Naomi Swanson had made a terrible mistake.

After her initial talk with Valkyrie, they had spent the next few days going over fine details of the upcoming war and polishing battle strategy. It had been a refreshing experience for the young prophet to speak about the war with someone who had very little emotional connection to it, and had more than enough experience in battle to prepare. Of course, the main idea waste prevent the war from even taking place, but it was good to be prepared. Valkyrie too, appeared to enjoy the planning, at least in Naomi's eyes. She knew that it had been so long since the other woman had put her skills to real use, and it seemed to rejuvenate her, if only slightly. She still drank like it was the end of the world.

But during these talks, which were usually held in Hulk's chambers for privacy reasons, the giant green rage monster himself tended to become overly bored. He had taken to referring to Naomi as 'War Girl' because that was all she ever spoke of. Naomi also suspected that he couldn't pronounce her name, but decided against questioning him on it.

To appease the champion, Naomi and Valkyrie agreed to move their plotting to the Hulk's personal training room. The room was a vast, undecorated area other than a few massive punching bags hung from the ceiling, a large painted target on one wall, and a weapons rack tucked in the corner. Along the gray walls ran several cracks, and there wasn't an inch of space that didn't appear to have been hurriedly plastered over. Cleary, the poor maintenance staff had a hard time keeping up with the amount of damage Hulk could do in just one session. Damage Naomi had witnessed firsthand, when Hulk began his daily training while she and Valkyrie attempted to discuss the individual combatants, and how their strengths could play off each other well. They were working on how to divide the Avengers into units that could function as strongly as possible, but strategizing while the strongest avenger threw chunks of concrete into the painted target on the far wall.

Valkyrie had been quick to join Hulk in his training, and Hulk, ever the gentleman, invited Naomi to join them. Or rather, told. His exact words had been, "War Girl no talk. War Girl fight! Like war..." He had been so excited, that Naomi didn't have the heart- or the balls- to turn his offer down.

"I don't really know how to fight though." She said, standing awkwardly at the edge of the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Valkyrie at the weapons rack, watching the exchange with undisguised amusement.

Hulk grunted, thinking. "Hulk teach." Naomi's eyes widened as he waved a green hand toward her, gesturing for her to join him in the center of the room. Swallowing, Naomi sent a prayer up that she wouldn't die, and a silent apology to Tony because she was definitely going to die. Valkyrie was no help, and even stopped prepping her weapons to take a seat and watch with a shit-eating grin.

Naomi tentatively made her way next to Hulk, making sure to keep a few feet distance. While she was familiar with the avenger, they hadn't exchanged many words since their first meeting. Mostly just Hulk complaining that, "War Girl talk talk talk. War is no talk. War is fight!"

Now with his new pupil, Hulk began his first lesson. "Throw." He grunted, grabbing a chunk of concrete left over from his previous work. He extended it to Naomi, who took it from the center of his open palm with a nervous smile. The piece was about the width of her abdomen, enough to be a strain on her arms as she held it. As she clung onto her piece, the Hulk grabbed his own, albeit a much larger, boulder-sized piece of the floor. With a side glance at his student, he said "Watch."

With Naomi paying rapt attention, the Hulk lifted the concrete with ease, grabbing it with both hands and bringing it up over his head, before swinging down and releasing halfway through, so the boulder went flying through the room and struck the target dead-on. It was a primal, powerful display that surprisingly enough, had some technique to it. Not wanting to disappoint her new teacher, Naomi copied his wide stance, bent at the knees and slightly hunched over. She felt a bit foolish, honestly, and could only imagine how Valkyrie was laughing at her from the weapons rack. But an approving nod from the Hulk himself overrode all that, and somehow Naomi felt quite accomplished without even having done much. She couldn't very well throw her piece far enough to hit the target however, which was over ten meters away. With a grunt, Naomi followed the Hulk's previous style and chucked her piece a little less than halfway.

