A Taste of Vengeance

The sun was bright in the command room the next morning. Up in the air, everything is brighter and it seems that although we are on a floating warship, that we are closer to the heavens that some of us will ever be. I can’t help but stare at the clouds while sitting at the table, waiting for orders from Fury. His back was currently turned to me, speaking quietly with Agent Coulson. No one else from the avengers team was here at the moment, and I have to admit I was relaxed.

I could barely sleep, after the incident from last night. Using the word incident would imply that there was an accident, something of a mistake, and to me, it was. I was not on the mission to make friends, I was not on this mission to open myself up to anyone, and let them see how much of a hero I wasn’t. The constant presence of Steve Rogers was making this more and more difficult, because something about him was impossible to not open up too.

That was the thing about good souls: no matter how hard you tried, you wanted to be nice to them, to protect them, and to make sure that they are never touched by madness and evil. I suppose it’s because they are so rare, these days. Hardly anyone can be found without greed or hate. But at least those who have greed and hate feel, because if they didn’t… well we would have a lot more people like Loki, who feel nothing and have no sense of conviction.

“Agent Bane.” Fury turned around to face me and I looked up at him, straightening immediately. “I presume you are feeling much better today?”
I nodded. “Yes sir.”
He nodded, crossing his arms behind his back as he so often did. “We have no location on Loki as of yet, but with Dr. Banner working on it, I am sure we’ll find it soon. Once we capture Loki, we’d like you to see if you can work on him, I assume you know what I mean. Loki is extremely dangerous, and not of this world, so we want you to practice with Agent Romanoff on breaking through her walls. We’ll only do this if you agree. We understand that Loki could very well have the potential to turn it around on you and destroy your mind.”
“Of course I do it,” I say without hesitation. I don’t care how strong the Asgardian is. “I joined this team for a reason, and I will do everything I can to bring this creature down.”
Fury nodded. “I knew you would say that. You’re parents would be so proud of you, Ash. And you’re uncle… he has done a fine job at raising you.”
“Thank you,” I said smiling at him. “I’d like to think this is where he would want me to be.”
Fury nodded. “You’ll find Agent Romanoff in the training center. Agent Coulson will escort you there. I hope you’re still in shape.”
“I might even give you a run for your money.”

The vastness of the airship was inspiring. There were at least 30 hallways that we passed on our way to the training room, half of which I couldn’t even guess what they led too. The operations of S.H.I.E.L.D was unmatched, which made it all the task of beating Loki all the more daunting. I was in a particularly dangerous spot, for I was the one supposed to let our minds join and try and break his down. If it went wrong….

“Here’s the training room,” Coulson said, smiling at me and holding the door open.

The room was impressive. The ceiling was extremely high up, and had many rafters on which one could run along and jump from rafter to rafter. There was also a gun range, a weapons specialist, boxing rings, karate mats, obstacle courses and even things that I didn’t recognize. Many agents were training away, always having to be prepared for the army Loki was sure to bring with him.

I whistled long and low. “Quite the impressive room you’ve got here.”
“We do try and train our operatives sufficiently.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, clapping him on the back. “You’ve got the best of the best of the best!”
“Did you just quote men in black?”
I smiled. “See you later, Coulson.”

Agent Romanoff was on the fighting mat already fighting with another agent. I watched as she threw her palm upwards, smashing the man in the face and sweeping her leg under him, knocking him over. She then rolled over him, grapping his vest as she did and threw him off the mat entirely, earning laughter and applause from agent’s watching. Natasha Romanoff was no joke. She was lethal.

“Prosto kak v starye vremena , da?” I asked her, wondering if she was ready to have a little fun. She flicked her fiery red locks out of her face, smiling at me and beckoning me onto the mat.
“Zavisit ot togo, chto vashe opredelenie veselo,” she laughed. She was right, her and I had two complete definitions of fun. “No magic tricks today, right?”
I cracked my knuckles. “No magic tricks. I pull the rabbit out of the hat later.”
She took her stance. “Splendid.”

Neither of us moved for a few long moments, sizing each other up. We were both looking for weaknesses, but I knew that she was already deciding I had no weaknesses. She was going to have to catch me off guard if she wanted to get me on the floor. I was ten times stronger, faster, and my senses were sharper than hers. Natasha Romanoff was the best fighters on this ship, apart from Steve and Fury. She was a power house, she was clever, and nimble.

Natasha darted at me then, quick as lighting and swinging with lithe expertise. I already anticipated this and dove, sliding right under her legs, flipping onto my back and kicking my foot out- but she was also one to anticipate things. She caught my foot and moved to flip me, but I jerked my leg down hard, pulling her down with me. I heard the air leave her lungs but she slipped from under my leg, rolling backwards into a standing position before charging again.

We went on for almost thirty minutes, connecting fists and avoiding being pinned by the other. Realistically, she could not win this fight. I was a super human, and we both knew it was only a matter of time before I caught her and over powered her. I could have easily done it in the beginning of our fight, but it was one of the lessons I learned at school: you can’t learn if you’re too busy winning.

Losing, suck as it may, is one of the best and precise ways of learning. Reviewing mistakes and amending them was better then finding ways to win all the time. Because no matter how many times you win, no matter how many times you prove yourself, there is always someone that is one step better than you are, that is one level higher. This is why I let the fight go on to the point where we’re both gasping for air, to where we’re both drenched in sweat, and suffering from bruises, cuts and sore limbs. Because even if I have the ability to snap Natasha in half, she is far more skilled in fighting than myself, and I learn from her every move she makes.

