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"If you keep relying on your powers, you're gonna get your ass kicked," Iris growled in response again and shifted her feet back. Nat stood across from her, hardly breaking a sweat. "Come on, again." 

Iris lunged, her fist inbound toward Nat's face. She couldn't even blink before Natasha had her on the floor again, knee digging into her spine. "That was more pitiful than last time." She stood up, holding her hand out to help Iris to her feet. 

She smacked it aside and rose to her aching feet herself. "Maybe if you'd give me a fighting chance." 

"I am." 

Iris rolled her eyes and scoffed. For the past month and a half, Nat and Steve had been drilling martial arts training into her skull. Anything from MMA to Karate was fair game, and both of them were experts at it. Better yet, they wouldn't let her use the abilities she had to her advantage. 

Iris knew it would help her in the long run, sure, but she was beginning to regret not accepting Tony's proposal to live a quiet life out in the countryside. 

That kind of training was three days a week, all day. Another three days were scheduled to help her improve her powers. Though Nat nor Steve were experts, they seemed well-versed enough in un-natural abilities. That gave one day a week where Iris was not being ground into the dirt by the two, and spent that day alone, either in the woods behind the compound or in her room. 

Yeah, they gave her an actual room, without heart monitors or an IV stand, and this one had an actual window. A whole wall full of them, actually. It looked out onto the grounds, and past that, the woods. If she strained her neck she could see the river too, and though she'd never been in it, she assumed it was too cold to go swimming in. 

Nat tossed her a towel from the rack on the other side of the gym while Iris' back was turned. A twitch of her fingers and the towel froze in midair, she didn't even need to look at it. 

Nat chuckled from the other side of the mat. "You're getting better at that." Iris did turn around now, turning her palm upward. At the same time, the towel rose to almost touch to the high ceiling. It hovered there for a moment, fluttering slightly in the AC. 

Iris twitched another finger, and it came falling down right into her open hand. She wiped the back of her sweaty neck with it, and then the chest not covered by her tank top. "Thanks, but sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to do anything beside party tricks." 

"You'll get it." Nat popped her neck and quickly looked at the clock on the wall. "Get some lunch, take a break, Steve wants you afterward." 

"God, I'm gonna kick his ass." 

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