Runaway Home - Part 1 ~ Chapter 8
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Twenty minutes later the jet was in the air winging its way towards the train station, two bickering agents aboard and a confused pilot and support crew. At the station the agents left their jet cloaked and made their way over to the quinjet. Before they made it halfway across the roof they are met by a group of soldiers in full tactical gear emblazoned with the HYDRA logo. All the SHIELD agents increased their speed bringing their guns to bare on the enemy surrounding them. Dodging bullets Hunter began speaking frantically into his communicator.
"May, where the hell was the warning we're taking fire we need back up, NOW,"shouted Hunter. Bobbi, Hunter and the rest of the team stood back to back, shooting at the HYDRA agents. Unfortunately while they were making their way towards the uncloaked craft Hunter noticed a HYDRA agent attach something to the hull of the quinjet they came in.
"Oh no you don't," pointing to two of the SHIELD agents, he said,"you two are with me. Bobbi take the rest and get our jet back."
As much as Bobbi and Hunter argued, they both knew when to put their differences behind them. With this Hunter and his two men changed direction heading back to their quinjet. The HYDRA agents saw the trio coming and activated the device attached to the hull. With an anticlimactic fizzle the device blow and sent sparks dancing across the hull cancelling the jets cloaking making it visible to all. The HYDRA agents didn't get time to enjoy the small victory as seconds later they were met by Hunter's men. A short burst from Hunter's pistol took out the leader in a spluttering cough, then they were upon the enemy. In a flurry of fist and pistols the HYDRA agents were taken down the only casualty on Hunter's team was a gunshot wound to the calf.
"What the hell is this," said Hunter removing the device, the uninjured agent entered the quinjet to check it over.
"Everything in here's shot, it must have been an EMP."
"Right you two keep an eye on the jet I'll see how Bobbi's doing," Hunter said rushing of to see how Bobbi had done.
As expected Bobbi had just finished of the last of the HYDRA force together with the crew she was with.
"Awww, couldn't you have left some for me Bob," complained Hunter.
"When will you grow up," Bobbi sighed in exasperation.
"That's really offensive, if I wasn't such a confident individual that might have hurt my feelings."
"Oh for gods sake." Her annoyed look got her a winning smirk from Hunter.
Their bickering was interrupted by one of the agents who helped Bobbi regain the quinjet.
"We've received word from base, apparently HYDRA were blocking all external communications, that's why we got no warning. We've done an external diagnosis of the quinjet, it would seem the device shorted out all the electronics. We suspect they were trying to get the schematics for the cloaking technology, up till now we've never seen them with cloaking capabilities. Agent Hunter, base want you and Agent Morse to carry on to the trains final stop, you're the most familiar with the two missing agents. The rest of us are to take the uncloaked quinjets including HYDRA's back to base, along with all the injured," said the leader of the support agents. In a stunning show of efficiency the SHIELD agents cleared all evidence of the fight except the HYDRA agents, they left them in a pile after shooting a few times each with their ICERs to keep them unconscious. A message was then sent to General Talbot regarding the HYDRA agents before they were on their way. Five miles from the station the three planes split up two returning to the playground while Bobbi and Hunter kept flying to the trains final destination.
To say Hunter was annoyed was an understatement he'd just gone on a pointless mission. Worse still he'd had to spend the whole trip back with an angry Bobbi, he'd had enough of when they were married. They'd arrived at the station and begun searching for Skye and Fitz as the train they were meant to be on disembarked. They were stunned to find them nowhere to be found they'd been fully expecting the pair to be there, only Skye was a field agent and she was only recently promoted.
"Are we certain the techies didn't cock up and they've got off at an earlier stop?" Hunter said into his mic, his annoyance clearly audible.
"There's only one stop and they've been checking its CCTV since the train left that station. The train has an average speed of fifty miles an hour so it's unlikely they jumped off," replied May through his earpiece.
"That's just f*****g fantastic, what a waste of a day."
"Right Hunter we need the pair of you back at base there's no point sending you anywhere if we don't know where your going."
As soon as she got off the line with Hunter, May began looking through the footage of Fitz and Skye at the station. She watched them get their tickets for New Haven and then followed them as they stood on the platform waiting for their train. She saw Fitz looking for the cameras and finding the blind spot between their lines of sight. May fast forwarded to when their train arrived, it was when another train arrived on the opposite side of the platform that it all clicked for her. They'd got on the other train, straight away she pulled up the trains stops. The train was heading east, May quickly thought of why they'd go east before she remembered Fitz. He would want to help Skye as much a possible so he must be taking her to someone who could help. Since Fitz's hypoxia he'd had a lot of trouble remembering his life before the SHIELD academy, that put Salem centre out of the question, therefore the next most logical place would be the Avengers Tower. He must be taking Skye to see Banner, he made the must sense in May's eyes. He too had difficulty controlling his power, if you could call the Hulk that. Banner was also a doctor with Starks backing so he had the technology to cure her, if she couldn't control her gift. Now what to do with her findings? Most people would be surprised by what she chose to do next, instead of notifying Coulson she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialled a number.
