Happy New Year everyone. I hope that this year goes better than last year. I had an ok year last year. I hope that my classes for next semester leave me enough time to write every once and a while.
I am very grateful for all of the support everyone is giving me on this story. I know that it is not the fastest pace for the story but I felt the prequel had been lacking a little bit in detail. Going slower allows me to get those details I was missing into the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel.
The next day Skye woke up early as always. She kept a mental eye out on her computer and the systems around her as she went for her morning run. She was keeping herself in shape. She had figured out that she knew how to fight when a drunk guy had followed her from a laundry mat once. She had hacked herself a membership at a gym nearby so she had a place to do more than just running.
It was nearly lunch time when she made it back to her Van. She quickly changed into some casual clothes and went to sit on the bench that she knew the hooded hero would pass in a little over an hour. It gave her time to come up with a cover story for when Shield would finally come and get her.
Just as she finished going over the story she had come up with for the 3rd time the guy walked past her. She slowly and indiscreetly followed him to the diner that her van was parked next too. She waited a bit before making her way into the diner and approaching him.
Skye had thought of how to approach him earlier. She didn't want to scare him or shock him when she approached him. She had decided it was better if she didn't seem too professional but instead of trying to get him to go to shield she would use reverse physiology.
Skye sat down in the booth across from the man. She tried to talk to him about being a hero but all her efforts seem to just slide past him. When he tried to move away she followed and quickly picked his pocket for his ID. She let him go after that. She knew that he probably was not going to shield with the way he was acting.
She sighed and looked at the driver's license. A small pang of sadness went through her as she realized that she would never have a real legit one of these. She pushed the thought away as she made her way back to her van. She had planned to leave another breadcrumb today for Shield to find.
Skye began to put together another video. She hated this part. She really did not agree with what the Rising Tide was mainly about. She had used a voice-altering program for her recorded voice. She just felt very paranoid about putting her real voice out on the net.
She was in the middle of recording when she suddenly felt a couple of people approach her van. She could feel their surprise when they came upon it. Skye smirked and quietly snuck out of her van. She got behind them as they opened her van door.
"Oh no it is empty," Skye said sarcastically as she stood behind them leaning against the wall.
Skye dodged the punch from the younger agent as they turned around. She made no move to attack them. She sighed and stood still.
"Why are you two wearing suits? Going to something formal?" She asked. The pair of agents did not respond to her question. The younger agent quickly moved forward to put a black bag over her head.
She had to stop herself from attacking the younger agent when he quickly put the black bag over her. Her instincts put her on high alert as they began to transport her to their base.
She counted the amounts of turn and knew exactly how far away they had traveled from her van. She reached out with her mind once they arrived at the airport. She smirked under the bag as she read each of their files. Really she only read the basics to know what she was dealing with. She would go more in depth later.
They brought her to the room she had mentally found out was called the cage. She was forced into a chair and the black bag was ripped off. She looked around curiously and says "You guys are making a big mistake."
Ward looked at her with a blank face and says "You don't look that big."
Skye fixed her hair and just sighed as she instantly knew that she was not going to get along very well with Agent Grant Ward.
"Sorry for the lack of finesse. Agent Ward here has a little history with your group the Rising Tide." Agent Coulson said as he approached the table.
So this was a game of good cop bad cop. Skye kept herself from letting her real emotions break through her exterior. She was fighting the urge to smirk. She looked down and says calmly "I don't know what you…"
Ward cut her off "There are two ways we can do this."
"Oh is one of them the easy way?" Skye asked while smirking.
"No," Ward said simply.
"I set myself up for that one," Skye said sarcastically. She was playing off the discomfort easily.
"What is your name?" Coulson asked.
It was the one question that Skye had not been looking forwards too. She hesitated before answering "Skye."
Ward had noticed the hesitation and says "what's your real name?"
Skye looked into his eyes glaring at him. She didn't want to admit how unnerved she felt not knowing her real name.
Coulson looked at Skye curiously. The expression on Skye's face was very familiar but he couldn't place it. "That can wait. There is another name that we need. A name of a certain hero." Coulson said to keep Ward from grilling her with non-top priority questions.
Skye looked at them trying to figure out the best way to get them to trust her. She made her face look thoughtful as she planned how to go about this. She realized that either way, they will not believe her right away. "Well I might know it and then again I might not. There are a lot of heroes out there nowadays." Skye said after a couple of seconds.
"The hooded hero as you call him," Coulson said before Ward's temper could flare.
"Why would you think I know that?" Skye asked curiously at how informed they actually are.
"Well, you made a little mistake. The phone that you filmed the hooded hero with had the same cryptographic signature as a few of the rising tide posts." Coulson said as he pulled out the file on the incident from the other day.
"Wow… Yeah was that a mistake or am I know sitting in the middle of your team's base of operations. I must admit this is a pretty nice plane." Skye said while smiling brightly. "Besides it took Shield way too long to pick up on the trail that I had purposefully left. Besides, there is no way that your scientists can beat the encryption on my equipment. So you really have nothing." She continued as she relaxed into the chair.
"Well, we do have fairly strong coincidences. You being on the scene right before it went up in flames. Want to tell me what my team is going to find there?" Coulson asked as he put the file in front of her on the table.
