TRAINING SESSION
CHAPTER 4: TRAINING SESSION
Ellie locked eyes with Wanda and saw her bright red eyes. Everyone just stared at them when Ellie finally decided to break the tension.
“Are you alright?” she asked Wanda not looking away.
“ What do you mean?”
“Your eyes Wanda, they're red.”
Wanda blushed.
“What ?… Ho...Right...I knew that...Sorry.” She said but her cheeks became the same colours as her eyes and she couldn't quite find her words so she stumbled on them.
She focused, withdrew the red energy that was coming out of her fingers and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were back to their usual light green and Ellie's eyes were back to their natural brown selves. Wanda breathed hard, looked at her friends begging Natasha for help. Of course Natasha wasn't oblivious to what was happening unlike many others so despite the smile forming on her lips she decided to rescue her friend.
“So, what was this explosion about, Ellie right?”
“Right.” She looked at Wanda one last time and smirked deciding she'll wait for a more private moment to call her out on what just happened. “Wade being Wade just pisses me off sometimes so I try my very best to see if he really can't be killed.”
They all looked at each other, realizing by the way that this was the girl's longest sentence since they met her but suddenly Vision talked.
“What do you mean can't be killed exactly.” he asked genuinely curious about the answer.
Colossus answered knowing how Ellie hated the kind of questions that needed detailed answers.
“Wade Wilson was diagnosed with cancer and tried an experimental solution that could save him and allow him to be with his girlfriend. The experiment worked, Wade is cured and is now unable to be killed and believe me, many have tried, his body heals itself no matter what.” He calmly explained.
The Vision's eyes widened and he asked to be excused and left in search of Wade, wanting to know more.
The others were kind of disturbed and were left wondering how it was possible but eventually went back to their breakfast. Once they were done, Colossus invited them all to training which they all gladly accepted but when Wanda got up to join them, Ellie put her hand on her unhurt shoulder and said:
“Not so fast Red, I have stitches to check.” she said her smirk returning when she saw Wanda smile.
“Right, that.” she said.
“And no training for now, you wouldn't want to risk getting hurt again if it gets too physical.” Ellie said on a playful tone.
Wanda blushed...hard. And just for a second Ellie saw Wanda's eyes flicker to red but they returned to their light green just as fast. She smiled. She definitely wanted to know more about this girl. Of course, the feeling was mutual, orange eyes remaining in Wanda's mind.
“If I can't train with the others, what am I supposed to do in here?” Wanda asked genuinely interested in the answer.
As if on cue Steve and Colossus walked back in and Steve was the first one to talk.
“Good, you're still here. Natasha offered to help you master your powers after you're done with your medical inspection, that way you won't hurt your shoulder much.”
“Perfect, I'll join you in ...” And she glanced at Ellie not really knowing how long the examination would take.
“She'll be there in 20 minutes” Ellie told Steve and despite him not trusting her yet, he nodded.
Colossus took that as his signal to talk.
“And you...” he said looking pointedly at Ellie “will clean the Chemistry lab. I just went to check on it and your little blast from this morning left things...misplaced.”
She signed but agreed. Quite honestly there was nothing she could disagree on, this was her mess after all.
Steve and Colossus left again and Ellie took Wanda to the lab like she had done the night before and Wanda started putting herself on the table.
“I'm gonna need you to...”
“Take off my jacket and shirt.” Wanda said with a smile “I think I got that part right.”
Ellie actually smiled at that.
“I guess you did.”
Then she was checking the stitches.
“All good, the stitches seem to be efficient but is it okay if I clean around the wound just to be sure there's no risk of infection”. She remained focused on her examination of the wound while asking but looked up at Wanda when she didn't get an answer.
“Wanda?” No answer, the other girl was looking at the wall, more accurately she was looking at a picture of what seemed like several young people in uniforms with an X written on it, like the one Ellie was wearing the day before but these ones looked less…modern.
Ellie put her hand on Wanda's knee to get her attention and called after her again.
“Red?”
At this moment Wanda met her gaze.
“I'm sorry what did you say?” she asked feeling a little bit rude for not listening.
“The wound, can I clean it? I wouldn't want to risk an infection.” She said not looking away.
“Yeah of course. Thanks for that by the way.” she said genuinely.
“That's alright, Colossus asked me to. Plus, you already thanked me last night.” She was actually surprised that the girl would thank her, it's not like the others did, it was kind of her job here no one really stopped to thank her for it.
“Well I was thanking you for last night. Now, I'm thanking you for today”. That made Ellie smile so Wanda smiled right back at her. But then her eyes seemed to sadden.
“What's wrong?” concern was written all over Ellie's face. She didn't understand what would cause such a switch in the girl's behavior. Wanda looked at the picture and pointed it to Ellie.
“Those people, they were students here?” She seemed to already know the answer to that.
“Kind of, they were the first ones professor X took under his wings, the first X-men too and our teachers when they weren't out helping out with a crisis.” She said, pride kind of showing on her face.
“What does X-men means anyway?, I've seen the same symbol on your uniform.” Wanda replied.
“Right, we are mutants using our abilities to help with crisis all over the world and find other kids like us so they can be guided with their powers.” She explained looking at the picture and then she started cleaning Wanda's wound. She was a little bit ashamed to think that she never really stopped to look at it before.
