In the Skies 1 PM while Spider-Man returns to New York

Daisy Johnson looks outside the window aimlessly as Coulson sits down beside her.

"So first time as a member of the Avengers, what did you think of them?" Coulson said.

"Well, they are certainly no replacement for you guys if that's what you're asking. They were a lot less of the talkative sort except maybe Spider-Man," Daisy said.

"They just need some help reassembling after they were broken apart, and if anyone can put the pieces back together I am sure you can and end up being a part of their weird little family too." Coulson said.

"Well I am definitely no replacement for Ms. er Captain Marvel but I think I can manage to worm my way in. Though I feel like you're not here just to check on me." Daisy said.

Coulson chuckles, as Daisy figured out his true intentions.

"Still able to know when I am about to tell you confidential information. You see, while we were invading the base I acquired some intel that I thought you'd know about. Think of it as an early mission briefing. Meet me in my office once we land," Coulson explains.

Classified Location in the United States 1:22 PM, while Spider-Man is facing Chameleon

In an abandoned warehouse complex in plain sight, no one would ever think this place to be the base of operations for one of the most advanced and secretive organizations in the world, the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement, and Logistics Division. This organization is tasked with protecting the world from various world threats as well as investigating strange phenomena and containing it. And a few years ago S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to get the Avengers as official members of their organization. With one of their own agents, a superpowered member known as Daisy Johnson codenamed Quake, made as a part of the team. In charge of this base, codenamed the Playground, is high-level agent Phil Coulson. As Coulson, Quake, Grant Ward, Melinda May, and Brock Rumlow arrive in their Quinjet, which is currently being cloaked, as it docks in an opening of the top of the inconspicuous warehouse.

The floor of the empty warehouse opens revealing a hangar filled with several other Quinjets. Waiting in anticipation are several agents. As the ship docks and Coulson and his group step out the rest of the agents are relieved to see everyone made it back okay as they congratulated and shook the hands of the returning agents. As from out of the doors a man in a lab coat comes running

"Fitz I know you're happy to see us back safe and sound but there's no need to-," Coulson said

"It's not that Coulson, just wanted to let you know that me and Mack finished Zephyr 1, it should be ready for test flight now." Fitz said.

Coulson was shown to be surprised at this revelation, but then he looked back to Daisy beside him knowing that he had something important to tell her.

"While that's terrific news I just got back and I have to talk to Daisy about her performance in today's mission in my office. It'll take just a few minutes." Coulson said.

As Coulson and Daisy walk away Fitz is left speechless to hear that apparently, Daisy did poorly on today's mission. Grant and Brock are also quite suspicious as they look towards each other before going over to the shooting range. While Melinda May followed Coulson and Daisy. As the rest of the agents went back to their posts. Seeing everyone else leave Fitz awkwardly walks back to the lab.

As another Quinjet docked in the hangar. A bunch of SHIELD agents in full security gear came marching out, their faces concealed in protective helmets. They seemed to begin patrolling the halls before one spotted a directional sign and made their way to the security room with a few following behind.

In the shooting range

Grant and Brock continue the makeshift competition they made between them. Trying to get more bullseyes than the other as if it was a shooting gallery game. They start firing at the targets, some being the usual dummies, some being stationary and others moving. While some of the targets were using a special hard light-based AR technology from some projectors on the sides of the shooting range. After managing to shoot one target that looked like a man with special hi-tech stilts right between the eyes, Grant put the gun back up as Brock slammed it on the table in anger.

"Man, ever since you went on all of those crazy missions with Coulson you've been getting better at this," Brock said.

"Yeah never thought things would be that hectic working for the old man but he certainly goes around, though at least you managed to get transferred to us after getting kicked out of the S.T.R.I.K.E.," Grant said.

"Who does that bitch Eva even think she is? She joins the team and starts barking orders at everyone like a little upstart and then soon she becomes the one in charge after a few good performances." Brock said.

"Nepotism probably, there's a rumor that she is related to one of the higher-ups and that's why she can basically do whatever," Grant said.

Brock goes "Bah" and waves Ward off before grabbing his water bottle for a drink. Before casually leaning against the wall.

"So you know Coulson and that Daisy broad better than me, what was that all about earlier?" Brock asked.

"She's not a broad Brock, and it's hard to know with Coulson most of the time, but I know the two are close. It's like he's trying to be her new dad because her other dad is busy cosplaying as Mr. Hyde. If he wants to talk to Daisy in private, it's because it's something that he feels only she should know about," Ward explained.

"Sure we shouldn't look into this and tell the higher-ups about this? Doesn't seem very smart to be leaking confidential information," Brock said.

