"She's lying." Simmons turned to Mack as soon as the containment door was closed. He looked down at her, a surprised look on his face. "You knew too? You hide it pretty well, Simmons." She scoffed and started walking up the ramp towards the lab. "Please. I'm friends with inhumans and secret operatives who are good at bending the truth. Whatever Harker was saying, it was either a half truth or a whole lie." Simmons looked down at the DNA samples in her hand. "I wonder what these will look like under a microscope." She wished the tubes were clear plastic instead of clouded; what would the girl's blood look like? Probably normal, although it still wasn't clear whether she was an inhuman or not. Perhaps she had powers from birth. Simmons smiled. That would be an amazing discovery.
"Earth to Simmons. Jemma. Hello?" She looked up to see Fitz standing in the doorway of the lab. "Oh. Sorry, um… Here's the samples. We should get them ready to be examined." Simmons handed him the vials and walked towards the testing chamber in the middle of the lab. Fitz placed the samples in the tray and started up the program, before turning to her. "So, Daisy said there were some fireworks down there." Simmons frowned as she pulled on a pair of gloves. "Well, let's just say Miss Harker is slightly angry at Daisy for some reason, god knows what that is." Shrugging on her lab coat, she began the procedure to sterilize the blood samples. "It was some kind of pride thing, I think. Something happened, and Harker thought Daisy had used her powers inside Laylia's head." Fitz frowned, handing Simmons her safety glasses. "Is that even, um, uh, possible?" He asked.
"No, it's not." Daisy walked up behind them, sliding her phone into her pocket. "I swear I didn't do anything, although I would have done anything to keep her from getting all glowy again. Coulson and the Director want the results from the blood tests." Simmons nodded, turning back to the chamber. "Almost done, just… oh." She was cut short by the sight of bright orange blood falling out of the dropper.
"So what, she's a centipede project now? I thought we squashed that like, years ago." Daisy stalked around the lab, where the rest of the team had gathered. "I don't think she's part of centipede. She doesn't have the same characteristics as those soldiers do." Coulson frowned, looking at the case file. "What, being a homicidal psychopath that likes to destroy stuff and has a grudge against us? Sorry, A.C., but that sounds exactly like them." Daisy scoffed, crossing her arms and leaning against a lab table. May rolled her eyes. "She only has a grudge against me and you. And she's not a homicidal psychopath, although I think she does like to destroy things." Daisy's mouth dropped open, and she stared at May. "Are you kidding me? She tried to kill us! Like, all of us! That doesn't count as being either a psycho or being homicidal?" Daisy said incredulously. Simmons looked at Fitz. Daisy had a point; Laylia had destroyed a lot of equipment, and had injured many of the agents. She had also attacked Daisy and May, almost killing them with a smile on her face.
"Okay, Agent Johnson, enough with the slander. After all, we don't know what exactly she is, or even if that side of her is the seventeen year old we see on paper. After all, Agent Reyes's other half isn't even controllable by him on most occasions." The Director spoke up, silencing Daisy's angry insinuations. She scowled at him, before turning on her heel and stalking out of the lab. Mack put down his tablet and followed her, muttering something about making sure she stayed away from containment. The Director sighed and put Harker's medical file on the TV. "Okay, so here's what we know. She's young, possibly inhuman, and has a power that she can barely remember using. What we don't know is where she was born, if she is definitely inhuman, and if she can control her power while in the moment. We also know that Reyes can put her down if things get out of hand. But we don't know how things get out of hand." He looked around at the team. "Find out. Find out how it's triggered, and how to stop it."
Daisy stormed out of the lab, heading to her room. They didn't understand how dangerous centipede was, how dangerous this girl was. They hadn't seen the look of sadistic joy on Harker's face, as she was getting ready to kill Daisy. That kid knew exactly what she was doing, and was taking pleasure in doing it. Daisy felt the floor start to shake, and took a deep breath. The shaking stopped immediately. She leaned up against a wall and shook her head. The team hadn't been there. They didn't feel her fear, as she looked into Laylia's bright blue eyes. She hadn't felt that fear since Ward- no, since that parasite insect bastard took over his body and had killed Lincoln. After that, she had felt like nothing would scare her again; nothing could be as terrifying as Hive. Even death didn't scare her after that. But after she came back to the Playground, she had felt safe. That feeling tricked her into having fear again. And that fear had shown itself when she faced the monster inside Laylia.
"Tremors, you good?" Daisy opened her eyes and turned to look at Mack. The familiar nickname soothed her temper, and she quickly calmed down. "Yeah, I'm fine." Mack raised his eyebrows at her, prompting the actual thoughts in her head to come flying out of her mouth. "It's just that everyone is treating her like she's a kid. She attacked me! She's a dangerous inhuman. We don't need to understand what she is, we need to keep her locked up where she can't hurt anyone else." Mack sighed and leaned against the wall, rubbing his face. "So, I feel like you're forgetting when you first discovered you were inhuman. Remember? Sif wanted to bring you back to Asguard. They wanted to find out what you were. Everyone was terrified of you. You were terrified of you. What do you think she's going through? She might not be able to control it. She might be trying to protect herself." Daisy bit her lip, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt. Mack was right; she had no idea what Laylia was going through. As an adult, going through terrigenesis was terrifying. What would it be like for a kid?
"Daisy, Mack, where are you?" Coulson's voice came through the coms, a hint of nervousness underlying his tone. "Near the lab, what's up?" Daisy said, frowning at Mack. "There's a problem. Someone is calling in to the base, we need you to track the call." Daisy and Mack started towards the Director's office. "Any idea who it is, sir?" Mack said. "No idea, but they're calling from an old HYDRA base, so get here quickly." As they quickened their pace, the lights shut off and the emergencies came on. "Oh good, they've hacked into the mainframe." Coulson's voice was drowned out by another, more sinister one.