As soon as the outdated, wailing alarm had started going off in the base, Daisy had rushed to join find the cause of the wail that signified that the base was under attack. She turned into a random hall, sprinting, only to nearly crash into May. The older woman didn't even look startled to see her. "What's going on?" Daisy demanded.
"The base is under attack." replied May in a deadpan and a are-you-serious-right-now- glare.
"The alarms clued me in." Daisy muttered. May cut her off.
"Several enhanced former SHIELD assets have been spotted breaching the premise. Your job is as the last line of defense between them and the director." May went to turn around.
"Former SHIELD, so their HYDRA?" Daisy demanded.
"Former. SHIELD. Protect the director." May replied before drawing her icer and sprinting off.
"Thanks for that enlightening bit of information, May." she muttered, before turning back the way she came and then towards Coulson's office. Once she reached the door, she opened it without knocking. Coulson was bent over his desk hurriedly hiding something inside. "May sent me to protect you?" she said half questioning, half sarcastically at Phil's raised eyebrow. "DC, who's attacking?" she once again asked, not missing the way that the man paled.
"If May sent you here, then we're facing enemies that we can't outrun or negotiate with and May wants us to covertly escape while everyone else hold down the fort."
"What? How can she just expect us to leave everyone to die?! We would never-" she was cut off by Coulson, who was watching the security feed.
"We're not leaving."
"How can you-wait, what?"
"We're not leaving." he repeated.
"Good, because I'm ready to kick "formerly SHIELD enhanced asset" butt!" she exclaimed. Coulson sighed.
"Is that what May said?"
"Yeah, why?"
Coulson turned the computer so Daisy could see the screen and put his head in his hands. "Damnit Maria, what are you doing?" he muttered as Daisy yelped, "The Avengers are attacking?!"
"If they see me, they'll likely become even more hostile. We need to incapacitate them, so they'll listen to reason." he pointedly looked at her.
"You want me to...oh."
"Can you handle it Daisy?"
"Yeah, you're just asking me to knock out the Avengers, no biggie." she muttered sarcastically.
"Good, because they're coming." he nodded at the screen, where the Avengers were leading the team, bound and scratched up, towards Coulson's office. Daisy nodded, before exiting the office and standing in front of the door and sinking into a fighting stance. Coulson closed it behind her just in time, as Fitz rounded the corner supporting a very concussed Simmons. He was cradling his arm and there appeared to be a large gash running down most of his leg. Fitz was followed by Mack who was sporting two black eyes and a heavily bleeding gash on his forehead, a limping Hunter (who appeared to have (attempted) strangulation marks on his neck), Bobbi who looked like she had gotten a haircut on half of her head by someone's knife and was favoring her right side, but otherwise looked as put together as usual, May, who had a split lip and a huge boot shaped bruise, blooming across most of her face, made up the back of the party of SHIELD agents. Her eyes widened as she saw that Daisy was still at the base. "Tremors, what are you-" Mack started only to be cut off by May.
"I thought I told you to leave the base!" she hissed.
"Actually you said to protect the Director." Daisy supplied. May just narrowed her eyes at her.
"So, you joined HYDRA. I'm disappointed May." Mr. Arms spat-he had to be Hawkeye-Daisy dully noted. "What did it take to get you to join a group of genocidal neo-nazis? Good counseling?" That was a low blow and everyone knew it. Bobbi whipped around and tried to kick the man where the sun didn't shine and nearly nailed was at about this point, that the Black Widow noticed the agent at the end of the hall.
"Barton, twelve o'clock."
"I see her." he raised his bow. "The rest of your HYDRA buddies have surrendered and I don't recognize you from SHIELD, so I might go a little bit easier on you if you surrender now."
"How about no?" she snarked back. "And who told you we were HYDRA? We're SHIELD. We're not the problem." she snarled.
"Nowadays, SHIELD and HYDRA are the same thing." he replied. "You have until the count of three to get out of the way and let us see whatever you're guarding. One."
"I'm not going anywhere, so-"
"Two."
"-you can stick that arrow up your ass. I'm not moving." she finished, raising her arms.
