"Lots of rebels in the area." Skye says, hoping that whatever the situation outside is, it isn't anything too bad.
"Not enough gunfire."Coulson tells her in a low voice before he looks towards FitzSimmons, who stares at him for instructions. She tries to think of any other hostile alternative that could be attacking them. Was Hydra back? More Red Room? "Keep working."
"I'm on my way." Coulson speaks into the walkie-talkie, before leaving the room. Looking at FitzSimmons, Skye moves towards one of the walls, leaning towards it. She disliked the situation, her gut told her something was wrong, and she had learned a long time ago to trust that feeling.
"Are you seeing this? It's alive." Fitz tells them after a minute of silence and Skye looks up at this, eyes landing on the object.
"Wha—alive alive?" She can hear herself ask; she couldn't believe that. She starts to move forwards slightly to get a better look once more.
"It has a functioning power source." Fitz explains and Skye blinks a few times.
"Sleepy's reading radionuclides, but they don't match any known isotope."
"I get temporal matches, but even then, they seem to shift. Is that even possible?" Watching the two of them talk, Skye realises there wasn't any chance she would understand them and gives up.
"I'm gonna go check on Coulson." She tells them, turning to head for the entry, only to move to the side as fast as she possibly can as War shows up in front of her.
"We've got company. National police." Ward tells them as he enters, and Skye looks up at this.
"What?"
"Why are they here?" FitzSimmons asks and Skye must give it to them, those are the most important questions of the day.
"They heard about this object. They're probably here to protect it. This area has a lot of rebel uprisings." Ward tells them and Skye was right, this was just going to down hill fast. But remembering she still has an act to keep, she steals herself.
"Yeah, people are fighting back against the government's mining policies. It's pretty kick-ass." She says she can't help but to feel that it is quite kick-ass. She had seen a lot during her time undercover with the organisation after all.
"Yeah, it's kick-ass, all the violence." Ward takes her words and twists them, and she narrows her eyes.
"That's not what I'm saying."
"No, it's what you're typing. In your van, alone – where it's safe." Ward adds and Skye can feel anger when she starts to boil. The more time she spends with this man, the more she dislikes him. Before she can say anything, he has turned towards FitzSimmons.
"How much longer?"
"What's the hurry?"
"Are we in danger?" Simmons and Fitz ask at the same time.
"Not if everyone does their job." Ward tells them, turning his head to look at Skye once more, his eyes narrowed. "What is yours, exactly?"
Skye shrinks back as she hears the anger in his voice. She was growing tired of it all and with a sigh, Skye turned towards the opening for a second time. If this is the treatment she would be met with, then she could just head back home. But as she reaches the opening, a gun fires from outside and she freezes up.
"Sounds like they're engaging with rebels." Ward starts and Skye takes a step away from the opening, not wanting to get shot by accident. Not that there were any accidents when guns were involved.
"Let's go. They are coming for it. Let's move!" Ward orders FitzSimmons and Skye turns to look at them, seeing how they start packing everything.
"No. No, no, no, no, no." Fitz says and Skye lifts one eyebrow at his reaction.
"It doesn't matter." Simmons tells him, sounding annoying and Skye realises he is complaining that things are not being backed the way he wants it.
"It does to me!" Fitz tells her and Skye can see how Simmons is growing more annoyed when Ward tries to help.
"Please, let us do this. We need a containment case for the 0-8-4." She says as Fitz darts for a silver box.
"There's no time."
"But it has a fluctuating power core – frequencies way above 10 exahertz." Fitz explains as an explosion can be heard from outside. Skye wished more and more that she had stayed on the BUS, or said no to Coulson. Hell, if she knew this was going to be the outcome, she wouldn't have let Maria and Victoria talk her into joining The Rising Tide.
"Sorry. Science class is over." She hears Ward comment and Skye turns around, looking at him with large eyes as she watches him pull out the 0-8-4 from the wall.
