"Put down the gun, Taylor." Taylor spun around to face Coulson, who had finally gotten around to the back door. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the prodical son that returned from the grave? You know, not many people can sneak up on me." Coulson slowly walked towards her. "I've had a lot of practice, now put down the gun and we can all walk out of here." Taylor just laughed. "Hahahaha! Oh, how I would love to put away for good. But, it's getting late so I'm afraid I have to get going." She aimed the gun at the sole light above her head. "See you around." Taylor pulled the trigger sending a bullet straight into the light, submerging the whole warehouse in darkness. Coulson pulled out his flashlight and shined it where Taylor had just been, but she had vanished, only shattered glass being left in her place. He then focused on Skye and Ward. Ward had his wrist, which was now bleeding profusely, wrapped in Skye's jacket. They rushed outside into the light and to the car. "Come on, we need to get Ward medical attention." "No, I'm fine, what we need is to go after Taylor." Coulson shook his head and started the car. "No, trust me she's long gone. Let's get back to the Bus."
The ride back was unusually silent. Simmons tended to Grant and Skye and Coulson sat uneasy in the front seat. They finally arrived back and immediately went to the lab. Fitz and Simmons stitched up Grant's wrist and bandaged it. The injury wasn't life threatening or anything, but four deep puncture wounds in his trigger hand might set him back a little bit. Coulson snuck up to office while the rest of the team was preoccupied. He wanted quiet, just enough to think. There was a lot on his mind that needed to be carefully sorted and considered. He pulled up Taylor's case file on the screen and submerged himself in thought. Where did the mission go wrong? Why did this feel so... out of the ordinary? What now? He was pulled from his thoughts by Melinda May walking into the door way. "So, how'd it go?" Coulson gave an exasperated sigh. "What do you think?" May shrugged and invited herself in. "Judging from Ward's hand and the look on your face, not well." He shook his head. "It should have been easy. It was the last time. I don't know what went wrong. It's almost like she's changed." "What made it so different?" " For one thing you weren't there, you were basically the one who put her away last time." May joined him leaning on his desk. "Guilty. But now we have the tranquilizer, you could have used that." "No, she was standing in front of Grant and Skye, I couldn't risk a shot." He abruptly stood and went back to the screen. "And she didn't finish the fight. Taylor always finished the fight. It's almost as if she was being careful." "Well, one things for sure, your going to need a new plan of action. No action, that's the plan. Use on of the trackers we implanted, find her, set up a simple ambush, have her surrender, and walk out peacefully, simple." Coulson quickly scribbled on a pad of paper Melinda's 'words of wisdom' as they came out of her mouth. She started to walk out of the room. "But, this time," Coulson looked up from his writing as she walked out. "I'm on point."
Back down stairs the rest of the team was sitting silently in the common room. They were all kind of depressed about their failure in the field today. But to be fair they really had no idea what they were going up against. Sure, they had dealt with gods, and various super-powered people before, but this, this was so much different. A leopard shifter, now they had heard everything. Hopefully now nothing could surprise them. Fitz finally broke the stilled silence. "You know, this is why we should get a monkey." Simmons nodded in agreement. "Yes, monkeys, especially baboons, are the leopard's enemy in the wild." Skye looked over at the two scientists from the opposite side of Ward. "But we already have a monkey." Both Simmons and Fitz looked at her. "We do?" Skye nodded. "Yeah, he's big, and tall, and stole Captain America's haircut." Ward playfully shoved Skye. "Haha, very funny, but at least I can tell the safety from the magazine release." She rolled her eyes as Fitz and Simmons burst into uncontrollable laughter. So what if the mission was a complete failure? At least everyone made it out ok. That was all that mattered.