AN: Hope you enjoy this chapter!
As we flew to our destination in a jet, Phillip told me and the rest of my team about the team consisted of five agents: Agent Lee Fields, Agent Mark Sterling, Agent Derek Gates, Phillip, then me.
Fields was a tall six foot five inches with tanned skin, black hair that was buzz cut and deep blue eyes. Next to Fields was Sterling standing at six foot two inches with peach skin, slender, but muscular build, a short blonde hair, a scar running down his lips and dark brown eyes. Standing to the right of me was Gates 5'8 man with a moderately muscular build, olive skin, parted jet-black hair and piercing grey eyes.
"Unfortunately, we will be a woman short, Agent Zahira Burman can not assist us. Director Fury has sent her on another mission," I informed, tapping on her picture and greying it out.
God, I was going to miss Zahira, it was nice to have another woman on the team. The two of us met when Fury sent me to extract her from an undercover operation in Sudan, honestly she didn't need my help she managed to takeout all but one of her attackers. The last attacker stealthily snuck behind her, but I shot him before he could do any harm. I glanced at her photo one last time she had light brown skin, dark brown hair styled in a bob, almond shaped dark brown eyes, and an oval shaped face that seemed to be structured to feminine perfect.
"She will definitely be missed," Phillip stated. "Our target is Leonardo Scoove," Phillip said, and showed us on the screen, enlarging the man's photo. "He's a private investor, that has multiple contracts with with known terrorist cells. He's been on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar for quite some time now,"
I studied the information shown to me, the guy was rich. Like really rich he was holding a gala in Miami tonight.
"I take it, this isn't your average gala," I commented, turning my gaze to Phillip.
Phillip nodded his head, "You would be correct, it's actually a black market weapons auction," Phillip replied.
"Conveniently disguised as a gala," I smirked, crossing my arms. "So, what is the mission? Reconnaissance? Assassination?" I listed curiously.
"Reconnaissance," Phillip answered.
"And the strategy?" I questioned.
"You," Phillip answered, causing me to raise an eyebrow and the squad of men around us chuckled lightly. "I-I mean as a collective, we all thought you would be the best suited to the get the information," Phillip stated, quickly clarifying himself.
"On what basis?" I asked again, at this point I was just pulling his leg.
"I-we-" Phillip started fumbling over his words, his face turning red from embarrassment.
"Calm down, Dilon. I'm pulling your leg," I smiled, shaking my head and I could feel a wave of embarrassment come from him. "Show me the plans to the building," I stated, nodding my head towards the screen.
Phillip pulled a 3D blueprint of the building and began discussing where I need to go and where the rest of the squad will be around the building.
"Well, I hope you boys brought your best tuxedo's," I smirked, clapping my hands together and the men broke apart.
~~~x~~~
We arrived at Miami in the afternoon and went straight to S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house and started to settle down. I prepared myself for tonight's mission, I have to get into the gala and catch the eye of the target, which shouldn't be hard at all. My alias was Marie Locke.
"Your disguise is in bathroom," Phillip said, before leaving my room.
I walked in the en-suite bathroom and I unzipped the black bag that was hanging on the back of the door. I opened it to find a dark red dress in the bag, the dress had a plunged neckline and open back spaghetti straps, along with a sheer bottom with a shockingly high slit. I smirked to myself, Phillip knows me so well. I often joked that this dress was my weapon of choice.
I pulled out the dress and a professional makeup kit from a small bag inside the dress bag. I noticed a mannequin head with a chocolate brown wig with highlights in it.
Well, all bases are covered then.
~~~x~~~
My heels perfectly matched the dress, my make up was done so well that I felt sophisticated, and put together. The wig that I had on laid on my shoulders in soft waves, the hazel contacts I put in could pass as my real eye color. I was wearing small platinum hoop earrings with diamonds positioned in the front, as well as a diamond bracelet, to accessorize and enhance my outfit. I sprayed some lilac perfume on before picking up my gun and walked out the bathroom and out of my room into the den of the safe house.
"Where do you think you're going in that, young lady?" Lee demanded, his voice was that of a father.
He was only three years older than me, everyone on the squad was older than me by two or three years, so I'm the "baby" on the squad.
I rolled my eyes, and without any thought of modesty, pulled up the slit of my dress to reveal a holster strapped to the inside of my thigh and secured my weapon in place. All the while Phillip was trying, and failing, not to stare at the appearance of me. The dress I wore left little to the imagination, Phillip peeled his eyes away from me trying to find something to focus on.
