A/N: First, I have to start of by thanking everyone who's reading this story. We hit 1,000 views! Keep it up! In terms of the review response: Review 1. (Indigene Syke) Thanks!

Sorry the chapter is a day late going up. Yesterday was busier than I thought it would be.

Fitz and Simmons seemed more energized than they had lately, and when Caitlin went to them to work on the orange goo, they actually came up with a theory. The next few hours were highly productive, and when Coulson got back from his meeting with Rosalind Price, half the team was waiting for him in the hangar.

"We have a theory about the orange goo," Caitlin said.

"We think it's some sort of biological inactivation gel," Simmons said.

"Roz showed me. It's used to put captured Inhumans in stasis until the ATCU can find a cure for their powers."

Coulson hadn't stopped when he'd seen them. He walked right to the op center, making them follow, and called everyone else inside.

"Sir, is something wrong?" Fitz asked while they waited for the others.

Coulson moved to his computer. "It's just been a hell of a day for discoveries."

Caitlin thought there was a significant weight in that sentence, but Coulson didn't speak again until everyone was gathered in the room, looking at him. "You all know I went to tour the ATCU with Rosalind Price today," he started. "I got a better understanding of their operation, and what their goal is. Roz said they want to capture Inhumans to put them into stasis, so they're basically asleep, until the ATCU can make a cure for them."

"It doesn't work like that," Daisy said, shaking her head. "Terrigenesis can't be reversed."

"They think it could, eventually," Coulson said. "Unfortunately, that's the line Roz and others were fed. Bobbi did some digging for me, and found out the ATCU is storing Inhumans at an off-site facility, trying to make more of them, not cure them. I confronted Roz today, and she said her business partner controls that storage site, and most of her agents don't even know about it. She told me who her business partner is." He pressed a button, and a picture of a late-middle-age man appeared, with a name under it. "Gideon Malick."

"Who's that?"

"Roz and I discovered he's HYDRA," Coulson said.

Movement in the corner of her eye made Caitlin look at Fitz and Simmons, who had turned to each other quickly and were staring at each other, seeming to have their own conversation nonverbally.

"Fitz-Simmons, something you want to share?" Coulson asked.

The scientists took a second, and then Fitz nodded at Simmons. "Sir, we believe it was HYDRA that sent astronauts to Maveth, not NASA."

Fitz stepped up to the computer and pulled up a file, showing two images side by side. They did look similar, both shown in black and white. There were curled lines in the circular designs, much more apparent in the HYRDA logo Caitlin was familiar with, but still discernable in the one she wasn't. A sense of dread filled her at the idea that HYDRA was responsible for sending people to that alien planet. Did that mean they'd sent Simmons there, or was it just a coincidence? Was HYDRA going to try to take over again?

"How certain are you?" May asked seriously.

"Fairly certain," Fitz said.

"It makes more sense for HYDRA to know about Maveth than NASA," Coulson acknowledged. "Alright, that makes this even more urgent. HYDRA is collecting Inhumans, trying to make more. They're somehow connected to Maveth, for reasons we don't yet know. I need everyone searching for answers on this." Coulson looked at Malick's picture with unease. "HYDRA's not usually this quiet when they're in the middle of a plan; we don't even know what that plan is." He looked back at the team. "Find out."

That served as their dismissal, and Caitlin walked automatically back to the lab. That seemed to be where most of their work was done. She wasn't sure where everyone else went, but she, Barry, Cisco, and of course Fitz and Simmons were almost always in the lab.

"You two weren't planning on telling Coulson about that logo, were you?" Barry asked when they were all there.

"No," Simmons said, "we weren't. But it's not a bad thing that he knows now."

"If HYDRA has something to do with Maveth, maybe there's something we can use in the base you cleared out today," Cisco said. "Weren't we supposed to check that out?"

Caitlin had almost forgotten they still had to look at the HYDRA computers. Apparently, so had the others. Fitz walked off to ask Coulson. He came back ten minutes later, with Mack and Daisy in tow.

"Who's up for a field trip?" Mack asked.

