Training
An hour after the breakfast they all met in the training room. It was a enormous room with a big stage in the middle. On the stage were obstacles in form of low walls, rocks, short tunnels and other things. Under the ceiling hung platforms that could be used as roofs. Against one of the walls stood some couches. Everyone was in their Avengers gear except for Tony who was wearing the black clothes he had worn to Hydra. He also had the mask on and had the hood pulled up. Bucky raised an eyebrow when he saw that. Tony shrugged.
“I like this outfit. And you don’t use the mask anymore. And by the way, using my powers while being in the suit would be uncomfortable.”
They all nodded and Bruce looked questioningly around.
“I suppose you will train in pair as always?”
They all nodded slowly. Then Tony frowned.
“Where is Remy?”
None of the others seemed to know so Wanda answered:
“He said he would go play some piano while we were training. I tried to get him down here but he said he didn’t want to intrude.”
Tony sighed.
“Friday. Can you tell Remy to get his ass down here?”
“Surely boss.”
They all waited. Around two minutes later Remy stepped out of the elevator.
“What is it Tony?”
Tony went over to him and said:
“I know for a fact that you want to help us with Ross and those Dark Avengers. And that means you are going to train with us.”
The cajun hesitated but then he nodded.
“Fine.”
Bruce went away from them and looked them over with a tilted head.
“How many of you have not been here for Avengers training? The old Avengers training.”
Wanda, Sam, Bucky, Rhodey, T’Challa and Remy raised their hands. Bruce nodded.
“All right. It’s simple. I divide you into pairs. You go against each other in those pairs. Rules are simple too. No lasting damage to the one you fight. You win when the other person gives up. Everything clear?”
They all nodded. Then the door to the elevator opened and Sharon stepped out.
“Would you mind if I joined?”
Steve took a step towards her but before he could do more she was being hugged by Tony.
“It’s good to have you back Shari. How was Malibu?”
She smiled and hugged him back.
“Not bad. But it gets lonely in such big house very quickly. Don’t know how you managed to live there alone.”
Tony let her go and shrugged.
“I was mostly in the workshop.”
Then Clint made an almost strangled sound.
“You two know each other that well?”
Tony chuckled.
“Peggy was my godmother. Of course I know Sharon. I’ve been at her place too many times to count.”
Then Bruce stepped in.
“As to the fighting. Of course you can join Sharon. We were making up the pairs right now.”
She nodded and Bruce continued.
“Okey. I’m not fighting. That’s obvious. Me and Pepper will watch you and be on medical standby. And now to the pairs. Steve and Nat. Tony and Vision. Rhodey and Bucky. T’Challa and Clint. Sam and Sharon. Wanda and Remy. You fight in that order too. The others sit with me and Pepper on the couches over there.”
Everyone nodded and Steve and Natasha went up on the stage while the others went over to the sofas.
Bruce stood up for a few more seconds and said:
“All right. Three, two, one. Fight!”
Then he sat down and everyone looked at Natasha and Steve. They were circling each other. Then Steve flung the shield at Natasha but she was faster. The shield flew over the rock she had hid behind. She quickly got out from behind the rock and attacked Steve with a stun gun, making him lose his balance and miss the returning shield. He tried to punch her in the stomach to get her away from him but she slunk in behind him and flipped herself onto his shoulders using his neck as leverage. She took a string out and put it around Steve’s neck. But this time he was ready and before she managed to pull the string back, he grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. She flew but managed to break the fall by grabbing the wall she was flying past. She smirked at Steve and he didn’t realize why until his shield was flying at him. He managed to catch it but at the same second Natasha was next to him and flipped around his arm getting her legs around his throat. She used her body weight and Steve’s momentary confusion to flip them onto the floor and pin Steve down.
“I give up.”
His voice was strained and it was explained why when Natasha let go of him and he dragged in a shaky breath. She had been strangling him with her legs. Suddenly, Remy got new respect for the spy. They applauded while Natasha and Steve came down from the stage.
“Tony, Viz. You’re up.”
