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Normally, Ava doesn't spend much time in HQ. She comes in at odd hours, delivers her reports, reads other people's reports, checks in with medical, and slips back out into the world. But in the last couple of weeks, there have been two and a half break-outs by people who were in SHIELD custody. And while Ava is technically a junior agent, she's been more effective than most in stopping the detainees.
Not that it matters much now.
All the same, even if it's a bit of closing the barn door after the cows have gotten out, she's been conscripted to help train some of the less experienced agents with hand-to-hand combat. In sweatpants and a tank top, with her hair pulled into a short ponytail, she's wiping off her face as the last victim limps off to medical.
*
Billy is in something of a mood: he thought learning to be a spy would be fun. He thought learning to be a spy would involve cool, crazy things. Not him getting lumped upside the head repeatedly. Bruises suck, and he has no idea how to go about healing something. Still, dressed for a workout in sweats, he wanders into the training area, and upon seeing Ava… his mood goes from ill-defined 'something' to downright wary. "Ava…" he greets in a cautious, don't-spook-the-snake sort of way, deciding to slip his hands into his pants pockets because.
*
"Billy." Where Billy is wary, Ava's actually…what passes for pleased for the Russian when she sees who's next. At least she doesn't seem to resent him the same way she does most of the other agents. There might even be a hint of a smile there. Just a little bit.
"Good, they are sending you for training," she nods approvingly. "Your powers are very impressive, but they won't do you any good if you're knocked unconscious before you can use them. And basic craft skills are…Well. Basic. This will be good for you."
*
Well, this is going okay: that's talk, and if there's talking, maybe he can talk her out of combat training. Billy's expression turns a little helpful, "That's a totally good point." he begins, nodding encouragingly. See? When convincing someone of something, start with some common ground. "And for my spells that might be a problem for real: you never quite know how often you have to repeat something before it happens, if it happens at all." Nodding some more. SEe? He's agreeable! "Its the telekinesis that is a fuzzier thing. I can TK as fast as I can react, pretty much. And its stronger then I am— I can just barely lift a cat with it, but still, these guns.." A goofy grin as he lifts his arms to flex, even if that expression means nothing, "..aren't ever going to be as strong." See how reasonable he is?
*
"Not unless you work on them, no," Ava agrees, tossing the towel she was using off to the side of the mats and gesturing him forward with one hand. Notably, for all she's a skinny little thing, she's all corded muscle in her arms and shoulders. "And those are arms, not guns."
Well, she might be happier to see him than another random agent, but it didn't give her a sense of humor.
"Do you even know how your magic works yet?"
*
There's a fling of his hand, and the towel stops mid-air, to demonstrate. "Well, there's this and that." Billy pauses, not quite going forward yet, "There's the spells, and I really don't know how they work. Then there's my other abilities, and I don't entirely know how they work either but they *just work*. They run on instinct. I have a theory that instead of dying I edited reality to give myself a power. And unlike the spells, they just work." But, there's a long-suffering sigh, and he approaches in answer to the gesturing. The towel is idly flung back where Ava was flinging it originally.
*
"Right. So. Do you know if someone can set up a dead zone for your magic?"
Ava's stance is balanced, light on her feet. Usually she guards the way she moves, concealing the readiness with something a little more nervous. Here? Here she feels safe and confident enough not to hide it. She doesn't attack him yet, though, simply taking his measure and making her own judgments.
*
There's a pause at that, as Billy tries to copy the stance. He doesn't do especially good at it, but its not terrible: he is trying. "I have no idea how one would even approach that. I mean, my dad can set up wards against spells, but my stuff isn't magic, he says. Its Reality Warping. I admit, grudgingly, that I don't know for certain." Still, he makes a couple adjustments to his own stance to try to better mimic hers. He decidedly favors his right side.
*
"All right. So if you don't know if it can be nullified, then you should assume it could be." Ava steps closer, reaching in to make a few adjustments to his stance. She might not be the most patient teacher, but at least it looks like she's going to try actually teaching him something before she just starts whaling on him.