"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait. You did not just pull that out of the wall. What is the matter with you?! Do you realise we do not know the amount of photon emissions coming out of this –" Fitz says in panic and Ward hands him the 0-8-4 and Skye can see how his eyes grow even larger. Fitz squeaks some more as he places the 0-8-4 in a box carefully.
"Stay close." Ward orders and heads for the door, Skye making sure to keep behind them all once more.
"Fitz! Come on!" Simmons says as she starts to help Fitz pack up the last few things. As they got out of the ruins, they didn't get far as guns were being pointed towards them, Simmons screaming in surprise.
"Get back!" Ward orders them and Skye doesn't need to be told twice as she backs into the old ruin once more, Simmons and Fitz following her as Ward joins the fight outside.
"Tell your men to get down!" She hears Ward call out and Skye wonders what is happening, seeing Ward's face in the opening once more, he waves at them to follow him once more. Doing so, Skye looks around to see that rebels has been found thrown to the ground, most of them knocked out. A car stops in front of them, and she can see how Many push the car door open for them.
"Get in! Get in! Move! Now!"
"Yes."
"Yeah, that's a good idea." May orders them, Simmons and Fitz aggress, she enters the car, keeping close to the door as Fitz places himself beside her. The moment Simmons closes her door, May speeds away from the site.
"Coulson's secure in PMP's truck. Take the south route to the airfield." Ward informs as May turns the car; Skye being pushed into the side as she does. Skye lifts her head to look at May and she starts to wonder if she and Natasha have been giving one another tips on high-speed driving.
"Slow down!" Fitz calls out beside her, and Skye turns her head to look at him, she couldn't believe that the younger agent is asking that May needs to slow down when they are being hunted.
"You're joking, right?"She asks him, only to be ignored.
"Ward, listen! We have to be careful. There's a binding energy structure that could overheat."
"I could roll down a window." Fitz informs them and Simmons adds, only to quickly pull up the window once more when bullets ricochet towards the car.
"Do not roll down the window!" Skye tells Simmons, turning so she can look at the young agent, who is looking quite scared now.
"Stay quiet and keep your heads down." Ward orders before turning his attention towards May once more.
"Head left. The ravine empties." He tells her and Skye can see May nod her head once more, doing as she was told.
"But, Ward!"
"Quiet! Ward and May tell Fitz at the same time and Skye can see how Fitz shrinks down beside her.
"How fast can you have the wheels up?" Ward asks as they are getting closer to the BUS.
"Fast." May answered shortly as she drove up the ramp of the BUS, the moment she turned the car off, they were all jumping out.
"Ramp!" May orders as she heads for the stairs, heading for the cockpit to get them out of her. But hearing this order, Skye turns around, eyes growing large as she sees Ward heading to the side of the cargo hold.
"On it."
"What are you doing?! Coulson is still out there!" Skye asks, fear creeping up through her body. Turning her head to look outside, in a hope to see Coulson.
"Get off the ramp. You're in the line of fire." Ward tells her and Skye moves away, knowing that it would be more of a problem if she ends up hurt. Hiding behind the car they had arrived in; Skye can see how Coulson and the people he has been able to reach the BUS in time to enter.
"Cutting it close, sir."
"Didn't want to leave anyone behind." Skye steps out from behind the car, happy to see that Coulson looks to be alright.
"I got to say it. I miss my van." She tells Coulson, crossing her arms in a try to hug herself. She can see that Coulson is looking at her, a hint of worry in his eyes and Skye turns her attention towards the floor instead. Seeing him worried over her when he doesn't fully know who she is just makes her feel even more guilty.
"Now, what was the problem?" Ward asks and as Skye turns her attention up once more, seeing that Ward is talking to Fitz.
"AS I said before, this device has a high-frequency, fluctuating sub-material compression-"
Fitz starts to explain, and Skye can see how Ward is growing angry with him again.
"Fitz, in English."
"The 0-8-4 is fueled by tesseract technology. Hydra. World War 2. Captain America. It's full of lethal amounts of gamma radiation." Fitz tells him and Skye turns her attention towards the box that Fitz has placed on the ground.
