Everything is changing…
Don't own the S.H.I.E.L.D. or the characters of Marvel Comics, but happy to play in their backyard.
"The secret is out…"
-Skye, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Doors
(Skye POV)
Having made the decision I pushed against the door. Nothing happened. I stepped back and stared at it. With all that I wanted just staring at it was not going to do it. I went back to the door and grabbed each of the pillars to put more weight against the door. The door swung open so fast that I almost fell out of the room.
My hand came up quickly to shade my eyes from the sun. It was way brighter outside than in that room. I adjusted to light and what I saw was fantastic. There were buildings in front of me that reached to the sky. Most were marble like the walls of the rooms. A couple had silver walls and one very tall massive building had golden walls. Each of the buildings was unique with towers, turrets and conical spires. Most of them had windows on each floor. Those windows were just open-air windows. I did not see any glass windows, which was a little surprising. But then this whole place was surprising.
Saying surprising there were at least two waterways that paralleled the roads. And then I realized there was no one here. The streets and waterways were empty. There was no movement in the windows. Some birds, probably seagulls, circled overhead, but there was nothing else.
The sun seemed to be directly overhead so I could not get my bearings. Off in the distance there appeared to be two mountain ranges. I decided that the tall one would be north until I could tell for sure.
I reached into my survival kit. Yes, Ward made us pack one in our backpacks. Ward kept stressing that we had to keep our backpacks with us at all times. So when I got out the laptop I automatically put the backpack back on. We also carried extra goodies in each of our pockets. I figured I had enough food and water for a couple days. But staying here really wasn't an option. I just had to find the way back.
Opening the kit I found it, a goodie from Fitz. It was a string of location beacons. They, like the food, would last for two days. I went back and put one in the room where I started this little adventure. I figured that I would use that as my reference point and map everything from there. And then drop the beacons like breadcrumbs.
That big golden building was directly north of the room. I figured that would be a good place to start. It was a little walk over to the building, as I had to go down the road in front of the room to get to the bridge that went over the waterway. When I got on the bridge I looked back to the building that contained the room. It was marble like the interior and had a circular dome on top. I thought it might have been a monument. The curious thing about it was the only marking on it were those columns engraved on the door.
At the front of the golden building there were massive double doors. Each one had a column like those at the room. I pulled on one of the columns and the doors swung open. The inside was simply marvelous. The light from the sun bounced from wall to wall. The ceiling was painted bright blue. Some panels of the ceiling had scenes of oceans with large waves or the sun setting behind those mountains. Okay, so the mountains are on the west, good to know.
Majestic reliefs covered the walls. There were scenes of mighty battles of men with swords, shields, spears and bows. Other scenes contained old sailing ships. The final scene flanked a spiral staircase. It showed men and women sitting, talking with each other and reading scrolls.
I looked up the staircase and it went up forever. The relief of people continued around the staircase as far as I could see. Then I realized that I would just have to go up those stairs and I began to appreciate Ward and May and the hours on the Stairmaster.
(Coulson POV)
I must say I was intrigued by the alert from Darcy. Checking it further, it was sent about the time we were notified to come down here. The second alert was a little more descriptive; Jane had disappeared. Well, too many people were disappearing. And a missing Jane Foster would bring a whole new dimension to the problem. I sent a message to Fury to have him verify the circumstances.
May called from the Bus, "The sensors just went nuts and now infrared shows silhouettes about three hundred yards from here. Almost a direct line from the tunnel entrance to the Bus and beyond."
"Ward, you're with me. Meet up at the tunnel entrance. May, let's assume it's the people from the outpost. Load up one of those sleds and meet us over there."
"Copy. We still have gusts up to 100 mph."
"Okay, bring the tent."
Fritz started, "What the …"
Simmons quickly responded, "That's Skye's signal."
That was a surprise, "Where?"
"Might be the same place as the others." He looked over a the evacuation map on the wall, "It's on the same vector." I saw him shake his head. "The GPS locator is not working. We are only getting a signal, no coordinates."
I held up my receiver, "Okay, we should be able to triangulate when I get to the tunnel entrance."
Simmons added, "We'll get medical set up for when you get back."
We walked out of the Atlantis lab together. I joined up with Ward and went out to the tunnel. When I got there, I set the receiver. "Okay Fitz, you get this?"
"Right, the signal is three hundred yards from the Bus. Just about on top of the others."
"Got it. Vector us in."
Ward drove and watched the HUD. The signal from Skye was strong. May had her beacon on too, so we had a clear picture.
May called out, "I found them, no one in artic gear. I'm deploying the tent."
We got there just as May was dragging someone into the tent. "I got three of them. None of them seemed to be moving."
The tent is actually kind of amazing. You set the package on the ground, in this case the ice, and hit the deploy button. The bottom frame shoots out until reaches the end and spikes shoot into the ground. Again in this case ice, and they go down pretty far. The walls inflate and the tent becomes fairly rigid.
Ward and I rushed out of the van. We each got one and started dragging them into the tent. May stayed in the tent. She started working to try to bring them around. It wasn't looking good.
When we got everyone in the tent, we found that two of them had no pulse. The others were in serious hypothermia with varying degrees of frostbite. May was taking direction from Simmons to treat the more serious problems.
Ward and I continued our attempts to find Skye. Fitz kept saying the signal was still out here. But there was nothing. At one point the wind seemed to die down and there was a little swirl of snow on the ground where the signal was supposed to be coming from. But there was nothing.
(Skye POV)
Okay maybe that wasn't enough on the Stairmaster. I was sure I was up over nine or ten floors but this was getting old. After each set of three flights of stairs there was an opening like a large room. But there were no doors. Each of the rooms had bench seats along the walls. They reminded me of the seats used in the reliefs. And those continued. The stairway had reliefs of the people talking with each other and reading scrolls all the way from the bottom. Looking up, it appeared to go on.
After getting a drink of water I decided to go up another two sets. It was a climb. Definitely getting harder. After getting up there, on what ever floor this would be, I saw one last flight of stairs.
I went for it, hoping to find a real room of some kind. There was another opening with bench seats and then at the opposite end of the room from the stairs there were the two pillars. For the first time, I decided to put Fitz's goggles back on. It was open behind those pillars, another room. I went up to the pillars and with a hand on both. I pushed. It opened.
Okay so being amazed or surprised had already been done but truly this was beyond that. They looked the same.
A/N Okay twisting stories and space. Hope you enjoy. Definitely AU. Reviews on this one gratefully accepted. And thank you to all those that have added reviews.