[Steve Rogers]
I watched in stunned silence as Quinn fought Agent Browne. All of her movements were fluid and perfectly timed. Not to mention fast. Quinn ducked a punch from Browne then just as fast spun around and struck her with a fierce roundhouse kick that made me want to wince. That had to hurt.
Now I know why she's called the Phantom, I thought. She's there and gone before your mind can register what just happened.
Browne nearly kicked her in the side of the head, but missed. She quickly recoiled and attempted to elbow Quinn in the stomach. Again, Quinn was just out of reach. Quinn shot two rapid punches at Browne's face, one in the jaw, the other in the nose.
Browne slumped to the floor, unconscious. Quinn stood there, not even slightly winded. Fury rose and walked to the door, muttering "Stay here." to us. Quinn looked up as Fury entered the room, and I noticed her hood was still in place, shadowing her features except for her full, pale lips, slightly hallow cheeks, and part of her nose.
"She's a great fighter." Natasha said, observing her. "How did she get so good? Someone must have to had taught her. She's young, I can tell she's at least 17. I was barely at her level at age 20."
Hawkeye nodded in agreement. "Browne couldn't even touch her, and she's been doing hand-to-hand combat for nearly her entire life." He watched Browne slowly get off of the ground and talk to Fury. "It's...interesting, to say the least."
I glanced at Thor and Banner to see what they thought. Thor looked mildly bored, and Banner was in his usual thoughtful mood.
Browne left the training room, and Fury and the Phantom came into our room.
Stark rose and strolled across the room to stand in front of Quinn.
"That lasted for less than a minute, and your hood didn't even fall off. Good job, rookie. You're better than I expected."
I waited for the 'but you'll never be better than me', but it never came. Wait, did Tony Stark just give an actual compliment?
My eyes shifted to Director Fury. From the look on his face, he was planning something as he observed Quinn.
"It would appear so." There was a calculating glint in his eye. "But now, it's going to get harder. A lot harder."
As Fury talked, Stark silently crept around the room to stand behind Quinn.
Quinn turned to look at Fury, staring him evenly in his eye. "Why, what will you gain by testing me and seeing me fight? I already know you want to find if I'm classified as a possible threat, which I have no doubt you're going to do, but what else do you want me for?"
Stark's hand reached out, and his intentions become clear. He's going to remove her hood. I wanted to warn her, but like everyone else, I'm curious about the girl who no one knows about, is a mystery.
She paused for a second. "It's because you want to know who I am. I'm the one you don't know about out of the millions of people you do. If there's one thing I already know about you, Fury, is that you can't stand not knowing that one piece of information you don't have."
Fury's jaw clenched, but in his eyes I could tell he was almost gloating, because he's a second away from discovering something about her that will ultimately lead to his knowing of who she is.
Stark's fingers inched closer, a breath away from the dark gray fabric of her hood.
"Well, you won't find out today" Quinn said, an edge in her voice.
Tony's hand shot out, but clutched thin air as Quinn quickly sidestepped his attempt to reveal her identity. Her elbow swung back and caught him in the jaw, then she grabbed his arms and shoved him against the wall with a thud. She twisted his arms behind his back, pressing him face-first into the wall.
"If you try that again, it will be the last thing you ever do. Understand?" She growled, looking predatory, then released him.
Stark turned around, rubbing his jaw which was already starting to become swollen and bruised.
"How did you know I was behind you?" He asked, slightly incredulous.
"One, I heard you. Two, the shift in everyone's eyes for a second. Three, it would help if I was facing away from the window and couldn't see a slight reflection in the glass."
Muttering a curse and then shooting a glare at my smirk, he made his way back across the room and sat in his chair.
Fury then turned to Quinn again, a slightly amused expression on his face.
"Let's do some target practice, shall we?"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
All of the daggers hit their targets one after another in quick succession and sank into the boards, each one landing in dead center.
Quinn was good at throwing knives. When I say good, I mean really good. Even though she was using daggers that were unfamiliar to her, her aim was perfect.
The team and I leaned on the walls, watching Quinn throw daggers. So far, she had tried all of the types of daggers that S.H.I.E.L.D. had in its training room, including some throwing stars and some other things, and despite them all having differing shapes and weights, all of them met the exact center of the red ringed target.
"Now do that with your eyes closed!" Tony called.
"Is that a challenge?" Quinn asked, angling her body to face him.
"Only if you aren't too scared to try and break your perfect record." he retorted, mockingly.
