Thank you for the reviews and follows.
This story had turned into some sort of back-burner project. I'll get to it when I'm inspired but I'm taking my time..
I noticed that it hasn't received that much of feedback so I should give more time to other stories..
Anyway, here we go..!
Thanks to my Beta StarryDreamer01 who helped me edit this.
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN AGENTS OF SHIELD.
Chapter 3
First Mission
'Whatever am I doing here?'
It wasn't the first time that she asked this to herself. She lost count after the fifth time this morning..
She was in freaking Peru in front of a freaking Incas/Mayan/whatever pyramid. And this morning she was in the States.
This morning she abandoned her van to board an enormous SHIELD plane. The same plane where she had been taken as an arrested criminal yesterday..
But whatever..
The Team had been called to investigate an 0-8-4: object of unknown origins. Coulson had mentioned that the last 0-8-4 had been Thor's hammer.
Well, that gave her an idea that whatever they were going to investigate wasn't something she might have seen somewhere.
It might be from another planet in the best of possibilities.
She got out of the SUV trailing Coulson who blatantly told her that her role in the Team at the moment was just to create a diversion, Internet-wise, if any news of the 0-8-4 leaked.
Great... basically all that she was against.
She glumly looked at the pyramid, musing about Coulson's words as he went up to speak with a man she supposed was the archaeologist in charge when she caught a glimpse of the two scientists.
FitzSimmons.
Taking a selfie in front of the pyramid.
Seriously?
She still had to figure out this Team. Coulson was the leader and trusted her for God-knows-which reason. Ward did not trust her and kept her at distance. May was...well... May hadn't talked to her since she had gotten on the plane. She hadn't even looked at her now that she thought about it.
And there was FitzSimmons.
Who had greeted her as though she was the most welcome person and had shown her around the plane, taken her stuff to her room and been, all in all, completely friendly with her.
If she hadn't been so bewildered by their attitude, she would have been touched. All her life, she had never seen anyone really happy to see her or so welcoming to their home.
If she could call a plane a house, that is.
Anyway...
The 0-8-4 turned out to be some machine stuck to the inner chamber of the pyramid. She barely had the time to take out her phone and do some image research of the..thing when she heard a whirring sound behind her.
She turned around and found herself staring at a tiny, flying...thing? Robot? She stepped back and noticed that there were two of them in air and others in the case Fitz had been carrying.
Simmons was holding some sort of control tablet in her hands and she saw that her partner was tapping on one too.
The first little robot hovered over to the archaeologist who just stared at it, looking surprised(or scared, Skye really couldn't say). She had the funny feeling that the robot was actually studying the man.
"Leave the man alone."
The robot hovered away and Skye turned around to Simmons who smiled apologetically at the archaeologist, looking and sounding like a mother who had just scolded her annoying little child.
Skye blinked and turned around to the 0-8-4.
Okaay... The nerd scientists were getting weirder every minute.
Coulson left after getting a call from Ward about having a situation. It had to be some SHIELD lingo for -We have a problem.
She tapped on her own, trying to find information about the machine in front of her while FitzSimmons worked behind her.
The little robots started hovering around the chamber, blue lights coming out of them as -she realised- they examined the room and the 0-8-4. She saw FitzSimmons tap on their tablets' screens and talk to each other in that infuriatingly complicated way of theirs.
The only thing she understood was that the 0-8-4 was alive (somehow) and dangerous (well, figures..).
She tried to make her useful and talk to them but the sound of gunfire stopped her.
Hell...
-:-
Oh, she definitely missed her van.
Being nearly shot by Peruvian rebels, escaping in a van with a possible worse-than-nuclear machine and ending up flying in a plane with said machine and a lot of people yelling at each other, really made her wonder what the hell she was thinking of joining this team.
Coulson entered the lab right after Fitz had made a rather snappy (and accurate, she had to admit) comment to Ward about managing to string three words in a sentence.
She didn't think the Scottish scientist even had that much sass in him.
"Do we have a problem in here?" Coulson asked, managing to quiet Ward and Fitz yelling at each other before even talking.
The man had charisma, that was sure.
"No, sir," Ward replied and she stared at him What?
"Just working on our communication." The man glanced at Fitz and then Simmons. "Not everyone was prepared for fire fight."
From her position in the center, she clearly saw Simmons roll her eyes.
"We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs. I'd say we did alright," Coulson stated, sounding calm and sure. He seriously looked as though things were going well. "Anything else?"
Skye raised her hand before she could even think about it.