"We can all go?" Caitlin asked.

Fitz and Simmons were grabbing things from around the lab, and Caitlin assumed Barry would go back, but she'd thought she would have to ask permission. Mack smiled at her. "It's perfectly safe now that HYDRA's gone from it."

So the stay at the lab was a short one this time, as they boarded a plane to the cleared out HYDRA base and went to gather intel from it. Caitlin didn't want to be in the way, and let the others direct her on what she could do to help. For the most part, that meant sitting at multiple computers and downloading their contents to a drive, to be fully analyzed later. Most of the computers didn't have much on them, but the S.H.I.E.L.D. team wanted to make sure they didn't miss anything, and made copies of every machine in the building. Caitlin didn't have much experience working with mainframes. She could follow directions, and do the basic copying of information. So while she and Fitz did that, Daisy and Cisco worked together to start decrypting information. Simmons and Mack swept the rest of the building for physical evidence.

They spent the rest of the afternoon poring over the information they recovered, looking for any mention of Inhumans, terrigen, the ATCU, or Maveth. Caitlin didn't think it would be so simple, and it unfortunately wasn't. Hours spent with the files – even the encrypted ones – seemed to have nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation.

It was late before they stopped sifting through the information. Simmons was the first one to tell them to call it a day, which surprised Caitlin.

"It's no use spending all night on this," Simmons said. "We're not going to get anything from it."

"You're probably right." Daisy had almost looked like she'd fallen asleep, from the position she'd been lying in. Apparently she'd just been laying her head down while reading. Now she stood and stretched. "I'll let Coulson know we didn't find anything important."

Barry yawned, and Caitlin walked over to him. He didn't seem surprised when she reached for his arm. She'd checked on him so many times since he'd emerged from that cocoon that it was becoming a habit. She rolled up the sleeve of his sweater to see the shallow bullet wound from this morning. Peeling back the bandage, she was happy to see fresh pink skin there instead of the bloody cut. She took the bandage fully off and started pulling his sleeve back down.

He finished pulling his sleeve down himself. "Guess I'm good to go?" he asked.

"Good as new," Caitlin said quietly. "Now just eat another good meal and get some sleep, and it'll be like you never went on a mission in the first place."

"Which means I'll be ready to go on the next one." He looked at Fitz and Simmons. "Whenever that is."

Caitlin just nodded. This was about more than just helping Barry learn to control his abilities now. They were in this until the team found what they needed. She glanced at Cisco and saw the same determination in his eyes.

"Start fresh in the morning?" Cisco asked.

"Thank you for helping so long," Simmons said.

Barry cast her a look. "Like Cisco said. We'll be back in the morning."

The three of them left Fitz and Simmons in the lab. Now it made sense why it had been Simmons to suggest they leave. The scientist didn't want them to feel like they had to stay, but probably had no intention of stopping soon.

"I should really call Iris," Barry said as they walked out.

Caitlin didn't expect to see anyone on the walk back toward their rooms, but saw a figure walk past at a hurried pace. It was May.

"What -?" Cisco started.

Daisy was in the hallway just behind them; probably where May had come from. "There was an explosion," Daisy said. "Andrew was there."

Caitlin looked after May, watching the ramp of the plane close and hide her from sight. The plane seemed to leave in seconds, as if it could pick up on May's anxiety and get her to that scene faster.

"She's going to the hospital they took him to."

Caitlin closed her eyes against the now vacant spot in the hangar, trying to block it out. Everything was happening too fast. She'd been soothed by the thought that HYDRA wasn't strong. Now, it seemed like HYDRA was part of everything the S.H.I.E.L.D. team was doing. They were using the ATCU. They had something to do with Maveth. The guy Hunter had gone after before they'd met (the one who was supposedly responsible for hurting half the team) was in HYDRA. And Caitlin suspected this explosion that had injured Dr. Garner had something to do with HYDRA as well. She couldn't prove it, but lack of proof didn't change her belief that they were the cause. She had a bad feeling that proof would be coming sooner rather than later.