"Which means you should prepare yourself. The first rule of- Well, no. The first rule of spying is don't get caught. But the second rule is always be prepared for anything. The spy who can't adapt is very soon a dead spy." A nudge of his shoulder, a light shove at his hip.
*
"That's… an alarming thought. I throw out TK on pure instinct without even thinking, just reacting, sometimes. Uhh, if suddenly it didn't work? I'm pretty sure it'd shock me so much I'd forget to do anything for a little while." Still, Billy takes the instruction for correcting his stance without complaining, even with all the nudging and shoving. "I'll talk to dad about the nullification thing. Maybe… no, I'll ask and then tell you depending on what he has to say."
*
The faintest smile flickers across Ava's features at his last statement. "Now you are thinking like a spy," she nods approvingly. It's possible she's assumed he meant there are things he won't tell her, but hey, it's earned him a point or two in her book, so that's good for something.
"Not all fighters will be like Teddy," she notes. "And when you find yourself facing off against one like him, then it's important to play to your strengths. Fighting isn't about being bigger or stronger. It's about being smarter. About being able to think ahead and act accordingly. Knowing someone else's weak spots."
*
"Apparently thinking like a spy rubs off." Billy grins, giving a quick shrug, then falling back into stance. Its not perfect, but its better then it was before, "I'm used to running." he admits without embarassment, "I used to get beat up a lot in school before the lightning thing manifested— and it manifested when I was particularly getting my behind handed to me hard— and my go-to survival strategy was get the heck out of there. I'm pretty good at it. But I guess I can't rely on run-away as a strategy. I know, though, I won't ever be the biggest or strongest guy around. Its just never been me. So I got that part covered."
*
"That is a good start," Ava nods approvingly. "The human body is full of weak spots. And instincts. If you are fighting other people how are trained, they will have learned to control those instincts. Less experienced people, less so. Eyes." She jabs a clawed hand toward his eyes, though she stops well short of them. "Nose. Throat. Groin. Knee. Instep. Joints are all weak points. Bend one the wrong way, and the person you are fighting will not be able to come after you."
*
Despite stopping short, there's a small flinch. Eyes are sensitive! And Billy winces openly at mention of the groin, "Uhh, I need an anatomy lesson. Are women… bits— up and down— sensitive like a guys? Like I got my downstairs kneed once and I almost died. Like I might have rather died then feel that. Like, whoop. Let's just call this life done with and move on to reincarnating in the next because ow. Is kneeing a girl there a weak spot for them, or just?" Billy and Ava are in sweatpants, in the gym, doing some lessons on fighting. Billy is _obviously_ not skilled. But his stance isn't completely useless, either.
*
"It's not sensitive in the same way," Ava admits, shrugging. "But it still hurts." She reaches for his arm, lifting it up to tap a finger at his elbow. "This is one of the hardest parts of your body. Hit people with it. Knees too. If you hit a hard part of someone else with your elbow, you're going to lose feeling in your hand. Be aware when you decide to do it, in case you need to actually hold on to something. But hit a soft spot with your elbow and you're going to make a point. And you're less likely to hurt yourself. You have…delicate hands."
*
"That was very nicely said, Ava." Billy can't help but laugh quietly. Delicate hands. It almost didn't sound like an insult! Even if a kindly worded one. But he sobers up and nods, "I hadn't ever thought of hitting with my elbow. I thought fighting was all about punching people." He eyes his, yes, delicate hands a bit dubiously, "Finger points look really small." he notes critically, "And there's a lot of tendons. I have a feeling punching might break my hands if I punch something hard."
*
"It can." That part, Ava doesn't soften the blow on. "Punching is actually just about the worst way to hit someone, honestly. The side of your hand works better. Your elbow. Most martial arts use other methods than punching because punching is almost as likely to hurt you as the other person unless you're hitting a very soft spot. Like the stomach."
