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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғᴏᴜʀᴛᴇᴇɴ: ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ᴄʜᴀɴᴄᴇ

❝ ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴀ ғᴀᴠᴏᴜʀ. ❞

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YOU TAPPED YOUR FINGERS ALONG THE COOL METAL OF THE BALCONY OVERLOOKING ALL THE WORKER BEES OF S.H.I.E.L.D, eyes scrutinizing each and every agent on the lower level – looking for your unsuspecting victim.

Despite your constant nagging over the past few days, Brendon remained unwilling to train you.

No surprise there.

It pissed you off, to be honest – especially since there was exactly nothing for either of you to do over the next little while; training would at least offer some relief from the currently arduous state of your life. Obviously, you didn't expect him to teach you how to tackle a Hydra base on your own; you just wanted to learn a little bit more than what you already know. But regardless of your begging and pleading, he wouldn't budge.

So now, you were forced to take matters into your own hands.

You pursed your lips and narrowed your eyes as you zoned in on one of the agents on the far left side of the room. He looked to be round about your age, give or take two years; he had short, brown hair and wore clothes not unlike the type that Brendon wore. Curling your lips into a smirk, you descended the staircase and strolled over to him.

"Hi!" you greeted with a massive smile.

He startled a little bit, eyes going wide as he took an instinctive precautionary step backwards. Frowning slightly, he did a quick once-over of you, facial muscles relaxing and mouth forming a small 'o' when he realised who it was that had just addressed him.

The agent cleared his throat and straightened his already towering frame. "Miss (Y/L/N)," he politely bowed his head, "How may I be of assistance?"

Running your tongue over your teeth, you narrowed your eyes a minuscule amount as you contemplated for the last time whether or not to do what you were about to do, but the reluctance to go back to reading 'Gone With The Wind' for the fifth time since you got here consumed any second-guessing you were doing, and you put on your most dazzling smile. "I need a favour," you said sweetly. "Agent..."

"Corvey." The male furrowed his eyebrows in perplexity over why you would ask him for a favour, but didn't question it; all of S.H.I.E.L.D's agents had been instructed to help you whenever necessary. Instead, he said, "Of course, ma'am. What do you need?"

You winced when he called you 'ma'am', the formality of the word making you uneasy. "For starters," you said, giving him another small smile, "you can stop calling me 'ma'am'. It's unsettling."

He gave a curt nod. "My apologies, ma-," he caught his tongue before he could finish forming the word, and nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other, "Uh, Miss (Y/L/N)." You shook your head, and raised your eyebrows as if to say 'try again'. At a snail's pace, and with extreme hesitation, his lips began to form the first letter of your name. "(Y/N)?"

You clicked your teeth and shot him a wink in approval. "Much better. Now, about that favour," you turned your head side-to-side, checking to see if anyone was listening in. They weren't, but you still gripped Agent Corvey by the forearm and dragged him behind a nearby pillar; the bigger human stumbling along due to the surprising amount of force you used. "I need you to train me."

If Corvey was confused before, he was borderline stupefied at this point. "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly," he shook his head lightly, a crease forming on his tanned forehead, "Did you just say that you want me to train you? As in, full on agent training?"

"Yes," you nodded once before stopping, casting your eyes to the side and frowning, "well, yes and no. I just want to learn a bit more than what my dad taught me. More advanced hand-to-hand combat, a little bit of extra weapon-wielding... nothing too intense."

Corvey looked taken aback to say the least, and the poor man blinked rapidly so many times that you thought he was short-circuiting. "(Y/N)," he stammered, "I-I can't. The Director would have my head."

"That's why he won't find out."

He laughed. "Oh, he will. Believe me. There's nothing that goes on around here that he doesn't know about. It's quite disconcerting, actually."

Huffing out a breath, you aggressively tucked your hair behind your ears, preparing for your last method of persuasion. "Can we at least try? We can use the training room at irregular times so that no one could see. And if anyone asks anything, we'll just deny it."

"I really don't think-"

You cut him off by placing a hand on his bicep, making him swallow his words and gaze wide-eyed at where you were touching him before bringing his dark eyes to meet yours.

"Please," you implored, squeezing slightly and gazing soulfully at him, praying that it would work. It never worked on Brendon, but you hoped that this agent had more of a heart. Which, apparently, he did.

Corvey surveyed the nearby area, much like you had done not too long ago, and turned back to you with a curt nod. "Okay." The biggest smile spread across your face. "But we have to be incredibly undercover."

"Oh, we will be," you grinned sneakily.

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Training Centre, S.H.I.E.L.D HQ.

"The first and most important thing to learn is how to read your surroundings," Agent Corvey spoke as he rolled up the sleeves of his black t-shirt and positioned himself in front of you, "You need to make sure that you're aware of anything and everything going on around you and contemplate every possible scenario; you don't want to get caught off guard in any way. Once you've done that, you can carry on with your mission - or whatever it is you're doing."

You nodded in response, acknowledging his words.

"Second thing to learn is how to correctly assess a threat. Be it a weapon, an enemy or even a stampeding herd of cattle, it's vital that you take a moment to strategize and come up with the most appropriate way to handle the situation. Remember, not all threats can be handled in the same way, so not taking the time to think about your next move could very well kill you."

He started walking backwards while he was addressing you, and when he finished his last sentence, he turned around and opened one of the nearby weapon containers, pulling out a dagger and a .9 handgun.

"Thirdly, always follow your instincts." He settled the gun in the holder attached to his hip before twirling the dagger in his hand while you kept your eyes trained on him. He continued playing with the weapon for a little bit, avoiding eye contact with you and just when you least expected it, he lunged forward, swinging the dagger at you. Thankfully, you were quick enough to crouch down and dodge the impact and purely due to instinct, you caught him with a right hook.

The agent staggered back a couple of feet, holding a hand to his injured jaw. Gasping, you rushed towards him.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I-"

His laugh cut you off. "Sorry for what? You did great. You followed your instincts. Which, I admit, is a lot stronger than I previously thought," he chuckled, flexing his jaw while using his free hand to massage it.

You breathed out in relief, placing one hand on your hip and pushing your hair out of your face with the other. "Do you always do that while training someone? What if I wasn't fast enough?"

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think you were gonna be able to dodge me."

"How could you be so sure that I could?"

Corvey smirked, once again twirling the dagger before pointing it at you. "I assessed my threat."

Raising your eyebrows, you nodded in understanding. "Alright, I get it."

"See, if you had thoroughly assessed me, you would've been able to deduce when and where I'd strike. But don't worry, these things don't come easy - they take time. Years to master. But you seem like a fast learner; we'll have you battling like a pro in no time," he shot you a dazzling smile, which you returned, before pulling out the gun from his holder. "Now, let's test your bullet dodging skills."

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Thank you for reading x