You wake up, grab some clothes out of the nightstand, and change in the bathroom. When you walk back into the room, you're surprised to see Natasha sitting on your bed.
"Oh, hey, I didn't hear you come in."
She grins, "Good. Ready to begin your tour?'
"Sure."
You follow her down the path that Butterfingers took yesterday and arrive at the kitchen, which is attached to the dining room.
"This is where we eat. Feel free to get something anytime you're hungry. We don't have many sit-down meals, due to the fact that at we're always being called out on missions. Of course, we'll have to work out a schedule where one of us stays behind so that someone is always here with you. Tony is convinced that you're going to sabotage his lab somehow." She sighs in exasperation.
"Sorry," you mumble.
"No, it's not your fault. Tony's never been incredibly trusting. He once had Jarvis monitor Clint for an entire week just because Clint painted a red, white, and blue dick on one of his robots, then tried to blame it on Steve."
You can't help but laugh, "Aren't you people supposed to be professionals?"
"Well, we were, but then this team happened, and it was all downhill from there."
You walk down the hall to an elevator, which takes you a few floors down. Nat leads you out, down the hall, and into a room with a high ceiling and more large windows, which fill the room with natural light. There's workout equipment along three of the walls and the rest of the room is taken up by wrestling mats.
In the middle of the room, Captain Rogers and Clint are sparring without their weapons. They move so quickly that they're practically a blur. After a few minutes, Clint finally makes a mistake and in a fraction of a second, Rogers has him pinned.
Nat starts clapping and you hesitantly join in. The two fighters look over in surprise. They had been so focused that they hadn't even heard you come in.
"Jeez, Clint, you must be losing your edge. You do realize that you just lost to a 90-something-year-old, right?"
You stare at Nat, a bit shocked that she would say something like that to a fellow superhero.
You're even more surprised when Clint responds with, "I've certainly knocked you on your ass enough times, Nat. What do you say?", he springs up unto a fighting position, his fists raised, "Wanna go a few rounds?"
"Sorry, no can do. Actually," she turns towards you, "I wanted to try and assess ______'s skill."
You look at her in surprise.
"Really?"
"Yeah, you seemed pretty acrobatic during our battle, so you must have some hand-to-hand training in addition to your powers."
"They uploaded some programs to the chip, which taught me how to fight, among other... things." You had always found it disconcerting when you would wake up in the morning and suddenly know a new method of killing or torture that you hadn't known when you fell asleep.
They seem to understand and don't ask what those things were.
"Well, let's get started, then."
Clint and Rogers exit the mats and sit on a bench by the door to watch, while Nat kicks off her shoes and the two of you get into your positions.
You watch Nat's eyes. Right before an enemy strikes, there will always be something in their eyes. All of a sudden, you see a flicker. She's good, most people squint or do something noticeable that will warn you, but all there is in Nat's is the tiniest perceptible show of emotion. A millisecond later, her fist flies out towards your head, but you're able to duck back and retaliate with a round-house kick to her stomach. She stumbles back, a bit surprised.
"Good, good," she grins, "This means I can go all out."
The next minute is a flurry of kicks, punches, palm strikes, and blocks. You're in the process of blocking another punch when you hear a yell from the door. You turn and are caught by a repulsor blast that sends you skidding across the mat.
Without your powers, you black out for a few seconds and when you come to, Nat is hovering over you, screaming at Stark, who's standing with a single armored hand outstretched by the door.
"What the hell, Tony!?"
"I saw you fighting her on the monitors," he glares at Rogers and Clint, "Do you two realize how easily that thing could have killed her? Why didn't you intervene?"
Rogers gets in Starks's face.
"She's a human being, Stark, not an 'it'! They were sparing, you had no right to attack her."
You sit up and Nat cautions you to lie still, but you wave her off.
"It's okay, sir, I'm all right." You try to stand, but you stumble. Nat catches you and carefully lowers you to the ground.