They went onto the stage. Bruce counted down and sat down. This time it was different. Tony fired his power at Vision almost immediately. The force and surprise made Vision fly backwards. But instead of hitting the walls as Tony had hoped he phased through them and managed to dodge the next attacks. He fired from his stone towards Tony but the man had already put a shield up. Dust was flying around them but the mask was blocking it and making it possible for Tony to breathe. He kept blocking Vision’s attacks and backed a bit but meanwhile he was levitating a rock towards the android. Then he pulled at the rock with all his power. Vision got knocked onto the floor and Tony was next to him a second later and used his power to hold him down. Vision struggled for a few seconds but then he stilled.
“I give up.”
Tony let go and extended a hand towards Vision.
“To be honest, I had no idea if it would work.”
Once again everyone applauded. Rhodey and Bucky went onto the stage while Tony and Vision sat down. Bruce counted down and Rhodey shot up into the air. But when he looked down to the place where Bucky had been, the Soldier was gone. Bucky quickly made his way around the stage and made sure to keep behind Rhodey all the time. Some of the sitting ones chuckled. Then Rhodey got a bit dizzy because of the spinning around and stilled for a second. It was all Bucky needed. He used the same gun he had taken the Falcon down with and pulled Rhodey down onto the ground. He used his metal arm to keep Rhodey on the ground and Rhodey laughed.
“You win!”
There were laughs heard from the couches. Some people stated that it went really fast. Bucky helped Rhodey up and as soon as they left the stage Rhodey stepped out of the suit that then closed and walked to stand next to a wall. Meanwhile T’Challa and Clint were already on the stage. Once again Bruce counted down. Immediately Clint fired an explosive arrow at T’Challa making the Panther take cover behind one of the walls. It gave Clint enough time to use another arrow to lift himself onto one of the hanging platforms. He then fired another arrow at T’Challa. It flew toward the man and Clint quickly fastened the rope that was flying behind the arrow to the platform. It stuck on the hiding T’Challa and propelled him into the air. He hung in between the platform and the ground with no way of getting away. Slashing the ropes would mean a dangerous fall. Trying to get onto the platform was out of question.
“Damn it! I give!”
“YES!”
Clint slowly let the rope get longer and lowered T’Challa onto the ground and then used the same rope to get down himself. They shook their hands. It had been a short but good match. Sam and Sharon stepped onto the stage. Their fight started very differently. Sharon attacked with short kicks that Sam avoided by getting up into the air. It was a cat and mouse game until Sharon managed to punch him in the stomach. He quickly spun her around and flew up while holding her one hand. She tried to get some kind of leverage against him, but in the air she was defenseless.
“Fine. You win.”
He flew down and gently put her on the ground.
“Of course I do.”
They went down and Remy stepped up with Wanda. He was holding his staff in his hand and looked overly calm and arrogant. As soon as Bruce counted down Wanda fired her power at him but he easily avoided it. He smirked.
“Don’t hold back on me cherie.”
She quickly lifted one of the bigger rocks and made it fly towards him. His eyes flashed purple when his staff hit the rock. It exploded sending small stones flying everywhere. Tony had to put up a shield in front of the couches so that none of the stones would hit the audience. Wanda was a bit irritated by Remy’s arrogant smirk. She sent five more rocks at him but they were met by the same fate. She then changed her tactic and let her energy fly forward in a big area like she had seen young Tony do on that video. It knocked Remy backwards but the hit didn’t seem to affect him because he stood up and his eyes flashed again.
“Fine then. My turn.”
He sent charged cards towards her but she managed to put up a shield. Then he hit his staff against one of the rocks. The rock exploded and while the stones were flying he used his staff to charge them up and send them flying towards Wanda. While she was blocking them he hit his staff on the ground and sent the kinetic energy through the ground. It sent everything in it’s path up flying. That meant Wanda too. She flew through the room and fell on the ground with a grunt. Remy slowly went over. He knew that the blast had been strong. He stood over Wanda and put one end of his staff against the throat. She smiled.
“I give up.”
He smiled back and helped her up. She reached up and got some small stones from his hair. When they were all off the stage again Bruce said:
“That was a good training. An hour for showering and then lunch?”
They all nodded and went over to the elevator. Most of them were sweaty and hungry. Tony looked around. Maybe it would all be good again.