0-0

Cisco just stood in the hallway for a few seconds after May left. He'd only seen her face for a second, but the woman had been… upset might be an understatement. Cisco hadn't seen her express much beyond the occasional smile, so this was definitely alarming.

Daisy turned without a word and headed back in the direction of the lab. Cisco glanced at Barry and Caitlin and moved to follow, all traces of tiredness gone.

Daisy strode into the lab, and Fitz and Simmons looked up in surprise when they all stepped inside. "Is something wrong?" Simmons asked, searching Daisy's face.

"Yeah," Daisy said. "We've got another Lash sighting, with an explosion this time. Dr. Garner was there."

"Is he alright?" Fitz asked, stepping closer.

"We don't know. He's at a hospital now, May's en route. We need to capture Lash. He was at the store that exploded, one of the victims said. They couldn't get any more useful information out of him before he slipped into a coma, but that's a big help in identifying Lash."

"Who's Lash?" Cisco asked.

"Believe it or not, an Inhuman who keeps popping up and killing other Inhumans. He's a monster."

"And he turns back into a regular human when he's done, which makes it almost impossible to identify him," Fitz added.

"You guys really did put a lot on hold for us, didn't you?" Barry asked.

"Not really," Fitz said. "There wasn't much we could do about Lash. Daisy went to try to capture him once, and when that failed we didn't have another lead."

"Now we do," Simmons said, "and Coulson will probably make it our priority."

"So we're looking into all the people there?" Barry asked, sitting back down in his spot from earlier.

"You don't have to do this," Simmons said, looking at the three of them. "You've done your part today."

"Are you going to stop working?" Caitlin asked pointedly. The others didn't say anything, and Caitlin went back to her spot as well. "Then we're going to help."

"I'm not gonna turn you away. Coulson sent me all the info he has so far." Daisy pulled out her computer and started typing rapidly. "I'll send it to you so you can see. It's just a list of names, really, of the people in the store at the time of the explosion. Two fatalities, four wounded in various states. One of them has to be Lash. It shouldn't take long to figure out which one."

Cisco pulled up the list of names on the computer he'd been using all day, and decided to start looking into one of the ones in the middle. Strucker.

"Could Lash have been one of the two that died?" Caitlin asked.

"I doubt it, but it is a possibility," Simmons said.

"I'll look at Bell," Caitlin said.

"I'll do the other victim, so we can rule them out," Barry said.

"See if you can track their location over the past few months. I put up a chart with the times and locations of the Lash attacks so far. If they were in the area for all of them…"

They were quiet as they all started searching for information on the people on that list. Cisco would have been thrilled to be doing something so CSI-like if this wasn't so serious.

"Strucker isn't his full name," Cisco said, after digging for a while. "And the part he left out makes it seem really familiar." Daisy ran over to look at his computer. "I can see why he hid part of his name. Von? His full name is Werner von Strucker."

"His dad was one of the heads of HYDRA," Daisy said. That explained why the name was familiar. Cisco had watched the news reports about Segovia carefully, along with the rest of the world. "He must be following in his footsteps."

"And HYDRA comes up in everything we've looked at today," Caitlin muttered, with a heavy tone.

"Was Strucker in the areas where Lash appeared?" Daisy asked.

Cisco could tell she wanted to take the computer from him, and started typing faster, scanning the cell towers his phone had pinged at in recent weeks. He compared them to the dates and locations of the Lash attacks and shook his head. "Doesn't look like he's our guy."

Daisy sighed and went back to her own computer. "That's one down, anyway."

"Make that two," Barry said. "My guy lives – lived in a different state. He was visiting his sister, according to his Facebook status. Just got here two days ago."

There was silence for a long time: the other names weren't as rare, which meant the agents had to sift through a lot of possibilities before they found the right information. It was well past midnight by the time they cleared everyone.

"I don't get it," Cisco said, rubbing his hand over his face. His brain was feeling a little fried from staring at a screen all day. "Didn't Strucker say Lash was there?"

