Hi, folks. Well, here's the latest chapter as I promised. However, this one is sure to be a doozie as now we're getting weaved in further into the tangent AoS Season 1 Plotlines. And if you think this is just the end…then where the heck is your brain at, true believers? Anyways, hope you enjoy this one as much as I did writing it. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purpopses only, so PLEASE don't sue. Other than that, enjoy!
The Spec-Ops Plane Meeting Room…
Sabrina backed up against the wall as the other agents surrounded her. She could clearly see that Arthur was none too pleased with the little revelation and unanswered questions he had now regarding Sabrina's knowledge of the intruders.
"Sabrina." Arthur said, seriously, "Who was that?"
Sabrina lowered her head to the ground and sighed. There was no way getting out of this now. She was a horrible liar, and it was only a miracle that Arthur had not asked her about this part in her life she never wanted to revisit ever again.
"His name's Monty Bernado." Sabrina said.
"Don't know that person." Arthur admitted.
"He was a small-time theif back when you were rising up as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, so I doubt you noticed or heard of him." Sabrina explained.
"So how do you know him?" Arthur asked.
Sabrina looked up and everybody could see that she had tears forming in her eyes.
"Because he killed my brother." She answered.
The team was taken aback as Sabrina folded her arms and turned away from them, not wanting to be seen this way.
"Years before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," She elaborated, "I was usually ignored by the rest of my family. My Mother and Father never cared for me, but my older brother, Samuel…he at least gave me some attention. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep me from feeling like I didn't exist."
She paused before continuing again.
"When I was 13…" She explained, "Mom and Dad went out for a party night, leaving him to look after me. While we were asleep, Monty broke into our house with his gang. Samuel told me to stay where I was while he checked it out. Then I heard a gunshot and despite telling him I'd do what I was told, I ran to see what had happened…and…"
The tears on Sabrina's face were now flowing like a waterfall as she held back some sniffles.
"I found him dead on the floor with a knife in his hands…" She admitted, "He'd tried to defend himself but ended up with a bullet in the head."
She turned around to face her teammates who looked at her surprised. Before Arthur could say something, Faye quickly moved in and punched Sabrina right in the face.
"FAYE!" Arthur declared, as she began to throttle Sabrina by her throat.
"AND YOU KEPT THIS INFORMATION FROM US?!" Faye demanded, as Katie and Jessica tried to move her away, "IT'S BAD YOUR FAILED TO BRING THIS UP SOONER, BUT IF YOU KNOW THESE GUYS, YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD US SOONER! NOW WE KNOW THEY KNOW WHO IGRAINE IS, WE COULD'VE TRACKED AND CAUGHT THEM SOONER AND SAVED EVERYBODY A WHOLE LOT MORE TROUBLE!"
She managed to move her hand forward enough to pull down Sabrina's right sleeve revealing a long scar along her arm
"Something else you'd like to explain?!" Faye asked.
"Faye, stop this!" Katie said, pulling her teammate back, as Faye finally let go of Sabrina who began to take deep breaths of air as Bruce went to help her.
"C'mon, Katie!" Faye said, "It's obvious she's working for Igraine. How else would you explain that scar?!"
"She's not, Faye!" Jessica declared, "And you know why?! Because if she was working for Igraine, we'd be dead by now and she would've blown up taking the plane and us with her!"
Faye stopped as Sabrina recovered her composure.
"It's true…" She said, weakly as she recovered her voice, "This was my own doing. I accidently tripped after I took the knife and tried stabbing Monty and his gang. I wanted revenge and I wanted to make them pay. I did manage to disable them, and then the cops came and assured me they'd be getting the chair. That's when my parents decided to send me away. That's the whole reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place. I didn't want to hurt anyone but I wanted to save people as well."
"So how exactly are they back now?" Jessica asked, keeping a tight grip on Faye's arm.
Sabrina looked at Bruce as everyone else looked on in suspicion.
"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But a few times a week I try writing on my own personal phone. I usually write notes to Samuel, which might sound stupid, but it's the only way I can keep him alive. A few months before I joined the team, I received an e-mail saying that it was from Monty and his gang, and that they were going to kill me, and make me suffer. A few more times during the past months these threats have kept coming in and I fear that it's all come true. I asked Bruce if he could help and he had some…rather disturbing results."
Bruce nodded, as Sabrina stood up straight again, and he let go of her.
"This is correct." He said, "I did this in secret because Sabrina entrusted me to. She asked me to try and find out where these people were sending her the letters from."
….
The Spec Ops Plane,
A few days after Arthur's team had formed…
Bruce was in his room, playing his Call of Duty on the screen in his bedroom. Sure, he felt a bit under pressure by Arthur, but he hoped that everything would sort itself out by the end. He was racking up points when there was a soft knock at the door.
Turning his game off, he opened his door to see Sabrina standing there, looking a bit worried while she rubbed one arm.
"Hi." She said.
"Hey." Bruce replied.
"How's everything going with you?" She asked, "I uh…I hope I didn't wake you up or anything."