"No, I have known the two for a long time and I have a feeling of what it's about. You see before she joined our team she was an orphan after her dad lost custody of her when he became a supervillain, though she never got to know who her mom was or where her powers come from. She thinks it might help her learn more about herself," Ward said.

"Wait, she didn't get her powers from her dad?" Brock asked.

"No his were more caused by a combination of different chemicals and crap he mixed together that had a lot of negative side effects," Ward said.

"Ah, so that's why you call him Mr. Hyde, so many files on different freaks, monsters, aliens, and whatever else I haven't had the time to read through all of them," Brock said.

Ward shook his head in agreement.

"It's a crazy world we live in, which is why we're here to establish order," Ward said.

The two then clinked their water bottles together as if performing cheers before drinking them down.

In the lab

Many scientists are at work working on designs for or building various new gadgets for S.H.I.E.L.D. to use. One particular female scientist seems to be testing something as they drop a bit of a strange blue liquid in a rat's food bowl. The rat eats the altered food and seems to be paralyzed. Checking that the rat is still alive they are relieved to find that it is still breathing as it seemed to have worked. She sighed in relief as she jotted down some notes on the effects of the strange serum.

As Fitz walks in and peers over her shoulder checking her work.

"Hello Simmons, I see you have finished the Dendrotoxin for the Night Night Gun," Fitz.

Simmons turned her head and rolled her eyes.

"I thought we agreed not to call it that." she responded.

"Well it's the best name I could think of. I'm an engineer not a wordsmith, what would you call it?" Fitz asked.

"The I.C.E.R, Incapacitating Cartridge Emitting Railgun," Simmons responded.

Fitz let the name dwell on him for a second.

"Yeah that that is definitely a whole lot better then my name we'll go with that," Fitz said defeated.

Simmons shakes her head and smirks.

"So how come you're not showing Coulson the Zephyr One prototype?" she asked.

"Apparently Coulson wants to have to talk to Daisy about something that happened during the mission, you don't think she lost control of her powers again do you?" Fitz said.

"No, because even since that mission when her powers awoke she has gotten better at using them and those gauntlets you made for her are supposed to suppress it and make sure they don't do too much damage to herself and everything around her," Simmons said.

"Yes but what if she took them off," Fitz added.

"You really think Daisy would be reckless enough to take off the gauntlets in despera"

Before Simmons could finish his sentence Fitz gives a worried look like he is trying not to say yes but is in fact thinking yes.

"Oh god you're probably right. Well none of them looked hurt, maybe that's not the reason," Simmons said.

"Well what if it was one of the Avengers that did," Fitz theorized.

"Oh please even if that were the case I am sure we would know about that by now, Coulson would be searing if she even put a dent to the Captain America shield though of course she can't do that even if she took the gauntlets off...hopefully," Simmons said.

"Yeah we still don't know the full extent of her powers or even where they come from yet, definitely not a Mutant though we checked she's something else entirely," Fitz said.

"You're saying that like she's an alien, Fitz. She's still the same old hacker Daisy who we pulled out of the van she lived in into this little world of espionage of ours. Plus she's still mostly human just also not somehow," Simmons said.

"Well then I suppose I'll go to my little world of engineering and do some checkups on the Zephyr One before the test flight to increase the odds of it not blowing up somehow," Fitz said.

Simmons chuckles before saying "You do that." as Fitz walks away. Three scientists watch on in interest.

"How much longer do you think till those two actually start dating?" one scientist asked.

"A month," one said.

"Two weeks tops," another scientist said.

The scientist who asked the question got out their wallet.

"Want to place a bet on that?" they asked.

Security room

Various agents were watching the monitors, making sure nothing approached the facility or any suspicious activity was going on. Until one man in a security uniform walked in.

"Alright guys you are hereby relieved of duty and being transferred to The Hub, we'll take it from here," the one with the security chief badge said.

One of the guards turned around and was skeptical at this news.

"I never got an email or anything about an authorization on this," the guard asked.

"Well this one is analog, they told me to send you the letter personally," the suspicious man said.

He then hands what appears to be a letter that the man inspects, and while the chief is inspecting the letter. The impostor mimics the hand signs Spider-Man uses to activate his web shooters as he fires a similar substance out of his own tangling and incapacitating the other guards. As the chief realized what was happening he was knocked out with a punch before he could even grab his gun. Taskmaster took off his helmet revealing his skull mask as he looked down at the body.

He then crouches down and talks to one of the agents stuck to the web.

"You know it really pays more to be on A.I.M. 's side then S.H.I.E.L.D. 's cause you don't just get paid in money but they give you free new toys like these," Taskmaster said.