"There's no footage to corroborate his account," Barry said. "Maybe he imagined it?"

"No, we must have missed something," Daisy said. She was the only one still actively hunched over a computer. Cisco had thought Fitz and Simmons would be up all night looking for information on Maveth, but though they didn't say anything, he could tell they were exhausted too.

"Maybe a few hours of sleep will help," Caitlin suggested.

Cisco nodded, standing without really deciding to. "We'll definitely miss something if we try to keep going. We've almost been up for a full day."

Simmons walked up to Daisy and touched her arm. Daisy didn't react at first, and then sighed and closed her laptop. "Okay, you're right. But first thing tomorrow morning –."

"It's already tomorrow morning," Cisco cut in.

"I'm going through it again."

"Hopefully we hear from May by then as well," Simmons said, frowning slightly. "I hope Dr. Garner is alright."

0-0

Cisco could hear Barry's voice before he saw him, when he woke up a few hours later. Barry's door was open, and Cisco heard him talking to Joe as he knocked on Caitlin's door. She was on the phone too, though she put hers away as she opened the door, disappointed that whoever was on the other end didn't answer. She didn't say anything about it, so Cisco didn't ask. He thought he could guess who she was trying to get hold of.

A quick breakfast with several members of the team (none of them particularly chatty) clued Cisco in that they probably didn't know how Dr. Garner was doing – or something bad had happened. Coulson called everyone into the op center before Cisco finished his coffee.

"You all know that Dr. Garner was injured in an explosion at a convenience store," Coulson said seriously. "May is with him at the hospital. He's going to be okay."

Cisco half-smiled.

"Daisy figured out that HYDRA was behind the explosion. I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of hearing HYDRA. I think it's time we take a more active approach."

"What do you want to do, storm the beaches?" Hunter asked.

"In a manner of speaking. I want to take one of the ATCU outposts."

All Cisco could do was blink at him. The others seemed just as confused.

"Sir, then they'll know we're onto them," Simmons said.

"I'm done waiting for a perfect moment to strike. Roz and I discussed it. She's going to approach Malick when she gets back from a business trip. She has no official ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., so this attack won't put her on their radar."

"Which means they'll know it was S.H.I.E.L.D.," Bobbi pointed out.

"It might actually help her confront him, because their attention will be on us," Coulson said. "He won't expect her to question him."

"How big a building are we trying to take?" Mack asked.

"Roz said the outpost has forty men stationed there. Our main target is the computer system, which hopefully has information we can use against them." Coulson looked at them. "May should be back soon, and we'll move then. Any questions?"

"I got one," Cisco said, raising his hand. He put it down quickly. "Where can I get gear?"

"Cisco, I don't think you should -," Caitlin started.

"You want to go to the base?" Coulson asked.

Cisco straightened, meeting his eyes confidently. "I know I'm not a trained agent, but I'm good with computers. Really good. And I can help you."

Coulson looked at him wordlessly for a few seconds before dipping his head. "Alright."

Hunter stretched his arms out in front of him. "Let's go kick some HYDRA ass."

Caitlin walked over to Cisco, pulling him aside. "What are you doing?" she asked quietly. "You can't go."

"Coulson just said I can."

She didn't appreciate his tone, apparently. "Cisco, it's not safe. Why not wait until they've taken control of the base before going in, like we did yesterday?"

"Because I want to get these bastards," he said seriously. "If I can dig up something relevant, Coulson can use it before HYDRA has a chance to hide, or get ready for a bigger battle."

He knew she wanted to argue, and tell him to stay here, but she seemed to realize he wasn't going to change his mind.

"Caitlin, I won't let anything happen to him," Barry said, walking up behind her.

"If it makes you feel better," Cisco said, "I'll give everyone a five-minute head start."

Caitlin's jaw tensed and she walked away with a quick stride. Cisco started to open his mouth to stop her, but didn't say anything. He looked at Barry helplessly.

"She didn't want me going yesterday," Barry reminded him. "She's just worried about you."

"I'm worried about me too," Cisco said. "I'm still going."