*
Billy squeezes his fist together, and uses his other hand to feel it a bit, thoughtfully. Then he feels his elbow, pushing, "There's like way less strength in the hand. Its all unstable. No matter how tight I hold it there's all these little bones wiggly and connected by soft tissue. My elbow is the end of this big, thick bone." Of course, Ava already basically told him all of that. But he's working it out himself. Making himself believe it. "Okay, doesn't that same thing apply to kicking? I mean, its not like I'm anywhere near the kickboxing level of our training yet, but."
*
"You wear shoes on your feet, which protects them better than a bare fist does. Like a boxer wears gloves," Ava points out. "But fancy kicks, for all they look pretty, leave you wide open. Look." She takes a step back, then kicks up toward his shoulder only to freeze with her foot a few inches away. She's perfectly balanced…but entirely extended. "This isn't a position of strength. You catch my ankle, you control all of me. Including my knee join, which - with the weight of my entire body - you can wrench completely out of place. And then I'm not going anywhere."
*
Thoughtful, Billy nods his head, "I'm thinking I should try to keep two feet as close to the ground as close to this stance you poke me into, as often as possible. If I have to kick then, it should be something short and quick, so I'm back to two feet on the ground at once. This totally off the wall thinking that says I watch too much television, ooor?" Pause, "I mean obviously in the heat of a moment I'll not be in the perfect stance at all times, but I assume you poked all that to try to always fall back towards it or to be as close to it as possible. It seems… steady. Firm." Billy knows nothing at all about fighting, so he's just… thinking through the implications of what she says.
*
Ava lowers her leg, settling back into her own stance with an approving nod. "Your center of balance is going to be slightly different from mine. Women are built differently from men, and it changes that. We have a lower center of gravity. But basically, yes. You want to be as firm, as steady, as centered as you can be. Because a fight is about creating advantages. I catch your hand." She reaches forward, then tugs on him, twisting as she does. "I put pressure on your shoulder, and the rest of you is out of balance, and I can control you."
*
Billy is tugged, and even with Ava just demonstrating, mostly, he's pulled more off balance then a trained person would be. There's a bit of a wobble before he recovers, "I swear on motza ball soup, every urge in me is to wrap you up in a telekinetic grip and hold you upside down sometimes." But he's grinning after righting himself, "Are you teaching me a particular martial art or are we just learning sorta general purpose brawling?" he wonders. "But I get that, creating advantages. An an advantage can't really be planned out. You gotta go with it, find it in the moment."
*
Ava wrinkles her nose briefly, shrugging as she looks away. It's the sort of deflection that means the answer to his question involves more detailed discussion of the Red Room, and that is something she usually avoids. "It is principles of fighting, at least to start. Choosing a style makes you predictable. It locks you into patterns. Against someone who knows what they see, it leaves you weaker."
*
Not everyone's got shoes….not least of which the guy who's getting marched past. They may be willing to let him shower and get barbered once a day, but no one's shown any willingness at all to let Winter get his steeltoes back. So it's the march of SHIELD issue boots accompanied by the soft scuff of bare soles on the flooring. He gives the gym an almost longing look as he passes. It's been so long since he got to spar. "Don't even think it," admonishes one of the agents, wearily. "Could be an excuse for you all to dogpile me, like I know you want to," Bucky replies, with a hint of deadpan humor.
*
The look has Billy furrowing his brows, but, he doesn't pry. He's not so much the prying kind of guy. He nods his head, accepting it, but wondering anyways, "I get the idea that patterns are bad: everything I do is so often wild that I rarely have a pattern. But to not have a pattern, don't you almost have to know multiple styles? I mean obviously I'm such a total novice we're working on standing and not falling on my face with me, I'm just wondering down the road the plan." His eyes are drawn off as Bucky is marched by, blinking a moment, "Who is that?" he asks of Ava.
*
"That is the Winter Soldier." Ava watches Bucky closely as the guards move him past, a dry twist to her lips. "That is the reason that I am spending most of my days here teaching recruits how to hold their own. Because it seems like if I'm not here, then he just wanders out of his cell. But somehow he ends up back here, so that is something. They said last time that someone just…appeared in a cell with him, then disappeared. Like your wormholes. Which doesn't do much for my impression of security either, honestly."
