Dont Be a Hero

Men in Suits

   Natasha growled at the woman standing in front of her. "Don't you have better things to do than harass me?" she asked in her husky, menacing voice. "This is not working."

"You are fighting it, Natasha." The red-head was tough. Tougher than anyone else she was forced to put up with. Her name was Vivian.

Vivian's affinity was with heat. She could cause things to become very hot, very quickly. She could cause things to catch fire. A strange off-shoot of her power over heat was her ability to heal. Her warmth had healing properties if she controlled it properly. She hadn't learned to develop that aspect of her powers until recently, after joining Anthony and the others. She learned of her healing ability by accident, when she had held her hand over a deep gash Nat had suffered via the knife of a particularly feisty rapist she had been apprehending.

Vivian had placed her hand over the wound to try to stop the bleeding. To everyone's surprise, when she pulled her hand away, the wound had all but closed. Eventually, there wasn't even a scar anymore.

Natasha had to admit that these people were impressive. She just didn't believe she belonged there. She didn't know where she belonged anymore. With Harley's disappearance, there wasn't even anywhere for her to return to, once these people finally realized they had made a mistake and let her go.

She turned her back on Vivian and shook her head. She let out a low whistle and held her hand out. Her little raven friend flew to her and landed there. She brought him close to her face and let him give her small, bird-kisses.

"I think you guys are wasting your time." She spoke, glancing back over her shoulder.

Vivian just smiled and walked around so that she was facing Natasha again. She shook her head, slowly. "Like I said, you are fighting it. It would help if you were to accept and even expect it. Tya isn't wrong about these things, Tasha. Ever."

"Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"

"Yes, maybe. How about making it the first time you set aside your stubborn attitude and let things flow naturally?"

"I have tried! Do you really think this is about my being stubborn?"

"Yes! I do! You absolutely refuse to accept that you aren't normal. You refuse to believe in Tya, even though you have seen with your own eyes what she is capable of. You refuse to place any trust in any of us. The only people who have ever actually cared about you!"

"You have a funny way of showing it! You people lock me in my room every night and then force me to come out here and go through all these exercises. Which are getting me nowhere, I might add! Why? Because you want to turn me into one of you! To make me some sort of superhero so that I can help with your agenda! Well maybe I'm not like you. Maybe I don't care about your agenda!"

Vivian just stood there with no emotion showing on her face. Her jaw was set and she looked immovable. Natasha sighed. Vivian was always immovable. At least she was capable of getting a rise out of Jordan. He was more fun to deal with because she could piss him off and hurt his feelings. It was easy. Which was probably why she had been stuck with Vivian.

"The exercises. The breathing, meditation, stretches, and the more physically taxing workouts we go through, are all very good for you, Tasha. They aren't pointless. Even if you did prove never to have any kind of super-human talent, they still get you in tune with yourself and your body."

Natasha just ignored her. "We don't need to get 'in tune' with ourselves, do we?" she cooed to the bird, instead. "We don't need these silly people or their friendship and 'care'. What do you think?"