Katta's eyes fluttered open. Immediately the light went on, and a female voice sounded through her room.
"Good morning, Miss Harlovsen. It is 5:00 AM."
Hectically, Katta sat up and looked around, trying to find the source. After a few seconds, it dawned to her that it must have been F.R.I.D.A.Y., Stark's AI. She got up and started stretching her tensed limps. When she felt like her body was awoken enough, Katta began venturing through her room. She opened different drawers and a wardrobe filled with different types of clothing. All her size. Damnit, Katta muttered, pulling on a set of black sports clothes. Quietly, she left her room and went to the gym, trying not to be seen by anybody.
She started, running laps around the room while listening to her thoughts. She had played through every possible scenario that could happen depending on her decisions.
She could flee out of the building. It wouldn't be challenging to make it to the next safe house, but she was pretty sure that Bruce had something done to the chip in her arm that would open it for her. Next problem, this time, they already expected her to escape, so they prepared much better.
Also, Bruce would chip her this morning to locate her whenever they wanted. On top of that, the pictures from her brothers would be published, and when that happened, only God could say how long they would live.
Katta growled as she replayed the scenarios in her head, searching for the one that would guarantee her a way out when needed.
After what must have been an hour of running, she began stretching her body before shadow boxing. Even though plenty of training devices was in the room, she had settled on training herself by just using her body weight. Katta kicked and punched in the air while breathing regularly. It had been some days since she last was able to train and she felt facilitated having a bit of structure back.
Steve stood in the door and watched Katta punching. She moved through the room like she was floating, her face clenched in the effort. Steve wrapped up his knuckles and went towards the punching bag. He liked to get up early and do the first bit of training before having breakfast. From the corner of his eyes, he watched her throwing high kicks.
"Is there something I can do for you, Rogers?" she called over without interrupting her training.
Steve turned around and faced her. "How can I be sure you're not working on a plan, escaping as soon as you can?" he asked. It was what he would be doing in her position.
"It seems you must learn to trust me," she answered with a tint of sarcasm, lowering her fists and turning towards him.
He chuckled, lowering his fists as well. "You might understand that I have problems with that after the last days."
"Welcome to reality, Captain America." She held his gaze for a few seconds before she grabbed a towel and a bottle of water.
Steve watched her, turning around and leaving the training room. Frustrated, he turned back to the punching bag. His hits increased to a level that, after a few minutes, the bag fell to the ground.
"What's up, punk?" Bucky appeared beside him and examined his face. "What's gotten into you?"
Although they had been separated for several decades, Bucky still could read his best friend's face like an open book and sensed that he was thinking hard about something. Steve pressed his lips together, thinking for a moment before he started speaking.
"When we got you back from your Hydra-self, I could undoubtedly tell that you were to be trusted because I knew you before. But who tells us that Katta is to be trusted?" he frowned, unwrapping his hands.
Bucky shrugged. "It seems we don't know that until she proves us. And until then, we have to stay vigilant." He patted Steve's shoulder.
〰〰〰
"So, what can you do?" Natasha asked, sipping her coffee.
Katta poked at her scrambled eggs and shrugged. "I would say I'm a decent knife-thrower," she had said while taking a sip from her morning coffee.
"I bet 10 bucks she'll hit the mark better than Barton," Tony said, grinning.
"Nah, I think Clint will make it," Sam countered, laughing.
"Training room, now!" Tony got up from his seat and marched out of the kitchen, snipping his fingers at the others to follow him.
While Clint and Katta made themselves ready to aim at the target circle, the others stood around, murmuring silently to each other.
"It's been a while since we last did that," Clint said to Katta. She smirked briefly, letting her arms rotate.
Clint stretched a bow and aimed at the bull's eye, hitting the spot effortlessly. Smiling lightly, he turned around to Katta. "Your turn Harlovsen." She went in position and pulled out a throwing knife.
"I'm in. Ten bucks on Katta." Natasha watched Katta, getting ready in a slow but steady motion. She shortly closed her eyes, opening them a second later and throwing the knife. The sound of cracking wood went through the room as the blade cleaved the arrow in its middle, meeting the bull's eye.
Sam sighed, passing the money to Tony and Natasha. "A decent knife thrower, she said."
"What can you do else?" Steve asked, looking at Katta.
"I'm a trained sniper, and I think you could also say that I can get quite dangerous in hand-to-hand combat." She shrugged, looking around.
"Of course, she's a sniper," Bruce raised his hands and smiled at her lightly.
"I would like to see her fight once more, anybody else? I could get popcorn." Tony stated, grinning in the round.
"Without me, I've fought a Harlovsen once." Natasha rejected.
"What about you, capsicle? Or are you afraid, fighting a woman?" Tony teased Steve. He looked at Katta and shook his head as he thought about it.
"I promise I'll get easy on you." Katta taunted him, amused by the way he hesitated.
"I need to warn you, ma'am, I'm said to throw decent punches," Steve answered, a slight smile playing on his lips. Both went towards the sparring ring.
"And the party's on! Show me what you got." Tony shouted, standing up to watch the scene from closer. Katta and Steve circled each other while analysing the other's moves.
Bucky observed Katta, who moved effortlessly while dodging Steve's punches. She lunged forwards and threw some punches into his ribs that made him double over. He grabbed around her waist and tossed her to the ground, but she used the impact's energy to roll him over until she sat on his chest, both hands around his throat.
Bruce stepped forwards, ready to intervene, but Tony placed a hand at his chest to stop him. "It is getting interesting," he murmured.
Steve grabbed around Katta's wrists and forced her as far away as possible before pulling her close, giving her a head nut. Her head flew back, and she landed on the mat, groaning.
Steve looked down at her, pausing for a second. She brought her hands on the floor beside her head and jumped up, getting in a fighting position again.
"Ninja Style", Tony commented, grinning like a little child.
"Not gonna lie. That hurt like shit, Cap," Katta gritted out.
"I don't think you're even near to giving up," Steve stated, raising his fists. Katta looked up at him. She blinked twice, determination building in her eyes. She went forwards, kicking against his chest. Steve caught her foot in the move and pulled on it, sending her to the ground again. He threw some more punches that Katta couldn't dodge until they faced each other, heavily breathing.
Natasha studied Katta's face. She'd been hit several times. Usually, she would have dodged those punches easily, and even if she couldn't have, it wouldn't have hurt her that badly. Still, she looked like Steve would only take one more hit to defeat her.
Natasha looked over to Clint, who also seemed to have noticed it. She quirked an eyebrow, to which he only slightly nodded and smirked. Katta played with Steve. She trusted his inner moral compass that forbade him from fighting weak women.
Steve looked at Katta questioningly. "You want to give up?" he started but was interrupted as Katta sprinted forwards. In the moment of surprise, he could not prevent her from twisting her legs around his neck and sending him to the ground with a brutal impact. She kneed on his back and stretched his right arm around until he tapped her out.
"Holy shit," Tony yelled. It had only cost her seconds to send Steve to the math.
"Language," Steve coughed, holding his chest.
"You're alright?" Katta asked.
"Perfectly fine," he groaned. She bent down to him until her mouth was close to his ear. "Underestimation, Captain," she whispered.