Bobbi gave Cisco a locker and set of black gear (Cisco didn't really like how plain it was, but remembered that Daisy had said it made it harder for HYDRA to see them; he liked that part). Fitz and Simmons got into gear too, and everyone boarded the plane. Everyone.

"I thought you said it wasn't safe," Cisco said, looking at Caitlin. She wasn't wearing gear, but she was already strapped into a seat.

Caitlin didn't move from her seat. "I'm not going to be the only one who stays behind. If you insist on doing this, I'm gonna be there to help if you need it."

Cisco glanced at the others, and saw that they were either nodding or had traces of respect at her words. He softened, realizing she just wanted to keep everyone safe. "It's a good thing we'll have a doctor nearby."

"Multiple, actually," Caitlin said, smiling at Simmons.

Coulson handed Cisco and Caitlin ICERs just before they left for the base. "Keep that on you at all times," he said, looking mostly at Cisco. "We're gonna try to stay together, but we might not get to do that the whole time. Keep this. And -."

"I know," Cisco said. "'My philosophy, Mr. President: shoot first and ask questions later.'"

Coulson seemed to almost smile. "I guess a sci-fi reference fits here as well as any other, though I probably would have gone thriller. Alright, we're heading out."

Hunter cracked jokes periodically, and Fitz and Simmons had a quiet conversation between themselves in the farthest seats. Beyond the low murmur of their voices, the only sounds Cisco heard were the steady pressure from the plane and the tapping from Barry's foot, when his shaking became more pronounced.

"You good?" Cisco asked him quietly.

"Yeah, just full of energy."

Cisco tightened his grip on the ICER, where it lay on his lap. "Yeah," he lied, "me too." He was full of energy – it was just mostly taking the form of fear, as they drew closer to the ATCU outpost building. He knew the others weren't as scared as he was. He'd volunteered for this, though, so he couldn't show them that he was scared.

That hadn't changed by the time they landed, and the team started loading weapons and prepping to run out. Fitz came up to Cisco as he pretended to adjust his protective jacket. "Hey, just so you know, Jemma and I are gonna try to stay back," Fitz said in a low voice. "I know your first time in the field can be scary."

"You probably trained for it, right?" Cisco asked.

Fitz scoffed. "Jemma and I failed our field assessments before we joined Coulson's team. We barely knew anything." He put a hand on Cisco's shoulder. "You'll be okay."

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Jemma said as she passed. "No one will think less of you."

May appeared from the cockpit and slammed her fist on the button to lower the ramp. "We're up," Fitz said.

Cisco gripped his ICER, letting the other agents go first. He did wait a few minutes, as he'd told Caitlin he would, but not many. Maybe two, and when he left the plane with a nod at Caitlin, he ran to see Fitz and Simmons waiting just beyond the first door.

"You came then," Fitz said, and Cisco thought the man seemed impressed. "Come on, let's go to the next room."

They walked through the doorway, and Cisco tried to mirror the way they moved and held their ICERs. He actually started to feel a little more comfortable too – especially when he saw a flicker of movement and fired at it. He missed the HYDRA agent by a lot, but his movement caught the others' attention, and they dropped the agent before he could fire at them. Simmons smiled at Cisco before running forward. Fitz nodded at him and followed Simmons as she moved down the hallway. Cisco stopped, though, because he saw a computer.

"I'm gonna start downloading information," he said into his earpiece. He set down his ICER as he started pulling up files on the computer, his eyes flicking to the doorway every few seconds. He could hear the others in his earpiece, reporting one room clear, then another, that they needed help in a third… Cisco was in a completely different room, downloading his fifth set of data, when he heard Bobbi say 'looks like the last room is clear.'

He sighed, half-smiling in relief as the machine he was stripping finished its work.

The smile changed to a cry when he was thrown aside, and a fist collided with his jaw. Maybe they'd gotten through all the rooms, but apparently not all the agents. Cisco tried to grab his ICER, but the man swept it off the table.

