I recently realized that I haven't been including a disclaimer (even though this is fanfiction and no one who actually OWNED this would be on here), so no, I don't own the Avengers, Tony/Iron Man, SHIELD, or Nick Fury. I do however own Rose, Eagle, and the rest of my OCs.
Last time…
We nodded to each other, not needing to vocalize the rules or goals of the training exercise that we had done numerous times, and then walked to the center of the arena where a digital clock the size of a basketball hoop was. Our eyes meet, and as one we each moved into a fighting stance, one foot on the clock. The clock lit up to green, then started its five minute countdown.
Instantly I sensed Rose pulling up a mental shield, drawing a veil over her otherwise clear as day thoughts. I threw my own mental shield up, further obscuring her thoughts from my mind. Then, only three seconds into the match, we moved to attack each other in the same moment.
Despite the two sided mental wall that appeared to be solid, I was still fairly certain I could see what her next moves would be. I focused on the wall for a moment and patched the holes that appeared to have allowed me to see her thoughts, and then focused on dodging her attacks. Seeing an opening, I snapped out a fist and put her on the defensive. Despite my well timed and well placed shot, she knew me as well as I knew her and was able to dodge effortlessly out of the way.
The clock began flashing, still green, as it hit the three minute marker. Rose shifted from her fighting stance to the first steps in her 'plant dance' as the Tiny Twins called it. While the vines began to answer her call, I stretched out my wings before strapping on a pair of wristbands that were designed to monitor my flight speed and heart rate, and then launched myself into the air. Rose's vines followed my ascent quickly, and I could sense Rose racing up the thick vines to reach a point near me. While she continued to close the distance between us, the first of her vines had reached me, and I had to concentrate on dodging them unless I wanted to end up tangled in them and forfeiting the match. I felt Rose's mental wall flex in my mind, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before we would have trouble maintaining the blockade. I clearly saw her decision to jump from an ivy leaf to tackle me, so dodging was not a problem. I knew that she had sensed that I had seen her decision the moment she leapt from her perch, and, rather than let one of her vines catch her, she executed an impressive somersault and landed lightly on one the many ivy leaves. I started to fly towards her in order to engage in close combat, but before I could reach her the clock stopped flashing and shifted to red. I dived to the ground as Rose raced down her vines. She encouraged them to follow her back down as she did so, and I felt the walls between us slip more as I pulled up six feet or so off the ground and drew in my wings. I tried to reinforce the wall again, and I could sense Rose doing the same even as she called the last of the vines back and landed on the sand. Even though we knew the wall would collapse any moment if we didn't stop, we knew the rules, and without pausing we took up our fighting stances and started to circle each other. This time, I threw the first swing, closely followed by a second. She ducked and then tried to sweep me off my feet with her legs, the wall disappeared, and I easily jumped over her and twisted in the air to fall into a back handspring and land lightly on my feet. The moves we both would make were clear in our minds, and although we continued to fight, we knew that at this point neither of us would be able to claim victory unless some outside force intervened. Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed the clock start to flash, and as it flashed to blue Rose and I stepped away from each other and bowed. Rose looked into my eyes and smiled, "We almost made it to the end that time."
I smiled back at her and said, "Yeah, but the wall had holes in it long before it actually collapsed."
She rolled her eyes, "I know, I know. But at least we were able to mostly block each other, in the past we couldn't have even done that."
"Yes, it's a definite improvement for sure." We both started a short cool down session, mentally raising the wall between us for a few more moments.
Now, you are probably wondering what this mental wall is all about, so I suppose I should explain. That of course, would take forever, more time than I have at the moment, so the short answer will have to do for now. After Rose and I were genetically altered, we were forced to spend a lot of time together. By forced, I mean we were literally put in the same cages. We would talk as often as we could, mostly just because it was such a great feeling being able to speak to someone who has been through as much crap as you have. We started forming a bond of sorts, along the lines of close friends. When the scientists came to experiment on us we would fight to stay together, because we both hated being alone. The scientists were irked at our behavior sometimes, but then one of the high ups came and said something to them. I'm not sure what was said exactly, but I know that he was the reason why a few weeks later, Rose and I were both strapped to metal examination tables side by side, hand in hand. The scientists had simultaneously injected something into our joined arms, then they stepped back and a machine was switched on.