"No, you're not all right, _________," Clint say as he burns a hole in Starks's skull with his gaze. For the first time since you've met him, Clint terrifies you and you are incredibly grateful that you aren't at the receiving end of his rage.
"Stark, I think you'd better leave." Stark and Clint stare each other down for a few seconds, but your attacker finally looks away.
"You're all making a huge mistake," he gives you one last accusing stare as he leaves, shoulders hunched.
Steve and Clint rush over to you and help you up, supporting you as you stumble over to a bench.
"I'll be fine in a little bit," you insist, "just let me rest for a few minutes."
Steve looks are your wrists in disgust. "If only you weren't wearing those things, he wouldn't have hurt you so badly, if at all. Unfortunately, only Stark has the ability to take them off of you. I had to agree to that in order to be able to bring you here."
You smile kindly at him, "It's okay, they keep me from hurting all of you."
They look at you sadly. God, you can almost see the pity hanging in the air. You hate that look. People that would pass you when you were living on the streets would give you that exact same look, if they even looked at you at all.
Finally, Nat breaks the awkward silence.
"Are you okay to walk?", she asks. You nod and she helps you up.
"Have you had any food yet, today?"
"No," you say and, almost as if on cue, your stomach lets out a huge grumble.
They all grin.
"Well, come on," says Clint, "We saved you some pancakes from earlier. If we hadn't, Captain Bottomless Pit, here, would have eaten all of them."
"Thank you," you laugh as Steve gives Clint an indignant look. You follow them out of the room.
Why couldn't they just see it his way? The girl could have easily killed Nat if he hadn't intervened. One quick flick of her hands and she could have snapped Nat's neck. It probably wouldn't have been the first time she'd done something like that, either.
Tony storms into his lab and throws his gauntlet down on the table, grabbing up a wrench before beginning to make unnecessary adjustments to his suit. A few minutes later, Bruce walks in and leans against the table.
"Let me guess. You're here to lecture me and insist that I give that little terrorist a chance. Let me save you the trouble by saying that that won't work and that my opinion still stands," Tony says, slamming his wrench down before crossing his arms and turning to glare at his friend.
Bruce tilts his head and studies Tony for a few seconds before saying, "No, actually, I'm not. Jarvis told me about what happened in the training room. I watched the footage and after you left, Steve made a comment about how, if she hadn't had the gauntlets on, she wouldn't have been hurt as badly as she was."
"Oh, so you're here to convince me to take them off, is that it?"
"No. Settle down. After he said that she told them something that reminded me of what she said to me yesterday. She said that she's actually grateful that you don't trust her and that she can't use her powers. She said that, this way, if Hydra ever tries to control her again, she wouldn't be able to attack us as easily and you would be there to stop her. You wouldn't hesitate to bring her down."
Tony stares at him, not comprehending.
"Why would she say that? If I was an evil spy, I would want people to trust me as much as possible. You know what, it's probably just a trick, another way to get inside our heads."
"Actually, Tony, I was thinking that maybe there's the tiniest chance that she isn't evil."
Tony sighs, "You know, there used to be a clear line between good and evil, but now Hydra keeps pumping out these hybrids that are evil, but everyone is convinced that they're just misunderstood. It's making it really hard for me to do my job."
Bruce opens his mouth to reply, but an alarm starts blaring, cutting off whatever response he might have had.
You're carrying your second helping of pancakes back to the table when the alarm starts going off. You jump so badly that you drop the plate and it shatters across the floor.
Nat and Steve, who are sitting at the table, jump to their feet.
Steve runs down the hall to get his shield, shouting, "Jarvis, fill me in!"
Nat hurries over to you, being careful to avoid the shards of plate on the floor.
"Come on, let's get you someplace safe."
She tries to pull you towards the door, but you can't make your body move from fear. Nat puts her hands on your shoulders.
"_______, snap out of it! We have to move!"
All you can do is stare at her and say, in a whisper that is almost too quiet to be heard over the alarm, "They've found me."