Intertwine

6 - Well That Was... Interesting

Nobody mentioned my getting absolutely wasted, or that I'd overheard a private meeting. We were all too focused on my training.

I learnt how to fight someone who had a knife, how to use a knife, how to sprout vines from my seeds in my hands and use them as ropes. Day in, day out, I was training. I was exhausted every night I went to sleep. Nat taught me how to do a flip, and how to use it while fighting. I learnt how to use explosives, the pressure points that could knock someone out or wind them. I was getting visibly more muscular. I was focused on being ready. Ready to beat the shit out of Loki.

"You're up before me." Steve noted, catching up to me. It was 5am, and I was on a run around central park.

"I'm not getting any younger." I puffed. "No time to waste and all that crap." I veered off the running path, back to HQ. I wasn't in the mood for a chat.

I got back to the tower and went straight into the training room, going for the punching bag.

"You're not holding your arm right." Natasha said, coming in.

"As long as they pass out does it matter?" I asked.

"Yes because you'll sprain your wrist." She explained.

"Ugh!" I groaned, and reset my position.

"Better."

"Teach me to be better. In hand to hand combat I mean."

"I thought you were supposed to be focusing on your enhanced abilities. If we train now you'll get in trouble with Fury."

I rolled my eyes. "I think I have bigger problems. If I'm not good enough with my basic fighting skills what's the point?"

"Alright." A hand hit the centre of my back, sending pain coursing down my spine, forcing me to arch backwards. Then another hit to my throat. Winded, eyes watering, I fell to my knees, looking up at Nat.

"What," I choked, "was that for."

"First rule of being an agent is the first rule to not getting killed. Stay aware of your surroundings. You've got your head in the clouds," she knelt down beside me, "your anger, your fear, it's getting in the way."

"I thought the first rule was trust your team." I gasped, getting to my feet.

"You've been spending too much time with Cap." Nat said, picking up a fighting baton. "This is the wrong business for trusting."

She threw me a baton. As soon as my hand was around the handle Natasha swung at my head. I ducked, feeling the air move across the top of my head as the stick pass where my head would have been. Using my crouching position I swept my baton at Nat's legs. She flipped over my body and struck me from behind.

I gritted my teeth. "You really don't hold back."

"You don't have time to be babied."

I got up, swinging in an arch, coming into contact with Nat's weapon as she blocked my attack.

"You need to be faster." She told me.

"I'm trying!" I protested.

"Not." She swung. "Hard." She swung again. "Enough." She hit me every time.

"Maybe!" I swung and stepped forward, coming into contact with her baton again. "Or maybe," another swing, another block, "this is," I sidestepped an attack and swung hard, missing her by a centimetre, "as good as I get."

"Alright then. Leave." She shrugged.

"What?" I lowered my baton.

"If this is as good as you get then you're no use to us. We'll find someone else for the job. We've defeated Loki once before." There was a clattering noise by my feet. I looked down. Natasha had dropped his fighting stick.

"So I go? Get captured?"

"Maybe you can go back to your old life you kept mentioning two months ago. Seemed nice. Peaceful." She shrugged again.

"No." I snarled. "It was lonely, and it was painful. It was the only way I knew how to live."

"Well then think." She jabbed a finger into the side of my head. "And think fast. You're wasting my time."

"Think what?"

"Think about what makes you the best. What do you have that nobody else does. Everyone else here has that figured out. So far you've been taking up all of our time, and you're still not there yet. Or has your brain function shrunk over your extra lifetimes."

"You're sounding like Stark."

"Maybe Stark has a point. Maybe we should just lock you up somewhere." She made for the door. "Maybe that would be safest and easiest for all of us."

I snarled and threw out my hands in frustration, forcing all my energy through my palms. It all happened in a split second. I felt something immense flow through me, like my static energy but stronger. I felt my frustration like a spike all the way down my spine. And then, flying through the air, were two sharp barbs that plunged themselves into the metal of the door, either side of Natasha. We both looked at each other, shocked.

"Well that was... interesting." I said hoarsely.

"So she made these? Out of her hands?"

"Tony for the last time, yes." Cap was leant over his head in his hands.

"I'm in the room you know." I reminded him.

"I know. I just wasn't talking to you."

We were in the lab, all looking at the two spears I'd made. Bruce was examining one in his hands, Tony was scanning the other.

"It's wood." I sighed. "I've told you it's wood."

"How do I know you didn't find this somewhere and perform a little magic trick? It can be very easy to deceive the eye. Less easy to deceive science." He said, typing something into a computer.

"Well, it is wood Tony." Bruce said looking over Tony's shoulder. "The molecules are... they're denser than most woods. I don't... you made this?"

"I said! I don't know how I did it! I just... I..." I paused.

"They came out of her palms. We were having an argument and..." Nat paused thinking. "They look to me like thorns from a rose. Just bigger."

"I..." I looked at my hands, thinking hard.

Steve looked up at me. "Roara?"

"Someone piss me off. Now." I stood up.

"Piss you off?" Bruce asked.

"Yes make me emotional. One of you, now!"

Tony rolled up his sleeves. "Well this should be easy."

HEY GUYS! Thank you so much for reading this far, I really appreciate every comment, every read, and every addition to a reading list. I am so grateful for all of you, this has been read more time than I ever thought!

If you enjoyed it please remember to leave a like and if you add the book you can get notifications every time I update the book (which is often every day or so)! ❤️