Skye shook her head in disbelief as she turned around in amazement, gawking at her surroundings. "We...we were just on the bus..." she exclaimed.

"And now we're not," Coulson shrugged, trying and failing to make the whole experience sound casual.

"Where *are* we, exactly?" asked Skye, still in disbelief about the change in her surroundings.

Castle beamed with something that approached an almost-fatherly pride. "Welcome to the Network," he told the agents.

"The Network?" asked Coulson.

"Well it's not the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," a voice called out to them, "but it works for us."

Coulson turned to face the man who had gotten his attention...and his jaw dropped from the shock of what he saw.

The man came up to him, amused by the way Coulson was not looking him in the eye. "I'm...Mark Fallon..." Fallon told Coulson, suppressing a chuckle as he tried to get the other man to look *up*. "It's nice to meet you, Agent..."

Coulson didn't answer. His eyes were fixated on the being he saw standing at attention by Fallon's feet. "You...you have one, too?"

Fallon didn't miss a beat. "Mmm hmm," he agreed with a nod. "They're actually two different parts of the same being."

Coulson finally looked up. "The *same* being?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Fallon nodded again. "How...?"

Fallon shrugged. "Hell if I know," he replied. He then attempted to introduce himself a second time. "Mark Fallon."

Coulson finally shook Fallon's hand. "Phil Coulson."

Ryan turned to Esposito. "*This* is the guy you guys want me to train?"

"Yep," replied Ryan.

"Okay then," said Fallon. He took off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "We'll start with a run. You up for it?"

Coulson took his own jacket off, tossing it on top of Fallon's...then watched in shock as Fallon took off at a dead sprint. "I thought only Captain America could run that fast..." he whispered.

Then Coulson's vision was blinded by a flash of orange light. So can you, the tiger's voice rumbled in his mind. Go.

Coulson started running as fast as he thought he could go. And then he went faster. And faster. And faster. Finally when Fallon was just steps ahead of him, the younger man pushed open a side door to the warehouse and jumped.

Landing two stories over Coulson's head. Coulson gawked at the man who was standing above him. Fallon, though, was unapologetic. "You coming?!" he called down to his 'student'.

Coulson fought his disbelief, planted his feet, and jumped. He landed right next to Fallon...where his jaw almost hit the ground level. "How the *hell* did I just do that?!" Coulson exclaimed.

Fallon didn't answer his question. "You ever play 'Follow the Leader' when you were a kid, Coulson?" he asked instead as he looked up at his next jumping target.

"Yeah..." Coulson replied warily, unsure of the implications of the answer to his question.

Fallon smiled wickedly. "Consider this the X Games version," he declared.

The 'run' went on for two hours. Coulson stopped thinking after that first jump and just let his body run on what were, apparently, a whole new set of instincts. They ran, they jumped, they spun and twisted themselves with a level of speed and flexibility that would have left May in the hospital.

Eventually the two men stopped on the roof of the warehouse. "Let's stop for now," Fallon told Coulson and motioned for the two men to sit down and lean against a nearby brick wall.

Coulson turned his head to his left and right, studying his surroundings. Now that he was allowed a moment to catch his breath, his rational mind took that opportunity to catch up with him. And scream in disbelief. "How the hell did we just do that?!" he repeated.

"You mean you don't know?" Fallon countered, surprised. Coulson shook his head. "I thought you studied the legends."

"I did," Coulson replied.

"What's the legend of the Shuāng jiàn?" Fallon pushed back, putting Coulson on the spot.

It took the older man a moment to respond. "The double-edged sword? All I could find was that it had something to do with the ability to raise an army on command and release them when the war was over."

Fallon nodded. "That's part of it, but not all of it. It's not like the Xiānzhī stands on a street corner recruiting..."

Coulson chuckled at the mental picture of Esposito that comment left him with. "Yeah, I'll bet. So how do they get their army?"

"The tiger spirit," replied Fallon.

Coulson stared at Fallon in disbelief. "How?!"

"He used to just possess anybody he found to be 'worthy'," Fallon explained. "But now that we're a little more organized we have guys who volunteer for the priviledge."

"Really?" asked Coulson.

Fallon nodded. "They train year round to be ready, just in case."

Coulson was still trying to wrap his head around the idea of how the army was created. "Why would anyone *volunteer* to be possessed?"

"You just got a taste of it," Fallon replied. "You tell me."

Coulson thought about what he had just experienced. And how he *felt* during the experience. The power. The speed. The complete and total feeling of freedom. It had felt like he could do absolutely anything he wanted. With nothing to stand in his way.

He felt like a superhero.

Coulson thought about the guys who volunteered for the twisted tortures of the Centipede super soldier programs to feel like he had just felt. And all he had had to do was just stand there..."Yeah," he realized, "I can see why guys would volunteer for this. So does the tiger just follow these guys around in case they're needed?"

Fallon mouthed a silent "oh" before shaking his head. "No, the tiger doesn't follow all of them around. Apparently, just you and me."

"Why *us*?" asked Coulson.

"From what I can tell," Fallon replied, "it's a combination of things. For one thing, you have to have proven yourself worthy by going to extraordinary efforts to save the world."

Curiosity got the better of Coulson. "Can I ask...?"

"I helped the Guardians save the world from the Mayan Apocalypse," Fallon replied.

Coulson raised an eyebrow in skeptical disbelief. "I thought the Mayan calendar..." When Fallon glared at him, Coulson quickly raised his hands in surrender. "Different Mayan apocalypse?"

"Most definitely," said Fallon. "What about you?"

Coulson's expression darkened quickly. "Loki. Battle of New York."

"Yeah, I met Loki on the George Washington Bridge," Fallon agreed. "Interesting guy."

Coulson chuckled bitterly at the sarcastic understatement before a question formed in his mind. "Hey, why weren't you guys there that day?"

"Cap said they could handle it," Fallon replied.

That was probably the last thing Coulson expected to hear. "He waved you guys off?" When Fallon nodded, Coulson rested the back of his head against the wall. "Since I *died* that day, remind me to kick his ass next time I see him."

Fallon chuckled and nodded before the first part of Coulson's comments caught his attention. "Wait, you *died* that day?"

Coulson nodded. "I was dead for days, apparently. Director Fury moved his version of heaven and earth to bring me back..." As Coulson's voice trailed off, Fallon noted that the older man's expression had a definitive 'don't ask' air about it. "Anyway, when I woke up the tiger spirit was there swearing his allegiance to me."

"And you didn't think to ask what that meant?" asked Fallon.

"I had had false memories of a vacation in Tahiti implanted in my head to mask what had been done to me," Coulson countered. "When I started to remember the truth I thought the tiger was a hallucination."

"I can see why you might have thought that," agreed Fallon.

Coulson stared out at the view from the rooftop, thinking about what 'could have been' if he had fully accepted the tiger spirit's help when he first saw the beast. "So what does this 'honor' mean for me in the long run?"

Fallon, to Coulson's surprise, smiled. "Full access to the tiger spirit - and every bonus that comes along with him - any time you need it."

Coulson was grateful he was sitting down. "So you're telling me I'm now a *superhero*?"

"If that's what you want to call it, yeah," Fallon agreed.

Coulson sat back and let the Fallon's words sink in for a minute. It didn't take long, though, before he found the pull of the superhero idea impossible to resist. He stood up and offered a hand to his new friend. "So, sensei. What else can we do?"