CRASH.
Jay sails across the room and slams into the wall with an oath. She hits on her side and half rolls, half slides down the wall, dust coating her jumpsuit. She lands on her stomach and knocks the wind out of herself and coughs on the debris raining down on her. A shadow falls across her and she looks up to see Agent Barton smirking down at her.
"How many times do I have to tell you to use your agility, not your strength kiddo," he asks with a laugh as he pulls her to her feet. She spits out a piece of drywall, purposely aiming for his shoe. "Hey, that's dirty!" he grins. She snarls and crouches on the ground and then launches herself at him full force, head straight to his stomach.
He's not laughing so much now.
They fly backwards and he twists, driving her side into the ground to adjust some of the impact away from his own body. She growls as she hits the bruise from the tranq dart. Ooooh, how she hates him. He tries to pin her but she rolls and sweeps at his feet but he rolls over her leg and grabs her foot, pulling it with him, twisting her body around with a snap. Her hip burns as he yanks her up. She hits him with her other foot and then rolls backwards over her shoulders to crouch in front of him.
"Bravo," comes a voice from above and Jay's head snaps up. Tony Stark is smiling down at her with that annoying playboy smile and she wants to jump up there are throttle that smirk right off his face. Wow, adrenaline makes her feisty.
The distraction costs her as Hawkeye tackles her and pins her face down into the dusty ground of the training arena. "What did I tell you about always being aware of your surroundings?" he asks her critically as she tries unsuccessfully to pry his bulk off of her.
"Well normally my surroundings don't include idiot billionaire playboys, now do they?" she snarls. Barton laughs and gets off her, offering her a hand up which she pointedly ignores. "In a bad mood, I see," Barton comments and she scowls at him as she dusts off her jumpsuit. Goodness, she can feel every bump on her body in this thing. Natasha wasn't kidding, the suit really did fit. And unfortunately, it gave her curves as well. Which she was sure a certain two men were staring at right now.
She rolls her shoulders and feels the bruises under the tight suit. She wants very badly to go lie down in an ice bath and fall asleep that way but there are at least two more hours left with the Hawk and the Black Widow until she's done. It's only around ten a.m. and she gets a break at noon. Not that it's a long break but when you are rudely pulled out of your bed in the morning at 5:00 a.m.; noon is past midday to your groggy and abused body.
Tony chuckles, "He had you good, Xena. Maybe if you wore your leathers and swung a sword you'd be able to win." She gives him the evil eye.
"Get stuffed," she spits a t him.
"Wow, was it something I said?" Tony jokes to Barton. Jay is not in the mood. They've been at it for the last five days on this ridiculous schedule and every bone in her bone is aching and her muscles feel like ragged bundles of torn fibers under a layer of black and blue skin. The training has been good for her and she has stayed after hours some days to work on her form or a new idea Barton or Natasha taught her. But she's feeling pretty worn out and cranky today and she's not in the mood for Tony's jibes.
"Hey, kid, I was joking," Stark says when he sees the frown on her face. She brushes his half-hearted apology off with an arrogant, practiced gesture and turns and heads for the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Barton demands. "We still have two more hours."
"Good to know," Jay snaps without turning around.
"Get back here," Barton orders, all joking gone from his voice. She keeps walking.
An arrow whizzes past her head, millimeters from her skin. It embeds itself into the walk with a sharp thwack. She stops and whirls to face them. "Was that supposed to be intimidating?" she says bitingly. Her eyes flash. "Why not just turn up the ultrasonic pulses?" she snarls. "Stick with a tranquilizer? Come on Barton, make me snap." Her voice is tight and so full of anger, not the controlled person they know. She stalks away.
Barton catches her before she makes it to the door, grabbing her wrist gently and he starts, "Hey, are you alri-"
Her back hand cracks across his cheekbone. "Don't touch me," she hisses. A bewildered Barton holds a hand to his face, a red weal spreading across his cheek. The whine of the ultrasonic bracelets fills her ears and she gives Stark a smile of pure malice. "Come one, Tony," she goads. "Knock me out." There is a pleading in her tone and in that instant they understand that she wants them to take her out, send her into oblivion. And neither of them knows why.
She stands there panting, as Tony shuts off the ultrasonic pulses. Her body is slumped over itself slightly and she looks haunted and exhausted. Tony narrows his eyes at her. "When was the last time you slept, kiddo?" he asks, throwing her off guard. She shakes her head and wraps her arms tightly around her stomach like she's trying to hold herself together. She mumbles something unintelligible. Stark cocks and eyebrow at her and stares her down and she huffs and looks away, muttering, "Yesterday."
"As in, you didn't sleep last night?" Barton says sharply. "If that's the case, you most certainly shouldn't be training. That's just asking for a beating." She shoots him a death glare and he shrugs nonchalantly, "Just saying it how it is."
"It doesn't matter," Jay says, "I'm fine and can handle myself."
Stark snorts. "Sure, that's why he had you face down on the floor, growling in pain."
"Only you could make that sound so dirty," she growls back and despite himself, Tony laughs.
"You know, I actually didn't mean to have it come out that way this time. So technically, Xena, it's you that has the dirty mind." Jay blushes bright tomato red and covers her face with her hands, mumbling something about idiotic millionaire playboys again.
"Jay, you really should get some rest," Barton says. She gives him a look.