*
"The walls here aren't wizard proof," agrees one of the agents around Bucky. There are two before, two behind, as if he were some sort of foreign dignitary. Not that he looks terribly impressive, damp hair brushed back, still clad in t-shirt and what look like the bottom half of a set of scrubs. No prisoner's jumpsuit here. Another agent chimes in, "He'll be moved soon. They can't delay the handoff much longer." Which makes Bucky go blank as a wiped chalkboard - that hint of deadpan mischief just gone.
*
"You need wards." Billy suggests, but he pauses, "I don't know how to do wards myself, I don't know if my type of magic can DO wards, but if people are magicing in and out, you need wards. No technology is going to stop someone like me or… others. The only way to defend against magic is with magic." He looks over to one of the agents, and scowls, "This isn't Hogwarts…" which means nothing, "…and no one has any pointy hats. The technical term is sorcerer and-or mage. No one is a wizard, jeez." He looks between Ava, and Bucky, and wonders, "What did he do?" And though it sounds like he's asking Ava, his focus is on this 'Winter Soldier', and tone implies he might just be asking him. Or both of them probably. "Wait a second." He blinks, "Aren't you that guy?"
*
"He is an assassin." Ava lets out a breath, moving toward Bucky and his guards once it's clear that the new arrival is of more interest than the combat training. "Although, to be fair, I would have been as well. And my skills come from another. The Red Room specializes in molding people to be what they need them to be." She glances to the agent at the talk of transfers and hand-offs, but she doesn't ask where or why. Not in front of Bucky.
*
Bucky holds himself poised and still. Not even a twitch to provoke his bodyguard - at least one of them has some kind of electrical weapon. They've learned their lessons from Ava's last couple encounters. "What guy?" Bucky asks, tone gone flat, almost mechanical.
*
Billy wrinkles his nsoe, and he follows Ava in moving towards this Bucky fellow. His fingers twitch. "On television. From the fair. Captain America. You're the guy who almost killed him." Billy seems to take this personal. Not that he has any reason to take it personal, except Cap has abs that just won't quit, and, well. Billy is Billy. Then he lifts a hand, and as he does bands of pure force reach out and wrap around him, holding him, even as Billy frowns. "He escapes a lot?" he asks Ava seriously, "I don't know how to do wards but that doesn't mean I couldn't think of a way to make it so he doesn't escape." Around his hand the air seems to waver slightly, the world bending just a little. "Captain America is a _hero_. A _superhero_. People shouldn't be able to just _shoot_ him." Fortunately, Billy heard the Red Room mention and filed it, but isn't addressing it now. Or unfortunately.
*
"Billy." Ava's voice is firm, though she doesn't so much as reach out toward him. "Before he was the Winter Soldier, he was Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. He fought at the captain's side, with the Howling Commandos. There are pictures in the Director's office." She grimaces, looking back to Bucky. "The Red Room chooses their weapons carefully."
*
He's already got his hands cuffed behind him. But the touch of that pressure with no visible source makes Bucky twitch and tense….and instantly, there's a crackle of electrical energy in the hands of two of the four agents. Some kind of stun rod. Not applied to him, yet, though - between his own control and Billy's telekinesis, he's hardly in a position to attempt an attack. "I am," Bucky admits, without hesitation. And then, more coolly, "Steve's made of flesh and blood, whatever else he had done to him. And if he doesn't want people shooting at him, he shouldn't be out prancing around in a public environment wearing that spangly outfit."
*
Billy lowers his hand, and the bands of force vanish. "People need people like him to have hope, to believe." he says, tone serious, "I know better then most: I know things you can't possibly conceive of. We need icons to rally to: it makes us strong. So you target the likes of him to make us weak. I understand why you would do that, but you don't understand something else." Billy smiles, his smile not at all warm or kind, "If you hurt him, I will turn you into a goat. You will remember your life and spend the rest of it in a petting zoo. I will make it so you can't bite or kick, you can just stand. As children pet you. You don't even have to ever die, just sit there. Meaningless. A goat that children pet. Why? Not because you tried to cross the Captain. But because you crossed Wiccan." He turns his back to the Winter Soldier, looking grimly to Ava, "It matters, those people who stand and who we can believe in. I don't know what this Red Room is, but I don't care if he fought at the Captain's side, if he's now trying to kill him. If the world is wrong, it is ours to fix."