"Fields, you know me, I'm not a defenseless little girl,"
"I know you're not a little girl, and so does anyone who sees you in that dress," Just as he said this, Derek, a new junior agent who was supposed to be working communications, passed me unable to keep his eyes away. Apparently, his eyes weren't the only things he couldn't keep away because three seconds later he was on the floor, from tripping over equipment.
"You should watch where you're going, Gates," I suggested smugly.
Mark joined us in the den and Phillip clapped his hands together, "Good, everyone is here. When the Captain gets inside she will be there alone without any backup. Her only backup is Fields who will be her chauffeur. Sterling will cover the back door. The surveillance team will be in the van in the alley next to the club, that is where Gates and I will be," Phillip explained, looking at each of us. "Everyone understand?" Phillip asked, and we all nodded our heads.
"Good luck everyone," I said.
Nightfall fell, and the operation began and we got into our positions. Lee drove us in a black Mustang and parked it in front of the entrance of the gala at the corporate building.
I looked at Lee before exiting the car, "Wish me luck," I stated.
"Good luck," Lee repeated. "I doubt you need it," Lee finished jokingly, as I got out the car.
I walked into the extravagant hall, draped in expensive ivory laces and clear crystals, the room had an extensive glass bar, marbled sunken floor, and about fifty servers attending to the various tables scattered at the edges of the giant room. It felt like everyone in the room turned their attention to me, all the attendees couldn't help but stare in awe of me. I gave a smile that made the men smirk back. The target as well turned his attention to me, he had blonde hair, large blue eyes, and was muscular, but not buff. I smiled saucily at him, sauntering over to the bar.
As I was about to order I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around only to see Leonardo Scoove.
"Hey, beautiful," He greeted with seductive smile and gently grabbed my hand. "Wanna have a drink with me?"
"It would be my pleasure," I answered batting my long lashes, and Leonardo gave a kiss on my hand and sat down next to me.
I giggled, "A dirty martini for the lady, and a Scotch for me, please," Leonardo told the bartender, and the bartender started pouring our drinks.
"How'd you know I drink dirty martinis?" I asked playfully, this was my favorite part.
"Men are so weak," I thought.
"Just a guess," he smiled, as we were given our drinks.
I gave him a quiet thank you and took a sip. Leonardo noticed how my lipstick left a slight mark on the rim, of my glass but his attention was drawn away from the smudge when I put my hand on his shoulder.
"I realize that this is a dumb question," I started, slowly sliding my hand off of Leonardo's shoulder. "But I didn't quite catch your name? My name is Marie Locke," Leonardo's eyes widened, I could tell he was mentally scolding himself.
"My name is Leonardo Scoove, but my friends call me Leo," Leonardo stated charmingly, introducing himself staring deeply into my eyes.
A smile graced my lips, already knowing his name from the file Phillip had shown me on the jet.
"Well, Leo it is wonderful to meet you," I said teasingly. "Does this mean we're friends now since I get to call you Leo?" I asked flirtatiously, raising an eyebrow.
"We could be so much more," Leonardo answered, with an equally flirtatious answer.
I put my hand on his knee as I leaned into him. He sat up a little straighter, "I'm open to suggestions," I stated suggestively smirking.
Leonardo smiled, "Why don't you come upstairs to my office? I'm sure between the two of us, we can work something out," Leonardo whispered into my ear.
I pulled away from him and smiled standing up and began to walk the elevator, knowing that Leonardo wasn't far behind.
~~~x~~~
I leaned against Leonardo's desk inspecting the tranquilizing dart I just used and then I looked down at the unconscious form of Leonardo on the floor.
"Are you two done? I think I threw up in my mouth after hearing you two," Phillip grumbled in my ear through the coms.
"Aww, is someone jealous?" I crooned smiling, walking over to Leonardo's computer.
"No," Phillip answered shortly, as I pulled three USB sticks all different colors.
"Alright, I'm at the computer, Gates," I stated, laying down the black, red, and green USB sticks.
"The red USB has a program that will access the server. It should get you in without any problems. The green one is for downloading the information on the system for this computer and, just a warning, it may take a while," Gates warned.
"How long do I have?" I asked, sticking the red USB in the computer.
"You have about ten minutes tops, before security does their rounds and enter the office," Gates explained.