"Did you know the hooded man was in the building?" Coulson continued.
"Did you blow it up to draw him out?" Ward said from beside her.
"Do I look like a killer to you? I am a hacker not a terrorist. Besides isn't that more of a Shield thing to do?" Skye said incredulously.
"That's not our style," Coulson said while calmly smiling.
Skye raised her eyebrows and refuted "I was just kidnapped by your style. Shield covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus, of course, you would be covering up centipede."
Coulson looked at Ward and Ward turned away from Skye. He then mouthed Centipede to Coulson. She could feel the concern and surprise coming off of the pair. Skye smiled brightly but then frowned and says "Shield doesn't have a clue about this?! I thought Shield would know about this sooner than me with a laptop that I won in a bet."
Coulson looked at Skye in confusion at how she was speaking. It almost seemed like Skye was disappointed in Shield. He quickly hid this and says "You need to think about your friend. We are not the only ones interested in people with powers. We would like to contain him yeah. The next guy will want to exploit him and the guy after that will want to dissect him."
Skye cringed at the word exploit. They probably assumed it was because of Mike Peterson. She knew what it felt like to get away from people who were trying to exploit her. After all, that was the first thing she could remember clearly.
Ward leaned over close to Skye not giving her a break from her small sign of weakness. "What is centipede?" He asked bluntly.
"Centipede. It was chatter on the web but then gone. I traced the access point back to that building." Skye said as she got up to pace. She felt better moving than she did sitting in the chair. She also didn't like being that close to anyone.
"What were you after?" Ward asked. He was really beginning to get on her nerves. She quickly turned towards him.
"The truth. What are you after?" Skye asked him bluntly. She hated how he was not showing any emotion. She just had to feel his emotions instead.
"World peace." He said back to her. Of course, he would give a generic answer to that. Suddenly he seemed to get tired of sitting back and letting Coulson take the lead. He got up and began to rant "You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up but you're never around for the fallout. People keep secrets for a reason, Skye."
"You don't think I know that?! I may be a member of the Rising Tide but nothing that I have personally had a hand in has hurt anyone. I have uncovered corrupt organizations and politicians. Don't you dare assume that my life is all sunshine and rainbows! You can try and intimidate me all day but just because you are tall and firm does not mean you have the right to judge others. Who knows just because you are Shield does not always mean that you are not just some evil government tool bag." Skye said as she crossed her arms. She wanted to punch the guy so much. Her fists were clenched but Ward didn't seem to notice.
"Just give us your guy's name," Ward said frustrated.
Internally Skye was smiling as she was able to push Ward's buttons. In reality, she frowned and exclaimed, "He is not my guy!"
"You understand he is in danger?" Coulson said from where he was still sitting at the table.
"Then let me go. Let me talk to him not T-1000 here." Skye said seriously.
"You want to be alone with him. Oh, course." Ward started. He walked over towards Coulson and says "She is a groupie. All this hacking into Shield, tracking powers. She might as well be one of the sweaty cosplay crowding around Stark Tower."
Coulson got up and looked at Ward disappointedly. Skye crossed her arms to hide her clenched fists and says "Boy do you have me pegged wrong. I would rather be dead then be caught cosplaying as that idiot. Stop jumping to unrealistic conclusions asshole."
Coulson opened the door and says "Ward."
Both of the men walked out of the room. They left her alone in a room. Skye just smirked and looked around the room curiously. She began to slowly look around. She could see everything that she could possibly turn into a weapon if needed. She may be giving them some information but she was gaining intelligence about them as they talked with her. She was only just getting started.
It was exactly 10 minutes and 37 seconds since they had left when they walked back in. Skye eyed the weird syringe that Coulson was carrying. Ward walked to stand right next to her.
"This is QNB-T16. It is the top Martini of sodium pentathlon derivatives" Coulson started as he loaded it into a syringe. Skye looked at it and nervously began to try and get up. She had been avoiding medical bays and the likes since the syringes made her feel slightly panicky and out of control.
Ward pushed her back down. She was relieved that it was not skin to skin contact because of her long sleeve shirt. "It is a brand new and extremely potent truth drug. Don't worry the effects only last about an hour." Coulson said as he looked at her curiously.
"And you will have a nice little nap. We will have all the answers…" Ward started as he walked towards Coulson. He gave a very small sound of pain when Coulson injected him with the drug.
"What the Hell?" Ward asked Coulson as he looked at him in surprise. Skye could tell that the surprise was very real. She watched the pair with curiosity.
"I am sorry. Did that hurt?" Coulson said sarcastically. The statement caused Skye to smirk.
"No. But you have lost your mind. You should never do that to a member of your team. And yes. It did hurt a little bit but I always try to mask my pain in front of beautiful women because it makes me seem more masculine. My god this stuff works fast." Ward said before sitting down in the chair that Coulson had previously been in.
"Don't trust us? Ask him whatever you like." Coulson said to Skye with a small grin.
"Wait a minute. You can't just… This is defiantly not protocol." Ward said in protest as Coulson left the two of them in the room.
Skye smirked and says almost excitedly "Well that got interesting. Where shall we begin?"
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