*
"That would be a relief from what I've already been turned into," Bucky's voice is soft. "Kid, if you can do that, fucking do it. I call your bluff. Make me something else. Doesn't matter what. Before all this, I was Steve's best friend, and he was mine. I don't want to hurt him. But when I'm not myself…..and that's more often than not, I don't have a choice." He's regarding Billy with a kind of alpine remoteness, as if they were separated by miles and height, not merely a few strides. A jerk of his chin at Ava. "She can tell you."
*
"What is turning him into a goat going to fix?" Ava crosses her arms over her chest, arching a brow at Billy. "You have unlimited power, Billy. And the best solution to the problem of someone who has already has their mind turned inside out and upside down is to do the same to their body?" Rolling her eyes, she kicks a foot back and over to try to sweep his feet out from under him, though she's also reaching out to catch his hand before he can hit the floor even if she succeeds.
"Maybe instead you think really hard about undoing what they did to his brain, yes?"
*
Billy is angry, see. Captain America, that's an idol. Someone he believes in. There's anger! He wants revenge— for his idol. He stares at Bucky's response and frankly doesn't seem at all to understand: not himself? Steve's best friend? What's that all even mean? And before he knows it, Ava's talking. "Justice, for past and future, so he can't escape and od it again—" And before he can really think that through, he is _totally_ having his feet swept out and about to fall on his ass, only then she catches him so its not a complete fail. Just mostly a fail. He fumbles him to a standing position again, "Wait, so someone changed him? They did something to him that makes him evil?" He pauses, "Do you know what? How? I need to know more about how you would do that before I could undo it. I don't know anything about that."
*
Bucky bares his teeth at Billy….and that cool facade is fissuring. He's tensed, and one of the agents around him is holding the shocker near enough to have little sparks crossing the distance and crackling on the arm made out of metal. Like it's something like a Tesla coil. "The Red Room," he says, and while his voice is soft, it's vibrant with hatred. "I died, and they found my brain-damaged and frozen body. They made me into this. My memories were gone and they turned me into their creature."
*
"I know…some of it." Ava glances to Bucky, then back to Billy. "We could know more with the aid of a skilled telepath. I believe there are triggers implanted in his mind. Once, he tried to use them on me. What I said about trained fighters recognizing a style?" She nods at Bucky. "He knows their fighting when he sees it. He thought it would shut me down, or make me compliant. But I was part of OPUS, and their methods were slightly different. Still. If he thought it was standard, then it is likely there are words that will do the same to him. I have contacts looking into it."
*
As Bucky shows his teeth, even with his guards, Billy lifts a hand again, and force arches out, seeking to both hold Bucky and push away his guards. Not a lot, but enough to not be able to shock the guy. He frowns. It was easy to hate a guy, to punish a guy, but this is… there's not a lot easy here. He turns a look to Ava, long, then to Bucky, long as well. "I have to understand what I am doing to make it work." he says, voice softly, eyes flickering to Ava as he says this, "If you want me to think about undoing what they did to him, I need to understand this… Red Room. How they operate, how they expect to use him. I don't nessecarily need to know every specific detail of what he did, but I don't know *anything* about what it is to… brainwash someone. If I knew that, I could see a way to undo it." Things connect, and he looks more closely to Ava. He seems to want to resist talking to Bucky directly. He's still angry, still uncertain. "Its not about details, Ava. I don't need to know specific words. I need to know… how it works. I can't guarantee, but if I understand more HOW this works… Maybe." He shrugs, his expression uncertain. He gestures with the hand that isn't holding up to the guards, and slowly pulls his hand away that held TK around the assassin.