"I'm in," I announced, now plugging in the green USB. "He's got a lot more information then I expected," I continued.
I started scrolling through files I had just pulled up. That was until a notification popped up on the screen.
PROJECT: S.E.R.E.N.I.T.Y.
"What the hell?" I murmured, my eyes widening at what I was reading.
"Something wrong?" Phillip asked concernedly.
"Yes and no..." I answered trailing off, clicking on the notification and a file popped up.
I looked through the file, and I clicked on a random video file titled Experiment Successful #168. I wished I hadn't clicked play to the video. It showed me when I was fourteen years-old, I was sitting in front of a captive S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He had a pistol resting on his temple, tears were streaming down his face and snot oozing from his nose from crying so much.
All of this was my doing.
I remember this day very clearly, Dr. Heiner was testing my emotion inducement powers on S.H.I.E.L.D. prisoners. One time Heiner made me induce a group of prisoners with anger and they started fighting each other out of pure rage, it was a bloodbath no one survived. This video was focusing on despair inducement, the man's hand was trembling as I watched pulled him the trigger. Blood splattered everywhere.
The gunshot ringed in my ears as I watched the dead prisoner's body fall out of the chair and onto to the floor. In that moment I felt completely numb.
"Amara!" Phillip yelled, snapping me out the video.
"What? What's going on?" I asked confused, shaking my head to clear my mind.
"I've been calling your name for almost three minutes. What happened, did you find something?" Phillip questioned.
"He has my files. PROJECT: S.E.R.E.N.I.T.Y.," I explained, just as the green USB started beeping signaling it was finished downloading. "The USB is finished," I stated, finally plugging in the black USB stick, my personal USB and started downloading the files.
"Perfect! You have two minutes, until security comes-" Gates started.
"I'm not leaving here without these files," I interjected harshly, cutting Gates off. "These cannot fall into the wrong hands," I added.
"Are you crazy?! You have to leave now!" Phillip demanded.
"Who's the Captain here, Dilon?" I challenged, just as the door opened and six men entered.
They stared at me before looking down at Leonardo's unconscious body in front of the desk.
"Shit," I muttered, kicking my heels off and turning off my coms.
"You need to come with us, right now," the security guard ordered.
"Sorry, I can't do that. I've got places to be and people to see," I retorted, shrugging nonchalantly.
Three. Two. One. Now.
I swiftly pulled my gun out my holster and fired. Leg shot. Chest shot. Another leg shot.
I was aiming to injure, not kill. The three I shot dropped to the floor and groaned in pain. Bracing my hands on the desk, I flipped over the computer and landed in front of the men. No longer shocked, the men still standing rushed me. They weren't carrying any guns.
The big one barrelled at me and I ducked, kicking him at his legs and sweeping him off his feet. The next one punched me in the face and I spun around, bringing my leg up. My heel connected with his face.
He grabbed my leg and I hit the floor, I could the taste cooper tang of blood pooling at the back of my throat. The man leaned down to punch me, and I rolled away to my left, leaping back up. The third man kicked me in the chest, and I fell back. He was leaping forward when I pulled into a forward roll and turned around, shooting him in the foot.
The big one had got up again, as had the second one. One of them aimed a kick at my face and I ducked, pushing him into the other one. Bang. One shot. Bang. Another one. Both were clutching at their shoulders, and the less bright of the two charged at me again with his fists. Block. Punch to the face. Another block. Punch. Punch. Knee to the groin. I grabbed his arm connected to the shoulder I had shot, and twisted it. He fell to the floor.
Arms grabbed me from behind, holding me tight, and I dropped the gun. I stomped on my assailant's right foot, bringing my right elbow to connect with his middle, and he momentarily let go. Taking advantage of this, I spun around and head-butted him. He stumbled back, and charged at me again, kneeing me several times in the gut before grabbing me and throwing forward.
I handsprung, and landed on my feet, facing him, knife in hand. I slashed his face, and he grabbed my arm, flipping me. I landed, and stuck my knife right into his boot, then clocked him on the jaw knocking him out cold. The computer beeped. The download had finished. I ran over to the computer, grabbing the three USB, and hitting the delete key on the keyboard watching the files delete off of Leonardo's computer. I snatched my heels up and ran out the room, and stopped by a mirror to rearrange my wig, clothes, and slip my shoes on.