"Hello, Maria Hill speaking," said the voice on the other end of the phone.
"Hi Maria, its May."
"I'm assuming from your tone of voice that this isn't a social call."
"No I'm afraid not I have a protocol 8-9-8. I need you to pass along a message for me."
"You know I'm not read into protocol 8-9-8 so anything you say has to be approved by Fury, X or the Ambassador."
"I'm the ambassador so consider yourself read in, now I need you to pass a message onto two people. If my hunch is right they'll be coming into Stark's tower this afternoon, they're both former agents that I need to stay in the wind for the time being. I'm sending you their pictures now."
"Does Coulson know about this?"
"He hasn't got the time to be read in at the moment and I fear if I tell him, the information will find its way back to HYDRA."
"You think he's turned."
"No, never he's the perfect SHIELD agent, but the amount of leaks we've been having and my trust in some of the agents means I'd rather be safe than sorry. If you talk to Fury on the quiet he'll explain things."
"Will do, now what's this message I'm passing on."
"Right then the message is. Mulan says, why not try going home speedy. If he's half the agent I think he is they'll be safe by nightfall, when they've got the message let me know so I can run interference from here. You could be getting a call at the tower from SHIELD, you haven't heard from me if anyone asks, if they push invoke protocol 8-9-8."
"Who's this Mulan?"
"This is to go no further, understood."
"Certainly, I wouldn't dare."
"It's an old nickname I picked up while working with children in between my time at SHIELD, Fitz was one of them and so should recognise who sent the message."
"I never took you for someone to work with children."
"We all find out new things about ourselves when our worlds turn upside down, it was after the Bahrain incident."
"That makes a lot more sense, can I say again how..."
"... There's no point, the months away turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I got so much from my time there, I'll never regret it. Unfortunately I have to draw this conversation to a close I'm expecting Coulson back any minute."
"Right then, goodbye. We should really catch up some time. There's this really nice coffee shop opened near the tower."
"Well I'll look at my schedule and then text you, till then goodbye and thanks."
Coulson re-entered the room as May put her phone back in her pocket.
"Who was that?" He asked.
"Hunter, apparently Fitz and Skye didn't get off at New Haven. I'm about to send a quinjet to scour the tracks to see it there's any sign of them."
"Yeah do that, dare I admit it I almost want them to stay in the wind. There's so much animosity here I don't want to subject them to it by dragging them back here." With that Coulson left her alone in his office to deploy the quinjets.
That night all the team including Coulson and May were round a table in the mess hall eating a recently bought Chinese takeaway. The usual banter between Bobbi and Hunter was interrupted by May's phone going off in her pocket, taking it out she moved further from the table before answering it.
"Yeah May here"
"Hi it's Maria I'm just ringing to say I passed on the message they were picked up ten minutes ago by an Ororo. Do you know her?"
"Ro' yeah she's an 8-9-8 and a friend. So they're safe now, thanks again."
"Both of them wanted to thank you for the clue, by the way."
"It's the least I could do for them."
"By any chance was Fitz one of the 8-9-8's you spent your sabbatical with."
"God am I getting that easy to read."
"Only to me, we have a history after all."
"Yeah well I better tell the team about our discovery, we'll be round in the morning no doubt. See you then."
"Bye till then."
"Bye."
Returning to the table May sat down and put her phone back away, to be met by a ring of expectant faces.
"That was a contact of mine, as soon as I knew about Fitz and Skye's escape I put out word to my contacts that I wanted them found. She said that they've been seen entering Stark's Tower, apparently they haven't been seen since."
"Great, how the hell did they get to New York, that's in totally the wrong direction for New Haven." Said an irate Hunter, "we went to New Haven for no reason."
"It would appear they didn't get on the train we thought. Either way we now need to decide who's going to investigate."
"I'm out the question, I'm still dead to the Avengers so I think May should be leader on this mission. It's her contact after all. Would anyone like to request to be on this mission?"
"Sir can I go on this mission, as May said earlier I haven't been the best friend to either of them and I'd like to make up for that by helping find them."
"Ok and anyone else."
"I'd like to go just incase things get out of hand again," said Trip, "I may not have the best of legs but my arms still work."
"Ok you three can go the rest of us will keep an ear to the HYDRA channels, make sure we're the only ones looking for Fitz and Skye."