“You...help people with abilities?” she asked incredulously “And the government just lets you? They don't try to, I don't know, take them back?” Her glare went back to Ellie who turned to face her too, being done with the whole cleaning process.
“They don't know the location of this place and even if they did, it would not be wise to enter without permission, we protect our own here. Plus, we know exactly what they do to people like us, locking them away, experimenting on them, they fear what they don't understand and ignorance often results in violence.” She said and that's when she saw something change in Wanda's eyes. Pain? She couldn't quite figure it out but the girl closed herself off not meeting Ellie's gaze this time.
“Natasha is waiting for me I should go.” She stood up, got dressed and went towards the exit but before she left the room she looked at Ellie and said “I'll see you later, thanks again.” And she left. After all, This wasn't Ellie's fault she knew far too well what those people did with people with abilities and Ellie didn't know her back story either so it wasn't fair to leave without even a word. But that definitely didn't stop Ellie from wondering what the hell just happened.
When Wanda arrived on the field she saw everyone training but what caught her attention was the on edge Natasha talking to Steve aside from everyone, she went straightly to them.
“We can't stay here forever Steve, we don't know these people, they could've called Tony for all we know.”
“C'mon Nat, I've talked to Colossus, this place used to be a safe heaven for kids with powers. Misfits, just like us, they don't mean any harm, I trust them.” He said, Steve being Steve.
Natasha snapped “You trust everyone Steve!” She calmed herself not wanting to hurt the man who always stood by her. He was one of her closest friends after all “All I'm saying is that we have to be careful and think about the group's safety first”.
“I know Nat. Believe me, there's nothing more important to me than the group's safety you know that. Can you trust me on this one?”
She sighed but she couldn't really argue. Steve always had their backs no matter what.
“Fine, I guess we can stay for a bit but Steve, we remain vigilant.” She looked right at him with a more pointed look than she did before.
“Yes, I trust you for that.” He smiled, more like beamed really and left. He smiled to Wanda when he saw her and wished her good luck for training and went to train with the boys. Natasha saw Wanda, smiled too.
“Ready for a different kind of training while your shoulder heals?” Natasha asked.
“Steve told me about mastering my powers?”
“Yes, you already made so much progress on dealing with your emotions but I was thinking about teaching you how to use them to sharpen your skills, make sure you're in control. You wouldn't have to fear your emotions anymore.” Natasha told her remembering what Wanda had told her all those nights ago about being scared of her emotions.
Wanda nodded. She really needed that and some time training with Natasha would help her with the turmoil inside of her own head. Natasha felt it, felt like Wanda had a lot on her mind right now. She knew how the girl would close herself off sometimes but wouldn't talk about it which made this particular training a good idea, this would force Wanda to focus on something, clear her mind. Natasha had decided to create a small area asking Wanda to remain in it and not move outside of it. The exercise was in three parts. First, Natasha would throw an object in the air. Second, Wanda would have to make it stop in the middle of its race and finally, she'll have to bend it but not break it. Natasha was way more comfortable around Wanda's magic now. She knew the girl wouldn't access her mind again. She had sworn it many nights ago and Natasha trusted her. And so the girls went on with their training session.
After Wanda exited the lab. Ellie kept wondering what had happen. What exactly had she said to cause this because she had the feeling she had said something that caused the girl's reaction and for once in her life, she didn't mean to. She decided that she could maybe talk to her about it later remembering she had an entire chemistry lab to clean. And so she left the room. The chemistry lab was next to the field the Avengers were training on right now. Wanda was talking with Natasha when she headed towards it so she just kept walking not wanting to disturb. Of course the lab was a mess, she would need an hour to have it all cleaned up so better start now she thought. And she did.
Wanda was panting. It had been almost an hour since she started training with Natasha. They took a breath, drank and went back to it. The first few times, Wanda hadn't managed to either target the object properly and stop it or she had broken it afterward and not bent it. But in the last thirty minutes and with Natasha's help and advice such as “Clear your mind Wanda.” “Just focus on the power flowing in your veins, can you feel it? Use it.” “If you master the emotion, then you'll master the power Wanda. Focus on your emotion, feel it but do not let it take over.” she started being more and more precise and stopping the object each time and breaking it fewer and fewer times. Natasha was obviously good at this.
That's when Ellie exited the chemistry lab, after a full hour of cleaning up. She walked by the two girls again but this time she stopped. She looked at Wanda. She saw Natasha throw something in the air and she looked at Wanda again. Her eyes turned bright red and red swirls came out of her hands, she lifted her hands towards the object and despite the speed of its race it stopped mid-air. Then, it bent and then Natasha spoke up.
“Alright now, break it in three pieces of the same size.”
Wanda looked at her in disbelief but she had been training for an hour now, she was confident enough. A second later, it was done. Ellie looked at her mouth agape. She was mesmerized by the girl's power. Yukio had told her about what Wanda did the day before but seeing it with her own eyes and witness Wanda's proud smile, she couldn't help her smile. Wanda noticed and when she saw Ellie staring at her, she let go of her hold on the now divided object which fell right in front of Natasha. Ellie's smile grew larger and Wanda smiled but this time her smile was directed at Ellie. She couldn't really explain why but she couldn't keep Ellie's orange eyes out of her mind and now they were smiling at each other, both wanting to say something but then Steve called out to them form afar so that Wanda and Natasha would join them for a group training and Ellie left before Wanda could say anything.