Phil was sunk down in his office chair, staring at the wall covered in paper sheets. His forearms were resting on the padded armrest, his right hand hanging off the edge of the padded chair, holding an empty glass of whiskey. The only audible sound was the soft ticking of the melting ice cubes as he stirred them around in his glass. He had been looking at those papers for hours now. A day and a half had gone by since the break in, all agents had been sent home, only Phil stayed, mainly because he had nowhere to go. Their house in New York was sold and he wasn't even considering the thought of going to his parents' house.

Groaning in despair and anger, he reached for the whiskey bottle over the desk and filled his cup again. He didn't know what to do. Phil Coulson was known to be a brilliant tactician, but now he was completely at loss. He had dug up all information he could find on the ATCU and Rosalind Price. He found nothing about the agency, but he found some interesting and concerning things about her. Using different aliases, she had been a member of different agencies. From the CIA, to NASA and the MI6, that woman was unstoppable. But there was one name that struck Phil's attention: Margaret Campbell, marital status: widow. She had been married.

He knew he had read that name somewhere else. After a lot of thinking, Phil realized that he had read on Lincoln's file that his mother's name was Margaret Campbell. Phil followed every lead to ascertain if that was a coincidence or not. As he couldn't find the mother-son connection right away, he dug everything on Mr. Campbell. Alexander Gilbert Campbell was a cardiologist. He contracted cancer two years before and passed away. Using all resources he had available, Phil managed to confirm that Alexander Campbell was Lincoln's father and, ultimately, that Rosalind Price was Margaret Campbell, Lincoln's mother.

The information was important enough to potentiate a strategy, a plan of attack, anything, but Phil couldn't even form rational thoughts. He didn't know what his next move should be. His brain was a complete mess, his body reaching the point of exhaustion and stress. He would have destroyed his office to get rid of his anger if only someone else hadn't done for him. And he would have cried if only the tears would spill from his teary eyes.

His office phone rang and rang and rang. Phil didn't even have the strengths to get up and take the call. It could be important but at the moment, he just didn't care. The answering machine beeped and then a familiar voice dripped into the quiet room.

"Hey, Coulson it's me," It was Tony Stark. "I just heard about what happened to Melinda and Skye, and to everyone else. I'm sorry. I just want to say that, even though I've got my too much on my plate because of the Accords thing, I'm here for you. If you need anything, give me a call."

Suddenly Coulson realized what he needed to do. Darting to his desk, he dialed a number on his phone and (im) patiently waited for the person on the other side to pick up.

"I need your help," he blurted.

Phil could almost hear Natasha raising her brow, "Emotional?"

"Technical. You're the only one I trust with this. And the only one I know that can pull it."

"I'm a bit busy at the moment, Coulson."

Nonetheless, he explained, "I need your help to break into the ATCU's HQ. We have to cause a distraction, hack their system, so that we can go in undercover and retrieve information from their severs."

"The whole world knows who I am, knows everything about SHIELD. Or whatever's left of it. There's not much room for stealth."

"I'm not suggesting that we'll linger around in their headquarters for an hour. Quickness is our priority. Besides, don't you still have a photostatic veil?"

"Still," the redhead mused aloud.

"What is the problem?"

"I've got nothing else to lose, but you –"

"Neither do I," he told her. "Can I count on you or not?"

Natasha sighed, "Where are you?"

"At The Cocoon."

"Give me two hours," she said before hanging up.

Two hours later as agreed, SHIELD Agent and Avengers member Natasha Romanoff walked in Coulson's office at The Cocoon. He was already expecting for her, plan sketched and the needed gear was on top of his desk. Natasha threw a quick glance at his trashed office room.

"You need to pull yourself together. Anger will lead you nowhere."

"I didn't do this. Here," he said, handing her a flash drive. "I've hacked their systems. All you have to do is walk in their headquarters, pretend to solve the problem and retrieve every bit of information you can into this flash drive. We'll keep in touch through comms," Coulson continued, giving her an earpiece while getting his in his ear, "I'll be outside. Any problem, you tell me."

"This is piece of cake," Natasha said.

Lincoln's eyes fluttered open. His whole world was spinning around, everything was blurry. He blinked to get his bearings and rubbed his eyes. The first image that entered his eyes was the red hospital tag he had on his wrist. Tugging on it, he read that it had written his name, blood group, birth day and a very strange word – Electrokinesis – which was the designation of his ability. Only then Lincoln noticed that he had thick, black gloves on. He tried to take them off but he felt too weak and woozy. He couldn't generate electrical sparks either, which scared him. Lincoln was very much used to feel the tingling electricity flowing through veins that not feeling or being able to produce them was frightening. Skye was lying on the floor right next to him, apparently sleeping. Lincoln noticed she also had gloves on. He thought of shaking her and wake her up, but decided to let her sleep. Pressing his hands flat on the floor, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The boy didn't get the chance to look around the containment pod.

