"Well, this is bad," said Fitz, and wasn't that understatement of the decade.
"Yes, yes it is," Coulson admitted, staring at the holographic screens floating before him as the projected the images of Afterlife, where the Inhumans were taking the offense and driving the SHIELD agents back toward their ships with powers Coulson had never even dreamed of before.
Coulson winced and Fitz flinched as one agent was sent flying by a long, scaly tail from one guy. How was it possible to even hide that thing? They hadn't seen it before.
"Shit," opined Hunter from his place behind them, still lounging lazily in his chair despite the crisis unfolding on the screens. Coulson thought it was a pretty accurate depiction of what was happening.
"Any word on Gonzalez yet?" he said into the comm in his ear, eyes narrowing as more Inhumans poured out of the buildings.
The agents wouldn't even be able to retreat at this point.
"Nothing yet sir, but according to Jiaying he shot her and tried to kill her," May's voice explained, for once not keeping up the bitter silent treatment she'd been directing at him for some time now; her voice was laced with exertion as she grappled with one Inhuman, a female by the sound of it, while desperately dodging the attacks of another.
"Dammit," Coulson hissed, leaning forward. He knew he should have gone instead; Gonzalez was too suspicious and untrusting, too eager to see these people - and they were people, he knew that now - as dangerous animals.
But he never thought the other man would jump the gun and attack first... unless he was provoked...
"Coulson!" snapped a voice, and he jumped as he was pulled from his thoughts.
A new screen had popped up over the reports, and the man who was now glaring at him gave him a thrill of relief and shock.
"Dir- Mr. Fury, sir," he said with a blink, cataloging the blank gape on Fitz's face and the sound of Hunter's feet hitting the ground as he sat up.
"Who's this now?" Hunter asked, perplexed.
"Uh, Director Fury was the Director of SHIELD before HYDRA was discovered," explained Fitz absently.
"Wasn't he dead?"
"Not important, Mr. Hunter. Coulson, we've got a problem."
"You don't say?" Phil drawled sarcastically, glancing around his former bosses' holographic face in time to see an agent narrowly avoid being incinerated by one Inhuman after he'd shot another in the shoulder with a bullet instead of an ICER.
He winced again.
"No offense, sir, but we are perfectly aware of the shitstorm that is happening right now, so unless you have something dramatic-"
"I do have something dramatic," Fury interrupted, and Phil kind of loved it when the man smirked like that; that smirk meant shit was about to get even more intense than usual. The last time he'd seen it, the man had proposed creating the Avengers Initiative. "We need someone like them with powers, who can see our side but still operate with the Inhumans, get them to trust us. With minimal casualties. Hopefully."
"You still believe this can end peacefully?" Phil asked skeptically, because pardon him, but it looked like the Inhumans were trying their hardest to kill the SHIELD agents. Brutally. With acid. And spikes. And lightning.
He could hear Hunter's scoff and Fitz's hum of discontent; they couldn't see this ending well either.
Fury himself grimaced.
"Not exactly, but once the dust settles today we're going to need a negotiator, someone who isn't human but is on SHIELD's side. A neutral party to patch things up, who can sympathize with both sides and can help us reach something of a truce. You know you fucked up sending Gonzalez, right?"
"I was outvoted," Phil admitted, mind racing. "If I can contact Skye, maybe I could convince her-"
"Sorry mate, but I'm pretty sure she's on mummy dearest's side," interrupted Hunter, nodding to the image of Skye sending a pair of agents flying when they tried to approach her and her bleeding mother.
"Oh no," Fitz mumbled, and Phil cursed again.
"Agent Skye can be handled later," said Fury, lips pursed in distaste. "Sorry Coulson, but she's protecting family; there's no way she'll back down when she thinks we attacked Jiaying."
"Thinks?" asked Hunter.
"You think Gonzalez didn't shoot first," breathed Fitz, wide-eyed.
"He might be a paranoid bastard, but he isn't an idiot. Attacking the Inhumans on their home turf with no guaranteed back-up isn't his style, at least not when he's in the area. But Skye believes he shot her mother, so she won't listen to a word we say," Phil concluded, stung. That girl... she started as a curious edition to their team and wound up the very heart of it... they couldn't lose her.
"Exactly," Fury said, rousing Phil from the worry gnawing on his insides, "So, with her out, I had no choice but to call in a rookie. He's still recovering from Sokovia, but he should do in a pinch."
Phil's eyes widened.
"What...? No, Nick, tell me you didn't!"
Fury shrugged, a guiltless tilt to his lips.
"T.A.H.I.T.I.'s nice this time of year, but I think I prefer M.A.U.I."
May flipped the last one over her shoulder, ramming the man into the ground with as much force as a train. It seemed to do the trick; he was out like a light, but none the worse for wear, which really wasn't fair. To be honest, May was getting real tired real fast of all these super-powered enemies they kept running into.
She turned and sprinted, heading toward the last place she'd seen the jet, intent on escape; they couldn't remain here without fighting. They needed to go before this fight became all out war like Jiaying had said.
Then again, she thought as she turned a corner and came face to face with the agent she'd been looking for, it might be too late.
"Skye, we have to go," she huffed, holding up both hands in a placating gesture as the girl whirled around on her, hair disheveled and pupils dilated. "We need to get out of here before anyone else gets hurt."
"He shot my mom," Skye muttered, looking wobbly on her feet. "We wanted to talk and he shot my mom."
"I know," May acknowledged, though inwardly she highly doubted Gonzalez had had much choice in the matter, "We fucked up. But we need to go before anyone else gets hurt; we need to figure this out."
"I'm sorry." Skye was backing away, shaking her head, "I can't, May, I'm sorry."
Something squeezed her chest, and May tried not to look at the distressed tears in the girl's eyes. "Skye-" she called, taking a step forward, but her hands were suddenly up, fingers splayed and tears trailing down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, May, but I don't think you belong here anymore," she said, and the world moved.
May felt her feet leave the ground, saw her surroundings suddenly jerk in reverse, but she didn't quite process she was flying backwards until she hit something - hard.
That something wrapped around her, and she barely had a second to blink when she realized they were arms and that she had not violently impacted with the hard stone ground.
Then she was suddenly on her feet again, not even a few feet away from where she had been, sharing a wide-eyed gape with Skye before a blur appeared and easily knocked the younger girl out with a quick chop to the back of the head, catching her before she could collapse completely to the ground.
And May was left to stare at the silver and blue bedecked man carefully lowering Skye to the ground, a playful smirk playing at the edge of his lips.
"Didn't see that one coming, did you?" he gleefully asked the unconscious girl.
May lifted an eyebrow.
She was going to judo flip him. Hard.
A/N: This sucks. Really bad. In my defense, I'm sick and exhausted and I want to pass out but I can't. Whatever. Read, review, the works. See you later!
~Persephone