"Guys, little help!" Cisco said, trying to run around the man. He ran to the other edge of the room, seized a chair, and held it up threateningly. The man paused, assessing him, and then started forward again. He dove when Cisco threw the chair, and Cisco ran to the doorway. He almost collided with someone else, and panicked as he thought it was another HYDRA agent – then he recognized Caitlin.

She was staring at the man, and as Cisco turned, she held up an ICER and fired four shots.

Her eyes were huge as the man dropped to the ground, her hands shaking as she held the ICER still pointed at him. Cisco touched her on the arm. "That was bad-ASS!" he cried.

She almost smiled, lowering the ICER. "Let's go back to the plane before you get into more trouble, okay?"

A gun clicked behind them, and Cisco felt something hard press into his back. "Change of plans," a deep voice said. "You're coming with me."

Cisco could hear talking in his earpiece, and thought the team had found a few more HYDRA agents. Which meant they were occupied. He shook his head at Caitlin, telling her not to try anything, and she dropped the ICER immediately.

The guy behind he and Caitlin was huge – bigger than Mack. Cisco tried to figure out how to get a jump on the guy as he started pushing them forward, his gun pressed against Cisco's back, his other hand gripping Caitlin's arm tightly.

He turned towards a dark room, and Cisco felt the gun be taken away from his back. He breathed a little easier for a second as the guy reached around him to open the door, simply because the gun was momentarily out of reach.

Cisco was shoved into the room first, so roughly that he stumbled to the ground. He turned around quickly, with a snappy retort on his tongue, to see the HYDRA agent walk in with Caitlin, still gripping her arm.

Cisco glanced at her quickly. "You're a pretty big dude," he said to the guy. "Probably spent your life letting your muscles talk for you. How about using words instead?"

He could see the guy's irritation rising. Just a bit more…

"Oh that's right," Cisco said, making a show of smiling. "You don't know how. All the brain cells you should have went to your beefy arms instead."

The guy reacted like Cisco hoped, and his grip on Caitlin's arm loosened as he started moving towards Cisco. Caitlin reacted perfectly, twisting and simultaneously stomping on the guy's foot and punching him in the face.

Cisco started forward, moving his fist back to throw in his own punch. The plan had worked well in that the guy hadn't expected them to fight back. The part Cisco had neglected to think of was the obvious advantage the guy had over them once that element of surprise was gone.

The guy shoved Caitlin aside and kicked out at Cisco, catching him in the gut. Cisco fell back to the ground with a choked cough. As he tried to recover his breath and stand, he saw the man turn to catch Caitlin trying to run out of the room.

"Someone help!" she yelled to the hallway.

Cisco pushed himself up from the ground and started to stand straight. He had to let her get help. He wasn't fast enough. The guy yanked Caitlin back into the room roughly.

"We're in here!" Caitlin yelled, even louder.

The guy hissed for her to "shut up!" and reacted violently – he didn't so much shove her as throw her towards the wall. Her head collided with it and she dropped to the floor, where she lay unmoving.

Cisco straightened and lunged at the man, confident that his rage would make up for the disadvantage he had in strength. He got in a hit, too, a solid impact on the man's jaw that left Cisco's hand stinging. Then the man pulled something out of his pocket. It was long and thin, and looked like some form of crystal. "Hail HYDRA," he said, and tossed the crystal to the ground.

It shattered instantly. Smoke and dust started rising from the broken crystal, expanding faster than Cisco thought it should have. He started backing up. The smoke followed him and entered his lungs when he drew his next breath. He could tell because the breath hurt. He looked up as the smoke started dispersing, to see the HYDRA agent becoming covered in rock, and… crumbling?

He didn't have time to be completely sure, because he felt some change in his body. He couldn't move his legs anymore, and when he looked down, saw a rocky cocoon forming around him from his feet up, rapidly climbing up his body. Fear tightened his throat, and he had just looked at the door by the time the husk reached his head.

He'd only just started to realize what was happening when the cocoon encased him completely, and everything stopped.

A/N: The first real cliffhanger of the story... and yes, I did say first. There will be more. What do you think?