*
Ava's description makes Bucky go blank again….but she knows him well enough to recognize ill-concealed fear when she sees it. If SHIELD gets the keys….they may be kinder, and their aims more noble, but….he'll be back to being someone's pet zombie. She can see the conspiratorial glances the others exchange - how useful would it be to have the Winter Soldier as SHIELD's puppet? The ultimate agent provocateur. Not everyone in the agency has aims as benign as Peggy and Ava, when it comes to Bucky.
Then Billy's pushing them away….and while it's clear that it's Billy doing it, James being no kind of psychic at all, at least one of them lashes out before he's out of range. The charge is mostly taken by the metal arm, which goes rigid, lamina all raised slightly, like a bird's ruffled feathers. But enough of it passes in to the true nervous system to make him grunt and stumble.
*
Ava grimaces at Billy's words, wrapping her arms around herself. Ten minutes ago, she was all confidence on the mats, hiding nothing. But at the thought of the Red Room, she's once again shielded behind a complete change in posture and manner, closing in on herself in a way that encourages the eye to slip right past her. "It is…complicated," she finally murmurs. "But I can tell you what I know. What my mother studied." As the electric weapon fires - needlessly - she holds out a hand, jaw setting as a spark fires between her fingers as well.
*
It's instinct: Billy said he reacted with his TK on pure instinct. The weapon firing against Bucky who he is just barely beginning to consider not someone to turn in a newt? It has a hand rising and a band of force striking out not to grab Bucky, but the guard, and press him back up against the wall immobilized. It doesn't stop the other guard nor set Bucky free, but Billy is just reacting, "Hey, hey now! Stop with the shocking people!" And the power that holds vanishes as quickly as it came, "If he's a victim that might mean he's not entirely guilty." Entirely being the operative word. Billy is still picturing Cap's abs sadly shot. Even if he didn't get shot in the abs. He's 18. What do you expect? But he backs away still there, looking between Ava and Bucky, and looking at last to Ava, "Tell me what you can and I can try to fix him. The more I know, the more it might work. But, no promises, okay? I can fenaggle a bit of telepathy but I don't know minds. There's a real possibility I'd break him worse and he'd just be a drooling tadpole, if I don't know enough."
*
Bucky has gone down to both knees, rather than stay genuflected on one. Holding himself still, so no one gets any ideas. Then he's yanked back to his feet. "STop that," the tallest of the agents warns, turning a displeased look on Billy. "You don't know what you're dealing with," adds another. "Guilty or not, he's killed plenty of us. Cap's far from his first victim, even if he's innocent of the bombings." Then they're finally herding James back along the corridor.
*
"Everyone, enough," Ava says irritably, reaching a hand for Billy to start drawing him back toward the mats. "We should not delay his return to a secure location," she nods to the agents guarding Bucky, waiting until they're gone before she says anything else to Billy. "I will tell you what I know about the Red Room from my memories, my mother's writings, and the memories I have from…her." Her, who? "But we should be careful with this. Many people are affected by this."
*
The random guards has no serious effect on Billy: the kid— really, he is a kid— stares with the confidence of one beyond his years. There's even a bit of a glare to the men: he wanted to turn Bucky into a goat, but something about a needless electrouction angers the young man. But Ava pulls him, and he relents. He knows her, she knows him, he is pulled away and leaves the Winter Soldier to his guards. He turns his attention to her, nodding his head, his expression grave, "If you just want to lock him up, I won't argue against it. But if you think— you said I should think— about fixing him, then the more I know, the more likely I can do something about it. I won't know until I try the effects, though: so of course we will have to be careful. Best case scenario, he's fixed. Second base case scenario, he's unchanged. WOrst case scenario, I mess it all up because I don't understand enough and something goes wildly wrong. I can't even promise odds on any of these cases. I do know this: the more I know the better. I know I can change minds— I made myself understand spanish. But… that's all I know. I have the potential. Outcome…" He seems, honestly, nervous.
*
"Billy." Ava fixes a steady eye on the young mage, voice firm. "You conjure snacks that I am not certain even should exist out of nothing, because you imagine them. There is no reason that you should not be able to return a mind to its previous state. But first, we have training to continue. So. Balanced stance, and we will start with blocking…"
*