"Nope." He said, looking at her concerned, "Sabrina…I don't mean to be rude, but what's wrong with you? You seem a little sad about something."
Sabrina looked at him seriously.
"I need to step in for a second, okay?" She asked.
Bruce let her in, and she quickly shut the door pulling out her phone.
"No matter what happens." Sabrina explained, "This stays between us. Promise?"
"Okay." Bruce said, "Now please tell me what's happening?"
Sabrina showed him her phone and he saw she had a text from an unknown source.
"Dear Sabrina," He read, "How's life been treating you? Do you think you're safe with S.H.I.E.L.D., that you can use it to close one chapter on your life, and begin a new one? Well tough luck, kid. Me and my friends are going to come back for you and kill everyone you've made friends with in your current life. So if you haven't managed to make friends with anyone in your new organization, you'd better start pushing them away because that way we will torture and break you before letting you taste the cold embrace of death. We'll be back. With warm regards, Monty Bernado."
Bruce finished reading and looked up at Sabrina surprised.
"He's a small-time crook who I encountered before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," Sabrina said, "He broke into my house when I was 13 and killed my older brother. Afterwards they got the chair and I left my home to do something with my life. Hence why I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., hence why I had been so secretive with my past, and so on."
"Sabrina…" Bruce said, holding her tightly, "I'm sorry. I can't even imagine how that felt."
Sabrina cried into him and eventually pulled away.
"But how can this Monty Bernado guy be contacting you if he got the chair?"
"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But I saw him get the chair on TV. They had it shown on the news and I watched him and his other friends get electric chair. But that's why I came to you."
She looked at him, wiping her nose and sniffing.
"I need you to try and find out how they're contacting me, and if it's really them, or if they're just some agents using their guise. Please, Bruce…it was hard enough for me to come to somebody for help, lord knows there's only a few people I would actually trust not to snap and break upon hearing this news. Please don't make me have to beg…"
"Sabrina." Bruce said, seriously, "I would NEVER do that. Especially not now. Don't worry, I'll keep this a secret as best I can from everyone else."
"Thank you, Bruce." Sabrina smiled, weakly.
"Thank you for being honest." Bruce replied.
….
The Spec-Ops Plane,
Now…
"So what did you find out, Bruce?" Arthur asked.
"The truth is actually quite disturbing. I did some research on Monty and his two associates, and I found out that they actually all did get the electric chair. However, the e-mails were genuine, despite there being no return address. This is where things got…disturbing."
Everyone eyed him suspiciously as he spoke.
"There is no single place they were e-mailing her from because they were the messages themselves. Somehow it appears that they were changed into beings of pure energy with the powers to navigate and control any electronic devices."
"Possibly thanks to Igraine," Arthur said, "She finds victims related to our past and turns our ghosts on us. Clever."
"There's… one more thing…" Sabrina said.
"Of course there is." Faye replied sarcastically.
"Watch it." Arthur warned, as he turned back to Sabrina.
"When we had that time off…that time before the Purple Man incident…" Sabrina explained, "I was alone outside getting all of our gear ready to relax outside the plane…I thought I saw Samuel."
"But you said he died." Katie pointed out.
"He did." Sabrina agreed, "But it was him. The same face right down to the last detail. Then that other time when we let you say those final words to your mom? I spotted him out of the corner of my eye passing by us again. I did more research on people with similar faces and I found a match; Edgar Dalit. He's a businessman for used cars working in the general DC Area, and currently is dating an exchange student from New York named Mimi."
"Do you think it's another trap by Igraine?" Arthur asked.
"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But when I saw him, his eyes gave me this look that Samuel would give me when he would remind me that I'd never be alone. It happened on both occasions."
"You realize you've admitted to breaking a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. rules in the book." Faye reminded her.
"Oh shut the hell up, Faye." Sabrina declared, "I've had enough of your crap. You know you're starting to sound like Arthur before he grew a conscious."
"At least I'm being concerned with the safety of everyone here!" Faye shot back.
"QUIET!"
Everyone stopped arguing and looked at Arthur who's single word managed to break the chaos and silence his team.
"As of right now," He said, taking a deep breath, "We have two possible leads on Igraine. We also know that Agent Phil Coulson has been captured and this Monty Bernado guy seems to have resurrected himself from the dead along with his partners and Sabrina's older brother as well. They seem to have information as to where Phil and Igraine is, and as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it's our job now to take them down and save our fellow Agent."
He looked over at Faye.
"We are all going to work together now." He said, eying everyone else in the room, "I'm pissed off at Sabrina as well. I admit it. But right now people are counting on us, and our little petty fighting isn't going to get us any further. So here's what's going to happen; Katie and I are going to investigate this Edgar Dalit guy. Sabrina will come with us only as a consultant. Jessica and Faye will go with Bruce to the location that the Trinity of Terror asked us to go to. We find out what we can, take these guys down, get Phil back and hopefully find a way to close the book on this Igraine person forever. Do I make myself clear."
Faye looked at the ground, but nodded. The rest of the team soon followed suit.
"Good." He said, "Now let's move out."