"Three." he exhaled and fired the shot, only for the arrow to splinter in the air halfway towards its target. That seemed to break everyone out of their revery during the standoff. All the suspected HYDRA agents threw themselves to the ground just in time. Both Clint and Natasha opened fire with their respective weapons, Steve threw his shield, Tony fired his repulsors, and Thor hurled Mjolnier. However, everything was deflected or split halfway towards the intended target, and the more human members of the team could already see their vision growing fuzzy as they started to lose consciousness. Suddenly, with an ominous crunch and audible roaring, the Hulk descended on the battlefield.
Daisy knew she was pushing her luck against trained SHIELD agents like Hawkeye and the Black Widow, and maybe she could take Iron Man on a really good day with the Bus's top of the line equipment, but Thor and Captain America was where she drew the line. She almost felt bad for quaking Coulson's hero, super soldier or not. However, Thor was huge and built like a tank. At least Lady Sif had kept her promise to Coulson if how viciously the Asgardian was trying to attack her was anything to go by. She was shocked to see how well she was repelling the attackers, as her powers had rapidly grown in strength in tandem with her stamina for holding long quakes. However, she was well aware that she wouldn't be able to keep it up for a long time. And then the freakin' Hulk had crashed through the roof and -charged towards her-and she reacted in a knee jerk response, and sent Dr. Banner's alter ego flying back ten feet to the shock of all the individuals nearby, at least until they all passed out from the sudden change in air pressure. She herself was having a difficult time standing up straight. Backing up a few feet, so she was leaning against the door to Coulson's office, she focused on the frequency required to knock out the Centipede enhanced super soldiers the team had previously encountered, and poured the last of her strength into it. She was vaguely aware of the fact that the Hulk was shrinking before her head hit the door and then the ground as she passed out.
When she came to, Daisy was aware of the annoying beeping of a heart monitor. "Ffrghmnp." she eloquently said.
"Hey Rock Star. Welcome to the land of the living." Hunter smirked, pressing the button to move her medical cot to sitting position and removing the oxygen tube down her throat. "I'm supposed to give you ice chips, but I know you won't put up with that load of crap, so here's a Cactus Cooler I stole from Bobbi's stash."
"What happened, I feel like I got hit by a bus." she muttered. Trying to reach a hand up to hold her aching head, but failing to move it more than three inches.
"Take it easy, you just kicked the Avengers' asses." he stopped her.
"What's happening now?"
"Coulson's ripping them a new one right now in the interrogation room. I'm sure he'd like to see you."
"I-"
"Want to see the interrogation?" he finished her sentence. "Hon' we all want to see it."
It was safe to say the Avengers were furious when they came around to find themselves restrained, disarmed, and alone. However, their anger turned to surprise when Maria Hill walked into their cell and stood in front of them. "You're all idiots." At their defensive exclamations, she elaborated. "You just assumed that an alien frequency coming to and from an ex-spy and ex-government agent was the enemy? What did you think they were doing? Threatening me?" At the ashamed looks, she added, "And why on Earth did you not think I could handle it?" Continuing, she added "I suppose we're lucky you didn't kill the new Director, Fury will have your heads if the Director doesn't first for endangering his team."
"Their heads are safe, Agent Hill, but we will be having words." A shadowy figure dead panned from the doorway. A very familiar shadowy figure. "After all, I wouldn't want them to go digging up who the new Director of SHIELD is." Coulson said stepping out of the shadows.
Daisy and Hunter were positively cackling at the sight of the heroes expressions of shock. They were even silent for a whole 30 seconds. Then, the yelling started.
"How dare-"
"-we had the right to-"
"-you do this?-"
"-damnit Fury-"
"-not possible-" but Hawkeye's protests were the loudest.
"Damnit Phil, you promised that you wouldn't go dark on me. Not after B-"
"I had no choice. It wasn't my call-"
"Spare me the bureaucratic shit. We both know that those assholes on the World Security Counsel or Fury couldn't stop you if they tried. I want to know why you chose to keep this from us." Coulson sighed, pulling out a file with the word classified stamped across the front in red.
