26
Skyes POV
I heard shouting and bangs as we finished collecting the frozen agents from the Bus, they were all taken out onto the airfield, some medics were trying to find a fast way to unfreeze them, safely. I whipped around, everyone else too. Some of the squad teams clicked their gun.
"ICERs only." Melinda commanded, watching the cargo hold. Whoever it was, soul or not was coming this way. Then she saw a figure burst through the door, jumping over the balcony. It was Agent hand, a soul from the glimpse of the white in her iris, though it was weird to see her without her glasses.
But when her feet came into contact, I saw a ripple echo out from her body and down. Spreading out in a pulse of ice form. Spreading out towards us. Neither Grant or Trip had time to move, the ice spreading from the ground out, the fog cloud catching them. They were frozen instantly like all the other agents.
"JUMP!" I shouted.
Obediently everyone took my advice, jumping the last second as the ice reached them. Some unfortunately didn't were enslaved like the rest.
What burst from Agent hand must have had a toll, causing her to stumble, her steps unsteady. Her arm was covered in blood, and from the look of her one sleeved shirt, she had been in the mists of treating it.
But before she could take another step. There was a sharp band. Her body jerked, her hand shooting to her side. I gasped and look to see John pointing a gun towards the Soul. He had shot her and not with an ICER.
Simmons hurried forwards, as Hand stumbled, shocked and stunned completely, staring at the red on her hands. Like she couldn't comprehend what was going on. Simmons grabbed the woman's shoulders before she could collapse, guiding her down, moving snow to make a cushion for her head. Jemma ran and pressed a hand over the shot, keeping the pressure on.
"I said no shooting unless it was life or death situation!" I flinched as Phil shouted at John, the gun out of John's hand and was in Phil's. His face was blazing with anger. Victoria caught up and stared down at the scene with a sharp gasp.
"She was getting away! You can see what's she's done!" he defended himself.
"That doesn't translate as shooting her in the side."
"She was moving, I was aiming for a limb." He argued.
"We both know that's a lie." Phil snapped back.
"Guys, can you argue later." Jemma snapped, annoyed. The unfrozen medics were making their way forwards. The floor now an ice rink but I peered close to an icicle to see some water dripping from it. I glanced about. It was… melting.
"Should the ice be melting?" Skype asked, flinching as water dripped onto her nose.
"We need to get her to a medical base as soon as!" Jemma stressed.
"Where's Coulson?" I asked.
"Half frozen in the lounge. She threw an ice ball which just clipped him." Garrett said.
The four descended from the stairs in a hurry. The medics slide over and helped manoeuvre the Soul onto the stretcher. Victoria grabbed a pair of handcuff and threw them to Simmons who reluctantly attached onto to the Soul and to the stretcher, Jemma was accompanying the medics. There weren't any chanced being taken.
I gasped a huge chunk of sloshy ice suddenly caught the back of my collar.
"Why couldn't she have powers of something more tropical, like sandy beaches and heat!" I shuddered.
"Well it matches her personality right to the core." Skype muttered, earning herself a steely glare from Victoria.
Water was dripping freely now, the ice melting. I had a feeling it was connected to the Soul Agent Hand.
"We have movement!" Called a squad agent who was checking on Agent Blake. With the ice melting, it was now leaving everyone frozen soaking wet. Blake was frozen for a second longer before he blinked, his body shaking. The Agent caught his arm as he collapsed. Shuddering violently. His face panicked before he took in the scenery, relaxing. He was handed a coat which he eagerly wrapped around himself.
"Agent Blake." Phil began, heading over to him.
"Not now." The medic interjected. Phil nodded, stepping back.
One by one the frozen agents were defrosted. But they were given blankets and carted off to the infirmary. A piece of the ice had been sent off to the Labs for further study.
"Come on, I want to know what happening with the Soul." Victoria muttered.
Coulson clambered down the stairs, looking a little frosted but almost all ice was melted.
"Yes, right, no, not everyone can go. Skype, Simmons, Leo, Grant and both Trips and Garrett's stay. Me, Phil, Melinda, Felix, Jasper, Victoria, Skye and Fitz can go."
There was an instant whine from the ones to stay. Coulson silenced them easily with a look they all knew well. I smirked.
"We'll debrief you later so stay by the holocomm." Phil added.
I headed off after Melinda, Phil taking the lead towards the infirmary. It was silent the whole way. Thankfully my bracelet got me through all the doors which was oddly satisfying then the place got a whole lot more busier.
Then we got directed to a large room. In the middle looked to be a white Box that was being bolted together. Inside was a team and I could just see a few monitors inside but there were lots of machines being added around the box except for an area that led to the Unit door.
"What's happening here?" I asked Coulson but I knew he knew as much as I did.
"Their building up a containment unit for the Soul that can withstand Ice. The window is heated so no ice can form on the glass. Heat regulators are added under the floor, to prevent the soul from breaking the glass, the floor heats up." A scientist explained.
"Ouch." I muttered.
"Originally this design was for a containment fridge for animals of artic temperatures but we're adding a few more layers so no ice leaks out."
"What are the machines for?" Fitz asked, heading to examine them.
"Scans. The medics have taken blood samples, tissue samples and a hair sample. Fury's order no experiments but this is a study without having to go near her and risk impersonating Captain America for the foreseeable future."
"What scans are being used?" Victoria asked, stepping around the machines and closer to the unit.
"Temperature, Brain scans, different CT scans, Molecular Imaging. They've taken X rays to see the damage done by the shots. The machines also measure the air going in and out the unit, monitored of course. Oxygen consumption, galvanic skin response, miro-expressons, biofeedback brain waves,-"
"So not many." I quipped. The scientist glared before turning back to Victoria.
"All of it is perfectly safe."