After a second's thought, Quinn said, "Challenge accepted."
She strode to the table where all of the daggers were laid out. Her fingers skimmed all of the weapons as she carefully chose one of each type of dagger, six in total including one of her own, and put two in her dagger sheaths. She then held one in her right hand, which was her dominant throwing hand, though she could throw with both, and the other three in her left hand.
Quinn faced the wall of six targets, carefully observing the placement of each.
"How do I know your eyes are closed?" Stark asked.
"What, you don't trust me?" she said sarcastically.
Stark disappeared into the back room for a minute or two before returning with a blindfold. Scowling, Quinn took it from him and tied it around her eyes, over her hood.
"Better?"
Stark stood in front of her, waving his hands in front of her face.
"Are you waving your hands to make yourself look more idiotic than usual?" she questioned.
"Can you see that?" Tony studied the thick, vision blocking blindfold around her face, wondering how in the world she could see.
"No, I can sense it."
"Just to make sure," Tony held up both of his hands, his fingers closed in fists. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
She tilted her head to the side for a second before answering. "None? Trick question."
I chuckled as Tony's cocky expression slipped for a second, then he suddenly held up two fingers. "Two. You're wrong."
During all of this, Fury stood by the rest of us near the wall, looking slightly bemused.
"Liar. You just moved." Quinn scowled, which I found she did quite often when talking to Tony, and then walked to stand in front of the first target.
The room became so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Quinn took a few deep breaths while weighing the weight of the dagger in her hand.
Quicker than I could blink, she threw the first dagger. It spun in the air before sinking into the center of the target. Before the dagger had even hit the target, she was already throwing the next one, then the next, all with a scarily accurate precision.
Intrigued, I took in every one of her motions as she glided across the room. As soon as her pale fingers wrapped around a new dagger, she was already pulling another out.
Thunk. Thud.
I observed her perfect, smooth motions, how she knew just how to flick or turn her wrist for each dagger.
I had to remind myself that she was blindfolded, that she couldn't see anything out of the dark fabric obstructing her eyes. Watching her, it was almost graceful in a sense. Her lips were parted slightly in concentration, and I could imagine that her eyebrows were slightly scrunched together as she focused.
When she finished, the silence in the room intensified without the rhythmic sound of blades hitting targets.
I tore my focus away from the mysterious Phantom for a second as I studied the targets. In perfect unison, a knife sliced through the red dot in the center of the white paper taped to the target. All six had hit their marks without fail.
Quinn slowly reached up and removed the blindfold and observed the targets. I noticed that the corner of her mouth turned up slightly, a tiny, crooked smirk gracing her lips for a second before returning to their usual stoic position. That was the closest thing to a smile she had shown yet.
"That good enough for you, Stark?" Quinn inquired. "Or do you think that was just luck?"
"There is no such thing as luck. Just chance, and science."
"Then what do you call you having a girlfriend who likes you enough to be in an actual relationship with you?" Clint asked.
"My pure charm and genius, of course. It also doesn't hurt to have my dashing good looks."
More than one person in the room shot him a disbelieving look.
Fury shifted from his spot against the wall and stalked across the room to stand in front of Quinn.
"Tomorrow, we'll continue the training. Meet here, seven o'clock a.m." Fury shifted to face all of us. "You're dismissed." He swept out of the room, talking into his earpiece.
Banner leaned over and murmured something in Tony's ear, to which he nodded, and they both left the room together, most likely heading towards the labs. The rest of the Avengers dispersed to go do whatever they wanted to before dinner.
Quinn retrieved her daggers and put them back inside her belt, slightly relaxing after she did so. I followed her into the back room and watched as she collected all of her weapons.
"I'm guessing after Fury made you remove all of your weapons, you still had at least one, am I right?" I broke the silence.
"Maybe, maybe not. You can decide for yourself."
"Now that I think about it, the more I don't want to know how many weapons you carry on you."
"That would be wise."
I suddenly realized how tense she was, and how hard she was gripping the table as she gathered her things.
"Are you ok?" I fought the urge to step closer and see what was the matter, but I kept my distance.
"Fine," was her clipped answer. She then turned to look at me. "You ready?"
I nodded, and we left the training room. As we walked down the hallway, I watched her from the corner of my eye, question after question entering my mind.
What was that back there? Where did she learn to fight? Who is she?
I don't know anything about her, I decide, but something about her makes me want to find out. Not just because Fury wants me to keep an eye on her, because something about her intrigues me. I just don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I guess with time I'll decide which one it is.