"So wanna make a bet on who'll win?" Sam challenged the others.
"My money's on Wanda." Rhodey said, "Her powers have gotten pretty bad ass."
"If I had money I would place it on Wanda as well." Vision agreed with a nod, "Her powers have the ability to draw out Natasha's greatest weakness: her past."
Steve snorted, "Alright boys, I'll take your money. Twenty buck Natasha wins and double it if the battle is over in less than five minutes." He said shaking the other hands with his opponents. Sam, as the overseer of their bet, started the clock and the four turned to watch the battle before them.
"You seem pretty sure of this Cap, Vision does have a point you know Wander had her pretty shaken up last time." Sam reminded him.
"Fool Natasha once and she'll blame herself. Fool Natasha twice, and she'll kill you." Steve said simply, "Watch and learn boys, watch and learn."
As soon as the round was started Natasha was sprinting for a near by rusted out jeep. Bracing her foot on the side of the car she heaved against the hinges of the door eventually ripping it off. With a quick stab of her knife into the bullet proof glass she twisted it hard and made a whole just large enough for the muzzle of her rubber loaded gun. The glass spider webbed out some making it harder for her to see, but the specialized glass was resistant to most of the cracks and it was still feasible. The heavy door and gun were just a distraction, but Natasha could tell it was working when Wanda came floating over head a little more cautiously then she might otherwise have done.
Red wisps knocked rubber bullets to either side of the flying woman as the sound of a hand gun firing went of repeatedly. Frustrated by Natasha's makeshift shield Wanda sent another red wisp down to rip it from her hands. The door went soaring across the field, but something caught Wanda's eye as it flew. Dozens of tiny silver and blue disks were flung in every direction as rubber bullet clipped the inside of a bag that was tied to the inside of the door ripping it open. In her attempt to get the door as far away from Natasha she had flung the door past herself meaning that the disks were flying towards her at random in high velocity. Surprised Wanda flinched for half a second before swinging her arms wildly forcing a bubble of her red power out around her to protect her.
The burst of power, although effective in deflecting the disks, drained Wanda for half a second and she slumped towards the ground. She dipped, her lack of power bringing her closer to the ground and Natasha took the opportunity to launch herself from a pile of pipes, to a stack of rubble before launching herself into the air and shooting her gun three times straight at Wanda's face before turning her shoulder as if to break her fall back to earth, but in truth disguising the last silver and blue disk that she flung frisbee style from between two of her fingers at the base of Wanda's left knee. The bullets froze in mid air a foot from Wanda's face, but they were just enough to distract her from the disk that attached itself to her leg.
A bright electrical current lit the blue ring in the disk and Wanda screamed and dropped from the sky. Natasha hit the ground and rolled to her feet before launching out and snatching Wanda's limp body from the air rolling with her so that she landed groaning on the ground Wanda laying limp and unconscious on top of her.
"Black Widow wins." Fury's voice resounded through the clearing.
Wanda rolled to the side and groaned saying, "creative".
"Hu?" Natasha asked between pants pushing herself up into a sitting position.
"Nothing." Wanda groaned and gave up her attempt at sitting up to slouch back to the dirty ground.
"Hey ladies, how do we feel?" Bruce asked bending over the pair.
"Trashed." Wanda said rubbing here eyes with one hand and her leg with the other.
"Peachy." Natasha said at the same time letting Bruce help her to her feet.
Bruce chuckled and took to looking Wanda over and detaching the shock disk from her leg. Once he was done he took a step back, but it was Natasha who was there offering a hand to help her up.
"No hard feelings?" She asked helping the younger girl to her feet.
"Now, we're even." She said gently placing her fingers on Natasha's temple for the second time since their meeting. Natasha didn't flinch and nothing came through into her mind. The gesture formed a bond of trust between them as Natasha allowed Wanda the chance to bring out her greatest weakness, and Wanda in turn trusted her not to kill her for trying. The women stood like that for a moment a wave of respect and understanding passing through them before Natasha nodded, Wanda smiled and the moment was broken.
As Bruce led the girls back across the field to where the rest of the team and Maria waited Steve was stuffing eighty dollars into one of the utility pockets on his uniform.
"He knew that was going to happen?" Rhodey accused grumpily.
Steve laughed,"No I know Natasha. There's a difference." He reminded them.
As the women approached Steve smiled and congratulated them both on a good fight.
"So who's next" Sam asked, and once again as if he were listening the Fury's voice came over the coms.
"Falcon will now fight Iron Patriot." He boomed and the pair eyed each other up. Patriot's mask snapped down over his face and he took off to the other side of the field.
Sam looked around at the others and said, "I'm fucked aren't I? He has better maneuverability, better weapons, better strength..."
"Admittedly this arena doesn't exactly play to your strengths, but when was the last time Tony Stark ever made something that wasn't ostentatious?" Steve reminded him.
Maria pulled Sam away from the group before he had time to respond and spoke to him as he slid his flight goggles on, "Sneak up on him, take him by surprise and you might have a chance. Keep in mind Stark makes high tech precision machinery your's is eighty five percent you."
"Ya that's what I'm worried about." The Falcon grumbled.
"Use that to your advantage. The human body will always be capable of doing things that a machine never can." Maria reminded him.
"Ya well luckily The Iron Patriot has Rhodes too." Sam quipped sharing a lopsided grin with Maria.
Fury's voice came over the coms comanding, "Begin in 3... 2... 1... Begin the battle between Iron Patriot and The Falcon."
Sam dashed into the ring as quiet as he could be his wings tucked tight against his back. He made his way into the shadows of a pile of rubble skirting along the edge making sure he was alway keeping something between him and the red white and blue beacon in the sky. It took him almost three minutes to get into place but eventually he was positioned back where Rhodey had started looking up at the back of the suit while the Patriot scanned the ground for him repeatedly.
Rhodey had been searching for the Falcon for what felt like ages and was beginning to become unnerved by the fact that he wan't in the air yet. He turned a one eighty to face the other direction and instinctually shot backwards as he found the falcon only feet from his face and coming fast.
Rhodey turned and dodged at the last minute, but it was too late for him as Sam smashed into him knocking his face mask off before folding his wings and dropping like a rock dodging the stun blasters Rhodey sent his way. Sam dodged in and out of of stunning beams as Rhodey shot at him firing his rubber bullet gun at the exposed flesh of his missing face mask forcing Rhodey to doge and stay off balance throughout their fight. After about fifteen minutes of chasing the nibble falcon around the room Rhodey finally lost his temper and lit up all of his blasters spinning in a circe only stopping when he heard Sam's scream and dropping to catch him before he hit the ground.
"Hey, how y'doin there bud?" Rhodey asked Sam as he set him down.
"Iron Patriot wins." Fury said over the coms.
Sam chuckled and said, "What you couldn't done that sooner and saved me the trouble?"
"Wasn't sure it would work." Rhodey laughed standing the other man up on his feet.
"Clipped a wing and shorted out the pack." Sam explained.
"Sorry man. Go see if Bruce can touch it up for you." Rhodey said clapping him on the back.
Steve clapped Vision on the back and said, "Well looks like it's you and me are next."
"You bet your ass." Fury said making the pair chuckle before Vision flew off to the other side of the field.