Hydra's shadow

Chapter 10: Distractions

*ECHO'S POV*

Still wearing the sweatshirt and joggers Natalia had leant me this morning, I felt slightly underdressed compared to the rest of the team. Steve was in his uniform, when I'd asked why he said he'd rather train in what he would be wearing in the face of an attack. Bucky was dressed all in black, Natalia wearing her widow suit. I can still remember mine from The Red Room except it was more of a greyish colour, we only got to wear the black ones after the graduation ceremony when out on missions. Tony, Rhodey and Sam were all in their 'normal clothes', they couldn't exactly train in their suits, and both Bruce and Clint had decided to sit this session out as we'd left them upstairs watching TV much to their liking. And Peter had left for school before I'd even woken this morning.

"Come on then Echo let's see what you can do." Tony gestured as he motioned towards the boxing ring on my left.

"I want to start out by testing your physical strength. No powers okay?" he informed as I stepped under the ropes running around the edges of the boxing ring.

"Okay." I responded as he handed me 2 padded gloves to wear.

"These'll help protect your hands in case I hit too hard, but don't worry I'll go easy on you for now." he winked as I pushed the gloves back towards him.

"I won't be needing these today, but thanks anyway." I replied, Tony raising an eyebrow as he sighed and threw the gloves out of the ring.

"Hey Echo don't let him get carried away!" Steve yelled from across the room, laughing to himself as he went back to the punching bag barely hanging on to the ceiling now from the strength of his hits.

I only turned to smile at him briefly as I heard Tony behind me.

"There's your first mistake kid, never take your eyes off of your opponent!"

I whipped my head round just as he went to throw a punch, ducking swiftly under his arm as I landed a soft blow to his stomach. He keeled over slightly and grunted in discomfort, before resuming his original position, hands either side of his face moving from one foot to the other beginning to circle me.

"Not bad kid, you got lucky."

I continued to follow the pattern of his footsteps around the ring until we'd done a full circle of it. I could sense his hesitation, waiting for the right moment to strike the next punch. I was one step ahead of him though, as when he jolted his fist towards me I blocked it with the palm of my hand. Once his fist hit my palm I closed my fingers firmly around it, gently twisting his arm the other way causing him to bend lower to the ground. I took this as my opportunity, launching my left leg then my right leg over his shoulders until they had locked into place around his neck. He had no time to even think of his next move as I swung the full force of my weight to the right, simultaneously releasing my legs and slamming him to the ground in one quick and fluid motion.

I heard a few distorted gasps behind me as I turned to face the rest of the team, unaware of all pairs of eyes on me, at some point Wanda and Vision had walked down to join everyone else as they too were staring in disbelief. The only person who seemed calm and not at all surprised by my skilful takedown of their teammate was Natalia.

"That's Nat's signature move." Bucky muttered under his breath.

"I know. He taught me how to do it. Dreykov I mean."

"Well he taught you well kid." Tony whispered, the force of my takedown leaving him slightly breathless as he forced himself up from the floor of the ring.

"That's a lot of strength you've got there,
being able to take me down so easily like that." he questioned almost confused that he'd been defeated so easily by a thirteen year old girl.