"When do you think it becomes easy to get a good night's sleep when your brain is on overdrive all the time, watching for threats, picking up stray thoughts, reliving the recent past?" She looks at him critically. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since Stark jabbed me with that vial back in Stark Tower and even though that wasn't that long ago, it sure as hell feels like it when you and Natasha beat me up every day for your amusement."
"Okay, point taken, "the Hawk says, slightly chagrined. "Maybe you should take the rest of the day off."
"Nah, I'm good," Jay says. "Besides, sometimes you make me so tired that I can't even form a coherent thought before passing out each night," she forces the humor into her voice.
"Regardless, Fury doesn't want you damaged," Barton says and Jay's face darkens a little. "How about a few more rounds and then you can have the afternoon off? I was actually thinking about giving it to you anyways since you've been learning so quickly." Jay flushes a little in pleasure at the compliment which doesn't go unnoticed by either Barton or Stark no matter how much she tries to hide it.
"Okay," she says, kind of shy again. Stark is realizing that she gets shy when people say nice things about her. He noticed it the other day when she was working on learning French the other day. They had been in the lab on her break from training and she was firing rapid questions at him about his experiments. He was surprised at how fast she learned. In the span of an hour she was able to tell him exactly how to construct a simple nuclear reactor. She had also been practicing her French words as well, naming each component in the lab that she knew. She seemed to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He supposed it stemmed from the fact that she'd never had access to education before in her life.
In fact, her capacity to learn was really astounding. She could be found reading literature in her spare time and reciting French and Spanish words as she lifted weights and did pull-ups. Stark wondered if it was due to something else different in her brain. After all, her brain chemistry was striking different from normal human beings in some regards, obviously in the mind-reading department but she also had shown an increased electrical function in the learning and memory centers of her brain when he'd had the chance to play with her EEG while she was unconscious. She was already stringing complex sentences together in foreign languages and could explain his own research to the other Avengers and it had been just over a week since Fury had started having her train with the Hawk and the Widow.
He mused over this to himself as Jay and Barton square off in the training room. He observes her. Her fighting stance is a little stiff but he presumes that is because she is sore and tired. When he watched her surreptitiously the other days, she's been more relaxed, looking as if she was more at home in her own body. She's small compared to the Hawk, even to Agent Romanoff. But for all of the deficiencies a small physique can represent, she handles herself well. Agent Barton is correct; she should use her agility more often over strength. She's too small to overpower any enemy that's bigger and stronger than her. But if there is one thing he's noted about her it's that she's crafty in a battle.
He had seen it when she had first come to Stark Tower but over the past days, he has noted it even more as she trains. The contrast is especially apparent when she pairs against Barton. She's fast and agile and she uses it to her advantage. She doesn't necessarily have natural flexibility but she makes up for it in precise and fast blows. In and out, before her opponent can retaliate. And she uses her intelligence in a fight, something that's pretty rare in his experience. And like he's noted of her in the lab, her intelligence is something of a marvel since it seems to keep expanding each day as she learns.
His thought process is interrupted by Barton asking, "So what do you do when you can't sleep?" to Jay as they start to circle each other.
Jay shrugs. "I learn more French words or Spanish words. You don't have many good books lying around here. I did find some interesting ones on electromagnetic theory but the math is beyond me." Barton raises an eyebrow at her and sends a questioning look in Stark's direction.
"Are you secretly influencing her, Stark?" he asks as he throws the first punch which Jay ducks away from. She throws an uppercut, catching Hawkeye in the stomach since she's so much shorter than him. Most of the time an uppercut would clock someone in the chin but Stark notes that this seems to be just as effective as Barton lets out a quick exhale of surprise.
"Focus, Agent Barton," Jay chides with a laugh.
"With pleasure," Barton laughs and the two of them go at it in a complicated set of steps that has Stark impressed in spite of himself. He laughs as Jay catches Barton on the back of the knee and then jumps on his back as he staggers. Barton throws her off and she rolls backwards. The two of them go at it for a while, each soaked with sweat as the ferocity picks up.
At one point, Jay staggers, having landed wrong from a dodge and Barton is already throwing a blunt dagger at her, unable to stop his throw to keep from injuring her. It spins toward her head and Stark and Barton both shout in dismay as it flies for her face. She throws her hands up in defense.
The dagger never makes contact. It stops centimeters from Jay's hands shielding her face. It floats in the air and then falls to the ground with a clatter. The room is dead silent except for Jay and Barton's heavy breathing.
"What just happened?" Barton demands. Stark looks at Jay, at her shocked face and sees the horror in her eyes. There are two options. Either she just revealed something she hadn't meant to or she just developed a terrifying new ability.
Jay's eyes lock with Stark's and he sees surprise and fear and realizes that she hadn't known about this before. Barton looks back and forth between Jay and Stark quizzically. "Stark, Strong, what's going on?" he asks uneasily.
"I-I…," she stammers, still kneeling, hands slowly coming down. Her eyes lock on the dagger.
Stark realizes the implications of what he has just seen. "Jay, try again," he says quietly.
She looks at him with fear and shakes her head in denial.
"It's the only way to prove it," Stark says as Barton looks on in confused silence.
"No," she whispers. Then she's up and running from the room, breath strained and choked with pain.
Barton watches her go and then turns to Stark, his question clearly evident in his body language. "Care to explain, Stark?"
"If I'm correct, which I normally am," Stark says, "Jay may just be telekinetic."
"Sir, I think you should see this."