Captain's Hart: Deleted Scenes

Chapter 4 Training

"Duck!" Arianna ordered and Wanda hesitated.

"Duck!" Arianna ordered sharply, and Wanda quickly obeyed at last, but it was already too late- Arianna's 'knife' hit the side of Wanda's head as she tried to duck in time.

"Ow!" Wanda muttered as she stood up, rubbing her head.

Arianna sighed, while Vision winced and Nat frowned from the sidelines where they had been watching intently.

"Stop." Steve ordered.

The practice session came to a halt as Rhodey pulled up from where he was about to 'attack' Wanda and Vision moved to help Sam up from where he'd been hit by another of Arianna's 'knives'.

They were in fact plastic tools, carefully crafted to be as heavy as her real knives but not hard enough that it would cause serious damage if anyone was hit by it. Although, the new recruits cursed silently whenever they rubbed various parts of their bodies from where they'd all been hit at least once, it was still hard enough to really hurt. The only one who hadn't been hit in the two weeks since they'd started training was Vision... yet.

Although, he had been smacked down by Nat in their hand-to-hand combat the day before. The team held several different types of training, often going through three or four in a day as they got into shape and got used to each other. There were the battle practices like the one Steve had just halted, where they each used whatever weapons they would favour in battles.

Then there were hand-to-hand combat sessions, where powers were strictly forbidden. Vision and Wanda struggled the most in this training- the latter because she'd never had prior experience, and Vision because he found it disconcerting to try and fight without use of powers. But, it was all about building the physical body, and really they never knew what they might be faced with one day so it didn't hurt to be prepared.

Of course, another part of the physical tests were the many obstacle courses they trained in. These were usually done in two parts- individual and group. The intent was to help build up their muscles and get comfortable with unpredictable or difficult situations, and then to deal with those situations when in a group. Ironically, Nat had hated the latter in her early days at SHIELD, but she knew the value of the training and she now remembered it with deep respect- after all, it was how she and Clint had started out, and then Arianna when she'd joined.

Finally, there were many lessons in first identifying weapons and then using various weapons. The first was heavily focused upon, and usually was the least painful for all involved given Wanda and Vision's remarkable mental abilities and Rhodey and Sam's experience levels. The second was usually the least focused upon and happened on once a week- it was more of a time to test various weapons and at least be familiar with them, even if they wouldn't necessarily use them.

Today, they'd started out with hand-to-hand combat about six hours ago, before moving into battle simulation about two hours ago. It was part of the reason Wanda hadn't been fast enough- she was starting to tire but official break wasn't supposed to be for another hour. The others were holding up better, but Sam and Rhodey's problems were that they sometimes became overconfident when they pulled particularly slick moves.

Rhodey had gotten slammed in a fight earlier that day against Arianna, when he thought he'd pinned her down only for her to use his momentary victory to spin them and caught him in a deadly headlock. As Nat had kindly pointed out, it would've broken his neck if that had been a real fight. Wanda tended to struggle through all the trainings, being the most inexperienced and often, more worryingly, her powers controlled her when she became emotional.

Vision had a completely different problem from the others- he could win against almost anyone (except Wanda when she was allowed to use her powers) but he often questioned and thought too much. As Arianna pointed out, there often wasn't time to think over things in battle- the decision needed to be prompt and once it was made, the next one had to follow instantly.