….
Later, Washington DC, Outside the Home of Edgar Dalit…
Arthur sat behind the front wheel of his S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued Black Honda Accord, which had thankfully been repaired since Katie's incident with it. Katie sat in the passenger's seat while Sabrina sat behind Arthur. From what Arthur learned, there were two other members to Monty Bernado which made up this so-called 'Trinity of Terror' that they referred to themselves as. Monty's best man according to the old police files Arthur had dug up was named Carlito Placebo, a former small-time thief who murdered his own girlfriend after he caught her engaged in doing the mattress jig with some middle-aged guy behind Carlito's back. The muscle of the group was Lambo Leotardo, who was unfortunately an ADHD-born child raised by the wrong types of people.
"So do you think that Faye and Jess can really take these guys down?" Katie asked.
"They should be able to." Arthur theorized, as the group watched the man described as Samuel's double walk over to the house on the other side of the street from where they were parked.
The man had short dirty blonde hair, and was wearing an opened white buttoned-down T-Shirt with a blue t-shirt underneath and blue jeans with white sneakers.
"That's him." Sabrina told them.
"Okay, Sabrina." Arthur explained, "I'll let you handle this first. Just remember, you have to try and be thorough and not let him know who we really are. If something goes wrong, we'll tell him. But try to be subtle."
"Okay." Sabrina said, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting up.
She took deep breaths trying to separate her personal feelings from her task at hand. But it was difficult to do so, and the closer she got to the door, the more she felt as if her heart was going to explode from her chest from all the suspense and wordiness with regards as to whether or not this was her brother or not.
Now finally standing in front of the door, she took another deep breath and exhaled before knocking on the door. In a few seconds, the door was opened and Edgar, Samuel's look alike, was looking at her. He showed no signs of recognizing her but instead was more open to hearing whatever it was she was going to say.
"Hi…" She smiled, weakly rubbing her arm, "My car broke down a couple miles away and my phone's almost dead. Do you mind if I use your house to charge my phone, and wait for someone to help me out?"
"Uh…sure thing." Edgar said, letting Sabrina inside, "I'm actually getting ready to leave soon. I'm taking my girlfriend to a movie later tonight, but I have a couple of hours to spare."
"Thank you." Sabrina smiled, lightly.
"I'm Edgar, by the way." He said, "What's your name?"
"Katie Shelia." Sabrina lied.
"Katie…" He said, looking at her confused.
Sabrina noticed this, but hid her suspicions behind her back.
"You know…" He said, "I can't help but feel as if we've met before somewhere. Did we meet before?"
Sabrina shook her head. It was getting difficult to keep lying. She wanted to tell him 'Yes! I'm your sister and you've somehow come back from the dead with amnesia!'
Instead, she once again gave a sigh.
"No." She said.
"Well, okay…" Edgar replied, walking up some stairs in the hallway entrance, "Make yourself at home. I'm just going to get ready for my date tonight. I actually just got home believe it or not."
"Yeah…" Sabrina replied, looking at the living room.
It was small with a little TV, some shelves with various pictures of Edgar (or perhaps it was photo shopped of Samuel,) in various stages of his life. A young boy riding a bicycle, a young man in a graduation cap and gown, and a photo of a couple, a brown haired man with a brown moustache, and a middle-aged woman with dark red hair.
There was also a little lamp and a couch with two chairs. One of the chairs was placed next to an outlet. Sabrina plugged her phone in and sent her encrypted text to Arthur.
'Got in. Seems normal, but he seemed to know me again.'
She waited as Arthur replied.
'Stay there and question him. We'll be looking into related theories.'
She confirmed the order and put her phone away as Edgar finally entered the living room now dressed in a light-pink buttoned-down shirt and black trousers. He was putting on a blue-and-red striped tie as he looked over at Sabrina.
"You managed to reach anyone?" He asked.
"Yeah." She lied, "Apparently I have a friend who should be here in the next six hours or so. He owns a mechanics store so I guess we can spend time and chat if that's fine with you."
"It is." He smiled.
….
Meanwhile…
Outside, Arthur and Katie were looking away at the built-in touch screen computer, trying desperately to find anything that might've had a hint to what their enemies were up to.
"Arthur?" Katie asked, "You don't know how Agent Coulson came back, right?"
"No." Arthur told her, "Nobody except Director Fury does. Though I'd imagine he'd move heaven and earth to save Phil, considering he was right-hand man of Fury's operations. Why do you ask?"
"Do you think whoever this Igraine person is that's been torturing us…do you think she might be in on Phil's kidnapping?"
"Hard to say." Arthur admitted as his information that he requested came flooding in, "I know Phil and his team have said that they've been being plagued by somebody who somehow knows their every move, but it wouldn't surprise me if whoever this Igraine person is was actually working with this guy to predict all these moves."
Finally, something came up and Arthur looked at an article.
"Who's this?" Katie asked, "Professor Anber Jenkins?"
"Huh." Arthur said, surprised, "I actually remember meeting this guy, believe it or not. Saved his life once during an attack on his University."