"Hello," a tiny, husky voice spoke. He noticed that the word had sounded funny in her voice; she had an accent.

Lincoln turned to find from where the voice had come from. It was a girl, about his age, sitting behind him, back rested against the wall of the pod. She looked pale and tired, her lips were chapped, and she looked like she didn't eat in days.

"I'm Jemma," she introduced herself.

"I'm –"

"Lincoln," Jemma said. "I know, I read your tag. Sorry," she sketched a weak smile.

The room was cold and dry. Lincoln shivered and rubbed his bare arms. He and all the other kids were wearing a black T-shirt, and a pair of shorts of the same color, both garments being loose and slightly oversized.

"I'm sorry if the room's too dry and cold. It's just, this way Grant and I can't use our abilities." Showing Lincoln her tag where it read Hydrokinesis, she explained, "If the room's dry, there's no water that I can manipulate."

The boy nodded, taking in the information, "And Grant? What does he do?"

Jemma directed her look at the boy balled up at the opposite corner of the room, his all body shaking like a leaf on the wind, "Pyrokinesis. He can control fire."

"Oh," Lincoln let out distractedly, sparing a glance at the other two kids in the room. "And who're they?"

One of the boys was standing on the corner of the pod, eyes shut tightly and fists clenched, nails digging into his palms. He had electrodes glued to his forehead, neck and the back of his hands, and all were connected via wires. Lincoln couldn't see the face of the other boy. He was sitting next to Jemma, back resting against the wall as well, but he was hugging his legs to his chest, head lowered, buried in the crook of his arms.

"The one on the corner is Lance. They shock him when he tries to use his powers," Jemma swallowed hard. "He does things with his mind. And this is one is Leo," she resumed, looking at the boy next to her, "his ability is acoustikinesis."

Upon hearing his name being mentioned in the conversation, Leo lifted his head, which caused Lincoln to crawl back, disturbed and frightened. He had a muzzle covering his mouth. It was made out of metal and was secured to his head with leather straps. Three of the thin metal bars were in his mouth; two were poking the inside of his cheek, and the other one kept his tongue immobilized. His eyes were fossilized with fear, and the boy hid his head again in the crook of his arms.

"Māma? Bàba?" Skye whined as she woke up.

Lincoln looked back and immediately crawled to hug Skye. She was crying, big tears streaming down her face. She was scared, and so was Lincoln, but he didn't let it show.

"Where are we, Linc?" she whispered. "This place is scary. Where's everyone?"

"We'll be okay, don't worry."

Just as he told her that, a squadron of heavily armed man marched down the hall and opened the pod. Keeping the kids under gunpoint, they ordered them to step out of the containment unit and to form a single, straight line and follow them. Lincoln and Skye were the last ones of the queue, orderly walking after the other kids who apparently were already used to that. Skye grabbed Lincoln's hand and he offered her a smile, trying to keep her calm.

The kids were guided to an infirmary and stopped at the door, with the exception of Grant and Jemma. The two of them walked to a gurney and started stripping off their clothes, proceeding to lie down in the gurney in their underwear. Lance took a step forward and one doctor removed all the wires and electrodes. After that, he mimicked Jemma and Grant's action. Leo got his muzzle removed and did the same as all the children before him.

Then it was Lincoln's turn. He swallowed a lump in his throat and forgot how to breathe as the doctor approached him. The man removed Lincoln's gloves and the boy felt an instant relief. The power that was trapped inside of him was freed. He unintentionally released an electric spark that blacked out the room. One of armed men pressed his gun against the back of Lincoln's neck, causing the boy to bury his neck between his shoulders. Luckily the backup generators brought the power back.

"There's no need to scare them," the doctor said, placing a hand on Lincoln's shoulder while shooting the armed man a reprimanding look. "That's your gurney," she carried on as she pointed. "Strip off your clothes and lie down."

Skye also got her gloves removed and was forwarded to her gurney. Lincoln and Skye were scared, fear running through their veins and nervousness pooling in their stomachs. Grant, Leo and Jemma didn't seem as scared, maybe because that wasn't their first time in the infirmary, but they were frightened as well. The armed men left the room and four more people in white coats walked in. The doctors approached each of the kids and pricked a needle in their arms. Darkness swallowed them and they all drifted into a heavy sleep.

Before finding out how to enhance their abilities to the maximum, the doctors, who were actually scientists, needed to find out how to repress the kids' powers, in order to avoid chaos. Adult Inhumans were hard to control, but Inhuman children were much harder. Children were unpredictable.