"How's she doing?" Phil asked, taking to one of the medics just outside the unit.
"The shot is out, no lasting damage to her internal system. It seems there's a mild healing factor that prevented her from having internal bleeding. She'll be fine" The doctor in the unit said.
It appeared they were done with the operation and were cleaning up. The doctor then took a left and what appeared to be blinds lowered across the glass, covering the inside so no one could look in. A female agent waited till all the agents were out, holding a pile of clothes before going in.
"So… how long is all of this staying?" I asked, gesturing to everything.
"We can't keep her contained at the Hub." An agent said, Felix looked to him.
"Why not?" He asked.
"From the footage we saw the other Souls, they come after their own. Both Agents May and Ward know where the Hub is, it wouldn't take much to break in and frankly our systems can't handle the force Soul May can pull off. She can take out all our agents with a swipe of her hand if she so wished." The man shuddered.
"The Interrogation room them, You can fit the same metrics to the outside shell of the Room but I want to be able to go in."
"We can add a glass shield a third way into the room."
"Then do it, I want the changes down by this evening. We can't take out chances with this." Coulson agreed.
"I shall stay at the Hub." Victoria stated, turning to him. "I want a 24/7 footage of the interrogation room send directly to the Hub. If she tries something, we'll know. I want to be in the loop at all times. Anything you find out about them, I want to know."
"Of course, the same with my team, no level restrictions either. We have to know what we're dealing with and the pattern the souls are taking us in." Coulson stated.
Victoria nodded then turned to the agents in the room.
"If you're not operating anything important, or necessary, please leave. It's getting cramped." She said, muttering the last bit. Half the agents left, leaving the scientists and the medics.
I sighed, it felt like a relief that there was breathing space. The noise quietened down. A particular table with temporally lights caught my attention. I headed over to it with Fitz. Jemma joining us. She must have gotten washed up and blood free.
"Hey, Jemma." I greeted. Looking down at some of what looked like body scans and a few screens with squiggly lines on. To my right I saw the X-Ray. It looked like a full body shot.
"Jemma, scan you explain to my average brain what we're seeing." I asked.
"Those are X-rays, here are the results to the tissue samples and Blood tests."
"And?"
I jumped, whipping around to see Melinda behind us. Jemma also jumped. I chuckled slightly at that.
"We really needed to duct tape bells onto her feet or something." Fitz commented quietly, earning a slap from Jemma.
"The blood samples and tissue samples were to see how the mutation began, how it works without destroying any natural function the body has. With Agent Hand… the Mutation is still in progress."
"What?"
"That's why her hair isn't white just yet. She didn't pass out because of the shot wounds but of exhaustion. Her powers tale a toll because the mutation hasn't finished the alterations in the body. Look" She turned the screen towards us. This is Her DNA structure." She said, a picture springing up. It looked normal, like I had seen before when Simmons was on the holocomm in the Lab.
"It doesn't look any different." Fitz announced.
"That was Agent Hand's DNA before the Mutation. This is what it's currently looking like."
I instantly saw a difference. It had gone a sort of blue in colour, what looked like ice shards were formed but I could tell that it was almost at a stand-still when the DNA should be spiralling slowly.
"I would say the mutation is about 80% complete. She'll be stable when she hits 100. Probably heal up then too. Her DNA structure may be slow but the Ice in her DNA is sorting that out. Her temperatures is hovering around 6 degrees naturally. It's expected to drop to 2. Her heart rate is lower than a human but all functions are not bothered. It's like her body's slowing down to hyperthermia with no ill effects or the end of death." Jemma said, looking impressed.
" Actually, her body is becoming closer to ice." Interrupted a younger science Boy who placed down a few papers. "Important functions like the heart, brain and lungs will continue but the rest will no longer be able to function at that temperature. Water will turn to ice; injections will freeze up when it comes into contact with her skin. Her skin is increasingly harder. Her body will be frozen in a state where it won't move on."
"So she'll die." Melinda said.
"No, that's the beauty of the mutation. She won't. Her DNA structure is crystalizing. She won't ever feel cold and she won't age physically, she won't need to eat or drink anything or go to the loo, and her body won't be able to carry a child. Her body will no longer be able to change to carry on the responsibilities of carrying a child. There're other ways she can have children biologically but she herself wouldn't carry it."
"Kinda Sad now that you think of it," Fitz added.
I also thought about wanting children. Now her chance was gone. Though I doubted Agent Hand ever wanted a child.
"Be thankful it wasn't May who had the Ice ability. She might have been 8 weeks pregnant for the rest of her life." I said, shuddering at the though. She'd be grouchy and hormonal till she died. Melinda shook her head sighing but I knew she was glad too.
"Any way, the Human body is 65% made of water. So anything that's not blood is freezing up. Won't her heart give out?"
"No, that was one of the first organs to change entirely, that and her lungs and brain. All three altered at the same time to balance each other and the loss of the rest of the system. Her blood cells are different so not only does it carry oxygen but other self-created minerals to sustain the body."
"So she'd turning into a living Ice statue." I clarified. It sounded so weird but awe expiring at how deep it went.
"Basically. It won't surprise me if she can turn her body into pure Ice at will. Her body create living ice, that's how the agents survived being frozen."
"And I though Souls went halfway." Melinda stated, impressed.
"It's amazing and beautiful biology." The scientist said, "I would love to see a child from her body, see if it had powers either similar or how different the growth would be."
"Wait, powers? The baby would have powers?" Melinda asked, her focus straight to the boy.
"Yes," The boy said slowly.
It clicked. I gasped slightly.
May's baby could have either Ward's powers or hers! As adorable as a baby was, the idea of one floating spontaneously or catching fire did not bode well.
"Excuse me." Melinda hurried away, walking straight to Coulson.
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