"So what was he like?"
"Oh, the usual." Arthur replied, looking through the file information, "Genius with a high-level intelligence so well that his college professors had to make sure he wasn't cheating. He's also a part-time engineer for a couple old S.H.I.E.L.D. Tech Bot designs, though he refused to sign on full-time."
"And why's that?" Katie said, raising an eyebrow.
"He was a smart guy." Arthur admitted, "But he had this notion that all wars and the damage to our environment were all our own faults. That we were essentially too crowded on Earth and that this was just natural causes that we're engaged in many different wars which gets parts of the world flooded or wrecked by mother nature every year. So what does he have that…"
Arthur paused as he finally saw a file worth of value. Katie saw it as well and looked at it equally shocked.
"Son of a bitch." Arthur declared, unbuckling his seatbelt.
….
Inside…
Sabrina looked again at the photos of the two people on the cupboard.
"Are those your parents?" She asked.
"Yes, actually." Edgar said, looking at the photos proudly, "Great people. Always cared and tended for me whenever I needed help. Dad's currently a podiatrist, and Mom currently runs a local book store. They helped me grow as a person which is how I'm able to take classes here in Washington."
"Excuse me for asking…" Sabrina said, "But did you…did you have any brothers or sisters?"
Edgar chuckled, but Sabrina felt he was holding something back.
"No." He said, "Mom and Dad never had any other kids besides me, but…this is going to sound kind of strange…"
"Yes?" Sabrina asked, eagerly.
"I keep having this dream." Edgar admitted, "I'm in a house that's not my own, and I'm telling a young girl who I say is my sister to stay put where she is. I never see her face, but I go downstairs and then there's a bright light and I usually wake up. Does that sound weird to you?"
Sabrina was about to answer, when another new voice arose.
"That actually doesn't sound weird to us at all."
The two turned to see Arthur and Katie standing there.
"What the-?!" Edgar declared, "Who are you two?!"
"Relax, sir." Arthur assured, "I'm Agent Arthur Williams of S.H.I.E.L.D. The woman next to me is my partner, the REAL Agent Katie Sheila. The woman you've been talking to is our team biologist, Sabrina Marie Washionton."
Edgar's eyes suddenly went wide, as he looked at Sabrina.
"Sabrina…" He said, "But…I told you to stay put where you are."
"Katie, restrain Sabrina, please." Arthur demanded.
Katie quickly grabbed Sabrina by her arms, and dragged her away. Sabrina kept failing her arms everywhere, but Katie maintained a strong grip on her friend thanks to her workout regime that Arthur had put her on.
Arthur quickly tackled Edgar, keeping one of Edgar's arms behind his back and one foot on Edgar's other arm. As Edgar tried to fight back uselessly, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Team Leader took out a small laser knife from his coat pocket and activated it.
"Sabrina." He said, "I'm so sorry. I don't want to see you hurt like this, but this man is not your brother. At all."
With that, he plunged the laser knife deep into Edgar's arm which was pinned down by Arthur's foot. Cutting a line down there, Arthur finished and used his free hand to open up the wound. Sabrina gasped seeing something she hadn't counted on. She expected to see copious amounts of blood and veins from opening up the skin.
While there was blood that could be seen, it was only stains along a metal interior which seemed like a robotic skeleton arm. Lights were going on and off underneath the skin and different gauges were moving up and down along the area.
"Your brother's still dead, Sabrina." Arthur told her, simply, "Edgar is nothing more than an L.M.D. Or a Life Model Decoy. Stark invented one of these things, but S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been making prototypes with the help of one Professor Anber Jenkins who went missing a month back before turning back up towards the beginning of this week. Basically they're robots that look, act, and feel exactly like humans, except it's all pre-programed into their circuits."
"Oh god…" Edgar breathed, "I remember everything…that bitch she…"
"You know who did this to you?" Katie asked.
Edgar thought, and shook his head.
"No…" He said, "I only remember the…construction process where they built me using the brain patterns based off of Samuel Washionton that they stole from his grave. Everything during that time wasn't visible enough for me to see. But I did get a look at one woman who was in silhouette. Someone referred to her as… Igraine."
"Edgar…" Arthur said, sympathetically as he closed the cut and Katie went to retrieve some tape, "I'm sorry you had to go through this. I need to know, however, do you know anything about the current location of Agent Phil Coulson?"
Edgar sat there for a minute before nodding.
"Yes." He said, "I have the location programed into my robotic brain."
"Great." Arthur said, "Then once the team gets back from Sabrina's old home we'll head down and arrest them."
"Wait!" Edgar declared, "They're at the old home?!"
"Yes." Arthur answered, "Why?"
"They're gonna get killed!" Edgar told them, "The old home doesn't exist anymore!"
"What do you mean?!" Sabrina asked.
"You seriously never checked on the house?!" Edgar replied, shocked, "Our…I mean your parents sold the land about three years or so ago. It's now an electrical power plant meaning that they have the home advantage. Your friends are as good as dead."
"No." Arthur declared, standing up.
"Arthur?" Katie asked.
