Stark's Shadow

Chapter 4 - Thwip Thwip As the Kid Says

I woke up before the alarm, "Ha, take that Jarvis," I say to nothing, "You can't tell me the weath-"

"Good morning, the weather is-" Jarvis interrupts.

"NO," I yell. For an AI he sure manages to be a sassy little shit. I've grown to love him. I've been here about a week now, and I'm about as settled as someone living with the Avengers could be.

I've started training with them too. The plan is for me to become one, which I said was a bad idea and shouldn't happen. We all came to an agreement that I would train for a few months first, which is where I am right now. Training.

I get punched in the back, falling on my face. "You got to be more alert, don't let your guard down," Bucky tells me.

"Ow," I say, accepting Steve's help getting up, "You didn't need to punch me that hard to get your point across,"

"I'm sorry," Bucky says, then gets pulled to the floor by a rope of shadow.
"But you need to take your advice, buddy." I say, jumping out of Bucky's reach as he tried to grab me as he gets pulled backwards.

"Good one," Steve says, "But the enemy won't stop to apologize for punching you too hard."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get back to kicking the shit out of me, shall we?"

They nod, and Steve gives a small laugh, "We aren't being that hard on you," He tells me as he goes to kick me in the gut.

"Oh yeah," I reply, grabbing his foot and pushing it up, knocking him down, "Knocking me out was nothing. Obviously, I was being dramatic there, my bad."

"You are dramatic," Bucky says behind me, I turn around in time to stop his attack with a wall of shadow. Then I step backwards, trying to kick Steve back down. I failed, getting hit in the back of the knees with his shield.

My shield fell and Bucky got to me, putting his metal arm against my throat, and pinning me to the floor "Give up," He says, "We win,"

He gets pulled off of me by his own shadow, who holds him back while Steve fights his own shadow that stole his shield. It wasn't intentional, it just happened while Shadow Steve was solidifying.

I materialize a dull training sword and hold it against Bucky's neck, "I think it's you who should give up. Clearly, I won."

Bucky taps out, and I turn to where the Steves are, "One down, one to go," I say, then turn to Shadow Steve, "Let's fuck this old man up."

"Language!" Steve yells at me, then a look of regret spreads over his face.

I run at him, fake sword in hand, and swing as he pulls his shield out of his shadow, "killing" it. He blocks my blow with the shield.

"And you said we were hard on you," Steve says, looking at me like I'm crazier than I am.

"It's not a real sword. It's made for training," I tell him, "It won't kill you, probably can't cut you either, don't worry!"

"Probably?!" He exclaims.

"No promises," I say then kick out his legs.

We start sparring, throwing kicks and punches, but blocking most of them. I didn't notice something until it was too late, Steve had been backing me into a wall. He grabbed my weapon and tried to throw it, but it disappeared as soon as it left my hand, he threw his shield at the light switches, turning the spotlight above us on. Why in the chicken-fried fuck are there spotlights? It blinded me, while also removing any shadows in reach for me to work with. I was too disoriented by the bright lights to form any shadows on my own.