve was saying. He had honestly not thought about the girl in a really long time. He knew that it might be beneficial to get her to join their side. Have her power on their side instead of against them. "I have a few contacts that might help me locate her. You deal with Ultron and I'll find her." Steve nodded and began to walk away before he remembers something and stopped. "Just try not to be too hard on her. I think she might be either mentally ill or just so addicted to drugs that she can't tell fake from reality. Talks to herself and to people that are not really there." "Great a junkie, what else is new? Go save the world, I'll deal with her" he said as he grabbed his coat to leave. "What are you going to do?" Asked Steve when he saw him leaving. "I don't know. Something dramatic I hope."

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Vanessa opened her eyes and found herself still in the truck. Lila, the woman who drove the truck, was nowhere to be found. "She went to go get some food," said Jason. "Where are we?" Vanessa asked him. "Milan New Mexico I believe. We're still about an hour or so from the Arizona border. She said that was her goal for the day, then would find somewhere to sleep." "Ah good, you're awake. Here I bought some food to eat. Hope you don't mind, but you do look a bit pale." Lila handed Vanessa a sandwich to which she greatly appreciated. "Thank you."

"You know you have been really good company throughout this trip. I usually travel alone, don't pick up hitch-hikers because you never know what you're picking up. But then I saw you standing on the side of the road, I knew you wouldn't be dangerous. I mean no offense, but how dangerous can a small, skinny girl like you be." "Ha if only she knew," Jason said. Vanessa smiled and nodded her head, "Yeah the most dangerous thing about me is that I can't drive. Well, I can but I don't have my license." "Why don't you have your license if you know how to drive?" She asked. "Too busy doing...other things" "Drugs," said Jason, "and talking to the dead." "Well, maybe you should look into it. Can't hitch-hike everywhere. Where are you even coming from?"

Vanessa hadn't really prepared a good enough lie to tell people in case they asked. "Oh tell her you were kidnapped and brought to New York and a homicidal robot let you go," said Jason. "I... uh came on a trip with some friends to New York. And they... uh thought it would be funny to leave me behind in the hotel with nothing but a couple of dollars." "That's terrible. Why would anyone do that?" "No idea, ma'am. Guess they were never truly my friends." Vanessa took a bite out of the sandwich that Lila had bought her.

"You know what truly is sad? The only friend that you really do have is me. And I'm dead. No one bothers to stick around you for long" said Jason. Causing the girl to roll her eyes and glare at him. "Shut up" she muttered under her breath. "I'm bored you haven't talked to me in all this time. You know what? That's going to be my goal for the rest of this trip. To get you to talk to me in front of these people. I think it will be fun to see their reactions." The girl shut her eyes and slightly shook her head. This would be a long rest of the way.