"We don't leave our team behind." Arthur said, strongly, "Coulson can wait since everybody else is looking for him. We can cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, we have to focus on saving our team, and stopping the Trinity of Torture."
"It's not going to be easy." Edgar admitted, "Even if you do somehow manage to shoot them, they'll be able to travel around to the nearest electronic device available."
"Leave that to me…" Arthur smiled, taking out his phone.
….
New Jersey, The Former Residence of Sabrina Marie Washionton and her family…
"This can't be right." Faye declared, walking cautiously into the electrical plant which occupied the area where Sabrina's house should've been.
"Tell me something I don't know." Jessica replied.
Jessica was nearly convinced that Faye was indeed the mastermind behind this whole mole thing. But at the same time, she figured Faye wasn't the true grand puppeteer and attacking her now would only make things worse. No. There was someone else pulling her strings and she was determined to find out.
Suddenly, Jessica realized she was stepping on something and stepped away gasping at what she saw. Underneath was some imprinted letters reading 'Borgodo Electric Plant. A Division of The Centipede Program.'
"What's wrong, Jess?" Faye asked.
"We need to go, now!" Jessica declared.
Before they could move, the plant almost seemed to turn on by itself and a giant blue light shot up from the power plant's engines. This light then turned into an electric dome which blocked off any chances of escape for the two. Then, three beams of light emerged from within three of the engines, forming into human bodies before becoming three humans. One was a large muscular bald man, one was a fairly-built man with a thin pencil moustache and oily black hair, and a well-built man with jet black hair smiling at the two Agents. Each were wearing black skin-tight suits with hexagons on them.
"So I see Agent Williams failed to join the party." The leader spoke, "Well, it's all right. I'm sure that we can postpone it till he gets here. Gives us time to set up a little present for him."
….
The Spec Ops Plane…
Bruce was worried. He had been left here to monitor the plane as well as Jessica and Faye's surveillance, but nothing was coming up.
"Jessica, Faye!" He declared, "What's happening?!"
Just then, he noticed another incoming message, quickly pulling it up, he saw it was Arthur.
"Bruce?!" Arthur asked, "What's happening?!"
"Jessica and Faye went to scout the area and I just lost contact with them!"
"Great." Arthur groaned sarcastically, "That means the worst fear has come to pass. Jess and Faye are in a trap and we need to stop the Trinity of Torture. We're on our way over there, but we need you to build something while we're on our way. We need you to build something that'll help us defeat them!"
"That would be nice if I knew more about how they were working their powers!" Bruce declared.
"I can help." A new voice said from the transmission.
Bruce looked confused, so Arthur focused the camera and Bruce saw to his amazement that Sabrina was sitting in the back seat next to what appeared to be the perfect recreation of her long-dead brother.
"He's a Life Model Decoy." Arthur explained, "But he's apparently in control of his own body now and says he wants to help."
"Huh." Bruce declared, "Interesting. I never thought that you'd have managed to gain a sentient A.I."
"What?" Edgar asked.
"Nevermind." Bruce said.
"Okay." The Life Model Decoy declared, blinking his eyes. Suddenly a message appeared which Bruce opened revealing schematics for a device that Bruce realized would be helpful in taking down the Trinity of Torture.
"Now there's one last problem to take care of." Arthur said, "How do we make sure the Trinity of Torture stays down?"
"I might have an idea…" Bruce said, "But your friend here needs to be in on this."
Sabrina looked at the LMD of her brother worriedly, but he gave her an assuring look before turning back to Bruce.
"Go on." He said.
….
Borgodo Electric Plant, New Jersey, Later…
Faye and Jessica tried to keep cool heads, but it was hard to when their foes could be anywhere. Turning around with their guns at the ready, both tried to listen for the closest hint of where their attackers could be. They had tried escaping only to find it was impossible as the more they ran into the wall, the more electrical current would send them flying back in pain. The only way out it seemed was to take their attackers down.
That's when Faye heard a sound and unloaded a number of rounds into an electrical engine, blasting it away. Before she had time to process what had happened, the largest of the attackers popped out from the side of an engine to her right, and grabbed her. Instantly, Faye began feeling almost a million of jolts race through her body as she screamed in pain.
Jessica heard the scream and went to help, only to be ambushed from both sides by the other two members who continued to hold her arms and charge her with an electrical current as well.
"Oh yes!" Monty Bernado laughed, "This feels great! We're gonna send your friends a deep-fried present and…"
Suddenly, they stopped charging them and the two agents fell to the ground.
"What the hell?!" Monty asked, confused, "What happened to all the power?!"
"Surprise, jackass."
The three turned to see Arthur Williams standing outside the dome next to Katie, Sabrina, and Edgar. That's when they noticed that Arthur was holding a small tablet-like device in his hand.
"Like it?" He asked, "That's something our LMD friend here came up with. I've essentially changed your body frequencies that allow you to escape through any of these engines. So there's no way out."
