Avengers: Altruism [N. Romanoff]

2. Wondrous Watch

CHAPTER 2
Wondrous Watch

September, 1999

A laugh full of happiness was Claire's favourite noise when she performed for her family almost every evening.

The young child, newly 12 years old, had developed a passion for a talent she had been blessed with. The words fell so easily from her mouth and so smoothly that anyone was willing to oblige, whether they wanted to or not. Years of practice showed in her work; years of sneaking out of her school during the early hours of the day to run down a whole city, it paid off in her mind's eye.

Each day she would try her hardest to find her way to the steps of Mesmero's door, waiting to be let into his auditorium and fool around with his acts. She had picked up multiple tricks, and many rules following, learning and using each brain muscle.

They say when you've found something you love doing, you should pursue it, and then get paid to do it.

That was Claire's plan at the end of the day. She wasn't gifted at writing, she wasn't able to finish maths sums, and she never understood what relevancy plants and periodic tables had in her life. She loved to hypnotise.

At first, William acted surprised at how easily she picked up the talent, and then continued to act less surprised as she grew as a hypnotist. He watched her with curiosity, and intrigued with her natural ability to force other people to comply and bend at her words.

They have to want to be hypnotised, Claire.

Always make them calm, express how wonderful the feeling is.

Dip into their minds, understand what makes them tick.

The beginning was enjoyable to watch. He laughed with the girl when she messed up a few times, and had to calm her a few moments after when she couldn't perfect her induction speech. It was a long and hard-working progress, but neither one of them gave up.

When she celebrated her twelfth birthday, he took her out to the streets as a treat, and gave her free range to all the New Yorkers willing to fall for her tricks. She loved experimenting with different Confusion Inductions: saying a sentence to confuse them, and because the human mind works in ways that it always needs to understand something, it will latch onto the first words that make sense to it.

"Listen to my voice."

It was one of the best days she had lived, although she knew there were many more to come. And when it came to its end, she had to ask her Mentor in hypnosis a question itching at everyone's curiosity.

"Why?" she turned her head, looking into the pale face with dark glasses resting on the green tinge of his nose.

"Why, what?" he asked back, smiling down to the Tween.