The whole lab turned to her.
"Er-yeah..." She said. "I have a small question because I've been feeling like the tag-along rookie but now I've get to sense that Ward doesn't know which one's Simmons and which one's Fitz and they've seen less gunfire than me -and I'm no rocket scientist- but is this your first mission together?"
"No," Simmons replied softly from her corner. "Of course not. It's our second." The biochemist looked proud of this too.
Oh, great... She felt loads better now.
"I was your first?" She deadpanned. "Sweet..." Whatever the hell was she doing here again?
"You're amused?" Ward asked her with his You're-not-wanted-here-voice. Skye was fed up now.
"I'm terrified," She corrected him loudly. "I- I mean..I've been way over my head and I've been on this team just as long as any of you. I might as well as be team captain."
She saw Simmons scoff and look away. Ward looked as though he had eaten something sour and Fitz stared at the other man, playing with the gun-like tool in his hands.
And Coulson stared at her.
Ok... That was too much maybe..
"I was joking..." She explained. "But maybe that's not a bad idea because these guys do not like each other much."
"This isn't about that," Ward gritted out. "I'm a specialist." He turned to Coulson as he said this as though proving some point. "Today I could have eliminated the enemy threat myself if I was working alone-"
Skye stared at Ward wondering if they were talking about the same threat because she didn't know how he worked but there was no way that one person could have dealt with all those rebels.
She saw Simmons roll her eyes again and walk over towards them. Seeing the calm scientist's sudden business-like, battle-like attitude, made her decide to walk over to where Coulson was.
Maybe they wouldn't throw anything in his direction if they started fighting...
"-but I had non-combat agents-"
"Woah, woah, woah, wait!" Fitz cut in, glaring at him. "You work alone?!"
"So typical..." Simmons added, standing by Fitz's side and looking at Ward. "Who do you think designed your equipment?" She gestured towards the space between her and Fitz.
Seriously? They did that?
"Or the polymers for your weaponry?" Fitz pointed to him and Simmons. "People like us do that."
"Yeah, try going into the field with your sheer, bare bum!"
Wow, Simmons had more sass in her than she had ever expected.
It seemed like another fight was going to occur... Skye leaned slightly towards Coulson.
"See that proving the point I just made..?" She asked.
"You're not wrong," Coulson replied loudly, getting to silence the lab again. "We still have to iron out the kinks." His gaze swept over the team, somehow wiping out the expressions of contempt and anger that had been there as he looked at each of them. "But Ward, you can speak six languages. Simmons, you have two PhDs in fields I can't pronounce and Fitz, you are a rocket scientist."
Skye blinked. Seriously?
She saw Simmons glance at Fitz as he looked at Coulson. It seemed as though they were getting scolded by a teacher.
"So work it out." The team leader finished and left the lab.
There was a moment of silence.
"I'm- I'm good at stuff too!" Skye said loudly as the other three moved to work.
Geez..
-:-
So...first day at SHIELD and she almost gets shot by rebels, risks to fly out of a plane where a hole is blown by a gamma-nuclear weapon and she manages to shut said hole with an inflatable rescue boat.
Yeah... normal as hell...
The plane was being repaired and the team had just defended her in front of Coulson.
She swallowed dryly, ignoring the lump in her throat and the stab of guilt in her heart.
She had opted to blow a hole in the plane and follow some crazy plan that had made then capture the rebel team and save the 0-8-4.
But they had said that it had been teamwork. As in she was part of the team.
Team that she was double-crossing since she had just told Rising Tide that she was still with them.
But she needed answers. There was no time for guilt...
She walked over to FitzSimmons who were still sitting on the cargo ramp, sharing a bottle of beer. They were still talking about the missile that had just sent the 0-8-4 to the Sun and jabbering of numbers and calculations in such a complicated way that her head hurt only hearing them.
She watched them for a while, smiling slightly as they talked to each other with beaming smiles.
They had been scared just like her today.
The three of them had never been in war zones or faced gun fires.
And yet they pulled it up together.
They had been in charge of retrieving the 0-8-4 and they had worked as a team.
Simmons had held the 0-8-4 without even thinking that it was a deadly machine as she had in the lab the day before. Fitz had held the straps wound around their bodies, ready to help them whenever they called him.
They had been worried for her when she had unstrapped herself and had gone to retrieve the rescue boat.
She shouldn't be so touched by that...
"Guys..."
FitzSimmons looked up at her, turning as one. She was starting to get used to this completely in-sync moves.