"And the prodigal son arrives." Monty declared, "You know, you should do your homework, Agent Williams. You might've managed to destroy our means of escape…"
He was cut off when Arthur fired a bullet into Monty's head. Then it was followed by one to Carlito and to Lambo. As they fell to the ground, Edgar suddenly twitched around and then his mouth turned into a smile.
"But you left one other exit for us." Edgar smiled, "You really are an idiot. You've just given us a means of escape through this robot body. Did you think he could really help you beat us?"
"No." Sabrina said, "But I did. Only because he was willing to make a sacrifice."
Suddenly, the Possessed-LMD looked confused.
"Sacrifice?" He asked, "What do you…"
Suddenly he began holding his head in pain.
"AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"
"Monty, what did you do?!"
"Boss, what's all this stuff coming in?!"
"I don't know boys! I…I can't…"
"All we did was rewire his systems before we got here." Sabrina explained, "Now you can only get information into that thing, but you can't use it to escape or take any information out…"
"I…I can't…"
Sabrina looked away as the Life Model Decoy twitched around repeatedly and the finally gave off a small explosion. She looked back. The Life Model Decoy was now nothing more than scrap metal save for the robotic head which was now deprived of its eyes. All Sabrina could hear was the faint sound of Monty repeatedly asking 'How?'
With that, she switched the robot off, and fell to her knees, her teammates moving towards her to help consolidate her and try to make her feel better after losing her brother a second time. At least this time however, she managed to say goodbye before going into action, and she had people to help her through the experience.
….
The Spec-Ops Plane, Soon…
The team was now fully assembled in the meeting room as Jessica had put in the coordinates that Samuel's LMD had given them before preforming his final act of heroism.
"Today." Arthur sighed, "One of our agents was given a pain that she never felt in a long time."
He turned to Bruce.
"This might seem weird for me to say, but I'm glad you kept the secret, Bruce. Everybody needs somebody to trust every now and then. I admit I'm still pissed at you for doing what you did, but right now, we have a new main priority. Edgar gave us the last coordinates to where they're keeping Coulson. Our mission now is to rescue him. Then we're going to find this Igraine and make her pay. We'll be coming up on the base soon. Word has it that Phil's team is also headed down there so let's try to take what Edgar gave us and make it worth a damn for what we do to help today."
Everyone nodded.
….
Soon, the Mojave Desert…
The Spec Ops plane touched down near The Bus in what appeared to be an old abandoned nuclear test sight with little homes and fake mannequin people. As the Spec Ops crew departed from the bus, they saw they were not alone. Standing outside the Bus were Melinda, Ward, Fitz, and Simmons.
"Looks like the gang's all here." Arthur declared.
"That's not all of us." May responded.
Suddenly, a black sports car pulled up and out stepped Skye wearing black clothes and sunglasses.
"Any ideas on where we'll find Phil?" Katie asked.
Just then, they heard someone screaming in pain from down below.
"That's Phil…" Skye answered.
Suddenly, a group of muscular people burst out from the surroundings.
"Crap!" Arthur declared, as everyone took cover, "Skye! You and May feel up for saving Phil with me and Katie?!"
"Yes!" Skye said.
"Okay." Arthur said to everyone else, "We'll be back!"
With that, Faye, Jessica, and Ward began unloading as Fitz and Simmons tried to come up with an idea to help.
The other agents took this opportunity to follow Arthur to where the screaming was coming from. Moving into the house which appeared to be the source of the cries of anguish, the group was met with a disturbing sight. Phil was there lying on a metal bed which looked like a tomography scanner, reeling and screaming in pain as an African American woman wearing a flower dress stood over him monitoring her.
"This is for his own good…" The woman began, but Skye and Katie slugged her in the face, knocking her out.
"Thanks." Skye said.
"Don't mention it." Katie replied.
The two then looked over Phil.
"PHIL!" Skye declared, "Are you okay?!"
"Phil!" Katie declared, "It's Katie Shelia! Remember? The girl who you helped out in The Hub?"
"I wanna die." Phil replied, "Please. Just let me die. Please! Please! Just let me die! PLEASE!"
"Dammit!" Skye swore, turning to Arthur and May who were looking over the wiring.
Eventually, they just tore the whole thing out and Phil began taking deep breaths.
"Coulson!" Arthur said.
Coulson regained his composure before nodding.
"I'm…I'm all right." He replied.
….
Soon…
The battle outside was soon easily won. With the combined efforts of Arthur and Coulson's team, the groups had managed to save Phil and arrest the woman in the flower dress. Arthur and his team were told the woman's name was Raina, who apparently had a link to the mysterious person who had haunted Coulson's team as much as Igraine had been plaguing Arthur's team.
Currently, Arthur and Katie were standing near The Bus as Phil removed Skye's monitoring bracelet which apparently limited her use of electronics on the Bus following a previous mishap with the team. Phil dismissed her and then turned his attention to Arthur and Katie.
"You both did great." He said, shaking both their hands, "Thank you for pulling through for me when I needed help the most. Especially you, Katie. I think you and Skye are on your ways to becoming the best S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents ever recruited."
"Thank you, sir." Arthur said, "But it was not without a cost."