Finally, she spins around, back facing me and throws her elbow backwards to elbow me in the face. I react faster than I can imagine, and loop my arm through hers, pulling up and twisting my body to the left, propelling her over my back and onto the floor. For a moment she’s winded but before she can get up this time, my foot is on her chest.

Both of us stand panting there for a few moments before I smiled and take my foot off of her chest, helping her up. The entire training unit is filled with applause at our performance and I clap her on the shoulder, gesturing for us to sit. She smiles and says to me, “Prosto kak v starye vremena.” Just like old times.

“Yeah, accept you’re a lot harder to fight now. You’ve gotta’ teach me that wrapping your legs around the neck trick. That one gave me a little bit of a complex.”
“Sure thing. I thought you would’ve over powered me long before then.”
I shook my head. “You’ve always been and always will be one of my biggest teachers.”
She raised a brow. “Touching.”
Natasha and I both grabbed bottles of water, slugging down the cool, refreshing contents of the bottles. Sitting in a private room, we took our time cooling off in the cold air, letting the sweat dry and letting our lungs get a breather.
“How are you doing?” I asked her finally, after a long period of silence.
“What do you mean?” Her face was placid, and her eyes gave away no hint at her emotions, but I knew her better than she thought I did. Natasha was dying inside that Barton wasn’t here, and she didn’t want anyone else to know how much it was killing her.
“Do you really have to play games with me? I thought we’d moved past that.”
She shrugged. “Clue is my favorite.”
“Fine I’ll talk and you just keep nodding until I get something wrong.” She rolled her eyes in response but didn’t say no. “Loki has some kind of mythical power and has Barton under some kind of trance, and it’s driving you crazy because as much as you don’t want to admit it, somewhere along the lines of working alongside of him, you’ve fallen in love with him. It isn’t just about a debt to be paid anymore, and now you feel responsible for him being going, and you think this is only going to end with his death.”
She sighed. “And you say you don’t read minds? But you do have information wrong.”
“Be my guest.”
“I don’t love him. That makes it sounds like I’m a delusional little girl.”
I stared at her. “Fine, then you have these very strong feelings for someone but since you have the emotional weight of a teaspoon, you don’t love them. That sound better?”
“Much,” she said with a smug smile. “So, are you ready to exercise your mind? It’s been a while since we’ve mind melded.” She held up her hand in the same gesture Spock from Star Trek used, making the joke all the funnier.
“You don’t strike me as the trekie type.”
“I’m not. Barton watches it.”
“Hmm. Maybe when we see him next we can just throw up the sign and hope he remembers that.”
“Doubtful. Now come on, let’s try this here.”

Natasha’s mind was not an easy thing to conquer. Her mind was walled by an ice cold exterior, able to shock intruders at the touch. I had taught her to that my self, to feel when someone else was there, and to imagine big electric fences around her conscious. She learned well, because I found it much harder to get through her barrier than before, but it still was not a high level of difficulty.

Once I broke through the first time I was able to snag images of a young Natalia Romanova, training as a child to be a Russian assassin. She was brain washed and used as a weapon, and I could feel the incredible pain and anger. Her emotions mixed with my own would be overwhelming to her brain so I let go of those memories quickly, plunging into her thought process.

We fought back and forth for a while, and she was able to block me in the middle of extracting information every once in a while, but in the end, she could not keep me out without getting a migraine. At the end, I tossed her advil and she took it thankfully, popping it in her mouth and draining the last of her water.

The one thing that was easy about working with Natasha’s mind, was that she never wanted to talk about it afterwards. I knew without asking that I was one of the few people she had ever shared private information with, that she could act human around me. Around the others, she was a killing machine and an agent, nothing more. Most people wanted to talk about what I saw after I delved into their minds, and I was no someone who wanted to talk about their emotions and feelings. It was too much.

“You get better at that every time,” she commented, rubbing her temples. “How about next time we try not to melt my brain, yeah?”
“No pain no game.”
“And you’re insane.”
“What are you two,” Tony Stark said walking into the door. “Salt n Peppa?”
I glanced at him, lightly amused. “Don’t push it.”
He pointed at me. “I see what you did there. We’re wanted in the control room.”
“And they sent you?” Natasha snorted, standing up and tossing her water bottle with perfect aim into the trash.
“Of course not,” he stated, like it was the most ridiculous question in the world. “I volunteered. I wanted to talk to the little mind-pushing-mutant-monster. She seems interesting.”
“Charming.”
“What?” he asked defensively as we left the training unit. “I’ve never met a mutant before.”
“Shame. I’m sorry to say every mutant you meet from hear on will be a major disappointment.”
Tony looked at Natasha and jabbed his thumb at me. “Who said she’s allowed to be sarcastic? That’s my job. I’m supposed to be the billionaire, genius, comedic.”
“You know,” I said sighing. “Somewhere out there in the world, there is a poor little tree, slaving and producing oxygen so that you can breathe. I think you owe it an apology.”

Tony stopped in his tracks while Natasha and I kept on walking, Natasha bursting out into fits of laughter, so rare that I even smile proudly. The key to dealing with Tony Stark, I was starting to think, was to battle him in wits and comebacks. Otherwise he would make you feel completely inadequate.
“That is easily the best thing I’ve ever heard.”
I shrugged to my old friend. “Old habits die hard.”