She had talked with Ward and maybe, he wasn't going to be so hostile with her. She didn't want things to be awkward with them either.
"What I said in the lab... you know -of you having seen as much gunfire as I did.." She stumbled on her words a bit. "I didn't mean to...you know.. offend you or anything.."
"It's alright, Skye," Simmons replied, smiling broadly. "It was true, actually."
"Yeah, you didn't say anything that we didn't already know," Fitz added, grinning. "I suppose that the three of us are the team's field rookies."
Skye felt a smile make its way on her face.
These two were geniuses, had PhDs and built weapons that SHIELD used and yet, here they were telling her that they were on the same line.
Equals.
"Yeah..."
Really...she shouldn't be feeling so touched...
She sat down next to Simmons and watched the sunset.
"I've got to ask you this though..." She said, turning to them. "That small robot-thingies of yours. What exactly are they? I mean... They almost look alive..."
"The DWARFs?" Fitz asked.
"You called them Dwarfs?" She deadpanned him. "As in-"
"Drones Wirelessly Automated to Retrieve Forensics.
"Oh." What was this thing that SHIELD had for acronyms..?
"They're quad-rotor robot, capable of scanning and cataloging information from a scene in minutes, covering everything from matter density to radiation levels to smell."
"They're perfect when we have to get information on the field. There are seven of them and we-" Simmons's eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth. She turned to Fitz. "Fitz, Sneezy!"
The engineer's eyes widened too.
"Oh, Bloody Hell..." He scrambled up to his feet and ran into the lab.
Simmons quickly got up too and was going to follow him but he was already out, carrying their tablets and the wide case that he had been carrying on their mission.
"Guys, what...?" Skye tried to ask but the two scientists were too busy talking to each other.
"How could we forget him?" Simmons said, her tone worried and flipping her tablet on, tapping furiously.
"Well, we were dealing with more pressing matters," Fitz remarked, tapping away and making the six drones in the case to hover in air. "Staying alive, trying not to make the 0-8-4 fall on some unknown country and, survive."
Simmons rolled her eyes.
"Are you sure that the reversal of his magnetic shielding has occurred correctly?"
"Yes, I reversed it myself after he sent the shock. I just have to locate him."
Fitz jumped off the cargo ramp, the drones hovering around him as he tapped away.
"What's going on?" Skye asked, seeing that Simmons was tapping on her screen and looking at Fitz at the same time.
"Oh, Skye, sorry, we've been so rude to ignore you," The biochemist said, looking up. Trust Simmons to be worried of being rude...
"No, don't worry," She waved off the apology. "What's going on?"
"We forgot to retrieve Sneezy," She replied. She must have noticed her blank expression because she quickly added, "The drone we used to activate the 0-8-4. He was shot out of the Bus once the hole was created. Fitz inverted his magnetic shield so that he would be heavier in air and connect with the plane's structure. If everything went well, he should be attached to some part of the plane. Poor thing..."
"Oh..." Skye looked at the other woman, seeing how she was fretting over the screen, tapping quickly. "Look, I don't know much of these drones...but wouldn't it be easier to just -I dunno- rebuild it?"
Simmons looked up at her and smiled wryly.
"Well, yes, it would be the quickest and easiest way but-" She looked at Fitz who was tapping on his screen and looking in air as the other drones flew around. "The Dwarfs were our first project together. We built each of them on our own, creating them from nothing during our days at the Academy..."
Skye noticed the soft look on Simmons' face and smiled slightly. She didn't know what the Academy was -probably some sort of school for SHIELD agents but she understood that those tiny robots weren't just machines for these nerd scientists.
They were memories and more.
"Found him!" Fitz yelled and Simmons literally jumped off the cargo ramp and ran to him in a second.
Skye watched as the two scientists stood close to each other, hovering over Fitz's tablet and looking up in the air.
Then Simmons beamed and ran forward as a drone literally wobbled into her outstretched hands. The other drones flew around her in small circles.
Really... seven Dwarfs drones and a girl..?
Skye looked at Fitz and saw the soft expression on his face as he watched his partner.
There was something there... She was sure of it.
She had noticed it before when one of Reyes' men had caught Simmons' strap and had been tugging on it to get the 0-8-4. And Fitz who had been scared to carry on the plan, who had been waiting by the corridor, not wanting to walk near the hole in the plane, suddenly launched himself forward, tugging on the straps himself and got to Simmons so that he could help her.
It could be friendship, yes... but it could be more, right?
She had to watch them better...
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