"What do you mean?" Phil asked.
"Let's just say we can't talk about it." Arthur told Phil, "Not for security reasons, mind you, but out of respect for a friend."
Phil nodded.
"Fair enough." He replied, "Although I understand that apparently some of the higher-ups aren't very fond of what you did."
"Yeah." Arthur said, "But we've had our own little puppeteer manipulating us from the shadows. And I think that pretty soon, we're gonna be taking the fight to them. So at least we'll be able to show we have an assignment that shows our team's worth some value that'll probably get us off the hook as soon as we meet."
"Best of luck with your leads." Coulson replied, "And thanks again. Perhaps when you're all finished you can help us in taking this other guy who seems to be giving my team trouble."
"Can't make any promises, but I'll consider it." Arthur replied, "Now first things first; we need to review our stance on this thing. But we will certainly try to be there."
"Thanks." Phil said, walking off, as Arthur and Katie left.
….
A few days later, The Spec-Ops Plane…
Sabrina sat in her room looking at an old photo of herself and Samuel. Things had been pretty much quiet since the incident with Edgar. Fortunately, Arthur was using this time to get some information together, and he was insisting that he was finally close to putting this whole business behind everyone. It was a photo from Sabrina's tenth birthday party. In the photo, she was wearing a small polka dotted party hat and blue shirt and jeans while Samuel had a white T-Shirt on with light blue jeans. Behind them was a small cake which he had baked that day since her parents had been gone and would clearly not get back till later that night.
Sabrina sighed, and heard a knock at her door. Quickly putting the photo away, she opened it to see it was Bruce standing there.
"Hey." He said, "How are you holding up?"
"All right." She shrugged, "I just wanted to give you something, though."
With that, she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a big hug. Bruce was surprised by this at first, but slowly returned the hug to her, putting his own arms around her back.
"Thank you for helping me out with my secret even if it didn't work out." She told him.
"Thank you." Bruce said.
Then Sabrina did something that really surprised him.
She gave him a soft kiss on his cheek.
Bruce's face suddenly went red and his expression confused as Sabrina smiled at him.
"Thanks for being such a good friend." She added, before walking off.
"Uh…" Bruce replied, trying to get over the recent events, "Thanks…Oh, Arthur needs us right now in the office."
"Oh, okay." Sabrina replied, walking back to the meeting room as Bruce followed suit.
The two straightened themselves out and entered Arthur's office. Arthur was already sitting behind his desk while Katie, Faye, and Jessica were already standing there. Arthur eyed Faye.
"Faye, I believe you have something to say?" He asked.
Faye sighed.
"I'm sorry I hit you, Sabrina." She apologized, "It's just that we've been tracking this mysterious person for so long, that I kinda jumped the gun."
"Apology accepted." Sabrina told her.
"Now, on to more important matters." Arthur explained, "Following our recent actions, The World Security Council has actually put us on their radar, and are actually considering whether or not they should stop funding our group. Fortunately, Director Fury is giving us one last chance by having Agent Tyler Boateng evaluate us. We'll be picking him up from the Hub tomorrow, and as it happens, we FINALLY have a lead on Igraine."
He pressed some buttons on his desk and a hologram came up of a middle-aged man with a long brown mullet haircut wearing a fancy suit appeared.
"THIS," Arthur said, "Is Professor Anber Jenkins. He's a genius-level robotics mechanic who currently resides as a University Professor at Harvard. He's also the man responsible for creating Edgar since besides S.H.I.E.L.D., the only other person who knows about making Life Model Decoys is Tony Stark, who's obviously a bit too busy right now to be involved with all this, what with cleaning up after the A.I.M. incident and all."
"And you think he might be with Igraine?" Katie asked.
"Exactly, Katie." Arthur said, "After we pick up Tyler, we're going to pay Professor Jenkins a visit and FINALLY get some valuable information about Igraine once and for all."
"Sir." Faye asked, "With all due respect, we should move now while we still have the time."
Arthur looked at her confused as Faye spoke again.
"Sir," She explained, "If Monty and his men were able to hack into our systems, who knows what other kind of people Igraine might have spying on us. We should move now and grab him so we have solid evidence that we managed to apprehend him sooner.
"Negative," Arthur replied, "If we do so, The Security Council might get a bad impression that we're dodging responsibilities, so we 're going to catch him tomorrow after picking up Tyler."
"But sir…" Faye pleaded.
"That's enough." Arthur said, sternly, "Now everybody else get some sleep for tomorrow. Dismissed."
Faye left regrettably. Jessica now felt like there was a bomb on the plane. She had to do something now before things got worse.
…
Later…
After the team had gone to bed, nobody woke up when the plane unexpectedly landed on the outskirts of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Therefore, nobody was aware when a mysterious figure left the plane and began walking into the town while texting on their phone.
….
Harvard University, Later…
Professor Anber Jenkins looked at his phone confused. He had been called in early because a reporter wanted to have an exclusive interview with him in his classroom before his lectures began. He had made impressive leaps with robotics and also environmental awareness, yes, but he wasn't sure why someone would go out of their way to try and talk to him like this.
