"A compulsion spell?" Coulson said as he looked at the girl, clad in a long white, sleeveless dress with what he at first thought was a dog but then realized was a wolf at her side. Hela. Someone had mentioned the name Hela. Hela, Loki's daughter. That had to be her.
"What's a compulsion spell, and how can you tell he's got one on him?" Skye asked.
"A compulsion spell creates the irresistible urge to do something when it's triggered. It's not hard to see if you know what to look for." Hela stood and slowly circled Coulson, examining the spell she had detected. It hadn't been activated, she could tell that much at least.
"A spell. Loki." Coulson said. Was there no end to the trouble that the Asgardian was causing for him?
"No, it's not Papa." Hela said.
"Loki's the only one I've been around who can do magic, or whatever it is that Asgardians do that looks like magic."
"But Papa tried to kill you. He wouldn't try to kill you and put a compulsion spell on you at the same time. That would make absolutely no sense." Hela motioned for Leah to join her. "I don't think the spell's Asgardian at all."
"Not Asgardian. It's been a bit so I'm not totally sure, but it doesn't feel Norn either." Leah said as she circled Coulson as well. "Could it be Midgardian?"
"I don't think so." Hela though for a moment. "At least it doesn't feel similar to any of the traditions the Midgardian magical practitioners I've met have followed. Are you sure you haven't encountered anyone besides Papa who practices magic?"
"I think I would remember something like that." Coulson said.
"You wouldn't if you weren't awake." Skye said. "That spell, how do you cast it or whatever?"
"It depends on the practitioner." Hela said. "Papa can do it with a gesture, but I have no clue who could have cast this spo ell, so I have no idea how they might have done it?"
"Can you tell how old it is? Could it have been from around the time of New York?"
"Maybe. It isn't one of Papa's spells. The few times he's used compulsion spells, he's gone for embarrassment. Not the kind of spell he would use with someone he was trying to kill. And it hasn't been activated. Papa's spells always go off shortly after he casts, at least spells like that. He wants to make sure he's there to enjoy them, like the time he made Lord Tyr howl like a wolf in the middle of a feast for three hours once."
"Skye are you thinking…." Coulson said. Was that even possible? "Could someone cast a spell like that on an object, say something that could be injected?"
An injected spell. "It would work. There's no reason it wouldn't work. I've never heard of it being tried before. There are much, much simpler ways to cast spells but…."
"What if someone was trying to hide what they were doing?" Darcy suggested. "Put a spell on a shot, the person who gets the shot starts acting funny, they blame it on a vaccine reaction or whatever. Who's going to think of magic or start poking around looking for someone who could do magic?"
"What is this injection you're talking about?" Bruce asked.
"It's complicated, probably too complicated to get into now." Coulson said. Right now, the focus needed to be on Victoria and hopefully getting her through this alive. "Whatever this is, it isn't active? Can you tell if anyone else has something similar on them?"
"No, it's not active." Hela reached out and gently scanned the people who had accompanied Coulson. "She's different. I doubt such a spell would attach to her." she said as she looked at Skye. "The others seem fine."
"Then we worry about this later. That is we worry about it later if you don't think it's going to get activated."
"If it hasn't been activated by now, a few hours shouldn't hurt." Hela said. "And I would like Grandmoher to take a look at that spell if possible. She might be able to figure out something that I'm missing."
Just then Jane's phone rang, making her jump. "Hello?" Thor, thank goodness! She sighed when she heard his voice. And then she was smiling at his news. "Right, Coulson's here. I'll tell him."
"Hydra tried to attack the Fridge, Thor and his parents were waiting for them, the defenses were all armed. They didn't know what hit them. They're sending the Hydra agents back to Asgard to be held now."
"What about Garrett and Ward?" Triplett asked. "Did they get them?"
"Did they…" Jane asked. "That's… Okay, I'll tell them. And when you come back, do you think your mother would mind coming with you? Hela needs to ask her to help with something."
"They didn't get them?" Skye said when Jane ended the call.
"Garrett got away, at least they think he did. He threw himself off the roof."
"Death rather than let them take him? That doesn't sound like John." Coulson said. "He would still think that he could find a way out of any cell they tried to put him in."
"That's the thing. Queen Frigga ran the other one, Agent Ward, through, and he fell off the roof. Only what was left on her sword wasn't blood, but some sort of greenish-grey stuff I don't want to think of. And when they checked down below, there was a rather large puddle of that goo, roughly the size of a body."
"Ward was an alien?" Skye said. Not that she had anything against aliens, but one that was filled with greenish-grey goo, not good! At least she had only kissed him, though. May had actually slept with him. They probably ought to be dragging her off right now for some sort of painful shots to ward off any diseases from that. What sort of awful diseases could a greenish-grey goo filled alien cause, anyway? And how did they end up with an alien on their team without anyone knowing? "Does Shield have a really, really good policy on not discriminating, because I would like to object to it if so. I don't mind aliens, but I would really like to know if any of my teammates might be shedding green-gray goo on me."
"And there wasn't anything from Garrett?" Coulson asked.
"Not according to Thor." Jane said. "But he hadn't taken what would likely be a fatal blow for any species. He was likely able to get away."
Coulson nodded. Aliens. Ward and likely Garrett as well were aliens? But what could he do about that at the moment with Shield in tatters and his team in shock? The only thing he could actually see that he could do was to offer up prayers that despite her injuries that Victoria survived. She had managed even bleeding to death to pass along the information that had held Shield together. Fighting that hard, she had to pull through.
