"Isn't that Hawkeye?" Skye whispered to May as the helicopter touched down on the lawn, and the agent in question jumped out, the turned to help two other agents unload the DWARFS container. "We're getting to work with the Avengers?" Okay, AC was stuck in a tunnel and she really ought to be thinking about that but still. Avengers! How cool was that?

"Do you think Iron Man will be here? I would love to meet Tony Stark!" Fitz was practically bouncing at the prospect, even as he checked to make sure the DWARFS hadn't been damaged in transit.

"I think he's retired from the hero game." Steve said. "Any idea of the best way to deploy these?"

"Is there a tunnel that might be secure?" Fitz asked after a moment. "If we can get access to a secure tunnel, we can send them down and have them split up to cover all of the lines. That seems the best plan and the fastest."

"The new line construction. If they're wanting to target civilians that would be the last place they would head for." Tasha replied. "And as for Stark, I wouldn't count him out. He's not normal. Normal people aren't on a first name basis with the entire NYC fire department and every officer on the bomb squad. I don't know why he even said he wanted a normal life. I've got a call in, but who knows where he is or when he'll get it. Can someone pull up a map of the system?"

"Here." Skye said as she tapped on her phone and then handed it over. Captain America. Black Widow. Hawkeye. Iron Man. Maybe Thor would show up too? She wasn't sure about the Hulk. Could he even fit into the Metro tunnels? Then something hit her. These people all thought Coulson was dead! Shouldn't someone tell them differently before they ran into him and had heart attacks? But before she could tug May aside to suggest that they needed to share a few things, Captain Rogers was talking.

"It looks like the first station that the new line doesn't share with any of the other lines is McLean." Steve said. Which would require flying there. "Barton, what's happening at the Triskelion?" They couldn't send people into those tunnels until they had an ideal of what they were facing, but they could get teams into place and have them ready to move.

"We've got power, but things are crazy." Hawkeye told them as they started to move the DWARFS back onto the helicopter, with Fitz hovering like an anxious parent. "Bethesda and Georgetown hospitals are both reporting problems maintaining auxiliary power and Sibley's having issues as well. The president called and asked for Shield's assistance with the situation there, and with securing members of Congress. Too bad they couldn't have had a filibuster tonight. Half of them are in cabs trying to get home, so we're having to track them down first. We've got all but one or two teams tied up with all of that and no one with demolitions experience is currently in house."

"Just perfect. Does anyone who's out in the field have demolitions experience? We need them pulled back to the Triskelion if they do." Natasha said. Specialist training did cover bombs, but if this was as widespread as she was afraid it could be, and with all of the civilians who were in those trains, having people with demolitions training might be critical.

"Agent Garrett knows something about it." May said as the team found seats wherever they could in the helicopter before it lifted off. Although if John Garrett turned out to be their only available agent with proper demolitions experience…. Well, at least she wouldn't be in the tunnels when Victoria found out. There would be an explosion for sure.

"Agent Carter's looking for more agents with the necessary skills, but it looks like we're running short on demolitions experts at the moment. Some op in West Africa's seems to have pulled most of them out of the Triskelion." Natasha said as she checked a text message on her phone. "We might have to go with what we have." Agent May had disarmed one of the bombs. Hopefully that was an indication that they wouldn't necessarily need advanced skills to handle this.

The station at McLean was empty when they touched down, with no sign of enemies or bombs. At least one thing was going their way.

"Okay, Fitz." May said as the DWARFS were unloaded again. "The new line intersects with the Orange line at the next section. From there, you need to send the DWARFS up to…"

"Metro to hit the Red and Blue Lines, Gallery Place for Yellow and Green." Skye read off from her phone. I'm guessing AC is on the Blue Line."

The Rosslyn station was the first indication of serious trouble, bombs at attached to the tracks in a manner that would rip them apart upon detonation and then just a bit further up, two more bombs, pressed against one of the trains, stopped in the middle of the bridge over the Potomac.

"If that goes…" May looked at the others with concern. And what if there were more bombs along the other bridges, Bridges packed with trapped cars? Besides losing access to Virginia, thousands could be killed if they lost those. "Keep going, Fitz."

"This isn't good, is it?" Jemma whispered a few minutes later. She was a bio-chemist, and her bomb exposure had been limited to how to remove an eye that was potentially about to explode, but even with that, she could tell this wasn't good.

"If those things go off, it could bring half of the city down." Natasha murmured. And the most vulnerable areas, where the tracks ran underground happened to be in the heart of government. "Steve…."

"Triskelion. We need to try to get people working on some sort of evacuation plan." Steve pulled out his phone and dialed while he was talking. He wasn't sure how they could possibly accomplish that, but he wouldn't believe there wasn't some way.