As he entered his classroom, he saw a young woman was sitting on his desk waiting for him as she texted away on her phone. She appeared to be around 28, with jet fire hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing glasses and a smart suit with high heels. Looking up from her phone, she looked at him and nodded.
"Hello." He said.
"Ah." She replied, "Professor Anber Jenkins. Just the man I wanted to see. Might I also say I am a big fan of your theories on our current environmental issues."
"Yes." Professor Jenkins nodded, as he held out his hand to shake her, "Well, it is an interesting theory that I…"
He stopped when she punched him in the nose and then grabbed his neck with her arm so he'd only be able to wheeze out his answers and not call for help.
"Listen very carefully, Professor." She replied, "Someone on my team was insistent that they pick you up before me, so start talking."
"What…what do you mean?!" Anber demanded, "I never heard of another interview…"
"You know what I'm talking about!" Jessica declared, "Faye Anne Carter. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?!"
"What?! S.H.I.E.L.D.?!" Jenkins declared, "No I…I never heard of a Faye Anne Carter! You people said you'd contact me in person when you were ready!"
"Ready for what?" Jessica demanded.
"The phones…" Jenkins declared, "I was told that you would…"
He stopped and began screaming in pain. Jessica was confused. She wasn't expecting him to be in this sort of pain. Then she thought of another possibility. Pulling his sleeve up, Jessica could see that there was a scar along his arm and a beeping noise could be heard coming from there.
Her eyes widened as she attempted to leap out through the window. Unfortunately, it was then that Jenkins exploded. His body inflated greatly and then a large explosion erupted from his body consuming whatever skeleton was left of him in flames and then expanding outwards almost filling up the entire room. The explosion sent Jessica flying straight through the window without being able to protect herself. The glass shards that pierced her fortunately missed her eyes, but instead she was soon lying on the ground outside of the building with a large shard lodged into her heart. Jessica soon lost consciousness and was passed out due to the loss of both the adrenaline and most of her blood.
Students would be reporting on this soon, and they would discover that this pristine college had now become the sight of a horrible incident.
….
Meanwhile,
Location Unknown…
"DAMMIT!" The woman cursed.
"Hey, don't blame me." Her male friend said, turning around and facing away from the controls he was working, "It's not my fault that one of your men showed up sick. Remember, I have to multitask over here. I have to be playing for three teams at once."
"It's not that." Igraine scowled, "It's that this little misfit caused us to loose Professor Anber Jenkins. It seems Fury made the foolish decision of putting people who could make irrational choices on that team after all."
"Well I have good news, ma'am." The figure said, "We might still be able to play this to our advantage."
"And how do you propose that?" Igraine asked.
"Simple." The male operator smiled, "Just got word that Coulson's team is in the same situation. Apparently Coulson's protégé got shot and now they need something to save her."
"You're suggesting that they'll try to bring her back using that thing which brought Phil Coulson back from the dead?" Igraine suggested.
"Exactly. Now here's what I suggest, if you've been paying attention as I have to Phil Coulson, you'll know that ever since he found out about his…incident, he's been acting more paranoid. My thought is that whatever they did to him has affected his mental stability."
"So you're suggesting we save Jessica Smith as well, so that the process drives her insane as well."
"Phil kept repeating that he wanted to die when he recalled what happened." The man said, "With any luck, Jessica might go nuts enough to believe that cats are magical creatures from the moon. So what do you think?"
"Deception through helping others." Igraine surmised, "Perfect. But how can you assure us that Arthur and his team will leap to trying to get whatever brought Phil back?"
"I told you." The male figure smiled, "I've been playing for three teams, counting yours. I've already managed to get two people in who will definitely bring the two teams together and attempt to save their teammates."
Igraine smiled.
"Then let's sell this misdirection then, shall we?" She asked.
….
So there you have it, folks! It's confirmed somebody's going to influence Arthur's team to help Phil out. More importantly, if you've been watching S.H.I.E.L.D. (and you should,) you probably know how Phil came back by this point. But can Arthur's team help out and get Jessica the same treatment as well?! More importantly, how will she behave once she's been treated on?! All these questions and more will be answered next time! (PS: I am planning for Sabrina and Bruce to be the FitzSimmons of the team, so let me know your thoughts.) Also, last chapter I forgot to mention that the character of Ms. Gold was based on Melissa Gold from the Thunderbolt comics; a woman with supersonic screeching noises who can create constructs by changing her voice to the right frequency. Likewise, this chapter offered another reimagining of another Marvel character; The Beetle. For those of you who played the Ultimate Spider-Man game and then looked up info on the character (as I did,) Beetle is also part of the Thunderbolts but creates his own tech suits in order to help him fight with his own weaponry. I just thought it'd be cool to reintroduce these characters not unlike the AoS show has done numerous times before (and will continue to do so afterwards.) Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one. Feel free to leave reviews just so long as they are not flames. As always, I own NOTHING except my OC's. This is for fan-purposes only, so please don't sue! See you next time.