I moved down the hallway and into the elevator, which was luckily on the same floor that I was on currently. I tapped my foot impatiently as the elevator descended down the floors until it was at the main lobby. The doors opened and I easily blended into the gala crowd making my way towards the entrance door
I turned my coms back on, "Fields, pull up to the entrance doors right now," I ordered, subtly looking over my shoulder.
"Pulling up now," Fields answered, as I walked out building.
I made my way to the sleek black car and slid inside, driving off from the gala without a hitch.
"She's in," Fields stated, into his coms.
"Good," was all Phillip said, I knew he was pissed off.
Lee and I turned off our coms, "That was a risky move you pulled back there," Lee commented.
"It was worth it," I replied curtly, unstrapping my gun and knife from the holster under my dress.
"Then I'll take your word for it," Lee said, shrugging his shoulders while his eyes stared intently at the road on front of him.
"You think they're watching every car leaving the city by now?" I asked, turning around in my seat to survey the road behind us.
"I don't-," Lee's reply was cut short as the sound of a glass breaking entered the car. I flipped around in my seat with inhuman speed, watching as a bullet whizzed by and lodged itself in the front windshield.
"You don't what?" I growled, turning back around and firing my gun, the bullet going through the hole that the other one had created and hit the car following us, watching victoriously as the car swerved and hit a fire hydrant.
"DRIVE GOD DAMN IT!" I yelled at Lee, and he quickly complied to my command.
Fortunately, the rest of the ride uneventful and we made it to the designated meeting point where the quinjet was already waiting for us.
I tucked my gun back under my dress before stepping gracefully out of the car, my midnight black stilettos clicking against the gravel as I walked towards the jet, taking Derek offered hand as I stepped inside.
~~~x~~~
"Will you please say something, this silence is incredibly uncomfortable," I remarked, leaning my head back against the wall.
Phillip and I were currently sitting in the front quinjet on our way back to the Triskelion after our mission. Anyone could see Phillip was more than pissed, from what I did.
"What would you like me to say exactly?" he asked through gritted teeth while concentrating on the sky ahead of him. "Because if I say what I really want to say, you won't like it," refusing to look at me the whole time.
"How long are you going to be like this? What would you like me to say? I'm sorry?" I asked, my voice raised in frustration
"Yes, a sorry would be a start!" he shot back in disbelief.
"Sorry for what exactly? I completed the primary mission, how was I supposed to know that Scoove had my Project S.E.R.E.N.I.T.Y. files? You think I was going to let him keep those files and spread them to god knows who. Yeah, I'm sorry for being smart back there," I retorted.
"You call that smart?! Retrieving your Project S.E.R.E.N.I.T.Y files was not the mission, the mission was to do what we had to do and get out, but no you just had to get those files, get us detected and have a group of guards on your ass. You left some mess back there, an unnecessary mess!" Phillip countered harshly.
"We got out didn't we? You need to calm down," I sighed, debating if should use my powers.
"And you need to be more careful, next time you pull that kind of shit we might not be so lucky," the aggravation was still clearly present in his voice. "Next time you follow orders," he finished sternly.
"I think your forgetting that I'm the captain of this squad," I snapped.
"Then act like it!" Phillip exclaimed fustratedly.
Sighing again, I slumped into my seat in a huff. In my opinion, Phillip was overreacting at the whole thing. I glanced over at Phillip's face, he was still focused on looking ahead and had a stern look covering his face. If Scoove gotten his grubby hands on my files I would be in a world of trouble and so would S.H.I.E.L.D., this might've been an inconvenience, but it would help us in the long run; I was right in my decision. On the other hand I did not want Phillip being annoyed with me and decided I should apologize because it was the right thing to do.
"Listen, I'm sorry okay," I began and Phillip turned to look at me for the first time since we left. "I really am. It's just...the files Heiner has on me it's not something you want spread around. I'll try to be more careful next time, okay," I said with a small cute smile to seal the deal.
"Well, thank you. I appreciate that," Phillip simply responded, accepting my apology.
"Plus, when we get back anyway, I think I can find way for me to make-up for my mistake. I think I could use a great workout session, how about you?" I asked suggestively, raising an eyebrow wondering if Phillip got my meaning.
I watched him half smile at my comment and shake his head lightly, "A workout always does the body good," Phillip agreed, and I smiled triumphantly I won him back on my side.
AN: And that's the end of this chapter, next chapter will begin to follow the movie!