"Gamma – you're saying it's nuclear?"
"No. He's saying it's much, much worse." Coulson answers before Fitz can and they all take a few steps back from the box. And Skye wishes once more that she had not agreed to join this group, all she can do is hope that the information Maria is to tell her is worth all of this.
"Take it to the lab and stay there until I get back down. I need to check with HQ and May." Coulson orders them, heading for the stairs. Skye looks after him, wondering if there is a chance where she can head for her bunk to hide. But before she can come up with a way of doing that, Simmons has grabbed hold of her arms and pulls her into the lab. Skye's eyes land on the box that Ward and Fitz have placed in the lab before heading out to grab the rest of their things.
"Not to worry. The device is stable. Not that it couldn't explode at any minute, especially if hit with machine-gun fire. But things like this happen from time to time when in the field, and at first, it's very unpleasant, and you regret your decision to leave the lab at all." Simmons tells her and Skye keeps her eyes on the box, making sure to place herself on a safe distance from it. Moving closer towards Simmons as the doors open once more and she can hear how Ward and Fitz are arguing once more.
"Are you mental? I did explain in great detail exactly what I meant, using the queen's bloody English!"
"I use normal English – words like duck and run and might blow us to pieces."
"Oh. Oh! Well, congratulations, Agent Ward. You managed to string three words together in a sentence." Hearing them, Skye shrinks down slightly, even if she tries to hide this away. But feeling how Simmons turns her attention towards her, Skye gets the feeling the other woman will catch on. Before Simmons has a chance to open her mouth to ask how she was feeling, the doors open once more, and Coulson enters.
"I'm trying to tell you—"
"… don't understand anything you are saying!"
Fitz and Ward continue to argue, not realising that their boss has entered the room.
"Do we have a problem here?" Coulson asks over the argument, making Ward and Fitz go silent before turning their heads to see Coulson, who's arms are crossed.
"No, sir. Just working on our communication. Not everyone was prepared for the firefight." Ward says and Skye starts to wonder how long the people in the room have known one another before yesterday.
"We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs – I'd say we did alright. Anything else?"
Coulson tells them and Skye holds up her hand, from the corner of her eye she can see how her hand shakes slightly.
"Uh, yeah. I have a small question. Because I've been feeling like the tagalong hayseed rookie, but now I get the sense that Ward doesn't know which one's Simmons and which one's Fitz, and they've seen even less gunfire than me, and I'm no rocket scientist, but is this your first mission together?" She asks, feeling it was a question she needed to answer.
"No. Of course not. It's our second." Simmons tells her and Skye turns her attention towards Simmons.
"I was your first? That's sweet." She tells Simmons, adding some of the charm she has seen Natasha use on multiple occasions, hoping this will help her case in the long run.
"You're amused?" Ward accuses her, and the smile Skye had forced when she talked to Simmons dropped and she forced herself to not step back once more.
"I'm terrified." She tells him and she can hear how her voice trembles when she says that.
"I am in over my head, but I have been on this team just as long as any of you. I might as well be team captain." She adds, forcing herself to keep her voice steady this time around. Hearing how someone scoffs at this, Skye turns her attention towards Coulson. "I was joking, but maybe that's not a bad idea, because these guys do not like each other much." She tells him and she can see that Coulson is aggressive with her, at least on something.
"This isn't about that. I'm a specialist. Today, I could have eliminated the enemy threat myself if I was working alone, but I had non-combat-ready agents –"
Ward starts to speak once more, and Skye was starting to grow tired of his behaviour.
"Whoa, whoa. Wait. You work alone?"
"So typical. Who do you think designs your equipment?"
"Or the polymers for your weaponry?"
"Yeah."
"People like us do it."
"Try going into the field with just your bare bum."
Taking in a deep breath, Skye rolls her eyes slightly as she looks at Coulson once more.
"See them proving the point I just made?"
She asks, letting out a sigh, how she wishes she could just walk out from the room right now and head for her bunk.