"Shaped charges." Hawkeye said as he looked over the visuals the DWARFS were transmitting, before turning to May. "What did the one you disarmed look like?"

"Shaped, remote detonator. Wait!" She waved for Fitz to hold the DWARF currently entering the Red Line steady. "Does that look like…."

"Dead man's switch." Natasha said. The way one of the figures was holding his hand, and not helping with the placement of the bombs, it looked like he was holding tight to a dead man's switch. Not good. A dead man's switch and if the DC police, the transit authorities or heaven forbid the army tried to get down there before they found and took that man out…. "Get your boss and Fury on the line. We need to let him know what's going on."

AC, we've got an update for you. Fitz has the DWARFS following the Metro lines from the new construction out at McLean. There are definitely more bombs, not sure of the exact number, but it's a lot, and from what we've seen so far, it's enough to take down the entire system if they go off.

Coulson, Fury and the other agents all exchanged looks of alarm, and Fury tugged the phone out of Coulson's hands.

This is Director Fury. How many agents can we get, to go into those tunnels to try to take out the bombs?

One or two teams. Skye typed back after a moment of panic over what the director might do to her if he didn't like her answer. The president called out a lot of the agents for help securing Congress, which means they're having to hunt through about a million cabs looking for them.

And all of our demolitions experts seem to be in West Africa at the moment.

"I knew I never should have approved that op." Fury grumbled under his breath. "Options?"

"Five lines, but most of them run along common tracks. If we know what the bombs look like and can work out a plan to disarm them…" Maria used her phone as a flashlight to study the map of the Metro system. "Send teams from the Triskelion into the Red Line from Silver Springs, have Phil's people, Natasha, Barton and the Captain take Orange and Blue through the heart of the city, and we head up the way we came, and cross over the bridge to cover Green and Yellow."

It probably wasn't the best plan, but they didn't have time to come up with something else, given what they were working with.

Do you have a description of those bombs?

Shaped charge, remote detonator. And Agent May and Agent Romanoff spotted someone carrying a dead man's switch. I'm guessing that's really bad?

A dead man's switch. Definitely bad.

Location on that switch?

We're not sure. He moved into the tunnels, and with no lights and all of those people dressed alive, it's kind of hard to tell who's who.

Alright. Here's what we're going to do. Tell Romanoff and Rogers to scramble the people they have at the Triskelion. get them up to Silver Springs and tell them to move into the city, taking the bombs out as they go. My people will come in from Arlington, following the Blue and Yellow lines and cross over to take the Yellow and Green just down from the 14th Street Bridge. I want your people to head down the Blue and Orange lines. Got that?

Got it.

"Director has a plan." Skye said as she handed over her phone to Steve.

He read and then nodded. It was about the only thing that might work with the few people they had on hand, and the need to move quickly. "How many people are with the director?"

"Fury, Hill, Blake, Hand, Sitwell and Garett. Six total." Hawkeye said.

"Seven." Skye said. "There are seven of them. Agent Coulson's down there too. Hey!" She exclaimed when May glared at her. "Do you think there's a chance they're not going to run into him down there? They could have heart attacks and drop dead! I'm not going to kill people to keep some stupid secret!"

"Fury." Natasha and Hawkeye exchanged a look. But they could think about that later. Get the bombs disarmed, get their people out of there, and then they could have a little talk with the director. "Let's move, people!"

"Jemma, can you manage the DWARFS?" May asked.

"Of course." Jemma said.

"Good, stay here and monitor. Notify us if there are any changes. And try to track the man with that switch. Ward, stay with her and help. You're not going to be able to disarm anything with only one functional arm."

"People!" Fury shouted. "People! I'm Director Nick Fury of Shield." He would have pulled his badge, but it wasn't like anyone would be able to see it. "My people are working to sort out this situation, and we'll have you out of here shortly. Just stay calm and sit tight. We're going to check the tunnel, and then we'll have someone walk you out."

"Which way?" Felix asked, as soon as they had a door open, and squeezed out, dropping into the dark tunnel.

"Next stop up the line's Reagan." Maria said. If we can get a path cleared to there, there should be someone from the Transit authority who can walk these people out while we head from the city, and get the rest of the bombs taken care of."

"That works. Weapons an ammunition, people?"

"I have spare clips if anyone needs them." Victoria said as she opened her shoulder bag, wishing she had found a way to pack a few more guns in addition to the extra rounds.

"Could I ask what you thought you might need that for, Vic?" John asked.

"Possibly to shoot someone who set me on fire? I better not see you with matches or a lighter." Victoria said as she divided the extra clips up and handed them out.

"That was an accident. The train jerked." John said as the started to move up the tunnel. "You know I wouldn't have set you on fire deliberately!"

"People, let's focus here! We have bombs to take care of and civilians to evacuate! And no one is getting set on fire today!"