"For almost a year, I was unaware of the procedure used to save my life; Fury was telling the truth when he said that the medics' called it. I was dead for five days. Yes, I am aware that what I'm suggesting is physically and medically impossible." he stated, cutting off the inevitable yelling. "Fury used a serum of alien origin to revive me. It literally came from the preserved body of a dead alien, a Kree if I'm not mistaken." he was not prepared for Thor's outburst.
"A Kree warrior? They are a vicious race that have no respect for other species or honor. It is not wise to engage with their race."
"I'm aware. We had an unfortunate account with one of their warriors. He attempted to kill Agent Johnson, the young woman you had the pleasure of meeting outside my office."
"Yeah," muttered Stark, "where did she get powers strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk and almost collapse the base while she's at it?"
"She had an otherworldly experience in an underground Kree city in Puerto Rico. She and another individual on the Gifted Index experienced a change called terragenisis, where latent Kree DNA in their cells mutated, giving them abilities that appear superhuman."
"So your saying that there are possibly hostile aliens out there that are as powerful as Thor and the Hulk." glared Natasha.
"That still doesn't explain the reason why you didn't tell us you were alive sooner." Clint cut her off.
"I was unaware of the fact that Fury had used alien DNA to revive me or the fact that I was dead for five days. Fury lead me to believe that I was dead for seconds before my heart was restarted and that I then spent months in T.A.H.I.T.I. in physical therapy before returning to the field. It wasn't until recently that the asset I previously mentioned put me through a machine that allowed me to remember what happened."
"I don't buy that you just conveniently had no symptoms or side affects after having your DNA fused with literally, alien DNA." Bruce stated.
"He's leaving out the part about his obsessive behavior and alien writing." May said, smoothly opening the door. Her face was a mottled with shades of red, black, blue, purple, and yellow. Suffice to say it looked like a disaster zone.
"Why are you here and what happened to your face?"
"I'm the pilot." she supplied. "And Roger's boot." Steve winced and had the grace to look guilty.
"What's this about alien writing?" growled Clint.
"Fury assigned me to watch Coulson for any signs of mental deterioration from the T.A.H.I.T.I. Formula that previous test subjects had consented to."
"What kind of mental deterioration are we talking about?" demanded Banner going into science mode.
"Obsessive behavior that caused him to stay up for hours at night writing alien symbols without any idea why he was doing it or what the symbols meant. His behavior and moods began to be affected by the symptoms and he became more and more irritable until he discovered that the writing formed a map and that lead to the underground city. He has not exhibited any symptoms or bad reactions since."
"Why are you really doing here, May?" Romanoff asked out of the blue. "You've been in admin for as long as I can remember and you're clearly not here because your the pilot."
"Fury made sure I was put on the team to watch Coulson and make the call in case he began exhibiting signs similar to test subjects of the T.A.H.I.T.I. program. I made a different call."
"There's that name again. The T.A.H.I.T.I. project what does that stand for? And who were the test subjects?" Steve suspiciously asked.
"T.A.H.I.T.I. was a covert medical experiment and study secretly funded on Fury's orders. He was looking for a way to revive a dead avenger. The abbreviation stands for Terrestrialized Alien Host Integrative Tissue I and as for the subjects, they were S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents that had received terminal diagnoses and had consented to being test subjects. All of the agents exhibited Coulson's symptoms prematurely when they knew what was gap pending to them, so Fury used a machine to alter his brain in order to rewrite his memories." May finished.
"Meanwhile, we were going through a civil war with HYDRA, trying to root out traitors, being betrayed by one of our core team members who now leads HYDRA, trying to manage Agent Johnson's recently acquired powers, trying to keep said agent from HYDRA or the US military, trying to help a brainwashed SHIELD agent captured and experimented on by a deaged HYDRA scientist from World War II, being betrayed by said agent when she joined the new head of HYDRA after the scientist's demise, and preventing a war between the leader of the Inhumans, (the Kree human hybrids), and S.H.I.E.L.D. So, forgive us if we've been a little busy." Coulson snapped. The bound group just nodded numbly. "It is nice to see you all working together for a change." Phil admitted as h began to untie them. "You're welcome to go anywhere in the base." he added.
"Actually, I'd like to meet this team of yours besides the Cavalry." Clint smiled a shit eating grin.
"I think we all would." interjected Steve, just as May snapped, "Don't call me that!"