My bones erupted through the skin of my forearm all at once, a violent restructuring that split the sleeve of my shirt and extended outwards, forming a massive gauntlet that covered my entire right arm.
Since this was just a spar, it didn't seem right to try to impale Steve, so the tip of the gauntlet remained blunt.
Steve immediately stepped backwards.
The room was completely silent.
Steve stared at the gauntlet.
"What. Is that." His tone was entirely different from the conversation beforehand.
From the doorway, Fury stopped leaning against the wall and stood straight.
"Bones."
He continued staring for a moment longer before looking back at my face.
"You grew that."
"Yeah."
He looked at Fury, who was standing upright, trying hard to maintain a neutral expression.
"You knew about this?" Steve asked him.
"I had some idea," Fury said, which was a complete lie considering I'd never shown bone manipulation of this level.
Steve looked back at me.
"...Looks like I'm not half as super by today's standards."
I didn't have much to say to that.
He continued to analyse the pale gauntlet covering my arm.
"Can you do it anywhere?"
"Most places."
"Good to know."
To my surprise, he came forward again.
I had to give him credit; he took my rather terrifying ability in stride, apparently not feeling an ounce of fear.
'What a psycho.'
Anyway, the fight would be a wash from now on.
I had hardened the bones throughout my body to a degree where I'd be able to shrug off his punches.
I dropped my guard, deliberately allowing him a chance to hit me.
He didn't hesitate to take the opening, fully driving his fist into my solar plexus, not holding anything back.
The impact was enormous. If a normal person were on the other end of this punch, they'd probably be impaled by his fist.
But that wasn't the case for me.
I didn't move.
I absorbed it through hardened bone and reinforced muscle, simply standing and staring at him.
Unfortunately, my plan failed yet again. Rather than showing any fear, he simply smiled, an action which frankly annoyed me.
I immediately drew back my gauntlet arm and threw a simple punch with all my strength.
Steve read it coming, throwing up a guard with both forearms whilst stepping back.
He was probably used to his guard being able to block anything from a human, but he was completely underestimating me.
He had moved back, though the distance was still plenty for the increased range of my gauntlet to reach.
My attack connected with his guard. His arms were driven back into his chest, and the impact launched him off his feet entirely.
Steve hit the floor outside the ring with a crash, sliding a full meter before coming to a stop.
Silence.
Fury took a step forward, standing above the fallen soldier.
Steve lay still for a moment before rising.
He looked at his arms, then at me, and finally at my still extended gauntlet.
I hoped for a window to pop up at any moment, but it didn't come.
He stared at me with the simple gaze of a man who had not seen that coming.
"Okay, I think that's enough for today." Fury broke the silence, speaking for the first time since the short fight had started.
Steve rolled his shoulder and checked his body, making a slightly pained expression upon touching his ribs.
He held up far better than I had expected after receiving an attack of that magnitude.
"Good fight," he said simply.
"Yeah."
He looked at me, evaluating me for the second time since meeting me only a few minutes earlier.
"I'd like to go again sometime. When I'm better prepared, of course."
I didn't have it in me to tell him that I'd only grow exponentially stronger from now on.
Well, to be fair, the current outcome could potentially change if he had his shield.
"Sure."
Steve walked over to the corner of the ring, picking up his jacket whilst glancing at Fury.
"I'm guessing you'll want to have a word in private."
Fury nodded silently.
As Cap left the room, he left me a departing message.
"Varis, it's good to know that there's someone strong enough to have my back in the field."
"Yeah, same to you." My words were slightly hollow, but at the same time, I thought it would be better to have my back guarded by Captain America than a useless fat asshole like Fisk.
My attention moved to Fury as the door closed.
"The gauntlet, that's new."
"What can I say? I'm full of surprises." I answered sarcastically.
"Yeah, you are, so I'd like to ask, how many more surprises do you have in stock? Because the bone manipulation abilities you've shown up until this point were nothing compared to what you just did now."
I chuckled silently as I got out the ring, not even bothering to answer his question.
He continued staring at me with his single eye.
"Damn, you're a pain in the ass, you know that?"
"So it seems."
We exited the training room, going through the corridor back to the entrance of the building.
"Rogers likes you," he said finally.
Before I could say anything, he continued.
"Don't make me regret introducing you to him."
His words weren't spoken in a threatening tone, nor in a pleading one. Fury was hard to read when he wanted to be.
A car was waiting for me outside, a simple black sedan not at all on the level of luxury I had received from Shaw.
Before I left, I asked Fury a question.
"So, you gonna put me on some harder missions?"
"Well, with what you've shown me, there's one that I have in mind, but you can take it easy for now."
"Care to elaborate?"
"There's a rather troublesome scientist currently stowed away in India, perhaps you've heard of him, o' great prophet?"
I feigned ignorance.
"No clue about science. I was a marketing major; all I did was eat crayons in college."
"That so?"
With that, the conversation ended.
As I sat in the car, I could only think that Fury was a lunatic.
'Cap really was just the tutorial...'