The sounds that entered Melinda's ears were nothing more than a blend of distorted sounds. She could barely open her eyes but she could listen to at least three different voices floating around her. Melinda could also feel something, very feebly, cutting her skin, needles being pricked on her body, but she couldn't move at all. Her head hurt in an unusual way, like her brain was melting down. She had no control over her abilities whatsoever and she didn't have the strengths to get up. Melinda was strapped down on a metal table, the marks of the straps that held her down engraved as bruises on her wrists and ankles.

"She's pregnant," a voice said.

Melinda felt a tear rushing down her face. She didn't even want to think of the possibility of them hurting the baby. Strangely, the team of scientists was shocked with the discovery, and called a superior officer to tell them what they should do about her.

"Give her the same you gave the other ones, modafinil, desoxyn, methylphenidate, paxil, Prozac and antidepressants, and then send her to the room as well."

"Sir, this woman is pregnant. Most of those drugs have effects on the pregnancy –"

"Does it seem like I care?" the man said with a low, sinister voice. "Inject her."

Melinda was blacked out for a couple of hours and as soon as she regained consciousness, she was forced to stand up and was dragged along long, dark halls. She was pushed into a room, where all the Inhumans that were at The Cocoon and many others were. All heads turned to look at her, and they all started walking to Melinda. Looking at the floor, she saw a lot of blood and many corpses on the floor, having no idea if they were dead or just hurt. Having no control over their bodies, the Inhumans restarted a fight. They were under psychotropic several drugs that induced their violent behavior. No one was dead in that room (their resistance was stronger because of their Inhuman nature) but people were hurt. In the end, only Melinda was standing, blood everywhere from her hands, to her clothes and the floor.

Melinda was stung in the neck with a syringe which made her pass out again. A group of people began dragging all the unconscious Inhumans away to the infirmary to heal them and repeat the procedure again. They needed to find the best ones to send on their mission.

Phil took a look around Rosalind Price's apartment. He was pleased to know that, after breaking into her home, he triggered a silent alarm, which would draw her to come home. He couldn't wait to confront her for having taken away from The Cocoon, still debating if he'd shoot her or choke her with his bare hands. Walking around, Phil paid special attention to Lincoln's bedroom. It was a nice bedroom, making him believe that Rosalind actually cared for her son. Or maybe not; maybe Lincoln only had a nice bedroom but he was left under the care of a nanny. However, Phil was unsure about his assumptions. There were photos around the house, most of them of Rosalind and Lincoln.

He couldn't wrap his mind around Rosalind's motive. Why would she taken everyone away when President Ellis decided that the ATCU would handle the Inhumans emergence? And why would she kidnap her own son when she hadn't even showed up once to visit him? SHIELD allowed visits to the Inhumans.

"Apologies for barging in uninvited," Phil spoke, showing up in the living room upon hearing a female voice, "but you just sort of did the same to me."

"Phil Coulson," she offered a wry smile, dismissing the police officers and the man that accompanied her. "How did you even find my address?"

He smirked, showing Rosalind the flash drive, "Hacked your systems, walked in and got some information out of your servers."

"I was just on the phone with your boss. He didn't mention to me that you are a hacker."

"I'm not here to play games, Ms. Price. Or do you prefer Mrs. Campbell?" Phil took especially pleasure in watching her jaw tighten. "What is the ATCU working on?"

"A cure. We want to help these people return to their normal selves so I suggest you'd stop playing games and hand over the Inhumans to the ATCU."

Phil felt his blood boiling, clenching his fist, "You got a lot of nerve, don't you? President Ellis gave you authority to act on the Inhumans emergence. Why did you order your men to break into The Cocoon, put everyone to sleep and take them away?"

Confusion dawned upon Rosalind's face, "I didn't… So that was why Director Fury was calling me? You think I did any of this?"

"Who else could have done it? I don't understand the reason why you did it. Was it to get revenge on SHIELD for having taken your son into custody? You know, you were allowed to visit him."

She was still perplexed, "I didn't order anything," Rosalind finally let out. "The ATCU would only get the Inhumans from SHIELD next week." Her eyes widened and she looked for her phone to make a call, "Lincoln…"

Phil froze; that was the expression of a concerned parent. If she was worried about what happened to her son, then it meant that she didn't know where he was. If the ATCU had kidnapped the Inhumans, Rosalind would have kept Lincoln safe. Instead, her face mirrored pure terror. So, it wasn't them.

"If you didn't take them away, then who did?" Phil asked, eyes focused on the woman.

Rosalind shook her head, "I don't know. But whoever did it will pay for it."

Next chapter (chapter 8) is already posted. There you'll find a list with all the abilites of each Inhuman so far introduced.