The Hulk hummed for a moment, before turning to speak to her head on. "War Girl not angry." He remarked.

"No, i'm not." She said, wringing her hands in front of her. She wasn't one to get angry often, truthfully. Odin had managed to rile her up, but that was only because of his terrible parenting. She doubted she was capable of the kind of rage the hulk emitted on a frequent basis. If anything, her top emotions since arriving in the Marvel dimension had been straight awe, and stress.

"War Girl get angry. War Girl throw better." Hulk explained, gesturing for her to retrieve her rock and try again. He was a surprisingly patient teacher, Naomi mused, and seemed to have a plan for what to teach her. Reaching down, Naomi heaved the rock up and trekked back to Hulk, growing as she thought of ways to 'get angry.' She stood for a moment, chewing her lip as her anxiety rose- she had to show the Hulk something, or he would be the one to get angry, or worse, be disappointed in her. Somehow, Hulk's disappointment seemed scarier than his anger.

"Could I cut in?" Valkyrie spoke up behind them. She was still seated by the rack, splaying out her legs in the perfect picture of relaxation. The Hulk replied with a grunt, which the warrior took as a go-ahead. "You're always so poised when we speak. It's for battle plans yes, but I don't think i've seen you relax once since i've met you." Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "No doubt you got some stuff you need to get off your chest."

"This rock, for one." Naomi offered weakly, a bit disturbed that Valkyrie had hit so close to home. It was true that she had been denying herself relief from her stress since arriving on Sakaar, but she felt it was justified. Naomi had a job to do, a very important one at that. If she screwed up, a lot of people were going to die, and at the moment she wasn't doing anything to further her and Tony's plan. She had just been waiting on Thor and Loki, her only outlet being discussing plans with Valkyrie.

Valkyrie gave a wry smile in response to Naomi's comment, but continued. "Fighting can help you relieve that stress. Or, in this case, chucking a rock." She chuckled at her own wit, going back to observing the scene before her. Naomi's eyes lingered on Valkyrie's for a moment, her mind turning. Naomi frowned and shifted her face to look at the Hulk, his face patient, but clearly anticipating her next actions.

Focusing herself on the target, Naomi shifted into the stance the Hulk had shown her. It wasn't as clean as it had been before, not an exact replica of the Hulk's, but her teacher still grunted in satisfaction. Breathing deeply, Naomi shut her eyes and rolled her head around, getting comfortable in her slight squat. Already, she could see the benefits of fighting for stress relief. Back home, she had worked out for emotional purposes a few times, but she had never felt it overly necessary. But now she had a stress that she had never felt before, a pressure that she largely placed upon herself to succeed in her crazy plot to stop the Mad Titan. Quietly, Naomi felt her anxiety come to the forefront of her mind, her breath and heartbeat quickening in response. Before it could overtake her thoughts, she snapped open her eyes and drew the concrete up over her head, her back arching to compensate. She hovered in the position for half a second, dimly aware of her face screwing up in focus as her hands came back down, releasing the rubble just as it came into her view with a guttural shout.

To her excitement, the rock soared through the air farther, and faster than it had previously. It was nowhere near as powerful as the Hulk's throw, but the improvement was visible. In response, Hulk let out a deafening roar, a large grin prominent on his face as he watched his student light up at her throw. Valkyrie laughed at his over-excitement, but it did nothing to perturb the champion as he only joined in her laughter. Standing beside him, Naomi grinned from ear to ear, chuckling quietly at the Hulk's behavior, and at the change in atmosphere due to her vaguely impressive rock toss.

Had anyone walked in, they would have been confused as to why the grand champion, a well-known scrapper, and a earth girl were all laughing together in such a jovial manner, but to them it hardly mattered. Nothing made sense on Sakaar, so even if Naomi could hardly believe that she had been given a lesson in throwing stuff around by the Incredible Hulk, with help from the last valkyrie, she didn't care, and reveled in the care-free atmosphere.