Night Flyer

Chapter 2

    "So, Steve, did she speak to you at all?" Natasha asked, popping a piece of bacon into her mouth. 

  "No. Maybe she's just shy," Steve said, sitting down at the table.

"Or she's planning her escape. Whatever works," Stark added.

"Clint, have you read this file" Nat asked, tossing the paper file towards Clint. "The kid grew up in a Circus."

 "Really? Cool."

 "Namara Ackermann, age 19. She's just a kid, I'm not sure about her being a criminal."

"Doesn't matter, we've got to keep an eye on her. Fury's orders."

 "So, who wants to go check her room?" Tony asked, "Jarvis is monitoring her, so she hasn't left the room. But maybe Oh Caption here should go try and make friends with the little freak."

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   Namara could go for days without eating, she was used to being hungry. So she was determined to stay in her room until she either died of starvation or could determine that the Avengers could be trusted. But her legs itched to run, everything inside her wanted out of that tiny room and into some wide open space. 

 So against her better judgement, she got off the bed and walked to the door. It was locked, no surprise there. Closing her eyes, Namara focused on her breathing, and in a few seconds her fingernails had turned into sharp claws. She drove them into the woods of the door, and tore out the handle. 

 Without the lock, the door swung open, and Namara walked out. Her black converse didn't make a sound on the concrete floor as she crept down the hall. Namara was good at moving silently. Jess used to tell her that she was like a ghost around the circus. 

  So like a ghost, Namara moved through the tower without making a sound, without tripping any alarms. When she found herself staring at a large set of doors, she was overcome with curiosity. 

  Humming quietly to herself, Namara studied the keypad. There were wear marks on the letters 5, 8, and 0. Most key pads had 4 pin numbers, so one of the numbers must repeat twice. Judging that the letter 5 had slightly more wear marks than the others told Namara that it was the number that repeated. Namara's sharp eyes roved over the keypad, trying to guess what order they came in. She went with the first combination of numbers her mind spat out.

 5-0-8-5

   There was a quiet click and the door swung open, Namara stepped in quickly and then allowed it shut behind her. In front of her was what looked like a large arena, there were machines, weights, and things Namara couldn't recognize. 

  But one familiar object drew Namara's attention, high above her, with lines secured to the ceiling was a trapeze bar, with a second bar across from it. Going against common sense which said to go back into her room, Namara shrugged off her jacket, letting it fall to the floor. She jogged across the room, and scaled the ladder that led to the ceiling.

 The trapeze bar hung a few feet out from the wall, Namara took a breath to steady herself, and then launched herself away from the wall and out into the airs. Her hands found the bar, and suddenly- she was right where she belonged. 

  The tight muscles in her arms straining, Namara pulled herself up she she was almost standing across the bar. Then she began to swing it, spinning her body over the par, pulling herself up and over it again and again; until the bar was swinging closer and closer to other trapeze bar.

  Then Namara jumped off the first trapeze bar, rolling into a ball midair, then unfolding just in time to catch herself on the second bar. She swung and danced through the air, from bar to bar. 

  If she didn't look around her, Namara could imagine that she was back at the Circus. Swinging from one rickets wood and rope trapeze to the other, her best friend Jess trusting Namara to grab her hands in time to flip her on to the next bar. Namara's black hair pulled into a long braid, which swung with the momentum of each jump. The glitter on her black costume catching the stage lights and reflecting them.

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  Steve had walked into Namara's room to find that she'd somehow managed to tear the knob out of the door, and left. He knew she couldn't leave the tower, and that the SHIELD agents had a tracker buried in her shoulder, so even if she did, she wouldn't be able to get far.

 "JARVIS, where is Miss Ackermann now?" Steve asked, still unused to the AI that ruled the tower.

"Miss Ackermann found her way to the training room. Shall I send Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanoff down to get her?"

 "Yeah. Tell them I'm on the way too," Steve said, taking off toward the training room. He'd thought it had a pin number lock. How had she gotten in?

  When Steve got to the training room, he saw Natasha standing there, waiting for him. "Steve, let's head up into the observation deck, Clint wants to show us what she's doing."

  Steve nodded, the training room had an observation deck with one way glass above it. 

 Clint was standing with his arms crossed, staring down into the training room. Walking to the Window, Steve glanced down. Namara was jumping from one trapeze bar the other, flying through the air as graceful as an eagle. As though she wouldn't die if she fell. 

 "Wow. There was nothing about this in the file," Steve commented.

  "No. But this explains why HYDRA chose her for the experiment, someone who was already so athletic and agile." 

 As they spoke, something seemed to distract Namara, and she lost her grip on the bar. No one could breathe as Namara free fell the thirty or so feet to the ground. She wasn't flailing around like someone falling to their death would normally be, she was completely calm.

 Namara landed with a quiet thud, not the noise anyone had been expecting. But she landed on her feet, and then walked quickly out of the training room. A fall like that should have broken several bones. But it hadn't.