Taskmaster then shows the agent his web shooters which have the A.I.M. branding and coloration on them.

"Took them a while to figure out how the web crawler's webs worked, some even thought that they came out of his wrist before they realized otherwise, but they managed to make a synthetic replica of his web from some samples they managed to find in New York. All I needed to do was get a good look on how Spider-Man uses his own web blasters so I can get the most out of these, too bad you won't be awake to see what I'll be doing with them," Taskmaster said.

As Taskmaster stood up he stomped on the face of the security agent knocking them out cold and cracking their skull as a cracking sound could be heard as the unconscious agent was also left with a broken nose and a boot imprint on their face. Walking to the monitors, Taskmaster uploads a USB drive with A.I.M. logo on it into the computers as it begins to download something into them. As he sat casually in a chair while his minions guard the doors.

Outside Coulson's Office

As Coulson and Daisy were walking towards his office Melinda May stood in their path.

"I thought we agreed not to tell her?" May said.

"No I said I would consider your advice and while I admit you had a point I wouldn't forgive myself if I kept this a secret from her," Coulson said.

"You're absolutely sure she is ready to know something like this, you don't know how she'll react?!" May added.

"We've been with her long enough that I think she has definitely matured enough from the Daisy we know and let's not forget I outrank you so you can't force me to not tell her," Coulson said.

"I can knock you out though," May said.

"You wouldn't dare you know how much trouble you would get in," Coulson said.

"We both know you wouldn't let that happen to me even if I did that," May added.

Daisy was just awkwardly stepping back and leaning to the wall not wanting to interrupt because she feels if she did it would just make things worse.

"May please, I made a promise to her and to see it through I need to tell her about what we found at the A.I.M. base, and we both know if you made the same promise to her you would do the same thing and the roles would be reversed," Coulson said.

Upon hearing about the promise Daisy eyes widen, May pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Fine, I just hope your judgement is right," May said.

May then walks away as Coulson leads Daisy into his office as they sit down he then looks to Daisy.

"You mean you found out about her, about my mother?!" she asked.

"Well yes in a manner of speaking, we found a file about her from a folder in the A.I.M., like us they are smart enough to keep some of their biggest secrets in analog form. It's a long read but I can give you a summary," Coulson said.

He then placed the folder on the table labeled "Inhuman Research: Subject#30 Jiaying"

"Inhuman?" Daisy asked.

"It's what you and your mother are apparently, a special type of human who seemed to have been experimented on by aliens who visited Earth a long time ago. Apparently A.I.M. has learned about these types of being a long time ago and not only figured out how to activate their dormant powers but has been making numerous experiments in hopes they can replicate more," Coulson said.

"You mean my mom is captured and is most likely being dissected then we should go and find her now," Daisy said.

"I am afraid the file there is an old one, from 1989, they already learned all they could from her," Coulson said.

As Daisy started to realize what he meant she started frankly looking through the folder.

"Apparently her power allowed her to stay young for years and had a healing factor greater than any human. They desperately tried to copy her powers but had so many failures. Then a mysterious client, not sure who they redacted all mentions of their name, paid them a large sum of money to help them live longer, and to achieve that they had to use your mother," Coulson explained.

As Daisy stopped at the page showing a photo of her mother she noticed the big red stamp saying "Deceased". That photo being the first time she ever laid eyes on her mother. Tears begin to well up in her eyes.

"I am sorry you had to learn this way," Coulson said.

As Daisy continued to weep Coulson then got up and put a hand on her shoulder. Though the crying would soon be drawn out by the sound of the alarm going off as a voice in the intercoms said.

"A.I.M. agents are on their way to this facility, armed and dangerous. All agents to your stations to protect the base at all costs. All personnel should get to the bunkers for safety." the voice said.

As back in the security office Taskmaster turns off and puts the mic down after managing to perfectly mimic the voice of the security chief, even if it puts a bit of strain on his throat. As he watches the events unfold on the monitors. And on the monitors he sees an enraged Daisy coming out of the door to Coulson's office.

"That's one of my targets," Taskmaster said to himself.

As he quickly peers over to the monitor showing the security camera footage of the lab and sees Fitz and Simmons.

"And there's the other two, doing these two jobs at once will be a piece of cake. When we're done we can collect the bounty on some of the other Avengers and then we'll be set for life. Take notes boys because class is in session," Taskmaster said.

He then spies Melinda May on one of the cameras and quenches his fists as he glares at the footage angrily.

"And it seems that this business has also gotten personal," Taskmaster said.

End of Chapter