Night Flyer

Chapter 12

    Namara sat in her room in Avengers tower, again. She didn't want to have to answer any more questions. She was worried that she'd accidentally say something and give away Willow. Steve said something about a Psychologist coming in from SHIELD to make sure that she wasn't completely out of her mind and to clear her for duty. Namara hated Shrinks, and everything about them. There was one who'd talked to her when she'd been in a holding cell in the SHIELD prison, she'd hated him. 

  There was a knock on the door, and it opened before she even said "come in". It was Stark, Namara watched him out of the corner of her eyes. He leaned against the door frame, "Alright freakshow, there's someone here to talk to you."

  Namara didn't respond, she'd made up her mind not to waste the oxygen that talking to Stark would require. She rolled off the bed and stalked past him.

 In a small enclosed room off the main hall, a woman was sitting in a pantsuit. She glanced up, "Miss Namara Ackermann?"

 Namara nodded, her sharp eyes taking in every aspect of the woman's appearance. A tailored suit, which either meant she was professional or trying too hard to look professional. Her hair was pulled into a no nonsense bun and Namara could tell from the way her hair was plastered that the woman had used an insane amount of hairspray. Which meant she was a control freak, and didn't want a hair out of place. Her lipstick was dark red, and put on too thickly, same as her eyeliner.

  "Please sit down Miss Ackermann," The woman said, looking down at her clipboard.

 Namara sat down in front of the woman, crossing her arms over her chest. 

 "Miss Ackermann, I'm going to ask you a few questions, please answer honestly. Understand?"

 Namara nodded, trying to decide whether it would be more satisfying to remain completely silent or sass the ever loving crap out of the woman. But then again, if she did either of those, then there was a chance she wouldn't be cleared for duty. Namara needed to be able to move, to get out, even if it meant fighting. So it would seem that for the time being, she'd have to answer.

 "Miss Ackermann, we don't have your full name, what's your middle name?"

 "Don't have one."

"Why not?"

"Let's dig up the corpses of my parents who abandoned me in the gutter as a child and ask them," Namara snapped.

The woman pursed her lips and scribbled something down on her clipboard. "Since You've given me your name, I'll give you mine. You may call me Agent Barrow."

  Agent Barrow? Yeah there was nothing pretentious about this woman, Namara rolled her eyes.

"Miss Ackermann what was your profession before being taken into SHIELD custody?"

 "I was a Circus performer. Mostly trapeze"

 "It's remarkable that after all those years of flying from bar to bar that you don't have any signs of broken bones. Did your mutation occur before your Circus career?"

"Don't know, can't remember," Namara said shortly. "I could put a knife through my chest and within seconds it will be healed up."

 Agent Barrow scribbled something else down, "Do you entertain thoughts of suicide often?"

 What was this woman getting at? Namara wasn't suicidal, she just had a dark sense of humor. "More and more as you keep talking. Besides, even if I tried, I wouldn't be able to kill myself."

"So your mutation heals even self inflicted injuries?"

  Namara didn't dignify that with a response. 

 "What motivates you Miss Ackermann?"

"Spite, mostly."

 "Miss Ackermann, that's not an appropriate answer."

"Alright, how about really enjoying hitting people?"

"Miss Ackermann, why do you want to be cleared for duty to work the Avengers?"

  Namara thought for a moment, deciding to be sincere. "I want to help people. Not just rich people who can hire fancy guards, but the poor kids no one thinks about. They suffer too if the world goes to crap. Besides, I'm a freak, so I might as well try and use that."

 Agent Barrow continued to write on her clipboard, "Upon your arrival to the tower, you didn't speak for the first week? Why?"

"I didn't feel like it. I was having some teen angst... What do you want me to say? That I didn't want to was my breathe talking to people who I didn't know."

 Standing up, Agent Barrow said, "Thank you for time. That will be all Miss Ackermann."

 As she walked out, Namara glared at her retreating back, entertaining thoughts of flinging the coffee table in front of her at the woman.