Melinda took one glance back at Nat, Maria and Clint. Natasha gave her a thumbs up. Hunter looked over at Melinda as they got to the entrance. He slid his lanyard up to ID him. They both heard the door unlock. Melinda showed her lanyard as well. As Hunter opened the door he started talking.
"I don't care what anyone says, the blokes over here don't know what good football is. And I'm not talking that...that.. stupid thing with that oblong thing they call a ball." Hunter slurred his words more and more as he continued blabbering on about American football and it's idiocy according to him. Melinda rolled her eyes. For a few beats she stayed silent.
As they ventured further in to the corridor leading to the common area, Melinda finally spoke up. "You do know, I still don't like you, right? I sure as hell don't care about your stupid soccer team, or your..."
"Football May. Bloody hell. " Hunter staggered purposefully as he saw movement at the entrance way into the common area. He sped up a bit and positioned himself in front of May, leaving Melinda a few feet behind him, effectively blocking anyone's view as she quickly punched in a code on the Vault C door frame.
Hunter continued speaking. "You Americans and your wanker sport called 'football'. For cripes sake May, only two people on the damn team are allowed to use their bloody feet. Football, my ass."
Both he and Melinda had gotten to the entrance way. Hunter kept his mouth moving but Melinda tuned him out, focusing instead on what she heard or rather did not hear from the rest of the base. No white noise of agents talking. No buzzing of machines down the lab area. No footsteps, no shuffling, no discernible movement. It was actually frightening how quiet everything was, well everything except Hunter who kept up a steady drone of saying nothing, while loudly stepping through the doorway.
Melinda knew what was coming and expected it. To her right she saw two figures and to her left three more. Five. Five just to control them. She willed herself to not tense and to allow the hit she knew was coming. She allowed it and allowed herself to go down and she stayed down. Looking up she saw a gun pointed in her face. The man who had clipped her was on her other side grinning.
"See not so tough these Agents of Shield." he laughed. Melinda had seen Hunter do the same as he allowed himself to be taken down with minimal resistance including some swipes at thin air to reinforce his inebriated state to their enemy.
"Bloody hell, mate. Who the hell are you?" Hunter stumbled trying to regain his footing as one of the others poked a gun into his rib cage. He chanced a look to May and raised his eyebrows. She gave him a piercing stare. Yep she got it. They were not very good. She and Hunter could have taken the five out in seconds. But they needed to find the others and the best plan was letting their captors believe they had the upper hand. She recognized no one. That and that they were not very good made her worry even more. What the hell had happened for people like this to take the base?
The man holding a gun on her spoke up. "We've been expecting you."
Melinda almost giggled. How freaking cliche. She clenched her jaw and faced the man. "What do you want? Who are you? What the hell are you doing here? And what have you done with the agents?"
He grinned at her. Melinda decided that he needed that grin to be wiped off his face and soon. She hoped she got to do it. "Well little lady, we are in charge. What we want we already have. We have this base, a powered alien or two, and the Director of Shield. Anything else will be an added bonus. Like you two. And the other alien. When he gets here. The alien girl invited him. He should be here soon."
Melinda winced. The jerk must have meant Lincoln. They must have had Skye call him. But how did they know about him. And how did they know about Sk...Daisy. And this base. Nothing made sense. They couldn't be Hydra which was good cause that meant Ward wasn't here. They weren't good enough to be Hydra. Who the hell were these guys? She could see Hunter was thinking the same thing. He glanced over and raised his eyebrows at her as they were being escorted down the hall into the garage area.
They turned the corner and entered the garage and May heard a gasp. She looked and saw Daisy seated on the ground next to Leo, Mac and Bobbi. Across from them she saw Koenig and Coulson. All were tied up and Skye had on the protectors/inhibitors Simmons had made back when Skye had first undergone terragenesis. Melinda caught her eye asking the question. Daisy shrugged her shoulders and gave Melinda a pointed look as if to say later. Hunter stayed in his role but gave Bobbi a once over, seeing she was alright. He waited for Melinda's cue.
Melinda took it all in. The woman standing over Coulson speaking to him. Koenig and him tied together. Leo, Daisy, Bobbi and Mac tied to the wall. Besides the woman and five agents who brought them, there were eight more in the garage. Of course there were probably more throughout the base. Whoever they were they also appeared to have full control of Shields' tech and communications as well.
Melinda looked around again. She was missing something. But what? She knew she had about three minutes before the others would make it to the floor and start bashing heads. Why were Bobbi and Mac and Skye so still? What was she missing? Melinda knew she would be fine. She could get free in seconds. Hunter too. Also Bobbi could as well and she could free Skye and Mac and Fitz. Why were none of them trying? Her two guards pushed her over to the others and motioned for her and Hunter to sit down. Shit. Oh shit. Now she saw what she did not see before. Saw what the others could see. A young girl. Maybe 12 or 13. Standing. Bound and gagged. In the containment pod. The see thru containment pod. The one that vaporized inhumans. The one that Daisy was dead set against but Mac and the others decided was a necessary evil when dealing with inhumans who may be evil. And seated outside was a guard with his hand on the switch. The switch that took one second to press.
She looked at Phil. He swallowed hard and tried for a grin which was more a grimace. He knew she would have seen through it all. Had a plan. Now that plan was not going to work. There was no way she'd allow another inhuman girl to die. She had to be inhuman Melinda knew. The vapor only worked on inhumans.
"See Phil. We may not be as trained as your shield people but we are apparently much smarter."
"Smarter? Roz, You can't even see we are on the same side." Phil retorted back.
"You people are not on the same side. You are willing to let these freaks, these aliens walk around free. You cannot even see that they are all a threat to humanity. Even your pet over there, the one you call Skye, needs to be contained."
Melinda bristled. That was her Daisy that bitch was talking about. She looked at Daisy who was turning red from anger.
"No it's people like you that is who my mother and the others were afraid of. She had reason to fear people finding out about us. You are the threat, we aren't." Daisy said, shaking from anger. "And using a little girl. You people are the monsters. Not us. We are far more human then you will ever be. You and people like you are the problem. We just want to be left alone."
"Left alone?" Rosalind replied. "Left alone when all you are capable of is being a monster. Of destruction. That's what you were created for. You and those like you are an abomination." The girl in the pod shrieked. She tried to use her powers to get out. Daisy's face fell.
Melinda needed to hit the woman. Hit something. No one talked about Daisy like that. Hunter kicked at the ground. He looked at her. Shit. They had about one minute. The initial ten minutes plus the additional five Melinda knew that Nat would give her were clicking away. Clint and Nat and Maria would not wait for the signal. She knew they wouldn't. All hell was about to break lose.