The electricity surged through the wires from the machine to the cuffs on wrists and ankles, giving us both an excruciatingly painful shock. At that point in time, we weren't really thinking about what this particular experiment was going to do to us; we were only focusing on the pain, and it wasn't long before we realized though that we weren't just feeling our own pain, we were feeling each other's.
It was a curious sensation to be feeling the pain of someone else in addition to your own, because it meant that we were feeling twice the amount of electricity and thus twice the amount of pain. If we had been more aware, we might also have consciously recognized the fact that we were also hearing echoes of each other's thoughts, but the pain prevented us from reaching that realization. This wonderful (sense the sarcasm) experience resulted in the mental connection that Rose and I currently share. Unfortunately, it has always been difficult to completely block off our minds from each other, which is why we devised the wall. With the wall in place, we can block out each other's thoughts and mental presence for a short while. If we build a complete wall, on without any cracks, holes, or openings of any sort, then the pressure rapidly builds up on either side and destroys it. Instead, we figured out how to make a 'crossing' of sorts in our minds. This is basically like a mental archway in the center of the wall. With it in place we are able to choose what thoughts are shared with the other, which makes things less confusing for us and for those around us. I'll come back to this later, since I'm sure you can still see a few holes in my logic, but that should tide you over for a little while.
Rose and I finished our cool down routines and did a quick clean up in the arena (sparring, especially with Rose's vines, tends to leave a mess). The Tiny Twins had finished up as well, and were walking towards the main arena to watch the other's finish their sparring. Rose and I had already started in that direction, and we reached the wall just before they did. Rose watched the four in the arena, and I could sense her pride and satisfaction as she noted how much they had improved over time. At one point we all had next to nothing for experience with fighting; now you never would have guessed we had been raised in a lab. Rose, without taking her eyes off the sparring match, lightly placed her hand over my own, which was resting on the border wall of the arena. I was unsurprised when a thought that was not my own echoed in my mind, as she had lately gotten into the habit of touching my hand when she wished to communicate.
Look up at the booth, her eyes flicked to me and then towards the observation booth. She looked back at the match, and I turned towards the booth. With my enhanced vision, I could clearly make out the figure of Nick Fury, the stern (and rather intimidating to anyone who is not experienced with such people) director of SHIELD. Next to him I could see the not as familiar form of Iron Man, or as Gadget and Gizmo discovered, Tony Stark. According to the Tiny Twins, he is going to be our new 'guardian.' (This basically means that he is going to keep an eye on us just enough to avoid questions from social services.) As I studied our new guardian, Fury moved closer to the window and hit the intercom button.
"Wrap it up you four, all of you are to report to the observation room immediately." His voice, as usual, had an emotionless quality that seemed to radiate authority, which is the only reason the sparring match was quickly brought to a halt and the participants ran through a shortened cool down while the others made sure everything was in its proper place.
A few minutes after Fury called us in we walked out of the training room and made our way down the hall to the observation room. I slipped my hand into Rosie's as we walked, and I saw her smile slightly out of the corner of my eye. I could sense that she was wondering how our new 'guardian' would take to our strange little family. We have so rarely come across anyone who looks at us as more than just weapons or tools, Fury being no exception. I sent her reassuring thoughts and squeezed her hand slightly. She glanced at me, her smile having finally reached her eyes, and then walked through the open door of the observation room.
Okay, I know I said they would meet Iron Man soon, but this chapter kept going and I felt like here was a decent stopping point. I PROMISE that they will meet Iron Man in the next chapter! I'm sorry it took so long guys, I kept finding things I wanted to change or add! And thanks to my reviewers for chapter 2 Xylar and SweetDreamer97, I really appreciate it when people take the time to say a few words! Especially when they make me smile!